There are
and I keep writing more
and you
whatever

There is
"There is" sounds so solid
declaring existence
so soundly
breaking time

like it was ribbons
on a prize

sinking through this
surface of now

as if

as if turned inside out

is of shaded thinking

is of feel
the almost connection
breeding loneliness

on your neck
is where you feel
missing


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

There is another level
that you do not perceive
where sensibilities beyond yours
register what you do not detect

here at last we find
answers that have eluded us
like just around the corner
flees from our dream pursuit

and i flee from this leaving
of what i have outgrown
or have i out egoed
and its always on Thursday

where the week adds up
not trusting Friday
for keeping it going
we bail and stop

what do i owe you
here in these lines
some explanation of
silliness in time

waves to your passing
time standing in a towel
hands on its hips
waiting for our answer

this is not today
this is not even
foreshadowing
this is a draught

throwing this at you
in your small youth
heart open or corrupt
by soft pain

i don't know
if you learn
if you change
i just write

a step up or down
from passing chunks of dna
passing chunks of
heart

hearts here abandon their day
as hollow leaving them hungry
this is starving this is starving for you
and you starve in another direction

and we all yearn goddamit
elsewhere tilted to do that please
and we  sacrifice
die without

this is left this is right
and the simple
is mystified
and written badly

and i laugh
and i cry
and i left
this moment

looking for assonance
or consonance
or alliteration
or freedom


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

There is a poem
arising on this page
hesitantly

It doesn't know you
or what to festoon itself with
to get your attention

which is worth more
than diamonds

Unsure as to why that is
it unravels itself openly
unreels, uncoils, unfolds
even spills itself further
into this shallow dish
foolishly as always
and impetuous
not careful
or measured
just emptied
out

that's not poetry you say
yea but it works for me
it's not a dance that's refined
I tell the other side of my mind
just another lame attempt
a wannabe first of its kind
mush stuckina digital rind
feelin' this is quite a
fine mess
only /IP
can parcel this

And this author
who does he think
smug now

it's not him
still hidden
tabled here

just letters
spilt wavy like
to see

Hold still a minute
there it is

I've got it
that's it

Right there
feel that?

That's your poetic
lump

That's your poetic
****

The almost clenched
thump

Brought you here
jump

Love the curve of your
****

elstilskin like tale
of taught

naught sought wrought thought
i wish was hot

I am trying to find you
always trying to find
you I am always trying
If I do what will I do
with  you what will I
with you will I be with
you I don't think I can be
with you now that I see
you where you are where
I see you are I cannot be
and yet here I am here I
appeal yes that's it I appeal
to your to your new found
friend that's me your new
foundering finding you while
being here some part of the
whole time I've been somewhat
here looking never thinking
I don't want to find you ever
finding you finding you ever

I am replaying this
in my head

I am preplaying this
in my head

I am a play of this
in my head

I am playing at this
in my head

A play about this
in my head

Plays and plays
playing

Me out
player

The Resher gave
a little here
to me

now

characters aligned
in my story line
to say nothing
artfully

I could empty my freezer
and find you amongst the thawing

still freezing and helping out
the frozen spaghetti and meatballs

stay cool and weather this one out
while you duck salt

These belches
unruly lines
can't say
anything fine
to your
ruly mind

That's fine



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

One more poem to bedtime i say
just one more spluge of me salty
or sweet depending on smoothness
and ruthlessness we all love to be
without ruth and i knew her husband
who was smitten and smiling in her presence

Forgive this reaching this breaching
of etiquette I can't write lines
you cannot smite
i don't care if they are
really there in your eyes
i entered the arena
i threw down my gauntlet
threw up

These new women

Borne here
Of heroes
Now
So extra


Heavy things
Dangerous things

No longer
Threaten breakfast

As does a system
Grown inscrutable

To strength
And dominance

We force
They read labels

Guard breakfast
From the wrong fixing

Or tasting
Bad

Human work
Not beastly

Has risen
Men must listen

Bide
Learn

Deepen
While enjoying

The next
Strength


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

all us bags of ****
blundering about
for a series of years
parts to make parts
parting
partly understood
party on
part
i say
partner

Are crushing me
to a salty sandwich

Are lifting
or dropping

whatever
this is

into
wherever this is

to
whoever

the ****
u r

whenever
u

get around
to reading

this
u

u
u

target
of angst

searcher
for beauty

frustrated.


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Arc
across my view screen

Time's blood molten in their faces
and they are unaware

what circles what
the relative scale

where I'm a peanut butter sandwich
and they're visible light

Try to remember the taste o' PBnJ
on white

That one time you wanted another and
another

So tasty
so powerful


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I keep talkin' out my ***
'bout stuff I don' unnerstan'
'cause I want you to think
I'm cool and lean toward me
smiling something I imagine
all the time and even type
on pretend paper with
pretend margins and a button
performing magic whisking
unthinkably to you

The sipping point has arrived
I am increased and resupplied
in this fortification so languid
and dark and insinuating

Poured into this dress curved
hard by this   unexploded  mine
ther e is no predicate to this awareness
sipping against when

my imagination detonates'sss
again things i've been leave the stage
unattractively so everyo ne knows
I want them to think it was

It's all about the song
gotta forget about me

It's the song
that has to be

It's the song
you came to see

Sought from the source
the sound 'ats you 'n me



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Let me close this distance
'tween you an' I
admit vowels of pain
and loneliness
in waves
of absence
and regret
the urge of time pressing
on my bladder of love

not for your understanding
not for your satisfaction
I dance against that question

this violence of losing
signals
this railroading of yesterdays
rushing around
listening to itself
cry

you want in
don't you
you want to fit
the space given
the gift of here you go
gone for us

remains the ligament
of poetry
stringing me along
hopeless
for you
all for you

I spent the day
in the forest
looking for
mushrooms
that aren't
mushrooms
but will be
if i harvest
and use dark
to nurture
in a curve
of nestle

Has so many solutions
that start with a kiss
Asstrophysics
not withstanding

The time I have elicited
elongates or even
telescopes to this' end

Reaching into the dark
bag of tomorrow
disappears my hand

Could it be on you
forever dismembered
leading a happy second

dancing in neural halls
now imagined in mine
absurdly drawn

The Unanswered line
hangs

forlorn
down

Still
in the water

Rippleless
bait

attracting
concern

Maybe I ought
is said

Thanks I say
It's just

Its
The fishin

not
the catchin

It's
the stillness

Of
the unused

Redly
Left wanting

A hanging
stillness

without
breath

has curled inside
this day

swallowing
my swallowing




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Having quieted one noisy Beast
And letting a long restrained one
Play

Opens emptiness in my mind
Of the inviting kind

Usually
We call this peace

Claim we found it
Twas always herer

Was my noise
Now quieter
I'm fervently claiming

Was my wars
Now distant
I'm no longer blaming

Was me between
Me an' peace
Was is

Peace
After a time
Let's you hear

The universe
Is a chatter box
Abhorring

My shiny new
Vacuum

Look at this
Look at that
Yes

U speaks right through u
To me
Openly

Can't shut the ****** up
We smile
Lines



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

You've got a clef in your note
just there, use your banjo
or guitar to pick it out

you have to scream and then
they say, you have to shout
it's very certain to work it all out

I'm an orphan of endorphin
pharmacologically uncertain
about to dissolve it all out

You see these waves washing up
you see this shore of heart
weathering about everything

you know it wants to sleep
you know it wants to keep
and listening, it turns around

the water, the momentum of ought to
thrown against hard tomorrow
halt is ground out

Is a mix of *******
And blindness

Designed by hope
And fear
Mostly fear

Does that seem
Rude to say

This spindly outreach
trembling for connection
bleeding all the hope
of every lyricist
I really don't know
if I have anything else
than this sing along
than this wring along

Censored

Keep your bag of lies
and artful smiles
Keep your curves and tastes
and shudders sighing
Keep your funny lines
and smokey looks
Keep your ignorance
of your big self
Keep your promises
of delight forgotten
Keep yourself

You keep wanging
**** **** ****
away away at it all
and then stumble back

this beaten earth roils
in red clay sluices
you would have
my gold wouldn't you

shallow traps and gullies
work together to wash
and hold me still
when I would wreak

oh I would wreak
on all of you something
that would leave  you feeling
you'd gotten it

and just wouldn't believe
what you held in your hands
and then I must stop
'cause I don't know

I was just thinking
and then I realized
I should be having ***
instead
still I'm thinking
and typing
and you're reading
this might not  
be ideal

i'm putting together
a professional audience
to review your reaction

'lectrosensing things here
to restore my barriers

i have leaves falling
in the spring
tho it isn't

smoke has been blown
on medical advice
up, up and away

I have tools
to use
on you

intentional ality
had you some
we'd be good

or gud
on my usual day
even guder

i'm backin' up
ready to pull
the lever

can you let this go
asks everything
in you

i have passed on
same same
gud

what empties here
runoff of your sorry
mind or is hat mine
to wear

did you follow me here
not knowing I am
trying to get lost

thinking corners
are like bats
swinging

trying to stay
lost from being
lost from being

I can no longer
fathom the thinking
I used to keep
Twixt I and you

I imagined most of you
and all of me
and I knew
what we thought

I existed in the non existence
of thinking
hard all the time
on guard

I've abandoned thinking
as where I live
just visiting here
over from now

I am thinking
of a poem
I might
write someday
that is so good
you will
love it
and
tell everyone
and then
I will
be happy

Someday I will get all the way here
where the taste on my tongue is you
not some idea not some recognition of you

molecules of you on my tongue savored
in a moment in which you are revered
exalted above all the source the connection

the chemicals made in your pressured maker
spray over me spray over me wetly
i am included I am covered in our stickiness

construct of one earlier none all about sum
*** reaching for belonging  and to be accepted
i and my seed are to be tolerated now

that right there is me that right there see
that right there is not going to get here in time
to prevent to stop to pull to ground this muscle

thumping the ground must just must must
acquiesce to my hand my finger rubbing
another lottery ticked without looking at the result

Here to screech
about water
chiefly
Enigmatic flows
spinning
spiraling
in
as if molecules
were the whole
and I am rained
upon
drained of it
and scratching
give it
some color
red
and we're good

Is this a place to squeal
oh oh oh

Is this a place to feel
oo oo oo

Is the a place to reel
yo yo yo

Is this a place to deal
ah ah ah

Is this a place to admit
I'm broken off
and in a pit

Isn't it

Picture a human
seated at a table
in the background
news plays on a tv
you know the stories
I cannot watch
I cry (sometimes in happiness)
all these loops
there's space
here
too much
flows in
you are not here
no one else is here
I waver
above the background
things crash in me
have no business here
I am their battleground
they believe
if I believe
I believe
they will get old
and die
If only their
shrill beliefs
would
burn with them

I opened the white box
and now must fill it
so I sneeze and say goodnight

You do go on
Have another day
to veer through
while looking
back at nothing
made of the best glue
memories of the
worst you
certain of more
avuncular blue

I need this darkness
to right
I need this darkness
around me
to fight

I need this darkness
to sight
I need this darkness
to become
blight

I need this darkness
alight
I need this darkness
to fall in
light

I need this darkness
I'm tight
I need this darkness
to hide from
sight

forget the
temperature
turn off
the lights

This examination
fearful and determined
will assess the depth
of your efficacy
of folded effort
and patience
Can you within
Ascribed energy and time
Emit to things

Now This California
this is the real one
you can smell nouns
volunteering

Sea of vibe
take me in
spinning thrash
me around

are you
from out
of town?
of course

flinging slow
ideas about
sunshine  
in the dark

This is a bad poem
but it still needs a home
it's one of those
i couldn't leave alone
I typed it in chrome
Do you know Jerome?

I really don't think so
Yes it is
No it isn't
I'm going to public it
Oh please don't, no one's going to laugh
I'm already laughing
I'm hiding
Too late, haha
[smack]
Tha's not funny

I do.

Short and unreconciled
to the ledger
riven, (oh I like that word)
riven with now's salt
I meet you finally
as I have always desired
and you are - no can't use that again
enthralled,  oh ick, enamored
entranced, aenema'd out
with a shout of
***

We endeavor to be clean
or *****
and bleed one-sided
blood

File claims about clams
all shadows and shams

Are you doing anything
right now?

Would you want to