Symbols

Bukowski had red-heads and cigars
Jeffers had hawks and stones
Hart Crane had the Brooklyn Bridge
to honour with his bones.

Ashberry had fine titles and awards
but nobody understood a word he said
except once when he was stoned
and stepped outside his head.

Now I look into that convex mirror
and see the first flecks of grey
and think to myself it is sometimes better
when there's nothing left to say.

Yet somehow I keep on writing
these bright symbols to define
the sudden moments of clarity
found deep within my mind.