– Hydra, Greece, September 1999
A PUERTO RICAN SONG
‘The Devil’s Broken Heart’
that was the song
and it was the Devil singing it
and whoever heard that song
would never be the same
and in every heart
of those men and women who heard
‘The Devil’s Broken Heart’
the weakness weakened
and the Christ of Love strengthened
and people went to bed that night
holding on to each other
like everything else was death
I listened to it
with Armand and Oscar Dorente
and Kathy Hanking
and a lot of other people
I’ve never seen again
BOOGIE STREET
A sip of wine, a cigarette,
and then it’s time to go
I tidied up the kitchenette.
I tuned the old banjo.
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
They’re saving me a seat.
I’m what I am, and what I am,
is back on Boogie Street.
And O my love, I still recall
the pleasures that we knew;
the rivers and the waterfall
wherein I bathed with you.
Bewildered by your beauty there
I’d kneel to dry your feet.
By such instructions you prepare
a man for Boogie Street.
So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
in love we disappear.
Tho’ all the maps of blood and flesh
are posted on the door,
there’s no one who has told us yet
what Boogie Street is for.
O Crown of Light, O Darkened One,
I never thought we’d meet.
You kiss my lips, and then it’s done:
I’m back on Boogie Street.
A LIMITED DEGREE
As soon as I understood
(even to a limited degree)
that this is G-d’s world
I began to lose weight
immediately
At this very moment
I am wearing
my hockey uniform
from the Sixth Grade
A LIFE OF ERRANDS
If You Are Lucky
You Will Grow Old
And Live
A Life Of Errands.
You Will Discern
What People Need
And Provide It
Before They Ask.
You Will Drive Your Car
Here And There
Delivering And Fetching
And Neither The Traffic
Nor The Weather
Will Bother You
In The Least.
You Will Whip Down
The 405
To San Diego
To Pick Up An Acorn
For Someone’s Proverb
And So On And So Forth.
In Spite Of The Ache
In Your Heart
About The Girl You
Never Found
And The Fact That
After Years Of
Spiritual Rigour
You Did Not Manage
To Enlighten Yourself
A Certain Cheerfulness
Will Begin To
Arise Out Of Your Crushed
Hopes And Intentions.
How Thirstily
You Embrace Your
Next Commission:
To Sift Through
The Sunglasses
At A Lost And Found
In Las Vegas
Just A Few Hours
Across The Desert.
Your Hair Is White
You Have Breasts
And A Gut
Over Your Belt
You Are No Longer A Boy,
Or Even A Man
But A Sense Of Gratitude
Enlivens Every Move
You Make.
Yes, Sir, These Are The
Very Gold-Rimmed Pair
She Left In The Plastic Tray
Beside The Dollar
Slot Machines.
No, Sir, I Am Not Lying.
WISH ME LUCK
a fresh spiderweb
billowing
like a spinnaker
across the open window
and here he is
the little master
sailing by
on a thread of milk
wish me luck
admiral
I haven’t finished anything
in a long time
MISSION
I’ve worked at my work
I’ve slept at my sleep
I’ve died at my death
And now I can leave
Leave what is needed
And leave what is full
Need in the Spirit
And need in the Hole
Beloved, I’m yours
As I’ve always been
From marrow to pore
From longing to skin
Now that my mission
Has come to its end:
Pray I’m forgiven
The life that I’ve led
The Body I chased
It chased me as well
My longing’s a place
My dying a sail
RELIGIOUS STATUES
After a while
I started playing with dolls
I loved their peaceful expressions
They all had their places
in a corner of Room 315
I would say to myself:
It doesn’t matter
that Leonard can’t breathe
that he is hopelessly involved
in the panic of the situation
I’d light a cigarette
and a stick of Nag Champa
Both would burn too fast
in the draft of the ceiling fan
Then I might say
something like:
Thank You
for the terms of my life
which make it so painlessly clear
that I am powerless
to do anything
and I’d watch CNN
the rest of the night
but now
from a completely different
point of view
one of the dolls
WHAT DID IT
An acquaintance told me
that the great sage
Nisargadatta Maharaj
once offered him a cigarette,
“Thank you, sir, but I don’t smoke.”
“Don’t smoke?” said the master,
“What’s life for?”
THE CIGARETTE ISSUE
This is beginning again
and like the first time
the girl’s name is Claire
and she’s French
But this time
the boy’s name is Jikan
and he’s an old man
It’s not Greece any more
it’s India
the new place for unhappiness
but this time
the boy is not unhappy
with his unhappiness
and Claire also has noticed
that the boy
is sixty-five years old
But what is exactly the same
is the promise, the beauty
and the salvation
of cigarettes
the little Parthenon
of an opened pack of cigarettes
and Mumbai, like the Athens
of forty years ago
is a city to smoke in
Well, that’s enough for now
I will be able to love her
and also love the rest of my life
from my experience with books
I MISS MY MOTHER
I want to bring her to India
And buy her
Gold and jewels
I want to hear her sigh
For the poor in the street
And marvel
At the unforgiving greyness
Of the Arabian Sea
She was right about everything
Including my foolish guitar
And where it got me
She would make sense of
The cotton flags
The sorrows of the port
The arches of the past
She’d pat my little head
And bless my dirty song
THOUSANDS
Out of the thousands
who are known,
or who want to be known
as poets,
maybe one or two
are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say
I am one of the fakes,
and this is my story.
MY BABY WASN’T THERE
My Baby wasn’t there
When I went to test Her love
But She’ll be there today
I pray to G-d above
I’ll sneak a look or two
And if I see Her melt
I’ll know that it was true
This feeling that I felt
My heart is like a thorn
Hers is like a Tree
My heart is dry and torn
Hers a Canopy
I’ve been up all night
And all I’ve got is this
I know that it’s not right
But nothing really is
She’s there at Her Machine
I’ll tiptoe down the aisle
And if it’s meant to be
She’ll greet me with a Smile
Then I’ll be so happy
I’ll live another day
I’ll thank Her for Her Charity
And then I’ll limp away
DUSKO’S TAVERNA 1967
They are still singing down at Dusko’s,
sitting under the ancient pine tree,
in the deep night of fixed and falling stars.
If you go to your
