*Warm-ups

The robin chirps to mate
the answer is
find someone else

The robin chirps to mate
the answer is
you're too old now

The robin chirps
so are you


*Space

Fill your space with music
and the world
will go away

Fill your space with words
and the world
will blur

Fill your space with things
and you will
trip over them


*Obsession

Hooray for Obsession
destroyer of
unpleasant thought

destroyer of
anguished thought

destroyer of
unrealized thought
realized dreams


unlike those of Van Helsing who,
though he has not lived even one
lifetime, is wise in his generation
and will drive the wooden stake
through the Count's weary heart,
freeing him and his dull-moving,
gossamer-draped harem, straightening
their perpetually hooked necks,
cleansing their perpetually red,
clotted eyes, transforming their
perpetually blood-starved bodies
into the transparent souls of
Raffaello's heaven forever and ever.


*Obsession 2

Hooray for Obsession and you, H.L. Mencken, who, after a sinister stroke,
eased unstable hours constructing a wall back of your Baltimore home:  you,
Mencken, unflappable journalist, pungent wit, stricken with aphasia - god's
gift to one whose life is words - slowly, painstakingly, build BEETHOVEN
into your wall out of color-coded brick; letters you can touch, genius you
can listen to; dear, deaf Beethoven, whose gift from god outranks yours.


*Miscellany

Plant a vegetable garden
and weed it every day
to ward off the black dog

Caro:  Each day,
thank god,
is one day less

I suffered too much
at your hand - be gone
as well as dead

Support with no
understanding is still
support, Isn't it?
Holy - Holy - Holy