More Poetry Exercises -17/12/08

I.

Window Exercise

So old it appears boredom,

carved in a square stone –

Higher stands the sunset

dart, cutting edge.

Color after color aftercolor

after – Camera Ob / scurant –

I’d rather float in the open,

in between those two

distant, well lit floors.

Hot beverage beckons –

In before thunderstorm.

II.

Widow Exercise

‘I have water in my glass.

I have water in my glasses,

it keeps nesting in there no

matter how much I try to

hold it back.

I have water in the glass I

hold, toasting to you! who do

not need to stifle your shaking

hand at every sip, who is out

there, rolling on rock

bottom,

Spiteful of me.

I have water in my stomach,

it roams and sloshes like living

fire would.

III.

Mono- syllabic Exercise

See?

Such is why we are one.

It is in ours to be lost in

One of us - any of us – all of

Us.

Be with us. Be us. Be

One.

IV.

Love Metaphor Exercise

It seems mysteriously contrived at

first – it is still, like a newly-hatched

cadence of forward movement – then

it becomes me. You.

V.

Sandwich Exercise

They'll spend the summer

fending off bad thoughts, bent on

crushing the garden—

their failure a putrid testament,

a steam let off slowly.

(After Joshua Beckman)