See Our, A Very Poet

Geraldine Chaplin by Harold Chapman

 I open the door once more, to put words out like a bowl of milk for sweet night kittens.

1953 Ace Books, artist unknown

William Seward Burroughs II
had eyes intense and sad
before he died.

Poets eyes
but stark as new planets.

Don't ever become
so unkown
(after long periods of unknowableness)
that your eyes can't be visited.

Keep the last of the jazz
blue note beads
around your neck

Your songs'll maybe better
than rain, stars & laughter
& prose manuscripts
'graved on killed cold stone.

Be intense as air
Be sad as a backyard scuffle

But eat cake and listen to someone
sometime a friend.

I'm telling you WSB killed his eyes.
Don't kill yours
even though you're a poet sure.

Alphabet Exercise

Lithograph by Ernest Lister, illustrator unknown

             Instead of posting only finished poems, I will now occasionally post writing exercises, drafts, and randomly selected pieces, so that my writing is represented in a sort of a workroom fashion. A blog isn't a book, and I haven't an editor, so I want to take advantage of the lack of judgmental chaperoning. I want to be more editorializing, too, in a way, in my comments and introductions. 

The alphabet.

Tasha Tudor

A

Apples in late-August are ample

B

Bear the fruits of imagination

C

Creases in the psyche are recommended

D

Dogs teach us how to play

E

Eligible bachelors are a societal construct

F

Friends can be a distraction

G

Glib speech is unnecessary; thought-out responses are optional

H

Hope is a fancy name for what you fear won’t happen

I

I can’t see myself except for in pieces

J

Justice as vocation

K

Killers in heaven

L

Love is the right thing

M

Marionettes strung high act

N

Nonsense the truth

O

Oh my

P

Pax

Q

Quench your eyesight with flame

R

Restrain nothing, only release

S

Summer music

T

Tease the heart

U

Us versus I

V

Vaunted beauty or none at all

Y

?yhW

Z

Z