Finders Keepers

I steal everything.
Every thing I find
interesting I keep.
And I confess,
it is crowded and cluttered
but I am still collecting
all the things I like.
That stuff that was already here
when I got here,
all the stuff
and all the stuff in the stuff
is never enough
I still want more...
For I am warning you
to guard what you show me,
I might (definitely) steal a glance
and there is a more than (likely) chance
that I have stolen all these words-
certainly someone has found them,
used them,
thought them
before me.
Before me, it was all ready there
waiting to be found
and unforgotten
lying around like antique truths
until some one
like me
re-members them,
and re-collects them.
Paraphrased for portability,
praised for poetic quiddity,
too, you know-
nothing you do is new
everything you say
has been said another way
and in brief
I am a thief
but on that note,
don't (Ms.) quote me
with words I never wrote.




Image of painting by Charles Joseph Grips [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, entitled 'Opportunity makes a thief', (1875).

Meet Me (half ray)

De re,

My alias is my radius.
Since we were never given a choice
and were named
thus before we could voice
our pick or preference
to see it if sticks and since
most of us think our given name
carries a ring of lame-
ness
Unless
already entitled to impress,
like Princess Di
why
I'd like to say
I think my name should have regally been
Rey-
I'd sing it all day
and sometimes I would spell it Ray
and other days I'd write it Rae
for a boy or girl, either way,
like a vector connector
a reflector, or deflector
of either
Rae.
I think
I'm a pink
beaming scumble
tumbling toward
another's fame
via
various name games
that all sound the same.
A nom de plume,
a ready-made costume,
whose narrow lines
were all mine,
just a sign
to say
I am Rey
just for today.




Image By NASA, DOE, International Fermi LAT Collaboration [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Description details:Exploring the cosmos at extreme energies, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits planet Earth every 95 minutes. By design, it rocks to the north and then to the south on alternate orbits in order to survey the sky with its Large Area Telescope (LAT). The spacecraft also rolls so that solar panels are kept pointed at the Sun for power, and the axis of its orbit precesses like a top, making a complete rotation once every 54 days. As a result of these multiple cycles the paths of gamma-ray sources trace out complex patterns from the spacecraft's perspective, like this mesmerizing plot of the path of the Vela Pulsar. Centered on the LAT instrument's field of view, the plot spans 180 degrees and follows Vela's position from August 2008 through August 2010. The concentration near the center shows that Vela was in the sensitive region of the LAT field during much of that period. Born in the death explosion of a massive star within our Milky Waygalaxy, the Vela Pulsar is a neutron star spinning 11 times a second, seen as the brightest persistent source in the gamma-ray sky.

Welcome Home Space Cadet

After 520 days of being away things change.
After more than a year away
one cannot expect things to remain
the same.

It's not like we didn't know you were gone.
We were watching from home base,
safely and with sound (waves).
We celebrated and we waited
for your safe return
and now you're back
we've learned.

Well sir, welcome home to Earth
 you now have a million twitter followers
for what it's worth.

Imagine the mail, the mess waiting
for him upon return-
and how his eyes and ears must burn!
I imagine our hopeful sunrises are dim,
slim and nowhere near as bright
here comparatively.
When watched from exosphere
perspective where the altered subjective,
figuratively rises either way, for another day
some where
and the effect of green flash last
until at least until tomorrow
I don't know
how
you held on for six
reloads, but with your body double
down here,
we hope to better understand your year
in space, at least physically, for history
sake, the emotional toll will remain a mystery.

Mr. Kelly, you said sleep was hard up
there, there is no rest,
and that was all just part
of the nightmarish tests
to see if you'd keep your head on
straight
without gravity
or a leg to stand on.

So how does one acclimate
to a constant limbo state?
Is fate suspended,
karma expended elsewhere?
Will he ever remember
how to be a heavy human member?
Perhaps he will take more leaps
after he sleeps
for a long
long
long
time
(stretched
blini
thin).

NASA noted
the newly made progress toward
the next giant leap for that kind of man.
Nearer are we, said the space agency
to getting 'boots on Mars'
which sounds warily like warfare jargon.
I dare say, it should be worded another way,
perhaps NASA should ask the ESA...

But NASA's not so concerned with tact,
and rathering to collect all the facts
from more than four hundred
experiments performed,
data they've been dying
for, they said
a benefit to all humanity.

Hopefully Mr. Kelly kept his souvenir
in sanity.
We are glad to have you back,
let's start you off with some Prozac.
The weight of the world is rather heavy.



Image By NASA ([1]) of Scott Kelly (left) and Mikhail Kornienko on the ISS 2015[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Anti-cedent

It all started here-when-
It was not begun-before
It was said
In the beginning
who said It
when It was
the first
notion before motion
set in-
side-out-
side the difference in
between mover and moved
when It
is found In
and all around
before sound made it
said or heard
It was on the third day
It was idea, a seed sown
the sky glown
in sacred rhyme
the making of
difference In time
then and what
will be
started over
counting It out
to find our place
only to begin
again
at one.

Image by Gustave Doré (1832-1883), Creation of Light[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Perso in la biblioteca Umbertos

Leave a light on
so the bugs don't eat the books.
The grandfather clock
must be wound
so our heart keeps ticking.
Stock up on the stories
so you have many maps
and mythos to go.
The journey keeps us young,
but the last leg catches up...
You've lost me-
many times
in the labyrinth of
your enigmatic fantastic
winding fallacious folios
that make ones head spin-
Are they books or bottles
with memories as mixed
messages?
Translation tends to
misinterpret and blurs,
slurs, like tears on ink
there's a leak, (I think)
Ahh-look up-
always-the sky
knows how to read infinity
as long as your words remain
contained and
eternally with me,
I'll be happily lost in the library.


Image of painting By Unknown Dutch Master (c.1628) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Alter ego

Having an alter ego
is better than being schizophrenic,
clinically.
Although its still not quite right
to say it has to do with our
size shifting ego.
It could have been called
alter(nate) reality
-but that was taken by technology.
Parallel universes could work, theoretically.
This would not conflict or cross hairs,
like egos.
Who knows,
maybe being a writer is just ordinary
crazy. After all,
it's a scary thing
to think like Stephen King.
Though the average person
keeps their twisted thoughts
to themselves,
but knows how
alter(nate)ing egos
allow acceptably
multiple personalities.
And many is more than one-
identities, like secrets are sweet,
indulgent even, but one
can have too many of those
personality wise, everyone knows
those are aptly called lies.

The scenery in between

All the faces
in their cars, stopping, going
to and from
look so tired and miserable-
like they are being drug around,
he noticed.
When people walk,
they participate in the traveling.

Going Places,
she said
Look at him,
now he's going somewhere
and his air was lighter
the wind was with him
as they say.

Have you walked anywhere
without a destination,
and seen what's between
point B and A
(where are those located anyway)?

This thing stumbled upon
called ambling along-

not to ramble on too long
but wandering is no easy thing-

thankfully though,

it requires no licensed training.
Practice, yes,
lots of pedestrian practice,
yet even pacing is prior
enough preparation

for lack of destination.

The art of the amble:

when out walking
in a leisurely way
one can confidently say
I went somewhere today
without a point.




Image By Stupich, Martin, creator, Weeping Wall, Flathead County MT[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.