xxxxx - take care

xxxxx

it sings because the middle is an end and end beginning new

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take care and

don’t take something unless you know the place for it

the world speaks in degrees of appropriateness

such that, a thing in its place

isn’t proper unless it’s true

attention reveals itself in the shape of thoughts

and thoughts formed in subjects discerned

in this, to each person the world speaks in worlds

calling through promises in the thoughts and things about us

the world speaks in degrees of appropriateness

we hope you will know by the whispers within you

take care

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the products of reason belong to no one.

possessing, through the illusion of their possession,

the possessed become consumed with their consumptions.

and injustice is freed where mercy risks the surety of giving

in the form of credit that give the world its shape,

and shape it to its reasons.

xxxx - red maple

xxxx

transformations more numerous than becomings

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in front the back window which beyond

the older the house the more certain

you’d be standing in

a kitchen looking towards out

a yard and garden

is a maple named red which captures

nothing of its essence

erupting phantom crimson soul

would be insufficient if

you were one who ever watched a maple red

dance among the chore clean bubbles cutting by a kitchen window

past where floating soul unbridled

we marched yard out to turn our dripping hands

from knives to saws

pruning puckers hands

makes turds from fruits

and is the word we use to cut away the parts that we dislike

like the wild hair of faces

or the wild youth in streets

or folk living solely in the wilds of our city

we prove we are civilized by the way we shape our sights

marched i and jon and uncle rick

to open up the yard

so the sun could bleed in

my maple red had done

its reaching much too low

do not fly too low says daedalus to his son

or the earth will pull you down

to the water, trees and stones

who taught us our invention

do not abide our own

so marched we out to lop a limb

which is as simple as a thought

and incredible as a task

novice and ambitious is a recipe for

failure, destruction, learning, creativity

and the laughter of our mortal nerves when our souls realize we’re near to die

so i can’t recall laughing harder than when maple red precipitated ricky from its bough

and his body scrambled with wild frantic

caught a rope to fuck oh my god down

i discovered then an inside war in the jumble of our oh fuck fumble

of our lungs that move as if through an inside understanding of the outside air

minds move only when they are struck

so such a mix of blows cascaded on the anvil of my skull

reluctance to severe red’s swaying elegant bough

fear to witness my uncle become a crippled mass

and the hidden complexity of simple stupidity

there are butterflies in the up of trees i’ve never seen in the down

as shocking small as autumn colors in the height of summer

when a leaf gives in to drought and gives itself to fall for others

if it wasn’t for what needed be we’d be

a bother if we were brilliant before it’s time

save we glow to pause a drifting moment in the warmth upon the day

who could we say is ready

to be reminded of the cold

so much easier the thought when lifted with exuberance

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paint is a cast made of the painter’s movements, a portrait of the painter’s body and thoughts. … painting is an unspoken and largely unrecognized dialogue… paint is water and stone, and it is also liquid thought.

James Elkins

xxxv - the mantis and the monarch

xxxv

tetrahedral pentatope

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in the spring of my hopelessness i planted a garden

planting hope to dance my eye with bee or butterfly

and why i don’t know why why should

reasons confound as much they answer

and seasons sometimes turn without we notice turning

it’s better to plant when falls the fall

but no one likes to start

beginning towards the bottom

(even if that’s where your head is headed)

waistbent guise spies’ flowers of eyes

recalled myself a whelpling pup my brood conveyed a prayer

for the mantis pray she stay

(as her kind had grown so rare)

a careful seed then planted there

and seems to’ve grown a sad garden

where hope hoped for the traveler’s respite

from the motions and the paths and the seasons of hearts out of heights

(because we gain with our give) accursed or alight

little did we know that green nun was a shadow in the home safe night

exotic and terrifying poise

flew from her home to nunnery a garden

and stalks an invader would

plainly

hiding sundrenched flowers sway

dance deadly deception

you mightn’t know if she was watching

(and you wouldn’t if you didn’t look to know)

spell caught charisma

while we joyed our eyes

our flutter orange bird

at the time, there it was in my sad sunny garden

and was the only one

(i’d hoped a pair, as his kind had grown so rare)

popping out from plant to plant to bubble in a lonely glass of celebration

had learned to leap in seasons

far from here to just now there

each stride a step

each step a stride with reasons

springs summer’s height to winter’s fall

we change to meet our changing

(and such a transformation undertaken!

turns house a home and turning)

spirit suggesting something bigger than a butterfly

like the shifting of a weathered day

he was a lunging tiger burst floats auburn autumn showers

wondrous as wonderful and regal as repose

so many once there was they draped themselves

a shimmering garment tree proud grove

flickering waves a star shone giant

who being so strong had killed to prove it could

and so often done it wore its death with the grace of should

at times i think there would be no tragedy without beauty

the monarchs are mostly gone

we’d named their home a weed

(a word for that you’d rather do without)

and proved the world is made of things imagined

(because imagining without we do, we do without)

so glad my story i was i watched my flurry visitor

light about its unwanted flower home and brood

perhaps the world is a beautiful place

sometimes it feels like we could say for right

there are rhythms we can feel

there are rhythms in our flight

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i lost some time once, its always in the last place you look for it.

Neil Gainman