Sometimes I think I’m just too clever for words
I read poems by Ted Berrigan by Frank O’Hara
by Charles Olson by Guillaume Apollinaire and the big earth
floats on under the blue sky till one day Patsy says
“But they’re all guys.
How come you don’t read
the girls?” So I dip into Emily and Lorine and Alice
And Anne and even give Elizabeth a run around
the block, but sooner or later
it’s back to the boys
Sometimes on a Wednesday when it’s not raining
I’ll put the books down and take a hike into the city
I love to watch the river flow and ponder its destiny
I’ll stay there until the sun sets and the stars appear
I count them as friends : they’ve stayed with me
all my life, kept the faith,
peppered my dreams with light
John Lyons