Friday, September 18, 2015

The stuff we're made of


The things that make the People
Gathered by Hunger
and insatiable growls
and Justified, Need
The goods are Good
And stuff matters
The Hunter and The Gatherer
tied at the waste
Harmonize their Note
A Mantra of Meager and Impoverished
and chorus off key-then the dreams shatter
Leaving you Naked-

(This poem is a mimicry of Emily Dickinson's #729, The Props assist the House)
Image By en:User:Smm650 (en:File:General Picture.JPG) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

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. 

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Finding one self conscious (in a back-pack)


High school can be so cruel,
horrible not to mention
adding a new bright
canary yellow back-pack
cheery to a fault, a tweet assault
and glowing it seems from afar
a beacon, a candle,
or the sun.

She said she wasn't ashamed
before the first day
of sophomore year.
She said she had no fear,
she loved her bright
yellow book bag.

Rich and poor are both so brutish.

I was right,
she said.
They made strange faces
sneered up and down and
around her stylish lemon
fresh attache.
She didn't bend, or bow.
She was stubborn too.
Soon enough, "They all asked
where'd I get it," she smiled
radiantly,
stepping out of the mold
and into her sunny warm self.

Image By Molku (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.


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”.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

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.


Tres (trace)

Water Today, warm raindrops glass blurs, the blurry glassy, sharp sparkles sugar. Behind Evening, it was good. Leaves all turned into shadow...