how the sun rises / how it never stops / can be easily explained // people can be taught and trained / science and theory / from old history

A poem from my book, House of Words (Korrektiv Press, 2010, p. 11) and a recently unearthed earlier version published in The Whitman College Pioneer (Feb 12, 1987, p. 9).

Written and performed by Jonathan Potter (jopomojo poetry podcast, 2023).

Listen to the audio above and let me know in the comments which version you prefer.

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The opening of the gate may be early, may be late, but enter, don't hesitate, this is your time, so seize it, grab the sunrise and squeeze it onto your tongue to please it like an orange ripe with juice, like an ace against a deuce, like a river to a moose, like the time I kissed your lips, like the time you spread your hips, like the gate through which time slips into eternity’s smile, into paradise a while while karma deletes your file from the server of the damned, from the chaos of the slammed, from the ram and ewe just lambed giving birth to a new day, making you light when you weigh the odds of the color gray turning velvety and gilt, gold intentionally spilt across the landscape that we built.