Sunday, December 28, 2014

John Virtue

thank you
for black shellac
and white
the trees and sea
the teetering between
the intensity throughout
weighty
as encumbered sky
skein mist, birch clear
spume spray
spreading
deep water
tides toward
(thinking)
n o r t h


blivet

3
visual microphones
which round
sounds?

the light thief

white meadows grey
lowering rain
unseasonably warm
close
covered day


Thursday, December 25, 2014

c h r i s t m a s

"that is why they call it the present"
christmas

by choice alone

give you buddha candlelight and wine
give you 108 prostrations
a year of rosaries
give my tears
my clouded mind
(clearly seen through by you)

give you my everything
and an end to my everything






Tuesday, December 23, 2014

close to the bone
stone

everyday a victory


to live
within

even rock
a frail shell

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Paula goes with grandma to the opera

Lucia di Lammermoor

via the Greyhound

and, in front of you, a black women's hair, pomaded.

The smell and shine!
Grandma told you bear grease and you believed it.

It was used, true,
but you loved the magic of it -
a woman with bear in her hair.

This on the way to hear
a mad woman sing.

Afterwards, at dinner,
another revelation.
Scallops weren't scalloped,
but soft cubes of white meat.










holiday party

made it through
without you

still
boundaries
soluable
this is painful

I found
tolerable
voices

men and women


one silent
one?



what eyes you have


becoming one done slowly


Saturday, December 20, 2014

vikings in spain


ginger Galicians
mounds
seamen's
settlements

what we uncover next




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

m e l p o m e n e

your name
rises
as I do this day
an inflection
a stress
thought four words -
you now among gods -
while I, bootless
remember Aeschylus
leaving Philoctetes behind
painting the water mind

walking the water mind

mourning the water mind

sleeping the water mind

stilling the water mind

flowing the water mind

keeping the water mind

losing the water mind

observing the water mind

28

dhamma says
shedding carelessness
clear sighted
you rise and see sorrow for what it is




so work and thought become a bow and habit
like oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast
(native to north grain and fruit)
I who thrive in cold
still stranded as the tide returns
strange to watch the thaw
that death makes inside
as you with practice
repeat
the process of taking in and letting go

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

y o u

first one month
then ten
growing into
absence

today for christmas I received
a photo of you
reading, your passion
healthy, your hope

hit me so hard
I had to sit down
couldn't breathe

I called the friend who sent it

please
I love you

don't send
any more
of him


now


Monday, December 15, 2014

r o u t i n e

slept
wept
bowed

ate late
prepared mind

emptied body
began
my
day