I Dont Matter by Vincent Zepp

that its been

18

months

since ive had

a job

and

am

financially fucked

is more

codicil

than

fact

its

all bullshit

not some kind of nihilism

because

like atheism

both

leave

us

trousers

unbuttoned

after a

wonderful

buffet

until

tomorrow

when the

hunger

returns

im not

soliciting

allies and chums

its

either

too early

or

too late

perhaps maybe

lucretius

this is how

it is

the best thing

trungpa ever said

its all a big misunderstanding

it cant

be

figured

out

this is not

some

amuse bouche

for

the tenured patched

elbow

crowd

ours is

yes

and no

is

and

isn’t

neither  

and  both

to the most ludicrous

questions

does

god

exist

does an afterlife

exist

nobody fuckin knows

i dont

and neither do

you

buddha said figure it out for yourself

that you cant

we are already enlightened

awake

but

its not like

in

the

catalog

i know i don’t matter

because

i

hear birdsong

and

see

flowers

where

birth

is

murder

there should

have been

on

the eighth day

of

creation

we sat

down

and

thought it

through

while  there

was still

an

eden

whether or not

it exists

yes

and

no

is

and

isnt

neither andr both

andrey nikolaevich Kolmogorovs

gobbledegook

quantum physics

being

the

science of possibilities

insures that

it is

all

bullshit

possibly

at some point in a conversation with

someone

someplace

I said

poets

have abdicated

their role

in

quantum physics

I know it

would be

a

weird day in Zern

or zen

when

a poet

is introduced

to the

research team

as

our newest member

that among the tasks

will

be

explaining

to the bus driver

that she is in

two or more

places

at one time

popping

in

and

out

of what we think is existence

or

he is  driving his bus

in millions of universes

at

the same time

risking

getting

kicked

in the ass

and

off the bus

right before

adding

its all bullshit

and

i don’t matter

 

Arriving at the time in history (including literary history) when I did. I was blessed to have such a rich tradition of poetry, art, music, and culture to available to me.  This continues to allow my poetry to flourish in a rich loam of influences.  The work I believe is representative of the best thoughts and intuitions of my generation of writers whose challenge is to move forward with the gifts given to us from previous generation of artists. From Ferlinghetti who opened my eyes to Pound and Eliot through the various significant literary and art movements of the 20th century.  Then there was the haiku master Basho who showed us frogs leaping into the pond of our mind. John Berryman said our poetry should be something no one else could do.  I've tried to focus on that idea.