Joanne Kyger

'The best thing about the past

is that it's over'
...

You know when you write poetry you find
the architecture of your lineage your teachers
like Robert Duncan for me gave me some glue for the heart
Beats which gave confidence
...

Your heart is fine feeling the widest
possible empathy for the day and its inhabitants
...

Into the party, with engraved invitations, I am bored when
I realize the champagne in the decrepit bowl is going to get
filled up a lot. Well then, on the greens in front of the
Mansion are walking Tom Clark and Ted Berrigan, what chums!
...

Morning is such a welcome time. It doesn't demand
much from the pocket- Some coffee, a cigarette,
and the day starts, full of optimism & clarity of hope
While the Muse holds her head, and the crazy Elementals
...

I reject as absolutely false all opinion in which I have the least doubt.
As our senses often deceive us I assume they show us illusion, and must
reject them. As reason is subject to error, and who can offer more living
proof of that than I, I must reject the faculty or reason.
...

In a room getting ready for a party
with Dotty,
Ducan MacNaughton comes in and says
'Stephen Rodefer is on his way here to kill you!
...

The grasses are light brown
and ocean comes in
long shimmering lines
under the fleet from last night
...

I saw the
dead bird on the sidewalk
his neck uncovered
and prehistoric
...

In Tamalpais is a big crystal. An acquaintance told
me the story. A Miwok was giving his grandfather’s medicine
bag to the Kroeber Museum in Berkeley. He said this man
took him over the mountain Tamalpais, at a certain time
...

Well, you had to find it some
where another person passed simplicity
on to you, the practice of some syllables
the position of a seated body and you believe
...

what I wanted to say
was in the broad
sweeping
form of being there
...

'these are extraordinary times'
so we can do whatever we want ha ha
...

It was a beautiful golden day
Now a black split shape
scuttles under
de foot. So long, Sayonara.
...

I woke up about 2:30 this morning and thought about Philip's
hat.
It is bright lemon yellow, with a little brim
all the way around, and a lime green hat band,
...

'Oh Man is the highest type of animal existing
or known to have existed
but differs from other animals
more in his extraordinary mental
...

I wonder what the ocean is like today?
Cold and flat, hot and flat?
Cold and whippy,, tide out, in? The sand
will be warm, I'm sure
...

He is pruning the privet

of sickly sorrow desolation
in loose pieces of air he goes clip clip clip
the green blooming branches fall—‘they’re getting out
...

It unfolds and ripples like a banner, downward. All the stories
come folding out. The smells and flowers begin to come back, as
the tapestry is brightly colored and brocaded. Rabbits and
...

Here in Oaxaca it's the Night of the Radishes
Now I wave from the green
balcony above the gardenia
in my shoes without socks the sun
...