Tag Archives: poem

HOW TO DODGE LIMBO

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Not for Catholics only.

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HOW TO DODGE LIMBO

She is a fossil, suspended
In amber. On display.
Before Shot,
Example of what not to do
When you know not what to do.

Limp hill-headed escapist
Maiden in name only
Took his offer
Got his goatee but not intent
To trample. Renege.

Do not go there in your mind.
Lurking invites infestation.
Do not wait for the next move.
Do not descend into minutiae.
Do not kill time.

There is no glory in the coffin.
Do not hang on the line.
Do not wait for the perfect fit.
Do not wait.
Do not do nothing.

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MONSTER LOST . . . It seems there is no logic to these things.

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MONSTER LOST

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Godzilla years
Vagabond phase
Rampage days
Punch & Judy Show
Nights. Wild west
Pastiche. Bang
Locals. Streamline fate.

No coastline suits
No dwelling
Can contain him.
Latent crush
She did not choose.
He fell into her
Living room

Woozy from flight
Parsimonious talker
Familiar, fragile, giant
Pocked with luck.
Collisions. Pain.
She did choose to look.
To see. To harbour.

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SEEKER . . . “Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.” ― Albert Camus

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SEEKER

She found him
Verbose, wondered
Why he was gargling,
Carving salt with his uvula.

Too much tongue?
She was the type
To fondle q tips
Groom his climax.

Swish. Swallow. Marvel.
The questioning type
Blessed or cursed
With a savant prone womb.

She found slums
More frightening than marsh,
Collarless dogs
And red grapes

Dozing, frozen in the sun.
Then she found me
Long after she’d quit
Seeking answers. Clarity. Peace.

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MIRAGE . . . Verse alluding more to the optical phenomenon than the Vegas hotel

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When I write and think I feel like EveryWo-Man, that I am nothing more than bits of all and other people talking to myself. Them. Us. And today please bear in mind that which we desire can kill us before we reach the oasis.



MIRAGE

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Strive to wake slowly

To answers, to morning

When I hear best

When I am best heard.

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So, what’s my weather?

Clammy Kurt Cobain,

Decapitation dreams

Verdant commotion

Microchip dread.

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Don’t shy away she said

Pretend you can’t see

What you see.

Here comes your tall order

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Last Coke in the desert,

What you thought out loud

Sacrifice bunted,

Bent light rays for,

Made manifest, integral

Part of the landscape.

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In dubious collusion

With your dawdling beau

Inspirational quotes

Make you puke,

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The unsaid, uneasy.

There is no rain.

No water.

No lake.

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SCIENCE OF LIFE . . .

. . . even when you’re not looking; especially when you’re not looking.

SCIENCE OF LIFE

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Take umbrage.

Sour all I have.

I used to allow it.

Did not rock kismet

Delight in peals of spring.

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I mired. Flickered,

Got the dirt on

A waif, wily, perverting

High school rituals

Claw hammering rivals

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Blind to the nests

Cocoons, hives, shells

Snoozing in biology class

Oblivious to living organisms

Living in, on, through us.

All escaped our attention.

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Now I name stars

Species, ripen salmon

Salvage withered pines

Old friends, repair things

Beyond repair

Sail toward a ship.

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BOTCHED MISSION; Some spectacles seduce. If you can’t beat ’em…

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BOTCHED MISSION

Or, booty call gone bad.
It’s not funny. Nor murky.

Icy thorns of fury
Recede slower than scars.

The sustenance of pain wore off.
Frayed, aching, sopping

With venom, rage engorged,
Vein of mayhem opened.

Angel dust of adrenalin
Winging dainty arms,

Amplifying might. Charm
Offensive, to be admired only at night

Beloved as a mule,
His shame her cargo.

Serial monogamy, serial frustration.
No getting off this ride.

Flexing reserves of righteous
Muscle, she kicked ass and dragged.

Damn him, fuck spadework,
Shanghai the shower as tomb,

Victuals, body rotting,
Speculation rising

Till they found the red stench,
Cordial, self-winding businessman

In fetal position, lenses
In the washer, voyeuristic goo.

Water did not silence the apparatus
Nor launder its images

Truth as obscured
As that Judgement Day in June,

God in the guise of ex-girlfriend,
Jesus lost in five years of lynch mob.

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NATIONAL POETRY MONTH in Vancouver keeps us on our toes!

Photo: Tabitha Montgomery

Whew! Recovering from an action packed weekend; two launches for two anthologies. My poem Appelton was featured in Alive at the Center along with other Cascadian poets from Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. It’s a farcical poem, people laughed and we all revelled in the convivial atmosphere at the Rhizome Cafe. Saturday, I read Three Blocks West of Wonderland at the launch for FORCE Field: 77 Women Poets of British Columbia at the Vancouver Public Library, followed by a party at the Railway Club, which turned out to be a fantastic gathering of the tribe.

Well, it is National Poetry Month. I will be doing another reading for FORCE Field on the 26th at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby. Couch surfing is a little rough but it does provide a wonderful opportunity to visit, something I rarely have time to do when I cross the moat (Howe Sound) and go into Vancouver with a long list of errands, meetings, appointments.

TERMINAL LABOUR . . . a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.

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TERMINAL LABOUR

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Murderous pipe

Snaking though mountains

Rips the century in two.

Calamity stitches, salt

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Rituals, mollifying dances

Distract hippie protesters.

Ransack a few days off.

Sour fists, sweet mouths,

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Boner in the rain.

He recalls her glass tears,

Tongue of flint

Silent in the station

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Shrewd in the bar.

Dunce fat depleted,

Husk nearly ready

For the casket,

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He works with her

To remove obstructions,

Excavate a trench,

Contour the land.

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WET RECOVERY…despite everything

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WET RECOVERY

Mangled post tequila,

Estrangement narcotic,

Longing, withdrawal.

Up from the basement

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Pretty feet restored

I propel myself

With nothing

But will, grateful for the veil

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Of mist, piano notes

Icy raindrops pelting

What’s left

Post hacking

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Into,

Hacking away.

Hmph.

He’s not the only martyr

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Dragging me down,

Blowing me up.

I will sleep with the river,

Esoteric toads,

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A harridan

Sharper than thistle,

Embraced.

Sheltered. Cleansed.

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FATAL INTERRUPTION-the work of forgetting

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FATAL INTERRUPTION

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Pond forsook, shed tippled,

I dodge gusto, the jolly,

Adroitly avoiding east, his

Brilliant mean declarations,

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Confabulations,

Sorry offensives,

Our fractured liaison.

The work of forgetting

Stresses, ER expedition

Lacerating Saturday night.

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Belligerent patients triaged;

Cosmo shill car crash,

Severed digit,

Cocaine addled troll.

My heart is quitting!

Erection won’t.

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Happy to see me.

Stiff you.

X rays, blood work

Revealing nothing

But our deficits.

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