The Night Of The Stations To arrive in another city of torn politicAnd to use a red light against the rising buildingsAs an ethereal crimson flag. To arrange another dateAnd to dread the use of my poor spanish. ReggaetonBecometh public address echo, the rhythm a languageAnd the beacon on the mountaintop is a young starAbove … Continue reading “THE NIGHT OF THE STATIONS” – “THE CHLORINATED DISTRICT” – “THE MARQUIS OF EXTENDED GRACE”

1.The scalpel of the tongue. A drill. A pen.Equation in the eye. Commanding formdemands a limit (What and how and whenand where?), a quickening thorn. Rise up, performthese acrobatics of the germ, expandthem upwards, outwards—leap from bass to lightin faceless intervals. (O, stay thy hand,destroying I. Thou ribosome!) A sight-read score, a figured base, a … Continue reading TWO SONNETS FOR SUSANNE K. LANGER AND JOHN COLTRANE

1. On a shimmering beach in Thailand a man was leading a placid elephant back and forth to entertain German tourists when the sudden tsunami swamped the coastline on Boxing Day. The elephant’s natural instinct to flee the oncoming water saved the life of a terrified young girl who had been riding on his back, … Continue reading “THE SUBLIME AT KHAO LAK, 12/26/2004”

The jigsaw puzzle depicting tiny mountainsWhispering in conspiracy about the windWhose pretension keeps it from noticing The critical pests who animate our trashHelicopters helmets and heels overheadMaking piglet shadows against the gloom of day Some things can sip tea and chat about themselves with no endWithout ever giving you a firm phrase to land onAnd … Continue reading “UNTITLED”

We’re in upper country, you can tell by the shattered smiles. Eyes like hummingbirds desperate for nectar hidden in license plates. The casino is visible from three exits away, huge and stupid as a sequel, but we’re broken down and like it that way. The lot here is liquid black and crawling with lizards itchy … Continue reading “HEALING CRYSTAL”

It never occurred to mewhat I could have accomplished in lifeif I hadn’t been lethargic in bedmanic, drunk, starving, feeling sorry for myselffor the past eight years If I hadn’t gone on those benders,smoked crack in those apartments,blew my paychecks on beer,laid in bed for two weeks,stole sandwiches to survive Would I have written a … Continue reading “ADDICT”

Horoscope of PositionsFor Long Nimble Fingers Is the title—after twoThey’ll let anyone on the air “Brace yourselfFor a little spoken word “Not poetryBut the hard utterance “The future isA cogitating car “AflameAfar “A talking carThat doesn’t need you “A ski jacketThat doesn’t suit you” —after threeIt’s a different world, Hurtling through a braintube,Nothing but the … Continue reading “MEMORY’S NEON, PART TWO”

In the window reflectionOf the passenger mirror Bordering fields mergeIn a casual guitar duet Of distant neon plumageLike a parrot atop its cage A creature youCan’t touch because Realism isJust breathless telling Because infinity is the most believable thingIn the dip rise stem of road stem wires Where a parish church spirePricks the gauzy plumes … Continue reading “MEMORY’S NEON, PART ONE”