Professor

He spoke of the same humbling
Revelation
As if he had just learned it
himself
forgetting he had said this
every time I met him-

The first time
it was
news (to me)
Now, he says
it as Truth.

It may be so
fascinating, even true, however,
there are reasons
it is
he will never know.



Image credit by Metropolitan Museum of Art [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Choral motes

Doomed to repeat,

Implies inherent circularity,

As if our orbit

Could interrupt

With just knowing the segments

Of hilarity,

Propulsion just doesn’t work that way.

In microcosmic scales

Up and down, within spins

All is held together

By this

Revolution

From cloth to cloud,

White was ideal as open, pure,

And alone

The maker makes more mess,

The observers became obsolete,

And cursed the eternal stream

Of colorists, art and first impressions

And one was moved

Spun around again,

Up and down

Came together

As if they must.


Drawing (lithograph) By Odilon Redon (France, Bordeaux, 1840-1916) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The wind was long

If I wrote 'Now' one thousand times-
Now, Now, Now-
am I not lying? Redundantly (pro)posing nothing new
on the page-

Now, Gertrude may say
the same,
Now
there is no such thing like the thing itself,
repetition of point...
like Moore's Law-only holds so many holes
before disappearing
all together.

In soundness, over and over
is a slingshot past Here-

reason being no longer
enunciates itself
as individual
thingness and parsimony

it seems to me we should have
been focused on the duplicates

observing patterns of double talk
scholars without abjection to empty words,
placeholders or so called meta-
or merely masters by degrees

From this angle
Now was never
the center
errant signals disconnect
the radii from the thing.




Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Félix Vallotton (1907) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The metronome leads home

Ah-wakening

Water drip-drops from the roof-top

onto the plastic lid of the empty blue recycle bin

It is not raining-anymore.

While lying there, transported,

the drops dripping were tick tocks

of the clock overhead in my grandfathers den

As I lie there, my hearts mouths the waters

falling

back in sleep, absorbed in one wet second

There is no difference between

Now and Then

Some things are worth repeating

time and time again;

rain, reminiscing in rain again

Sleep

And

Ah wakening. 

Painting by Nicolas Régnier (1588/1591–1667) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Why we bother to bother with Why (a deepity)

Because we are here now

facing each other,

listening to the music

we are submissive-or brave

Because we stand up and speak aloud

to show another view,

we abort our own conception

by consent-or dissent

Because we fret and dodge regret

ruts are dead set, circuits carry currents

direct, a dexterity of pre-determined design

connected by linear contact-or experience

Because stasis ensures us

and the foreseen guarantees us

safety in numbers, with all the fish in the sea

our place is secured in parsimony

Because Things don’t change, instead We rearrange

our conception, our perception-a deception

based on learned History, founded on prophesy

we perverse possibility-or reverse responsibility

Because the incentive is steep

Regret is shallow

Because the chances are scarce

Retribution is the final reward. 

Image of cover publication "The Masses", c. 1916 By E. Higgins [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Poem inscribed on bottom left corner reads:
Revolution
Anyone can write Revolution-Revolution
is written
By pale young men with the new conven-
tional mind;
Though it causes, indeed, no such havoc 'mid
humankind
As Samson's did when the Philistines were 
smitten.

It is easy to preach-Revolution-Revolution
in pink reviews,
Or flourish a Phrygian cap from the top of a 
steeple;
But if ever it came to an uprising of the people,
How many pale poets would stand in the leaders 
shoes?
-William Rose Benet

Anchors cut by angels

“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.” -Pindar Pythian lii

I believe in little angels
                            although,
not those in Dante's Divine version
                            yet we all understand his grand design
poetry left letters lynched, hanging in his story.

I believe in angels
                           that are not molded from mortality
but leave tangible gifts
                           treasures we didn't know we wanted
like uncoveted luck.

I believe in bantam angels
                           that drop hints
and lift eyelids
                           shift the butterfly in flight
while waltzing with the wind.

I believe in angels
                           not as conspirators, or muses
I am not one of those poets, that would be insane
                           those who claim to hear voices
I believe in angels
                           that leave language to loons
whose call I understand, just as planned
                           like destiny's low decibel note
I believe in angels
                           that make time
to rescue, rally, recover, ruin, redeem, reiterate
                          remind us of what we must have known
already.

I believe the angels are our audience
                          listening to our poetry
reciting their favorite parts
                          while waiting for tides to turn.

Faith: “…a silent waiting on the truth, pure sitting and breathing in the presence of the question mark.”-Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 

Image of painting by William Closson (1883-1978) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.