what you should know to be a poet


yuko shimizu 

 

all you

can know about animals

as persons. the names of trees and flowers

and weeds. the names of stars and the movements

of planets and the moon. your own six senses,

with  a watchful elegant mind. at least

one kind of traditional magic:

divination, astrology, the

book of changes,

the tarot;

 

dreams.

the illusory demons

and the illusory shining gods.

kiss the ass of the devil and eat shit;

fuck his horny barbed cock, fuck

the hag, and all the celestial

angels and maidens

perfum’d and

golden– 

 

& then

love the human:

wives husbands and friends

children’s games, comic books, bubble-gum,

the weirdness of television and advertising.

work long, dry hours of dull work

swallowed and accepted and

lived with and finally

lovd. exhaustion, 

hunger,

rest.

 

the wild

freedom of the dance, extasy

silent solitary illumination, entasy

real danger. gambles and

the edge of

death.

 

Gary Snyder

 

what do I give?

wooden bridge

 

On

a way that

wasn’t a way I came

to a makeshift bridge of rotten

planks. I looked in my sack. There was

not even a cowry shell. What

shall I give to get

across?

 

I

went a way

that wasn’t a way. On the

dangerous embankment of my mind

I looked in my sack but could not

find the Name of God. What

do I give to get

across?

 

Lalla

 

enlightenment is a bitch

MOON GOAL
 

At first

it isn’t so bad —

a taste of ecstasy, the world

covered in honey. Even snails scrawl

the names of buddhas with

their silvery

trails.

 

But then,

too much. Pears become

unbearable, wet white flesh so tender

one could perish contemplating

the first taste.

 

Meditation

becomes oddly redundant,

attention now like water, absorbed in tree root, 

plumbing; even fire hydrants with their red 

stubby arms become mandalas, and,

worse, the police siren revving its

wail behind my slow-moving

car sounds like a

mantra.

 

Even my

wife’s complaints about me

finally sound true. I just bow.

Kiss her slender hands.

Carry the garbage

outside, but,

damn! The

moon!

 

Dane Cervine