Shaped barely by the
Moon’s pale serving
Of a foreign daylight
In a chair
A field
Laid bare in the
Solemn custody
Of mountains
In this kindled country
I cannot help myself
I cannot hear a living
Thing against
The bellowing
Atomic threat of the
Atomic threat I fear
Not death
But my heart would
Break to cease
My daughters
Having never seen America
Pedestrian attempt to slay
The former president elect
And everyone was wrong
And everyone correct
The last first and first last
Chance to jump the flaming
Schooner or mutiny
Astonishing
A furious returning
To America
To raise the meek
The hurt
Yea even the unhungry poor
A national compassion
Even love
Every tongue and people
Equal in Thy fielding love
But Lord
I know
Thy word
And see
No agreed end
To the computer
The mongering
Of whores
Of war and rumors of it
Mock of God
God of Mammon
Promise hollow
As the promiser
The bag
The industries
Banal immystery
Of greed
Soil spoiled bountifully
Food unfit for beasts
Unseemly in the noneyes
Of bacteria
In unmanageable excess
In this poverse
Age
Of
Orbs over suburbia
Intelligences in the sea
Artificially
Of consequence
The unassuming
Cancer chemical
Hushed addictions
Honored minds
In secret combination
Against innocence
Wouldst Thou spare the little ones
Would we be spared by them
Changed by their detergent hearts
Dear God
Suffer them to suffer
Less or if not less then
Armed with wholer minds
I would be more
Childlike
I would change
Yea in Thy courage
I would be a martyr Lord
I would drink the whole supply
Of fluoride in Thy name
Improve the living quality
By some depressing margin
If that would make
Thee happy
I would gladly drink
I would die a handsome lamb
But
Already paid
In blood pristine
The ransom
Fallen distance
Closed in
Infinite
Atonement
Forgive me for
I constantly forget
The Resurrected Christ
The Lamb
So leaning on my own
Misunderstanding
My unproven hands
And will He come
Yea He will come
And at the second
Of His coming
I will sparkle
Walking bootless
Through the levellings
I will wash His feet
And by His blessing
Skipping plains
And foothills leaping
Gathering His diverged sheep
Gathering myself
Back
To the Good Green Shepherd
Joy ever unfolding
In the fold
And I am but
The least I am but
Here Lord is
My lung
My other lung
My fragile mind
And geographic tongue
My love of
Beauty
Truth
Unrelative
My poems
Leafed and stupid
This one overwrought
And so political
So what
So long
My swagger
My symbols
My boots
My forthcoming nothing
Yea all upon the altar
Wrapped up in that gorgeous flag
I raised as a boy
Replacing it when torn
Or dragged upon the ground
Over which it waved
I still know how to fold the flag
1. Halve it lengthwise twice
2. Bring the striped corner
Of the folded edge
To the open edge
To form a triangle
3. Turn inward the outer point
Parallel with the open edge
To form a second triangle
4. Fold the length remaining
In a final triangle until
The outside shows
A blue field clean with stars
I may be misremembering
I remember most
The reverence
And now
Returning
Lord
I would give Thee all
Walk all ways Thou wouldst
I would walk the Earth content
But not unlonging for America
This strange and swooning land
Thy children living here
Americans
My darlings
My love so poorly tendered
So profane at times
And yet
Beloved
Beyond my
Self captivity
I am
In America
The animals
American
Landscapes
Presiding clouds
Pretending likeness
The all life
Singing
In Thy solar tongue
Thy language plain
Thy grammar just
Thy consciousness
Begotten
Lord
As Thou art perfect
Make me perfect
And if it be Thy will
Let it happen in America
And tomorrow
As I walk down
The throat of August
I confront a lizard
Long and sheening in the sun
His shorn tail returning
Young and undeformed
Behold
A tiny tail grows back
Does he even know
Does he know this is the place
Does he know he is
The hope
The proof
The soft and blinking
Elegance of thy plan
OF HAPPINESS
Moon’s pale serving
Of a foreign daylight
In a chair
A field
Laid bare in the
Solemn custody
Of mountains
In this kindled country
I cannot help myself
I cannot hear a living
Thing against
The bellowing
Atomic threat of the
Atomic threat I fear
Not death
But my heart would
Break to cease
My daughters
Having never seen America
Pedestrian attempt to slay
The former president elect
And everyone was wrong
And everyone correct
The last first and first last
Chance to jump the flaming
Schooner or mutiny
Astonishing
A furious returning
To America
To raise the meek
The hurt
Yea even the unhungry poor
A national compassion
Even love
Every tongue and people
Equal in Thy fielding love
But Lord
I know
Thy word
And see
No agreed end
To the computer
The mongering
Of whores
Of war and rumors of it
Mock of God
God of Mammon
Promise hollow
As the promiser
The bag
The industries
Banal immystery
Of greed
Soil spoiled bountifully
Food unfit for beasts
Unseemly in the noneyes
Of bacteria
In unmanageable excess
In this poverse
Age
Of
Orbs over suburbia
Intelligences in the sea
Artificially
Of consequence
The unassuming
Cancer chemical
Hushed addictions
Honored minds
In secret combination
Against innocence
Wouldst Thou spare the little ones
Would we be spared by them
Changed by their detergent hearts
Dear God
Suffer them to suffer
Less or if not less then
Armed with wholer minds
I would be more
Childlike
I would change
Yea in Thy courage
I would be a martyr Lord
I would drink the whole supply
Of fluoride in Thy name
Improve the living quality
By some depressing margin
If that would make
Thee happy
I would gladly drink
I would die a handsome lamb
But
Already paid
In blood pristine
The ransom
Fallen distance
Closed in
Infinite
Atonement
Forgive me for
I constantly forget
The Resurrected Christ
The Lamb
So leaning on my own
Misunderstanding
My unproven hands
And will He come
Yea He will come
And at the second
Of His coming
I will sparkle
Walking bootless
Through the levellings
I will wash His feet
And by His blessing
Skipping plains
And foothills leaping
Gathering His diverged sheep
Gathering myself
Back
To the Good Green Shepherd
Joy ever unfolding
In the fold
And I am but
The least I am but
Here Lord is
My lung
My other lung
My fragile mind
And geographic tongue
My love of
Beauty
Truth
Unrelative
My poems
Leafed and stupid
This one overwrought
And so political
So what
So long
My swagger
My symbols
My boots
My forthcoming nothing
Yea all upon the altar
Wrapped up in that gorgeous flag
I raised as a boy
Replacing it when torn
Or dragged upon the ground
Over which it waved
I still know how to fold the flag
1. Halve it lengthwise twice
2. Bring the striped corner
Of the folded edge
To the open edge
To form a triangle
3. Turn inward the outer point
Parallel with the open edge
To form a second triangle
4. Fold the length remaining
In a final triangle until
The outside shows
A blue field clean with stars
I may be misremembering
I remember most
The reverence
And now
Returning
Lord
I would give Thee all
Walk all ways Thou wouldst
I would walk the Earth content
But not unlonging for America
This strange and swooning land
Thy children living here
Americans
My darlings
My love so poorly tendered
So profane at times
And yet
Beloved
Beyond my
Self captivity
I am
In America
The animals
American
Landscapes
Presiding clouds
Pretending likeness
The all life
Singing
In Thy solar tongue
Thy language plain
Thy grammar just
Thy consciousness
Begotten
Lord
As Thou art perfect
Make me perfect
And if it be Thy will
Let it happen in America
And tomorrow
As I walk down
The throat of August
I confront a lizard
Long and sheening in the sun
His shorn tail returning
Young and undeformed
Behold
A tiny tail grows back
Does he even know
Does he know this is the place
Does he know he is
The hope
The proof
The soft and blinking
Elegance of thy plan
OF HAPPINESS