Lord Sand left the sea
for the fields
I fear he is not well
that it was done for a joke
the weather is now very warm
an axe white with light
but Lord Sand they say
will lead in the darkest manner
mouth in mourning like a prince
believed to lay up hidden money
lord of anger
without any consciousness of his faults
he has no face but a grave
which I will not call my brother
I resolve to stand on my own legs
or fall
no laws will save us
the old simple manner that used to do
being gone
danger is an instrument
made of questions
I must be at home with hope
who knows how to begin
through the garden
ringing and pretty
New Year’s is of use to whom
a new invention
a noon at night
to inconvenience an enemy
I will not remove my own head
people pray
for a head with good countenance
a light head
ordinary as a horse
but a foot
committed to ignorance
does as much good as
a burning head
but I make new words
of ash and trouble
a letter from the past
respects no expectation of
a better account
so I clear my mind of such
correspondence
I will have to carve other dice
this morning light
will right all
will make half a head
into a little room
and a whole
member into rope
will free a peach to debauch
a glass of wine
and give me a now
to be a patient of
this light like blood
in a simple lily
I make my death grow
into a room for others
in a narrow pit
there is no play
I must claim liberty
like a dancer
I have put on my hope
and voted against sand
hindered from sleep
hardly able to open eyes
I look at any road
and see no road
nothing is now
out of the way
but I am resolved
to drive
town is a hole I stepped in
with my voice full of hard use
jostled and crowded
fallen I get up again
I will live sparingly
A sun for myself—
pie of a life I never tasted.
I am captain. I set sail
for the farewell chance.
Day after day
the lizards dance on the sand.
When the sun climbs high
the mountains won’t
sit still. Even the tortoise
toiling as little as he can
moves in time with the maguey’s
sharp-tongued shadow.
Sun. Tree. Stone. Sky.
The will to circle in the wind.
To walk like Lucifer up
& down in the earth
or lope like Coyote, always
one meal from the end.
Let the fullness without
break the drought within–
A quaint command:
think of kindness, thank for kindness.
After supper, good music and bed.
Strew the streets with herbs for joy of going.
Never pray for happiness as long as the sun
and moon endure.