THE NEWS

When my stay at home neighbor
puts on the all news station
on his all day cable T.V.
with all that information
and argumentative leads
it overwhelms me from my years
of labor for language's beauty
that enables me refuse to heed
all these rages of commentary
from camera stars and seers
with their mass communication
in a twenty four hour station feed
posted continually in our ears
with pictures of so much suffering
that grows our many earthly fears
of war, violence,piracy and crime
in its dishy discursive public duty
yet not wishing to waste my time
rather to observe only silence
secretly sneaking into my library
to play alto or smooth jazz
in my sound proof studio
to atone for my failings
or read new digital verse
by my railings on the stairs
without a mobile phone
on my back bookshelf
filled with past collections
yet to desire some privacy
from a constant self quarrel
of my own arbitrary rants
taking a look at my selections
always critical of my own poetry
from the context of a secret pardon
within God's own heavenly society
as the painted religious figures
in sculpture and painted culture
of Chagall and Teresa of Avila
by my wooden carpentry bench
with my miniature portrait of saints
along my telescope to the moon
filled with a memory of stars
or play a hymn or French tune
based on Clair de Lune
by brushing up on my guitars
near my earthly garden cellar
hoping to rest on my laurels
at an obelisk universe in a shed
or being a guest of Edgar Allen Poe
with his grotesque masks
putting up my feet on my desk
along my own stone pillar bed.