The best words in their best order

National Poetry Month, 2010 edition.

I'm not convinced the best contribution I can make to everything is to write more words with pretentious line

breaks and

whatnot.

But I will try. In the spirit of NANOWRIMO I will attempt to write a poem a day. After the first week I'll allow myself to edit previous poems. Should be a fun game.

THE Farrar Strauss Giroux people are running the NPM blog again: http://www.fsgpoetry.com/

One of the best blog names in the English: The Best Words in Their Best Order. Read it.

Systems

I empty the shelf, set each can on the floor

squat in front of the now empty cupboard

and begin to replace them,

these in the back, tall with tall

queen, bishop, knight.

We eat these several times a week,

so, placed front and center. Pawn. If

I can find the system

everything will flow

differently, complicated Russian chess sequences,

move after move snapping into focus

like a hillside

the winter after a decimating wildfire,

the moment torrents of mud, potential unleashed

at the last, possible moment.