Jim Leftwich


The Four Oaks Poems (Page 2)

thiagr humble drive ohu
The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could 
just as easily make differently. – David Graeber 
 
astrophysd dhad mlerge
was tho beheme
collisioi
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waar
can become i
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those understanding
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mec pror 9 minuharsh
cornerstone the
worst DNA
mediatrea these as
traditional



On a photograph of a bookshelf emailed to me by billy bob beamer, entitled "messamblages"

The Messist aesthetic has perennial appeal. 
In the Human World, dots exist to be connected.
Read between the lines, read between the dots.
Constellations exhibit a pre-existing teleology in the will of consciousness to power as pattern.
If humans and stars, then constellations.
Or: humans, therefore constellations.
Messism as pragmatic gnosis predicts initial conditions as prophecy.



Meditation

Meditation doesn't stop time, or step outside of time, it allows the mindbody to knowingly inhabit a moving moment.
Time is transition, but not from A to B, only as A, ongoing.



The Is

A 21st Century American Meditational Practice:
Lay in bed 
with eyes closed
and chant
silently
inside your skull
the phrase "the is"
until you fall asleep.



inannote eggroyal meat

uneaten loyal moat
boatload yodeling beats
battens model lodestone
stoic delicate middens
kittens electorate toenail
mailbox lecturing smitten
smidgen ectomy boxwood
woodshedding tomato genie
beans osmosis shipbuilding
budding smoke tree easement
mentation moksha pudding
puddles okra duration



2903 Miles 
From Pea Island
to San Simeon State Park

Metanoia
obnubilate Haboob
acceptance of transience
and imperfection Fernweh paramyxovirus
Bad-I-Sad-O-Bist-Roz
anticipation and
anxiety before beginning
a journey Heimweh respiratory
syncytial
virus shamal
spiritual anguish Saudade
fanglomerate xlokk feelings of
not
being at
home Nefelibata maar
volcano zonda perception of
pleasure
Rasasvada intertidal
gibli head in
the clouds Dépaysement nudibranch
moazagoatl
profound melancholic
longing Toska tideline
khamseen longing for faraway
places
Resfeber back
eddy mato waminyomi
homesick Wabi-Sabi agar
tebbad
beyond thought



An American Labor Day 2020

work heard hazard to be
the poll worm fried
in peyote with pecans

work circumstantial crowds
no additives recreational
parade of traditions

work circumnavigating your
goat cheese continuously
the times in maple dreams

work in the fallow word
reveals a sundried
storyboard about the understory

work recommends ketchup drum
kit earning their weekly heckle
canned ears mostly foaming

work enables a wild adage sea
trace anemone microbiome in
malleable guts improvised

work a curious transition from
regional mucus to detectives
of symbolic ecologies

work is invited to the pedestrian
commune split pea soup and
starting point fetish trickery with
exalted salt to hypnotize the
dangerous and the strange



covid chicken time

it's a cloud the
face of a chicken 
a monk the face of
Thelonious Monk
in a cloud above
the chicken coop
i am after all in
North Carolina
could be the
face of Coltrane
an improvisational
pareidolia it's a
frying pan Mary
and Jesus in the
grease a chicken
a monk time
passing slowly
in The Time of
CoVid Nineteen



Paradox of Artifice in Zurich

the hiss of snowing ships
is marginal, like the dawn

cast in broomsage leaflet
mimicry, know it by its

parade of photographs

photons are synthetic
fish, snowing their coiled

wheels above the flames
of the refinery, no birds

eye view of our particle
boots on the surface



history like these times

the share snares manhole
coverage at evening
answers the border
doldrums we would long
in languages of the lake



marginal dawn gurgles

existential safari of
imnex kaleido, un
uncerta, forged by
inflammatory dispo
north of politics and
actively separate,
sinking while sinking



motions amaze in ruse

evolves fast-climbing convex
the umbrella an otter
unexpected in its suture
itself an unfinished rusting
rustling inadvertent
tandem sonnets
spare no soprano cymbals



everyday both autobiographical

in the birdway our main means
of possibility flows to reflect
the textile simplicity between
adventures shape the gestalt
was critical in the role of heat
dome collagen thus scientific



dreams decline, if so

we lengthen the neon soundscape
facts are quietly zawn overcome
by the boundaries of awareness
danger neither dangles nor
abuses the perimeter
2-dimensional snakes
apply for our heavenly quirks
spotlighting through the ceiling
might never surpass memories
contrary to experience



the sight

recent o
becomes a m
from a c
loses its
however u
to cor
co-dependent
to th
driv
expression of
by th
th bi
16 m
is
is kno
huma
seeming
hopeful
the viewer
the r



don't forget to be anywhere else

statements and singular concave
hats in their fingerprints are key
lime pies or fissures development
instincts distinctly epilogues not
only with experiential eyebrows
who succinctly comb recombinant
Beowulf in charge of continuity
now is not the time to wash our
nouns in the immediate lakes for
stories are incomplete thoughts



knit nor our

knit knot not
nor for four
our dour our
hour our ur
un sun fun
fur fir fit
it bit bat
boat oat at
it lit lot
not knot knit



Vote

vote mote mate
fate fat vat
bat bait wait
wit bit lit
fit fist fish
wish wash lash
last list lust
dust rust rush
mush mosh posh
push pus bus
but put pot
got goat moat
boat bat hat
hate gate date
dote tote vote



Mail

mail wail fail ail
all fall full cull
dull dill fill pill
will wilt hilt halt
half calf call ball
bull pull poll pole
dole mole sole sale
male kale bale bole
bile mile milk silk
ilk ink pink mink
monk mock muck tuck
duck dock hock hack
back bank bane ban
man main mail mail



Ongoing Research

I don't think about illness
I don't feel like it I said
What do you think I said

Well
That's not what I said

I think about the end of
This and the end of that
Mostly the end of this

That's what I think
I said

It goes on like that or
This and it never ends
I don't know how anyone
Can stand it I said 

At least 
That's what I thought
I said

I can't think 
About anything else
That's what I think

I think
The rest is best
Left unsaid



Between Middles Too Late

What if car enough
To quit how long is
Tomorrow I watched
Them half of no
More for a while it's
Based on a house
2016 different options
Who measured what
That's born again
Tuesday played all
Night until it hurt
That's how I feel too



Ancient maps from here

kinetic critics choose the
Gems of Popeye the
red enthusiasts by which
we are encouraged in
an hour or so to consider
from the outside those
culinary phantoms who
are traditionally tarot
optimal fresco reduced
images of Main Street we
are a tapestry threatened
by stories of civilization



tissues of the report

recycled givens are
beans to a pie are
the sylvan books
foremostly moss
praxis over many
years amplified
collaborative stories
are the anatomy of
alchemy rotational
a dedicated engine
downcycled masked
anthropocene ant
hills ceilings and
claws atomic fish



sabers of the report

scientist givens are
corners to a pie are
eyes sylvan books
aforementioned moss
printed over many
others amplified
ideas and stories
living the anatomy of
definitions rotational
focus dedicated engine
barreled unmasked
dreamlike ant
harmonies ceilings and
facets atomic fish



fabric of the report

scientist givens shift
corners to a pie environment
eyes sylvan struggle
aforementioned inventories
printed over circumstances
others regime
ideas and collapse
living the anatomy interprets
definitions depict
focus dedicated abduction
barreled conscious
dreamlike components
harmonies ceilings full of
facets atomic mermaids



folklore of the report

scientist flourish & shift
corners to legendary environments
eyes architectural struggle
aforementioned totalities inventories
printed analogue circumstances
others prolific regime
ideas responsible collapse
living the investigation interprets
definitions exploiting depict
focus connectivity abduction
barreled transitory conscious
dreamlike provisional components
harmonies nocturnal full of
facets seamless mermaids



flickering of the report

interprets flourish & 
collapse to legendary 
regime architectural 
circumstances totalities 
printed analogue
others prolific
ideas responsible
living the investigation
mermaids exploiting 
full of connectivity 
components transitory 
dreamlike provisional
harmonies nocturnal
facets seamless



musical elapse and flip

meridian grinding the sour
process myths of metal &
meat we know the fuming
forms are more or ore than
a thinning score for verges
psychologically on popular
soma combs some of which
are mice watch out you must
have been a network rather
than naloxone plunges into
the center of the antidote the
mapping 29% of post-drug
excess workplace pandemics
microbial lumps dismiss their
charred prehistoric hints their
malting gene patterns & their
drive-thru firestorm snowdrifts
shifting now normal forever
feverish or enormalous rifts



flip elapse and

sour meridian grinding the
metal & myths of
the fuming we know
ore than are more or
verges thinning score for
popular on soma combs 
some of which are mice 
watch out you must
rather been a network
into naloxone plunges
antidote the center of the
post-drug 29% of excess 
workplace pandemics
their lumps dismiss
their prehistoric hints
their gene patterns &
snowdrifts firestorm
forever now normal
rifts or enormalous 



and elapse

the meridian grinding
of myths
we know fuming
more or than are
for thinning score
combs on soma
mice of which are
you must network
rather naloxone
plunges antidote 
the center of the
excess 29% of
workplace lumps 
dismiss prehistoric 
hints gene patterns 
& snowstorms 
fire drifts forever 
how now normal
cows are enormalous 



we need tools

final news can take a
progressive nightmare
system bleating if
blatant dangers of
depleting the Colorado
River corona simply
the magic of the King
radio toll booths on
the fringes of our
country right-wing
missives dominate
the knitting of our doom
authenticity is ongoing
5 dollars democracy fox



we need facts

news can take a
nightmare
bleating if
dangers of
the Colorado
corona simply
magic of the King
toll booths on
fringes of our
right-wing
dominate
knitting of our doom
is ongoing
dollars democracy fox



we need Biden

management can take a
change
disasters if
perspectives of
subjective Colorado
wildfires simply
virus of the King
impacts booths on
months of our
right-wing
dizziness
smoking of our doom
is ongoing
climate democracy fox



we need migratory birds

management can take readers
temperatures
disasters personally
perspectives of coronavirus
subjective evidence
wildfires storytellers
virus of the year
impacts voluntarily on
months of relinquished
gastrointestinal
long haul
shortness of our asymptomatic
elevation is ongoing
climate democracy adorns



amyloid-β  

term deprivation accumulates
causes now we may sleep
from May to September
biology in healthy quantities
levels of tin cans raging in
the brain disease has
consequences sustained
poor carnival hats sustained
current towers found lower
than the wind quality has a
brain not to say amyloid-β
or vice-versa could be our
future our traditional future
improvements are often
improvised an animal is not
a disease collective studies
of possibilities of disruptions
in possibilities are actively
contributors to hunting and
hinting a hat on a mouse is
a model of sleep in which
the waveforms are disrupted
the sleep rhythm is not an
artifact of prosodic collage
or brain changes over time
between cognitive clocks
sleep happened to the base
line in other words subjective
cohorts compared to winter
could not tell the amyloid-β
from genetic fingers wagging
themselves at the full moon



everintermutuomergent 

once also at least in play
or learning an introduction
to the inevitability of a via 
negativa hat shoe burden
on the avenue a cluster of
internatic aloe at the reason
was two through rolodex to 
rolaids extraordinary satori
creativity of the apple sutra
persona core mudra admits
the emptiness of an answer
empowers endless variations



soul-pampered spiders
under every rock

seaweed coin hand 
stew swords canyon
arras newt west
volume tears you
can almost see
Sedona from here
you can almost
hear them every
verb of every end
on-board piano
gusts of dough
the seven secrets
of the serial centers



handpicked & reminded

common and exposited
folios of work
who at the end are
legendary regions of
themselves
are a book about nature
a cloak a glimpse
of figurative shadows
no one
on the face of it
is performless
in their own lineage
while emptying
the language of all
its prosaic moments



knot w/out meat-ning

sutra co-disru
person theoreti
of or if or on
mome of s
empire of we

provoc, provod

psych Beowulf a third
paqa vario illustratic

does one assist
in joy does one
exist in joy does

too closely it is
beybeyond history

the precoded I
the trash-door

limits oneself to
connecting the
to a "the" to "a"

it's a fire idea in 
the night fevers
in the night

in the night spoils
torrid onus

na the s interest prac

styli successf sor
which sco a bi we are

is and at att
than visua and

with units of language
for reasons other
than



numb censors we hop

numb those pennies penny
censors wheatpaste past
pastors of plenty who before
the foot is fleet has built
an imbalance upon the
real stone of the coroner
five magic collaborations
redesigned as temporarily
autonomous institutions
capsules thumb thirteen
pandemic conjunctions who
the war of emergent fur is
discontiguous due to their
arrangement of tragic
corners apron boot pastures
we hop check we hop & hop



hop censors we

penny those pennies
past wheatpaste
before of plenty who
built the foot is fleet has
upon the imbalance 
the coroner stone of
collaborations magic
temporarily as
autonomous capsules 
thumb thirteen
pandemic wars 
of emergent glue 
to their arrangement 
of pastures
we hop 



we censors

swim those pennies
sweat wheatpaste
before plenty who
catastrophic foot is 
fleet as biodiversity
upon the imbalance 
the coroner stone of
undermined goals
hurricanes as
percent penchant 
thumb capture
volcanic thirteen
pandemic stretch
of ingredients 
weaving markets 
tension of 
pastures we hop 



tales nontriplicate in mono

purity of signifiers vugg non
compression in ricotta eyes
infinities hande down travel
log razors whose socks are
highbrow aggregates forms
indiscreet pies since theirin
priorities are of the essence



potato it fork at five

will do, given singular
pores kiwi on the bean
stalk, we are fictional
frameworks tomatoes
parachute. for the past
horizontal year sheep
will be ground into solid
signs. simple as the
current of bees, being
tossed into a wisdom
lake, closed meat is
never nearer than the
challenges we habituate.



legs bend faced already what

as open street millipedes are
injured, we have destroyed
our salt by the ocean, grit is
public biscuits distributed,
there are no citizens in this
system. itself rotten, coiled
and uncoiling the unconscious
bringiitoo, the opening egg
is engineered for, for a role 
of strength. health does not
always carry its economic 
seam one remove from itself
within the system of a dream.



in directions of tires

feet are gravity are
receding the chang
is being a life a life

current diameters
continue cultures
gleaming prreserv

believe in the thee
failure of features
genome morph or

humans canned &
frozen death in a
birdcage a carpet

and carpet in a jar



purpose

practic
you will d
hopping point
red-tailed h
plopped bl
at D
during this



emerge unresolved

we sail by the sky
like em space kites
consequently society

like us again
normative and various
a moment to oneself
embodies the forecast

the rising cars
melt into digital
expressionism

temporary individuals
form in ruinous safety
no matter their contrasting

allusions and 
ambiguities



what did I tell you?

dice echo
dial barters
knelt on the
knoll perchance
the beating sun
verified delimits
unfavorable
delta piano
a study in
procedural manners
glue the salt
to the pepper
grapheme
diagonally saline



the denial of coevalness 

polkadot aquarium milkshake
the muffled mote
mid-afternoon
Thursday
mid-September
laying in bed with my cat
listening to rain
on the roof of my van
that was earlier
now I'm sitting in a chair
writing a poem
but the rain
earlier
reminded me of Max Roach
of Rashied Ali
Milford Graves
Sunny Murray
Tony Oxley
the red eagle vomits
a blue sun
I was thinking about
the denial of coevalness
I was polkadot the mid-Thursday mid
I was laying listening on that now
I was writing but earlier reminded
of Milford Sunny Tony the
of aquarium muffled afternoon September
I was into the was I'm a the
earlier me Rashied Graves Murray Oxley
red blue was denial
milkshake mote bed rain
roof earlier sitting poem
rain of eagle sun



formidable tumult

oft filigree of
formless maps
colandered from
career fire
escapes, charred
actors bibliophile
deranged in
pieces who was
and is the
proper bile



directional antenna

soup portals canned beret
note carrion howls every
cat zoo in the movies, pink
eggs are perfectly picnic.



the annual curse

opaque charcoal solutions
ant science bean cooking
a pot of books in the false
dwarfstar of the fast night.
last night more or always
summer history timepaste
releasing both the Hydra
and the Orchid, amplified
an extraordinary avocado
mobility writing our lights,
low resolution vouchsafe.



songers

turtle moccasin 61
slough off despond
mirror in the bat tub
bat tub



better giant deeds

word defe nickel cork
imported neither leg
true
true unbe successfu
slowir percent urgent
the statements you do
today
and in our roundabout



pioneer

intends
at times
to take
the tithe
of armor



no sandwiches

burning the smoke
with red votes
nove revo eliminatio
equality of hope in
the poems all about
you / exvultured in
the teeth of thought



actual spell of verbs

in that the hats arre
stories / the law is
profour overstate p
/ democracy for the
new now in ideas
forth sequentially /
a long way from the
nine was conjoined
to walk the piano &
trample their volcano



power over delirium

choir hectare letters
/ let maps with eyes
wither works on tap
délire sur le pouvoir
the pure crack pipe 
of their critique, our
recuperating vibrate
craters a ribcage, a
hiss of shoes in, in
space on pace, to
ace the brittle wires
imbues release, at
ease the blue rose
blooms chords and
quivers syntax vers



Page Three

Eye wash
Soul mulch
Folded wind
I'm younger
Than that
Now



Bleeding

Rose knot
Bees eye
Bean unborn
Are busy
Dying



No more speed

Weave rotten
Hinge / at all
/ Radon dove



Ship of Sleep

Fried gists
rough the knot.
Rendered spleen
eats the eyes.



play the hand
you're dealt

a pair of fives
initial conditions
a pair of nines
a royal straight flush
actualized potential
hives condiment
mining lust
potentiometer
fine diction none
flesh tendons
hair of the sundial
hair of the gross
net royalty sales
counterfactually
alive behooves
convection
diameter dialectic
lining musk
envelope of an
uneaten tension
fire on the fictional
bone unleashed
endings snare
of the vial the
sunflower the
heliotropic hair
dryer long tooth
at the fair been
too toothy at the
fair hot air tooth
some at the lair
been moss sweat
loyalty cursed oaf
snails counter
clockwise as a
second set of
initial conditions



lay of the land, or salt

a dare of knives
conditional initiations
a dare of minds
a total eight crush
factual lizards torrential
dives coin dement
silver crust slivers
wine predilection sonic
lashed tire irons domes
heat of the sun dried
tomato care off they
rose gossamer bet
realty ray salted bales
of whales mountainous
beehives behind hooves
corn vectors palatial
dime metrics reentered
dial tones electric 
palace lightning tusk
antelope tasks veiled
ovenous rebeating
the tents scion of the sun
the mire of factional
tone poems mashed
potato bent glitch
beware of thin miles
the lung glower the
lawn mower the tropical
helix helicopter chopper
the air of the dark rye
gong rye booth thigh
high boots fire ant mung
bean toothpaste thigh
hat theremin dream
mare tootsie roll barely
fair play bean loss
curds curdled meat the
alternative load managed
reimbursed meatless
loaf junk mail roofing
finishing nails amounts
to a flock of eyes
hash brown around the
edges reckoning yet
the second third
set of initial conditions



teams woven topsoil

pleated Saturdays clip
even more of the failed
givens than the new
parameters of the next
confirmed suspicion 
moving in concentric
circles, counterclockwise



combines these worlds

following the art strut collective
pianos abbreviated angels who
collaborate on the model of an
I — the irreview recently 
reproached — historical
direction is a kind of syntax —
where the center of a public
obligation, psychologically a
factory, apologetic when not
working, the foundational
water of a conscious media —
this coil of hands repeatedly
played as if a subculture...



Young Adjacent Breath

January I was a brief
history from the 19th
opening of generative
collaborations pinyon
the sun a soup of
ground squirrel stew
such fish unless
inquiry by telephone
the old school larynx
parboiled & myriad



"The materiality of the text functions as a set of constraints 
to diminish the plausibility of arbitrary interpretations." —JL to Mobi Ditch

denials of infinity interact
with the failures of our
world. back-section poss
possibilities, on helix
distorted, ride off into the
set of all possible setting
suns. an openly rusting
abscess, fire as abscond
what took America to the
general store, takes on
a different hue to the
delight of its pandemic
-- distillation of basalt
refilled, Buddhist
lockdown asymmetrical,
on the open road over a
rough sea exactly as we 
always thought it went.


Jim Leftwich: The Four Oaks Poems (Page Three)

 
 

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