By: David Lerner
it's impossible that we keep breathing with all the years pressing on our chest it's impossible that we keep walking given the condition of the heart's terrain it's impossible that laughter continues to spill from the cracks in our sorrow that anger continues to be a kind of faith that the small graces coffee, clean socks, the stillness of night still sustain us sometimes it's impossible how we break on our dreams and then dream them again how amidst the thousand small terrors of daily life it is possible to be kind how as the ax falls and nooses swing we go on checking the TV Guide for decent movies accepting some phone calls, dodging others doing battle with the rent and the weather and the holes in our shoes and the distance between us there is something inside me that says yes there is no way out you have to play this terrible guitar until the strings break or your fingers but the music I know in the moments between the panic I hold more intimately than any lover it's impossible how much sorrow a smile can hold
You can find David Lerner’s published works at Zeitgeist Press.
“Lerner was a broken-down saint if there ever was one. He was an eloquent screamer, a soft-spoken rageoholic, a madman with a great manuscript. His poetry will always be a reminder of a time when poetry in the Mission was spontaneous, magical, and more than a little bit dangerous.” — Bucky Sinister, San Francisco Bay Guardian
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