29 January 2012

chinese translation # 104


to know how to have a great time with your friends

       the pretty snow could be dangerous ice

wow
     that
i did not recognize
       or realize
how much time it will take to
                   simply suffice

be careful
      and take care of mine

we forgot to take my camera with us when we returned home
but my sister took some pictures
         you will get to know

i will ask her to share
               so i can share 
with you


and as for the work
                                  well
my mind and heart seem lost
               at home

if you’re counting one to a hundred
               and if you just have to know
it will probably take several days to get better
                                   for the results to show


27 January 2012

vicissitude


i felt the snow before i saw it
                               in the spines of trees and little knees
thanksgiving’s warmth is confusing          (winter inevitable)

each arrived to search my memory of night-sky first snows
                                               and finding a coat

clouds built in the north over minor lakes
                      yellow tape
             coffee cake

my mother sent packages slow moving fonts
black matted april    fragile grieved loss
                         with care
warmth light cost of share
                                  bleak mind wear
my thirtieth night

solidarity
        was a blizzard


                       we for me
that autumn i was twenty-three
                                              university

vagabond training    the nate archibald track

no-flake snow flakes bending back
              the earth light moved imperceptibly
  the city bus stopped for me
                          on a corner where buses didn’t run

                               how did you answer

autumn and winter you
                          mid-day proof

winter white joy severed four and ninety-three
                         led to morning bright
one example is tonight
would it be for heaven’s cancer
or sunlight’s vivid right

weeks demure
           cold clock premature
time’s cacophony of art
                              melancholy dressed   every time
in scarf
               double socks and vulnerability

buttoned up
                                     for thirty weeks
                             wintered

february thought april
                   first light arrived
          for me

a departure from grief at the hand
                                               of a thief

a life cycle lesson    the syracuse session
              more than an alibi

the feathery weight
                      kept things straight
hate for hate for hate for hate for hate

           clear skies
scattered equivalent norms
                       awaitied a storm a whole to a form
                               in syracuse     hearts were holocaust

                       we gained light in moving
long nights you could hear
we just made the winter
               we breathed the cold air
which began the gaze skyward
                         equalled the light
november twenty-third the wrongest of all nights



vicissitude |vəĖˆsisəĖŒt(y)oōd|
a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or
unpleasant



20 January 2012

it was important to get it right


we stalked the boundaries
like lazy colored money
canadian
   turned graceful
or charming
by the hope and the harm
      of him singing   sad-swagger
‘another false alarm’
     and
‘that’s why you’re on your own   tonight’

i took the time to check
it was important to get it right
in spanish she established
      that the replies
would come slow
since there were things to seek
   and places to go
but she did say ‘think about it   give it some time   you’ll know 
                  when it’s time to know  
      when it’s time’

a belief he clung to
as days turned weeks
      turned months
   turned slowly
to winter
   when he figured she would need to
slow the furious roll
            taking a neo-grammatical toll
on every post modern idea
      of companionship
on every mosaic-film
            relationship
where knowledge is gleaned
      in brief moments of passing
where the opening chords of
      ‘this charming man’ come slashing
out of gas station speakers

      pencil   vain   eee-ahh ae
were the gold is long gone
and there’s not much to say
once you get north of pittsburgh
      past where sunshine stays

there’s just focus   and road
               and time delays







17 January 2012

the song sets you free


the wood and the nail cutter
a drum of unwashed water
   glass bottles
gone all asunder

dare you to heaven
         you alone

    when the unaffected by
one little day of
bright-light-truth
         get to   even

and if the cat’s been eating rats
he is not hungry for power
   anymore
he only hungers
    for more rats

      and bottle caps
the afternoon wasted
on honey
            and naps
feeling the effects
   of the latest relapse

the lack of sleep
      and confidence
motivation-ambience
but smiles are still
   collectible
and that’s nice to see
            with a paranaque wink
      this hand holding decree

it’s too far to walk
      she said
and the traffic
   is busy busy buzzy
it’s bizzy
      like neighbor-bees
swirling and cutting
at anything with knees
      that’s you boy
            and now   it’s me
   well now
      now
i need to go sleep
the words that i say
      are the ones that i mean

sleep the warm still night
      to fix aches in my head
and make my back forget weeks
   of trying so hard to make
                  these two ends meet
thank you for introducing them to each other
   for me
            and
sweet dream the street dreams
      where the song sets you free