Here are some poems that are not in either book. These first appeared in The Gettysburg Review

six in the fifth place  

                              

                                              

                                    means:

                                    He shoots a pheasant.

                                    It drops with the first arrow.

                                    In the end this brings both praise

                                    and office.

                                                            I Ching

 

Because it was 1967, the city

was filled with bands, and Jorma

says many were as good as the

Airplane.  So much of it was

luck, he admits in the film

that’s made a rock band proper

 

history. And what if the day

I called Jim he’d been out?

Or if Matisse had made it

through  law school?  If the

chemist’s glue had held we’d

have no post-its. Accidental

 

glory. But we’re enamored

of our sweat. Perseverance

furthers we claim. Still, in these

days of war I pray for some

lucky break. Some mistake or

failure that might save us all.

 

 

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six at the beginning

 

 

 

                                    means:

                                    when ribbon grass is pulled up

                                    the sod comes with it.

                                                I Ching

 

 

 

You know this one, He’s old.

And rich. He can do what he

wants. It would even be boring

but there’s threat to the soil.

She has the naked glance of

fourteen, hair tucked beneath

 

her cap and he wants to take

that, the lustrous unveiling.

It’s hard to be without the cash

to crush a fat old man, hard to

face it, as you julienne the carrots

in his wife’s kitchen. She stands

 

with a knife in her hands as he

comes downstairs. The curls fall

like ribbons, filling the hollow

at her neck. And though we

want to say at the end that she

recovers wholly, it isn’t true.

 

 

 

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