April 1
MY FAVOURITE POET
My favourite poet
Is Seamus Heaney
But if he is not available
I will take Andrew Motion.
April 2
The alternative to
A bad dream of
Work is to
Be on one's
Back in heavenly
Splendour
I have
Eaten too much
To think clearly
Although it is
Really grey today
I see clearly
How morning exercise
Is only of
Real benefit when
One's mind is
Clean and healthy
April 3
All the words in this little book can be erased with one swish of your tail.
You don't know the power you have over me.
April 4
In the next episode
We will see how a thing learns from its wrong-
Doing. A small
Explosion leads to a revelation.
Flowers are always welcome, especially
Lilies.
April 5
Dear Mrs. Poet
I am trying to read your poems.
The ones that look like poems are boring.
The ones you have tried to make not look like poems
By making patterns out of the words
Are also boring.
They make me and my friend shrug.
The Chinese for "to shrug" is 耸肩.
Meanwhile, I notice that the graves have been swept.
Yours sincerely
Critical Boy
April 6
It's becoming more and more
Difficult to speak and be understood
The frogs outside our bedroom window
Complaining
What I don't understand I translate
April 7
How to explain their enthusiasm?
The future
(You cannot
See it or hold it
In your little hands)
Stretches out like ------- like what?
April 8
THINGS MY MOTHER SAID (4)
Don't pour coffee
On your computer.
April 9
I am so hung-
ry even a sin-
gle kiwi fruit is all-
uring.
April 10
All the wolves in the world
Are coming to our village while
We sleep. I believed all the things
You said to me in that dark place.
April 11
We wake early
Before
The light wakes.
April 12
In the castle the head housekeeper can't abide
The dirty floor. Meanwhile the Prince is at his writing desk
Making an entry in his journal. Music in the shape of
A flute drifts in the open window. The sky has a few clouds
But only a few; today is going to be very pleasant.
April 13
In Guangzhou
A Tesco
Oh no!
(I have been experimenting with this rhyme scheme recently.)
April 14
Will you be everything you want to be in the loft
Where I will come to the end after long approach?
The noises disturbing our nights fill up
My head's vacuum, men are so un-great, so fragile.
But I can adapt, submerge my abashments.
Oh, the sun is battering the roof tiles now. Listen.
April 15
The epitome of you
(I mis-spelled your noun)
And even perhaps "mis-spelled" itself
(Someone stole my dictionary;
It was a theiver)
Anyways, the epitome of ewe
Makes me think of:
I am distracted, a model Romantic.
Esoteric doesn't begin to help explain.
April 16
Children, if you need reminding
To love one another, to be always kind to one another,
To always eat your greens and say your prayers,
To wash behind your ears and to think only pure thoughts
If you need reminding (to be continu
April 17
TODAY'S T-SHIRT
cnat stop - wnot stop - rllo froever
April 18
TODAY'S FAMOUS FIGURES (First XI)
Johnny Cash
Leadbelly
Woody Guthrie
Robert Johnson
Bessie Smith
Howlin' Wolf
Bob Dylan
Victoria Spivey
Chuck Berry
Billie Holiday
Hank Williams
April 19
INTO THE FUTURE WITH EYES SHUT TIGHT
Not for the first time I am
Heading into the future with my eyes
Tight shut. The curtains
April 20
THINGS MY MOTHER SAID (5)
You can't be interesting
Every day.
April 21
I seem to be endlessly pacing
Inside a very small home for horses.
Corral.
Penned, but it's only a skull penning
I think, if you can call this thinking.
April 22
..... and then to dance as if
Another person had taken over my body. Into the
Sun and the snow where the only knowledge
Is footprints not your own.....
April 23
What time is it? The vegetable sellers
'll tell you it's a good time
For beans.
The fruit sellers for fruit.
My watch says it's
Now, between what was and what will be. Last night
Was very cool. Tomorrow or today
I'm going hunting and will come back with enough lunch for all eternity.
April 24
Please read what I've written
In the dust that's settled on top of the television.
Then on top of the refrigerator.
There's a p.s. on my face.
April 25
If only for a minute
Then perhaps
A minute is
Enough.
April 26
I've just been told the Puritans believed in Puritanism and were very pure.
Every day I learn something.
Every day I learn something.
Every day I forget something.
April 27
Dong Ying is back from Tibet
I am thinking of going to Kunming in the summer
The birds of opportunity are playing
Among the branches of the trees
Ice is melting outside in the mid-day sunshine
Some blues is hanging around in the almost motionless air
April 28
And Orlando said that the waters of passion
Would one day recede.
"It's inevitable."
April 29
Then he said with tears running down his cheeks
That everything in the world of any use
Flows through this moment. This important moment.
The devil within me can't get the upper hand.
April 30
In reply, all I can say is the butterflies fly
And the green birds bird it in the tall trees
And the soft touch I place upon your skin is
The softest I can give.
But none of the words in my list of words
Seem to contain enough meaning.
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