ㅁ I dreamed a giant, mass retail operation... the shoppers were dogs.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Category: Book 4
Caveat: Poem #2700 “Summarizing the Christmas tree at work”
☆ Star. Eagle. Gold Branches. Snowboarding bear. Pickup truck with tree. And other ornaments. Some hovering hummingbirds. Lights arrayed throughout - tiny points. Scattering of boxes with colored bows.
– a reverse nonnet, summarizing the Christmas tree at work.
Caveat: Poem #2699 “Strange happenings”
ㅁ So... riddle me this: why did the tree cross the road? The wind blew it down.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2698 “Mid-evening”
ㅁ Bright half moon suspended among the damp clouds which briefly parted to release the night.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2697 “December solstice”
ㅁ Sun. Absent. Now scheduled for a return... after a long period of waiting.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2696 “Implausible”
ㅁ A plywood starship navigated broken skies in my dream's matrix.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2695 “Early”
ㅁ I woke up early. Really, it was too early. Tonight, I'll be tired.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2694 “Touring”
ㅁ Those Martians opted to explore the world. They traveled in their spacecraft here and there. The forests drew them, silent and alive. A bear, a deer, some trees - these things were real.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter). This poem is an intentional sequel to poem #541, and I think that context is important.
Caveat: Poem #2693 “The lollygagging season”
ㅁ Snow delays, hesitates, fails to appear, making this December wet and rainy.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2692 “Ghost sounds”
ㅁ Sometimes the drizzle, the rushing creek down below... they sound like music.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2691 “Paradigm”
ㅁ Dream: syntax without words, random patterns... and my phone was broken so I was lost.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2690 “At the end”
ㅁ Trees lie down only when they're done with life. At least they're very patient while they stand.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2689 “Inventory”
ㅁ Toys, knickknacks, ornaments, various things... the gift shop tries to prepare for Christmas.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2688 “Unelectrified”
ㅁ dark... silent... power's out. sometimes happens. so I sat and read a book on my phone.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2687 “The business”
ㅁ This dying business: we all do it, and it always seems to take a lifetime.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2686 “The mechanism”
ㅁ Time ratchets, and occludes meaning's fragments, leaving only incoherent traces.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2685 “Implicit comparisons”
ㅁ The sun's not here yet. Instead, I offer coffee. Same but different.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2684 “Body outline”
ㅁ I sleep on the floor. Later... pick up my bedding, but the floor's still warm.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2683 “Water removal procedure”
ㅁ I bailed out my jeep: Water had collected there inside, on the floor.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2682 “Not promising”
ㅁ No. Rainbows don't promise; they just sit there... touch down somewhere behind the post office.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2681 “The yellow grass”
ㅁ The tall grass waves alongside the road, bleached pale yellow by the winter, twisting and dancing in wind, which swarms off the sea's arms... woeful, abandoned, perennial but asleep until Spring.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2680 “Secret knowledge”
ㅁ Some people have reached out to ask me, "Why do you write poems about rain? "I mean, really... so many?" My answer is simple: in a rainforest, "write what you know"... what you live what's there now.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2679 “The emissaries”
ㅁ Some days the clouds are more insistent. They send down damp emissaries: pelting, aggressive raindrops that gather in the trees run down to the rocks collect in streams race downhill and seek seas.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2678 “The 70’s”
ㅁ We sit and watch these old tv shows. In fact I don't mind them at all. They induce a nostalgia. I can live in the past: Kate Jackson's bright smile, Starsky's fast car... expectant future dreams.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2677 “Respite”
ㅁ Sun appeared just briefly and then the wind and pelting rain and heavy clouds returned.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2676 “That which illuminates”
ㅁ Light (the moon's) through the clouds illuminates all the sea sleeping beyond my doorstep.
– a tetractys.
Caveat: Poem #2675 “And home again”
ㅁ The steady rain fell, welcomed us to our island, and potholes said "hi!"
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2674 “Like some weird omen, but just weather”
ㅁ Just as we drove down that last hill into this town, a fog descended.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2673 “Anticipated return”
ㅁ One last morning here, among the Oregon trees. Alaskan trees, soon.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2672 “Buy now, at a discount”
ㅁ Mikkerbauk fantasie Joe - Ah, blue hills of quiet paradise. The captain-people will take it all away in fancy flying rocket-planes of self-individual, hallucinatory love of masses - squalid suffering folk with homes of cardboard, you see, don't you, the danger?! (Buy now, at discount).
– a free-form poem from my own ancient past. I wrote this poem in April, 1988, in a paper journal I was keeping at the time. Don’t ask me what “Mikkerbauk” means – I frequently produced such vaguely Joycean nonces in my journal-writing of that era. The captain-people were ubiquitous, however.
Caveat: Poem #2671 “The climate’s suggestions”
ㅁ I looked out and saw a white brightness. The moon was there among the trees. It had stolen the darkness. The leaves were black and white. Frosted purple air lapped at the bark, traced branches... winter hints.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2670 “Reunion”
ㅁ You can not see them for forty years, but a true friend remains a friend. You meet again, exchange looks, and there's understanding. This happened today, it sounds corny. It's human, makes me glad.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2669 “Seventy-seventh stanza”
ㅁ Snow had arrived, and was thick on the ground. Trees were stripped bare. The town's streets had no sound. Kiamon trudged from the dingy motel, Facing her fate, her thick coat like a shell.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.