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Mike Essig May 2015
Once Only

almost at the equator
almost at the equinox
exactly at midnight
from a ship
the full

moon
                  
in the center of the sky.


                            Sappa Creek near Singapore
                            March 1958
Mike Essig Apr 2015
How Poetry Comes to Me**

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light
Mike Essig Apr 2015
There Are Those Who Love To Get *******

There are those who love to get *****
and fix things.
They drink coffee at dawn,
beer after work,

And those who stay clean,
just appreciate things,
At breakfast they have milk
and juice at night.

There are those who do both,
they drink tea.
What could this mean?
Mike Essig Apr 2015
Riprap*

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles--
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
Riprap- stones placed together to build a primitive road.
Mike Essig Apr 2015
How Poetry Comes To Me**

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light
One of the few Beats I really admire and enjoy. Still going strong.

— The End —