Noun that I've been watching (100)

body.

forward, back
and forth.

allows a visceral hurt
point to benefact
itself apart from
largo factions.

when I dramatize
past tense,
it is for lack
of a known present.

the turning over of one
after another leaf,
in early point of fact,
equals the method
captivating unglued mentality.
an unbrash cornet fastens
its amazed face
on a simple world.

I think the tonguing of a brass
instrument with mute cone
connives a situation
projected on the wide screen
inconveniencing the lived heart
until it loosens the bridle
to release movement.

a frenzy follows; injustice
runs out of sight.
the officer in charge
recites a script.
we listen, and we say,
"this does not sound
like her view"

so is the world
still here, is this
the body that scans
evidence,
being pushed and pulled.
are these those same strings?

Noun that I've been watching (99)

jazz.

violin notes occur. they do not rescue
themselves or anyone who lingers at attention too long,
taking in washing of emoticons,
blaspheming sense perception
like some waylaid belonging.

daylight is a fling that happens
outside of the body
of the being
of the rapture
not a part of the equation.

have I told you lately that I feel left out?

how much you believe is true
is how much becomes true
in the last analysis.

my mountain of the stratosphere compounds
the desecration of your sanctosphere.
I want to daybreak into your determined
wall protecting someone or something
from what I happen to achieve.

at some point I will captivate
the culture in your heart
and marry it to the culture in my heart
and we will agreed nver to die
without desire.

Noun that I've been watching (98)

sleep.

one lifts over the threshold
a deserving mirror,
lightly places it upon
the bed.

good company need not be touched.
good company aspires to hope.
good company is not erotic.

the camera is another posse
felt, enjoyed, retained.
chimera, also. plaintext.

vamonos.

an influenza epidemic will not touch us.
(repeat after me)

the solstice will have come and gone
before you nuzzle up against
the solemn wavelength
of a rugged star.

only miniature flowers qualify
for a pure bouquet
that some of us have pictured
incessantly for the durations
of others' lives.

this is where we find ourselves,
endowed with adjectives,
and loyal to the nouns.

Noun that I've been watching (97)

letter.

form figures punctuation lavish patterned on the page.

grace from one
hand to another
handful of awaiting
prose imposing poem
on poem light.

some of the original prose
depletes itself
on account of
wit and witness.

what shine defaces poverty
offers triple-doses
of contrarian amendments.

being on key resembles
what is re-assembled
in a fog. more mercy
has been blurred within
the garden of dreamed light
festering where heaven
was to have been staged.

building tete-a-tete
indifference now
bracketed by soft truth
barely able to sustain
the givens and the wants
and trains that sort
the divan-prone
from from figured bass.

corrected to fit to-the-letter
saints of grammar
in the garden
of our haste.

one bonds with how it ought to be.
enough again
a golden monument
to taste,
post-haste.

Noun that I've been watching (96)

radio.

91.5 fits through the pores of the two-pound
instrument jostling its referendum
on planned artistry.
Saxophone is meant to be
delivered, whether by skill not schooling,
just as it is:
purely intended as an assortment
of moments we call present tense
by choice not laissez-faire
of pure reality.

midnight provides the intersection
of space-time in this tiny room
where influx of rhythm trebles
the bass and light can be
relieved of its repose
to gentle or to rouse one
to befriend again the city
allegedly out there
equaling hypothesized
protection from the inside.

Noun that I've been watching (95)

fragment.

mid-sentence, she felt
herself adored until
the approaching final
word.

he remains to her
a temple of refractive
symmetry, a hypothetical
attraction of protagonistic
antonyms.

it's midnight, no one
ought to be awake,
with dream life to invent
as yet unthought
cure for excess quiet.

Noun that I've been watching (94)

blog.

you whisper from another state,
and I am hearing
piano from the radio
playing jazz in the next room.

the heaven I suppose
is laced with perfume
both tangible and auditory,
magic whose exercise
equals metallic singe
from distance quite believable.

no matter what you say,
I hear your AM signal
transfer through
shared midnight.

Noun that I've been watching (93)

stage.

smooth finish.
process meets
encore.

the wood itself
breathes, I tell myself.
the polish and the scratch(es)
mingle to yield

perfection like mother
used to make.
honestly, if there are windows,
they are stained
glass. ornament.
one does not see
through.

"if I had an obstacle" (replace
the word at will)
I'd spray dis-
infectent there.
I'd hesitate to share.

I would e-
radicate the focus
on that mythy
little fortress.

now, going on Monday,
I am a citizen again.
I move in-
to routine. the route
downtown is in my skull,

one the one side,
where the other brain
resides.

Noun that I've been watching (92)

restraint

I live with-
out for the du-
ration.

why must I
revisit the place
of failure,

at night when
I can barely
distinguish faces

that no longer
know me. I consider
whether to explain

who I am
versus who I used
to be.

is it worth
it? I cannot e-
lapse like time.

disappointment of not being
known equals
disappointment of letting people

down. I release myself
from past tense.
I don't believe in

forgiveness for
a moment. foregiveness
unequal to a moment

does not last.
I have outlasted
my behavior that does not

typify my lifeline.
my life since
my mistakes shoulders

the deficiency I carry
through pale fields
of new growth

I can barely see.
I barely see my breath
each morning.

each morning
I barely breathe
the answers

to my questions.
I have stopped asking
questions. I try to coast

I try to re-
invent, I try to
live wthin

my means, meaning
uninterrupted notice
of the seen.

Noun that I've been watching (91)

committee.

are you alone, I ask, when I call,
hoping to be (thus) alone with you.

now there are two of us: Dame Agatha
in reverse, so we can talk.

whatever we agree, it will be thinner
than its firstness; weaned of singularity.

if there were more than one of you,
I would be more in love, the theory goes.

transposition is the beginning of something
unintended as a consequence of unpaid attention.

the committee will come to (order).
your honor, I would like to register an emotion.

and so goes the day, the daylights.
we might as well be married (to each other).

between us, there is no semplance of other.
we unwittingly continue as we are.

Noun that I've been watching (90)

cigarette.

I saw a woman just outside the building
where I buy organics beets for weekly soup.

she released a whistle of fog colored smoke
I liked. I still like its scent, despite

the roster of prohibitions. sheepish yes
bequeathed to my party favored life before

this onset of blessed purity
for which I prayed.

is it armistice day? I feel as though
the woman with the cigarette shares

the celebration and the disappointment
coming through my pores.

we have not spoken, I just watch
what she is doing, as if

present tense were simple
and accessible and full of unvetted bravery.

Noun that I've been watching (89)

cradle.

anyone can be a chaperone.
tonight, the broadcast
questioning the bell curve
will not be shown.

in its place, vespers
will shadow the child
beneath accoutrements
holding still, while

impositions of desire
remain irrelevant
if allowed.
as will the separation
between the living
and the innocents.

Noun that I've been watching (88)

metronome.

a virtuoso rejects training
wheels. unneeded paraphernalia
lessens the quality
of the full spectrum,
ranging from sine wave to vibrato.

within the invisible fibers
that establish retraction and splay
are pulse points like learned
religious dogma. coordinates
used to describe precisely
where and how things are
and should be, will be,
such that the collective
thinking, feeling, and belief systems
guide the infinite "what next"
of everything that hails
from staves.

a sense of hearing
once inflicted on the species
causes song and silence
equally. causes pleasure
and cacophony. elicits
some form of response,
no matter.

all music happens in or near
the fences. a minute goes by
and another rendition
makes its way onto the screen.
enough to seem a finished piece.
enough to recollect, replay,
retrieve the shock of first emotion.

Noun that I've been watching (87)

fitted sheet.

I live in a recliner. I sleep here.
Between the leather finish
And my clothes is a maroon-colored
fitted sheet.

The idea is that I be comfortable,
Not sitting up. But bedded singly
Here where I live.
Comfortably healing.

When I sleep, the meadows turn
Inaccurate enough to seem
Beatitudes. My memory is offered
A reprieve from sadness.

I hear the air machine
Remove the separation between
Tenor and bass. I hear
Neutrality become a perfect window.

Noun that I've been watching (86)

Soup.

He discerns the shared avidity for sumptuous and seasoned warmth
Together in an afternoon the reach of this
The pure young sweet tea
And the stories that descend mid-day as light
Goes spare Novemberly
With embers coming to the night
With shadows of a factual happiness

The softer our return to selves
The finer the detail and the more accurate
The versions of our treasured store of risk
The intonation of a brother's voice
The safety of a loved one
The gem tones of a voice so sure in its harmonic blend

One episode is all I see
And everything returns: his limelight flavored
Lime, his laugh, his confidence a mirror
Of my tendency to like the same things
Sung, retrieved, made younger than first versions
When we just embarked and wondered what next
For the world we thought we whimmed into true north.

There is a sentence in the heart that eases into place
The fact of nourishment and pause
To live within this moment as it purifies,
Growing continually recognizable amid derivatives
Like recollection and hypothesis,
Unbound into a just and perfect autumn
Dazzling in its softened colors
Tame to eyelight, swift and soft and sure.

Noun that I've been watching (85)

white noise.

hospitality fosters
well-tempered syllables
that we might form theme
and variation pieces
of uninterrupted night,

repealing the inflected
daylight parsing
harsh noise upon
fields and trees
and flapping
plastic of car lots.

cool November owns
night quiet spaces,
evening the fractures
made by windows
rubbed beyond
the point of clarity.

Noun that I've been watching (84)

duct tape.

what I thought
I would not say
I said so you
would recognize
reorganize
chastise
compare contrast the is
with is-not
in the mind of
the beheld

when I think of stepping back
letting you go
my body dances a mild dance
my heart remembers safety
that was not safe
I keep my eyes fastened
on you and on
your face

I factor an invented
kindness that I might
attribute to your place
within me
harsh magnetic
laced with residue

Ruta

flinders
sunk
drat
mule
comb dust




Mano

índice
pulgar y pulgas
martillo largo
carne y cumbre




Meld

fold your tune
bet belter
issue loath
paw
and pause




Lung

“pensive” rice
sat clown
blat it all
crisp tongue


John M. Bennett

Noun that I've been watching (83)

sandpaper.

hermit edges out vehicular
approaches

terrain's a wildie
one blows open doors windows

windblown follicles reverse the charge
unless you will unhand

the law of similars offers finally
magician work

whatever works reviles philosophy
that needs a coat

of paint (little to say except
surface rarely deceives, being

of course one step away from
one step away

Noun that I've been watching (82)

graph.

primary colors and their kin
bliss the page.
I have an appointment
to be tested
for my capture
of the phrasal wavelength
of absorption by sight.

I was forty years old
when the eyes were freed
of their deep brown
and started taking in.

vividity shames
dowd. it is simple
to be noticed, far more
difficult to dovetail
knowing and being known.

look at the river
from up here
and see land
being carved away.

there is a mark
and an absence
of a mark.

there are colors
shifting with the volume
of light
and spawn of shadow.

there are particulates
both seen and unseen.

there is the trumpet player
framed in a neat white
window.

everyone speaks
of how he plays.
perhaps we each
imagine him
fixated on the page
of notes.

perhaps he hears
by heart.

Noun that I've been watching (81)

report.

isn't any envy packed with lore scape
concentrated overage
and tribal few.

in a minute, pages
will elapse and
veto impulse
qualified
rapport comme ca
"as you were"

vindicable so-so
praxis punch points
local veerage
and topeka lower case
"what's wrong with"
this long list of of of

corpus crease
and leaky vintage
opus twelve
until I fall
no fault of our own
owned

repetition cloaked
penciled in
minimal revered
repair and flocked
like trees
at winter noon

give a preemptive
launch pore
in a minute
honey
fractions
freaking
fallen
few

speculum
retreat
and pored
across

stems
roots
earth
sans
blister
sans
evidence
of any
kinder

Noun that I've been watching (80)

other people.

oath of off(ice)
ornery as the pro
nun
cia
shun of the negative "un"
by friends who would say "on"

the trills within
boat float
begin with all
benignity

the stigma
of a whale
of a lot of
(fun),
(talent),
(good looks)
lock in
(lock down)
the free ex
press (i)on
of and of and of

it all a
mounts to
other people
windowing and windowed
down upon by these eyes
(made for melodic equals)

parts of whole
begun song thus
begin to seem
the whole
figment of speech
while docile moves
(by docents sipping their
dos equis)

capsize combines
in the faltering
tall season
of july

shrapnel (death knell)
simpering
retrieves the what from
"you're made of"
and 'vinces all the chap(erone)s
of an inverted depth
(perception being all the rage)

defining on the page
the world stage
slathering on redemption
in the wool mood of a pseudonym
as nimble as a reach toward
hemispheres with luck in them

Noun that I've been watching (79)

eyes.

cream carefree daylight
framed in windows
salts oncoming rain.

we match solitudes
and watch daylight
hatch a natural
wafer line
of overcast.

if a wave were here
to nest the craft
slipped by
we would avoid
deciphering
sealed observations
thin along lined
paper our collective
mood brought down
by branches in the motion
of our atmosphere.

leaves interfere with
verticals and capsized
places lit along
script fallen on the sand.
a divot cradled
has been lost to scenery
just where it landed.

any day now consolation
will fall forward
in the dim contagion
loftier than spun light
given sumptuous turns
of partial light
revealing damages by thirds.

Noun that I've been watching (78)

window.

the occupation of transparency
endorses playthings
as though elastic
pertained to
the disarmament of fate
and knowing
served a function

if breath taken
goes unmeasured
does the being
live

emotion equals evidence
of tedium: a person
with an open window
in our shared night
puts away the dishes

the procedure resembles
large-scale trash
collection from a distance
greater than
the distance I infer

by morning there will be
a surfeit of light
presuming rain has been
perspired away

I sleep to texts
of Merton letting go
the cravings
one imposes

I still desire
Gethsemani
as a holding cell
for a soul
about to have
preceded its own
happiness

Noun that I've been watching (77)

Obedience.

Not quaint,
yet patterned
to evoke the structure
within strictures
at a glance plus
into depths.

Surface prompts
arrive with in
here nt drill
to pry
response.

A deity should be
preceded by
definite article.

Command form iso
lates reciprocal
relationship.

Isotopical unseen resplendence
does not dignify
the self by
knighting
singularity.

Contemplation maims
fluency misdialed
into a flurry of
solipsistic lone
notations
only partially
worth keeping.

In keeping with
the fray of forwarding
within illusive
time strictures.

Infinity has pulse,
drives home,
divides
into itself
beyond itself
as Heisenberg
would plant
some likelihood.

Noun that I've been watching (76)

Beverly.

Evensong favors horizon,
as if memory perspired
a shadow of itself
as object.

Voice holds still
on tone melodic
as a sine wave,
accurate the way

Beauty is true to form
all-inclusiveness
that feels right
all the way to the left margin.

Just past summer
is the path to clarity,
when friends begin
to learn perspective

A modicum of light attracts
companion darkness,
until the blend emits
a clear delineation.

Smoke across the grass,
the act of walking through
the woods along the gray
blacktop seeing where people live.

Noun that I've been watching (75)

statue.

flow of blue to white where tones lap.

generous cloth, the floor arranged with folds atop.

premises gleaned from breath deflect the art in integers.

flair absent from planes allows a forthing syllable to pave.

sentence at a time, toward serenity.

chapter versed in capital where flounces have been wept upon.

one parses desire into the syllables to magnify contentment.

soft awhile followed by well defined.

Noun that I've been watching (74)

Refusal.

Name your first born after
my innocence,
and tell me
of ribbons and yarn.

I promise to believe in
the impossibility
of holding on forever
to the purity
on her behalf.

A person practices
on behalf of taller persons
the embodiment of permanence.
That the older individuals
may dance around
their failures.

Watch the child's impatience
to distance herself
from cleanliness
that in first person
feels like inattention.

Noun that I've been watching (73)

Year.

One keeps returning to
beginning point
as place the psyche
(choose your verb)
"penetrates"
"absorbs"
"embraces"
"defines"
"nicknames"

Timetables are no time to talk, or they are nothing
other than


What has been introduced leads to what has been misperceived.
Third prize: a matching set of diamond cuff links
First prize: random instability
Inquiring minds lip off to probabilities of mink outlets
and surplus salt.

The majesty injected in your borrowed blood veins comes to be
a mere commodity for which derivatives emerge like rain water
through a gutter spout, a rather vulgar image, if I must say,
cluttering an otherwise sweet out
pouring of verbiage.

Here comes a lane of words to ride into another tense.
Here comes a cart powered by a man's young bike legs taking you to parks.
Here comes the river on its own and it's your job to name it something.

As when a service has concluded and the clerk declares:
"You're good to go!"

Noun that I've been watching (72)

cement.

a painter just came by and found the artwork finished.
nothing anyone could see except the artist,
primed to locate what and where the art was.
she said a few words, nodded to herself, and left.

what about the paint that might have made the surface different
from its gray?
it was as though her mind desired it.
it was as though the gray met her perception of an art.
would she agree to given instruction on deciphering
a path, a highway, or a view beyond the tops of trees?

indifference would be some kind of repeat dream
or revisioning.
finding the artwork when the work has been completed
by another is an art itself.

it would be worth asking so many questions,
each of which would yield an answer that could be a painting,
would be perfectly enough.
I want that skill.
I want new paintings.
I want a coffin for the pieces to be held.
where they are certified to be regarded
as safe art for all eternity.