ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS

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  keyword(s) in poems:

Sequence: 19

FOLLOW AS A CONSEQUENCE
the migrators...


HIS EYES
Grant shades his eyes. He can see what could happen. He knows...


AT THE SOUTH UNION CEMETERY
my shadow entangled with the other shadows...


GINSENG
a pair of golden hands...


MY PRIZES MY AWARDS MY HONORS
that reading those decades ago...


IF I HAD TO
if I had to walk...


AFTER THE SUN HAS GONE DOWN
three bright things:...


DONE
the hand strokes...


10/14/11
a fire burns fiercely...


WHAT OTHERS THINK
no longer matters...


WHOLE LIFE
day of cold rain then late afternoon...


COMMUNICATION
I pray to God as if...


CHANGES
I had hoped to be different...


OUT FROM TO
out of love of self of family of books...


3x5 SNAPSHOT
Five Buzzards on the lawn, all related to me. The black clothing...


untitled
lax...


AFTERPARTY
moon just down...


THIRST
it must be one of the spells cast on us...


12/10/11
sky and pavement both clear...


12/15/11
rain all night storming on the roof...


TO PASS THE TIME
I thought of pretending it was 35 years ago but I couldn't...


A SIDE TRIP
road but a few ride on...


THEORY OF NOTHING
afternoon...


WHILE WAITING FOR THE TEST RESULTS
you can play solitaire...


OLD WOOD
branch to branch...


TO DUST
dust I will leave you alone again...


LOCAL HISTORY
walking to the monroe county public library...


ECHO
if when following an echo...


CARRY WHAT
every extinction respects...


SHAMASH
was a name we gave to the sun...


A FIELD OF BOXES
its owner the one who lives far away...


OLD DUST ON OLD BOOKS
there really was only ever the one way home...


THE LONG STRETCH
out of those southern marshes and shores...


OLD AND NEW
I complain of my own clumsiness...


TENDER
when the fire sinks low a little stirring helps...


OBSERVATIONAL
the starvation of our time looks like...


WHAT IT IS LIKE NOW
mid-writing mid-word the one...


FEELINGS AND FACTS
The footprint left in clay today--...


AMONGST US
paper burns...


JUST ANOTHER GRAVE
distinguished as they all are...


REPORT TO MYSELF
the fevers nightly for a week...


A BOOK OF CLASSIC ERRORS
if your name is not listed...


COSMIC
the worldless water...


THIS SHINING
this life so rich with coincidence...


THE COOLDOWN
everything piled into the drought has been wiped away...


MY BED
my grandma's blind stroking of the table...


7/29/12
this summer is tougher than its trees...


untitled
there was a man walking with his bag on his back...


NIGHT SKY
in a number that makes naming unmanageable...


WHAT DO I KNOW?
years past and far away behind me...


untitled
his own language...


LESSON
the young deer in my yard...


POEM ENDING WITH WHAT I JUST ATE
record the seasons...


untitled
that boulder shrugging up...


STEPPING OUTDOORS AFTER WAKING
looking at the almost light...


10/10/12
a record of what happened...


ALMOST A YEAR SINCE MY MOTHER DIED
some restless leaves fill the air...


NEWS
new light new air the chatter...


11/1/12
this early now momentous and young...

WHILE WAITING FOR THE TEST RESULTS

you can play solitaire
you can check your email or text someone
you can post the update "I am waiting for my test results"
you can listen to the music
in a more than superficial way
to discover if listening deeply makes the music deep
you can put on competing music to see what that's like

periodically you are praised for your patience
but remember that patience like any virtue
must be exercised to be strong
practice your patience till it is in every breath

while waiting for your test results
you can fry an egg but be careful
not only with your hands but with your attention
so that if the voice in your ear
goes live you do not ruin the egg through inattention

you can read a book or as we say now a text
for the thing itself can be presented in many forms
but each manifestation is presumed to be
the same in essence as any other
so we need one word to refer to any manifestation of the thing
remember if this is what you choose to do while waiting
it is better to think of yourself as reading a text

also remember while waiting
that any test result is only a picture of a moment in time
the metaphor we used to use was "snapshot"
you could do better on a later test or worse
and you should think of your results as a guide
to your choices about future behavior 
or opportunities or disasters
not as a definition of who you are or what chance you have
they do not confine you to only one future
but they are your results after all
they belong to no one else
they can't be taken from you
once they are given to you after a period of waiting


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