bothallandevery

—for q.r. hand

bothallandevery
not either/or
neither nor
not never but
whatever
is better
no matter
the letter
the spirit calls
time takes off
the heart beats and listens
the heart leaps then looks
the heart beats and beats

bothallandevery
a hope
a prayer
a reverie

A Confusion of Poetry

music is about
first things first... 

to the ghosts
from a heavenly home
with no visible means,

careening carefully,
revealing compassion

to us, to those born later,
bothallandevery

to the bird
with sympathy,
i am with you, proving myself,

an axiology as formless
as a water sketch

everything's on the one

Poetry comes to me as a way to make language a living force, as a way to make connections again and for the first time, the implicit explicit. It is a way to make certain that we never cede the creation of meaning to an other. “We mean to mean,” and “definitions will belong to the definers.” How I or we show up in the world is a constant struggle. Once, at Rainbow Basin with its fossil beds in southern California, looking at the patterns of the weathered land, like water came to me.

like water

seeking my own level
i flow this way and that
around indissoluble objects
my thoughts separate
and then run together
unearthing bits of old life forms
exposing places
where imprints were made
before i can remember

anyone who wants can see through me
can even know where i’ve come from
i approach resistance the same as you
the less the better
yet the paths that seem so worn now
once were never traveled
while the immovable ones limited
but never defined
me

Poems of Color