Poems that I love

Lew Welch If this is what life is, Could one of your Gods do it better? I make what I see, and I make what I hear with Eye and my animal eye-- with ear and my Auditing Ear... full full of my gift I am never left out and afraid And this what the song is (all of you waking and working and going to bed) I sing what you'd know if you took time to hear, I know what you'd learn if you had cause to care Envy my wildness if you will.... full full of my gift I am often left out and afraid And this all my art is (that stays at the distance the stage is) You turn from my songs into another's arms, As I, who have taken you all to my heart, Would sometimes be taken to heart.... full full of my gift I am only left out and afraid ______________________________________________ Commentary by the Red Monk Except for things like the Yaws, there is no suffering unless we invent someone to suffer the suffering

I saw myself a ring of bone in the clear stream of all of it and vowed, always to be open to it that all of it might flow through and then heard “ring of bone” where ring is what a bell do BY  LEW WELCH Lew Welch, “[I Saw Myself]” from  Ring of Bone: Collected Poems of Lew Welch .  Copyright © 2012 by Lew Welch. Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books. Source:  Ring of Bone: Collected Poems of Lew Welch  (City Lights Books, 2012)

by Lew Welch Dear Joanne, Last night Magda dreamed that she, you, Jack, and I were driving around Italy . We parked in Florence and left our dog to guard the car. She was worried because he doesn't understand Italian.