Status Updates From New & Selected Poems 1974-1994

Favorite: His Music

Miserable was his style, his insurance
against life’s frightening, temporary joys.

Favorite: Dancing with God

Favorite: At the Smithville Methodist Church

The Snow Leopard

Always…
trekking through snow to the top
of something, finding peace
with difficulty, then losing it.

Response to a Letter from France

…the waves push me out ahead of them;
lacking wings or an engine
it’s the closest thing to flight.

Letter About Myself to You

…I tried to get my class
to believe something Keatsian and beautiful
about death. What scholastic rot,
true on cool days far away
from the latest personal taste of it.

Meditation on Two Themes

Isn’t joy a kind of stillness
at the top of something,
before the long falling?

The Worrier

…wanted nothing nearby
as lamentable as children or lap dogs
or even big dogs who curl
near your feet who die like parents
just when you’ve learned to live with them.

This Late in the Century

I walk the streets
always a gesture away from contact,…

Sister

…the kind of loss
that repeats itself every day
like being born
without a leg.

Those of Us Who Think We Know

Those of us who think we know
the same secrets
are silent together most of the time

The Snowmass Cycle
1. Retreat

…To be without some of the things
you want, a wise man said,
Is an indispensable part of happiness.