elasticity/density

The anticipated fog
steamrolls over
terrestrial things
in ways worthy
of emulating.

Clearing in manhole
windows, a glint of caught
starlight hints at the presence
of an eternal watchful
vigil by the moon cast.

Slow and muffled comes the
hollow sound, conjured by a presence
stirring the air.

Straining to hear
a muse muttering
your name as if it were
pronounced in the echo
of Nobody.


Painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893), 'A Moonlit Evening' c. 1880 in Public Domain. 

Saying Hello to Yellow

Yellow is such an excitable color,

I wonder why it was not chosen on the dollar?

Go for gold, so we are told, now green means greed (or anthropocentric-ecology).

It gives its gist, its tones surround

awash in amber sunlit streams, a honeyed round.

These bees knees.

Evaporate to dissipate, all yellow with its white,

Ideological color-coded representing light.

Puffy clouds up there dispelling do not care.

A wisp, a wind, invisible in blue,

yellow of miasma, a heavy stench to view.

Blinded by the light, illuminated insight.

Details and dust, minute moments under highlight

backlit aura in glow, a heavenly halo gets bright.

It is the color of embrace, a warm greeted face,

a marvelous matter in Persephone's case...

Flaxen, ashen, wheat grain hair looking for more fun.

The Ylang-ylang used fruitfully in Malay

wouldn't tell or like to smell any other way.

Innocent in assertion, overpowering in desertion.

Wrapping around, at the end of the ray

yellow is what makes a beautiful day

Drafted, swilled, mead drunk filled pores.

The dying man's last words, a fluttering flock, a bird

tweeted the suns secret, in the buzz, it goes unheard.

You will find the secret in your Sol.

There's nothing mellow about yellow.

Faces of happy, or warm air, and for daisies,

slowing down, its pricelessly making maybes.

Composed 3/15/15.
Image of painting by Gustave Caillebotte, (1848-1894), [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons."The Yellow Fields at Gennevelliers".

Pain scale

The bottom bass drum throbs*_*_*_*

catching its reverberating rhythm…echoes in your bones.

Pangs wail unsteady*by back-feed screams**nails scratch black slate.

Rips jagged jerks

                            muscle movements spasm

                                                                       ---and tense-letting briefly a sense

-a single gasp, a breath-       before coming through.

(Inside again),

trembling upon return          inevitable cool rushes    waterfalls through hot veins

hit icy boulders,

white raging waters--direct and dictate

the dermal, thermal, rising

skin, pouring forth

in urgency of some release!

A pressure valve, a double boiler, the kettle calls black______***

incessantly nagging in angry notes.

(I can only whisper in whimpers)

Struck- dumb, now-I refrain somehow

unable to take any more
-pain.

Composed 9/9/15.

Image of painting By Sir Charles Bell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Patient suffering from tetanus. 

The Theory of Speculative Direction

If you were lost in the woods,

                                     a compass would work

better than a philosopher

                                     even if you didn't know

how it all worked

                                     At least you would get

Somewhere.

If you wanted to map

                                     the Universe one

should listen to a shaman's mantra

                                     not plot it out with an astrophysicist

it would be easier to project

                                     realms by means of real numbers

shooting from the lip, a departure from

                                     the same astral plane

                                     bound by reasonable gravity

Altering the scenery doesn't change the view

                                    from the eye of the bespoken

Plato's cave was not a practice of spelunking

                                     to new depths

or sending our souls soaring to the stars

                                     upon plummeting death and worms.

If I remember correctly

                                     the act of recalling can feel like falling, sleeping or slipping

into the abyss of mind matter

                                     a memory palace, a sin chateau,

a cabana for one's mana

                                     and other obtrusive structures

machinations are machines

Like the disgruntled grandson

                                     who built a Reverse Infinity Instrument

(a.k.a. a Time Machine)

whose Free Will Manual Transmission led him to kill

                                     the wise man he so despised

an obviously inane and obtuse conundrum

                                     based on probablies and anti-definitives

that work every

                                     ninety-nine percent of the Time

but that too was just speculative theory

Composed 6/18/15.

Image By A. Ernyes at en.wikipedia (Own work Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons of Kootenay Lake BC.

                     

Bell jar

I have never seen a firefly

in Real life,

but I know

I would want to trap it

in a Ball glass jar

shrink its Universe

clutched in the palms of my Hands

convinced I was all there Was.

And I,

watching it like (a)

God

trapped in there,

until it dies

and the mystery is over,

the spark has gone out inside

so I let it Go.

What else could be done?

I lick my finger

circle it around the lip

and mimicking the sound made

of the world spinning around me

while blowing glass.

Composed 5/17/15.

Image By Kobayashi Kiyochika (Japan, 1847-1915) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Copyright infringement (Tanka for everything)

-rain pulsing ripples

on puddles, the spider web

demonstrating the

answers to the Theory of

Everything patent.

The space of my quiet place

I-in this caged space

Sit hidden, beneath bamboo rods overhead

amidst a lush green crowned atria

I volunteer to sit in the birdcage, with the butterflies and song

perched in the open pergola

I-fall into this open space

In my own backyard, behind the garage, now hidden

even further, behind the black holes of my eyelids.

And I feel the sky, it rumbles discontent when a plane

pushes its way through. A crow objects-to something

while a wren gaily chatters to itself and a mockingbird barks back.

The fountain trickles underneath, like a rushing spring

sounding more than it is.

The steady exchange of footsteps coming

crush the grass and shatter the voluminous silence.

I-give in, open up, and see-this space

and flashing bold colors. The filtered sunlight shows

Leaves prancing over the grey slate stones, that try to compete for my gaze.

Bougainvillea pink paper, peeling skin lays

among the spent honeysuckle bottles. Slowly drained,

looking up to the lattice, it’s a vines race to take over this space-

passion fruit, trumpet, creeper and jasmine-

leaves their perfume trail, in the space we mingle, 

cage door always open. 

Holey Trinity: Lie, Cheat & Steal

Lately
I have heard
Every word (not said)

Calling your bluff
Hasn't happened (yet)
Each day, more regret
And yet-you continue
To think I don't know

Stolen moments, my
Trust taken for a ride, Dead
Ends
Await a new pure white
Little lie (by immaculate Mary's men).



Image of painting by Georges de La Tour [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, 1630-1634.

The lessons taut

“Surfing with Jesus”

the sign read

in front of the Pilgrim Church

across from the high school.

Not the Mormon one

across the parking lot

on the other street
with the lemonade stand

and portable orange bibles

towering high.

A teenage boy with earbuds

sits at the bus stop

smoking and snarling

waiting insecurely

to be picked up

or to be saved.

The bell has not yet rung.

Image By Hogyn Lleol at English Wikipedia (Self made by Hogyn Lleol) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Published in the 2017 Magee Park Poets Anthology.

Cause and effect

                                                  (I never meant to be the cause,
                                                    but I know
                                                          I too
                                                                   shall pass)
Because I am here now
because now never was
because I was a mistake
because my children were perfection
because knots can untie
because I have thumbs.
Because we are all smarter
because we learn from the past
because the past is a leash
because we can escape
because we try to avoid death
because hurting is feeling too much
because healing is a miracle enough.
Because nobody will ever know
Why we are here.


Image By not stated (FBI Photos image source) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. FBI Laboratory scientist. 

Pre-recorded: The following is not a Live poem

It's not like it used to be...
We used to dream about making robots
do our menial work, not our magical works-
those things only humans can do:
like cry, create
and ideate
ways to make life easier on us
less of us needed
participation nonessential.
(human auto-pilots)
A sweet serenade
became a re-mix, betwixt by
the sound, dubbed for deaf ears.
A vocal scale made smooth
by the synthesizer, equalizer
(humanizer).
An actor feels no butterflies
when he appears on the inside
of the idiot box,
he's no cracker jack.
Legs are not broken on blue-ray
slipped discs, but no risks.
It's bare (bones) entertainment.
Pictures say many things, it's said
about what is no longer true
they cut a slice of time, etched
on mirrored paper.
Once around
the fire, stories were told
yarns knitted
and lore was learned.
This was way before the plague
of plagiarism, words were invented
and tailored to suit.
Reproduce en mass,
a photo, a note, striking a chord
a player piano
knows your tune
pre-recorded originality
plays on repeated loops
serenading us
out of our own mortality.

“Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.”

-Virginia Woolf

Image By New York : Broadway Music Corp., publisher. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, sheet music cover. 

If (Then)

Then it happened to you,
then you knew it too,
then came the little white lies,
then the hate began abating.

Then you decided who is slave and master
then as a victim under wrath of disaster
then the words were the same
then the expected was spoken
then gather the fools
who brandish their philosophy with blunt tools.

If you rely on random winnings,
the future is a loss, a simple toss
of chance, dicey beginnings
are a safer bet, planning for loss
is real, skin and bones, muscles and sinew.

If ever you feel all hope is gone-
If you
manage to keep holding on,
remaining strong in each individual virtue
you
define for yourself, yet don't be too harsh much.
Each second of every minute
is your life, not a race, do not run.
Then if only you can forgive me for all I didn't
and did give you, my only son.

Image of Rudyard Kipling by Elliott & Fry [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The above poem was an exercise in composing a poem utilizing the same last words of each line (feet) from another poem. For this poem, I used Rudyard Kipling's very famous poem “If”.

The fork of desire

Primal hunger pangs taunt
and flaunt past senses.
Penetrating dimensions,
the jaw clenches.
Unrelenting thirst
pinched cheeks; pursing lips
cracked and trembling.
Pining for a sharp tool-
as an axe would wield
extracting the will.
Determined to fulfill
and sate the craving
unabating, excruciating
gnaw and growl
at a plate that is full
and still that dull
pull for more.
All mine-
stuck on the tine
pierced and tenderized,
penetrating and salivating
at the carnal need,
an insatiable greed.
Ravenous utensil by design
the heart, glutted and gored
a small spade, an aspiring apparatus
an ideal instrument of implementing
a stab through the chest.

Delighted and possessed,
past deprived, I digest-
admiring the architecture
of the fiercely savage fork.


Image of cannibal fork from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, HI by Ergosum88.

An Ode to Ge (Geode)

Just a rock
not smooth but rough
around the non edges of
its intrinsic spheric
nature, structure.

No pebble-but a rock-
that can be concealed in a fist,
hiding inside;
taunting in the turtles way,
tucking, sucking inside
its plated prehistoric shell.

But you can feel this fragment
disintegrate, perish and dissolve;
volcanic cryptocrystalline quartz,
sprinkling its sedimentary exterior
unsentimentaly and silty in my hand.

A rock is a terrestrial fragment made from
dust and sand, compressed and forged,
carrying and holding its inert unstable state,
and insignificant weight,
posing inanimate and dormant.

Lightly, lacking meat in the middle
empty unlike the turtle, hollow,
wallowing in carbonate bubbles.

Listen-inside
as agate bands,
jasper whispers,
and amethysts get kissed...
Stacking up of crystal spears
on corroding foundations;
earth from the inside out.

This little lava rock
life forgets, brushes aside
unless something special is hiding
inside. We, tools, crack
down the middle
to see the little
beauty, chaos, surprise
Lies
inside
a lone little
living stone.



Image from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. Pictured interior of amethyst geode.

i contact

i want to be alone with you,
she said
her lips were puckered
but she made no sound.

It has been
so long
since you're looked me in the eyes
and meant it.

You've changed
is it Time

What has come
between us,

she said touching the icy mirror.




Image of portrait (color plate) By George Eastman House from Rochester, NY, United States [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons.

The Hymn of Ewe

Faith is the wool blanket 

woven by the flock

who sheepishly sew 

contentedly knitting 

nestled in envied green knolls

bleating a single string 

in wandering white streams 

hiding in the herded folds

matted in the material of dreams

tucking in their ears

softly in numbers

Image of painting 'Strayed Sheep' 1852, by William Holman Hunt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Prismatic Proliferation (Haiku)

                                                   Perfect

                  Refraction of  Incandesence

                Shining   ∞   Multiplicty

Image credit: Dispersive Prism, By Kelvinsong (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

I come bearing water

I need not see to believe-
this presence of Ganymede.
We were led to learn,
our blue planet Earth-
was alone soaking in saltwater.

But you showed yourself-
Ganymede.

I rose early too, like those stargazers,
eager to see what they wanted us to believe
was a Blood Moon-
but she was just blushing,
rosy from her fullness.

Like Eos at Dawn,
there you were again,
in the company of dead poets,
attending the school of contemplation.

Rising first, in rings around dreams,
taking lullaby swings, at gravity-
Who thinks nobody is looking-
thirsting for Truth.

Fixing the future, diving into their divinity,
stuck swimming in the stars;
unable to reconcile, to beguile or even manage
a simple smile to reconcile but choose denial,
Ganymede.

Composed 5/21/15.

Image By NASA/JPL (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02278) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Ganymede from Voyager 1, March 1979.

From Mo Money to No Money

Every time I peer
                                        deep into the chasm
                                        of raw dead skin in leather folds,
the vacuum issues a harsh scold,
                                        demanding my attention,
                                        ordering my devotion!

I only consent to exhale marked with a scowl-
                                        in private resignation,
                                        abetting the crime
followed by a hollow growl.

Puppet masters play heart strings-
                                        hear the beat, bass tone of guilt.
The tempo tells, chanting, incanting, vexing
                                        your blind habits,
will fall into place.

Stringing us along as though
                                         it knew the way to love yet gives
nothing in return.

Keep the change.

Forget counting all the beans.

What does money have to do with
                                         ways and means?
                                         It buys excuses.
Material dreams are for oxymorons.

What I've found in that narrow slit of wallet-
                                          where the green flags marked camp,
are unopened drawers, little opportune doors, windows cracked by the panes
                                           so the air can return,
                                           recirculating the wealth.
Who knew?
I'd be richer without you.



Image By Unknown or not provided (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

May-be a storms a passin'

The way the sky hangs,
on every note between birds,
pending with tension that is thunder.
A surge of need rides the backs,
rallies the clouds around,
now surrounded and we are small,
audible with weakness, loudness,
madness amplified.
And with a warm breath,
the sky relents with rain,
a sweet sigh, cleanses in resilience,
brilliance.
Miasmic mists that appear
thick with self,
but calm all along,
the bird holds its song,
while the storm subsides,
in mutual mercy of May.




Image By User:Imagaril (Own photo) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.