Why I Prefer Blogging to Writing for Broadway

Striving for success
Can exact a high price
In a very sudden and
Dramatic way

Just ask Jonathan Larson
Who burst a blood vessel
In his heart whether Marfan
Induced or not
In getting ready
For opening  night
Off Broadway

Whereas a poor
Lampoet such as I
Has no such
Need for worry
All a new poem requires
Is two bucks
For a cup of coffee
At Pret and an empty
Page or two in a Staples
Bought notebook
And then soon enough
I'm ready to publish
By clicking save
And pressing send
With adequate permission
Perhaps by email to you

Three Purple Pens

Three purple pens
And three Staples
Bought notebooks
   One pink
       One black
           One brown
A cup of dark roast
Served up by Semoan
To sit in the sun
Once again

29th Street provides
The perfect excuse
On this
The 29th day
Although Rafiqi
Has parked his truck
Elsewhere
On Sunday perhaps
He rests or prays
Still I lack for nothing
To say as the music
Of the Spheres spins
In the background

   More toppings
      More flavors
          Same price
Still applies
Just as on any regular
Weekday afternoon

In Grammar As In Life

Approaching April's end

Spring has begun 

Once again

A perfect time

To settle in Mocha Joe's

Down on Main Street

With a fern drawn

In the foam 

Atop a double

Cappuccino

There must be

A Buddha dog

Come somewhere among us

Because suddenly

All the mutts

In the coffee shop

Have given up barking

Content to sniff 

At the news in silence

Today being the 28th day

I wonder what else

I can write or say

That hasn't already

Been done a million

Times better before

About fern design

Or otherwise

Except to bear witness

And render poems

Out of thin air

Whenever they come
Overcoming the urge

To deny what 

I barely understand

In grammar as in life

On Flat Street and Main

Looking down on the intersection
Of Flat Street and Main
You read aloud an item
From yesterday's paper
About an artist you once knew
Who just lost the battle
With his personal demons
In the worst sort of way

The good and the bad
Each commands our attention
The narcissist not so nicely
The Bodhisattva much more politely
I don't mean this abstractly
But as a truth to be re-encountered
Each and every day

A Fourth Shout Out to Spring

posted in the lobby of the Latchis Motel


This weekend
We're going to Vermont
To visit my younger son
Thus giving us
A fourth shot at spring

Just beyond Holyoke
I noticed the dogwoods
Once more in bloom
And the green continued
To fade the further north
We went

So journeys over distance
May overlap with time
Reversing itself as
The clock rewinds
Literally and
Spring is sprung
Once again

Venus Astride the Crescent Moon

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for Marissa

This month

I’ve learned

To pay better heed

To influences deeply felt

But unseen

Like Venus

Hanging astride the

Luminous crescent moon

That I pointed out last night

As we were driving home

And you

Unable to take your

Eyes from the road

Said that too

Could be part

Of a wonderful poem

And now

Our souls waxing

And gibbous

We must get ready

For a most extraordinary

New moon

Ode to Vision Impaired

Sasha and I
Have come
Into the garden
Together
I sit while she
Sniffs around
And tramps through
The bed of wild ramps

We are both of us
Vision impaired
She with her cataracts
Sees everything cloudy
And me likewise today
Occluded in my inner eye

Wondering now
That I have finally
Found time to plunk
Myself down here
In the tenuous warmth
Of the April sun 
About the scent I sense
That has my mind
Edgy and uncalm