Lew Welch: Circle Poems

Whenever I have a day off, I write a new poem.
Does this mean you shouldn’t work, or that you
write best on your day off?

For example, this is the poem I wrote today.


*


When he was 20, he understood some of the secrets of
life, and undertook to write them down so simply that
even an idiot could understand.
“For,” he reasoned, “if I can’t do that, I don’t
understand it myself.”

He proved himself right.
When he was 50, he didn’t understand it himself.


*


“Why is it,” he said, “that no matter what you say,
a woman always takes it personally?”

“I never do,” she said.


*


John said, “Then I met that short fat guy with the
neat little beard, with a name like dawn.”

“You mean George Abend?”

“Yeah.”

“Abend means evening.”