Janie Huzzie Bows

361 Pages·2017·1.64 MB·English

Long As You’re Living

Collected Poems

Robert Ronnow

Robert Ronnow
[email protected]
www.ronnowpoetry.com
copyright 2022 Robert Ronnow
Titles Page

Janie Huzzie Bows
Mirrors 12
This looks like jump to me 13
thesis: strength endures 14
The Listener 15
Something 16
Zach Sklar’s Dream 17
Peter has gotten a new job 18
Earth 19
A Yellow Rose 20
Night 21

Absolutely Smooth Mustard
I prefer to sleep and dream 23
Not enough heat 24
Almost Spring 25
Chinese Sonnets 26
South Bronx 29
For Spring No Hesitation Is Great 30
How cool! 31
Change 32
Material Life 35
This World of Dew 37
Peaches 38
To Eat a Continent Is Not So Strange 39
Searching for Symbols in a Town Without a River 40
Penetrating the Unknown 41
Morning Chores 42
Rain 43
White Waits 44
In a Day 45
Absolutely Smooth Mustard 45
The Dark Green Conifers 46
Snake Creek 47
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Brother Death
Take the Ripe Plum 49
Monk's shaved pate 52
Bone Music 53
Sunset 55
Polar Bear Mugs Wino 56
Alive 58
No cows to look at 59
Crows, bluejays and pigeons 60
East Harlem to the Grand Tetons 61
Jet, cracked paint, tea 61
Working to Abandon Immortality 62
Is it stress 64
The Shootist 65
Brother Death 66
To Have Loved Mary 67
Chambermaid with Ravens 67
Plate Tectonics Versus Gamma Ray Bursters 68
Under-sky sleeping, bone keeping 69
Under Mummy Mountain 70
The Terminator 71
Cities in Flight 73
Upside Down the Ancient Bole 75
Silence of Winter 76
Late Summer 77
Pokeweed Waits 78
Cosmo's Moon 79
Blackbrush 80
Grand Canyon 82
The Rwandan dead 83
What Have I Seen? 84
Night Drive Home 88
Bad Movie 89
New Mind 90
Sub-atomic particles 91
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Jones’ Nose 93
October Sky 94
Engineers 95
Let’s Work the Problem 96
To Go On 97
Black-capped Chickadees 98
To Fail Well 99
Certain days 99

Belonging to the Loved Ones
To the Gods 101
Family of Weasels 102
Ulzana’s Raid 103
The snail will get to Easter just as soon 105
Occupied 107
Avoiding beautiful September 108
The Recent and Long Dead 109
Much Like Living 110
A Designer of Systems 111
Birding by Ear 113
Stay together. Learn the flowers. Go light. 114
Eastern tent caterpillars 116
America the seeing-eye dog 117
Courage 119
Providence 120
At Basketball 121
Home Schooling 122
The End of Faith 123
Of Judith and Inanna 124
Caterpillar fur 125
Infestation 126
Two Hawks Aloft 127
All Soft Feathers and Flight Muscles 128
The seasons inure us to loss 129
The Perfect Year 130
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God is correction, feedback and bifurcation 131
Organization man 132
Toy story 133
Until the fight is done 134
Operational Culture for the Warfighter 136
Rereading 137
Fear and Awe 138
Belonging to the Loved Ones 139
The Summer Noosphere 140
Two White Wines 141
Miniature Juniper 142
Okay Love 143
Election Day 144
Troy and Trinity 146
Dendrology 148
Life is not a curse 149
The Canopy and Economy 150
Love and Death and Governance 154
Just Us 159
Born Again 159
Can poetry matter 161
Wetland Song 162

Communicating the Bird
While Sleeping 164
The Self 164
Who should I thank? 165
Ectopic Heart 166
Eye of the tropical January sun 167
The Poet’s Family at Her Funeral 168
We like trees 170
Man’s Mood 171
Marines call 172
Snow. . . 174
Rhodora in Winter 174
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Words for Birds 175
Enduring Spinning: Agriculture, Culture and War 176
The Ordinary Care of Providence 178
The Burning of the Jews 181
Lawn Party 182
Communicating the Bird 183
The Writer Working Hard 185
Negotiation 186
The Art of Appreciating Snow 187
Prose 187
Dad’s Bark 193
Lazy, Happy 194
When Peg Laughs Like Liz 195
Geese in Winter 196
Year Million 197
Enemies 198
Cameron Diaz 199
A Gun In Every Home 202
Perfect Rest 204
Meditation 205
Reverse Gestation 206
Man’s Machines 207
Peace Out 208
Injury 209
Immigration 211
Oh Pilot Me 212
Anyone who wants to fight me all the time 213
Ricardo’s Lunch 215
Yogurt and Honey 216
The Invention of Zero 217
Nature’s Intelligent Partner 219
Number and Verse 220
Outside the circle of sex 230
Not like a figwort 230

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Shape of the Institution 232
Adnate to the Funicle 233

The Happy Tectonics
The Scariest Stanza in All of Poetry 235
Defiance 236
Uncertainty 237
The Happy Tectonics 239
Mom’s Eulogy 241
Wings of Desire 242
This Summer, As Ever 243
Cleaning Out Their House 244
Watching Homer Struggle 245
f(x) 247
The Real Turtle Soup 248
Nineteen Minutes to Bedtime 249
Popper v. Niebuhr 250
The World Without the Self 253
Shade 254
The force that placed us here cannot be trusted 256
Supermarket Celebration 257
Morsel of Biomass 258
Electron Herders 258
Aaron’s Coconut 260
Either Way 260
Derivatives With Limits 262
A Job in the Garden of Eden 263
The Secret of Quality Is Love 264
Words/Day 265
By the Seat of the Soul’s Pants 266
Urination, don’t take it for granted 267
Fundamental Physics 268
blueberries 271
Jack’s Commitments 272

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Problems 273
Get the Most Out of Life of Pi 274
Anomie 275
Max Joy Marries Minnie Pain 277
World Order 278
The Wound That Never Heals 279
Good at Marketing 282
All the Worlds There Are 284
Purposes Incomprehensible and Wonderful 287
as These Purposes
Brodmann Area 4 288
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate 290
Robot-Assisted Surgery 290
Cast a cold eye and wait 292
The Scientific Way To Do Mathematics 293

Long As You’re Living
Long As You’re Living 295
Exponential Decay Function 296
Aging as a Spiritual Practice 297
Antifragility 299
Out of Emptiness 301
The Master Algorithm 303
In the Singularity 305
Netflix, Hulu 306
Blue Grama Grass 308
Homework 309
I can clean. I can drive. 310
Jack’s Time Out 313
Insignificance 314
Motel Room 315
Numerous Blue Notes 316
Lonely Bagel 316
City of Hope 317
Chainsaw Certified 319
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The Shape of Jazz to Come 320
Rules for Old Men Waiting 321
On Suffering 322
TED Talk 324
Upper Manhattan Medical Group 325
It’s A Bear! 326
Atman. Atman. 327
Passion 328
Empires and Selfies 329
Soot 332
My Giant 333
Asexual 334
Valetudinarian 335
Contingency 336
Stop & Shop Strike 337
Got Sleep? 339
Who’s Got Trouble? 340
2 Jobs, 2 Kids, 2 Houses, 2 Hobbies 342
Start Knowing Joy 344
Covid Cashier 345
On the Avenue 346
The Compensatory Force of Nemesis 347
Long Story Short 348
Middle School Math Teacher 349
Commonly Seen Bumper Stickers 350
Million Dollar Movie 351
Life Out of Balance 352
Building Fence 353
Come What May 353
At a Party 354
A Good Day to Die 355
New Haven Terminal 356
Eronel 357
That Was Random 358
When I Am Asked 363
Ohthere 364
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Recombinations
The Pity of Things 371
Desafinado 371
Seaweed 372
Data Delivered to Your Inbox 373
Nicky’s Road Kill 375
Types of Joy 376
Gotta Go 376
Colonoscopy 378
Quiet 379
Samsara 380
Return from Desert 380
Existence 381
If Not One Way, Then Another 382
More Birds! More Bees! 382
Subs v. Dubs 384
Make War, With Love 384
Jack in His Boxers 385
Poets Just Wanna Have Fun 386
A Middle Monday in Maybe 387
Why Write ? 388
Presentation of Self 389
Jump the Life to Come 390
Helterskelter Huggermugger Heebiejeebies 391
The Imaginary i 393

Acknowledgements 395

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