June 23, 2026
A NOTE ABOUT THIS WEEK’S POEM: I’m continuing to celebrate 21 years of sending this newsletter by revisiting the second poem I ever shared and using the same words of that older poem to create a new poem. For this week’s piece, I’ve assembled what I’m calling a “quintina” (my version of a sestina). First, I made a list of the words I used in the older poem and alphabetized them to make for easier assembly. (See below) Then I created my first stanza of five lines without repeating any of the words in the list. The second stanza is a reworking of the first, using the same words from each line but in a different configuration and in reverse order. The third stanza is a fresh set of lines (also without repeating any of the words of the older poem) and the fourth stanza is a reworking of the third (also in a different configuration and in reverse order). I hope you’ll bear with me as I geek out on this zany word exercise—It was a workout for my brain!!
My second “10-line Tuesday poem (June 21, 2005)
observations on the return trip
After all this, it turns out
what I really need
are contacts, a sweater,
pillows,
water,
a piece of fruit, toast and butter,
laughter,
and someone to say goodnight to.
With these, I decide on the return trip,
I could probably go anywhere.
a sweater turns to water
I return to the trip after I go anywhere. Butter observations
with a sweater. Someone, probably, to say “Toast.”
Fruit turns—a piece of it could. I decide on laughter
and water all contacts. Out of this goodnight,
are these pillows really what I need?
These pillows are what I really need.
And this goodnight water. All out of contacts,
laughter—it turns on a piece of fruit. I could decide
to say “probably.” Toast someone with a sweater.
After the trip, anywhere I go, observations return to butter.
This piece, after all. Fruit? Really? Could it out-
butter the trip? Observations of goodnight laughter? On these
pillows, return anywhere, and probably with
water, toast, a sweater. I to I, need turns.What
contacts to decide? Say someone.
Someone contacts to say, Decide.
A sweater turns to water. What I need, I toast.
Go anywhere and probably return with pillows.
Laughter: the butter of Goodnight. I trip on these observations.
Piece it out. This really could fruit, after all.