Fools' Canzone

we are fools

for thinking we can live

new day, new page, new stanza — fools

you’re a fool, I’m a fool, both fools

at our age to want

ship of, game of, gown & cap of fools

pendejo, she says, what fools

to think someone might listen to

your remnant self, listen to

someone who fools

themself by making every new day a new song

poesis, ποίησις, making song

word machine singing a song

oh merry band of fools

whistle the hemi semi demi quavers of our song

hum & dance the color of morning song

as long as we both shall live

bluebird song

purple martin song

no matter how much we want

thou shalt not want

as long as we dance & sing our song

tip an ear, bend a knee to listen to

rain on light, oh bard, listen to

stirrings of beasts at night, listen to

dusk for owl’s sacred song

when sleep won’t come listen to

sacred om listened to

by sager fools

than I — Chinese poets listened to

jars of wine down to the lees, listened to

rivers & stars to learn to live

without the means to live

to make words we still listen to

about want

how what we want

surpasses even what gods who have everything want

sounds of the earth they listen to

pedestrian commotion they want

mortal creatures they want

to touch, to taste, to transform into song

chaste laurel Apollo wants

gadfly-pestered heifer Zeus wants

idle shepherds chortle & fart at such fools

for love, fools

pursuing what they think they want

this morning’s gold dawn is where I live

bacon, fresh egg from a live

chicken, bushes alive

with small brown birds that want

merely a few seeds to live

can mere words suffice for the rest of my life to live

by? listening to

the child who sings to live

listening to her sing the days she lives

whatever fills her head is song

not carrying a tune makes no difference to her song

the middle of her singing is where I live

no fools

like old fools

machinations of blind listening fools

we write our poems to live

the only way we want

every morning wake to listen to
new song