improvident

Today's Tupelo Press 30/30 poem is based on the NY Times word of the Day, improvident. I like the mystical feel of the word, but that it is a negative (im-), it turns that mysticism on its head. This is interesting to me.

improvident

"a cavity is a large force"

Lyn Hejinian, 

Writing Is an Aid to Memory

she feels like she's been

thinking for a hundred years

like she knows the mighty force

and cozy paradise

and how all things work to make her miserable

even beautiful things

(things that plump your heart

and key new sentiment

on most tired, dark faces)

sadness is your own sadness

it doesn't have bridges, or

it only works to touch what wants to

let it in

it runs faster than birds

she doesn’t even know how to run

we wonder how many times she will walk

by the healing man

watch his molecules 

disassemble and reassemble

observe the fissures and smudges of light 

that erupt through his utterances

         how much easier it is

to just fall deeper

than to rearrange every fiber and microfiber

put it away, she says

it’s all so far away

the time she kissed a boy

in the water

she had never tasted anything

so salty

the harder you work it

the less likely you are

to recognize the hollow