Laughing at oneself
often
so as not to be serious
and get angry
Works better

I can kindle fury
with a thought
I've learned

Or love
It's a choice
it seems

I've always
had


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I woke up
with this girl
on my mind

This ridiculous
pearl
on my mind

I'll see her
tonight
Is so bright

My day seems
dim
& thin

In this sandwich
of hope
& light

I can win
in my own mind
or out there
oh that's too hard

I  am nower
now aren't I
and you and
you too you're
nower now too
aren't you aren't
you too you know
you are don't you

kn yall tell
ah need
sum compny

Thinking hard about what these lines lack
Music, clarity, accessibility

Something has to sing
Something has to let go

Do I burrow into your skull?
Do I let you go?
Do I release you?

What do we need release from?

You are released from all
and this is your moment

How fast did you
abandon your moment?

Can u slow down
to speed up?

Lines boiled from conversations
you weren't in

Smoked signals
stumbling down the page

Net of nothing
catching everything

I'm just putting
bones here

Cleant by fear

More
I hear
is needed

Fairly
Sometimes my bony things are of hope and humor

the best
just smiley enuf

I'll work
on singing

And dancing
See what happens then

to these
spare lines



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Oh these hands lurching
toward you
through

Look at them splayed
un mirrored halfs
almost tremble

keyboards so lettered
pose frozen as if
then was now

stepping
run
on

take this noun
tis yours
landing

Is the business
I am in

Maybe
we poets

are in
careful

detonation
of experience

shards of which
we cherish

in rhythm
and rhyme

carving
hearts

from pumpkin
parts

of me
and you

seeds
candles

blade
freeform or pattern

go on
i am

carved
in time

lifted over
myself

i run
to you

in panic
read me

out
of this

protectorate
of strings



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Large size people
not physically
are showing up
everywhere

I am not as small
as I once was
and I see things
I never saw

and of course
they were always
here
somedadamnhow

you just looked my way
and I saw you in there
smile and then opalesce
into eyes just like mine

being here falling here
falling in love falling
all the time being here
a somersault with you

According to uncertainty
If I find myself
I can't know
where I'm going

If I know
where I'm going
I don't know
where I am

No wonder
knowing
where I was
feels solid

delimited by
delusions
other then
now here

hooks into
this moment
is endless

I've packed a few things
and moved out of my mind

Most everything I am
I saluted and left behind

I threw the key on the floor
and backed out the door

There is not a chance
I'm coming back anymore

I'll forget those falling stacks
of waxy old thought

and lose my high and mighty opinions
so prime and all worth naught

Naught is insufficient I think
to describe their value fair

that i proudly shaped so sharp
to cut you deep fair and square

it seemed about time
i moved out of there

Water thinks I'm late
to its swallowing
so I rush leaving

wetness fending
off the masquerade
of my dryness

finger licking
yes I'm thinking
you're shrieking

O I had a feeling
about you
crinkles it's nose

Self-organized star dust
pours coffee
asks will there be anything
else

Would this look in my face
explain to anyone
no
is hard radiation

Radiance
we are shapes of
teases existence
to superposition

my coffee I tip the mug
is gone and not
I need more
and don't

When you see
Destiny smile
in that light you know
Of which you sustain

Even the rain
is made of sunshine
and today is hot
and wanting

A clear round
wobbly trivet
on the way
to having a depression
about happiness
awaits the saucy spoon
oh i swoon
please visit me
this afternoon

The days are boiling down
aren't they
or are they?

Your shield is in place
neck hunch
I don't know?

I come b"??*?"ing time
moments
all crated hot

And I hold back stuff
no trust
scalding u

You read that wrong
I think
looking out

When you leave
I curl up to be
a hateful thing
If you don't
come back here
it isn't a leaving

When you finish
you should
clean up
right

Is this a poem
if I just leave it
be
and not alone

Some past
Some little thing
Some haunting recollection

fills the need
the fear needing

the fear needing
a name

just before
*******
erupts

from deep
as if u knew
what 2 fight

what 2
******* bite
will leave

u alone now
right
no

Please
don't
leave

I can hear
the next universe
singing
It is all
I can hear
some days
and I know
I am a note
in a cycle
to there
skint of
time

Attended the funeral
of my best friend today

Life goes out inexplicably
leaving confusion behind

and carries on against me
against my heart against

my breathing without
desperation as if I could be

not desperate to see you
not desperate to know

some **** thing any
**** thing other than

the end of the good part
breathes on me
smelling of work
and reward

hammers and tongs
quieting and
extracting
a new man

scattered applause
polite and
exacting
its revenge

I liked myself
right up to then
arc welding
with a pen

cut against
this pattern
and bagged
as scraps

Legend in a chair
celebrating
here's to
th at thing i did

toast reaching
to get out of
the toaster

lift me out
butter me
tell me
I'm tasty

These things
don't end
aside from
a s i de hidden

you can't see
what I'm doing to me
unread        an'
unknown

still the best
and only
ambulatory fool
i've to drive

I'm aching
To make sense
This binge-ing
on now here
Day after day
Oxygen fueled
Cooked atp 'n me
I'm just spent
not even sure
wisely matters
as life wins
from every
direction
Not saying
I lose
Sayin' life
Makes relentless
look weak

I don't see me
in this mix
of women
wives and
daughters
and
...


I can't find me
in this pile
of ...

I have questions
regarding
your hearts

I don't understand
how you can resist
falling sweetly

I think you
seek
the same

I am free
of sandwiches
of hope

Media is us
news is
to taste
may I
offer you
my insistence
take and shove
seem handy
now
and you're
on the other side
of my lens
so

I've had people take offense
to my face
Been dismissed instantly
on a glance

Rendered in that view
not even
Felt the dearly the assessment of
no value

My eyes know to pass it on
overlook you
Separate you into category
Nothing there

It appears communicable
nose in air
Stemming from simplicity of u
don't luv u

Something less turbulent
grows here now

Catches me fishing
wetness

And lightness
from your unforeseen depth

See emptiness
as a place readied

and each poem
read or written

re-lights
us

Chuff against
the darkness

you hold so tightly
it fades

just these words
don't

Are a ****
Turn us



Copyright@2018

let me dance
this way and that
reach up
thumb the tip of my hat
to you

Let's find some words this morning
that will change the world

You know you have them
Right on the tip of your tongue

Scarring your fingertips
Struggling from your veins

And I need them
Now

And more
tomorrow

To fill this rapacious starving ever advancing expanding bottomless endless seemingly infinite
need

To read them and have them change me
while I fight them to the letter

While I write them to be better
In my ear

Where R the right next words
Already

I am hungry
this morning

Roasted vowels
Spicy alliteration

In round sound
Hash

Heartbreak and balderdash
Head break, cutting, musing
And death

And love
That thorny ***** thing

All singing
and swallowed
sigh

Sustained for a while
In the numbscape

I'll
Be back



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Let's go home now
Its where I need to be
Some magnet
In my pants
Pulls me there
anonce
I am riven
with tomorrow
salt  and vinegar
Kettle chips crunch
Who's bidet who's pillow
invites color and need
pages of straight up
need and desire and
hunger tempered by
tired of this
tired of that


This space falling flat
In challenge


While levels disembark
into gray and and cool
glistening
blocks of whatever
I rain
in case
I taste


Hang on what's that
art on a pillow
that picadillo
that
THAT
that impossible
human
cannot be

Let's speak to this life
who's heart is not
at peace

These results
are stark
I think

Or

I can't see
beyond
my event horizon

There are just
no events
of note

Wait
retract that sorry fckr
rite there

there was
that night
with her

oh y eah
he thinks
again

so i am simple
an' bottemless
u?


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I'm carrying intent
in a relay

Thru serpentine
now

Curvilinear
answers

to The Daily
Question

This cold air
a collection
of *******

This draft
this delicious draught
scrambling cold
over my knees
ooooh
please
this doesn't
nope, this doesn't
anything
in defeat
in callous time
between
bread of science

I am robed
costumed
in gadgets
bed bugs
and
disarray

do wonder
with me

do you
gulp
sauce of
**** that
r u chosen
to die
bur-ring
it

I arrived Thursday
stayed to mahself

Bought pen & paper
and wine

This is that
distant day
where you'll
be finally
nothing stops
less I hit pause

i should be shouting
should i be shouting
what am i shouting
why am i

to shout
about
what
i just should be shouting

something just what thing
not this thing surely
but something that has
that ring thing

that ring thing i seek thing
i've only a dull detection
but its enough for addiction
as in there is not enough

in the recoil of these keys
as feedback
to the pressing of lettered
darkness

a pressing of time tight
as a frightened night
lived again still
wanting death

Oh god the ***
is so confusing
is so delicious
is so confounding

No wonder
the politicians
and religious
grabbed hold

What if I trusted you
I asked myself
and not my fear
or my idea
of you

Can you be
trusted
if I tell you
my truth?

Or will you
snigger or
opine
on mine

Wher e is
that line
I can never
fine
I'll return

There's this level of buzz
where the editor just crashes
and I am left hehe hehe

I hate my narrowing mind
its assertive exclusions
and your apparent distastefulness

I'm sure you resemble the outside
of something turned inside out
try not to take this hatred personal

I certainly don't mean anything by this
as I work to rectify the universe's mistakes
with thermonuclear blank verse

Someday, I imagine, I will be
discovered
beneath rubble or in
magma

Someday, I imagine, I will be
discovered
skin suddenly in light, eyes tortured
and hungry

and there is this conciliation
of noxiousness

occurrent with definition
can you feel accurate

I approximately am not
being truthful nearby

whilst you time out as open
to this lid on danger being in place

were this an actual explosion
our bits would be scattered

This is the feeling
of drunk and alone
do you know it?

Is it a song
against
my lips

smearing meaning
on any
face

not here
not available
not mine

yours
yours?
where are u

reading
weakest
of things

next to
believing
time's tales


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Exciting
and pretty
near
useless


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

These hands
passed from my father
now dead
passed from my mother
now dead
passed to my daughters
both living
grip this time
like a woman's ***

Life and now
are slippery fucs

Lots of spinning plates
on a moving vehicle
being rebuilt
on a road under construction
in new land
and it's foggy
or i am

entirely certain
about this
line
and above it
then

now you catch up
to what happened
r u there now
or here

lively lines in light and electrons
actually fucin connecting us
you and me
a web between
two nows

entangled
where this poem
doesn't exist and can't be seen
is kept, i hope, well there

my clouded heart
3D evaporated moments
careening through routers
band with singing
cross talk
traction on earth's magnetic field

inhale the solar wind
it's sound driven heat
a note from home


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

What do you have on
as you read this
what is around you
is there a smell
can you hear music
or any other aural influence
Are you comfortable
Healthy
Alone in a dwelling
or trying to be
Supposed to be
Or even being paid
to do something else
or giddily dying
(of course you are)
as you read
this time into
oblivion

yeah

Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Life hacks this stoney universe
with belonging

Old paths claim our steps
as their caresses

Step upon me with meaning
I'll get you there

Scars of pleasure unseen
leave carved knitting

Knots of time

in some future gloom
to be rubbed by whom



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Everything at your age is Magic and horror
Everything at my age is Horror and magic
or perhaps I have that backwards
I drool to be your compadre
in awkward discovery
of skin and within
and without

leave this
space open for lack
of reason and treasonous
impulses gouging in to sheets
of future expansion into some now
your smile comes and goes often down
get your thoughts lined up and shot through

The violent one in me
is swinging fist down
with force
I'm clenched
almost rigid
in muscle reaction
to this desire
to do harm
to someone
bad
Are you bad?

No one seems
to admit to this
so i'm backed up
my  eyes darting about
there should be someone
bad about
shouldn't there
be someone
to fill that role
I need

I am not big enough
I think after reading
top poems here
authors so big
they see the stars
as if they were
space itself
so small
and bright

I was orchestrating a time
I was plagiarizing
a rhyme
I was fumbling about
as you can no doubt
corruscate me out