Wings

If wings hadn't been introduced
to shoulder blades then no one
would be flying around looking all ecstatic
and befuddled while catching cold air.
There'd only be tiny ponies chewing oats
from ratty buckets outside right now.
There are mornings and then there are
golden glimpses of something totally
amazing like awe or coffee. In this instance
I would like to simply point out to you The New York
Times in a blue bag with my name on it.
Kisses could be delayed by days or even months.
The paper says you have independent modes
of transportation so I'll meet you half-way
there with my jittery self.
Morning will never be called off
due to budgetary constraints or even heartbreak.
By afternoon there will be plush green pillows
strewn on the lawn waiting for my body.
I can hardly wait.

Friday Morning Top 10

1) Julianna Barwick at Oasis Gallery. The sound was amazing and the songs transported me to the appropriate place. More later (and photos).

2) The Tanners by Robert Walser -- I purchased it tonight at Spoonbill and Sugartown on good old Bedford Ave, which is looking very nostalgic.

3) Laura looking very tailored and elegant playing the tailored and elegant woman of a certain age. Comfortably spiffy.

4) At the Metropolitan Ave. G stop: Red lipstick on a bright yellow phone. For real.

5) Sushi in Williamsburg on N. 6th Street. I had my last dinner with Henry Flesh there during the Spring of 2003?

6) How talented and genuinely sweet Julianna Barwick is.

7) All I know is that it hurts more than all the commercials about pain that have ever been made.

8) You want to mythologize it, make a story of it, but you just can't.

9) The cold became a demon tonight and shaved my legs with an icy scalpel.

10) My hands are so dry that it feels like a natural oil has been drawn from them and now I'm all ash and flakes from typing this. I clap my hands and people cough.

Henri Michaux

However weighed down, washed-up,
or bullied you may be, ask yourself regularly--
and irregularly--"What can I risk again today?"

H.M. from Tent Posts p85

Oh! Mirror Lake!

I long for you today.

Beautiful Soil

I am filling the space
you left behind with a few things
that I forgot about while you were here.
My bed is made of old hair and books.
I put on my flip-flops and this
little sprint of light from under the door
flickers loosely around my thighs;
it provides enough light to make a sandwich by.
Bread again. A vacation would be pleasant,
perhaps somewhere with pencils
and paper. Thin ducts of water
streaming from a legendary dish.
Waste time considering the mortality rates of cute things
versus that of rough hewn things. Underestimate the value
of past hugs. Consider stopping that stuff now.
I will focus on the incessant pang of the new now.
I will stop making the animal sounds and
raise my voice in song instead. A crystal clear vision
of the present shivers down my spine.
How long until I'm on beautiful soil?

Robert Frank's Rolling Stones Video

Smoke - Curtains

From The Dhammapada

"Let him live in love. Let his work be well done. Then in a fulness of joy he will see the end of sorrow."

One of my favorite passages from The Odyssey (two translations)

Oh Brave Odysseus!






















"Endure my heart, you endured worse than this
on that day when the invincible Cyclops
ate our comrades. You bore it until your cunning
got you out of the cave where you thought you would die."

from book 20, Translated by Stanley Lombardo

"Bear up, old heart! You've borne worse, far worse,
that day when Cyclops, man mountain, bolted
your hardy comrades down. But you held fast--
Nobody but your cunning pulled you through
the monster's cave you thought would be your death."

from book 20, Translated by Robert Fagles

John Coltrane Quartet - Live 1965 - Vigil

Damn.

Morning Poem #252

Lifting my head,
breathing from my belly, eating a bit,
drinking coffee, reading the paper,
dozing almost, going for a run,
breathing more, saying hello to three
people in the park, in the dark!
Now home again with
a certain tinkle of the piano
somewhere not far way.
OK, here we go into Monday.
Good luck everyone.

Sunday Top 11

1) Brooklyn, early morning Sunday. My favorite.

2) Talking with Greg Hamilton last night and witnessing his courage while battling cancer. I honor him here.

3) All this Christmas stuff is kind of bumming me out.

4) The sound of a seagull outside my window right now.

5) Frank O'Hara: "I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love."

6) The view of the city on 56th Street from the 43rd floor last night: Sparkle City.

7) Walking home from the train and having a momentary feeling of peace and calm on Baltic Street, but it didn't last long.

8) My bed, now festooned with books.

9) There is something about the silence of this room that I find adorable.

10) I'm okay. I just miss someone, a lot. Bear with me.

11) So, a bear walks into a bar, see?

Julianna Barwick

Julianna will be perfroming at The Cameo Gallery on Thursday, December 17th. If you've never seen her, you should. I'll be there!

Saturday Top 10

1) Cold outside, warm in here.

2) A clementine and a banana.

3) Hum and whoosh of traffic: it sounds like the ocean from my bed.

4) How tender Brooklyn feels this morning.

5) This new skin I have is very supple.

6) Whenever I feel like dancing, I dance.

7) What would you do if I sang out of tune? Wait, don't tell me.

8) The scallops, the beets, the squash, the home, the company. Thank you J.K.

9) Lifting my hands above my head and clapping them.

10) Thelonius Monk.