SOMETIMES

Sometimes
we do not get it
not forgetting
even at death
when our life
is set in knots
even from the wonders
of the undergound
admitting the birds
are flying South
in the December sky
emitting sounds
remembering
our poetry's words
from my mouth
as a span in thunder
of riffs from my sax
reaching out to the Bay
of a Cape Cod beach
as dawn breaks
and we relax
this morning hour
catching my breath
with human speech
awaking out to God.

WHATEVER HAPPENS

Whatever happens
a clever poet will turn
an embrace
into a love letter
discerned a grace
in every tenuous appeal
we will yet reveal
something better
not a pollyanna
to admit as an observer
a secret loneliness
but to bless and seal
a poet's speechlessness.

THE DAY

The day
pulls its stop
on the sled
feeling like Alyosha K
in the Russian woods
as a heavy snow drops
on twigs, trees, and leaves
its icy shadows
of his footprint visitation
heads toward the monastery
saying goodbye to Dimitri
from the neighborhood
carrying an invitation
to a quiet villa
and a way out to the country.

WE ARE SILENT

We are silent
as the seven returning stars
in radiance
from the third heaven
as the jazz poor
play riffs at the gates
of the everlasting door
asking for the bread
of heaven
and for the unsaid
saying a word of prayer
over the wine
among ashes
delaying a melody
of memory for the dead.

IN A SUNDAY SKY

Icy veteran names

on my Evergreen

flames by the glass ceiling

as frosty birds pass by

in a full length of life

revealing lost elements

that ran from my past words

of strength by the chimney

up the past smoke 

and crossed 

my poetry words

of memory

in the Sunday sky.

AT THE WALL

Playing kickball

even the snow

sticking along shadows
on the poster-glad wall

when taut geraniums

in the hot sun

will grow
wanting a second self
or a third
wishing every day
for a poet's word
to put on my shelf.

DE CHIRICO'S INFLUENCE
(1888-1978)

De Chirico influenced
the Neo Classical,
Baroque and Rococo
and in the metaphysical realm
of philosophy:
Schopenhaur
and Frederich Nietzche
in comedy and mystery
among the female torso
in honor or horror
of a bourgeois little man
in a male bowler hat,
learning to discern
that classical architecture
in Turin and Milan
painting domes, pyramids
or origami
and influencing five star movies
by Antonioni, and in Zurlini's
"Desert of the Tartars"
in visiting his friends
from Paris; from Magritte
who became a designer
after viewing a paper factory
in his evocative and poetic
"Song of Love"
or the relaxed painting
 "The Grail Metaphysical Interior"
after meeting Yves Tanguy
Max Ernst , Balthus,
or Salvador Dali
finding his "New Objectivity"
for prisms in his more orthodox
style by the rocks
of Greece or Italy
in his "Magic Realism"
as being enriched
by the"Futurists"
like Umberto Boccioni,
Giacomo Balla or Marinetti
with his "Manchini"
of faceless mannequins
dress making
or working with textiles
in new style for strings,
encompassing as a painter
while working on "The Seer,"
meeting Carlo Carrra,
Morandi, Max Klinger
doing enigmatic landscapes
and shapes of  contrary interiors,
enjoying Jean Cocteau's
indoor ballet designs,
knowing the innovative poets
as the literary path outlines
of Ashbery and Sylvia Plath.