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WHEN
“When all else fails.” Oh, how I hate that phrase. Plan Omega perhaps, but how do they know all else has failed. Did they make a list? And just perhaps did one else succeed just a little. I mean failure ought to be complete. I know it never is, and if it isn’t tha complete…
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BLEEDING
A violinist canlook at an Amatior a Guarnieriand hear a concerto. A birder hearsthe call of the songbirdand can describethe beauty of her plumage. A skilled photographerlooks through the viewfinderand tells a complete storywith one press of the shutter button. But it is the poetalone, staring at a blank page,who spills onto it joy and…
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I WISH
You probably imagine thatthe life of the poet is one of greatexcitement and adventure.There are moments that mightbe deemed exciting or adventurousbut those happen just as oftenin the lives of those who despise poetry.And believe me, poetry is not onlynot a career, it’s not a job unless yousit in some city square and offerto write…
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ON THE WING
From watching them in flightI know that great egrets flywith their hinge neck folded inwhile Sandhill cranes extend theirs. By listening carefully, I knowthe cry of the male limpkin, his lowerthan his female partner, whilethe cry of the hawk only creates fearin those who might be its prey, andthe male Cardinal showsinfinite patience calling outfor…
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OCULUS
I avoid telling people that Iam going blind in my right eyefor they always seem surprisedas if it should look differentor worse, they say “but it mightnot happen,” when I knowthe only way that is truehis if I die sooner, not somethingI want and if I told them thatwould be something for which theywould fumble…
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NOMENCLATURE
We really need to stopnaming new plant varietiesand comets after the peoplewho first discovered them.Think about it for a moment –they didn’t invent anything,they just saw what was already there.So let’s agree on a new ruleshall we, plant varieties willhenceforth be named afterrock bands with at leastone gold record, and cometsafter random lines fromeither Hamlet…
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I WONDER
As a poet I would bemost interested in learningwhat you read when youare reading one of my poems. I know it sounds strange, after allI wrote it, but often when I readone of my poems it is differentin small or large waysfrom the last time I read it. I know that each reader in turnrewrites…
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IN HIDING
The truth lives in the interstices,increasingly harder to seeamid the morass of desire,lost in the tides of alternative truthsas some prefer to call lies these days.If you look for it you will find it,for it burrows in, refusing to leave,to be dislodged, transmuted, forgotten.For most it cannot be seen but need onlybe assumed, but those…
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STATUS OF LIBERTY
Do us a favorhold backon your tired, your poor.We’re no longer real hoton those yearning to be free.We left it on the plaquebut no one’s supposedto read them anyway.Take the hint,we closed the Island,made it a museumthat oughtto tell you something.Emma’s dead, get it,and Lazarus, welljust read your Bible.We closed the sweatshopsand shipped outall those…
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HUP TWO
He grew fed up with the Army. He had put in 25 years, but the last five had been totally discombobulated, one snafu after another. Everything was FUBAR and he grew wholly disgruntled with it all. He knew it was time to go, to bail out, and no one tried to stop him, to change…
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an old writer and his words 