A Longhouse Birdhouse

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

SOME TOM RAWORTH ~

NOT A STEP DO I STIR UNTIL THAT CAT'S
BACK TO ITS COLOUR

civilization was pushing around aging molecules saying

"lovely . . . a new patch of lung" and "aching doesn't thank"

when a sunbeam hit my son, throwing his tiny full colour reflection

onto the centre of the flickering black and white screen

CAP

pattern outside my head

speak to me

signaller of the word-commune

i was not aware

one lonely word outside

could call itself 'snap'

.

every question you ask presupposes

an alternative universe

FROM TIME TO TIME IN THE PAST

tree lets me hear the wind

over there where it is

i won't believe this is all there is

(the interest on eternity)

'it is' squeaks my voice

.

you have to learn

you can not teach

.

i can not prove a second ago

to my own satisfaction

.

speak my language

dog

.

a turtle

a fine line

a turtle

.

if they do

what you think

it's as boring

as you thought

.

i put it

there

and it's still

there

.

moon breathe

.

slowly

through the

snow they

go

.

slavery

what

we

have

words

for

.

remember

no time

when i wasn't

SLEEP, PERCH

each clearing of the brain

needs nothing to be clear again

i don't want to listen to the same

i don't get it better twice

starve the nation

out of stagnation

wandering the earth

a civil war ahead of the traffic

______________________

Tom Raworth
Tottering State
selected and new poems 1963-1983
The Figures, 1984

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

BILL WITHERUP ~

__________________________

I found this letter in a recent pick-up of Poetry

magazine, free, a fistful, from 2006-7

and I read each issue cover to cover

and the best I found in the issues

wasn't the poetry (Bill is correct)

although a fine essay on translating

by Michael Hofmann was there

and this letter by Bill

who is now gone but not

to those who knew him.

Monday, May 6, 2019

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

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

Sunday, May 5, 2019

YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA ~

PRINCE, MOTHERLESS ~

Saturday, May 4, 2019

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

Friday, May 3, 2019

NEW! LOUISE LANDES LEVI ~

________________________

$10

postpaid

in the U.S.

payable by Paypal

by using our email:

poetry@sover.net

or contact us at ~

Longhouse

P.O. Box 2454

West Brattleboro

Vermont

05303

photo ~ Louise in Tokyo 2019 with her scroll poem

Thursday, May 2, 2019

JOHN CAGE ~

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

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