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 2 Titles Page 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 3 Titles Page 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 4 Titles Page 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 5 Titles Page 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 6 Titles Page 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 7 Titles Page 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 8 Titles Page 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 9 Titles Page 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 Do I Write? 388 Presentation of Self 389 Jump the Life to Come 390 Helterskelter Huggermugger Heebiejeebies 391 The Imaginary i 393 Answers to Questions 395 Acknowledgements 399 10
Description: