ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS

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  keyword(s) in poems:

Sequence: 3

BE DIGITAL
and believe what falls between your fingers...


DAYLIGHT FARM SUPPLY
wet lawns along the river...


ASKING FOR HELP
the one I want...


BYE BYE
to be commanded to sit down...


HEAVEN AND HELL
Understand me: I was the boy...


MY FACE IN THE MIRROR
what have you done...


MESSAGE
there is a line...


ALERT
televangelists and...


ANNOUNCEMENT
the modern boat is sinking!...


NO MISTAKES
understand me: I am the musician...


FINDING
my eyes if I should lose them...


LOVE POEM
sh! the poet is sleeping...


AFTER
the crowd without its beggar...


AGAINST IMMORTALITY
I don't want to live forever...


ADJUST
At last the flow of water has changed:...


PROTESTANT MEMORY
to keep myself from crying...


DOWNPOUR
the cats come in...


RELIGIOUS SCENE
on the wall of the steakhouse...


ON MY CARPET
he calls it his...


APPEAL
your honors...


SONG OF CONFESSION
my heart a poisoned well...


DRIVING
the black femur...


INTERSECTION
the corner of lost memory...


FIRST COLD DAY
in the back yard...


THEFT OF A LINE FROM SIMIC
dark night...


EXAMINATION
reading the heart's...


ABSURD
to say...


NEVER COMPLETE
bowing like a long-necked bird...


AS HE SHIFTS THEM
In the back pew of...


untitled
this poetry...


END OF THE EIGHTIES
the story takes...


12/31/91
outside in...


IN A CAR
we're in California...


MORNING INCIDENT
Getting up to let the cat in I felt myself growing weak,...


untitled
you wiped out...


4/3/92
a dream...


FAILING TO RECOGNIZE
even as it occurred...


ROCK PAINTING
the dance I did...


REFUSING TO UNDERSTAND
what comes from the dog's mouth...


NIGHTWORK
the secret government...


ODE TO THE FRIENDS OF POETRY
the friends of poetry...


LOCATION
rights and privileges...


SENSE OF AN ENDING
the last breath I...

WHILE WAITING FOR THE TEST RESULTS

you can play solitaire
you can check your email or text someone
you can post the update "I am waiting for my test results"
you can listen to the music
in a more than superficial way
to discover if listening deeply makes the music deep
you can put on competing music to see what that's like

periodically you are praised for your patience
but remember that patience like any virtue
must be exercised to be strong
practice your patience till it is in every breath

while waiting for your test results
you can fry an egg but be careful
not only with your hands but with your attention
so that if the voice in your ear
goes live you do not ruin the egg through inattention

you can read a book or as we say now a text
for the thing itself can be presented in many forms
but each manifestation is presumed to be
the same in essence as any other
so we need one word to refer to any manifestation of the thing
remember if this is what you choose to do while waiting
it is better to think of yourself as reading a text

also remember while waiting
that any test result is only a picture of a moment in time
the metaphor we used to use was "snapshot"
you could do better on a later test or worse
and you should think of your results as a guide
to your choices about future behavior 
or opportunities or disasters
not as a definition of who you are or what chance you have
they do not confine you to only one future
but they are your results after all
they belong to no one else
they can't be taken from you
once they are given to you after a period of waiting