Elegy on Toy Piano

The injured gazelle falls behind the
herd. One last wild enjambment.

Life on the Mississippi

Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a 'break' that ripples above some deadly disease. Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?

Its The Only One Youve Got

Your mistakes do not define you now;
they tell you who you're not.

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

his Love Song

. . .
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

. . .

And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball?
. . .

If you say so...

What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.

from "Is He Living or Is He Dead?"

"A child has a caged bird which it loves, but thoughtlessly neglects. The bird pours out its song unheard and unheeded, but in time, hunger and thirst assail the creature and its song grows plaintive and feeble and finally ceases.

The bird dies.

The child comes, and is smitten to the heart with remorse. Then with bitter tears and lamentations, it calls its mates and they bury the bird and, with elaborate pomp and the tenderest grief, without knowing, poor things, that it isn't children only who starve poets to death and then spend enough on their funerals and monuments to have kept them alive and made them easy and comfortable. . ."

don't expect an easy answer

when something like a soul becomes initialized and folded up

like paper dolls & little notes you can't expect a bit of hope.

So while you're outside looking in describing what you see,

remember what you're staring at is me.

Through Glass

Oh God, it feels like forever
      but no one ever tells you

that forever feels like home ,

sitting all alone,  inside your head.

Earnest

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.