Poem-A-Day #145 : A Theme Emerges of An Obsession With Nature & Death

A lot of the things in my journals are untitled. I gave this one a title that reflects where my mind clearly sits most of the time.

I think this is a bit of a riff on Pound's petals on a wet, black bough. But it probably could be argued that anything written about nature after Pound is a riff on that.


A Theme Emerges of An Obsession With Nature & Death (7/11/04)

Light catches
in the grooves
of the tree's abdomen

Leaves tremble
debate amongst themselves
whether to jump or not

It's the breeze that does it
that makes
the leaves want to fly, that

And the light
in the deep
skin-cuts of bark

Sparkling
in a rainstorm

Poem-A-Day #131 : Tea Bag

I got the first galley of my book last night. It is real in the world and in my hand. It will be available to pre-order on Amazon in the next week or so. You will go buy it. You will go buy it. You will go buy it.

Here is the cover:

I decided to keep it light today. And I'm not going to edit it because it's silly and oddly sexual and I like it as it is. A poem about a tea bag.

Tea Bag (9/8/99)

It smells of mint and cold

winters, this little pouch of

sleep

Wrapped up gauzed plant

bits, this thing that looks

up from the counter

I taste it

Lick it

Suck on it

Taste the knitted fabric and

herbal seasoned leaves

Heat liquid blue in a

black glazed mug

Tiny packet unleashed in water

Cool and warm fire, this pouch

drunk in contentment

Poem-A-Day #126 : Red Maple Bonsai

Day 4 of Remembering the past. A nice little study on a bonsai. I'm not going to edit this one.


Red Maple Bonsai (4/28/99)

Stood hunched over

bent slight quasi tree

twisted to wire-like

beauty hunched

Quasimodo in a planter

blood hued leaves banked

by dark black stems

and branched arms

reaching for the sun

the ends curled

towards the blue sky.