31 august

asleep i was dreaming of writing and thought yes this is what i will

awoke i sat up and wrote C A T

asleep i remembered that i needed to remind myself of what this stood for

awoke i wrote keep it steady

asleep i wrote no more

30 august

the road stretches out / i am both driving and pulling over / there is no answer but continuing / don't ask but listen / tell what you need to spill / even the odds and turn up the music / the air is fast enough / cool it steady / unflappable as decided / why bother to be bothered / clouds turn mountains to solid and night

29 august

at the stoplight maybe three cars back i felt a poem and thought to write a remembering phase but the oatmeal balanced on my lap and the sun glare interfered and suddenly the light had changed the cars in front disappeared and i had to take my turn

i knew it would slip without catching

now i am stuck without knowing even a glimmer of the piece the tone the word what triggered the sense that this should be recorded captured in a cloud of essence clarifying all that matters

crickets through the window share the dark: the light has changed

28 august

breakapart handmedown collapsible expiry / hiring all gesture-makers and singing all the clowns / rhyme the sun and cast the fish as marigolds tune in / whisk the eggs all clean away / asparagus in time

27 august

part of it is making the space to say what needs and most of the rest is knowing when to say nothing at all or to turn to a kinder side of the pillow to rest your firey face the heat ready to burn through sense and ties that bound or thought to before such time as darkness befell - well enough alone as may be after, let this moment be quiet, honey the tongue and cool the soaring backlash trashing what might be a simple scene to brimming stone and swords the words too sharp to keep inside - the fears that hurl and cannot hide rejection cannot face replacement - carry the water and whisper in balance

26 august

not for the first time today i'm thinking of turning around i was wrong it was east not west it was stay not go it was thanks but no thanks / hurrying into empty from full / rolling down the hill to find rocks to see boxes of someone else's yesterdays where i meant to find tomorrow / miles to go before a turn but exits are earned before it's sleep / deep-seated bends and knees that wobble with disappointment / looking to breathe the song the mountain the colors of another silent shore / waiting for the chance and tripping at the door as the cards all come unshuffled and the hand must be re-dealt

25 august

there's nothing to hold onto when you let go when you breathe slow and inhale stars - the darkest nights with fires reflected from earth to sky - the reasons why we watch our steps and carry our words so gently the tents we build of trees and patterns - the science of somethings that truly matter, water and dreams and cycles between pages - this stage is both naked and apparent, with waves of wonder and worry crashing hurried courses of makebelieve failsafes falling away and out into the ether - either we win or we wish and neither is certain but sky twinkles darkly and woodsmoke rises as we turn away to grow

24 august

a collision with precision: do they jest with such jousts or are they truly so unruly with such overcontrol? parry, thrust - the must replaces and could and the maybe is gone for SHOULD is the operative angle, tanglery in details and retailing more options the boss in the background - a tracking frown with limping eyes stopping high and flying off handles of varying heights - the days that fold to nights and the preposterous hippopotamus that nobody wants to mention - an errant rogue dimension as the timespace spins and whirls and unlike some other girls yes a think before a jump but a yesplease that's still stumped while the trees push on to growth

23 august

sat down with a crown and forty more shillings the sixpence all drilling conversions into my head instead of the ha' pennies a full penny'd do but the sweater keeps unraveling as they walk away to destroy - a ploy to keep the tigers tamed, rearrange the salad bowl with openseason prey and stray for the resolution when the hunter reaches for carrots - wear it out like a welcome you didn't think to mat

22 august

a number of questions arise. namely those two.

21 august

tired as the wheels well-healed with the spin - lose again to win and collect all else - health on the shelf but its profit brought to bear - staring off into mirrors and cooling back to other - twistlipped brothers and sicklysilent signs - mined as the oars and coals as the water - daughters to the lefter and whipping cream ahead - instead of the wagon the wheels go on and the forded stream goes industrial - in every shade of black

20 august

and the spiral unspins - we lose as we win progress in opposite directions - the corrections we make - we over-compensate and save wrong dates as the schedules collide - run and hide the hit parade - industrial grade upswells tell it like it isn't meant to be - the free and the brave - the home of the raving otherelses the shelf is empty and it's giving all away the stock we thought to keep in, the directions to leap in with eyes all painted shut

19 august

falling asleep on a cookbook a deeper look at the ingredients of yes when the tests come back negative and the lights are all on fire - wired for sense but not for sound we drown our allowances and set the world ablaze - the carmelized evangelists spouting spit and wonder in the sparkleup trickledown blast-off - lofting bricks and sleeping through soup as the trends are all recorded and the yolks run down

18 august

limited to no bounds no liability accompanies such risks the twists and turns of under-earned alarm clocks and shocks we sparkle to find switching synapses and pinch hitting with fingers lingering longer and dialing stronger than any other wakeup calling and falling forward - no way to act to counterbat a one-two punch the lunch you swipe may be your own the number you conjure may reach your home - we are dancing in the quiet and rioting in the real - we feel these opportunities - the immunities we seek and see are breakfast biscuits and toodark tea - tell me how the recipe goes ad ease on up as the wonderwhy grows - curtains made of certainty fly open, flap, and fail, while accidental unicorns ride trolleys stocked with sails

17 august

too many tired / fired by inspiration / squealing out of control / spinoffs and rubber

16 august

all that lives is swisscheese holey where the gaps collapse and the space is enough to drown in - found swimming on another shore the core values in the shallows seem too deep to ignore the metaphor I never liked and all the cliches to grow on - we're so strong we mail ourselves reminders of where to find our centers as the galaxies expand - the dry land we planned for always flooding with regret - well met and still unsteady as the baskets come back full - berries balanced between sun and explosion - uncertain devotion and constant salutation - laying down in patience and rising up with plans - scandal in a winter coat, turning white to red

15 august

every market waits giving its best but knowing the more to come / ripening with precise belief and characteristic tenderness / coin purses and whoopie pies / ours is always to wonder why / to fill the sky with leaves / to lace the trees with light

14 august

and even if i had all the time piled up i wonder how i'd spin it out
of control and also in a stickysweet thin line unwinding into air
up there the sky spits sun into the dark and it's better to turn
away from the bright lights the big city the elegant electricity
turning on all the comers while the goers glide away into other maps
collapsing on certainty and shrinking like wrap to microwaved corn
skintight and perspiring ready to tent up to wet vegetable heat
steaming onto plates and into toothy gaps trapped by so many holders
rows upon rows and steady drips the butter as the salt falls in
waiting their turn though the naked kernels roughly do without
sweet as flavor summer by the field

13 august

while the stage sets the steps go up and down
drowning in expectation leaves gasps, fumes
oil and no air
deeper the miles and longer the breath
we wish the best and ever after
we cross our eyes in equal laughter
stirring like no creatures
watched without boil
practicing the selling i again forget to buy
try as we mighty
beasts brave benches: sitting into shape
capturing the prints and other escapes
residue of old documents
the wafts we wish we woke up to

12 august

space and quiet the wild wonder grows
darker than a tire spinning out
steps on the ceiling turning into floor
to sky and straight on through to ever

11 august

more than i meant to say words in the way of sense and also to mention the sky is full of awe
missed the moon for a headache and traded the rain for a song
long after crickets spoon thick sounds from the dark trees we will feed on berries and cream
too far beyond the season we freeze our ears and hear only alternating notes
boats on a nearer shore with oars too short to reach
we teach our parents well with accidental comeuppance
tuppance a song and leftover lines to chorus
implore us to leave off and we pull over
stoves too hot for salaries and meals too cheesy for cows
we are now where then is hard to tell a liberty belle of the basket ball
call me when you're ready and the boat's about to sink
i will think through all the neverminds and hold my breath for good

10 august

eyes to close before their time
mistaken rhymes and dishwasher failure
these are the nights i could do without

9 august

i.
the words taste wrong as they leave this mouth and meet eyes closing as the sounds form thoughts
apologies for freezing warmth in cold darkness the park full of someone else's party
noises of a chair scraping backward escaping from the table
unable to participate any further today
why dig when finding doesn't help
why find when building needs all the energy
unsteady as a fawn's tangled back legs
awkward as an eggplant packed for lunch
how to be not the right one and know it and not know what to say
in the way along the road
stuck at an exit ramp but no gas for the turn
merging dissolving
and other subtle notes

ii.
i'd like to go away a while
and find what's left to feel
once time has passed and you have gone
fishing for what is real

8 august

pay to fly skies too high for recompense we bench alternatives and serve rivers of forgetting the living is easy but the loving is hard either scared or scarred but ready to jump is a wonderwhy throwdown the common ground we're brewing from is highly strung in even words the early birds and cattle calling so many fishes out to dry so many candles left to cry out for air sparing no wicked ways to stay life to burn brighter than a parachute is wide we hide in the air as we jump up eyes swallowing sensation the creation of a brandnew page with just a few errant scribbles there to start

7 august

tired of firing the neurons
explode in jovial times
hiring inspiring and burning up out over
the mower and the grass
the dang and the nabbit
we rabbit away and ferret to stay
the holes in continuity
the questions of immunity
falling asleep in the dishwasher dark
sloshing toward mumbly dreams

6 august

who does the astro is a singleminded showman the snow fans the breeze and the wind shimmies trees to shake the milk and moneymakers the claim stakers and the clam diggers bigger than potential and broader than chicago than shoulders too bold to shrug hugging the curves of dangerous reckoning beckoning the callers back to supper to buffer the refresh and the empty net waiting in the wings be they red or otherwise palaced a chalice filled with octopus offerings while all the king's men pen their tell-all memoirs starring themselves in roles too big to hold out for and what's more is less as the stress fades out and eyelids turn down

5 august

so much is and which should be but or even or
conjunctions whose function is to amass crash us with overladen shopping carts and empty hearts
or is a simplifier a decision-maker raking through the leavings
we're grieving for the time we'd rather waste in looking past
where have all the hours gone but who is why to us
when the clocks are empty and the what is still unknown
we are rezoning our parks and darkening the doorways of livingroom television
revising surprising developments with lakes and brooks in their names
the farms upon which nothing grows
the meadows where there are no fields to yield explanation
our fascination with creation of the unreal steals light from the now
how our gardens grow and when we ought to water
daughters and sunny friends to lend their messages to
the stress streams through and off to greater balance as we shed
led by shorter lists the or we missed in counting off and down

4 august

i am writing the script myself but sometimes i forget the words
there are herds of hearings but the listening created pre-dates the scene
meaning well there are fell swoops and monkey whoops swinging through the canopy
we bloom and we are planted and these are all the facts
tracks and fields and high-yield destinies
we please the court we sort our sentences into diagrammed scandals
tripping through the sand the beach the reach of all compasses
dismiss the distemper and fill the sails
never failing to whale the words in absurd harmonies the please thanks you
our damp clothes wiping the table
unable to stay full and capture the mirror's weight
stating for the record around around around
we are drowning in inaction but the motion goes too fast
hold your hand while i rest your head
instead of sense there is sensibility
and other classics waiting on the shelves

3 august

lightswitchquick i turn off
there are reasons and seasons and knowbetter but
the truth set free goes trippingly downward and there's no path angling up
despair for no reason and reluctant martyrdom
i don't need to / go on without me
pretending not to notice / care / all the others there
i'm sorry there's so much i'm sorry
there's nothing else to say
why anyone would want to come along to sit beside
a peak and then a valley
slipping darker into night

2 august

sun shadows the court and we purport to predict winners

i am the tall canadian with an even foreigner name
you are the american homecountry hopeful USA USA
my parted hair, dapper dandy, sleeved metal arm
your oft-called name, jittery stance, lost sponsorship
let us take on everything and each other
split / advantage / up and / onward
solid longarmed i wait for you to tire
fast and pushing you goad me to rise
ball boy ball girl towel toss fan
they clap for us both
good point
tough point
your point
my point
your name again again
they believe in you, your countrymen
clad in sporty style and propped in boxes
carrying pitchers so as not to spill through the match
gates closed til changeup switches sides
back again again and still

my home and native land defended, my rank secure
you shake hands, turn away

1 august

dawning like a break mistaking morning for hornrimmed glasses the crash is a foregone conclusion once the stones are thrown we roam alone searching for verses repeating the chorus as we forcefeed our footprints into the earth carbondirty and aging fast