klkamath

The Affront

If I misspoke in saying I love youNot in words but with gestures, gentle sighs,Desiring you, trust only that it’s true,And blame what seems uncivil on your eyes.If I offend you saying I love youUnspeaking but by my mere presence, bentToo near (each breath escapes me whispering so),Accuse that stealthy criminal, your scent.If I insultContinue reading “The Affront”

ALL GLITTER

I wanted to write my own thing,A thing from my own thought.I wanted to make something I had wrought.I wanted to but all for naught. I wanted to wear my own bling,A shiny bauble madeFrom this and that of highest grade,Things no one else has ever said. But it was all for naught, I thought.ButContinue reading “ALL GLITTER”

AFTER HAWAII

After Hawaii After Hawaii, it was oddly hotAnd humid here at home, like after AustinSome summer ago, as though somehow I broughtWeather with me, a souvenir not lost inTransit between vacation and the job,This climate in a locket on a fob,As memories made manifest in things:I pull it from my pocket to remind meBetter daysContinue reading “AFTER HAWAII”

THE STUPIDITY OF SANE-WASHING

I am trying to watch Ezra Klein’s interview with Gillian Tett. To say that people are confused is an understatement but there also is a very definite intention to deepen confusion. I myself have trouble understanding what consumers and purveyors of confusion think they are doing and for what results. Only very stupid persons canContinue reading “THE STUPIDITY OF SANE-WASHING”

Making Room

A Poem for Aimee I have heardSome people talkAbout looking atThe books people keepSaying that saysA lot about whetherIt would beWorth spending timeAnd how muchTime would youSpend with that personbased on the books I am something ofA person ofBooksSomething ofA person ofWordsAnd you seem toLike thatComing into myBook worldTouching the spinesReading the titles You openContinue reading “Making Room”

WHAT HAS “IDENTITY” GOT TO DO WITH “US”?

We assume a role not only in the immediate social context but also, coming into it, based on everything in our lives which has come before. From the circumstances of birth down to the “choice” of attire, we bring who we think we are more broadly to each and every social interaction. We bring thisContinue reading “WHAT HAS “IDENTITY” GOT TO DO WITH “US”?”

rekəˈlekSH(ə)n/

I have a problem with my memoryThe opposite of what most folks would say:As I age I recall things differently,And clearly, in a most estranging way. It isn’t merely I have changed, no longerThe shortened version of self-narrativeWe all seem to make invariably younger,And differences increase the longer we live; Specifics for me also growContinue reading “rekəˈlekSH(ə)n/”

Change

I was thinking about something that happened some other time and then the elevator door opened on the floor my future was heading towards. So many routines become just that. We fail to realize what they really mean, whether they are necessary or merely incidental, almost accidents of life or choices made which lead toContinue reading “Change”

Familiar Objects in a New Light

From New York I returned, my balconyNeither as large nor high as that at the hotel;The metal railing dusty though I neverNoticed before; the bolted rectanglesThat fix the railing in its place appearPeculiar in this new light of my return. There I saw new an old friend’s other faceSo sadly different in that different place,IndifferentContinue reading “Familiar Objects in a New Light”

IDENTITY AS CENTRAL TO BEHAVIOR

We Act On Who We Think We Are It first occurred to me in context of sexuality that people’s thinking (particularly ideological and paradigmatic conceptions) is based on identity, not facts or evidence or logic or science or even just belief. This was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was thinkingContinue reading “IDENTITY AS CENTRAL TO BEHAVIOR”