don't feel sorry for me.
I am a competent,
satisfied human being.

be sorry for the others
who
fidget
complain

who
constantly
rearrange their
lives
like
furniture.

juggling mates
and
attitudes

their
confusion is
constant

and it will
touch
whoever they
deal with.

beware of them:
one of their
key words is
"love."

and beware those who
only take
instructions from their
God

for they have
failed completely to live their own
lives.

don't feel sorry for me
because I am alone

for even
at the most terrible
moments
humor
is my
companion.

I am a dog walking
backwards

I am a broken
banjo

I am a telephone wire
strung up in
Toledo, Ohio

I am a man
eating a meal
this night
in the month of
September.

put your sympathy
aside.
they say
water held up
Christ:
to come
through
you better be
nearly as
lucky.

winters's waning again
inspiration eludes me still
much more elusive
than this time last year
it's time to get up again
wake up and smell the coming
the coming of life, of love, of spring
a new beginning
a new start of the old, perhaps
time to reach out and grasp
that which is just out of reach
instead of sitting idly, watching
as the coming goes
and the present passes
the past engulfs everything
time slows for no one

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

Oh piteous duality of man
A mind that breathes a contented sigh at the beauty it once held
Is a heart that cries a lonely tear soaked in passion that cannot be dispelled

In this moment
I want for nothing but the warmth of her skin under my calloused hand
I burn for her in a cold bed with a heart singed by love’s fiery brand

i remember that first night

how desperately you craved
to feel my lips against yours.

how worried you were when i refrained
from surrendering to your deep inhalations.

thoughts of uncertainty clouded your confidence
while your sense of comfort waned and ebbed
as my will held like a cliffside
against the ocean of your lust.

let me calm your worried mind now darling

it was not for lack of desire
that i held my lips pursed.

it was not detachment
that held my hands shy
of a passionate embrace.

i was lost in the shear comfort
of your presence.

your warm hands on my chest
felt as though they had been there
my whole life.

the weight of your leg across my hips,
so familiar that i was left confused by
the brevity of our acquaintance compared
to the depth i could see so clearly
in your glistening eyes.

it was in adoration for this precious moment that
i held myself satiated.

it was this same feeling that held me in fear
that our first kiss would not be the
electric explosion of beginnings
that we would hope to fuel our infatuation,

but that you would feel dissatisfied by the same ease
and placidity i felt.

i kissed you
in that way i felt i had for years and
with that practiced knowing hand
i pulled your lips in close.

they sang a story so old and meaningful
that i found a joy akin to returning home.
...
and since then

every moment shared,
every touch experienced,
every kiss given and
every kiss received
is a small unravelling of a truth that
i had long since forgotten:
that home is where the heart is.
...
and you have mine

Lying lonely in a hotel room in Charlotte
I'm listening to James Taylor like you said you'd never do
And if I could I'd curse you, calling you a heartbreak or a harlot
But as we both know, simply not a word of it is true. 

I start to wonder what you're doing at this very instant
Back in California, Golden State of emergency. 
Are you smiling at an endless sunset
As you dream of happy endings that I'll never even see?

You press your lips against another's and still I never cross your mind. 
I drag my disembodied heart along rock bottom's floor
As you experience your highest highs, sitting blissfully at his side
And wistfully I'm singing, "Hard times, come again no more..."