The Insane Man

The crazy man flapped his wings
but found he couldn’t fly. 
It was a long time coming.
Most people walk in measured gaits
with pleasant smiles,
they never even try to fly
so they never know they can’t,
or that they want to
or need to,
and if they don’t
they will go insane.

from Beyond Rhyme & Reason (2002, Red Dancefloor Press)

The Soul

It’s a huge party
where the music plays silently.
Everybody wears a hat.
Everybody’s hats have feathers.
Everybody exchanges feathers
and dreams pass back and forth.
Thoughts ripple
in an ocean of wine
where mind is the absence of mind.
The living and the dead mingle
as equals.
Those who are absent are loved,
making them 
present.
When the dance begins
a storm of plumes
blows around the room.
Everybody is blind.
Everybody suddenly smiles
as each feather settles back
in its original hat.

from Mind Your Head

Zen

Nothing is more

Important

than this poem
and this poem

Is

no longer important

from The Naked I

© 2010 Annie Reiner

Annie Reiner is a poet, and a fine poet at that.
--Maya Angelou

Reiner has a richly comic imagination and brings a refreshingly light touch to matters of metaphysical and emotional confusion. 
--Publisher's Weekly

If Freud, Pirandello and Groucho Marx sat down to write a play together, this would be it.
--Mel Brooks