Poems, et cetera


This isn't meant to be a collection of everything I enjoy, but just a place to put things so that I won't lose them.

In Broken Images

Sent to me by a European gentleman after reading my pages.

- Robert Graves

He is quick, thinking in clear images;
I am slow, thinking in broken images.

He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images;
I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images.

Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance;
Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.

Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact;
Questioning their relevance, I question the fact.

When the fact fails him, he questions his senses;
When the fact fails me, I approve my senses.

He continues quick and dull in his clear images;
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.

He in a new confusion of his understanding;
I in a new understanding of my confusion.

The Twenty-Third Psalm

I read this to Warren Thompson as he died in 1997, us alone in the hospital, and again at his fumeral.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteosness for his name´s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Flesh Failures

We starve, look at one another
Short of breath
Walking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories,
Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasy,
Listening for the new told lies,
With supreme visions of lonely tunes.

Somewhere, inside something there is a rush of greatness
Who knows what stands in front of our lives
I fashion my future on films in space.

Silence tells me secretly
Everything.
Everything.