sand slipping through fingers sequence

cloves and lemonheads
flashback moment
time and space
warped with thought
faster than breathing
can tolerate
and for a split
chaos
you
headlights
distraction
calm
a doorway
toward a sleeping dog
songs to consider
recommendations to write
a kiss that leaves one
holding open
when no one else
is around
dead voices
lose no life
an empty bottle
quiet telephone
music absorbs
the moment where reality
almost caught up
in the shadow conversation
the third year tally faded
before the ink ever set in
sunrises over severed ties
a word ahead of the notion
to write it down

burnt down house/ warm up (for ken waldman, alaska's fiddling poet)

jubilation and renewal
excavating ashes
this strange spell
of naming
a tragedy
transcended
by song
voices
fingers
in
collaboration
what matters always
remains

yesterday's driveway

willow's yellow leaves
the only thing left
above the pavement
to absorb this strange
november sun

events that defined october

anticipation
travel
found an abandoned journal
in the trunk of the car
a return to discipline

telephone calls
lists of things to discuss in person
"professional development"
a hysterical scenario
both obnoxious
and absolutely applicable
the best packing job
ever
then
realizing the tickets
booked in september
had the wrong return date
the day before departure

how easy it was
to suppress the panic

the living art of cityscapes
at night
from the window seat
of a small plane
how dc is a series of
sentient whirlpools
lit and extinguished like stars
but buffalo
is a hard grid
a city in check
forced into an
intricate limitation of movement

from the air
the capital
of west virginia
looks almost uninhabited
by comparison

the value of those images

degrees of separation
closer than
numerical pillars of indifference
warrant sharing blizzard provisions
laughter
the permanent rainbow above niagara
bar room shuffleboard
and now
and now
and now
meeting cara benson and jen karmin
so many voices
books with pleasantly despicable titles
snow
minor head injury
goodbyes
4 am cab ride
home
reading
sushi party
ryan's flame retardant clothing
sharpie handle bar mustache
late night and crushingly early morning

packing
blowing up the sidekick
planes again

a very nice virginia state trooper
no ticket, just a friendly warning
first flight for the kids
garren asleep during take off
ayrella my flying buddy
looking down at the bayou
billy
new orleans
angel
the causeway bridge anxiety
beads in trees
gold and silver people
a gorilla
nola halloween
the 4am moon over lake pontchartrain
the charlotte airport for 7 hours
home
a beautiful sunrise
dogs
another beautiful sunrise
and the slow return to routine
comfortable
all the leaves finally down
to the ground
opening the backyard view
to new thoughts and inspirations

events defining the day

slept till 7:30
frantic morning
ayrella late for school
garren happy w/ day care
dogs & sidekick
to farm to grab justin
daisy and grendel played w/ farm dogs
i scrubbed the water bucket foir the pigs
daisy caught a chicken
by the tail feathers
let go upon reprimand
coughed out feathers & looked innocent
a moment lifted from looney tunes
good hard laugh
on to shady to drop dogs
to mom and dad/ justin to his truck
sandstone mountain
noticed battery light on
suspect alternator belt
climb warily
towards top
lost 4th gear
lost 3rd gear
2nd struggled to summit
stop
smoke and spewing radiator fluid
shaking heads
and wagging tongues
phone calls
serdoz to the rescue
briarwood
dad to the rescue
back to lewisburg
halloween costumes
me & ayrella did homework
w/out arguing
angie sleepy
phone call from mexico
e-mail to boston
m. ward
here
calm to what comes
through the curious stitch
indicating a center
that opens and closes
like a mouth making words

lines composed before sleep

still possible to be
on back porch barefoot
chasing old habits

out in the dark
leaves crackle
in cold air

a directive: away from the kitchen

question
the body
the relationship
2 bavarian pretzels
a bowl of ice cream
cheez-its
wine
habit
the wind
gaining momentum
body
distant from action
as from memory
simulation
the same argument
an exchange of sides
fries with that
not a burned out option
after years
of craving the same
spicy stability
in the face
of total mutation

a beautiful moment with spicer

naropa poem 38 (for joe, for the goons)

i remember
finding a fabulous
walking stick
in the free box
jared and joe and me
and the stick
walking past the apartment
complex just before
that babrbecue joint
on the corner of Arapahoe
and some drunk
asshole started
blathering at me
about how i thought
i could just walk around
with a stick
and he started to get
aggressive

I remember his girlfriend
bent down to a water spigot
telling me to ignore him
and i saw the look in his eyes
and knew
that might not be
a viable option

I remember thinking
that things were
about to get ugly
because i had
a very big stick
and two crazy poet friends
and I don't remember what I said
or what he said
but we walked away into a beautiful summer
where all the lawnmowers
were broken

the slow acceptance of a question

smoke
permanently occupies
a summation of
years snared beneath skin
something impossible to let go

memory
stakes claim
in the chest
passageway to the between
where we converge and dissolve

you
and i
temporarily bind time
for better or worse
engaged to an infinite mystery

dreams
half-remembered
days half-forgotten
a line that refuses
space that wants to hold

this
is not
a delicate unravelling
but a fabric woven
for certain kinds of light