i read the words of others
glancing at the pages
of william butler yeats
rexroth and ashbery
john auden and other
rather obscure names
from another age.
bargin phrases from bargin books
half-price lyrics shouting at me
thru time.
i catch their meaning
only as their meaning means
a catch to me.
oh, i steal a phrase or two
that i find useful
for future phrasing of my own.
and so, i store them somewhere
on paper or in my mind.
but i seldom know them
for their time.
headlines and bullets, tv and cd
lp's - 8-track monologs.
self-ish even in my ryhmes.
a product of my times.