Stephen Dunn

Where are we going? It__ not an issue of here or there. And if you ever feel you can__ take another step, imagine how you might feel to arrive, if not wiser, a little more aware how to inhabit the middle ground between misery and joy. Trudge on. In the higher regions, where the footing is unsure, to trudge is to survive.

All good poems are victories over something.

Bring to me, it said, continual proof / you've been alive.

I will try to disappoint youbetter than anyone else has.

ConnubialBecause with alarming accuracy she__ been identifying patterns I was unaware of__his tic, that tendency, like the way I've mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I felt_ I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.

I'll say I love you,Which will lead, of course,to disappointment,but those words unsaidpoison every next moment.I will try to disappoint youbetter than anyone else has.

I've triedto become someone else for a while,only to discover that he, too, was me.

Anyone out without the excuse of a dog should be handcuffed and searched for loneliness.

Altruism is for thosewho can't endure their desires.There's a worldas ambiguous as a moan,a pleasure moanour earnest neighborsmight think a crime.It's where we could live.I'll say I love you,Which will lead, of course,to disappointment,but those words unsaidpoison every next moment.I will try to disappoint youbetter than anyone else has.--Mon Semblable