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REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM
Gertrude Stein saidpoetry is vocabulary,or so Simic reported it,but in that casewhat do we makeof Haiku, wherea poem at maximumcan use onlyseventeen words. Perhaps, if wefollow Levi-Strausshaiku is not poetrybut art, for all artis reductionand there is littleyou can doto reducea haiku further.
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RETURNING
The Great Egrets swoop low,make a slow banking turnand alight in the leafless tree. They sit imagining water,the wetland they knewa month or so ago, nowmore a mud flat all waitingfor the rainy season’s arrival. They leave as night approaches,the once wetland suddenlyagain silent, and we areleft to dream of the flocksof ibis, herons and…
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FROM THE ASHES
I would like to go backto the days when,after a fire reduceda commericial buildingto charred rubble,the onlookers andthe gawkers wonderedif it was an angrycustomer or employee,or sloppiness orpoor maintenance. Now, we watchas the fire marshalscomb through the ashesand the rubble, lookingnot only for the sourceof the flames but alsothe accelerant, alwayswondering as we dojust how…
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MASKING
The Air Force shaved our heads, was itbecause of the heat of a San Antoniosummer or that we’ll all look equally like fools,and easier for Sarge to maintain unitcohesiveness in his rag tag bandof semi-successful Army avoiders. Now we all wear masks and assumewe all look equally foolish, knowingthe virus cares nothing for cohesiveness,and normal…
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REGARDING HISTORY
We stand aroundin the shadowof the Coliseumstaring atthe Roman Forumimagining lifein the timeof the emperor. Fast forwardtwo or threemillennia,and imaginethe facesof those staringat the ruinsof our civilization if we have notdestroyed alllife by then.
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HUMPTY DUMPTY SAYS
He had long since decided that language was impossible, the English language in particular. He had acquired all manner of dictionaries, and had searched the web, using it as a reverse dictionary. But all too often the language came up short. Words at best approximated what he meant, what he saw, but to get even…
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CONVERSATION
If you want a good conversationbirds should be your first choice,wading birds at the top of the list,although you still have to be quickfor if you meander they will lose interest. Animals are to who you should turnif you need advice on getting throughthe omnipresent obstacles life raisesto impede your smooth passage through it,but note…
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DICTIONARY
I set out this morningwith my large dictionaryto find the perfect wordto describe the sky, the sunjust peering over the roofof a distant house, the fewclouds aflame in a silent fire. I knew there was a wordfor what I saw in the dictionary,for there is a wordfor everything if you searchlong and hard enough, butafter…
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SONNET TO A PORTUGUESE
You came into my life last week, your nameforever locked away inside her mind.My life, she felt, would never be the sameand therefore left all thought of you behind.You loved her, I suppose, that summer nightthen left her, bearing me, until she turnedme over for adoption, that she mightforget the love that you so quickly…
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CHURCHES
I have already visitedcountless churches basilicas, shrinesand admired the art, the simple beauty,free of liturgy and belief. I did not stopto pray, to implead, merely to see,to listen, to absorb. for I was a Jew.a nonbeliever in a Christian worldsilently tolerated. Now, I have learnedI was only half Jewish, half, hidden a polyglotof Christianity, a…
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an old writer and his words 