something to Blog-about

Hello Dear Readers -- with the thought
that my poor blog, which has suffered
such neglect, deserves a more frequent
replenishment, here's today's post in
my long-running timed poem-exchange with
the young New York poet Jordan Rome.

15

11:05 a.m.

FIFTEEN MINUTE POEM

In the first three minutes,
with nothing, really, to say,
I'll breathe, seek aspiration,
hope to pass as someone somewhat loveable.

Along about minute four
there will gather a certain trepidation
(since words -- given time-scheme -- must shortly arrive)
and so will stir, strive

through two full minutes of my Fifteen Minute Poem:
note how I grew, studied, married,
suffered, divorced...
God-awful stuff to score through at once,

and in the next six minutes write
furiously as dark chords resound
my default Fifteen Minute Poem
which yet again will praise

wu wei, guys, doing nothing, letting it be,
living in my socks, no sweat, faking
enlightenment
in my as-if way.

11:20

- b
---

MEANDERING POEMS

As a kind of exercise I've been experimenting
with light-hearted poems that slide from one
notation to another in pursuit of play on
sober "commentary."

I think such poems are likely the work of my
heteronym ZAYRE KASERLA, whose single
publication -- THE COMPLETE POEMS OF
ZAYRE KASERLA BY BARRY SPACKS --
may someday appear.

An example:


WATER

What is this thing about water? it's all over the place.
When they worry about Mars it's always
"Is there water?"

Consider how everybody would lighten up
if they'd hush about the sea, la mar
touched by moonlight,

or just stopped saying
"Much of our bodies are water"
or "Water finds its own level." This is true,

and there's washing of various body parts
to account for the stuff's popularity,
plus, come to think of it, cataracts

and wells and rafting
and have I mentioned kayaks?
all of these would go unsung, so maybe

it's asking too much to shut up about water,
for it's hard to imagine a single comment
about Hawaii surviving if we went that way.