Kenower Poems

Emily Blue

2008-02-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

Little Emily Blue,
Who stood a bit below four-foot two,
Who sang when she was wet,
And kept her dolls in the fireplace flue;
Who disliked rice and sometimes jam,
Who cried, “No fair!” if you held her hand,
Sailed for France with the Queen of Spain,
By way of Cape Horn with her spotted Great Dane—
Arrived unfed and demanded tea,
Was given pizza and clapped with glee,
Then went to bed stark naked,
Warmed by the sunset and thoughts of you and me.

What I Meant To Say

2008-02-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

I have to say it all,
Before it is too late.
I have to say it all—
I hear the closing of the gate.

I have to say it right,
Or it will vanish from your heart.
I have to say it now,
Before the thunder starts.

I have to say it lovely,
To vault your watchful mind,
I have to say it open,
To leave the fear behind.

But I have to say it short,
Or it will drown in parenthesis,
Strangled by consideration,
Washed out to modified seas.

But my time’s worn down,
And still I’m rooted, where I first began.
So much to say
To close the book
On what I meant today.

I meant to tell you about the tree
Bare like an animal’s bone,
And how I had to turn away
When I saw you on the phone.
And how that tune reminds me
Of a snapping fire,
And how the night can trap me
In conjecture like barbed wire.

And how the moon neglects to rise,
And how my spoons are slim neckties,
And how dogs whistle when you bark,
How the night’s on fire, the morning dark—
But I see the day is turning blue
And I think I feel something to do,
So I’ll end it here where all life starts true:
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Cigarettes

2007-03-11T19:57:00.001-07:00

Let me have just one more,
Just one little more
While breathing and breathing
I’ll have just one more.
Though smoke is just nothing
Is nothing in white
The smoke fills you up
With nothing in white
But fills you up breathing
And breathing one more
Where the smoke fills you up
You have something and more.
And today I have nothing,
Or at least little something
And a something is more
Than a nothing you’re sure
So I’ll quit then tomorrow
As sure as I’m sure,
But until then, still breathing,
I’ll have just one more.

The Ballad of Captain Har Har

2007-03-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Thought Captain Har Har, "All we are what we are.
All we living in darkness, all we dying in wars.
I is only one man, and this earth is a star.
I's got only one sound, likes a pin in a jar.
Yet I am Har Har, and I are what I are."

Experience

2007-03-11T19:42:00.001-07:00

Now that I know what I know,
I cannot go where I used to go.
Now that I’ve been where I have been,
I cannot pretend what I used to pretend.
Now that I’ve thought what I have thought,
The ship has sailed, the farm’s been bought.

Experience’s a trip you cannot choose,
The more you gain, the more you lose.
The more you lose, the more you’ve got,
With plenty for all, like it or not.

Damn That Raven

2007-03-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

Damn that raven on railroad tie
Damn its wing, it's twitching eye.
Damn it's tail across a perfect blue,
Its claw, its beak, its belly too.
Damn it twice, now three times more,
It hits the air, now damn it four,
Damn it all across a whiting sun,
Damn that raven who flies to none.

I Am The One

2007-03-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

I am the one
Who is watching himself.
Thinking, "That thing in the mirror,
It moves like myself."

And I am the one,
Who, before the first breath is drawn,
Thinks, "This is the part,
Where I kick, scratch, or yawn."

And I am the one
Who, preparing to cry,
Thinks, "This is the part
Where I watch myself die."

He Hated Hot

2007-03-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

He hated hot
What the sun did not.
With fertile face and animal grace
He cried among solider, sailors, passers-by
He howled:

The ocean has cried for no dead sailors
And I can take no more of an indifferent storm
That throws you out and begs you back again.
Enough! Enough! What pebbles these, that you call rocks
What sippings these that you call drinks,
Oh, what mice, what insects,
What puny insufferable foes. Enough!
I am alone. And stand just so.
Alone I'll stand, alone I'll go.
And watch no more, for that ever likely,
Ever vanishing shore.

Thought he who hated hot,
What the sun hated not.

My Uncle Jake

2007-03-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

My uncle Jake did shoot himself
In sunlight on his own porch,
Having said to me, the day before,
"Them that are taking their own,
are taking them at night;
but I would do it in sunglight!"
And now he's slumping, and is not,
In the sunlight and sawdust
Of a porch no longer his.

the cat that was

2007-03-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

i is cat
that is that

the mousie toe
go ticky-tat

the birdie be
he fat as rat

the doggie see
he not a cat

i slumber sleep
i sleepy deep

dream mousie,
birdie, doggie, rat

that is that
i is cat

The Horses

2007-03-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

What horse you, who made through,
What horses brought you there?
Lame ones, wild ones, broken ones too,
They all could bring you there.

The Old Man

2007-03-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

The old man,
Whose footprints are covered as he goes,
Steps into a lamplight where a circle glows,
In the white-on-white world of midnight snows.

Beneath the Trees

2007-03-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Beneath the trees and the clouds roll by,
I hear the thunder, but still I lie,
Watching wind blow through the yellow folds,
And rippling down through fevered gold,
And autumn blazing in its barest brown,
I turn myself over,
And the rain comes down.

Golden Child

2007-03-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

Golden child turning in a mushroom field,
Golden child turning and turning again,
Golden child turning, your smile and your skin,
I've lost you, and lost you, and lost you again.