"Still Life at 19"
                        Somewhere quiet, we sit in on
                        ourselves five years ago.  Bagels

 
I have developed the following list
to help the world’s young writers
say what’s on their minds
 
and express more fully
 
just how talented they are.
Occasionally, people may not agree. I’d tell these people
knowledge is power, and my suggestions are
easy to
 
follow, hard to ignore. The
unknown is the hardest part of speaking in front of an audience.
Can you make your special masterpiece come alive? That’s something only you
know.
Every poet’s experience is different. How I

 
Bread flour
oil,
egg,
and kosher salt.
This is the formula
for a basic pasta dough.
Mix by hand, adding more flour as needed.
Allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes
as the gluten in the flour has been stretched
and would be tough,
and difficult to work with.
In the mean time,
cut and scoop the seeds
from a butternut squash.
Rub with olive oil,
season accordingly,
and roast at 350 degrees until fork tender.
Pull the cooked chicken meat
from the previous evening’s meal.
When the squash is ready,

I visited the beach
I used to go when I was a teenager.
It’s not desolate,
but it is depressing.
There must be billions of tiny mussel shells
crushed in a two mile path –
the road to Necropolis.
This represents the lives of how many bivalves?
I made love once or twice here
about thirty feet off shore
in the barely early nineties.
I was eighteen,
she was seventeen.
First loves die hard
but alas, that memory is long dead.
Thought I could tear down a mountain
one rock at a time.
Shale is deceptive
and it’s brittle,

Sometimes you
need to find 
a quiet place,
to allow your
heart to breathe.
 
Frustration is a
virus,
once you catch it
you usually
pass it on.
 
True wealth is a state of mind.
 
The door of life
is always open.
It is up to you
to walk through.
 
Time ages, healing takes effort.
 
Yesterdays accomplishments
are tomorrows beginnings.

Her eyes are
searching for answers,
there is so much she
needs to know
Why grass is green,
bees sting and how do
babies grow?
With each answer
comes another question
there is so much she
wants to learn
take the time and
understanding
for soon it will be
 her turn.

a
broken
walnut 
shell
 
at the local wishing well 
I watched Nuciv’rous Squirrel---

round his neck a splendid wreath 
with its inset oyster’s pearl---

as he brushed his porcelain teeth 
with a broken walnut shell

 
 
on a nonnock
I drove to town
 
on a nonnock
I fell down
 
on a nonnock
I leapt a building
 
in a single bound

 
 
just between
just me and
 
thee—
 
and the lovely
soapy summer’s
 
sea—
 
I know you have
never seen
 
a gyascutus
simply handsome
    me