Poetry of time

A tattoo of time on the arm of one of my favorite students, Lauren Vargas, taken at coffee this holiday season. This is living poetry.

The touch of a pen on paper sends messages both ways.

When you paint a copy of art, 

you begin to understand what the artist went through in creation.

Is this true in writing? In music?

Age means your feet hurt after walking on brick streets for hours.

How do you cheat age?

• Make love to a beautiful woman
• Exercise and eat well
• Spend money on grandchildren
• Play ring a-round-the-Rosie with grandchildren
• Read
• Travel someplace new
• Watch the backyard birds

When bad things happen--the antidotes:

Do something good to reassure yourself of humanity.

Remember your loves.

Watch children have fun.

I find much poetry depressing.

It stretches the mind.

I keep wondering how did the poets write it.

I'd like to be inside their heads. 

But then the words come from inside their souls.

My bare footprints vanish 

when the next wave washes up on the beach

Be sure to feel the sand 

between your toes

 and enjoy your footprint.

A woman's delicate

 barefoot print

 in wet sand

 breathes of mystery and sex

Maybe writing poetry is a child of being

 alone

…and in love

I must write to be who I am.