ㅁ His love of ladders overtook all else: Affections which beclouded reasoned thought.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Category: Book 2
Caveat: Poem #1331 “Ad hoc cartographies”
ㅁ The lines suggested forests, cities, roads. In fact they traced mere cracks in melting ice.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1330 “The world alive with meanings”
ㅁ The wind attacked us in the afternoon while questing down the road to stretch its arms. The grayish skies were roiled with nature's doubts, and angry trees danced signs upon the hills.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1329 “The concretization of mere words”
ㅁ A click - and so it was my book became not just a text onscreen, but paper stuff.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1328 “Arboreal bureaucracy”
ㅁ The trees were gathered, put on lengthy lists, their reachings inventoried, nothing missed.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1327 “Where the stars are”
ㅁ Before the dawn I saw the looming stars up north above the sleeping mountain there.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1326 “Gilgamesh wrestles the bull”
ㅁ I wrestled mightily with my machine, in hopes of making websites great and small. The errors stayed the same despite my wants, and finally I slept and dreamed in code.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1325 “A transitory trust”
ㅁ With dreams you trust the patterns that you see. The meanings thrust themselves across your mind. You wonder at the things appearing there. At last they fade and morning shakes your soul.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1324 “The golem at the controls”
ㅁ the form of things precedes perception their reception thus then leads to done deeds
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1323 “Pwyll’s regrets”
ㅁ The dark surrounded the place. I stepped out. I thought about my long chase. But sadness filled my mind's space.
– an englyn penfyr
Caveat: Poem #1322 “Approaching an equinox with wide-open eyes”
ㅁ During these recent mornings, the sun's path, its orbit's math, is changing, it reaches my eyes, shining.
– an englyn penfyr
Caveat: Poem #1321 “Apprehending the world around us”
ㅁ Ice paved the beaches. The sun attempted to climb. A strong breeze crept through.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Poem #1320 “And nothing was said”
ㅁ Dream-sung humming root echoes silent, among my lives, while multitudes - he devours the soul, dances helplessly, chained to the past by what he said. I the variable in some universe determined by a fraction of time. Beyond is within, a skeletoned beach with rough velvet sand. This dream I'd had kissed my dream with pain, and the gentle wrenching strength tore tears from my eyes, and left me empty. It was not right that she was there, she would not leave, but stared the angry challenge of a stranded tiger, sad and - - - alone. I was alone. I never said anything, and she didn't either, and ...
– a free-form poem. This poem is another “guest post” from my distant past. I found it handwritten on an undated loose sheet of paper among my many old papers. Based on the style of my handwriting (which has changed often over the years) and the type of paper, I believe this was written around 1984 or early 1985. I have copied it without editing, though I didn’t retain my idiosyncratic capitalization of the epoch. In fact this poem is about a repeating dream I had all through my teens and early 20’s which I still vividly remember.
Caveat: Poem #1319 “In the present moment, summer cannot happen”
ㅁ Snow appeared and patches, blue and gray, bestrode the heavens. Trees began to doubt there'd be a future warmed in springtime.
– a couplet in “fourteeners” (trochaic heptameter)
Caveat: Poem #1318 “The house, again”
ㅁ I dream this dream about a magic house that changes shape and shifts its placement too.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1317 “A calloused, gray-fingered dawn”
ㅁ No rose-fingered dawn here. Just grayness. But not hopeless, just austere, moody, drear.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1316 “Rain as analgesic”
ㅁ Some days I will feel more pain than others. I will smother it with rain. Such disdain.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1315 “As mountains will do”
ㅁ The mountain was there, watching. It brooded. It wore wooded slopes, slanting, all whiting.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1314 “Wait, was that a dream?”
ㅁ So I dreamed I was teaching. Kids resist, and then insist I'm preaching Not reaching.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1313 “Inclemency”
ㅁ The fat white flakes splattered on the windshield. The wipers yield and then yawn: work's withdrawn.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1312 “A pastel composition in the now”
ㅁ Overnight some wet snow fell, once again making a zen-like pastel, very well.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1311 “Time’s bent brow”
ㅁ It's staying light later, now, by the clocks. The equinox, anyhow... time's bent brow.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1310 “Dissolution”
ㅁ We worked a while. Malicious rain annoyed. No sun appeared. Our spirits were dissolved.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1309 “Jealousy”
ㅁ The beach was wide because the tide was out. An eagle had a fish so seagulls cried.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1308 “A painting by Turner”
ㅁ A rainless dawn presents its colors, here, revealing whitecaps racing down the bay.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1307 “Or cold coffee’s okay, too”
ㅁ My coffee's ready, waiting for me there. Now, can I not forget before it cools?
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1306 “The city as machine”
ㅁ The city's limbs were crafted stone and wood, extending out across the rolling plain. Thin vessels made of steel and copper wire assisted in connecting place to place.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1305 “A metaphoric mess”
ㅁ I laid my metaphors to slowly dry. They dampened all the floor and stained my mind.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1304 “A polaroid snapshot found in the ruins of Ur”
ㅁ Our knees were bent, our faces gazed, bemused. The table bore some cups, a bowl of fruit. Sumerian complaints escaped our mouths, but no one ever reached their statements' ends.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1303 “The snow lacks conviction”
ㅁ The snow kept falling, failing, uselessly, barely blanking trees, melting on the ground.
– a couplet in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
Caveat: Poem #1302 “The water pump”
ㅁ The pump: we could not repair. Another pump for water put in there... hard affair.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1301 “Rainforest celebration”
ㅁ There is water everywhere, abundant and redundant, in the air... don't despair.
– an englyn cil-dwrn
Caveat: Poem #1300 “Broken”
ㅁ The old device seemed broken, disarrayed. I was dismayed. Unspoken doubts appeared. No plans were made.
– an englyn penfyr