BETTER GET WISE AGAIN

                                                -1-
                             Be in awe of the tiny things under your paws.
                          A bit angry.  Why wasn’t I told?
                    Who ‘owns’ memories,  anyway.    Are we finished yet?
             ‘Everything’ is poetry, animated, kicking its heels.
          Insects in the branches of the Xmas fir.
                          Squabble during supper over who gets to tell the story—
                     you keep INTERRUPTING me—
                 Dinner guest is charmed, I’m sure.
        Thank William Carlos Williams.


                                                    -2-
                     The last day before the New Year melancholic,
                          with very shitty grass
          causing anxiety over duplicity of self—a powerless funk
                     over predatory capitalism.  With its security hypes.
             Becoming intoxicated on New Year’s eve I vow
        to be more modest.  Apologies don’t cut the cake.


                                                -3-
                              We need more action here.
                          Cook some white beans and ham.
             Meta data hanging on a pig’s thigh
        connected to the global air.  Does it give you pleasure?


                                                    -4-
                     Sailing under the Golden Gate cool on a cool day
                 cast over with tremulous news.
        The doctor got tired of listening to her
                          Am I okay? she said,     as he walked out the door.


                                              -5-
                             Summer is finally here and it’s   January
                    on the North Coast—along with the new ‘intelligence’ of climate—
                          with its ability to respond to changes
        of what we call ‘our environment’.


                                                -6-
                                  Drought time…
                        150 household gallons per  day
             Try drinking that much.  Renew your passport.  Bend over.
        This won’t take a minute.


                                                    -7-
                                       Within  the Poetics of Interconnectedness
             the morning sun  appears over the rim of the book.
      The world  seen as object and story—
                         constant online reassurances that one  exists
                         —constant management of self.









Joanne Kyger's poetry is influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and the place where she lives. She is notably linked to Black Mountain College, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat poets of the 1950s and 60s. Kyger has published more than thirty collections of poetry, including Going On: Selected Poems 1958-1980 (1983), As Ever: Selected Poems (2002), and About Now: Collected Poems (2007), NOT VERACRUZ (2007). She is also the author of Strange Big Moon: Japan and India Journals 1960-1964 (1981). Her next collection, ON TIME, will be published by City Lights Books, spring 2015. Kyger teaches at the Summer program of Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. She lives in Bolinas, California.