ㅁ The clouds remained: they'd things to do. The sea had sent them here. The trees composed a welcome song, opposing all that's clear.
– a quatrain in ballad meter.
Category: Book 4
Caveat: Poem #2337 “Onomastics”
ㅁ Names are impossible spells in the world, quickly consumed by the wind where they're hurled, labels for things that we can't understand, fastened to randomly picked bits of land.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
Caveat: Poem #2336 “Fruitless words”
ㅁ The haikus were thrown across the landscape like seeds but few set down roots
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2335 “A fragment of Mahhalian cosmology”
ㅁ wingsnake came dark, lighting and clouds and rain monkey and raven grinned and danced benevolent orca sailed the surrounding sea when monkey killed the wingsnake at deity encompassing darkness's garden tree the wingsnake was not dead but burrowed down the monkey was hunted, deity darkness was deceived by wingsnake monkey fled to the mountain raven made a plan with monkey but first needed orca's help trick orca into bringing the sun and they make humans from moss and discarded bones deity darkness is defeated but each year returns in the beginning the sea serpents had wings
– a free-form poem. I wrote this sometime around 2016 – it is an outline of some cosmological material for my imaginary world called Mahhal. I recently found it in some old notes (having forgotten about it).
Caveat: Poem #2334 “Marching orders”
ㅁ After a few days of cold, the weather shifted, got bold, and a steady snow took hold.
– an englyn milwr.
Caveat: Poem #2333 “The horse already left the barn”
ㅁ dreams take shape coalesce but don't make sense devoid of edges skip across memories and replay anxieties until finally you wake up and wonder what that was all about
– a reverse nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2332 “The ghosts at the margins”
ㅁ The dead congregated here, among trees, and your unease, even fear... it fed them and kept them near.
– an englyn penfyr.
Caveat: Poem #2331 “A visitation”
ㅁ The ice along the seashore spoke out loud lamenting its abandonment, alone: the tide had left it broken on the rocks. A duck approached, and clambered on the ice, assessed the scene, and looked askance, dismayed: but in the end turned tail and swam away.
– six lines of blank verse (iambic pentameter).
Caveat: Poem #2330 “Just pause”
ㅁ Everything becomes quite slow, the world rests, the weather tests... tries to show how things go.
– an englyn cil-dwrn.
Caveat: Poem #2329 “An ode to cold air”
ㅁ the endless cycle of rain and snow suddenly ended yesterday and then the air from Yukon pushed down from the northeast and dappled the sea with bits of ice which floated catching light
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2328 “A parallel to my own day”
ㅁ The wood was still damp, so the fire, unambitious, took off quite slowly.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2327 “Sixty-seventh stanza”
ㅁ Kiamon made an attempt to control feelings and impulses roiling her soul; but in the end she gave up and just sighed somehow the will in her body had died.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
Caveat: Poem #2326 “The infinite old house makes another archetypal appearance”
ㅁ My dreams were blurry with ice and snow but within was complex plumbing solving unknowable things among the rocks and mud and wooden pillars that underlay an old house without end.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2325 “Going meta”
ㅁ I like to worry about hypochondria... not sure I have it.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2324 “Ode to a road suspended in the moment of water’s phase-transition”
ㅁ Rain added slippery contributions to the road's packed snow; nothing really melts much, but nor does it truly freeze, instead you get a joyful slush that makes your driving a stressful thing.
– a reverse nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2323 “And the world was frozen”
ㅁ The dog and I walked up ten-mile hill. Our breath made wisps in the cold air, like hieroglyphic wind-signs on ancient codices. The dog pushed her nose into snowbanks, detecting silent mice.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2322 “A short poem in which I have an off-camera, non-speaking role as an elf”
ㅁ So it came to pass that Santa visited us, there in the gift shop.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2321 “An argument against nihilism”
ㅁ Coffee means a lot, although it's just a small thing, and quite cliche too.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2320 “A lot of rows of nothing”
ㅁ The database broke, so I just deleted it; let it start over.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2319 “Slow blink”
ㅁ I awoke early once again waiting for dawn contemplating rain
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2318 “Back at the store”
ㅁ Norma came into the store today. She told me she'd missed me a lot. I do her framing projects, she had brought a new one. She's an old woman. Then she announced she'd been sick: a small stroke
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2317 “It’s still there, waiting…”
ㅁ I'll make my breakfast: simple oatmeal in a bowl, but forget to eat.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2316 “Pareidolia”
ㅁ I found a hole, there, in wait, in the forest floor; what animal lurks?
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2315 “A black and white tableau”
ㅁ And it came to pass that Arthur and I got home; the moon shone brightly.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2314 “Buddha nature”
ㅁ It seems that the key is to time it precisely: enlightened at death. It would be easy: approximate asymptote, like Zeno's story. Perhaps many folks succeed in this task. Indeed... maybe all do it.
– three pseudo-haiku as stanzas in a longer poem.
Caveat: Poem #2313 “Things that happened on a drive to Eugene”
ㅁ I drove a few hours. There was snow and there was rain; also, some rainbows.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2312 “A walk down to the river”
ㅁ Dog versus the forest: He follows trails, reads the messages along our path by nose, takes small detours through gold leaves, overlooks the rushing river, full of water from the recent rains.
– a reverse nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2311 “Actually, this place is mainly just doors”
ㅁ Right. No, left. We were lost. The signs were vague. So then we backtracked. And we found the clinic. The doctors agreed it's hard. The hospital is like a maze. All the building is nothing but doors.
– a reverse nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2310 “A hungry demon”
ㅁ Time consumed the days, but then it moved on to years, and ate all those too.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2309 “Encounter”
ㅁ A deer just stood there. It wondered why I stood there. Beings... standing there.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2308 “A detailed summary of events”
ㅁ First there were served some appetizers. Then, not long after, the turkey, the mashed potatoes, gravy, but also a ham, and yams, something with cranberries, and some green salad, pasta salad; a short break... at last, pie.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Poem #2307 “Bigness”
ㅁ The ocean was big; it hurled big waves at the rocks, but the sea-mist hung.
– a pseudo-haiku.
Caveat: Poem #2306 “Our relations with ourselves”
ㅁ "Pathological optimism" was the pithy phrase he applied to characterize himself. My father wasn't wrong. It has vast problems. But at the least it avoids hating things.
– a nonnet.