May 2021
DeWitt Clinton
clintond@uww.edu
clintond@uww.edu
Bio Note: This is not a pleasant poem, but please know I am really quite pleasant, though the World
Pandemic has turned my writing into something dark and hairy. Occasionally I serve as a substitute Iyengar Yoga
instructor for seniors living in The Village of Shorewood, Wisconsin. I have two recent books, At the End of the War
(Kelsay Books, 2018) and By A Lake Near A Moon: Fishing With the Chinese Masters (Is A Rose Press, 2020). A
fifth collection is due out late this year, or early next.
No Plans
That’s right, you’re absolutely right, I’m not doing Anything you might think important, I’m just here, In this space, breathing lightly, touching the keys Lightly, feeling light in the world, actually not The world as I can’t see past the walls of this Little studio where I make worlds unlike the world Out there, and of course you know what’s out There, don’t you, but I’m not sure I care too much More about what’s out there, as finding what’s Here, or actually, up there, is something far more Settling than settling into what actually is, isn’t it? So it’s been like this for some time, and as the days Seem even longer, and lines across the skin seem Deeper, I wonder what was so important long Ago that made me think doing something, anything Was more important than doing something that Amounted to nothing, but as a matter of fact, if There is even an iota of a fact left around here, As a matter of fact, I sense I’m moving closer To not only not doing anything, but even a bit More frightful, becoming less and less, lighter And lighter, less of what I was, a bit emptier, A bit more of what I’ve not yet found but that’s About all that’s left, isn’t it, rummaging around For something else to do when thinking just Yesterday isn’t everything already almost done And all that’s left is what we haven’t even Seen hurling at us at light speed, that we’ll Be knocked down by such a fierce wind, but Only if we wait a million or so light years To come sweep us up, or by, or under, as Someone just said, wait, wait, there’s some More we can do but maybe now it’s not As much fun as it used to be, when what Was was more something than anything now.
©2021 DeWitt Clinton
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