This Is Just To Say

You are all
my love poems
come true.
~  mce

For You

All of these words,
the bruised fruit of my orchard,
the only gifts I have to offer.
~  mce

Be Joyous Though You Have Considered All The Facts.

It is a shame
to live in the world
quaking with fear.

After all, the world
isn't afraid to die;
why should you be?
~   mce

Bi-pod Biography

I am a bi-pod.

This is to say
I walk about
erect, though
not so erect
as a few years ago.

That is the me
visible to
the world.

But what of the rest?

Birth, biology,
facts, but mostly
narrative
and finally death.

I am what
I have invented.

A creature of
these stories
I tell myself.

All of that and
nothing else.
~   mce

Sixty

Every morning
I look in the mirror
and expect to see
the face that used to be.
Life passes
short as a shiver.
Yet ineluctably,
all those missing moments
belong to me
as surely as
thousands of pieces
of luggage
lost by a bankrupt airline.
Every morning
I hope in vain
that they will
be on the carousel
and find their way back
to my mottled hands
one more time.
   ~ mce

Moving On

Slip the bonds
that bind you to the past.
They are only in your mind.
Loose them
and your life
will blosssom.
Loose them
and we will make
a new life.
Loose them and we
will depart the world
in the merge of love.
Courage.
We can do this soon.
We can make this real.
   ~mce

Was That An Echo?

The silence of words
or the silence of no words:
difficult to know
which screams the loudest.
~ mce

As Far As It Goes

I would like
to write
a million poems
before I croak,
but given alcohol,
nicotine, the state
of my liver and
general bad luck,
I don't see it happening.

Don't mean a thing.

Ten or a million,
we do not sing to count,
we sing to sing.
  ~ mce

Take A Breath; Start Over.

I have struggled
against anger
at those I loved
who wronged me.

I have made
some progress.

Still incomplete,
but I will not surrender.

One day I will
book passage
on the ship
of compassion.
  ~ mce

Why Do This Stuff?

Reality resides in the mind,
all dark shards and sharp edges;
the imagination
smooths and softens them
into something
bright and better.

Poetry is the great shaper;
the focusing lens.

To be a poet is to see
not what is
but what ought to be
with holy, burning intensity.
   ~ mce

Take Satori Where You Find It

Resting after lovemaking;
my cheek against your thigh
sticky with our spent juices;
I experience sudden illumination:
I have found the glue
that binds the world together.
  ~ mce

Resurgence

For four years
the store front
of his life
had a sign
on its window
that read: Closed.

Now the sign reads:
Open for Business.

We shall see
what comes his way.

But Open
feels better
than Closed.
   ~ mce

Do The Math

The Iraq War cost
three trillion dollars.
Tonight a mother
and her children
sleep in an
abandoned car
in Detroit.
Something doesn't
add up.
  ~mce

Wallace Stevens

"Poetry is a cafe."

Poetry

The brain
picks the words;
the spirit
sings the songs.
  -mce

Brevity

Consider
what a lifetime
means.
 -mce

Love at 60

 ~ for CB

It is the
unexpected flower
blooming in
the melting snow.
It is spring
in lost winter.
It is unlikely:
it is surprising:
perhaps it is
a gift for surviving.
In any case, thank you.
I am delighted.