Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Thomas Hardy & "A Suicide Poem"

"He had reached the stage in a young man's life when the grimness of the general human situation first becomes clear; and the realization of this causes ambition to halt awhile. In France it is not uncustomary to commit suicide at this stage; in England, we do much better, or much worse, as the case may be."

--Thomas Hardy (from The Return of the Native)

"A Suicide Poem"

alone
in the dark
with a belt
hanging out

Friday, November 4, 2011

Henry Aloysius, Ruler of the Home




"But, in spite of all my troubles, give me leave to eat my supper. For nothing in the world is so shamelessly demanding as a man's confounded stomach. However afflicted he may be and sick at heart, it calls for attention so loudly that he is bound to obey it. Such is my case: my heart is sick with grief, yet my stomach insists that I eat and drink. It makes me forget all I have suffered and forces me to eat my fill."


--Odysseus, from The Odyssey (Book VII, lines 214-221)



"But if there is anything that a man can't conceal it is the craving of an accursed belly, the cause of so much trouble to men. It even prompts them to fit out great ships and sail the barren seas, bringing death and destruction to their enemies."


--Odysseus, from The Odyssey (Book XVII, lines 286-289)


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

"An Entire World of Delight"

There is a robin who hunts my grounds
This late summer afternoon.

An auburn, muted breast has he,
And as rain falls through this nearest air, he haunts.

I've yet found no Bird of Verse whose song or soul
Expresses so fully this moment--or impresses upon me,
Significantly so, its specific gravity; therefore,
Have I taken up pen.

The rain rages now at slant,
And perched upon our wall of brick
He waits for earth to soften
For he brings the peace of death.

Monday, June 20, 2011

The freedom of this afternoon is worn best.

A weather-beaten man, in solitary wander, feels the tug of jeans acid-washed; showers his immediacy with a tan of leather, radiant light: Glisten--Holy! Hotly!--of the Soul's Brilliance.

Just before the Spirits Market, an unraveling of garment to cover the glow and a masquerade of Propriety Compliance: "The greatest is behind."

There is a world--away from here--where a reality of Tonight's the Night makes more sense than its present mood, here--in our evening's Summer-Soft Contemplation (Parlor).

Dangerous Possibilities discover skylines as natural as By-Product's Thought.

Outside it's so pleasant that I long to terrify myself with psychedelics and allow These/Your arrangements to best suit themselves to Idiom.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Fortune

Upon reaching middle-age, your blessing will be your curse: You will know everything.