January 1

One million elephants couldn't begin to understand how I feel
But a single gazelle possesses elegance style and bounce
Newly-born birds understand flight but have never flown
And to fly into the unknown is more interesting than to sleep in safety
A dodo on the wing in winter sunlight means you are dreaming
Where not even the purring of evening birds disturbs the cucumber field

January 2

NAMES OF THE POETS (1st XI)

Dan Beachy-Quick
Chance Chambers
Temple Cone
Amy England
Marlon Fick
Heath Row
Floyd Skloot
Ed Skoog
Priscilla Sneff
Bill Van Every
Max Yoho

January 3

OF ORANGE WINE

well, first off, it's probably not wine and
second off, it doesn't taste of oranges and
third off, I just fell over

January 4

OF MUSIC

Mèng Qiū plays the pí pa (琵琶)
I never saw or heard her play before but
I just heard and saw her play and
when she plays before an audience
she does not look like Mèng Qiū (梦秋)
all dressed up all dressed up
all dressed up (盛装打扮) (盛装打扮) (盛装打扮)

January 5

ONE MILLION ELEPHANTS

One million elephants couldn't begin to understand how I feel
But a single gazelle possesses elegance style and bounce
Newly-born birds understand flight but have never flown
And to fly into the unknown is more interesting than to sleep in safety
A dodo on the wing in winter sunlight means you are dreaming
Where not even the purring of evening birds disturbs the cucumber field
There may be unicorns hiding among the greenery let's go take a look
You have no idea what life's lurking until you take a deep breath
And like a creature of the bluest and deepest ocean swim for ever

(27.12.08 – 3.1.09)

January 6

The vexed questions of who you are and of who I are
Of what we will become or what will become of us and how to live
Are just some of the vexed questions that trouble me
Another question that vexes me is whether or not
Such unanswerable questions should be allowed to vex me
Because no matter however long I try and fathom these vexations
And other vexations of similar unanswerableness and vexedness
It becomes increasingly clear to me that life is an endless stream of vexed questions
And a chap could spend all his life trying to unvex them and fathom them
Risking missing all the unvexatious moments and events life offers
And it vexes me to have gotten this far up the hill and still be vexed by this

January 7

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (1)

He clambers up to the loft and disturbs God at his solitary readings
She falls absolutely a dead weight into the arms of a very ugly man
We wake up to find ourselves locked but happy in a darkened room
They look at us as if we're the people who vanished the Sun's rays

January 8

When a day goes missing
Does it mean anything at all?

January 9

I am bathing and drinking wine        
I hope I don't die I am becoming an alcoholic        

I dreamt of running with you several times        
Dreams have meanings I have been playing The Brian Jonestown Massacre records        
Non-stop for 3 days now

I am swimming although I seem to remember
I can't swim

January 10

we're running again as the sun descends
my legs ache this evening but it doesn't matter because
we're running again as the sun descends is all that matters
Dear Bluebird,

t's not about writing what you know, or writing what other people know, it's about writing what you don't know you're going to find out. And please don’t forget to bring some of those scrumptious apple cakes when you come on Sunday.

Yours,
The Slipper King

January 11

OF MY MOTHER

my mother called to see if everything is ok
but she had a wrong number
it was a conversation she won't remember it tomorrow
but at least it was a conversation

January 12

Once upon a time The Little Prince believed in Happiness
Then at a later time he didn’t believe in Happiness at all
At a later time still he believed that Happiness exists but is transitory
At a time later than even that The Little Prince wrote a big long book about    
Happiness and nobody understood what he was going on about
Now The Little Prince is running up and down the corridor telling everyone      
That the words he was using were all useless
Words are no good for what he's trying to say so he just makes weird noises
He can't write them down because he doesn’t know how to spell them

January 13

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (2)

Before it's too late you should take your library books back
Walking at dusk with one's back to oncoming traffic is relaxing
It only takes one small slip of the tongue to destroy all living things
The squirrels in the park and the horses on the northern slopes etc.

January 14

SIX WHITE ROSES

In the morning I awaken to say bonjour to you the sun is shining
Please send me a message to show the world is really an ok place

I drank all the whisky so we could use the empty bottle as a vase
It seems to me the six white roses are becoming even more white

January 15

should there be something to talk with
would it be made of something bendy
outside the rectangularity of our routine
squeezing between a word and breath
depicting a someone walking but not to
they are always walking briskly from

January 16

THE SAME

close up when your two eyes merge into one at a great distance (even from an aeroplane)

January 17

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (3)

It's not like the great big animal has useful thoughts of its own
You put into the plastic bucket anything you want to put into it
At one extreme there is the fantasy of being better than you are
& at the other extreme a chimney stack collapses onto your head

January 18

POEMS OF IMPROVEMENT (1)

if only poems could be greater than they are

January 19

YOUR ARMS

Is there a good place in the world to be ill?

January 20

Everything has to go but the sky continues all that's left to give
I would give so much depends upon the continuing

January 21

HAWTHORNE'S "THE CUSTOM HOUSE"

What's the difference between "illusive" and "elusive"? "

Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctly – making every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility – is a medium the most suitable for a romance writer to get acquainted with his illusive guests."

illusive and illusory adj
1 seeming to be, or having the characteristics of, an illusion
2 deceptive; unreal elusive adj

1 difficult to find or catch
2 difficult to understand or remember
3 avoiding the issue or the question

But he is talking about his imaginative torpor
How the characters will not come To "the tarnished mirror" of his imagination

Yesterday so much that was elusive occurred
Only one "thing" was absent
Yet somehow present in absence
This was not illusive

January 22

I'm not a travel poet and I can't be a travel poet
You won't find me sitting by the side of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi
Writing about how blah blah it is and the abundance of fat American girls
Much better to say you can't judge a cover by it's book
And wonder where such slender might take thee

January 23

It is ok to hate some shoes
In the same way as it is fine to be passionate about some pants
The exotic dress and ornamentation of some people
Keeps me sleepless at night
Thinking about whether or not when the revolution comes
All that finery will burn

January 24

The horse's splendour as it gallops behind the closed lids of the dreamer.

January 25

In today's thrilling instalment our hero and his paramour are surprised and interrupted by her irate parents as they burst through the walls that appear to be made of only paper or some other light and inadequate material but they are so angry not even conventional bricks or timber would hold them back although it's not explained why they don't use the door like ordinary people but we gloss over that detail and discover our hero's normal self-assurance struggling to withstand the fiery heat and icy blasts of paternal and maternal scorn as explanations become necessary although to be honest they strike the disinterested onlooker as pretty superfluous.

January 26

A smell drifting in at the open window
Reminds me of waking up and momentarily
Not knowing whether to be happy or sad
Sometimes one must move slowly
Sometimes one must move fast
Thought is often swift
Sometimes it’s not there at all

January 27

Dear Bluebird,

Happiness and reward come to those who are deserving, apparently. That's what it says here in the instruction manual.

Alternatively, you can take a look in the mirror and if you don't like what you see, take it back to the store and demand your money back.

Nothing is connected, at least not in the way you think. Accept this opinion.

Yours,
The Slipper King

January 28

POEMS OF IMPROVEMENT (2)

Diary poems are so dull like
There is nothing else to write about

I just saw 21 nuns a-walking

January 29

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (4)

If we pump the lake into a balloon and cast it to the sky it will burn
Fall at all these feet and these wheels there is not room enough look down

Sudden onset of herds of thinkings of flocks of distractions of what
Is heading for the instant your smile explodes so the world can vanish

January 30

And "Be patient" is the worst Advice in The World
Since my Body has been hiding in the wrong Country
But Corrections have been made and it's OK now
Although not perfect yet there is still a Distance between
So Yes, be impatient with Time and with Other People

January 31

Although once I was quite ecologically friendly all that came to an end as all things must come to an end when boredom sets in;

tonight I ate African chicken though I'm not sure if the African applied to the chicken or the method of cooking;

things can be pleasant enough;

sometimes my emotions get the better or the worse of me;

we like to sit around the campfire singing songs none of us know the words of, thinking of England.

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