Alterity
I believe in the face
a miracle of change and inner child
like a grave that’s able to sing
under a hat and eyebrows
Contemplative poems
Contemplative poems — a collection of the best works on PoemShip.
Day of the dead
I sat on a grave and dined
the day mixed with evening
routed and red
Vegetation
rain turned into jade
cunning as a way of raising things
but I begin to be weary
of having spoil
the land in pieces
would be a busy bed
Contemplation
seeing without breaking
I practice for nothing more
than the present
like a sea fallen quiet
with the settling of other lives
Drafty
we have been thin paper
in the rough
draft of our lives
our greatest word
is like a contract
for our share of coal
Proving the rule
too soon the feet find
one ugly song to sing
all hands in the world
grow dangerous with wear
this is not true
of the moon
Whole hog
the last pig
hanging from the house
moon on the marsh
Felled
love is fallen upon me
like cutting down a tree
to make better light
with my whole body
I appease my desire
to be nobody
but I see how fanatic tenants
would garden on so little ground
being almost starved
Landed
about the discovery of sand
the captain like any fish
did little but wonder
Living On
Consider what one might learn
by meditating on a corpse:
how the flesh can crawl, the bones
of a beautiful face break
the crust of fantasy like little moons
out of the ground, vacant snail-shells
still glistening with an off-white rheum.
Or consider swallowing two squares
of LSD & looking in the mirror:
what perfectly disintegrating visions
might be yours, & with what slight effort.
It’s exhilarating, really, to find this
blind matter – that it somehow coheres
despite its utter insensitivity to longing
or loneliness. It gives itself
only half-grudgingly to the chance
Making certain
I dare not reckon myself sure
till I have it in my mind
the rusted table not pretty
my books not neat
the clasp of an hour or two
is brought to a head
The long view
when at a distance the enemy appear on a hill
it is no disaster for the hill
the water singing to the bridge
is past all fear
the night itself is safe
however we roar
Describe a feeling — we’ll find a poem
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