Table of Contents
Sisyphus Requests His Rock Returned 1
Rebirth 2
A Morning, an Afternoon, a Night of Questions 3
It Isn't Relevant 4
Placards 5
Elusive as to Logic and Identifiable Place 6
When Yon First Attempt to Explain Your Existence 8
More Questions Than Stars in the Questioning Sky 10
You Have Lost Track 12
Late-in-Life Escape 14
Insect Smile 15
The Bees and the Flowers Turn on Me 16
The Metaphysics of Seashells 18
The Unnatural History of Scars and Flowers 19
Hold Your Humans 20
A Not So Absurd Survey 21
The Long and Short of Absurdity 22
As You Go To and Fro 23
Where Those Who Have Made Vows of Silence Gather 24
Escape Words 25
Headlong 26
Images Becoming Soundlike 27
The Price of a Poem 28
At the Conjurer's Book Launch 29
Is the Forgotten Poet Sad or Disconsolate? 30
In Erudition and Befuddlement 31
Foretelling 33
Metaphor-Eating 34
Past and Future Words 35
Life and Art, Somewhat 36
Interruptions 37
Spiritual Therapy 38
A Theory of Education 39
Worshipping 40
Congratulations 41
Watching the Audience 42
Testimony 43
What Would It Mean? 44
As Tasty as Madness 45
Oddment 46
Spare Change and a Few Poetic Words 47
I Like These Little Talks We Have 48
A Disenchanted Existentialist's Education 49
The Word Monstrosity 50
At Another's Latest Exhibition 51
A Sad, Mistaken Pay 52
Worldly Discussion 53
The Memory of Youthful Swiftness 54
The Ill-Gotten Gains of Madness and Eternity 55
Ten Exotic Ports of Call 57
Even If It Is Godot 59
Failed Transaction 60
The Liquid of Expectation 61
Handwritten Love Letters 62
Lonely Metaphors 63
La Petite Mort Sounds So Sexy, Existential 64
Dressing and Undressing the Dream Poet 65
The Coinage of Love 66
A Love Poem's Conclusion 67
Murder Mystery 68
Costume Party 69
Guest Speaker 71
Your Pencil Shaking Like a Tree Branch in a Movie Storm 72
With Exactness and Precision and Beauty 73
Hidden Away in the Dark 74
It Is Not an Intriguing Day / Whose Fault Is That? 75
Something More 77
A Lifetime's Lost and Found 78
Over Vast Chasms 79
Prowling 81
Approaching the Autobiographical 82
In This Little Room with All the Lights On 83
Misplacement 84
Existential Business Dealings 86
What Do You Have to Say for Yourself? Ten Times Over 87
Distant from Everything 89
Waiting for a Reply 90
This Elaborate Plan 92
A Cauldron the Size of Half the Earth 93
One Day I Am Going to … 94
Will This Be …? 95
My First and Last Existential Magic Trick 96
Wordful and Wordless 97
The Shadow-Thinker and the Sleep-Walker 99
On Meeting a Goth Androgyne in a Dark Downtown Bar 100
Ardour Everlasting and Companionship Eternal 102
After the Ardour 104
They Didn't Exactly Fall in Love 105
Have You Any News for Me? 107
Unwilling to Turn Around 108
A Month of Absurd Sundays 109
Existential Gunfire 111
The Out-of-Work Poet's Still Abundant Hair 113
Regardless of Weather or Disintegrating Dreams 115
Wearing a Map of Scars 116
The Sad Bureaucrat When the World Ends 117
Ending Music of the Disoriented Soul 119
Cosmic Joking 121
Unfulfilled 123
Absurdity, Woe Is Me, Glory Be 125
Acknowledgements 129
About the Author 131
