Poetry Archive

PRAYERS MADE OUT OF CHRISTMAS Bach fugues and silence! That organ within my mind exhales the snapped note toward darkness ...and outside the days lean and wait for snow or drizzle to … [Read more...]

AN OLD NEAR ABANDONED KITCHEN In that crypt where dead thoughts are stashed these classical notes wander my brain and peel off the scents of musty numb and muted pain born of the music of the … [Read more...]

Away friends write home from Myanmar Havana Tiruvanamallai Upsalla like scents of sandalwood and spices for authentic alu ghosh exotic place names conjure memory and saliva make me want … [Read more...]

The Arches of Isfahan When we recited poetry in Isfahan, the Bridge of Thirty-Three Arcs stretched to embrace the firmament. The songs you brought to life were meteorites, detonating in … [Read more...]

A Different Inspiration Flashes of epileptic light induce the brains of the spiritually dead to turn their thoughts from blood-drunk Hades and the muddy rivers of their sleep ...and to inch … [Read more...]

First, I must clarify I know nothing about you How could I understand How the German man’s lips taste between cigarettes Second, I would like to sing you a song I will pay you, colored papers … [Read more...]

Jean Genet Our Lady of the Flowers at the Chicago Democratic Convention 1968 Was he in town to see the American political system in action or was it simply to witness a new kind of … [Read more...]

Men Who Make the Rounds Men who make the rounds of the ashtrays around the exits of public buildings care less about being seen when temperatures drop below freezing. They are asking for … [Read more...]

JEFF, JERRY, & THE LAP Jerry says, “The chance of winning the lottery is one in a billion. Decent odds!” Jeff buys tickets, displays them on the mantle. They both pray, believing there’s a … [Read more...]

you are a pixel and i’m not at fault, failing to feel remorse, x -ing figures from overhead start to make patterns, circling, and there’s a rhythm and process to … [Read more...]

Poem by 2045 I’ll start a revised SF Renaissance with yuppie blood as muse to exit a childhood of piers I have heroin death fantasies in the bathtub while the moon's yelling lapis allures and … [Read more...]

A woman with long brown hair stands behind a door with a torn screen. She’s late thirties. Her yellow silk blouse billows to Woodstock jeans. A beagle sleeps on the landing below her three-step … [Read more...]

I GO TO CALIFORNIA I go to California  to visit my father's grave, to write a letter. I am 53. 53 years ago he died  on a Bakersfield highway, the sun slanting at the Shasta firs,  his body … [Read more...]

CAROLINA ENDS IN DEEP AUGUST Friends!, how the heat of this day has worn me ...this long eternal summer extended as if without hint of sunset. And the light outside forces retreat toward … [Read more...]