(Poem #104 on new numbering scheme)
Nothing comes easily, you know. Well, I admit, I can forget this terrible frustration sometimes. Nevertheless, simple stuff feels like trying to make a new poem out of dirt.
– a nonnet
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Category: My Poetry & Fiction
Caveat: Nonnet #85
(Poem #103 on new numbering scheme)
A strange madness took hold of his mind. He believed he was made of glass. "Please, do not touch me," he begged. He made the best of it, though, declaring that transparency was more pure; the soul, clear.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #84
(Poem #102 on new numbering scheme)
I saw a scary caterpillar throbbing across the dull asphalt: a green fragment of muscle, alive like a zombie's, step, step, step, step, step. The little feet writhe toward waving grass.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #83
(Poem #101 on new numbering scheme)
One day, an imaginary man went to Duluth, seeking stories. He stood on the mythic shore. Gray-green waves gnawed the sand. Some black flies spun doubts. He built machines with his words. The lake watched.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #82
(Poem #100 on new numbering scheme)
A failure of communication with a few of my coworkers caused me to tell a student with a confident voice the exact wrong thing. She cried, asking, "Teacher, why did you lie?"
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #81
(Poem #99 on new numbering scheme)
As a first step, they cut out my tongue. They removed the tumor, of course. Then they put my tongue back in. Nerves and vessels were fixed: pieces of my arm were repurposed. So that was a hard year.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #80
(Poem #98 on new numbering scheme)
Trees announce silhouettes and glibly grope the impatient sky, meanwhile insisting that the greedy earth release them so that they can then levitate, but gravity's passion is too strong.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #79
(Poem #97 on new numbering scheme)
As I do with regularity, I rearranged my furniture after getting home from work yesterday afternoon. I made piles of books. The couch got turned. Hordes of dust bunnies died.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #78 “The world-city”
(Poem #96 on new numbering scheme)
These recent days of hazy weather give midday sun a sunset feel, so fall in Daehan Minguk becomes, through memory, pale Tenochtitlan in mid Winter, and the air tastes like gold.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #77 “A geologic moment”
(Poem #95 on new numbering scheme)
Rock! It hurts. It's moving. Is it gone now? No. Now it hurts more. It jumped into my shoe. I'll have to stop at that bench; sit down and try to fish it out. I've changed geologic history.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #76
(Poem #94 on new numbering scheme)
Id, ego - both divine - vagrant thoughts seek apotheosis, but meaning's in decline; instead we make apopheny. Behold the landscape: green blurs, black lines.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #75
(Poem #93 on new numbering scheme)
START: I was walking and smelled woodsmoke. That, and damp streets, brought memories: high school and the Pacific fog and walks and nights at a computer crafting programs like mazes. GOTO START
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #74
(Poem #92 on new numbering scheme)
Babbling silently at the heavens, an orange half moon gave solace to no one, not even me. The evening was chilly. I was not saddened. Souls did not dance. Liminal lurkings flowed.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #73
(Poem #91 on new numbering scheme)
cars buildings traffic lights i see these things government and hope corruption and despair these things are invisible all of these are immanences they emerge wholly formed from our minds
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnets #65-72
I wrote eight nonnets as a connected narrative. I post them here, all at once. I think you might already know the story.
(Poem #90 on new numbering scheme)
The open fields. "Hey. I'm through." His hands shook. "I don't get it." Cain was so angry. The Boss didn't listen. Instead, the Boss turned away. This just made Cain feel angrier. "Why am I submitting these reports?" "Nice." He grinned. He looked up. The Boss was pleased. Abel thanked his Boss. "I worked so hard on that." "It shows. You did very well." Cain watched, beyond the cubicle. "This really isn't fair," he muttered. "What?" "Please wait." The Boss paused. "OK. What now?" Cain said, "Can we talk?" The Boss shrugged. "Don't bother." "You know the problem," he said. "Your anger crouches, there. Own it." Cain was stricken, and he skulked away. "Look. Let's meet." Cain gestured. "Maybe later." His brother nodded. "I'll call you, when I'm done." Later, he called his brother. "How about we go for a walk?" "Sounds good," the other said. "I'll be there." The two took the El down to the end. There were some open fields around. They walked amid the rubble. The older brother swung. He hadn't planned to. His anger won. Cain saw blood. He cried. "Hell." The next day, the Boss called Cain, at nine. He answered his phone, feeling dread. "Where's your brother?" the Man asked. "How would I know?" Cain said. The Boss was silent. "It's not my job." Cain went on. "I mean." "Right?" Another call came, some hours later. The police had found the body. They added up two and two. Cain was soon arrested. The Boss was there too. "Well that was dumb." He shook his head. "You blew it." Cain stared. Sighed. A few years later, Cain was homeless. His lawyer had gotten him off. The trial was a circus. It consumed his money. But his guilt plagued him. Cain crouched, sobbing. "I'm stupid." He spat. "Why?"
– 4 reverse nonnets and 4 regular nonnets
Caveat: Nonnet #64
(Poem #89 on new numbering scheme)
Some nonnet: I wrote it in an effort to improve my skills, capture the world I see, increase my self discipline, and express my shifting feelings regarding the meaning of my life.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #63
(Poem #88 on new numbering scheme)
Dream: I lay fearfully - my mind empty - under a table. I was only a child. Other children yelled at me. I felt compelled to speak to them, but no words came out - I'd become mute.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #62
(Poem #87 on new numbering scheme)
The big typhoon failed to reach Seoul. We just had some overcast days. Down south, the storm struck Busan. The sea stole a few souls. Up here, the sky cleared to perfect blue. A cool breeze pulled down leaves.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #61
(Poem #86 on new numbering scheme)
My tendency to procrastinate can serve me well in Korea, although sometimes it doesn't, and then I will end up feeling some regret, when suddenly I find out something's wrong.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #60
(Poem #85 on new numbering scheme)
I was walking home from work just now, and someone's extremely small dog ran at me, barking loudly. I was startled and yelled, which scared the people whose dog it was. My mood slipped, wobbled, crashed.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #59
(Poem #84 on new numbering scheme)
They say Dangun's mother was a bear. I guess she spent time in a cave. There was a tiger there, too. But he wasn't patient. So he ran away. The bear waited. A long time. At last. Light.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #58
(Poem #83 on new numbering scheme)
How many scared feral cats there are around the city of Goyang, leaping among the shrubs? Maybe not that many, but it seems to me they should be kings here because they are cats.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #57 “Skill”
(Poem #82 on new numbering scheme)
I was reviewing with a student the list of vocabulary. We saw the next word was "skill" - "gisul" in Korean. "Do you have a skill?" I asked. He said, "Just one skill: I can sleep."
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #56
(Poem #81 on new numbering scheme)
Some landscapes of the Quattrocento - those by Giorgione or Titian - are conjured by autumn's light, in the midafternoon, when gazing at trees incidental to a vague background haze.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #55
(Poem #80 on new numbering scheme)
This one tree that I frequently see is always my first sign of fall. Just a few leaves near the top surrender to an urge to paint themselves pink, yellow, red and some peach-tinged thrusts of gold.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #54
(Poem #79 on new numbering scheme)
Blink. Sit up. It's morning. Now I'm awake. The pain of sleep fades. My body needs to move. One shoulder resists movement. I finally begin to rise. The first thing is to make some coffee.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #53
(Poem #78 on new numbering scheme)
I walked home amid a steady rain. A strong scent littered the sidewalks: dawn redwoods - in Linnaean, called Metasequoia glyptostroboides. like Humboldt trees, the smell takes my mind home.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #52
(Poem #77 on new numbering scheme)
The challenge in writing is to find, like a big clump of pocket lint, those specificities which capture a reader's mind so it's glad to fall, a child laughing and leaping into leaves.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #51
(Poem #76 on new numbering scheme)
It might be impossible to see the world as if it were a song. Nevertheless, strings of words mark out our daily world, like viny hedges. Ubiquitous, poetry can't be seen.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #50
I kind of forgot to post on my blog earlier today. I got distracted by something inside my brain. So here’s a nonnet, anyway.
(Poem #75 on new numbering scheme)
I know when I walk to work each day the best route is based on timing. The intersections are slow if you miss the signals. The first light I meet, exiting my apartment, sets my path.
– a nonnet
[daily log: walking, but not to work]
Caveat: Nonnet #49
(Poem #74 on new numbering scheme)
Today in an email someone asked, "How do you get from A to B?" He meant emotionally. I think there's no movement. You just teleport, like first dying, then coming back to life.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #48
(Poem #73 on new numbering scheme)
"Wait," I say to myself. "Buy it later." I'm out of butter. So for a day or two, my oatmeal has no butter. I don't know why I do this thing: my system of small asceticisms.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Nonnet #47
(Poem #72 on new numbering scheme)
Death. "Oh my. That's not good." She made a face. "But it's upside down." I pointed at the card. "True," she admitted, smiling. The Tarot card looked so scary. "It means you should be dead. But you're not."
– a reverse nonnet