Complete Works

glimmer

2005-06-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

poetry

men who give diamonds to women
like to believe that they possess
a thing of real beauty
a thing of rarest beauty

two point four carats
in, say, a white gold setting
five foot ten blonde
in a silvery charmeuse slip

there is a faith that through diamonds
they’ll finally possess beauty
but that’s the very thing
they don’t possess

the beauty is the light
that reflects, in various wavelengths,
off the surface of the stone
against the cells of your eye

seventy-five hundred angstroms for red
fifty-two hundred angstroms for blue
forty-six hundred angstroms for indigo
that is the beauty of the object

and that is as common
as stars

13 January 2000

wave feathers

2005-06-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

poetry

when dawngreen day
begins in grey
say in the early june
i'll often not
go out-of-doors
‘til eye-blue afternoon

but when the sky
is stormied over
like a dirty silver dollar
then i like to go and dance
in the krill-green
ocean water

where seaweed leaves
all slithly grey
will slime along the surface
attached to bulbs
of neptune’s gold
by thread of mermaid’s velvet

i pull the bulbs
from off the vine
they detach like angels’ wings
then squished between
my thumb and finger
they shoot like champagne corks

while graped bulb soars
a kelp vine sinks
down to the jade sea floor
and should i pray
my prayer will bring a wave
to take me back to shore

say a prayer
to the deep sea nymphs
they’ll lift you on their waves
the kelp bulb flies
the sea leaf sinks
down to its watery grave

12 January 2000

rhymes with orange

2005-05-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

poetry

teachers have always said
that nothing rhymes with orange
poets were the first
to sound the knell

but glance at the setting sun
some smoggy afternoon
and rhymes of orange
will ring within your eyes

12 January 2000

fall colours

2005-04-27T23:01:00.000-07:00

poetry

fall colours
malibu on fire
the fire in your eyes
silverlake in my skin
the smoke of your cigarette
the smoke of your contumely
the underbrush of my mind
the tinder of my mind

brushfires of a sunset
a sunset in malibu
a sunset in malibu lights
the tinder of my mind

dead leaves of summer sunburns
the pumpkin of your grin
santa anas in my eyes
santa anas in my eyes

santa anas in my eyes
santa anas in my nose
oceans within my ears
sunset within my heart

12 January 2000

red of blood

2005-04-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

poetry

did the red of blood
evolve for us?
or did we evolve
for it?

for i sometimes suspect
that blood is beige
but that we see it red
for effect

12 January 2000

jealousy

2005-04-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

poetry

poets like to say
that jealousy is green
in fact jealousy is white

for that is what becomes
of the light that desires
to assimilate
every other colour

12 January 2000

plum

2005-04-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

poetry

the colour plum describes
the plum of the plum
with reference
to fruit, leaf, seed, and tree

with the first bite of plum
i sometimes taste
fruit, leaf, and tree
all in one bite

and sometimes i taste
only the bark
and sometimes the pit
and sometimes the root
and sometimes the branch
and sometimes the twig
and sometimes its shadow
and sometimes the very soil
in which it grows
so uniform is that plum
the plum of the plum

so pure is that plum
the plum of the plum
that it flowers
delicate pink in the spring

11 January 2000

the ultraviolet

2005-04-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

poetry

you can’t see it directly
the old ultraviolet
but you begin to notice it
on the prifferies, my brothers,
fashed blotches of purple
a tidge of sunset fray
malenky grotes on the chest and prosbc
for aught we stand remiss
this sunsight indivisible
a-summer-a-saulting
devotchkas on the strand
who tringled in cellothrong
inhale the scrooty grey
silicsand bags filled with silicsand
all grahzny in the slink oil
the stench of coconasties
so smelt it drowns out the tide
meanwhilst we age, o my brothers,
bobbing in the spume
me and a few droogled spongers
metastaphizing our freckles
with a bit of the old ultraviolet

8 January 2000

redshift

2005-04-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

poetry

thrown into space
at velocities approaching
the speed of light
roses are infrared
violets are red

6 January 2000

a is for scarlet

2005-04-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

poetry

a is for scarlet
first letter of the flesh
prick of a man’s needle
pinned to a woman’s breast

b is for crimson
a rose bloom in winter
from a thorn in the heart
a nightingale’s splinter

c is for red
and the words jesus said
our misinterpretations
and the roses he bled

6 January 2000

iris

2005-04-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

poetry

clear winter days
when the wind blows offshore
the wind dusts the spray
from the tops of the waves
and the dust drifts away
past the singing mermaids
who comb the white hair
of the green-headed waves
in the manner that prufrock had noticed

but from behind the wave
as you watch from the water
just as the wave crests
its crest gently flutters
and flutters away
trailing a rainbow
a rainbow
remains
she reigns
for a moment
then falls in a shower
each droplet a prism
each prism a power
diffracting the sunlight
the light’s layered colour
fans out like the tail of a peacock

21 December 1999

Disciplining the Cat

2005-04-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

poetry

Kitten, you are my property,
and as you are my property,
you really have to take care of yourself –
both physically and morally.

When you lick a paw, lick morally.
When you shred the couch, shred morally.
Scratch my face in moderation –
Do not wake me before seven.

For if you don't act morally,
it makes a mockery of all property.
And that might end up leading us to
undisguised cattiness. And litigation.

25 November 1999

iris

2005-04-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

poetry

Clear winter days
when the wind blows offshore
the wind dusts the spray
from the tops of the waves
and the dust drifts away
past the singing mermaids
who comb the white hair
of the green-headed waves
in the manner that Prufrock had noticed.

But from behind the wave
if you watch from the water
just as the wave crests
its crest gently flutters
and flutters away
trailing a rainbow
a rainbow
remains
she remains
but a moment
then falls in a shower
each droplet a prism
each prism a power
diffracting the sunlight
the light’s layered colours
make us a sign of her covenant.

25 November 1999

ambrosia

2005-04-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

poetry

the old greek gods
kept this colour for themselves
so delightful was this colour
so full of strange sweet joy

and when they all vanished
this colour vanished with them

26 July 1999

desuetude

2005-03-30T23:58:00.000-08:00

poetry

desuetude is
an underappreciated colour

it throws its cloak
around the frame
of abandoned tractors

it gives a green dignity
to copper
and burnishes
brown leather

not to be confused with suede
but not unlike it
i have in my closet
three coats in this colour

26 July 1999

daguerreotype

2005-03-29T23:39:00.000-08:00

poetry

artists used to make photos
with great heavy plates
with acid and platinum
and silver nitrates
do you remember that?

to remember something
outside the moment of necessity
invariably leads to remorse
for remorse is the garb
of the daguerreotype

26 July 1999

Eat Me like a Chocolate Bunny

2005-03-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

poetry

The Passion of H. Horatio Heffleflopper

Eat me like a chocolate bunny :
Nibble my nose and bite my ears.
Spend me like a publican’s money.
Put my mortgage in arrears.

Kill me every Friday morning.
Raise me again come Sunday night.
Take a letter to Galaetians :
Devour each other in small bites.

Eat me like a chocolate bunny.
Eat me like a chocolate bunny.
Eat me like a chocolate bunny.
Eat me like a chocolate bunny.
Eat me like a chocolate bunny.

4 April 1997

envy

2005-03-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

poetry

poets like to say that envy is green
but the truth is that envy is brown
a greyish greenish purplish brown

for that is what happens
to the colour that must
have for itself every other colour

25 July 1999

inside of abalone shell

2005-03-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

poetry

the inside of abalone shell
is what happens
when each colour
is described in its turn

25 July 1999

green apple candy

2005-03-24T00:44:00.000-08:00

poetry

a back-lit wave
six feet high
at a spot where the wind
blows against it
will light up the colour
of green apple candy
in the afternoon
of short winter days

24 July 1999

outside of abalone shell

2005-03-23T01:03:00.000-08:00

poetry

the outside of abalone shell
is what happens
when you try to describe
too many colours at once

24 July 1999

varicose

2005-03-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

poetry

when your ankles swell
like mine, my dear,
the flesh gets rather pasty
and finely touched veins
of purple and green
ornament the surface

23 July 1999

café au lait

2005-03-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

poetry

a name that applies
to an infinite complex
of graduated tones
as half-and-half
swirls into your coffee

23 July 1999

purple

2005-03-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

poetry

no single word describes
a broader spectrum of colour
than the word that people use
when they talk of purple

orchid lavender fuchsia rose
amethyst grape violet mauve
tyrian purple indigo
burgundy plum mulberry puce

eggplant maroon pinkish blue
bluish red reddish blue reddish reddish blue
reddish reddish bluish reddish purple
and all the hues swaddling dusk

22 July 1999

empire blue

2005-03-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

poetry

the purest shade
of empire blue
is the grey
of jordan almonds

22 July 1999