MANIFESTO:
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yes to the ceremony
to poetry and its gestured gratitude
if it can be anything and nothing
then yes to collecting by the river
yes to the time the tall man said
we have nothing
and we have this
yes to mouths that sweat
to never uttering a word and watching the season flip
yes to testing a lost smell sense
to where we go wandering ourselves into the light
like compass birds flying against the white sky
to walking oneself around the sunset
taping off a corner like giving thanks to the
light cradle on the highway home
yes to sing night
sing winter
the nightly parade is red and glistening
yes to the ceremony
behind big green little pink eats his leaves
got tossed in the waves
yes to using seashells to hold back the curtains
even in the sad sleep
even as a stone we are the waves
and yes we are dancing to a silent symphony
a happy continuation day
yes to thanking the sides
just like that-- the poetry begins
and we move off stage
baby pisses possibility into her mother's mouth
and the yes inside the pears from the trees
become soft and brown
retrain their eyes
little bird
little voice
little confusion
crying an elevator journey
yes to the dress up for an always arrival
and a whimper to make the sadness soft at the bottom
wet soil below the tongue of a Sister
says yes
yes to hurling the sky
holding a voice in
can’t pull the words or tune them together
for they are stuck under a boulder in another room
and yes to listening to be impressed
yes to knowing the limbs of the stars
of the spaces between the things
yes we place and name and know
the voice downstairs ascends and descends
a horse mind yes
we are under blue sky saying nothing
and it isn't loud but it is notable
yes to mad ideas about everything
build a sill
sit at it
don’t forget you are
free
yes
the tree walks me
certain words contain childhood
others are new
yes we might get all eaten up by the people behind
and by the night
but yes it’s starless and filled
with the surface of water just catching some light
tossing it off
like gentle yes
we build-make a circle with our arms
so little fish can swim a yes-stroke
and stay with us for a long time now
yes to the small cautious feet
walk knees to the edge of a life
yes go ask Mother to recall the pattern
peer down and promise to listen to the death toll
yes to the storm below the belt
below the knees where feet don't drag
don’t even touch the earth
yes people have always gathered this way
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ye-s i rit with mi left hand and spl with mi sowl opan.