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Sunday, July 1, 2018

LAST LESSONS OF THE AFTERNOON



Didn't send anything 
to your journal this time
didn't send anything to
your contest 
(after winning it last year)
give someone else a chance
I said
but the truth is it's just too much
goddamn trouble 
for little reward

Like a lot of things


Like life

mostly

But you're expecting

a poem 
of course you are
that's why you're here...

So let's not disappoint:


Last lessons of the afternoon

your last drive
I said, this misery must end

The rolling English road

bagpipe music
anthem for doomed youth

Buffalo dusk

full moon
what are years?

Look within

the lost man
not waving 
still drowning

I remember the woman

 at the Washington Zoo
wearing flames and dangling wire 
a kiss in space
a taste
tangerine
Xmas trees
the end of love
going
going
gone

All day it rained 


Fuck you 


20 comments:

  1. Meow, Tim … and a very cheerful Sunday July 1st to you as well … smiles … Love, cat.

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  2. Wow, this misery must end, but am losing hope that it will any time soon. I love the list of images down the page, the kiss in space, the taste of tangerines. Very cool.

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    1. I hope you liked the ending too,Sherry--LOL

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  3. The best part of this poem is the part that starts I remember the woman and ends gone. Complete in and of itself.

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    1. Thanks for that, Toni. I was capturing a mood here, and though it was fleeting, it was honest, and thus the poem ends the way it does I'm coming more and more to believe that poetry should be immediate, and not calculated or planned.

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  4. I love the mood in this... may there comes other days that are sunnier.

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    1. Thanks. Yes, the sunnier days peek in and out of the clouds.

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  5. My dearest, Tomoteo, I would totally sing this at the top of my lungs while dancing in the middle of the street, just so that I can howl that final line. Fantastic!

    And now I'm craving tangerine. I hope you're happy.

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    1. What you said makes me happy, Magaly...to know that you get it...that poetry is connected to emotion and that emotion needs to be expressed, no matter how it may be perceived!

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  6. I believe in your poetry not being calculated comment above. this was an effing barn burner, that tone and effortless dismantling was awesome.

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    1. Thanks so much. Much appreciated, as I'm a newly converted fan of your writing!

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  7. Okay you completely blew me away with this one! Excellent write 💜

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    1. Sanaa...I so appreciate that. You have excellent taste--lol

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  8. Like the Stevie Smith reference.

    Think I'll put on some big gold earrings, visit the zoo and hang out at the gorilla cage.I'm in the mood for arm wrestling a prickly poet.:)

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    1. Rall--very cool that you picked up on the Stevie Smith reference...you are sharp as a tack...and the last two lines of your comment would fit nicely into a poem, this prickly poet believes!

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  9. Love this:
    "Buffalo dusk
    full moon
    what are years?"

    There's nostalgia, and regret--and, of course, anger in this poem, all wrapped in longing. What are years, indeed?

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    1. You have broken it down so well, Romana. And what are years but an overly obsessive way of keeping track of that which might better be forgotten? Thanks for the follow!!!

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  10. Tim, this is perfectly you and perfectly perfect. I love it, all the way to the rollicking perfect end.

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    1. You give me high praise, enough to keep me high for the rest of the day! And when you say it's "perfectly you" I know I'm on the right track...though in fact I'm off the rails...and couldn't ask for more than to be appreciated for that!

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