j p dancing bear
for Leslie Harrison
you say today, I’m aimless: as though you will be smashing compasses shortly: but it’s not like that: the steady hands of the clocks gesture their circles: and you feel like walking: through the crowded streets: you overhear conversations: you can’t keep them straight: one’s story is all their stories: an old man playing chess in the park: looks at you with the saddest eyes: he hands you a yellow rose: cupping your hands around it: nodding and laughing: the other old chessmen say you’re pretty: and you spend the rest of the day smelling the rose and wandering: and when you get back you pencil into your calendar: other days to be aimless
Sunday, March 20, 2011
j p dancing bear - aimless day
j p dancing bear
is the author ten collections of poetry, most recently, Family of Marsupial Centaurs (Iris Press, 2011) and Inner Cities of Gulls (2010, Salmon Poetry). His poems have been published in Mississippi Review, Third Coast, Natural Bridge, Shenandoah, New Orleans Review, Verse Daily and many other publications. He is editor for the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press. Bear also hosts the weekly hour-long poetry show, Out of Our Minds, on public station, KKUP.
