Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
The tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurled
Above the tide of hours, trouble the air,
And God's bell buoyed to be the water's care;
While hushed from fear, or loud with hope, a band
With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand,
I call, as they go by me one by one...Read more

for DL

Let us for the new all room make.
You say my schooner is upside down
and I say my umbrella is enviable.
The gigantic punishment the sun
says something about broken glass
making every room sparkle-sashed,
every bright beauty terrifies,
the furious gift the sun mugs
through its Rilke routine ...Read more

O the body's much ballyhoo'd right to be born!
Aligning with her right to shine & die, a star!
They all know her name but not her age
A doctor our daughters shared, opined.

Her name, he said, was failure to-
(Thrived onscreen, you've seen her.)
My daughter towered above her in real
Life. Born on the same day,...Read more

The wolf appointed to tear me apart
is sure making slow work of it.
This morning just one eye weeping,
a single chip out of my back and
the usual maniacal wooden bird flutes
in the brain. Listen to that feeble howl
like having fangs is something to regret,
like we shouldn't give thanks for blood
...Read more

I found the scrap of City Paper
classified, the 1-900 number and photos
like candidates there, in love's voting machine.

Discomfort station. No pissoir. Hothouse maybe for
a fourteenth-year sprig: me. Light box
to slideshow the introvert
cloaked in a prepaid identity

discreet as a shirttail in the fly.
Ma ...Read more

Tonight all the stars are just celestial swag
in the moon's handbag, flashy & overpriced.
All the angels are pinheads, & not even pinheads of light.

Here's what I know: I am good
at deja vu but bad at karaoke. I am good
at Magic 8-Ball but bad at bicycle-built-for-two.

Axiom, from the Greek meaning "No rebuttals," ...Read more

Through all the evening,
All the virginal long evening,
Down the blossomed aisle of April it is dread to walk alone;
For there the intangible is nigh, the lost is ever-during;

And who would suffer again beneath a too divine alluring,
Keen as the ancient drift of sleep on dying faces blown?
Yet in the valley,
...Read more

Yet life is not a vision nor a prayer,
But stubborn work; she may not shun her task.
After the first compassion, none will spare
Her portion and her work achieved, to ask.

She pleads for respite,-she will come ere long
When, resting by the roadside, she is strong.
Nay, for the hurrying throng of passers-by
...Read more

You make love like the last
snow leopard. Time hunts your shadows.
Your grooves dip a real x of an arc.
I love your shadow. It's performance on the wall.

Your white hair flocked. It's old age that makes
you kill for food. You bring a long blank to
bed in, the weight draws out.

You need someone with skill for the ...Read more

In the end there was
a certain grace

splayed on the table
unrecognizable

our beloved (pup)
barely

five sedated on
a manual respirator

unresponsive
Phenobarbital

overdose in wait
human hair

not fur its smell
and luster

in spite of a final
breath-less episode

just minutes before
we ...Read more

on di sake menu no descriptive like quiet & smooth.
lean & firm. dry seems redundant. di comedic
pause dat carry so much inna tree letas. wen
di flesh breaks, a ranginamu glimma free itself to become
sky misty aan di temple. a strait of islands set against
a hazel setting inna di west. kolo pollo. morning is belated...Read more

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling<...Read more

Every few months my friend and I get together
to talk about "what we're doing" vis-a-vis
"the perceived goal of our dual attempt
to become masters of wordsmithing
in the face of insurmountable opposition."
This is what I'm doing, we say,
compared to this person we don't know
who does something similar
...Read more

All can see, in the shining places,
Vestiges of her classic graces;
Where her footsteps, fleet and stark,
Have beautifully embossed the dark.

We know indeed, that the stately and golden
Antlers, hunters and heroes olden,
Wood-nymph, satyr, and sylvan faun.-
Goddess and stag, are gone!-all gone!
But ...Read more

Because I had loved so deeply,
Because I had loved so long,
God in His great compassion
Gave me the gift of song.

Because I have loved so vainly,
And sung with such faltering breath,
The Master in infinite mercy
Offers the boon of Death.

About the poem
"Compensation" was originally published in ...Read more

After stepping into the world again,
there is that question of how to love,
how to bundle yourself against the frosted morning-
the crunch of icy grass underfoot, the scrape
of cold wipers along the windshield-
and convert time into distance.

What song to sing down an empty road
as you begin your morning ...Read more

Years later I'm standing before a roomful of young writers in a high school in Texas. I've asked them to locate an image in a poem we'd just read-their heads at this moment are bowed to the page. After some back & forth about the grass & a Styrofoam cup, a girl raises her hand & asks, Does it matter? I smile-it is as if the universe balanced on ...Read more

I spend a long time considering pillowcases.
Which pillowcase does my head want for rest?
A lace edge so that the cheek does not grow bored?

All night the face turns on its pillow,
bridging the day gone with its divination of tomorrow.
The brain sleeps but the body twitches and kicks,

lashes out, steals the sheets, ...Read more

"she's kicking"
nalani says

holds my
hands against

her belly
so warm!

chicken broth
boils in

the crockpot
bones turn

in briny
liquid-baby

kicks again
can she

feel my
body heat?

magma rises
water into

steam-Kilauea
drill, turbine

Mauna Loa
grid, undersea

cables-is
...Read more