Activity

But the Tobacco Shop Owner has come to the door and is standing there.
I look at him with the discomfort of a half-twisted neck
Compounded by the discomfort of a half-grasping soul.
He will die and I will die.
He’ll leave his signboard, I’ll leave my poems.
His sign will also eventually die, a…

BUT IT’S NOT JUST THE CADAVER

But it’s not just the cadaver,
It’s not just that frightful person who’s no one,
That abysmal variation on the usual body,
That stranger who appears in the absence of the man we knew,
That gaping chasm between our seeing and our understanding—
It’s not just…

I multiplied myself to feel myself,
To feel myself I had to feel everything,
I overflowed, I did nothing but spill out,
I undressed, I yielded,
And in each corner of my soul there’s an altar to a different god.

I WANT MY VERSES TO BE LIKE JEWELS

I want my verses to be like jewels,
Able to endure into the far future
     Untarnished by the death
     That lurks in each thing,
Verses which forget the hard and sad
Brevity of our days, taking us back
     To that ancient freedom
     We’ve perha…

And the man fell silent, looking at the sunset.
But what good is a sunset to one who hates and loves?