March 28, 2013

trenton poems

--Kidding - the train
waits for no one,
yet stops for everyone.

---

There stood old
Pyramid Electric
in the snow
grounded.

---

Some branches hold
on, some hold much,
some wiggle, some
stop just,
some jut and
some joust

---

Every time -- I
think the train is
alive, because it
blinks
with me inside.

It cries too!

---

Most women
look incredible
in the reflection
of a black
window.

---

I sit with the
excuse, waiting
for my gut
to arrive.

---

When the train
turns, I want
to bite its
tail. now
visible

---

When it arrives
(not at my stop)
they scramble
like ants to
the donut station.

---

it kan be dizzying
to figure out how all these
rails connect.
a purple system massive
of heart ways
and cells

---

even though I had
my bag at my feet
now I'm pretty
sure no one
will sit next to me.

---

o! arrival! suburban!
city hall! comcast!
work! to
coffee to coff
to stifle yrself
to walk out on
a train a poem

March 16, 2013

native is

his head is human masculine power
concerning that this bowl of a man be a door
to something else back of,
war as main subject,
Spring as subterranean,
titan as character,

When I read Inri, I gasped
and picked a date in my head
to relieve her of it

being over there at Ryan Eckes's that night
made me forget about breaks
really though, take a look at the fat books
and see that they are simply a limitation
of the haphazardness of my hand
and the size of the so-called fat book

Philadelphia is far from unspoiled
and so cannot become my center and circumference
it is, however, my place and so I work that place

"I hate those who take away
and do not have as good to
offer. I hate them. I hate the carelessness."

good luck

click clack click clack
ping pong ping pong
ka-chak-ka-chack
dup dup dupdupdupdupdup
                 (good short serves)
as one deserves another
right in the path of
the monstrous gas heater
now never really
having to show up here
again.

I've been looking for a
new job ever since
my hours were cut.
Ah, yes, well,
what to expect
from a human being
who has to eat
--dust. 14k still in the
holy mole.

Now the grind comes
halting, in early
morning which is it
clouds filtered through
buses and electric
dust that builds
city clouds.

I pick this route --
and load up on musicks
and steady myself
for what comes

that monsoon where a
courier for timecycle
sat out in the blackened
granite alcove to
work on his
crossword.

"samurai soft art"
seven letters.
chuckling and making
sure I wasn't imposing
I squat next to
him and attempt
some of the clues.

Didn't get a word.
checked the time  --
asked for it, actually,
slanted my tie,
accepted his parting
gift of luck
and drove it back
w/ me to the NE

the entire time an
18-wheeler white
washing me.

Charles Olson reads 'Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27 [withheld]' (Mar 1966)

"I was so stung my
first memory is of a
spent casing to fill
mobsters."

3/9/13

fire the sine qua non
of coming out here.
now in dry morning
having to go to the can
observing and picking
up the charred pieces
of wood from last
night

dressed down
trees dress
splayed mesh of wood
and carbon
Skyla, the sheepdog,
sits and ponders
I watch her
be a dog.

My Personal Build

much later, hasn't
happened yet!
but I can surmise
that it very well might.
                  buds
Missing my         up there,
and over there, and
down there.
Everyone is somewhere,
judging numbers
in some ways, mistakenly

this is happiness, in whatever
even naivety
has some pro

I miss him though
distances are crippling
at times

& at times productive and
conducive to my art.

Clutter is what it is in
its spiritual double
sits and steams. . .

silent fathers.
One a father of a so-so
table tennis prodigy looks
at me in the most
alienating manner while
moving his car elsewhere
in the lot.

Comes in and waves out
of habit.

---

it is not so bothersome
that I cannot even
read my own writing
-- handwriting,
it is just so pleasurable
to use up a pen
on an empty notebook
'specially the little fat ones.

---

She said let's be friends
in her usually sarcasti-
-cute manner
and by those photos I
see of her I
assume she is having
no more of those
doubts of Kansas
she once had --
when she did
we talked on the
phone somewhat often.
Not any longer --
physical friends
musical laughs
are better replacements
than any one
memory but the
given time
O how life
rushes! how these
strings slowly
unravel in the
winds of miles
of snow and
rocky hills --
flatland - endland
beast out even
the electric beating
of my heart and
brows.
and as these once
reserved pages run
down to their last few
lines -- I think
of her still
sometimes, not
my personal build, but,
a -- ?

I sobbed into flowers
into bushes shaped
ornately and through
low snow I ponder
what came of
that gift I sent
that was stolen, yet,
still arrived as
an empty envelope to
her in the
mail
      one morning.

March 12, 2013

Song J (for all)

Here is the incoming disorder,

brace discriminate, those who lived
and left when various fathers moved on --
those (the various one or two)
that culled the best cricks
and trees (w/ undergrowth,
that is, further east of Wissahickon,
be they a class of their own
such where I slunk
from my rough stoop
there, where mother cried
her eyes out for the whole
neighborhood to see from
behind dirty blinds

now ask me what keeps me here
I was so young my first memory
was of fingering
a crack of white sand
in the corner of a garage door
few blocks down where S,
now a doctoral student of sorts,
lived, in both his houses, one
his grandmother's,
where aloe grew

now ask me what keeps him here
I was so young my first
memory was of K
running through shaded Ellis
to the rec and tripped and split
open his knee on a pothole
(later his new bike stolen)

from Ba Le, I caught him with the ring
already on the finger of a forgettable
girl who was too busy on her phone
to properly greet, well, then,
I thought, I've better
places to be in the spring

Polis, once again,
is bliss which is base
I bubble violently when dropped
in and ceased when I came
to realize, (mid-scrub) O
how that territorial flag
you've stabbed into yrself,
looks goddamned silly

March 6, 2013

uptempo

"molt" she played
fever my home
you gotta be
smart --

open this
cell phone back
plate for me.

-- that one's a double.
reaching across a
mother and her child
at Bean Xchange
who were figuring
out homework
and the two old
men at their crossword

Bebop? Speedup?

Visionary Magicks

trust no day a bunch
birds systematize a
branch and their wings
ordered such as,
"till ten",
'firm and moving",
"forever one home",

9th and Brains Bridge

Hooks left on the
ceiling look like stars,
a neglected constellation
water mold crumbling
galaxy

tasteful mobile as
planetary systems -- 

I was at the back
telling her that
I had come back
to the states for only
two days
didn't believe me or
didn't care

Read poetry today
until I became sick
of poetry

7:09 Saturday loud
crunch of toast
February 23rd

Excuse me lady
behind pull up a
chair
chair squawk
crunch politeness
stomp mannerisms
rock white man
shut cash register
sing harmonies
stank butter
stick strings in
after shore door
horn tap to play
screams steam
muster gusto --
not now broken

any plane crunches again
northeastern wild
sun, cloud petal
devoured by chopper

near Tiffany's diner
cigarette parking lot
meant for both
cars and cigarettes,
for pie, homemade,

crunch rust, flying
newspaper sounds

Damn -- he's fast!

coffee house

throw me some tomatoes
for the salad you want
me to write -- right
now these are just
vegetables.

In the coffee house,
drink coffee.
Overhear professor --
scholarly men
talk about . . .

responsible things.
Wash yr face w/
dry soap/ stay in bed,
stay parked
in a blot of ink

blacked university
promises.
more rain outside
more reflections of rain
I sit here, purple and
puffy -- unafraid
and jittery, very

clean now -- not oily.
scratch an ear
the last part of a
scuffling laugh that's

wet. Door closes w/
sound. Crash of
a symbol - screeching
        geetar.
Ruffle of bags of
man leaving -

--Bristly chin, also?
--Who gets the bill?

blow on the pages
randomly - again
the ink being chased
by police.
                   what kind of
carnival
smacks -- Yes! --
into a ch(??)en?

that kept running
through the hall,
out of someone's
gourd -- till the cops
arrive.
       Hits an island,
forces up tryn the
passenger compartment
back door survival
front-yard wrestling

This poem is an
intro song
     I strut and gaze

w/ arms outstretched
roaring like a rocket
ready to collect
        DATA!

-Know when to end a
poem.
-Here's to learning how to
begin.

2.

A monsoon of intelligent
white men write
walk confidently into
coffee house
tip waitress/cashier
a buck reminding me
of Club Risque
last night
              w/ the boys.
More or less a mountain
ridges of Philadelphian
newness, find
frank friends
             what kind of
wear surprise canadian
geese wapwaping
being big blunt in
the country blind

come and go as he says
watery(?) Sean Taras
writing his articles
good eye - note - for
parking - wetness -
city mulch of
dependents us
all - drinking coffee
until it hurts -
there is no culture
to a drink to an act
felonies three or four
blocks -- how people
school themselves
a book bangs against
the wind --
trees are keeping me
awake in the
distance making
noise of cows.
craving my steamy
week to feel the
breeze on my skin.
Wet steel not
suppose to be.

Caramel laughter
in soft lighting.

mural cows not
stepping, art art
bad next to bath-
     -room

-------------

Walking back to my
spear, there is a red
and large one

------------

I am a cow afraid
of its reflection in
a coffee house window
that I've created.

------------

I am young and
the world is not.

------------

I'll be gone when
the world goes.

February 17, 2013

Ritz Theatres

1.

Film Seen: Song M
Date & Time: 4 the movies
Comments:
           Bloated!
            w/ pop
               corn
and one helluva spicy
one, too
Suggestions w/ a
   tiger,
          beb clutching
black tea and now as
the crowds spill over
we wait , behinds
black rope
w/ a suggestion


2.

Film Seen:
Date & Time:
Comments:

because I'm writing
these, I'm keeping up,
not in the slit of the
theatre, by the river,
by my identity --
     well no one knows


3.

Film Seen:
Date & Time:
Comments:

yeh! heeheehee,
poems as suggestion,
as my solo
brushy indigestion,
ugh, oh, smoking
in on a map
w/ Pine St upside
down, atop it Spruce
by a black tree
by a curious
tourist


4.

I'm by my side, I'm by my side
no lie, no lie,
feeling like a bad kid,
sitting in the back w/ my feet
up. Sure to stir it up.
Life of Pi, Life of Pi
fat cat, drunk, high
w/ a black cup.
Writing on a seat banister
beige light intrudes me
slick millipede street car
perched on a ghostly bridge
I've walked to the bridge
w/ her


5.

as a flash
gddamn I'm
dreading its
lick
dry mouth from
black tea
not seeing a
scratch of a
word

February 8, 2013

potential blurbs/titles for book(s), also task list

"You're gonna have a fuckin' ball reading this."

Jerkin' Off to Camfrog

My Dick and My Dad

8 1/2 Pounds of Urine

"Only reason it didn't rupture was because his abs were so strong."

Yr Boyfriend is a Tool

"Julia, I don't find this funny at all."

Get Ryan a kettle.

First Loves That Destroyed Me

"Better than Chicago & Dave Attell combined."

The Band? The City?

"I want you to meet some friends of mine tonight."
"Yeh, I don't know. I've really got to get home.
Gotta buy a pretzel and ride a train and then a bus."

"I forgot you smoke."

$200 Couch My Ex-Wife and I Bought

Jack Krick's Sweatshirt

Jack Krick's Snoring

"Do you mind if I lay here with you?"

"If I were to go back in time and fuck any poet..."

Fartin' And Hung Over

New York: City Full of Dicks

February 6, 2013

Song I [for myself]

I'd like you to step in and smile
partially alive this morning, I thought
laying on my good side, that I miss myself

then springing out, I play Ready for the World
and attempt judo push ups
back during that sweaty weekend

gently rubbing the tight flesh of my shoulder
running my fingers along the length of its
stretch marks, never finding bone

or my remaining youth, really
I strike away on the side of a box of matches
watch breath and smoke commingling

as a helicopter approaches
I sip my half hazelnut half regular coffee
pull my jacket tighter round my neck

February 5, 2013

Song H [for carelessness]

it was a bell whistle that started
appropriate on yr side
or maybe yr eyes?

settle down w/ the bones of a fish
everything I describe I can put in a napkin
and everything I write I can throw away

January 25, 2013

Song G [for good birthday]

lotta dishes in the sink from last night
times for lady fingers much afterward w/ tea
mac n' onions and blessed relief
one of those contemplative days I read
make up by ryan eckes and pick out
the lines that relate to me,    like,
I don't eat cheesesteaks anymore but I do drive,     and,
he truly doesn't care about the rain
holding his umbrella as though
he's always got a friend by his side

surprised not to see anything about the smokeeter
we both prefer smoketeer
steven, the bartender, is constantly taking off his sweatshirt
and putting it back on, because he gets too hot in it.
see, the problem is, he's wearing a sleeveless shirt underneath

he needs a shirt with sleeves, lauren says
I flush and a ghost of a man falls and doesn't seem to stop

January 13, 2013

What was the row about, they asked
he grasped his sword
and advanced --

I with my yielding nature,
at twenty-five years of age,
cannot find a stable foothold in society.

With silver in his pocket,
he waits for midnight.

January 8, 2013

as we talked like we always have
(this poor kid with the cute scarf
says zack (calls himself gene
but doesn't want me to call him that

that name is for bill collectors

one day he's at the market and meets
a polish woman who pronounces his
name correctly for the first time in a
very long while

he almost forgot how to say it himself

this conversation we had
it was put down and just left there

------

i will always remember lyosha as
an upstanding person           (a defender

sasha as a friend

and misha as a solitary man

January 4, 2013

I woke and walked
briskly down the old hallway through
the cold to the source

a toilet laid a cough
swelling on the edge, in tears
me on my side with the cold Deed
for address 225 East
Louden Street

father makes a two-sec call
and hangs up after I assure him that
I'm reading the damned thing

ALL THAT CERTAIN
lot or piece of ground
with the buildings and improvements
(early next electric Sunday)
thereon erected

THENCE
extending Northwardly along a line parallel
with the said "A" street
distance of one hundred twelve feet, six inches

SITUATE on the Northerly side of Louden street at the distance
of two hundred and twenty feet, ten and five-eighths inches eastward
from the east side of "A" street in
the Forty Second Ward of the City of Philadelphia

to have and to hold this cough
a hack all too singular the buildings
improvements, ways, streets, alleys, 
driveways, passages, waters,
water-courses, rights, liberties, 
privileges, hereditaments, and appurtenances

COFF!!! coff coff coff coff coff!!

December 24, 2012

zazen translation (yt)

I met a woman and I had an affair with her
when I parted with her, she said, 'I haven't played enough.'
(mada mada asobi tarinai)
Even now, I don't remember this happening very well.
Her last words, especially 'Asobi',
remains in my head like an echo.

December 17, 2012

i wrote howl and scowl and wanting/waitin
to go down stairs after seeing lincoln
mouthful in a robe wanting, ahgaain food
ah typing inhibited saying repeatedly,
in dark,
wanna go down
stairs?

December 10, 2012

I don't cooperate often. When I do,
companions take note
                                -- but again,
the system in place a cog, one who, and I quote,
"can't see the ball", but feels it
often misplaced and tempestuous.
-- I do feels my own yellow
and eyes, much like rain

(they fall)  any which way the boat.
A stoppage deep, to keep from earning
Also, a tightness in my upper throat:      a gasp,
a yearning.
On an evening much like last

                   -- I give thanks for understanding.

December 1, 2012

feeling that people were doing anything interesting
the tree, bleak and scraggly collaborates with the blinds
in the quick on-the-go type of opportunity, I,
about to drive out to a Best Buy or a Wal-Mart looking
for a VGA cable, having a sense of who is making it,
whether in a poem or a stew, in a black cup of butts,
in the slanderous behavior of him, him overlooking and dropping
burnt holes in gray-green tarp in blue-gray rain
makes me salivate, makes me the shetland at my feet,
makes me scowl, howl, and cry, and unable to dream --

dreamless sleep is watching
air in   darkness in
   presence         of hours
feeling what skin must,
I have gone on, operated, for years now,
thinking nothing could touch me.

November 15, 2012

The sun rises and sets.
Egyptian Book of the Dead
pg. 408, vol. 1.

November 9, 2012

Song F

the sound is everything truly,
ground-level hobby I was out slumped on the escape
and christ there was wetness everywhere vomit and a broken screen, inside,
and out with it

past the smoke, there was I, and there was
she (in my hand, as well as drink
blue lagoons that sicked sweet
aroma of pork and cove

and with a leap I made off into the autumn air
clutching an image of a Du Fu poem, and in it, writing
"At Aubergine on 50th & being the only chap who didn't speak a lick of Japanese
but once again on the sunny side of the st"

Avenues that miss
her "e's", I, not at ease, never fallen apart much like this, I,
suppose I've grown tired, if anything, she as well, passing
a stained angel of glass to posture
everything I do, I did then, I postured

the island now returns to the sea in sight of the elector
I was a grub sticking out of the bark
and I wanted back!
everything back!