ONE
Some of us were walking along the river once
& Darrell Gray was with us
When we passed a tackle shop he said that if
we should ever form a rock band
We could call it Live Bait & the Nightcrawlers
We came to a footbridge leading to an island
but the gate was locked when we tried to open it
Without a word Darrell positioned his hands
purposefully on the outside steel post
stepped over the railing & swung his body out
over the flowing water then up to the other side
where he set out walking as if nothing had happened
The rest of us scrambled to replicate
his maneuver & catch up
The sun in your eyes can be blinding
but the moon has a face anyone can see
as any face they desire
For me that face will always be
that of Darrell full of life
as he was when I first met him
Some poets want everybody else
to stop writing or even thinking
& listen only to them
They see every attempt at creativity
as a personal attack on their vital areas
Darrell had a different approach
He'd invite you over to his place
& read somebody else's poetry aloud
Then he'd load his typewriter with paper
punch out a few lines & invite you
to enter in collaboration
To read what he had written was to see
your own rejected thoughts revealed
Poetry like that doesn't care what you look like
where you come from or what else you've read
The same electricity that runs the refrigerator
burns in the light bulb
& powers this computer as well
The same life that ran through Darrell then
is running through me now as I write
& through you as you read
Some people think I'm cheap
They don't know I'm free
Two
No one could sum up a situation
like Darrell Gray could
Some of us were out walking one day
At the corner the light changed
Squealing tires
Two cars drag racing for real
Everyone was talking at once
Darrell said
Fun with matter
One night after a poetry reading
some of us got tricked
into crashing a party before it began
When we walked in the open door & saw all that food
laid out with nobody in sight
we concluded that it must be a decoy party
designed to keep unwanted guests occupied
while the real party was going on elsewhere
So we dug into our task
of eating everything in sight
& scrounging in the kitchen for more
Meanwhile the guy who'd invited us
was taking the most expensive bottle
of alcohol next door to wait
for the real fun to begin
Which it did the moment the real hosts came home
with horrified expressions
They thought our decoy party theory was incredible
& let us know we'd stayed long enough already
But for Darrell the night was always young
Once outside he wanted to go back in
Why leave now?
They were so congenial
Darrell trying to show me why nouns
are actually slow verbs
Even this chair is only a chair as long as it's chairing
Space is just the time it takes to move
Darrell heating cooking oil in a frying pan for popcorn
When it got really hot
he reached above the stove & opened
the cabinet door to find the bag
A panicked cockroach leaped out
Darrell said he was instantly overdone
THREE
When a batter is thinking
too much about his swing
he can't get around
on something hard inside
If he starts trying to pull
give him only what he can pull
foul for two strikes
Then go fishing low & away
for number three or a weak ground ball
If you catch him leaning
come high & tight
At the heart of pitching
is the art of deception
Where the imagination goes
the reality follows
Changing speeds without changing motion
Changing grips & getting movement
Mixing things up
Never throw a strike to anyone
who will swing at anything else
The last time I saw Darrell Gray
I was so happy
to see him go
that I stood on the corner
watching his bus disappear
just to make sure
he didn't get off
& try to come back
Fear got the best of me that day
That's the kind of friend I was
Darrell wasn't all form & no content
He'd opened me up
to a form of life
I wanted to bury
as quickly & completely as possible
That was my mistake
A doorman doesn't care
or need to know
what goes on
behind every door in the building
to find the one that lets you in
& yet out of all possible realities
you've chosen one in which
you find yourself reading
this very line of poetry
At a distance I could almost be taken
for human but up close
I'm a real disappointment
