THE SNOW

The snow is dust
under Turgenev's feet

Writing his story
with glances at the words

through the ardent clouds
that hide him as he lives

yet knowing there is a scent
of spring to greet him in the air.

TOLSTOY

In early April
a glimmering morning

the birds rest
outside your dacha

The ice is gone
from the pond

even the horses are ready
to ride

it is a time to contemplate
and write your memoir.

BIRDS

Birds in shadows
of the ranch wall

where we once played
kick ball

today songsters stir on branches
assured of their quick melody

interwoven by the maple tree
as youngsters in perpetuity

are wrapped in the sunlight
watch faithful doves sway.

PICASSO

By constant reinvention
of installation art

from arrangement
in stone

with new images
to retain

from parts
of flesh and bone.

EACH DAWN

Each dawn
colors to smile

on its flowers
with rain or sun

as if there
is an incarnation

even in  exiled hours
at Babylon.

CLOUDS

Clouds tear
the fog

in grief
of existence

on dark March days
as these

shrouded with
unthinkable distance

we take a chance
with resistance

in a faithful chance
belief of ease.

THE WIND MOVES

The wind moves
to rise

over the new tulips
crocus

and Iris'
as we focus

on a field of life
in the mind's eye.

HOCKNEY'S POOL

Hockney's pool
of color

examined
in this light

of a waterfall
to discover

a realistic school
filmed with oversight.

WHILE IN THE ORCHESTRA

While thinking in symbols
of a Yeats poem

in the doldrums
of the orchestra pit

all the traffic outside
the waiting horrific dramas

as geologic and philosophic
eras of the critics do not matter

when drinking in
a poet's words of wit.

MAGNETISM

Magnetism
in the hallways gym

with regrets of life
always on the ropes

among all the day activities
initialed with a charisma of hope

near the devices in proclivities
and gadgets of phones

in this time of chatter
and news of shattered noise

where is the atoning peace
of reaching for existence

only by the marina bay of rocks
and stones on the beach.

DOVES

Doves on the rooftops
before this alcove

birdsong will rise
on an open grassy field

forgetting the hour
lodged in this dawn

destined to escape
for a shield of snow.

BY THE TUILERIES

Pushing aside my thoughts
by the Tuileries

wondering which flowers
will make a brief daylight scene

within a curl of winding
strawberries

to take time away
from the artistic loneliness

of so many gathered here
to echo in their art or music.

IDOMENEO

Mozart's overture
opens an opera

that lacerates
the curse

in its libretto
the culture

of the gods
plays out its part

where love
opens our hearts.

IN A RIPTIDE

In a rip tide
the boat rears up

on the shore
where two blackbirds

rise by half flight
over at the tidal basin

as cherry blossoms
spin in the air.

RODIN

"The Thinker''
that was his body

distant eyes
of philosophy

always
on the precipice

of Dante's
conclusions,

earthbound
by logic.

AT NIGHT

At night
by twined hours

a decade passes
its petals

and rootless seasons
from blinded lights

of guiding dust
in parchment histories

from shooting
stars.

FAULKNER'S NOVELS

A construct root
of reflections

installed by voices
of pranks hijacked

to prejudice
in his metropolis

in an abyss
of family relations

from a direction-less
sense of endless existence

yet with outposts
of ultimate humaneness.

NATALIE SARRAUTE'S NOVELS

Anti- novel
by a master eye

exploring faces
motifs and motives

you cannot take
in a venue of networks

and subjects
obverse

in an ambitious
universe.

ROBBE-GRILLET'S NOVELS

Novels resume

in a surrealist mirror

in priority

of obligation's fate

to human pastimes

in reality of attention

to characters

assuaged by language

in mirrors of tension's
of illusion.

UNAUTHORIZED HAND

Unauthorized hand

of art's landscapes

in portraits

from isolated paintings

of Cezanne

always feeling apart

like an outsider in a sample
in "Still life with Apples.

A PLATONIC DAY

The museum
in clay and paint

on its white statues
facing us down

in a classical fate
among fingernails

on masked day shadows
in which only time speaks

its sages jesting
when asked and suggesting.

WARHOL'S DREAM

Camera's coverage
in impresario's colors

on a canvas
will not stop of visage

of a surprised language
in a pop artist design

catching the footage sights
of interlaced scenes

of endless ageless patterns
in an unsteady Manhattan.

 MARCH'S TREES

He saw the  fir trees
in the home harbor

while ice fishing
for smelt

on the breezy tail
stashed bait of his boat

wishing that hooks
would that catch the glint

of entanglement
in nature he felt

life and breath floating
in a flash.

IN THE TOOL SHED

In the tool shed
to rake for the spring

what leaves
are left

at the unmasked snow cleft
of the White Mountain

by the legible light
moves us up the hill.

THE LAST SPATTER

The last spatter
of snow

scatters on the kick ball
graffiti wall

the passage of my hand
shrugs the foliage

as every leaf
falls to the ground.

RESEMBLANCES

Resemblances
by the trip wire

of dancing feet
glides on the floor

from lacerations
of lost loves

in fugitive
collaborative desires.

ON THE GOLF GREEN

In a horizon
on the golf green

a fawn in the sun
recovers breath

lured from
white branches

of the last
dazzling snow.

SURROUNDED

Surrounded
by low leafed branches

in spring's disclosure
by wind along the Cape

A rescue ship also
picks up the herring

to bring to the mainland
in mid-March.

HIDING AWAY

Hiding away
in the west field

with daylight
in its sun glasses

Squirrels
embedded from a storm

by the  fountain spring
in a wishing well of coins.

RELAXATION

Flipping houses,
playing solitaire

Kick ball
in the teeming light

Day unfolds
its raking leaves

Snow rinses
in Harvard Square

for a chess match
outside the cafe

THAT NOON

That noon
dragged through

another photo of
bright strawberries

and a lost school bag
was located by the river

like a retrieved hour
of initials on the tree.

CABIN FEVER

Hearing the mountain river
but not there

the bees in the hive rising
but not humming in my garden

the unloosened sweater
for another wintry dawn

A love letter
but not delivered.

AN AROMA

An aroma
from the   rock garden
    along the wallflowers
  how well we knew
how quickly
are shooting stars
the light of hours.

THAT LIFE'S GIFTS

That life's gifts
not corrode
but quickly lift
by a sea Nereid
nor be muddied
or poorly buried
from a shifting mirror
of honor code.

DUFY'S DREAM

Regatta in the Seine
cleaving at the yacht race
blurred in waves
quivering in the cool air.

FALCON

A falcon landed
on the balcony
in an outdoor theater
of a mystery play
he entered by the side curtain
with his winged mystery
not bound by space
he then storms
onto the stage
in flying forms
like it was in a struggling race
at the last act aimed
from a performance
in perfect timing.

JEAN HELION DREAM

Bleached abstractions
from a vital scene
of parched color
as you are captured
during the war
on a surrealistic platform
saved only by a palette
off the Britanny Coast
in the awe of summer.

GIACOMETTI'S DREAM

In a gallery
not demurred by mirrors
portraits gaze
from the sunlight room
there is the composer
Igor Stravinsky,
the poet Pierre Reverdy
in a delightful symmetry
earth bound space appears
in the wonder of color
traces his take
with a diffused poseur
of an underground to share.

SECOND CHANCE

Fragrant in the shade
of a canopy of spring
with a winged bird
in a second chance
to reach for safety
on the vacant branch.

HUMAN FLIGHT

Human flight
relaunches
in the mist of dawn
up in the floating space
shot out of sight.

A SQUIRREL

A squirrel
follows me
by hiding in a tree
crossed a country street
until he hastens
for an inquiry
but lost him
in my anxiety.

IVY

Ivy in the academy
by the large lily
set on the window
by my shadow
over my novel
of Ivy Compton-Burnett.

COMMODITY CULTURE

Changing and charging
on scales of justice
weighing in spices
diffused chances of humanity
to compete in instructions
only with appearances
of deductions said
in our epitaphs to prophets
with a reference
to our own defenses
or the worlds sold price
of interference from crudity
in our trading posts
from the crown and majesty
of our head's connivance
from the gold coasts of intellect
or silver shred that we expect
to stay all breakdowns
as we survive
from feelings of dread
and robotic routines
make us  critically
alive instead.

 SECOND DAY SPRING

Countryside birds
by the transparent pond
where ice fishers
by the edge of lilies
wait in half-darkness
for you as you
spike your words.

DE KOONING'S DREAM

Embroidered but no longer
diffused reflections to spring
over dazzling blackboards
in fusion of dada colors
appearing new interpretations
of space running codes
covering over the seas
from green blue nature
hearing the cusp of noise
in curious nests
with dahlias abandoned
from various ventures
in pallettes
of action painting.

AT MIDNIGHT

At midnight
on the stage
admitted by
waiting rooms
with transparent
actors by mirrors
rehearse in half-darkness
suspended and marked
by swirls of old curios
of equilateral five star
tables of contents
for the next playbill.

SPRING SYMPHONY

Recommending
a pardon of winter
today's variety
in a chorus
of forest sparrows
expressed to us
on the tall Oak
while I'm playing
Schumann's
"Spring Symphony"
on my radio
by the waves of the sea
outside my studio
awoke in me
amid the breeze
of the human heart
in a season
from another
earthly stare
that in the arrival
of spring
birds are discerning
in the narrow
circular island
within canal
waters stirring
in their second
natured reasons
it suddenly occurs
on the trees
that green gardens
are everywhere.

THE BEAT

The Beat
sees his words
repeat in parentheses
feeling his surprising time
in the Latin quarter
is incomplete
until he flees
like Ulysses
after his urban read
laughing simultaneously
by his audience reception
under the wintry clime.

THE WAVES

The waves float to sail
offering foam in the stream
like our lives dispersing
on this boat to rescue a whale
wishing on a voyage of riddles
to save a humpback
in a wind of treacherous terror
my mind jumps
to Herman Melville as a seer
yet fails to locate
the watery cast-off fish
entangled by fishing gear.

VERDI'S GREETING

You greet the morning
with your verse for us

to have others monitor
with dialogue and chorus

with a certain operatic power
that makes us survive

for it is only in language
that interrogates us

while we strive to discover
what translates

usually incarnates
us to be critically alive.

ROSSINI

After the Barber,
William Tell,

and Stabat Mater
the panics of life

took over your chorus
was there a little language

left at the riddle of your age
in the terror or indifference

of your forty year hiatus
and departure from the stage.

MARCH WINDS

March winds
tuck at you

from the ocean
toward day break

watching
the hump backed whale

from my kayak
anchored off shore

free himself
from being entangled

by fishing nets
in his twisted body,

a rescue ships sails by
with several hands clapping

at the sea
escape.

THE BACK ROAD

The back road
near a large scented field

Two are playing tennis
another chess

on a Sunday
a few souls are restless

Amusement
seems endless.

STREETCARS

Green an orange
streetcars

drive and rattle
by the traffic lights

You ask yourself
why the hurry

in the muffled dawn
and take a breath.

RESCUE OF A BIRD

Wings flapping
in my hand

by the shore beach's
edge of crocus

in a recognition
one of us will forget

the silent watch
in the sun.

A FOOTPRINT

A foot print
in the grass

on a contemplative day
congratulates us

for getting through
the greensward valley

just to find a flower
for this incandescent hour.

DEREK WALCOTT PASSES
(1930-2017)

Derek loved the sun
even when the snow

was on the ground,
now in poppies and ashes

we remember the sounds
in breakers of the Caribbean

by a first spring on hedge groves
or waking at the last rainbow.

IMPROVISATION #432
THE WALL

The city wall
is scribbled with graffiti

You write
a futuristic poem

about your past
in the abyss

signalling
the anxiousness

of your own
metamorphosis.

IMPROVISATION #431
GLUED TO CHOPIN

Glued to Chopin
in the living room

Georges Sands
with skeptical topics

about an amicable feud
in a lover's diplomacy

as an ambassador
discovers the pianist

resounding with notes
of his etudes.

IMPROVISATION #430
PATER'S DAY

The day is saved
by color

the overly rich furnishing
and the cantata

of the singing
on the veranda

in a long suffering
way.

IMPROVISATION #429
PLAYING  A SARABANDES

Playing Sarabandes
by Bach and Handel

elated in the dance
of a Spanish predisposition

when thinking of myself
as a ten year old musician

and critic
by the music stand.

IMPROVISATION#428
BRAHMS CELLO SONATA

You knew the trills
and reclaimed notes

but all through
Jacqueline du Prey's

recital you
wept in her aura

for the music time
apportioned to us.

IMPROVISATION #427
VALERY'S ECHO

After he views
the circling plants

green is restored
in his consciousness

the frogs disappear
to descend on the waters

stems evaporate from winds
at the pond

as Valery
recites from his echo.

IMPROVISATION# 426
RIMBAUD

Rimbaud with fears
in a feckless moment

by furrows and hills
in the snared shadows

dreams of Tangiers
as acorns fall

wanders from
a recovered rain.

IMPROVISATION# 420
LEOPARDI'S VENTURE

Not knowing
what is expected

on the road of outsiders
feeling excluded

like a cicada
spider or dragonfly

or the parsing unsuspecting
memory in the morning mirror.

IMPROVISATION# 419
GATES

Gates of ruined cities
by the black ice

the world is not
beyond your window

in your apportioned walk
you make haste

in the rain that falls
by the cold river's edge.

IMPROVISATION #418
ROTHKO DREAM

Seeking a better
frame of history

your paintings
hung up

in recurrent images
of abstract language

in nurturing
colors.

IMPROVISATION # 417
DUCHAMPS DREAM

Cubist dreams
on flashes

in a careless color
from a pitiless thread

its memory
become into scenes

that gnashes
away.

IMPROVISATION#416
FAIRFIELD PORTER

Color field
of abstraction

of a figurative
''Iced Coffee''

your mouth
seethes in satisfaction

in having an object
as a contemporary.

IMPROVISATION #415
CHRISTIAN BERARD'S WAY

Passing off from passageways
in the ballet of France

through pergolas
and columns of curtains

bending into the dance
lessons to resurface

by mirrors with modernism's
frequent swing at chance

motioning with turbulence
in your spiral performance.

IMPROVISATION #414
POET DUNCAN AND JESS

Paste-ups
embedded

in another's existence
more than a few

shadows of perspective
only memory

by poet and painter
outlives its retrospective.

IMPROVISATION #413
FRANK STELLA'S DREAM

In the morning
paint wash

in minimalism
rippling out

prisms
in rapacious

lines
of entanglements.

IMPROVISATION #412
ROY LICHTENSTEIN'S DREAM

Color does not undercut
his pop art

in saw marks
and optic lines

for drawn graphic art
cannot be blocked

off to mimic
his comic sense

brushing back
any atmospheric

wonder at his eclectic
strategic stops

not fearing any geometric
and eccentric backlash.

IMPROVISATION# 411
YVES KLEIN DREAM

Pink or gold leaf
with paint

on a canvas
just sold

in a philosophical void
of sunlight space

you dream on
not having to think.

IMPROVISATION #410
HENRY MOORE DREAM

'' A king and queen"
to a dream unfolding

of Henry Moore
fading

in another clear sign
of an assembled shape

for his dropped off
signature.

IMPROVISATION # 409
ALEX KATZ CUT-OUTS

"Yellow Tulips"
sprouting

or lips pouting
on wood

or on aluminum
frosted for posterity.

IMPROVISATION #408
DREAM ON GEORGES MATHIEU

Multi colored
lyrical abstractions

giving off
a river mouth of satisfaction

shaping
a concentric circle

in your images
by a cortege.

IMPROVISATION #407
BAUDELAIRE DREAM

The same hand
of Constantine Guys

meets Baudelaire
at the museum of his mind

painting dandies
Spanish women

in an elegy smoldering
of turpentine.

IMPROVISATION # 406
MOREAU DREAM

Blurred apparition
of ''The Chimeras''

whitewashes images
of infiltrated watercolors

from hyphenated nightmares
wandering in wellsprings

of art's drawing out
at juxtaposing brushwork.

IMPROVISATION #405
VICENTE'S DREAM IMAGES

Collages in images
in annotated language

at the edges of discs
prisms and tamarisks,

"Green Floating "
the museum walls
deepens the risk of art

unhinged and changed
by dream sequins.

IMPROVISATION #404
JOHN CAGE DREAM

In the biting cold
you came down

to visit the Bonnard
art show

notes flow
on the surface

of memory
over Manhattan.

IMPROVISATION# 403
TANGUY DREAM

Stopping over
to visit Andre Breton

waking from a first light
sleeplessness

you caress the Seine
a river veiling the sun

the hour disappears
in a gust of wind.

IMPROVISATION #404
JOSEPH CORNELL DREAM

Boxes of memorial things
in ballet and opera

springs to "The Blue Peninsula"
in your sea observation

in a sequined theme
whispers in constructions

to illustrate
what summarily functions.

IMPROVISATION #403
CHARDIN

Still life matters
Chardin

here on the grass
by blue pitchers

and zinnias,petunias
in a silver goblet

and prayers for the birds
set here in the garden.

IMPROVISATION #402
IN THE FISHPOND

Ice fishing in the pond
hearing the sand murmur

as a smelt emerges to surface
amid the crossing North wind

of the home harbor's breeze
over a muddy green stream.

IMPROVISATION # 401
THE BEACH

The beach whitewashed
my thoughts

the tide of sea blue waves
to us on the shore

my sun baked eyes
reach out for more.

IMPROVISATION# 400
BREAKERS

Waves against the sand
in a white foam

playing Debussy
on my guitar

here along the ocean
of shoals

two underwater swimmers
with snorkels

rise up
holding shells.

IMPROVISATION #399
BIRDS

Birds in a nest
with winds

quivering from rain
in the waterlogged spring

here in the gardens
of vibrations and wings

in the restless air
by the backwash access.

IMPROVISATION # 398
LISTENING TO SCARLATTI

Feeling alive
between intervals

in sharp flashes
dazzling notes

weaving
on drifting waves

that crashes
into echoes.

IMPROVISATION #397
WALKING IN SNOW

Walking in snowy light
in the meadow

among the pine cones
there is a shadow

of a man running by
with his cello.

IMPROVISATION#396
CEZANNE

Grapes, peaches,pears
drape the bowl

in the kitchen garden
Cezanne shares

as he reaches
for his easel

a gust of wind
shapes his hand.

IMPROVISATION#395
DUPIN

You found Dupin's poetry
in a Paris taxi

lost in the height of a storm
decided to study him,

for your thesis
you wrote at the Sorbonne

rather as a wake up
helpless call

to his father justified
your year in analysis.

IMPROVISATION# 394
DU BOUCHET

You read Andre Du Bouchet
after following your steps

at the ice skating rink
crackling the raucous

speculation for your exam
of what his words

cause us to think falling
from a cheeky response.

IMPROVISATION#393
ALBERTI

A muffled wind
in the dead of winter

Alberti's words
are regained in a blackout

outside a Brooklyn subway
from a Spanish portrait

in the generation
of 27.

IMPROVISATION#392
ANTONI TAPIES

Postcards
from Tapies

lost on a lost
and found road

scatters
on a Spanish field

a recognition
of humanity's space.

IMPROVISATION #391
IDES OF MARCH

Driving in a hansom cab
to play Caesar

my heart murmurs
not forgetting my lines

of all nights.

IMPROVISATION#391
HENRY JAMES

In a brownstone
with a few Attic books

hearing birds
by kitchen nooks

and Orphic sounds
from place and time.

IMPROVISATION#491
POLITICS

Politics
of bureaucrats

fat cats
swell the ranks

offer ballots
to the people

with the ingots
vote of thanks.

IMPROVISATION#490
DEGAS

Degas
spent the night

with a dancer
from Nantes

until he realized
the maternal voice

of his great aunt
was in her buoyant voice.

IMPROVISATION#489
BRAQUE

Illustrated Reverdy
his memory sharpened

knowing painter
and poet

knew the fragments
were fragile

between lines
of memory.

IMPROVISATION#488
PIERRE BONNARD


Pierre since a boy dreamed
of ribbons

adding violets
to his colors upholstery

in his mid-life
a tapestry

a complement
to his theory.

IMPROVISATION#487
ANDRE GIDE

Andre Gide
adds a line

in red marginal
decoration

on his ride
to the station

thinking of
his optics.

IMPROVISATION#486
ANDRE MALRAUX

Andre looks up
on his countless notes

remembers the boatman
on China's waters

climbs the stairs
on his veranda

expects a return mirage
on his last day.

IMPROVISATION#486
SVEVO

Svevo replies to Joyce
in his correspondence

from his stunned spirit
living for haunting speech

he puts on his visor
and looks to the window

in a reply reaches out
to human memory.

IMPROVISATION#485
THE BICYCLES

The bicycles
manage to make it

to the beach
within reach of high tide

one bearded rushing in
for a morning swim

overflowing with joy
as two egrets greet the dawn.

IMPROVISATION#484
A SOFT HUMAN FOOTPRINT

Sandals off
as a soft human footprint

guides your morning
on the sand

leaving a trace
of your exile

in a wordless isle memory
by the beach shore.

IMPROVISATION#483
AN INVASION

Not of armies
but a filigree

of flowers
haunting the hours

caves,
edge of the sea.

IMPROVISATION#482
AUDIBLE SPARROWS

Audible sparrows
in the pale of trees

Squalls on the harbor
sense a frenzied coast

The storm is over
buried in the winds

A sandpiper
takes off for a cove.

IMPROVISATION#480
DEPARTURES

Offering departures
of schooners

in the hazy harbor
the waves ripples

it's a time
of shivering winds

hearing the murmur
as ambassadors

to the ports
of call.

IMPROVISATION#479
PLAYING THE VIEUXTEMPS

Playing the Vieuxtemps
violin concerto in A minor

yet locked into a contretemps
pity party

at the matinee
with Mrs. Lucy

over a cadenza line
of my own melody

she came over
to congratulate me

she who has accompanied me
on the piano

and is a prominent clothes
designer for the city ballet.

IMPROVISATION# 478
HONOR

He bought out
his medals from the drawer

every day
put on his uniform

before the mirror
as if the last war

were in
his honor.

IMPROVISATION#477
LOSING YOUR COMB

Losing your comb
on the beach

in the heavy heat
while a snail

looks for his home
under your feet.

IMPROVISATION#476
RESCUE

You rescue
a bog turtle

from Myrtle Beach
who reached out

in a tangle
of fish nets

once with vigor
and vim, now in doubt,

it's a destiny
about like ours

who wish for a sea
journey to swim

as in my diary blog
I've logged in its history

with a whim and witness
on its isle of poetry.

IMPROVISATION#475
YOU'VE NAMED

You've name
a tree for your daughter

next to him
is a photographer

the winter forecast
has a weather of a storm

you put on a kettle for tea
in warm water.

IMPROVISATION#474

So many opportunists
today with their own gimmicks

but they cannot distinguish
their own wish fulfillment

without a selfie
or camera on themselves.

IMPROVISATION#473
THE SANDY BEACH

The sandy beach
has one soul

reaching for the
Italian poetry

he translates
into English

the waves rise
on the last bench

near the poplar
and palms.

IMPROVISATION#472
DAWN SNOW

A dawn snow out of my window
by a scrutinized crocus

the wind whip cracks
its shadows of sleet

while two jackrabbits
go for the cabbage patch.

with their lively
feet.

IMPROVISATION#471
YEATS

Feathers from Dublin
on a flawless hat

flew and shattered
Yeats' folk lore chat.

IMPROVISATION#471
ON THE GREEN HILLS

Stalking the green hills
on a dumbwaiter

the snow glances
on its shadow of branches,

the elevator even takes
its thumb of chances

though slow walking
in surveillance of later avalanches.

IMPROVISATION#470

Looking up to the sky
a star will wander or fall

Are we any closer
searching for a moonstone.

IMPROVISATION#469
THE BUTTERFLY

The butterfly flashes
over the cliffs
as I'm playing
my jazz riffs
does he wonder
how briefly life exists.

IMPROVISATION#468
WE NOTICE

We examine the ice
disappearing from the river

here in Vermont it shivers
but we are soon visited

by salmon
and a leaping cormorant.

IMPROVISATION#467
GENES

Genes inherited
interloped on the side
yet we cannot deny the hopes
of a secret proclivity
leaning on tightropes
of so much creativity
or the many tears shed
forgiving what we may change
from the living and the dead.

IMPROVISATION#466
UPSTREAM

Upstream in a kayak
     with the sun at my back
under a skylight by an exhibit
    of a landscape installation
on display outside
the boardwalk.

IMPROVISATION#465
PLAYING VIOTTI

Playing Viotti
Erica Morini

in a winter dress
the strings of the violin

tremble by the fireplace
in a shapeless cadenza

by a unique carress
of tenderness.

IMPROVISATION#464
ATTILA JOZSEF

Enchantment
with fingered

Hungarian exercises
of folk music

spills onto
the stand.

IMPROVISATION#463
SUZUKI METHOD

She played
violin

in her own
pastiche

with the Suzuki
method with ease

and won the competition
though the room does freeze.

IMPROVISATION #462
PLAYING HINDEMITH

With his violin concerto
    playing by me
      in hand
  the aesthetics,tactics
that it takes with
  string gymnastics
of the lulling modernity
is taut for a poet
now  hidden inside  a melody,
  an echo.

IMPROVISATION#461
ALBAN BERG
(1885-1935)

A violin note
in an echo heard

in vibrato by his friends
during his stint in Vienna

the painter Klimt
Schoenberg and Adorno.

IMPROVISATION#460
MARCH FROST

March frost
all over the field
of Amherst Common

Even in an elation
of Emily Dickinson
in a rope of first light

She expects
us for a poet's visit
her words seem to levitate.

IMPROVISATION#459
MIGUEL JIMENEZ
(1910-1942)

Under the Andalusian sun
writing with purity

Birds are gingerly
eating their meal

Thinking for a moment
about the erupted words

that fills
his tabula rasa.

IMPROVISATION#458
A BENCH COACH

A bench coach
playing for the White Sox

once a vicarious closer
lead a double life

when not playing
is a poker faced gambler

he has a clenched fist
and locks into trouble

or on the dance floor
a poseur on a night rocks.

IMPROVISATION #457
LATE FROM ST. DENNIS

Late from St. Dennis
for his tennis march

Laurent in Paris casuals
exercised for his nerves

a ball hit him
last season

poor innocent ,he still cannot
understand the reason

for his constant
embarrassment.

IMPROVISATION#456
SHE BEGAN TO STUTTER

She began to stutter
linking syllables

and difficult riddles
which she makes up

as she daily
ate her cracker and butter

then translated her words
that begun to utter in poetry.

IMPROVISATION#455
EZIO PINZA

Before his audition
at the Met

Ezio Pinza's songs
from Rienzi came alive

the bass worked
over his head set

and he survived.

IMPROVISATION#454
A SWAN

A proud swan
we named Mephistopheles


dived in on his folded knees
and dowses himself
into the dark river


until less
than half the park
crowd is gone.

IMPROVISATION#453
THE AUDIENCE

The audience
left for the right
concession stand

after the Russian opera
of Boris
ended

and everyone wanted
halva
or a chocolate.

IMPROVISATION# 452
SHE LOVED

She loved
a good story

until she became
the story

escaping the margins
of a secret affair

in the frail gossip
receiving the town's

attention.

IMPROVISATION#451
ALGORITHMS

She did her
algorithms and calculations
on the trampoline

she was decidedly
robotic
since she was born

the school shrink
was told
by her mother.

IMPROVISATION#450
SHE REMEMBERED

Suddenly she remembered
the altar
where she was married

and her bridal kiss
from the bristled
beard brushed on her.

IMPROVISATION#449

Marta was obsessed
with the stigmata
she put an exclamation
mark in her diary.

IMPROVISATION#448

The poplar and oak
seemed more alive
as you woke
from a three day fast.

IMPROVISATION#447
YOU RETURNED

You returned
from Stella Adler's studio
to be an actor

Your energy
was insurmountable
from the town whispers

when your picture
appeared on the marquee
on a Saturday matinee.

IMPROVISATION#446
THE LAP OF A FAMILY

The lap of a family
pierced the screens
in a Bergman film

Bruising the wounds
of shattered wine glasses
forming a tangle of lives

at a midwinter meal.

IMPROVISATION#445
THE NEON BUTTERFLY

The neon butterfly
touches the fringes
of the curtain

in the study
you hear Nabokov's voice
explain a lapidary deferment

which kept us familiar
by the sunken Neva river
far from home.

IMPROVISATION#444
IF YOU DOUBT


Even when you
doubt your eyes
and ears

or jumbled words
in your power to concieve
the Aurora Borealis

the time will suddenly
appear to believe
into a fervent poem

with nature lifting the bulbs
by the garden shed
in flower bed of Iris.

IMPROVISATION#443
RILKE

Rilke unwilling
to give up a word

at the edge
of the river

recalls the first
line

of hidden
gestures.

IMPROVISATION#442
AN OFF BEAT POET

An off beat poet
on the streetcar

outs the meter
and gets himself himself

the change
that justice expects.

IMPROVISATION#441
ADORNO

Adorno cannot sleep
he sees every note

in colorful shapes
scattering on the music stand

with retouching
his cadences and cadenzas.

IMPROVISATION#440
WOLE SOYINKA'S JOURNEY

Juices flowing
with loyalty
to the words

of a daydream
as freedom
strikes in symbolism.

IMPROVISATION#439
WISHES

Wishes
are fugitive
paintings on a canvas

not returning
to the lenses
of fulfilling light.

IMPROVISATION#438
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Satellite
   of human speech

shuffling insight
up in the realized robot

symbolic sands
 of localization

in a fulcrum
of futuristic reception.

IMPROVISATION#437
SZYMBORSKA'S VOICE

The voice
   of detachment

yet she enriches
every hesitation

of flowers fallen
in the figures

of Warsaw's tree
   sweeps.

IMPROVISATION#436
BRANCHES OF SNOW

Branches of
snow in enigmatic designs

chary of spring
  quivering

yet believing
    spring is  afoot.

IMPROVISATION #435
REDON'S LITHOGRAPHS

Redon will
share his
lithographs
of Flaubert
that bares
the Temptation
of St. Anthony,
Poe who survives
of all what is contrary
and Baudelaire's
poetic paragraphs
that has touched us
from the cold archives
in an old library for us
to keep alive genius
in a rebirth of Venus.

IMPROVISATION#434
SOLZHENITSYN
(1918-2008)

Solzhenitsyn
was never bored
writing about the Gulag
on the slag heap
of history
in the last ward
his memory was restored.

IMPROVISATION#433
LUIS MARSANS "PROUST''

Drawing on
a disingenuous past
you capture Proust
in a resemblance
with pictorial fragments
of annotated
self-doubt.

IMPROVISATION#432
A BIKER

A biker
picks up
 hitchhiker
at the side of the road
takes him
to an address
of his foster mother
who turns out to be
related
in a complicated
family divorce.

IMPROVISATION#431
EYE OPENER

Eye opener
of those who
are oppressed
their dressing
may change
on their scratching wounds
by covering up
their bequest.

IMPROVISATION#431
NO MATTER


No matter
the Salome
or god
as  politicians chatter
others directly
go for the head
on a platter.

IMPROVISATION#430
WATCHING CITIZEN

Watching "Citizen Kane"
in slaked dialogue
thirsting from sullen ambition
hidden by "rosebud"
peopled by monologue
that won't give up
its overwhelming
monitoring of a celluloid
tabloid.

IMPROVISATION#429
NEAR A CLIFF

Near a cliff
a peregrine flies
near another falcon
in Santa Cruz, California
twisting for a camera
in the canyon.

IMPROVISATION #428
IMPONDERABLES

Left to your mind's
own devices
the patient's laconic attitude
confused imponderables
with the rightful psyche
in writing analysis.

IMPROVISATION# 427
HESITATION

Hesitation
in poetry or a painting
may change language
of its installation
on the underlying page
forever.

IMPROVISATION#426
GYMNAST

A disabled gymnast
on the exercise floor
tells athletes
it was a result
of the last war.

IMPROVISATION#425
A BORDER DOG

A border dog
in crossings
underwrites
chain
links
searching for
the humanity
in survival
of others identity.

IMPROVISATION#424
BELONGING

Belonging to notes
on the piano
you played a concerto softly
before milliseconds
of making up a cadenza.

IMPROVISATION#423
DEPARTED

Especially before the war
the crippling headlines
in various vagaries
you became a pacifist.

IMPROVISATION#422
DEPARTURE

On the platform
held together
though feeling isolated
the plane rotated
emotions
of extraordinary
security.

IMPROVISATION# 421
THROWING RICE

Throwing rice
vanishing
like the early photos
when things were
timorous
as the first images
when you first saw
him/her.

IMPROVISATION#420
SHE WAVED

She waved down
to flag her car
lost in the snow
there were no witnesses
not even a parking sign
which said,"Go''.

IMPROVISATION# 419
THE ENGAGEMENT

The engagement
was estranged
dissolved
by the earliest nostalgia
of the unaffected past.

IMPROVISATION#418
WITH A COLD RED EYE

With a cold red eye
every observation
rivets off the ice
with skates
in the open air
by sunny silhouettes
shifting off the shore.

IMPROVISATION# 417
THE ROBOT

The robot
will flip your burger

condiments added
mustard or ketchup

adding a cup
of beverage

he speaks
a new technological language.

IMPROVISATION#416
AT PROVINCETOWN

Sailing to ride the foam
you notice an egret

over the the sea
a poet writes on the page

as a jazz group records by the waterfront
near the wind tossed echo

by corridors of installation art
in a landscape of sand sculpture

the winding sunshine blows away
its shadow of a day in stone.

IMPROVISATION#415
BREATHING ON THE SHORE

Off the coastal shore
trembling with a beach ball

the open sea unveils a wave of tremors
for those who reach out,

a landscape artist puts
his installation on display,

plovers move against a jagged rock
as the wind longs to be at bay side

we hear a jazz musician
play his own clarinet sonata

watching over the tennis court
at a first flight of Canadian geese.

IMPROVISATION# 414
IRINA RATUSHINSKAYA
MARCH 4 BIRTHDAY

Hardship glances
at censorship
your pen
cannot slip
at the chances
of freedom
being suspended.

IMPROVISATION #413
BLACK SQUARE

Malevich with the poet Khlebnikov
forage the futuristic curtain

for the opera "Victory over the Sun"
to share with scents, noises and sound

in the geometric shape of a prism
to drape an underground sculpture

capturing time from a music rapture
to share a linguistic experiment

in love for an enigmatic Suprematism
depositing a Black Square.

IMPROVISATION #412
UNAMUNO
1864-1936

Unamuno on the coffee table
with a proviso
to unveil your eyes
and recall
all on the essays
from Bilbao
before the snow falls
at nightfall.

IMPROVISATION#411
GIOVANNI MARTINELLI
(1885-1969)

We listened vicariously
to you,Martinelli
on Saturdays on the radio
when I lived as a boy
in the summers at Revere
with a family
of sixteen sisters
you sing to us as Pagliacchi
Othello and in Puchini's
Turandot
as I played the piano notes
of all your arias
before swimming.

IMPROVISATION#410
ROTHKO

Rothko turned over
"The Birth of Tragedy"
in hidden myths of art
with Nietzsche,
the German philosopher
who lost his mental faculty
and came apart.

IMPROVISATION#409
MALL WARE

With their desire
from mall ware
cutting in cameo or video
from their small spliced wire
on spoken phone ,T.V
or radio
but what is verboten
or hidden in a metal tone
of unbroken unrealized
pressure and advice
is to spy in our studio
all from a Stasi miniature.

IMPROVISATION #408
ONEGIN'S LETTER

That letter with your choice
is hidden in intrigue
from a Russian voyeur's theme
that is better in Pushkin
with Onegin
than any other suitor's voice.

IMPROVISATION #407
KINETIC ART

A shadow of rods
and cut-outs
rotate on a string
in the surveillance of culture
to a balance of feeling
of motivated sculptures
weighing in my silences
from a creative mobile
to be revealing as it sprouts.

IMPROVISATION# 406
WINDS

Winds stutter
as a shoot
of crocus appears
over this muddy river
at noonday
as an uprooted tree
crashes
by the vines will soon
be a flashing memory.

IMPROVISATION# 405
NO MORE

No more after evidence
to examine in time
with an order
hiding into echoes of war
someone in 1939 spoke
and laughed in German
as troops go swishing
toward the Polish border.

IMPROVISATION#404
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

The statue of Liberty
has gone dark
right away
whispers start to talk.

IMPROVISATION#403
THE LANDSCAPE SNOW

The landscape snow
is an art space
in the open field
as a somnambulist
and rascal
in misshapen shadows
walks by with an easel.

IMPROVISATION# 402
WAKING UP

Waking up
hearing tiny sounds
of birds
the wind caresses its shadows
bending snow branches
that the sun enfolds.

IMPROVISATION#401
NOT EXPECTING

Not expecting gestures
to pursue or rescue
the two bog turtles
languishing in a turf of mesh
among fishing nets
their need
clarifies and shapes
my footsteps
familiar with our mission
flashes in sunshine
over the Cape
and slowly by the shore
they move,turn
catching my eye
and are safe to return
into the surf.

IMPROVISATION#400
IN A TUNIC

In a tunic
of faraway winds
in the Urals
a space shot
in an extra headline
of conquering space
while at Cape Canaveral
in a work site of exploration
a rocket leaves the earth
in shadows and maps
of shooting stars
transforming murals
painted in unhinged echoes
beyond our mind's grasp.

IMPROVISATION#399
CYBER ATTACKS

Wire tapping echoes
   of fluttering invoices
  from a sense of astonishment
   in spying by successive waves
now equalizes and recognizes
    your ears to the ground
of  castaway intelligence
does not disclose its conclusion
or its caving into sound
     crashing  its contacts hearing
of enthusiasts    to unearth
  unilaterally the contrasting fusion
 in a sense of oral raves
casting into collusion.

IMPROVISATION#398
THE TRAIN WHISTLES

The train whistles
    as one who cannot forget
her past suffering
the metallic sound
  of steel too far for her to hear
the asphalted moving out
rounding the corner.
 

IMPROVISATION#397
AT GREAT BARRIER REEF

Footsteps
    of colorful coral
    mollusks,   sharks
in Queensland
  by starfish, dolphins,
  sharks of a visionary
with unveiled eyes
skims the travelled waters
in faraway depths.

IMPROVISATION#396
YOUR MIND

Your mind
has trajectories
    of serenity
murmuring at the lines
of his newspaper
suspended as a poet rocks
   into silence on a surf board
over the Venice Beach wind
reads off the  obituary page
on the recent death of his partner
he reaches into a pathway
of supreme confidence in a life
now aflame in a consciousness
manifest in a repose
until he weeps
in sundered parts of his soul
that no one could reach.

IMPROVISATION#395
INTERVENTION

The Cezanne flowers
    loosen
   as she waters her Galle vase
  the yellow color
  that     makes one alive
then jogs miles away.

IMPROVISATION#394
DOLPHIN WATCHING

At the  concave edge
of  the ocean's blue sweep
   a smiling mouth opens
  to the crowd
   in  knowing what a boast of
a friendship\ corresponding
to a dolphin who stirs
   the hurrying waves.

IMPROVISATION#393
THE DAWN

The dawn in Athens seems
as meaningless
   in the zen silences
       of concentrated immersion
of overlapping March clouds
  when a mirror eyes a bird
   melting in my landscape
 on the snowy branches.

IMPROVISATION# 392
GET THE RIGHT COMBINATION

Get the right combination
to the apartment
to learn a new language
with clairvoyant tablets
you left on the coffee table
it is starting to snow
and the underground poet
will help us remember
what happened to the ashes
of your aunt in the urn.

IMPROVISATION#391
DEFENSELESS

With the chess bums
out at Harvard Square
hiding indoors
at the dead end road
of tourists
holding their cameras
stroll on the sidewalk
near the Charles river staring
at a poet in the window
writing his verse
in Chinese.

IMPROVISATION# 390
PASTERNAK'S MEMORY

The Neva has risen
church bells sound
scattering in the countryside
with an encouraging smile
of sister who eats an apple
now waters her new geraniums
on Lara's window.

IMPROVISATION# 389
A CROW

A crow
   hides in the snow
  by the Charles River
rises to float
   among grassy shadows
 then finally wades
in for a drink
 sweeps in the winds air
as if unaware of spring.

IMPROVISATION#347
MARCH

Maura says March
wants to be reborn
in Montpelier Vermont
over the greensward grass
ants arrive before nightfall
skiers rush out of their classroom
for one last chance
at Caesar's passage in Latin
you left out on your desk
from the passages context
of the Ides
in the margin for an eerie exam,
we say let the next day decide
yet the woods seem bare,
fawns having a secret rendezvous
on the highest white hills
a bird watcher does surveillance
on the snowy fields
and notices by an icy pond
a cat with a smooth angora skin
almost to boast as if in satin
as an avalanche stares
out from fir branches at him.

IMPROVISATION #346
ALL THIS RIGAMAROLE

All this rigamarole
and procedure,
you bet it's worth it
to save a tortoise
with his sister turtle
along the sea beds
in a rescue for survival
that stays with me,
for no rigor mortis
has set in and both
are alive on arrival
as my guest
who get their liberty
on request.

IMPROVISATION #345
SNOW BOARDING

Flying off roofs
without gravity
in a sled
until adolescence
then competing
on snow boarding
going off
by chance
near a river bed
full of Elm branches
at the Alps
until you are delivered
from an avalanche.

IMPROVISATION#344
THE PORTUGUESE

Turning in the art catalog
to a debris of glory
of fallen glass
fractured in my mind
changes its shape
by contact
like "The Portuguese"
by Braque.

IMPROVISATION#343
IT'S BEEN WINTER

It's been winter
for ages in Vermont
bulbs pinned to earth
want to rise
buoyed by spring
but must pass over
the saplings nearby
who are content
to hide.

IMPROVISATION# 342
SOMEONE

Someone is doing cartwheels
in the rain
an old world peddler
who has a crush on
another woman
throws salt on him
for good luck.

IMPROVISATION# 341
YOU SPENT

You spent
 six hours
watching the New Waves
  in the small art theater
up town
with a deus ex machina pose
and a rose from Carmen
in your hand.

IMPROVISATION #340
LAST HOUR

You abolished
    what was equal in your life
as you polished the piano
with the Chopin miniature
  on it at the last hour
as the poet was planning
to sail to New York
 and visit Warhol.

IMPROVISATION #339
STREETS

Streets of the Arbat
of scrub
women
in Russian quietly
speak to their daughters
when Easter bells sound
and someone recites "Amen"

IMPROVISATION#338
AT HIGH NOON

At High Noon
at the old Pilgrim theater
for fifty cents
sailors holding
onto film clips
awaiting orders
in a port of call
hardly think
what could have been.

IMPROVISATION#337
IN MEMORY OF RAVEL
1873-1937

In memory of Ravel
of the tangerine
   rug from Morocco
which died with you in '37
 in the imperceptible foggy
   night as you played Debussy
  in the Cathedral tower
  and heard madrigals
in French when
the Great War was over.

IMPROVISATION#336
THE MORNING POST

Coffee in a jade cup
  your shadows
 reach the end of a business day
    feet up
  barely speaking
 of the self-made man
  without a soul
 to talk to
 watching for sunning fish
    to be caught on the docks
on your next vacation week.

IMPROVISATION#335
ECO DREAM
1932-2016

Through navigating
passages
of encouraging tiny words
stopping off at trading posts
on 18th century Empire
furniture in Royal courts
amid secret language maps
knowing every balcony
shaking will collapse
taking the dark pages
with him down the steps
within a foot in red cardinal offices
of the Hapsburgs
though expecting the beds
to be made.

IMPROVISATION#334

FEEDING ON 

Feeding on a present tense

pacing to the studio

to find a recording of Bach

played by Wanda Landowska

in the dense piles of records
stolen from a drafty cellar of oddities
feeling evicted except for
a closed space for windows
as the first sunflower is sighted.

IMPROVISATION#333
CONVERSATION

We spoke  about Alex Katz
   after serving tea
looking at his portraits
that began
     with Ted Berrigan
in a pacifism
     that motivates his
artistry.

IMPROVISATION# 332
INSECURITIES

Insecurities
make us want
aching things in nature
that are necessities
to be realized
without complexities
up here in Vermont
mesmerized by thoughts
of spring.

IMPROVISATION#331
EMILE GALLE VASE
(1904-1946)

At sundown
after a meal
sitting on a divan
of an art nouveau
chaise lounge
listening to Rameau
on the piano
and watching a cameo
of an Emile Galle vase.

IMPROVISATION#330
LITTLE AVIVA

Little Aviva at nine
in her umbrella
a mind full
as an encyclopedia
came in from the rain
to play a tarantella.

IMPROVISATION#329
VUILLARD 1868-1940

With a self-portrait
   and dabs of color
      in  1900 Paris
   we now view his paintings
   as a bard of
collaborative paint.

IMPROVISATION#328

INVESTIGATIONS

We wake up

       put on the radio

               hearing about spying, hacking

   with backing

in the depths

   raining on us
                  circling the wagons

    of inexplicable awaking

  investigation

 we cannot find

   what is hiding

    and confiding

 lining the pockets

    in sliding secrets

  of communication.

IMPROVISATION#327
AS IF ONE DREAM

As if one dream sequence
in the Paris of Lautrec
were not enough
going through Prague
in one Czech night
was to embarrass Kafka's
Odradek's fright
my mind was even outpacing
Salvator Dali's
racing car.

IMPROVISATION# 326
OVER THE BEACH

You reach for a stone
with your thoughts
already in the water
your breath riffles
through the sand
you eat a blood orange
thinking of Mondrian
in June at first sunlight
depicting dunes from shadows
over the beach
on the sea's vast coastline.

IMPROVISATION #325
EXPLANATION

When the March wind
wounds will not abate
   and one felt in the dawn
that spring was near
in its shadows
    nature must twice
 surrender her reason
   and with it
a lake full of ice
   that the season will
make its free  poet's choice
to pardon
the locked up
       winter's harshness
that is reprobate
we suddenly hear
      a cardinal's waking
and flashing shrill voice
in the rock garden
full of saplings.

IMPROVISATION#324

In your dream
you lost the text
of a theme
and language of a play
due to be performed
after rehearsal
at the matinee,
nor you cannot find
the zip code
or your passport,
luggage
and mother lode
of items for support
even in the suitcase
but in case
you search for it
as a blinding nightmare
be assured that a poet in time
of your last resort
will assuredly rescue
the universal notes
and your memory
will return to you
when you sit on the piano
and recreate a concerto
as you dare
to meditate on your Bach solo
in your studio
from your lyrical gestures
in your passages of fate.

IMPROVISATION#323
A BIRD

A bird would not leave
my window
its shadow is with me
even now
as if the memory
now in words
fastens into its rebuffed wings
on its flight
from its whirling imagery
yet still sings
for another day and night.

IMPROVISATION#322

MARCH LIGHT

A landscape

    in March light

forming a filter 

of installation art

     participates 

in a sculpture
of inflatable shapes

  nature turned into stone.

IMPROVISATION#321

Human memory fades
    into the shroud and mirror
spool and reel
   in Proustian time seems new
like the rain out of doors
in the misting clouds
of a sky of blue.

IMPROVISATION#320
IN THE GREEN HILLS

The long flight
of a hawk
in a roadbed
as you walk a mile
near the piers
to the distant river
near the Green Mountains
aware of the frozen air
in a Vermont shed
wanting to ice fish
for salmon or smelt
as the sun welcomes us,
just as we wish
the hawk returns to greet me
with night wings
as if sent up
soaring up to the sky
above a river garden bed
to welcome in our fountains
to drink
only God knows why
it felt good in this weather
wishing to have
a feathered friend nearby.

IMPROVISATION#319
THE CAT

The cat
woke up early
it has been up
for two nights
over the Vermont roof,
the day fades
when she is away
now she is by the fire
near the sound proof room
away from the storm
without any power play
waiting to get warm
in the flowering shade
without a gesture of gloom
by wanting to get out of the way.

IMPROVISATION#318
THE POPLAR

The poplar was white
  from flakes
    but kept its pose
in gusts of March winds
with a telescope
on shooting stars
  even the gate
froze in the night
leaves whirling
 in a curled pile
disposes into a spiral
  of gestures
as in a Czech ballet.
 

IMPROVISATION#317
NIGHTFALL

Nightfall
 compels us
to flee our  white scraps
of paper
for an  analysis
of our gestures
  which  suddenly snaps
onto a rhythm's emphasis
letting my music stand
by my soprano sax
into the nocturnal
  width of meditation
 making me relax and glow
forming a blissful attractiveness
  from an unfathomable
    bubble into
an incomprehensible
  but sensible sound
in an inventive lively myth
of our own metamorphosis
from the underground.

IMPROVISATION#316
A FRAGONARD DAY

You chose to invite
noble Madame du Barry
for her letters and vignettes
to a desert of white cake
goat yogurt,
and a drink of white wine
by candlelight in Grenoble
near the Alps
with just a chance time
 to dine with confection
after viewing a Fragonard
hearing an avalanche collapse
into a sinking direction
others enter her rooms
without thinking of regrets.

IMPROVISATION#315
A YOUNG STUDENT

A young art landscape
     student
    in a love template
  feeling prudent
  goes to Manhattan to see
''Werther,"
the Massenet opera
    today
alone on the Met balcony
     weeps   until the last act
at his melancholy pattern
          after the facts
will accompany
him to distill his latest
    drawing  to exchange
on the bourse
a rather  still life for another
 bourgeois of course.


         

 

IMPROVISATION# 314
INEXPLICABLE PEACE

A willing wind
you are    breathless
      in the frozen morning
 of shivering twigs
    from the pine woods
    of passer by folks
and tourists with selfies
    who hurry to visit
a cardinal
 on the seascape ledge
  in the carefree air.

IMPROVISATION#313
INFORMATION

Countless words
of  nature's implications
  into  a clamor transforms
      our  gestures bouncing
        off eccentric blogs of culture
packed off to posture
his artistic signature awaits
    a dancer in darkness
resembling a Lautrec
strapped  himself into a roller coaster
in the minds of look- out posts
             of  adventure
from enigmatic snogs
plays  hearts with a deck of cards
 to all who all answer "Yes".
   

IMPROVISATION#312
ENDLESS SILENCE

Endless silence
by the Charles River
except for the March wind
  on the Esplanade
 awakening by the river run
untroubled by the snow flakes
      showing a manifestation
by the one marathon guy
wearing a Greek cap
who tells us spoke to God
afterwards on the Beacon Hilltop
wondering if he had
a one way conversation.

IMPROVISATION#311
SEQUOIA

A poet
visiting a leafy sequoia
in this riverside
California neighborhood
with a camera stops
to decide whom to visit
among the redwoods,
all in a day until exhausted
admits to its giant beauty
uplifting to the top
and goes to bed.

IMPROVISATION#310
MARCH WINDS

The sun moves
toward the horizon
in rays of shadows
hovering over
the Cape's islands
as a sign of spring longing
from my windows
asking the March winds
to be still as leaves fall
as a new season begins
pushing into shrubs and bushes
in the suburban outskirts
as bulbs give away to crocus
and sparrows join in passing on
a chorus with other birds
who sing along over a bog
near the sands of the river
as a glowing circle
of released rays
will enlighten shadows
and a landscape painter
visiting from Canada
up at dawn
draws over the roofs above
my sound proof studio
of this underground poet
who remembers his childhood
eyeing a tiny shimmer
of grass on the rock garden
missing summer
listens to jazz on the A.M. radio
plays a riff over a tenor sax
writes words in his diary blog
as it starts his day to relax
by exercise
and pray for a pardon
from all the hurts of feeling
since the first ceiling of rainbow
was shown from the sky
to Noah was revealing.

IMPROVISATION#309
SNOW MELTS

Snow melts from shadows
in the bubble of a river
for the ice fishing couple
who discover toothy
rainbow smelts
from their hand held dip nets
swishing a metal mesh
in a flash frozen moment
and take to a shack village
up in Canada
and deliver for a  cash price
without any trouble
on the coast land plain.

IMPROVISATION#308
SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS

Sometimes it happens
    that three orange crates
in the light of words
     afloat in the water
would return to shore
  with love letters
wrapped with two names
it was the first visit
of fishers from Lisbon
in the sunshine
  of the Atlantic
soothing the nets
  to catch red salmon
in a hiatus of the sunshine.

IMPROVISATION#307
LIKE FALLING BIRDS

Like falling paper planes
in a mirage
from the third sky
two geese from Canada
land like thunder
by tree limbs
near a motionless river
drawing in
a landscape artist
from Montreal
by a shade of leaves
who shapes Russian icons
as a poet nearby
in the park
churns out consonants
accompanied by riffs
of jazz
to prophesy
into the March winds.

IMPROVISATION#306
THE MARCH WINDS

The contrary March winds
from the home harbor on the sea
  moves our boats
 constantly shimmering
in the sunshine
and floating upon its  arrival
into the docks from the city
as you wake up
from  a river nap
feeling this sense of relief
after a bog turtle rescue
with a yearning for survival
temporarily restoring your belief
yet discovering
a shadow tumbles on leaves
which suddenly snaps
at the foot of the  Oak tree
 takes a stone
and delivers it along
the  outer banks
as a poet cuts
across the meadow
into the sun's golden dome
of an early revival of spring
his guitar begins to sing
a jazz riff in a cadenza
of a Spanish tune
under the laps of an Elm
it is an hour of a spring reunion
as the dawn vanishes soon
watching its revealing day
of nature's power at home
and feeling overwhelmed.

IMPROVISATION#305
LISTENING TO GLENN GOULD

Listening to Glenn Gould
play a clever Toccata

of cool glittering Bach for us
on the piano

nor is anyone
anonymously April fooled
to think its another

without hearing
the great soloist, a brother
immersed by genius.

IMPROVISATION#304
CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON'S LIFE
1926-2015

Ten years ago
remembering your lectures
on literature
when I ventured
out on the blinding snow
amazed at your understanding
of a poet culture that unveiled
but validated your mind
deposited in wit and writ
what you captured
in the shadow
of a century's spirit,
that rapture
your language unwinds
as you yourself
are now translated.

IMPROVISATION#303
MARCH

You stare at the calendar
thinking of nana's birthday
when our life in March
evolves from the archives
walking with another
on the arched boulevard
above the river in Vermont
when any hour's birth
of crocus is delayed
we at least want to share
future roses or dahlias
from our gardens on earth,
when time in our nature
may at last later pardon us
from other critical lives
inimical or temperamentally sound
who bait and switch
amid the selfish and betrayed
asking love which is sought today
behind our masks reprimand
may at last disclose its great power
and celebrate our fate,
to be instantly taught
and deliver from the sand
and not to wait
like hidden bulbs underground
about to flower.

IMPROVISATION# 302
CRITICAL THINKING

In no way surprising
life seems deranged today
a war for critical thinking
is underway
for the wonder of the mind
is needed to endure our fate
to be analyzing
in a temperamental state
for a cultural force
to undertake and awake
and sway its poetic way
by its mutual spiritual source.

IMPROVISATION#301
THE SOMNAMBULIST

The somnambulist
hasn't slept
since drafted to Vietnam
fed up with P.T.S.D.
on his delivery
and slow uptake
but kept his voice
shut as if he
were in shame
of voice
instead
of having the graffiti
on city walls
to blame himself
for all his choice
alternatives
until he laughed
it all off in bed.

IMPROVISATION #300
ANTIQUITIES

Something you want
in your life connections
to live with things
of some antiquities
to discover and inspected
in Vermont country
enfolding memories
of country statuettes
with wings
in baroque times
or a grandfather clock
found in old buildings.

IMPROVISATION#299
YOU BELIEVE

You believe
in your own Beat poetry
recounting how
on a cross country ski resort
it evolved as in a dream
just the harmony of the snow
moved verbally
into your words
over the sunlit field
of Vermont
as the counterpoint melody
of Bach's contrapuntal music
wanting to be still alive
in my memory
gave me hopes to chant
with the birds
covering ourselves
with survival skills
under a cloudy dawn sun
though shivering with the crowd
in a blanket of cold temperament,
when suddenly out of chance
of one of a million
as an opposite wind blows
a huge avalanche
trying to make sport of us
but we held onto a tree
as a shield on our feet
with a glance to cope
knowing our stance that day
will not sweep us away.

IMPROVISATION#298
BIRTHDAY OF THOMAS OTWAY
1652-1685  March 3

It's your day
poet and restoration
play write
Thomas Otway
yet few are the invitations
to see ''The Orphan''
or "Venice Preserved''
in present company
the cast holds
onto the dissing past
promising what it can.

IMPROVISATION#297
VEGAN

Not remembering
when you were on your diet
touring Japan's Islands
coming back
in December
when you began
as a vegan
banning steak
for beans
but it gave you
a freedom instead
while reading Mishima
in a smiling way
eating rye bread
with a vanilla coffee
you said
beyond means
as you repeatedly
shaved your blond head.

IMPROVISATION#296
RELATIONS

We have relations
which erases the signs
of the past
when your rations
gave out
during the war
in the Occupation
still locking us in
when your brother
in charge of spying
operations
was in prison
outside Paris
when even in solitude
our voice
cannot shame
its embarrassment
risen up from its mood
for liberation.

IMPROVISATION#295
THE T.V.

The T.V. pictures
an old movie
was once part of double feature
         at the drive-in
from the snowy cold memory
in the troubled adolescent afternoon
   drifted by us in the night
as a ''Creature
of the Black Lagoon"
enfolds its presence
at first light.

IMPROVISATION#294
JAMES MERRILL'S ERA
(1926-1995)

An allegorical diva
needing no introduction
or snap judgment
cautious of any cut-out line
out of context
mimicking the local scene
for your next serious collection
when you took a nap
on someone else's lap
at the party
woke up with a curious friend
in the sleepless sun
imagining under shooting stars
a dishy scene uprooting
an imposing phenomena
from Boston's Back bay
the closing of the bar at Chaps.

IMPROVISATION#293
THE LITTLE CAT

The little cat
moves in my
sound proof studio
has his vittles
hears the radio
playing the Bach violin
double concerto
and to avoid trouble
goes onto the  slats
of a snowy roof
to meet his friend
for a shadow of a chat.

IMPROVISATION#292
IN A TAVERNA
(SEFERIS 1900-1971)

Met a translator
of Seferis
in a taverna
just back from
the Greek islands
here in Boston
told him we called
this city the Athens
of America
it was if time stopped
in a metamorphosis
when he spoke his poetry
and drinks, politics,our age
all dropped by us
even George was back.

IMPROVISATION#291
THE MOURNERS

The mourners
hardly spoke
when the war was over
everyone became smaller
in the Square
after the funeral
for the elderly town mayor,
one soul
wore a triangle
with spokes
the only necklace
she could find
with string
on the road
pretending
it was a compass
on the road
for she had no where to go
after the last airplane raid
of the enemy
whom no one knew
burnt up
in the passing snow.

IMPROVISATION #290
UNAWARE

Unaware
that anyone is alive
feeling dizzy
after the pillage
in your city
even language
has a bandage
over its disguise
when you search
for words to describe.

IMPROVISATION #289
LACKING INFORMATION

You were lacking
information
in the latest
provocation
from the war
expecting no more
suffocation
in your last breath
without a metaphor
of exclamation.

IMPROVISATION#288
WAR

War becomes
a metaphor
when your wrote
your name in chalk
on a tree
without leaves
and you walk away.

IMPROVISATION#287
WARSAW, 1945

Charred
beyond description
with a bereavement
in the dust
as a man or woman
in baggy pants
holds up parchment
for all to see
what is taking place.

IMPROVISATION#286
YOUR OARS

Your oars
by the sailboat
surprise us
anchored to float
in cool liquid waves
before sunrise
along the Charles
you return from canals
in little Italy
with a promise on the waves
to compromise laughter
and behave
after bacchanals.

IMPROVISATION# 285
LANDSCAPE OF ROSA
(1615-1673)

Salvator Rosa
with fantastic landscapes
bedeviled in paintings
of eccentric self-revelations
by reeds, passing seaweed
between bridges
and aqueducts of the sea
shapes in a falling sunshine
from vineyards
of the faint spring grass.

IMPROVISATION #284
YOU PUT ON FUR

You put on dark fur
feeling a breath
of windy air
from the last snow
reading the bard
Richard Wilbur
with his translated Voltaire
and a play of Moliere
from the French
here in the sun
on a Boston Common
park bench
feeding the birds
who fly off the roof
near the gazebo.

IMPROVISATION#283
OPPOSITION

On the train
at ten years old
when a misfit
who opposed
this young jazz composer
started to complain
about my early riffs
reminding my aunt
of Antonio Salieri
who was jealous
of Mozart
then when deciding
for a music career
you became my critic
in my ear,
and when I was at Aspen camp
you came up as a poseur to
humiliate me
in front of my family
with a comic stunt
to make trouble
at talent night
and lost badly
as you double crossed me,
and when I became a poet
you deposited
your shadowy lines
out to the magazines
but they were not accepted
published or edited
and you me let me know it
out of the stage windows
then you tried to be an actor
but were rejected
for all the parts and discredited
by the art director
in the mezzanine audition
at bz's theater company
hoping to harass or bad ass me
but it never worked
so jerk off.

IMPROVISATION#282

PROTECTION
ROBERT LOWELL'S BIRTHDAY
March 1(1917-1977)

We need to be replenished
you said in the raw sunlight
from your winter coated voice
with the thrill of again
seeing you on Beacon Hill
on your March first birthday,
Robert Lowell

vying to be a loving witness

from our memory's
insensate masque
of a dusk mirror
by writing out
and reciting out loud
(as you suggest)
our new poetry selections
dreading to recall
our worst past notes
that we have learned
to recognize by now in jest
even the vocal quotes
that will surprise us
in the guest hall
asking for our protection
in the fragile psychic state
of our catholic minds
turning on a local whim
both as a chimera reaction
in a defiant state
of universal corruption
without a psychic description
or any interruption
in our leading words
with a renewed
chemical satisfaction
for a new prescription
or not accepting a compliant fate

as often our local life
defies the strife of definition

from shadows in a poet's corridor

that needs our nature to confess
to her or him.