10.17.2021
to sit
with some
hunger
is best
*
didactic
exacts
a high price
of the one
who speaks it
*
do
& don’t
as dew
& light
* *
10.19.2021
have you
hit
your stride
*
this
is all
there is
*
i’ve
had enough
*
if we call out quietly
for joy & peace & healing
*
some joined the circle
& others
stood outside &
observed
*
ripple
effect
*
body
makes
its own way
* *
10.20.2021
i don’t know
how i know
which words
it will be
*
sooner
or
later
*
what
would you
like to know
*
imbued
with a truthful
spirit
*
mind again
locked in contraries
steps back
to have a look
*
we had paper
we had pens
& coins to spend
*
so i am not
so alone
this writing
reaches out to you
*
between the prior
& the next
this day fits flush
*
death
especially my own
is quite unappealing
*
yes
empty
but packed full
* *
12.9.2021
sit
with what arises
knowing
it is not yours
*
come what may
this
is what we say
*
in
fits
& starts
*
morning
turning
from sunshine
to cloud cover
a front
is on the way
or so they say
*
whose mind
is this
* *
12.11.2021
i am
here
once
with you
once
with you
i am
here
*
it happened
this morning
tomorrow
something else will happen
*
he was
as some are
a fine
& cranky poet
who lived far away
perhaps in Kyoto
& for a living
he sold ice cream
*
there are many ways now
to live in a cave
& stare at a wall
*
no matter what he said
about the disappearance of the ego
& sacred eastern texts
this young one’s
energy & judgments
were out of control
*
i have
more than enough
teachers
(& so do you)
some living
some dead
*
he carried with him
the sacred text
from place to place
reading it aloud
seeing
who
might take it to heart
*
no one knows
what happened
to the missing page
*
his daughter
was the one
playing beatles songs
at the farmers market
*
stories
expand
& contract
just like breathing
/ / / / /
With no recollection of how or when he received the beautiful brown leather-bound notebook, Lazer’s P I E C E S is at once a book-length meditation in brief fragments and a response to the first page that had already been written in the found notebook. That first page describes a ritual for speaking to God; it was written by Lazer’s uncle, Stan Goodman, a neurosurgeon and Biblical scholar.
P I E C E S, in part an homage to Robert Creeley’s short-line poems, extends Lazer’s ongoing development of a new spiritual poetry, continuing the discoveries and questions found in his earlier books: The New Spirit, Poems that Look Just Like Poems, and field recordings of mind in morning.
To obtain a copy from the publisher, BlazeVOX, click here.