Gogyohka 5/4-5/7/10

lilies of the valley
on the coffee table
mingle their shady perfume
with my sweaty feet
from gardening

too many screens
but eyes are, too
they're machines
we love robots
short circuit

haunted by failures
want to be
someone else
they have their own
we are not alone

feels like she's been gone
long enough
to be coming home
until I realize
I'm still picking up socks

Spring's smell
buzzes
from the bathroom
the sulfur
in my asparagus pee

Gogyohka 5/3/10

anger
rocks the boat
that makes the waves
that floods the beach
that drowns the child

the eagle on the pine branch
didn't even look at me
staring at the sunset
from the earliest dawn
in America

nostrils
full of socks
brain
choked
by a blanket

the beeping
morning alarms
telling everyone
on time
or late

the clock
goes around
and around
so why
is it still dusty?

Gogyohka from Cleveland (4/20-4/25)

Important documents
Black robes
Commandments
cannot justify me
like all this laughter


So many windows!
Heads at desks
pointing down
Light shining in
Shining out, too


each line
a corner in the room
taken away
until
I stop hiding


Her grandmother
Born in a tipi
One birth certificate
Lost in a fire
Nobody accepts copies


Spring’s song
Earthworms
pushing up
tulips
From wet dirt


A boy in the woods
turning over rocks
Walking down
rusty train tracks
until he got lost

shutting down
until
the only thing
anyone hears
is birds

When I woke up
Fast
Tossing and turning
I saw the dawn come blue
and breathed in lilacs


Today
I am an astronaut
without a suit
feeling a comet form
next to me



When I was 3
I always asked why?
Now I am over 30
And poke my nose out
to smell all things



cool breezes
in Cleveland
winter nights
in the desert
still fresh from the distance

one line kernel
two line kernel
three line kernel
four line kernel
pop!



She told me
“I will eat that
when you show me
the tender
on a chicken.”

My whole personality
can be found
in the nutmeg I grate
into squash ravioli
while sage sizzles in butter

So glad
English has many words
for laughter
Let’s make
all poems smile

Everyone writes
according
to their breath
She writes
in sighs

writing poems
in one hour periods
this time
I have no assignment
to turn in

all day long poetry!
endless new voices
heard and read
I am a pirate
stealing treasure

how far
is my reach
how deep
is my well
stretch

more poems
start
"I wonder"
than "I want"--
I hope so

Gogyohka 4/17/10 (written 4/14/10)

after the computer screen
all day
looking in your eyes
like looking through a telescope
into another universe

Take all the nerve endings
gather them up
and weave them
into a hammock
It will support us forever

Walking up the stairs
of Grand Central
at 5:30
means walking through a cloud
of coffee breath

on three walls
of color
one drawing
of Barack Obama
in Black and White

Gogyohka 4/12/10

great golden day
awakening
someday
I will be
someone else's horizon

my hand reaches
for your shoulder
no matter
where you walk
steady in every storm

Gogyohka 4.9.10

My webbed duck feet
paddling
looking for something
inside me
that is solid

things I want to do
things I have to do
I sit in my canoe
with one oar
paddling in circles

progress
in life
moves
at the pace
of a doggy-paddle

one day
without worries
one day
to see the air
and you best of all

my body
is very big
but sometimes
I don't have enough spirit
to fill it

Do me a favor,
life?
Stop sending me
post cards
Come back to me

This hot day
I am
sliding down
the bell
of a blaring trumpet

Times Square
is gross
I don't care
what anyone
says

Gogyohka 4/6/10

be my dance partner
everyone!
let your breath fill my lungs
I trust you
to lift me in the air

In the elevator
with a chihuahua
"His name's Shakespeare."
"Oh yeah?"
"He's a drama king."

A morning without sun
like nothing's happened
birds everywhere
telling me
think again, bucko

I have two legs
two lips
one brain
and magic fingertips
reaching into everything

my nerves
tell my body
to be afraid
of everybody and everyone
my mind loves

I thought I'd be afraid
to be near
someone close to death
but I'm not
I like him

the bathroom
with the special toilet
makes me feel
like I'm peeing
through a sponge cake

the grass
on the graves
are beards
of the dead
making waves

Gogyohka 4.3.10

the tattooed cursive "D"
on his hand
like a rubber stamp
return address
for a body lost in New York

dust kicked up on a road
proves we never travel alone
the sun bathes many travelers
and threads their eyes
dust to dust

Gogyohka 3/31/10

sing a song
help us rest
we need peace
for a long time
to let our wounds heal

Gogyohka--
not one poem
or twenty
but the hands joining
to write them

just like
innocent until proven guilty
I believe I can
until proven
I can't

Gogyohka 3.29.10

the young woman on the train
being sketched
by the old man in the trenchcoat
"How far you going?"
"All the way!"

I know and believe
I am a poet
but if my words
visit you inside
then part of you is, too

Gogyohka 3/28/10

what is this feeling
seeing backs of houses
from a train?
I am content
feeling rails under my legs

My soul snarls
and rears back
and shivers
It's an unbridled mare
that will not tame

we take birch bark
shedding in curves
and put them
on our arms
pretend we're superheroes

my best wedding gift
was an atlas of Maine
from my aunt and uncle
with post-it note flags
"I want to take you here!"

Gogyohka 3/27/10

everyone knows
the man in earmuffs
feeding pigeons
bread crumbs
from the sidewalk bench

all night it's bad dreams
all morning
I'm mean to my new wife
by noon I'm leaving a message
saying how beautiful she is

the cold came back
but the market is full
of butts and thighs
jiggling
in black compression pants

you know what?
let the March wind blow
let it rip
into my lightning heart
and bolt my head up

Gogyohka 3/20-3/25/10

getting well again
and my skull rises
back to my face
and pushes my eyes
back out to the world

at Union Square

squinting in the sunshine
I see waves of people
crashed out on the square
to sleep or eat or visit
and make the concrete bright

someone tapped
my trunk
this sugaring time
my sap sweetens
another's pail

the early blooms
look just fine
poking out of brown Winter
But I'm a tree
still heaving up my sap

the white mothers
all have gray
in their hair
and shining brown faces
push their strollers

how did I miss
the stubble
on the elm trees?
The shadows are speckled
the earth pokes its eye open

this diary
holds thousands of pairs
of straight legs
supporting countless confused kindnesses
burst out of urgent imaginations

give me
the name
of the feeling
So close
to every stranger passing

a few warm days
makes for early blooms
ho hum
let's go buy gum drops
and see a movie

Gogyohka 3/19/10

being in line
at the bureaucracy
like being in
the esophagus
of someone with bad breath

if I grab hold
of your collar
it's because I'm shaking too
giving up on you
means giving up on me

thank you universe
for a physics
that only lets me
feel one mistake
at a time!

Gogyohka 3/18/10

fat sparrows
chase skinny sparrows
pigeons chase sparrows
and feeder seed chatters
onto the schoolyard

out walking
saw my first daffodil
and wrinkled up at it
the sun was too hot
it made me sweaty mad

Gogyohka 3/16/10

Green scarves
Green jackets
Fleece and nylon and fringed grass
shooting up
from Brooklyn streets

That squirrel
That squirrel!
Sitting on a stump
Is it real
or is it stuffed?

Whenever I hear
Dad's knife on steel
in the kitchen
it's like the ghost
of Grampie appeared

first magnolia buds
are out
in pink-tipped white
Spring's lipstick
coming out of its tube

Gogyohka 3/13-15/10

trying to make
everyone
happy
makes me
unhappy

have to want
to be
something
more
than famous

"spring weather"
isn't daffodil fingers
and new warmth
or showers
it's both together

after so much
futzing
with my new wedding ring
you'd think I'd remember
to wear it more

she pours the potato chips
into a bowl
"Why not eat
from the bag?"
"Because I won't stop!"

"Hit your head
against the wall enough
you're bound
to make a hole."
"In your head!"

at Grand Central
bodies rush around
I remember the waves
and the undertow
burying my feet in sand

Gogyohka 3.9.10

Have you
ever seen
a yellow crocus?
It’s reminding me
what sunshine looks like

The hill holds
a carpet of crocuses
thick enough for a sultan
On benches the mentally ill
sit and sway

A man in black leather
exits the garden
on a March day
Flexes his fingers
and stretches his neck