NEW GRAVITY
D Press 1980
Ellensburg
Cover photo by William Morris
NEW GRAVITY
Out there—
you walk on air
in your new gravity
No matter how
heavy
you'll keep it up
ignoring signs
moving with your heart
.
A new gravity
Disagree, it looses
authority
.
Overheard—"Those people,
are you one of those, too?"
A leaf, you move out
into the open way
.
You have important things to do
and don't want your life wasted
on detail
Live deep—summon
laziness,
a breeze, the shape
it comes forth in
.
Some go
the way you think
they might
So a leaf
in a warm wind
starts out—these are
orange rocks
These are also
rocks—that's
the sky
and that's
also a flower
Æolus operates—
lips moist, veins
filled with sunlight
Wind strikes a chord,
skirts bellow, and bodies
dance whether they want or not
.
Wind affects a single figure—
so many measures of one scale,
then so many of another
Wheatfields augmented w/backroads
.
Fields come to meet me,
wires loose, the light harsh
I await a late bus
.
A sorrel gelding dreams
Hind hoof cocked under an apple tree
Bright apples against the leaves
A herd of herefords steam and stamp
Chew their cuds and crap in place
Magpies pick the warmed grain
A John Deere tractor lugs up the track
Meeting a girl on an Appaloosa
The ploughboy raises a finger to his cap
Eyes clouded she trots pass
.
Overhead
green shadows follow
the late afternoon
To my eyes
a field between
two firs
I listen to grasshoppers
Their thighs make clear sounds
in the stillness
.
The bobwhite bobwhites
and a bird called purplewreath
purplewreathes
Another, purple crepe, purple crepe
the chitbird's chit chit chit's heard
One sings drinkyourtea
one, takeoffyourunderwear
it's spring
.
I hear voices, I see visions
but no matter how disordered my senses
I'm no fool—
or, if so, in the grand tradition
Knowing all lovers change
although I'd be the last
I try again to impress
my heart in yours
Let me move within you
by the reading of my gift
.
At rest, I stay at rest
until you enter
Do you have a date?
In a manner of speaking, you say
leaving for the Corner Stone
Sunday night at Rodeo
down on all fours in the shoots
The grass was brutal
compared to your caress
The mint rank
beside your scent
The creek's chattering
overwhelmed our words
Earth loved us
.
You will fulfill your goal
and be acknowledged, although
you may absorb much that is wrong
You will, by instinct, become an artist
if that is what you want
and be remembered for what is yours alone
.
You've got that bod
.
You are sensuous pleasure
your lips are loved
your clothes, doubly liquefactious
You were made to be laid
no matter some find that shameful
You have a rare, divine gift
to give love, transforming
what is base into grace
.
Hand on hand
smile on smile
I think and think
I do as I do
Unhealed, the hurt hurts
.
Everything in the past
was in the future once
What's next?
"Tell me," you say
"It's not just DNA."
.
Cool your feet in the Yakima
Salute the sun
heat and dust
Let it pass
