Poet & Teacher

Heat too hot
windows wide
air outside
still

Day of ours
yet unborn
all ethereal
possibility

“What we play is life” – Louis Armstrong

As if I moved countries
I sit by a river
bubbling quietly by a bookstore
balking at the lacking sounds
assigning significance
like a programmed robot
“Rivers matter”
a green check pops up
a boost in a video game
acclimating to calm

Why try to make sense of more
than soft music
in a New England bookstore?

Steam is complex enough
and then there is New York City
not stopping
just striving
constantly in flux

Can one stop?
Should one stop?
How much?

…

The grass is not greener
We live on a seesaw
in a spinning universe

within which the formula for gravity exists

and has no impact on
each
delicate
step

Explanations divorce from the tactile
at an astounding rate

Autonomous nerves take over
paddling over wooden floors
centuries in the tilting
floorboards slanting
on recycled air of relativity
of almost understanding

Someone sat there once
brushing her hair and asking
how she looked with her chin
turned this way
when the sun broke
into helio-centrism
a blink in the history of stars
and universe

and here we are
wondering
what makes days
well spent?

I hardly ever am shy
or worry about school
or feel like crying
I hardly ever worry about what others think of me

I am often worried when I go to bed at night
I often feel fed up
I often feel mad
I often feel upset
I often am so angry I feel like throwing things

I almost never worry about what could happen to me

I almost never feel alone
I almost never feel like everything in my life went wrong
I almost never feel lonely
I almost never feel sad
I almost never feel weak

It’s certainly true that I get very angry and often lose my temper

On the whole, I am satisfied with myself
At times, I think I am no good at all

I do not think I am able to do things as well as most other people

I feel I do have much to be proud of
but I do not feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others

All in all, I do not feel that I am a failure

I have a hard time breaking bad habits
I am lazy

When things are going badly for me I almost always see the difficulties as part of life that everyone goes through

I almost always notice when people are upset, even if they don’t say anything

I like to be there for others in times of difficulty

It’s important to recognize that all people have weaknesses and no one’s perfect

Despite my differences with others, I know that everyone feels pain just like me

Many minutes
staring at shelves
Pocahontas in the lake

Mirror, mirror, why do I care
how this hangs?
I am the same

One article off from right
dangling capitalism disappear!

I notice you noticing me sometimes
though you notice others’ something

Sometimes hangs the space
scintillates

Scintillating is simply imagined
not dust particles exposed

it is two subjectivities objectified

It is nothing
it is just a you
just an I

I wonder if you talk to yourself like this
multiple narratives recognized

Recognizing this is not allowed
I will always look down

Down far enough?
Is that why
you don’t look back