HEAVEN LAKE (35) ~

Nothing But The Truth

She is a little girl

on a rocking-horse

and she will only

allow herself to be

lifted on the horse

if she can hold a

flower, it’s plastic

but she is two years

old so it is a flower

and she is content

with the horse her-

self and the flower

until I tell her her

daddy has jumped

into the pond and

her daddy who is

my son is hidden

by me in the door-

way and is quite

used to madcap

and fun but he

knows to reassure

his little girl that he

is not in the pond

but grandfathers

must say there are

such ponds

Still

Snow in the

Yard into the

Woods even in

The trees but

Under simple

Plank swing

A square

Of grass

Always

There are people who will love you

There are people who will hurt you

You can’t get one without the other

Sometimes it will be the same person

Sometimes it will be you

Close your eyes, it still doesn’t go away

See a river and where and how it goes

Go like that

Memory

we

live

long-

er

than

we

will

live

The Little Things

The axe

Standing on

The floor in

The corner

Is all said

And done

(conclusion)

________________________

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

PAYSAGES PLANETAIRES ~

WAITING FOR THAT GUY ~

MAUD LEWIS ~

Maud Lewis and Everett Lewis outside their home in

Marshalltown, Nova Scotia

Maud Lewis (1903-1970)

(and don't miss this film

starring Sally Hawkins)

SAM PRICE ~

ALEX KATZ ~

May 1996

oil on linen

120" x 240"

TOM MONTAG ~

Don't Say Tree






Don't say tree --

say maple



and locust

and oak. Say



red-breasted

grosbeak and



indigo

bunting. Say



cumulus

and horsetail.



The river

has a name.



Say it. Each

green thing does.



Don't say weed

or flower --



say creeping

charlie. Say



peony.

Say maple



again, oak,

loust, elm,



and jackpine.

say beauty



by its name.



_____________________

Tom Montag
Seventy at Seventy
MWPH Books
2019

SHAMANIC WARRIORS ~

R & R Publishing

Glasgow 

2003

Access Us!

Beauty is not dead

A Vision for the Future

         better not be dead

Romance & Love are not dead

Heart seeking description

Windows of mountains streaming

         resolve & wisdom are not dead

Battered old rattlers

Lovers of old objects

         that created yesterdays

         free of pain

         are not dead

Defiant traditions of straight talk

         on the life & death walk

         are not dead

The great paintings & parties

         in the verses of poets

         beyond language, awe inspiring

         felt in the middle of the body

         ZAUM is not dead

The beauty of folk poetry

         is not dead

Only the past

Only the vacuous langauge of obscurant

         academes writing only to impress

         other poets promoting exclusion

Only the nihilist TV heads

Only the fascist cowards

Only those who want knowledge to be

         private property

         are dead

Access Us!

_________________

Andy Clausen

THE BEAT GENERATION FAQ ~

R E A D     O N

Rich Weidman — if you're listening —

get the poet Janine Pommy Vega, 

traveler, 60s Huncke sidekick

into any revision you make of this fine book.

You missed her. 

Hard to miss.

HEAVEN LAKE ( 34 ) ~

For Ian Hamilton Finlay

______________________________________________________

Hear

oriole by

itself made

the yard

                                            

                         Boy

                                               an airport —

                         on the kitchen table

In

the rain

the geese

                                             Simple

                                                 the canoe

                            does no-

                            thing on

                                          land

___________________

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

WARHOL GIANT SIZE SHRUNK ~

Originally published ten years ago

and now returning in its shrunk size

 at 15 pounds and 624 pages ~

All here but in size

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN ~

ARCHIVE : DEBORAH LOVE ~

R E A D       M E

Random House

1970

THE RETURN OF SAPPHO ~

STANDING BY MY BED



In gold sandals

Dawn that very

moment awoke me









AT NOONTIME



When the earth is

bright with flaming

heat falling straight down



the cricket sets

up a high-pitched

singing in his wings









CYPRIAN, IN MY DREAM



The folds of a purple

kerchief shadowed

your cheeks — the one



Timas one time sent,

a timid gift, all

the way from Phocaea









AWED BY HER SPLENDOR



Stars near the lovely

moon cover their own

bright faces

                       when she

is roundest and lights

earth with her silver









I HAVE HAD NOT ONE WORD FROM HER



Frankly I wish I were dead.

When she left, she wept



a great deal; she said to

me, "This parting must be

endured, Sappho, I go unwillingly."



I said, "Go, and be happy

but remember (you know

well) whom you leave shackled by love



"If you forget me, think

of our gifts to Aphrodite

and all the loveliness that we shared



"all the violet tiaras,

braided rosebuds, dill and

crocus twined around your young neck



"myrrh poured on your head

and on soft mats girls with

all that they most wished for beside them



"while no voices chanted

choruses without ours,

no woodlot bloomed in spring without song. . ."









THANK YOU, M DEAR



You came, and you did

well to come: I needed

you. You have made



love blaze up in

my breast — bless you!

Bless you as often



as the hours have

been endless to me

while you were gone









YOU MAY FORGET BUT



Let me tell you

this: someone in

some future time

will think of us









PAIN PENETRATES



Me drop

by drop









I HEAR THAT ANDROMEDA —



That hayseed in her hay-

seed finery — has put

a torch to your heart



and she without even

the art of lifting her

skirt over her ankles









YOU REMIND ME



Of a very gentle

little girl I once

watched picking flowers









_________________

Sappho
a new translation by
Mary Barnard
Wesleyan 2019

SKINNY PUPPY ~

ELECTRONIC SONATA FOR SOULS LOVED BY NATURE ~