Table of Contents
Section A

1) One Waiting (prose + haiku)
2) Returning (prose + haiku sequence)
3) Shortly (prose + tanka)
4) Watch Time (text + tanka)
5) Quick Oval (sijo sequence + prose)
6) Bronzed (free verse, dialogue, tanka + haiku)
7) It Passes (tanka, free verse + haiku)
8) On-Line (ghazal + free verse)
9) When Not Expected (tanka + prose + ghazal)
10) Certainly More (prose + tanka sequence)

One Waiting

July offers deeds not thought about in June. It seems to be a run-in
run-out of departures. Vibrating hours with this air travel's luggage, that of a last squeezed-in kept clean.

Delayed from occurring younger to a guest, the hostess revisits on duty.

Eye-contact's dark as if earlier times haven't been forgotten. Thank you. On the guest's knees fork and knife; the spoon leaning longer on a peach. Laughing, the neighbor's ear moves a little. Antedated? The hair hints a shine of amber. No, well, yes --

eight hours
mindless meditation
room during a flight

From high above, one watches small blurred gardens, leaving much not yet mended. With a last drink, a nut-filled olive keeps turning particularly slow. In the meantime we learn about landing restrictions.

The runway narrows down. The one waiting on the ground can't stand his excitement. He's checking for the seventh time the true minute of this, for his heartbeat far too late arrival

muted blue
the night-shade of a day-dream
tapers west.

Shortly
before an argument, when the milkmaid drifts into dullness,
we hear white echoes. The mountain goats went to rest.
Wood-wind and drum call mellow margins until

clouds announcing hard rain
I, the bushtit hide in hedges
two musicians go by
both wear feathers on their hats
respectfully silent

Returning

It's a sandal-path wearing the bones to dust.
Could be longer without longing. Friend's voices
connected linked living, shape of a mind's ear
haikai no renga

narrow
the north road
deepens

Tailor of language, let's say spring forms
a fluid line along with a rainy season's
water to fall

more north
and deeper
narrows

Outdoors outlines two-faced echoes of a cuckoo.
On landslides, uphill short breath, wet sleeves' hem.

deep
and no road
to the north

Mineral he trusts and the bites of fleas are free
installments in a night of long skilled giggling.

less road
deepening and narrow
into the north

One irresistible syllable in the depth of meeting
others. Who is which? Bell-ringers' pine and pain
make a triple-folded song of ink-worn paper.
Rice wine's heat, how to keep it pulsating
on half-frozen tears?

it narrows
on the road
deep north

He confesses: summer is touching. Dimple, dimple --
frogs. And the poet? Occasionally listening, there is
a fly's fire in no wind's direction. Ink bar and rubbing,
the brush filled with the lake's dark, a first word drops

south
the interior road
returning

Dedicated to Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694)

Watch Time

Illuminated time, axle time, forgive me time or not, abalone time, cross-blind time,
rooting time, belly-up time, joke time on the rocks, oh no oh please time, split
stitches time, timeless time, light and shadow time, buckle-up time, time out,
summer time, bent over injection time, Indian time, the cook's time, hotel-minutes'
risk, time spring, peep time, hopeless mummy time, jeweled time, only one pound
left of time, shivering before shaking time, as if time, climber's time, time for
fauns, time to possess, slower time on cushions, extended leg time, not a time of
seventeen, like this time, second time with him, not yet printer's time, tale time
she sleeps

turmoil time, winners' time, time of dark holes, I see it in your-face-time, gay area time, single seed time, chords of time, tofu time, believers' hell of a time, e-mail time, present times, the more car the less vacation time, had I time you wouldn't, sperm time frozen, plum mouth time, some times not, both for the first time, wrong timing you said, lay down dog time, twice half a time, Shiva lengthening the time of inhaling, third eye time, shaded minutes, not a summer saving time, arms up time, timed far distant talk, weekly news time, automatic time shutter/ nuclear time, Albert's time (relatively), timeless flattering, time to undo, help mine with your time, timid

immune time, the sound of time at night, too late to know time, time never seen or who puts time first away, candle time, monk-to-monk time, whirling dervish time, across winged time, pink time open, time alternating no-time, sick as time can be, haiku are written now it's your time, elf times' waist line, elbow time, sneak around and get it in time, sabbatical, other times in games, fall over winter time, harbor time, between time left, internet time, listen I'll not find time, time spots, growing depth in time, outdoor film time, horse time and trotting, run away nomadic time, secluded brush time, it is

on canvas
Salvador Dali's oil
as it drips
soft watches wait
to hear the ticking

Quick Oval

Inclination, light is divided into moving shades.
One is the finder, one the keeper under a straw hat's skin.
On soft dunes, their mouths rounded, no quick no.

Eyes drift from this oral territory down to a wind-cooled neck.
June is a joiner, horizons appear as a pretense.
Installation-artists sharing stoned time; you may walk through.

September, a weekend progressively advancing. With two ladies side by side in deck chairs looking down a cliff to the sea, there is Goldy, the retriever. A boy plays with the dog, until he makes him jump in a huge arc right over the chairs.

Laughter. Not the one relaxing muscles, but the other one, ending in a tinny sound, a chill. Somehow weight seems amplified, long since wanted to be shared. It is of additional consequences that from now on the confidants use their phrases selectively.

Both wish to contemplate the idea of giving today's evening a "first name", let's say Joy. So whenever dusk offers increasingly darkness, one can call in this short word for prolongation or renewal of what is waiting to slip into a stage of experiment.

Bronzed

swansdown destined to shield the body.
Sitting straight, in who's device

do the eight arms of a Bodhisattva
pursue the lower spirits in a strangle hold?

Is the bloodhound absolved, attested? Amanda, for instance,
puts her calling-card close to the slit of a pay phone. Slow,
intentionally loose in sleeves, the hair braided, it seems
a beginning; acquired, so to speak extendible, almost
established as

- come please qualifying. Yes, I did mean pure. No, I didn't say I traced it.

-contorted pears, still hard, your mother says still green.

- well, not permanently

(she puts one more quarter in)

ignoring his
double tonguing
for each wish
she feels the arc outgrowing
pink on prolonged fingernails

summer-oil's smell
it's an attendant
to her
and no other efforts keep
offensive movements smoother

A not yet authorized nerve can be favored
irregular, increasingly within a vowel.

One may explore more patiently
the same of another unsettled texture

red jeans
the conversation tied, (not depending)
on action

It Passes

A shade occurs
red marks its door, smoke
passes over
Friday
it may move a stone

Saturday that warm, dresses will be losers.
I'm not home on Easter Sunday, think of hiding
eggs as an arrangement referring to Semite
rose water sweets. They come powdered, female
as you know, have a longer rest and getting soft

Communicant. Questions, some dipterous some titular.

I want to lay myself down in grass that is laying
want to swell with breath that is swelling
want to move with water that is moving
wish to go with other marbles' slower going
wish to grow with chalk's white growing
as it leaves....the bird a nest ....leaving

overflow
flux, oozing
this amount of April rain-light.

On-line

unseen wave strollers;
uninterrupted touch for 24 hours.

Links lengthened for migration;
the youngest on delay, hardly oscillating.

Blurred fingertips. Conservation in blue squares.
Impatience being taken as an impulse.

Reflection, repose, reappraisal. Resistance,
evenly entered, getting stronger solely by distance.

It's an evening, light trading traces. Did a bat pass your house?
Precise presentiment and vagueness, well, do we want it?
Palpable dependency, no, despite the emphasis is still
bound to both being singles. If you type in yes, well or
becoming, it probably draws on something desirable.
Would it hold more expectation?
On two screens separated halves; even the pauses
seem to be magnetized.

No approach to former days folding the mind,
folding the slowly filled length of a paper letter.

Archived, waves of her latest question leave
a little mark. You deleted the graphic, even though

you know I liked the soft gray in the upper right corner.

When Not Expected

Such an event, white
territory, corner to corner fresh
a handful
time of a snowball
on those high cheeks

prevalent, eyes shut
the skin mobilized
under hair
evening-smell close to a harbor
red flashes, dark flashes

The way her ankles coming closer, rubbing. The center, well aware of not quite centered even though, rattle snake skin, lately shed, determining the width of her belt.

A first mild day slides out of March,
on its last step leather of older boots stiffens.

Didn't she ask me? After replacing her winter tires
pristine conditions left the track more smooth.

Undefined wishes, long standing in her mind
are confining. Knives of late hail go

for a swim in ditches; night frost's skin crashes.
Something seems to give in

to a crocus' break-through. The yellow
place maker warms its own trend.

Good morning, do we twinkle? Here is the liter of milk,
packed. Silken service, polite prescriptions, presage.

Questions, intermittently occurring, are not
finding easily a place, let's say, save for months.

Certainly More

whales, migrating at a distance of four-hundred yards from the cliff house, Gualala, California, February 15, 1995.
Sporadically spume. In a unity of concern no enfeeblement on the way north to krill. Dwelling in fluids, is this a conspiracy? Three humpbacks are not playing far from the shore. Their values pleased with obligations.
A book slips out of my hand when an earthquake under the sea, close to Eureka, sends its energies horizontally down the coast.
An couple of osprays is looking for a tree to offer a wide-angle view, tide connected. The birds' decision leans on last winter's experience.
Suddenly a cry, pure along pointing, soon certainly more. There is some use in asking the air and sea for support

apart from a first
slow swimming
word not spoken on a beach
at the end of salt appears
a shell, soft-mouthed

retained
it solves the winding
charm, we want it
cherished or perhaps
then this

breath
her laughter filled
with someone else
but not a sign of errors
seen in opposition

moon-time
blind date before
blind after
milk-skin prolonging the night
or what it uses, instead

a swing to one more
wild song, wild belief
arc of iris
whom to follow
after rain

almost accepted
continuously present

pieces of slow occasions
she blushes unseen, I guess
her mail-pigeon left.

Continue on to Cybertry Part II Section B .