My 2014 New Year poem

LESSONS FROM 2014

For your information, when

you eat things they go into you.

I learned this last year.

This year, however,

I cannot write a poem. I just

can’t do it. My dog skids

around on the ice outside,

I’m bleeding the radiator

with fifty leeches, seismologists

curl at the foot of my bed,

episodes of F Troop are shot

in my living room, guppies

do tricks in the depths

of my teacup, plus:

confusion is the basic unit

of all living organisms. It has

been dubbed the building block

of life. A single confusion

divides to produce two daughter

confusions. Let’s pack a lunch,

pile into the station wagon

and sit in the driveway.

In closing, then:

Blank sheets of paper

scribble poems on me.

A lamp throws a shadow

into the wastebasket.

The radiance of the night

is just about endless.

Stuart Ross

Wednesday, January 1, 2014