ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS

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  keyword(s) in poems:

Sequence: 10

FRESH START
the author of many leaves...


I ASK YOU
what I am about to do and what...


untitled
The work defines itself, pulls itself...


LARRY MILLER
when you call back there to order the flowers...


ADDENDUM TO LARRY MILLER
punched him in the stomach once...


MY FORTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY
the balance point between years...


THE DROUGHT
if the drought means anything we haven't been told...


I SPEND
hours alone with my books...


SO FAR AS I CAN
the trees at night stretch out...


ANGEL MOUND
stone spades hammers awls...


untitled
sleep drunk from a glass of sleep...


EAST
East, innocence, enormous, a blush over half the sky. Now that...


WHAT IS FUCKED UP ABOUT THIS
is a question that can be answered...


CAN'T STOP TALKING
sat so still you noticed...


SETTLEMENT
1....


PAUSE ON THE ROAD IN CUMBERLAND GAP TENNESSEE
It was speed, the technology of rapidity, that made the nation pos-...


ON THE STAIRS IN THE DARK
it is late to be starting again...


THREE SLEEPS
a sleep that wanders...


WINTER PRAISES
of abandoned nests...


untitled
what will always be true?...


KEEPING AT IT
I recite the alphabet in the traditional way...


TALKING TO THE STONES
I am living before you dissolve...


NOT LAMENTING
a lament I am forbidden to speak...


A:
I think it's that I always had the feeling that what is really true,...


HAVE COME HERE
even when I'm late...


THE DAY AFTER THE DAY AFTER
a place in the paperwork...


7/25/00
beetles crushed between my fingers...


MY CURRENT MOOD
certain observations have broken their heads...


STILL
making no effort if I can...


GOLDFINCH ON A WIRE
black line in his feet...


SUMMER PRAISES
the ground-filling rain...


LISTENING TO
the music that keeps me up late...


THE STONE BOAT
that sled of thick oak planks...


DISAPPOINTMENT
under the shade of the words I wrote...


AUGUST
the fields with their fine catch...


AT THE ENCORE CAFE
with your roast potatoes...


WANDERING POEM
on the road...


MY VACANCY
the old hours come back...


untitled
I protest...


8/3/01
when I go inside...


ONE MOTION
swifts of the city come and go...


THE YEAR OF MY ABSENCE
a number of stones under my feet...


REFUSAL
I am awake now...


11/26/01
in the dark before dawn the stars...


WINTER GENESIS I
mornings on this stone seat...


WINTER GENESIS II
under cold tree branches stacked stones outline...

YOUTH OF AMERICA


sex now is not the sex it was
in my time sex was held like a day-late event
some of the people who might not have been there
were able to attend
others who wanted to come couldn't

there was a shore
with only a slim strip of sand
a wider belt of green leading up to a stone platform
where the cows were tethered

the clothes we wore didn't flatter us
and what we said was frankly stupid

sex was a boat tied up at the dock of sanity
there was a picnic lunch in it
but the picnic had been cancelled days before
and the lunch was no good

sex had an old dog
I remember this clearly
an old dog who could pick up pennies with his teeth
we liked that part especially
tossing pennies in front of that old dog

the sex of other people
was different but complementary
like two halves of a zipper we always said

in those days we always had sex
instead of a haircut because the barber was lovely

there we were in front of the TV
this was early TV mind you
and sex walked into the room sat down at the piano
and began banging out some damn boogie woogie thing
we had to ask it to shut up
the TV was on

where was I
oh yes youth of America
you don't know real sex
sex as it was before you were born
er maybe as it was that caused you to be born
anyway sex was sex was sex was sex was
sex

so if you think you don't have to be grateful
to me or anybody like me
just remember gas was cheap then
we went for a drive
wound up stopping someplace for a hamburger
so I forgot all about you
am I not allowed to forget