"i have fourgotten" by c.a.m.c.a.

(on misplaced guilt and a post-partum depression)

i have                       four
gotten what people
say about me good bad all spoons stirring coffee

i neglected my plants
i don't plan for dinner

don't we all make it up as we go along
way away

i find myself watching clocks
want
ing 
them to tell me how to feel better a'day
properly responsibly gratefully you 

i time clocks
to see how      fast they run
they're always early from
not where i expect them to be
no term singled out
yet i still four got them

in this self inflicted blackandblue
i wasn't kind i harbored guilt
i[headstrong] told the anchor to leave and not look back

so i watch clocks
although i have fourgotten why i should be kind to 
myself in the first place

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, 
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

"MY river runs to thee" by Emily Dickinson

MY river runs to thee:
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply.
Oh sea, look graciously!

I ’ll fetch thee brooks	5
From spotted nooks,—
Say, sea,
Take me!

"ALTER? When the hills do" by Emily Dickinson

ALTER? When the hills do.
Falter? When the sun
Question if his glory
Be the perfect one.
Surfeit? When the daffodil	5
Doth of the dew:
Even as herself, O friend!
I will of you!

"Colour Wheel" by callie atta

Colour Wheel. 2007.

colour wheel                                      sets me dries me                                             like red

 into the grand canyon

                                                                                                                love

is sometimes    light                                         for all the hours

for all the hours in the world I would leave this city to          find you

tempered tempo

we explorers look so similar from afar

and yet on ourselves we etch I am different I am so wholehearted I am so complete I am stealing your lines

bass backbeat coming up from the apartment below

12:22 am on a week day night

it’s freezing outside it’s april outside

I feel like I’m learning too much too early or not late                       enough

timing was a                                       stumbling block.

"toute de suite" by callie atta

tout de suite. 2008. 

granite points and shifts of some-rock

the objects of our affection might change

to replay the chord to box up the wine bottles I left at your sink

we scrambled to the top and broke out the camera

I can hear your good-bye slowly condensing flat third on the front window

                describing me. peeling paint instead of the bridge we climbed.

with a photograph we drew our weapons

four sharps but the melody still comes through.

I thought I would live in a thousand countries, with hundreds stored                                     still                                        as if the wars did not come to them

I played rogue you’re the playwright

slowly the birds of the spring the gulls the link

the ice fields loosen their hold to the ground

three inches each year will bring the whole shelf down

the north and the south; my love was not like that

hearts do not steer when you ask them to turn

melodies surprise the mind when they’ve been lost for years

and exposing the heart’s route can wash away the trail

"bone index" by callie atta

bone index. 2008.

a beach a glass of wine a sunset

two hands about to press

clasped in mind yet fleeing

they understand

their place is the same

they live in the same world

crux would rather

            if one is green the other is green

three rallies in the sky, the gods meeting to

ease the rain horizon

colour wheel retraces timid pulsing for love

"Zenith times" by callie atta

Zenith times. 2011.

I am a small scar

          Harlequin’s mid-day

I am a small near

          Harlequin’s mid-day

I am a small attendance

          Harlequin’s mid-day chance

To light upon

          Stone sooner barrage

To near to stand outside

I am small formal where it lands

          Thirty-two year crown

Seeing you there

          Crux for affected laid out largo

Stance in flux nadir and reference

          For I am a small block

Of tip or place to look

          For all there is

All this happened in water

          The authored turn

Stone to hand to swish

          Sink and then there’s atlantis

In pocket book format

"World less" by callie atta

World less. 2007

notebook pages torn

separated from the coil

power lines

swept away

from the solid wooden poles as if nothing 

has a place any more

do you believe in policy

does it work for you

three dimensional feelings like love like nostalgia

bruise like a fight

rising temperatures soften the roads

concrete, hard for decades between the city’s places,

softens and creaks.

memory lies

"if everything happens that can" by callie atta

if everything happens that can whenever
salmon migrate out of doors
to touch fins with close encounter with a kind of rush
i would you committed to do the best played out
tapped out we adore black and white films
and the stooges like an oath
varying weathered

"There Are So Many Tictoc" by ee cummings

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic
Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly
                                we do not
wind it up it has no weights
spring wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.
(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me) 

"Humanity" by ee cummings

Humanity i love you

because you would rather black the boots of
success than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you 
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush pride keeps 

you from the pawn shops and
because you are continually committing
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you 
are perpetually putting the secret of
life in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down

on it
and because you are 
forever making poems in the lap
of death Humanity

i hate you

"i have found" by ee cummings

                i have found what you are like

        the rain,

                (Who feathers frightened fields
        with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

        easily the pale club of the wind
        and swirled justly souls of flower strike

        the air in utterable coolness

        deeds of green thrilling light
                                      with thinned

        newfragile yellows

                          lurch and.press

        -in the woods
                     which
                          stutter
                                 and

                                    sing

        And the coolness of your smile is
        stirringofbirds between my arms;but
        i should rather than anything
        have(almost when hugeness will shut
        quietly)almost,
                       your kiss

"L(A" by ee cummings

l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness 


Another sign of cumming's craft: the long ellipsis that conveys a deep ache.

"i carry your heart" by ee cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

"dive for dreams" by ee cummings

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you(trees are their rootsand wind is wind)
trust your heartif the seas catch fire(and live by lovethough the stars walk backward)
honour the pastbut welcome the future(and dance your deathaway at the wedding)
never mind a worldwith its villains or heroes(for good likes girlsand tomorrow and the earth)
in spite of everythingwhich breathes and moves, since Doom(with white longest handsneating each crease)will smooth entirely our minds
-before leaving my roomi turn, and (stoopingthrough the morning) kissthis pillow, dearwhere our heads lived and were.

silently if, out of not knowable

silently if, out of not knowable
night's utmost nothing,wanders a little guess
(only which is this world)more my life does
not leap than with the mystery your smile
sings or if(spiralling as luminous
they climb oblivion)voices who are dreams,
less into heaven certainly earth swims
than each my deeper death becomes your kiss
losing through you what seemed myself,i find
selves unimaginably mine;beyond
sorrow's own joys and hoping's very fears
yours is the light by which my spirit's born:
yours is the darkness of my soul's return
-you are my sun,my moon,and all my stars

"if everything happens that can't be done" by ee cummings

if everything happens that can't be done
if everything happens that can't be done
if everything happens that can't be done
(and anything's righter
than books
could plan)
the stupidest teacher will almost guess
(eith a run
skip
around we go yes)
there's nothing as something as one
one hasn't a why or because or although
(and buds know better
than books
don't grow)
one's anything old being everything new
(with a what
which
around we come who)
one's everanything so
so world is a leaf so tree is a bough
(and birds sing sweeter
than books
tell how)
so here is away and so your is a my
(with a down
up
around again fly)
forever was never till now
now i love you and you love me
(and books are shutter
than books
it is at moments after i have dreamed
can be)
and deep in the high that does nothing but fall
(with a shout
each
around we go all)
there's somebody calling who's we
we're anything brighter than even the sun
(we're everything greater
than books
might mean)
we're everyanything more than believe
(with a spin
leap
alive we're alive)
we're wonderful one times one

"though your sorrows not" by ee cummings

though your sorrows not

any tongue may name,

three I'll give you sweet

joys for each of them

But it must be your"

whispers that flower

murmurs eager this

"i will give you five

hopes for any fear,

but it Must be your"

perfectly alive

blossom of a bliss

"seven heavens for

just one dying,i'll

give you"  silently

cries the(whom we call

rose a)mystery

"but it must be Your"