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Showing posts from February, 2024

senryu (dallas winter)

  Dallas winter - o how quickly we´re moving into *Sprummer *Spring and Summer

senryu (shanghai winter)

  Shanghai winter - is it ok if i have nothing to write about

senryu (fury builtup)

an ex-husband´s builtup fury... chicken-scratch clouds

senryu (premier clown)

  circus came to town / my cousin / the premier clown

senryu (shop-assistant)

smiles traded with a  shop-assistant 

senryu (disowned son)

disowned son  finding solace  in red-light district

senryu (chartreuse curtains)

color of chartreuse  curtains brightens— drinking tea alone

senryu (binyé-yé)

 lil bit of New Orleans... each bite of *binyé-yé *Beignets in Kouri-Vini

senryu (wild moonflowers)

 wild moonflowers - moman's ghost tangled up with me

senryu group

 *ojordi dir— despising this thing called  'customer service' *hard day in Kouri-Vini running puppies  and fast cars— i need a getaway 'peel me a grape...'  the get the  hell out!

senryu (orange butterflies)

orange butterflies... acrimony  of our divorce

senryu (Way of Senryu)

 'Senryu no Michi': nuances of self of others  * Way of Senryu

senryu (zydeco members)

 in between yawns, watching Zydeco members pass by 

senryu (pissing)

 pissing in a corner, drunk uncle 

senryu (hate Texas summer)

 dying winter...       i truly hate  Texas summer s 

senryu (negro)

 'negro': mémèr's race on her birth certificate * mémèr: grandma in Kouri-Vini

senryu (mémèr's moumou)

 unfamiliar flowers, printed on cotton—mémèr's moumou

senryu (downin' a Coke)

 "Law and Order" episode: downin' a Coke before work

senryu (frustrating day)

 frustrating day: tying up hair i just go to bed

senryu (younger brother cry)

 memories...     making your younger brother cry

senryu (cluster of blackberries)

 cluster of blackberries // focus // of his greediness

senryu (in the mirror)

 these days        staring in the mirror        hesitantly

senryu (chauffeured car)

 chauffeured car returns empty, lackadaisical driver 

senryu (aged fig tree)

aged fig tree: no one left to call me by childhood name

senryu (mémèr's arms)

sewing a shawl blue veins  in *mémèr's arms  *Grandma in Kouri-Vini 

senryu (comin' home drunk)

comin' home drunk daddy can't explain his unhappiness 

gogyohka group

  empty cafe— over cheap coffee a poem casually scribbled down  on yellow paper forty-two... buying myself another bike the kid in me  doing cartwheels studying action verbs in Kouri-Vini... conjugating  and still suppressing yawns  *Kouri-Vini, endonym for Louisiana Creole 

senryu group (some very good ones//a ryubun in there too)

after midnight dent  in a beer can scream in night dim lights  of convenience store orphaned— today i return  a torn blouse buying a shoji... hearing neighbor's argument  thru thin walls  *a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame [Endor Outdoor]  it was the same dream: translucent fish swimming through his skin, and he; always with that spooked look in his eyes. later my day would start and i'd move through it-numb and untouched.  no *Endor witch these days spirits avoid me *1 Sam 28 trumpet gathering dust so much  ive outgrown antsy... thumbing through book  don't really like woman's newborn— guess im not destined to have kids... spinnin' top  and Lego blocks — my Amazon order rereading  *Murata's senryu... out of town trip *Murata Shugyo, one of the 'Rokudaika,' (six great poets of senryu) (1889-1967) herbs boiling for a nice tea... torn coloring book

senryu (peacock tail colors)

peacock tail colors trudging slowly to work

senryu (fragrant mocha)

fragrant mocha -- another overnight shift will come and go 

senryu (brooding brooding)

brooding brooding over a split sweet potato

senryu group

crushed leaves in the way, heading to a buffet  . fading sunlight when i trudge along to eat  . gardener's planted seeds, boiled rice kinda mushy 

senryu group

 week old Valentine's Day chocolate... not  sure what comes . guest after guest...twilight arrives a welcome diversion

senryu (Frances Thompson)

sugar in tea... a moment thinking of  Frances* a formerly enslaved black transgender woman and anti-rape activist 

senryu (landline telephone)

landline telephone the old things vanishing...

senryu (myra breckinridge)

no Myra Breckinridge... confronted with plain ol' me 

senryu (dogwood)

dogwood: group of puppies play tag in the street

senryu/ryubun-senbun [Edible]

ate an edible to help lower my anxiety/PTSD. the 'little' piece i thought i took, STILL proves to be too strong. Im literally 'walking out of myself' here at work.  - moving through silver rain in and out of moments 

senryu group

folded towels— another afternoon chased by regrets . wilted wisteria: no one ever asked if i were truly happy . indecisive... minutes spent trying to decide where to eat . wrinkled shirt... a certain charm  to this man  .

senryu group

coffeesippin' 'is Mars and Venus  still married?' . spiced rum lilies blush sweetly . kids' spinnin' top  i want cottoncandy . train in distance  i feel like  moon-howlin'

senryu group

train in distance  i feel like  moon-howlin' . Mall shoppin'  walkin' in perfumier's  scent . advice column  my love-life's on 'empty'

senryu (ordered bidet)

quite proud of self ordered bidet in  an eggshell color

senryu (manna-colored)

on second  floor landing  loitering with the  fellas... manna-colored moon 

senryu (cheap Chablis)

coriander moon savoring  the taste of cheap cheap Chablis

senryu (swamp azaleas)

swamp azaleas another day another workshift

senryu (age and bittercress)

my age and bittercress weeds increasing 

senryu (mapleleaf drizzle)

 my negative habits a slow mapleleaf drizzle

senryu (after lovemaking)

after lovemaking  bathroom light  stains my body

senryu (what is love)

what is love ...to a job i despise 

senryu (solitary photo)

 solitary photo everything around me aging 

senryu (in the morning)

in the morning  face barely takes in mirror

senryu (incarcerated life)

incarcerated life  sweeping dust from front room

senryu (life in turmoil)

life in turmoil fragrant morning glories sent to friend

senryu (heart in darkness)

heart in darkness  demon's all that's seen 

senryu (cold house)

cold house... reluctant to  undress

senryu (daddy)

daddy... not one good photo of him

senryu (wide roads)

the wide roads empty of folks empty of animals

senryu (awestruck)

awestruck— watching him carve  wooden soldier

senryu (corner stop)

corner stop: pretty smile of  bus driver

senryu (roadside inn)

roadside inn life made up of  odd numbers

senryu (taxi home)

taxi home — blur of Sunday  morning 

senryu (home now)

home now- fall into bed fall into dreams

senryu (smiling floorheater)

 smiling floorheater broken dreams come with a chill 

senryu (coldness of nightstars)

coldness of night stars the many yawns i avoid  

senryu (admired face in Hollywood)

most admired face in Hollywood... one with extensive facelift

senryu (political infighting)

 political infighting certain Congressional folk are dumb

senryu (red leather lobby chairs)

lobby chairs  made of red leather... how much longer before im off?

senryu (income tax)

 making senryu how much will income tax be

senryu (blue hydrangeas burn)

blue hydrangeas burn  i envy  their passion 

senryu (crabgrass and i)

quite irritated crabgrass and i too much alike

senryu (charming white goosefoot)

extremely fatigued  something charming about  white goosefoot

senryu (brittle laughter)

over guests! the brittleness of my laughter

senryu (face muscles sore)

face muscles sore  each fake smile tighter'n tighter

senryu (slicing onion)

slicing onion for the gumbo... hating his face 

senryu (redlight district)

most things cliched red light district  offers no pleasure  

senryu (weeping adult)

weeping adult— porcelain Jesus watches with blank stare

senryu (crying child)

crying child pausing to caress  a marble  

senryu (middle of dream)

middle of dream:  handsome man sounds like  my alarm clock

senryu (sliding into bed)

sliding into bed  someone somewhere playing  the banjo 

senryu group

living in my house seeing the wisdom of an apartment . weight loss... the way his eyes  follows  . full hotel... coffee doesn't restore  my goodwill . payday's arrived... waiting for payday  to return  . bus ride home strong scent of patchouli  . for few hours  cell phone on  'Do Not Disturb' 

senryu group (hotel problems)

 lobby furniture  all misarranged... don't care anymore . bite  of the nightwind ignoring my homework . canned bellflowers fighting to stay awake . flat soda  with whiskey— 5:25 am  . deeply cold outside no punctuation in my senryu  . slipping away  to floss quickly — overnight shift . suppressing yawns  can't wait til' shift's over  . hotel problems— hot coffee though  elevator doesn't work

gogyohka 3some

downing mocha this cold night in a few  ill be leaving for  an overnight shift - again this body holding on to fatigue and disgust for work - spilling  these gogyohka every now and then my senryu world needs a break

gogyohka (cold darkness)

cold darkness raining  on me  i make my way  to work

senryu (porcelain virgin Mary)

witness to a mouthful of prayers porcelain virgin Mary

senryu (bribes)

bribes  silencing mouths of arguing politicians

senryu (granmoman´s apron)

coolin' pies... apples on granmoman´s apron

senryu (to be a lush)

afternoon: prime time to be a lush 

Haikai Thoughts (on Senryu)

Im starting to believe that #senryu is what Haikai poetry was all about without the overemphasis of including/mentioning a season/seasonal phenomenon...I remember a scholar (not sure if it was Henderson, Blyth, Shirane, or Sato...maybe even Makoto) who mentioned how the 'kigo' technique hardened into an inviolable rule. Knowing that in 'Kosenryu' (old senryu), it wasnt that kigo wasn't EVER present, it was that inclusion of a kigo wasn't required. It wasn't a law, so-to-speak. The lifeblood, focuspoint of senryu have always been people/psychology/human impulses/emotions/work etc I believe this in part the essence of Haikai as a genre. I read in a book I have on the collected senryu of the Rokudaika (6 masters of senryu), that Haikai wasnt a unified practice but was made up of many schools and philosophies with different thoughts. But Haikai was a reaction against the strictness of the Shoganate and poetic conventions that remained in the hands of aristocrati

senryu (shopping basket)

shopping basket - shivering in night coldness

senryu (aged general)

aged general  no longer barks orders  only moans in pain

senryu (wall street journal)

Wall Street Journal ... carpeting for parrot's cage

senryu (red geraniums)

red February geraniums sit aloof 

senryu (spiced tea)

spiced tea ... 'son hand me the stocks pages'

senryu (baby's arrival)

 7weeks left new father anticipates baby's arrival

senryu (crispness of apples)

talk of sex crispness of pink apples

senryu (present generation)

present generation... none of us become geishas

senryu (down a Coke)

i down a Coke— for a few minutes nothing matters

senryu (homeless woman's nails)

spilled coffee  homeless woman's nails  painted copper

senryu (42 moons)

fading youth... 42 moons leaves me ...bemused? 

senryu (sailin' away on many thoughts)

 night of whiskeydrinkin' sailing away on many thoughts

senryu (admitting nightwind)

hotel door opens:  admitting  cold nightwind

senryu (coldfront walkin')

 pungent smell of coffee, coldfront walkin' through 

senryu (guest's around breakfast things)

frustrated— guests around breakfast things before time

senryu (homeless woman in lobby)

bite of nightwind homeless woman  sleeps in lobby

gogyohka (baby sweet potato)

baby sweet potato no choice  but  to be  russet-colored

gogyohka

dressing quickly.... dashing  to the store for junk food— guilty pleasure

sedoka (false gods)

 "the names of false gods shall not be in your mouth..."  by the mouth of the river bringing  Yemọja gifts 

gogyohka group (valentine's day)

 my growing children in different industries— America eats up  all of people's lifeforces "go back to where you came from!"  thinking to myself  'ive never been outside of this country..." with evening shadows gathering  parked cars  huddle in the coolness some nights  i want to be kept warm by the long wail of a Alto saxaphone  coming back home  slightly drunk  in the street dead body  of a cat god some man's  lingering cologne in the lobby  this Valentine's day night  i find myself annoyed one spring  i sat around  making up words... tainted water in  Flint, Michigan  eating a cobb salad was the water in Mississippi  every cleaned up  the people compensated desperation  like a thick creole veil  offering up prayers  to the goddes Bastet

senryu (Valentine's Day group)

 love fulfilled—something charming about melted chocolate empty fair grounds, he reminds me of cottoncandy and laughter cityscape, tracing your faded arm tattoo  hot water for tea, naked we sit around talking of things heightened anxiety, holding back a blooming scream... my stories told in vowels and consonants, burning sun  dying fireflies peeled grapes of man barely looking at me moonshine: tired of being a 'proper gentleman'  slicing a white peach still tasting his dark skin  flesh of a white melon, many things i beg for umbrella in the corner i remain unmarried untouched unloved  tossed-away dolls: rushing noon train to nowhere  tangled hair, early February wind through a sliced melon  hotel's doubledoors feeling lazy i commit to nothing  crying child's runningspeechaboutthingsinthedark  smokestacks smokestacks, returning home for dinner  irregular polyhedrons, Life don't make sense many times multiple violences someone's violin sonata  refined barbarism, s

gogyohka (13th floor)

from the 13th floor staring down  at walking folks and  moving cars— a green-tinted breeze 

senryu (in my blood now)

in my blood now, man's breath bone...

senryu (nape of man's neck)

shape of eucalyptus, nape of a man's neck arouses me

senryu (cafe mocha and weed)

before work, cafe mocha and pungent weed

gogyohka (popa's disheveled work shirt)

ash grey evening sky  popa  finishing his work shift his work shirt  slightly disheveled 

gogyohka (moman's hurts)

no fortune or land  willed to me... just the  leftbehind baggage  of moman's hurts

gogyohka (flat beer)

coldness of an abandoned factory the bar-lady  brings me  a flat beer tonight 

gogyohka//gogyohkabun (leftbehind baggage of parents)

with the short end of the stick wrestling with this  unfamiliar pain... oh its moman's  do we talk about those moments where we wrestle with unfamiliar emotions, then recognize that it belongs to not just anyone; but its the leftabehind baggage of our parents? 

gogyohka (pierside)

sleepness night— near the edge of town  pierside  starring at  the cityline 

gogyohnka (chronic untouchedness)

 tonight  perusing narrow hallways for johns that want to  alleviate my  chronic 'untouchedness' 

senryu group (granpopa anger issues)

in winter night, helping you carry your luggage in  grief: lingering taste of this buttery cake  rusted deck chairs, my grandpopa has anger issues...

senryu (crash of sepia)

 crash of sepia, late noon bathing of my shadow 

senryu (tastes like flat soda)

  playing with words, loneliness often tastes like flat soda

gogyohka (hides his racism)

watching how he  with skill hides his racism behind  inkdark sunglasses 

gogyoka (fragile tanka world)

in his fragile  tanka world bringing in all  of my  gogyohka self 

senryu (haikai afternoon)

  writing transplanted senryu, this haikai afternoon

senryu (crushed ivory)

 crushed ivory of egg-shells, the shadow a light blue

senryu (metaphysical elephants)

  talk to me of metaphysical elephants, afternoon stalled

senryu (several lives)

  trainsound, wondering if i can live several lives

gogyohka (ringing phone)

ringing phone  from some  unknown number  my days come  in this order

gogyohka (my own stigma)

 some days  i am  my own  wretched  stigma

gogyohka 4some (washing away)

washing away  last night's  mistake  his stench falls off my body - reading my poems to  someone's husband he regards me with curiosity - hum of  an old washing machine— ive run out of  Crown Royal  - again February hallway walk to a room too full of  myself

gogyohka

acorns  from this February tree— bits of winter trying to  remain

senryu group (world of azaleas)

 in a world of azaleas, my next prolonged scream  after evening concerts, lonely drinking at a bar in murky waters, next 50 years of human devastation  wanting frenzied dancing at Studio54, sweating bodies  dead elephants, somewhere puddles freeze and people thaw remnants of a train, no kids of my own  recycled themes in my poems, a harsh laughter 

gogyohka (murderer drowned)

murderer drowned  in Norwich waters  here  trafficked children with  no screams no voices

senryu

  shopping for toothbrushes noon sun in a bottle

senryu

  someone playing piccolo unacknowledged love

senryu (bayou crawfish)

  bayou crawfish burning sage after a reading

senryu group

love is ripening peaches vulgar rain falls cooking dinner kids building cities with blocks nesting birds while i drink myself into...something crack in her veneer...desperation mixed with rain curtain call—aged actress' hidden unhappiness frog song my youth in a paperboat set to sea lust—light glinting off a knife cutting fruit bed'n breakfast: ive never spoke up for myself nice azalearain adopted child's anxiety folding paper kings 'no one loves me...' i think Super Bowl Sunday...i simply do not care wabi-sabi...how irreverent i am towards moman moman in church i smoke out front the duration

senryu group (11 to 12 syllables)

hung from ceiling over kids: Basho's paper frog drinking alone—purple of egg-plants right now lonely drinking—'aubergine' such a nice word... do the gods worry—mud caked on his workboots  noon baptism: stifling a yawn when he comes up 

micropoetry (hagar)

[Hagar] dark of skin  dusted by sand  tears and bitterness mixed with desert water in her household  enslaved and raped  her man impregnates me  'cause she can't carry in my eyes 'Sarai'... an afterthought a byword for 'least'  can't help it if i sneer cause Abraham be lovin' my  hips lovin' my curves lovin' my warmth my ways a man-child be born  wild as an angry east wind  untameable—and mine then the dismissal  into the womb of the desert where the All-Seeing watches my comin'  and i will longstare him  until im free  

senryu

  smoking—remnants of a burning house a man's fury

micropoetry (Monticello's Lord)

"black woman only good for service and bedding..." no one could speak through sewed-up lips to ask Sally Hemmings how she really felt we jus' kept on our way but our eyes stared daggers  at Monticello's lord  

micropoetry (some evenings...)

some evenings as tratœr i want to be a witch a root-worker turning up black soil and dark skies wanna wear a sash of rain and laugh in thunder earth crack open and let raw power seep through your pores

lucille clifton poems II

[daniel] i have learned some few things like when a man walk manly he don't stumble  even in the lion's den - [jonah] what i remember is green in the trees and the leaves and the smell of mango and yams and if i had a drum i would send to the brothers —be careful of the ocean— - [john] somebody coming in blackness like a star and the world be a great bush on his head and his eyes be fire in the city and his mouth be true as time he be calling the people brother even in the prison even in the jail im just only a baptist preacher somebody bigger than me coming  in blackness like a star - [mary] the kiss as soft as cotton over my breasts all shiny bright something is in this night  oh Lord have mercy on me i feel garden in my mouth between my legs i see a tree - [joseph] something about this boy has spelled my tongue so even when my fingers tremble on mary my mouth cries only  Jesus     Jesus     Jesus - [the calling of the disciples] some Jesus has come on me i throw down my nets

lucille clifton poems I

 [solomon] i bless the black skin of the woman  and the black night turning around her like a star's bed and the black sound of delilah across his prayers for they have made me  wise - [job] job easy is the pride of God job hard the pride of job i come to rags like a good baby to breakfast - [adam and eve] the names of the things bloom in my mouth my body opens into brothers - [cain] the land of nod is a desert on my head plant tears every morning my brother  don't rise up  - [moses] i walk on bones snakes twisting in my hand locusts breaking my mouth an old man leaving slavery home is burning in me like a bush God got his eye on

senryu (dragon year)

dragon year pillow cool against my cheek

Ku group

many daffodils whats the age of Venus  . afternoon sun buying food for tonight's dinner

senryu (didn't have the daughter)

 slow evening: didn't have the daughter i thought i would

senryu group

  "i don't make distinction btwn haiku and senryu" Marlene's thoughts symptoms of hatred daffodils growing to the left descending elevator coming to terms with moman's passing

senryu group

  ku: made up of sentence fragments "Shawshank Redemption" ordering more french-fries

senryu

  in distant thunder i awaken: i hate my mother

senryu

  one foot before the other haiku on the chopping block

senryu

shaking some tree does that action have a kigo  

senryu

  all about the zen slowly turning haikai on its head

gogyohka (darkness of grapes)

in the darkness of grapes  another world  i pull back sharply from the coldness of tonight's blackness

gogyohka

not much thought goes  into these  five lined songs... winter turning to spring 

gogyohka (tinkling laugh child)

her child  has the tinkling  laugh  of two small  porcelain cups

senryu

  gunmetal gray skies smooth flow of Bach today

gogyohka 4some

 with coffee breath seeking  some sort of  redemption - his laughter with a iron edge to it... cynical is his thing - dark side  of the moon  i sometimes  find myself  afraid of death - pause... afternoon train comes to an abrupt stop

gogyohka (moman in bindweed)

rush of noon waters moman in  bindweed  preparing herself  for a certain burial 

senryu

floor-heater cool line between haiku and senryu blur even more

senryu group

 sleep deprived: gathering my things heading home  . homework to do...my bed hold's more sway over me  

gogyohka

my colleague  well aware  how much i  lust him... i really am quite incorrigible  

gogyohka group

 often its the same  bullshit with me... (can one curse in poetry...) suppressing yawns i clock out of work . 'fellatio...'  that word  has me  lassoed and  hog-tied tightly . halfwatching  some Robert Redford  movie  outside damp sidewalks kissed by a nonchalant rainpour  . the nervousness of a virgin  unzippin' his pants the room  overly warm  as we do this  . my colleague  well aware  how much i  lust him... i really am quite incorrigible 

gogyohka group

evening rainpour near  the damp bamboo shoots an old rusted can granddad  used for cigarette ashes . in this  gogyohka world another night  nursing arousal  talk of impeachments on tv . fighting sleep just to jot down a few gogyohka . aged imperial palaces i walk through night at odds with myself but strangely at ease . is there  enough room to speak on  another night untouched my man-hands.... settling for my own 

sedoka (octoberś kid)

october´s kid still searching for a place to be... freshness of lettuce in this green salad

sedoka (butterscotch flowers)

butterscotch yellow flowers  in the yard im in my fifties when i discover im adopted 

sedoka

bought the kid a baby turtle -- how often  do i  take brief walks while smoking 

sedoka 3some

5am this morning  fighting sleep  just to watch Robert Conrad in  a ´Columbo´ episode - black birds against a black sky this morning  leaving a poem  unfinished  - making flapjacks still  nursing a glass of some  liquor not worth  naming 

senryu group

  studying KV he caresses my thigh hating politics: still havent gotten paid yet

gogoyohka

something in the night coldness studying by the oven´s heat

senryu

bringing dusk with him brown of potatoes bleeding

senryu

dullness of liquor seated in this silence

monotanka

  deprived of sleep. stringing words together. while listening. to a political. podcast

senryu

  populace suffering eating cashews and fudge

monotanka

deprived of sleep. stringing words together. while listening. to a political. podcast

gogyohka

something  in  the night coldness studying by  the oven´s heat

senryu

hating politics: still havent gotten paid yet 

tanka (2 lines)

for tonight - re-reading Sanford´s tanka  lingering taste of chocolate i shouldnt have had 

gogyohka

listening  to a podcast  on black republicans blur of hands  folding things 

dodoitsu

something lonely with the rain  nursing my fears  with cheap liquor

senryu (11 syllables)

  fox demons - whiteness of handkerchief i dropped...

senryu (12 syllables)

  uniform stiff—time's been mean to the general

senryu (11 syllables)

  in love with peppermint tea—that type of man

senryu (11 syllables)

 late night eating: rollin' fog looks like fire smoke 

senryu (11 syllables)

 woman's profile skin drowned in weak blue water

senryu (11 syllables)

 life's shortness: strawberry shortcake in the dark

senryu (12 syllables)

  shadows thrown across room old lamp remains aloof

senryu (give me hybridity)

 'give me hybridity' darkness runs from me 

monotanka (behind his eyes)

 behind his eyes. gunmetal skies. and newborn thunder. a disappointment. one cant buy 

senryu (rape blossoms)

 red rape blossoms/   to be woman/ is questionable

senryu

  washing a tattered robe breathing in between eating chips

laiku

 a bright red heart of chocolate — her baby with soiled hands smiling 

ku

  the sea going into me roasting marshmallows

senryu

income tax buys me a new Keurig

senryu (Orion)

after-hours drinking Orion's gone and tripped

senryu

vagabond shoes no money to buy a drink 

senryu

darkness of night sky to Walgreens to pick up medicine

senryu group

late night smoke lawn-mower scent . studying half burned toaster strudel  . dark tea the hours march by slowly

dodoitsu

sleepy from working overnight  no syllable count for these dodoitsu

dodoitsu group

passing a woman pushing a child's  baby-buggy... wishing i had a kid with no greeting  a group of us board  the local bus... mundanity again   list'nin to the kids tell Louisiana folktales he brings me more  sugar cane liquor  from city to city people head to work— this morning i feel out of place... in a meeting  not paying attention  how many poems do i scribble on this pad the nerve of me wanting a form of poetry  that i can dominate thinking of  Sanford Goldstein... 'what do you see from the other side?' over my coffee this February day roughly holding back all my ghouls... in this snowfilled world seeing a bit of red my catalogue of sins have no more room  wild crows cross  a wolf moon:  reading him sedoka before he returns to his wife the absence of a  fever'd romance... kitchenside  warming up cold pizza these wild birds across a cool moon  a nurse takes  blood from my arm

dodoitsu (all over the place)

all over the place  these days... Japanese poems were  always fragmented

dodoitsu (fat figs)

 James and his  very giant peach... i have granmonman's  fat figs to travel with

dodoitsu

attending a poetry workshop— the moderator's coldness because i rebel against form

dodoitsu

really drinking well  into Saturday morning  the old jukebox plays sad-ass tunes 

dodoitsu-bun (dodoitsu and prose)

home now. instead of going to bed, ive sat around a slow computer; spilling whatever words congregate in my mind.  another Shabbat, another....well, whatever. somewhere running-water sound— should be sleeping but im nestled in a  cave full of words

monotanka group

stepping into a seething rain—these days romance'less, people jostle each other azaleas wildly arranged in a cheap vase, finally home from work i crawl in bed some woman icing a cooled cake: this year, ive learned how to laugh again  lighting in my hand—some nights, this is how my imaginings go after drinking  last train through Amsterdam...ive regained a bit of the happiness i dropped  tenement living: a neighbor and i drink a bit of rye whiskey and woebegone stories  approaching Genji's hibiscus door:     sometimes i am a bit of a prude an arrogant sonuvabitch  in a panting city—all the wife'd men falling into each other's arms with feral hunger  standing to the side: mid-winter suicide in this iron forest, i barely suppress my laughter  gift to myself—bloodred azaleas and spiderlilies, i am superlative at flirting with married men  broad leaves turning themselves crazy the trees sneer at me while heading to work  passing cars, the night road much too wet and i slicin

senryu (hemingway and wordsworth)

drunk with Wordssssssssworth and Hemingway: damn'd Dragon year

monotanka (James and his Giant Peach)

 no fairy tales for me i suppose—despising James and his goddamned giant peach 

monotanka group (manmon's death sequence 2)

 manmon, woman of figs—five years later with a grief i can't pass  in moments of general anxiety, sweat on the brow and still, manmon's deceased day before *Mær's Day: my world capsized "manmon, can you speak, can you move?" melancholy and depression shared a bicycle, five years later they reside in my womb in five years haven't been to manmon's grave: can't outrun self, her's, or *mo pær's ghosts

monotanka group (manmon's death mini sequence)

 manmon down the road, heading to her funeral everything blurred and hurried  looking in manmon's eyes: unspoken fear...in that moment thinking i hate God roses for her coffin—in a corner, several of them bleeding lavender into the darkness 

senryu (woman-of-the-night)

  woman-of-the-night adjusts her wig shadow mimics

senryu group

bamboo forest growing sideways missing a shoe death for treason: brilliant red of my lipstick buying a new bra—Saturday will bring fresh bread Lord Buddha's yellow flowers, man without fragrance wishing for snow: won't someone buy me a Hacienda children shouting an evening sun saunters across heaven jostling houses: tired but they lean to the left a bit holding the child's hand freshly manicured nails scolding someone's child into the unseasonably warm day tired of everything releasing my coin into noon-deep water dying invalid: coolness of a stone wall bottom of a burning sky someone opening a curious door Sabbath Day—home from work the Torah grows cold a pomegranate opens its mouth wrapped up in lust crossing a dark road my doppelganger carrying cold water old church road somone's dog and my shadow bought a tiny mirror in need of job with more money cold morning: unhappiness doesn't cost a thing cost-of-living too high—living wage? more like a zombie i don'

senryu (potted orchids)

 potted orchids but ive lost my roots too 

senryu (dull edge of knife)

  dull edge of a knife no desire for re-marriage

senryu

  the unanswered remains unanswered spilled coffee

senryu (darkness falling...)

  departing geese—darkness falling in on itself with joy

senru (lousy government)

  lousy government: on wounded knees before officials and such

senryu group

 vilified, night parking lot becomes angry sea everywhere i look—dolls, same wide-eyed stares execution by electrocution—Julius and Ethel Rosenburg : summer lilies  sound of florist's sissors, we sleep all up on each other  adjusting a tuxedo seams of reality starting to unravel  in love with toxic things a morning comes hesitantly  asking no questions of myself accountability quite rare man: the eternal fuck-up, taking a bus home from work  some things never change—overturned garbage can  pastor leering at me—these biscuits quite hard this morning  coffee's only made me sleepier who's sheering the sheep bleeding sepia—nothing poetic flows out of me  toy bear propped up a woman dealing with mental issues... vandalism of guest's truck morning comes with its own problems  bit of unease mixed in my coffee morning like any other 

senryu group

in hospice by beeping monitor potted peonies  . breathing in this cheap wine cold camelias on rent day  . with more wine he becomes talkative and touchy-feely . buying evergreen wreaths i take my tea cold . piddlin' with a guitar cornerstore musician dressed in overalls . as long as i live ill senryu goin' to bed  . making a few senryu sudden interest in proofreading marks . buying a Creole dressing screen paper taut in sunspill . polished dresser drawers five silver dollar coins lined up . lowtown rain—you and i writing dirty senryu over drinks