In some neighbors' yards,
the dog has Buddha Nature,
and the fence is high.

In some neighbors' yards,
the dog cranks and eats dirt clods,
and the fence is high.

Take your altered states
and cram 'em all with walnuts.
Enlightenment Light.

Son, you're no Blues Man.
Not even with dumpy robes
and all those Muppets.

Just dig writing for
writing even when it's not,
and same with patience.

If wigged mannequins
say your dancing feet are weak,
make that virtuous!

Dude, calm the fuck down.
I don't know. I only say
because you asked me.

We sit, deducing
Fatalism, confusing
Determinism.

Reading time is up.
Empty, take off my flip-flops.
Put on more coffee.

For a grown woman,
she's adequately equipped
to eschew riddles.

I'm working harder,
revealing the introvert
who sits in my chair.

We're friends, I assume.
It's possible this doesn't
cross her mind at all.

I imagine her
watching TV to pass time.
I'll call after work.

A Portland summer,
if not wasted, easily
taken for granted.

To ask for a day
is to declare the day gone
by reductio.

Classifications
assigned systematically.
Marching picnic ants.

Quarters for a pair
beneath a tree heavy with
garden metaphor.

Knowing what we know
deciding on decisions,
let's decide to know.

Our intentions here,
not to act in any way,
but not to not act.

Summer's role revealed
by casual utterance,
by a snowball's throw.

We spent Saturday
on the grass, invincible,
Walt Whitman's egos.

Sometimes I go days
without wearing my glasses.
My eyes are not bad.

It's surprisingly
easy to get through one's Life
slightly Nearsighted.

There is No Reason
to attempt the Walk-Through-Life
Trick while slightly Blind.

No Light/Dark question.
Most philosophy is high.
I've implied Nothing.

Nor Form nor Content
without Context, which, in Truth
is all you have here.

Word Economy
is neither my Strongest Suit
nor necessary.

I can see the page
regardless of the number
of syllables there.

While you were talking,
my mind wandered to numbers,
probability.

Curiosity
as a variation of
Neuroticism

Drift, in this context...
There's no question of manners.
You're already done.

A digression on
frequency modulation:
Humans can't hear it.

Neuroticism
as a variation of
Determinism

Exceptionally
wizened and articulate
for a young farm girl.

Occasionally
convincing. Viz, fire, brimstone
and stomachs turning.

Soon as one is born
one begins to wait for death.
There are magazines.

Readers, remember:
You didn't write this haiku.
Ted Berrigan did.

"But by then Ben had
somehow become a kind of
Rock Apologist."

"so, for a single,
for one person, so far, per
person there's a slight"

We documented
the purpose of nervous laughs,
a lone control group.

Know what the noise is,
understand what the noise does
and respect the noise.

Easy to write down;
Not easy to stare at goals;
Make it a project.

No skill is required
to recall partial details,
split infinitives.

Location secedes,
lights, witches move over time,
you've outgrown the tree.

The purpose of rope
as I now understand it
is not Tug o' War.

The purpose of beer
as I now understand it
is not memory.

The moment before
the strings come in is fleeting,
smells like astringent.

The cold of hockey
lacks the smell of winter air.
It's Arizona.

The (so called) long view,
the sound of a door cracking,
Steelies in a sock.

for These Are Houseplants, Emily, Bill, Darren, Emily, Kiri, Jason

I should have listened
to my eighteen year old self
because he was right.

I never said how
well you didn't listen to
eighteen year old me.

After all these years
I still think of you owning
hopping on one leg.

Two ate from the bowl
of mints on their way in, and
I am still laughing.

I apologized
for the broomstick remark but
should have been louder.

A series of stray
Sunday plans lost on Sunday
are always replaced.

The dual meaning of
"Febreeze the shit out of 'em"
just hit this evening.

I cut my finger
with a steak knife while trying
to cut potatoes.

Cut, I somehow thought
to remove pan from burner,
to wash bloody knife.

Cut, safe from burning
my breakfast, wrapped my finger
in paper towel.

Breakfast safe, direct
pressure applied to my cut,
watched cat watch me wince.

Inside five minutes
blood stopped, idly considered
calling out of work.

Thinking of skipping
idly, considered trip to
emergency room.

Replacing the pan,
found my wound now clean and dressed
in time for breakfast.

((A BOX FOR CHECKING)
THIS WAS JUST A MENTAL NOTE
ONLY WRITTEN DOWN)

BEFORE ONE CAN WRITE
USING CAPITAL LETTERS
ONE MUST CLEAR ONE'S MIND

IN OVERALL SCHEMES
MINDING THE GAP NEEDN'T MEAN
JUMP WHEN ONE SAYS "JUMP"

SECOND NOTE TO SELF:
THERE'S NO BARGAIN TO BE HAD
FOR THINGS YOU DON'T NEED

THE DUST, HAVING CLEARED,
BY WHICH I MEAN CHORES, UNDONE,
WE'RE OUT OF BUTTER

BEFORE I WAS BORN
SOMEONE HID ALL THE MONSTERS
IN YOUR OLD BEDROOM

BEFORE I AM DEAD
THERE SHOULD BE AN UNVEILING
AND A CATALOG