Via Negativa

In dreams, I don't have a name
....and animals are the same as me
I'm rooting for us

Today, I can't shake it
....I want nothingness, to know nothing, to
Center down into abasement

At night, we make out like bandits
....but anything can take us
And anything does.

He says, All my people love me
...I say, go dream yourself some animals
Please. Listen to yourself

Me, I'll take my silence like a Quaker
....speak if I am moved
But I will not be frivolous

Me, I'll take my mornings like a farmer
....without land, take my sunlight
Like it's supper, like I need it

Me, I will bear witness to my evenings
.....let them speak to me like sentences, I am
Watching, I will see it

When they open and spew forth
....what sits behind the silences, I will
see it, I will take it like a gift

Me, I'll take my day times like a dreamer
.....and see myself in all of us
Then sleep like the dead

John, the Porter

Born in the middle

....of a tornado

Now, thirty eight

....years later, he loves

watching thunder

....storms wreak ruin

from the safety of his

....second story balcony

Apartment complexes

....all look the same

and this is no

....exception,

the unremarkable

....Cherokee Arms

But it holds him

....and all of his trappings

Perfectly, and he has

....a place to watch

the rain blow by, where no

....one gives him any

Trouble, where he feels

....like the Eye of it all
like the stillness inside
.....the crusade

And the Winter
....by far gives the best
days, he gets the weather
....to himself, and
when the Snow sneaks
....down he feels like
the keeper of some
....Great Secret

The Trouble With Sleep

See, it's not happening.
....Not like I want it to, and
we say it's the only way out
.......of the day, so now I stay
stuck in todays after todays.

And later it takes me, but
....Not like I want it to, and
I know I'm doing someone else's
........work while I'm supposed
to be resting.

See, these dreams keep me busy, but
....Not like I want them to, and
they ask so much of me without
.........explaining that they might
not let me come home.

Creation Calls You Home From Work

.....Come home!
I am waiting for
you with clouds
.....In my lap
which is to say
I have rain
.....In my lap
which is to say
I am the Sun
....So come,
Be here
where we never
....Sleep, where
we grow green,
electric grass with
.....Our bodies
where we grow
trees that turn
....To sticks
Come now, be
the Sun with me
...Which is to say
Be everything,
be unending
....Energy, be
Me, Me, Me!

Omar Teaches Some Buddhists a Lesson

Omar destroys the Tibetan
......mandala because
it was already
falling
apart.
He has
mastered the art of
.....non attachment--

He knows
when
to let go.

Some of the Buddhists
were not pleased,
not ready, or
maybe they wanted
to destroy it
...themselves,

after their gazes
had tired of
gazing
upon its circular
...beauty

At this, Omar
can only laugh
and click
his tongue,
...thinking:

Just because you create
doesn't mean you get to destroy.

Omar walks on,
head held high, his
yellow eyes lighting
...his way.

He does not even go to the party.

The Day I Left the Battle

So, my path is freckled
with forgotten snow, and
I'm humming this song
....about the ugliness

of St. Louis as I walk
with the sun riding on
my back like a child
...and it feels so warm

that I wonder how this
snow has even lasted
and is it sorry
...to be melting?

the man behind the sun
asks me for favors, I
would never answer him,
...but he can tell by

the look in my eye
that I'm in, I look up
and squint so I look
...off to the side and

smile and I walk
on like he tells me like
I'm not carrying
...a single thing

but the shadow

of the trouble
...that can't be won.

blue sunday

woke up like
......a car crash
so we went to see
.. a movie
with he and she
... and butterfly love
aged into disgust
..and alcohol
so nobody felt good
when the theater
......opened into
February stars
and we walked
...for a week
talking silence to
shed the mood
but the blues
...droned on
......like a song
........sung drunk
on 8am
...beer
and last nights