HEAVEN LAKE ( 32 ) ~

photo ~ Jerome Delay

Sick Days

Middle of winter

I knock a bug to the carpet —

what is a bug doing here at

my lamp this time of year?

for the longest time

I have been watching it slow-

ly upright itself on the

heavy weave of carpet as

if it were me —

I can’t stop watching

A Moment In The West

Fairly pretty

In a pale violet

Long skirt, white

Blouse, black hair

Sells me one very blue

Iris from a thick

Bunch in a plastic

Pail, wraps it with paper

And blue string

Then smiles at

Susan who I

Hand it to —

Who takes me

Out and shows

Me more of

Santa Barbara

Our Life

You

&

me

&

then

some

You

The woodpile I stacked in the woods

Is precisely as I left it one month ago

Where I dropped the cherry tree

Bucked it up, split it, stacked it

It was left to the sun, rain, gloom

Harmless showers, longer nights

And if I’m a nice guy

I’ll cover the woodpile

Before it snows

It’s all up to me

___________________

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA ~

PRINCE, MOTHERLESS ~

SHANE McCRAE ~

Everything I Know
About Blackness I Learned
From Donald Trump


"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an
amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice."
                            
                                  — DONALD TRUMP






America I was driving when I heard you

Had died I swerved into a ditch and wept

In the dream I dreamed unconscious in the ditch



America      I dreamed you climbed from the ditch

You must believe your body is and any

Body and stood beside the ditch for eight years



Thinking       except you didn't stand you right

Away lay down on your pale belly

And tried to claw your way back to the ditch



You right away began to wail       and weep

And gnash your teeth       my tears met yours in the ditch

America       they carry me downstream



A slave on the run from you       as Egyptian queen

And even in my dreams I'm in your dreams





_________________________

Shane McCrae
The Gilded Auction Block
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2019

NEW! LOUISE LANDES LEVI ~

________________________

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       or contact us at ~

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      P.O. Box 2454

      West Brattleboro

      Vermont

       05303

photo ~ Louise in Tokyo 2019 with her scroll poem

JOHN CAGE ~

WHAT? ~

KO UN

BABY



Before you were born

before your dad

before your mom



your burbling

                           was there.






WALKING DOWN A MOUNTAIN



Looking back

      Hey!

There's no trace of the mountain I've just come down

Where am I?

The autumn breeze tosses and turns lifeless

       like a cast-off snakeskin.






BROAD DAYLIGHT



A dry turd

with no flies around.



Is this paradise?  No.







A FRIEND



Hey! With the clay you dug out

I fashioned a buddha.

It rained.

The buddha turned back into clay.



Pointless as the clear skies after rain.







THE WASH



The wash flaps, a bodhisattva not

knowing it's a bodhisattva.







ONE DAY



Lightning over the hill in front

thunder over the hill behind

between the two

       one dumb pebble.







IN DAYLIGHT



After the rain, the waters rose everywhere.

Twelve no thirfourfifsixteen swallows

are soaring high.







WIND



A wind stirs.

Ah, this world, that world.







HOUSE



Grow high. The devil can't find you.

Grow deep. Buddha can't find you

Build a house and live there.

Gourd creepers will climb over it,

their flowers dazzling at midnight.







LATE ONE NIGHT



Late one night a fox changes its shape

and slips into your room as a pretty girl:

       what will you do?



Don't be stupid. I'll grab her.



Ha, ha, you fox's husband, you.

A fox is more fun than Buddha, of course.



         You bet.







THE POLE STAR



If you vanished

the north would vanish

the south would vanish

east and west would vanish.

        No.







PARTING



Farewell.

Fare well.









________________________

Ko Un
108 Zen Poms
What

PETE TALKS WOODY ~

HEAVEN LAKE ( 31 ) ~

photo ~ Graham Leese

When

When the cat

doesn’t get

its way

it does

what none of

us have yet

learned

to

do

it

goes back

to the

couch

curls up

shuts up

I’ll Never Be Poor

How she does it

I don’t know

don’t want

to know

will never

know as

she turns to me and

it’s new all over again

Question

How alone are you?

In your sweet

Baby’s arms

Not Least

A night after

the meteor shower

of the century

wrapped in blankets

we counted shooting stars until

we lost count

though it was a lone star

the next night spearing

the woods darkness

as if a late comer —

that seemed to

count the most

___________________

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

TANGERINE DREAM ~

LAURIE ANDERSON ~

THE AMAZING JAN MORRIS ~

Morris is 92 and walks carefully, with the help of a cane. She has lived in this corner of North Wales — a 3-plus hour train ride from London, and then another 45 minutes by car — for most of her life.

As a journalist, Morris was embedded with Edmund Hillary's Everest team in 1953. "It altered my life so much. Now I'm the only surviving member of the expedition, and I miss them all," said Morris, pictured congratulating Hillary after the ascent.CreditGeorge Lowe/Royal Geographical Society, via Getty Images

J A N     M O R R I S

HONDO ~

J O H N      H A V L I C E K

MOONSHAKE (CAN) ~

EDGAR VARESE ~