Poem - i have been out with the stars

i have been out with the stars
and i ate with them

they told me we are small
stars

that talk so much


*

poem - time halted and became one / i saw william blake at the window

tranquilly we relit the stars
and they burned brighter than before
seized by our imagination

passing between one or the other
as if in a field full of flowers
bejeweled in feeback of ions

time halted and became one
from the womb of space
i saw william blake at the window



*

Poem - i would think about all the moody things i thought

i would think about all the moody things i thought
then go through old juvenilia until i started throwing it away

because i'm no rimbaud or later even a wallace stevens
and so here i am throwing away all these lines

loosed full of hope on a page when life was a big unknown
and now consigned to ashes in a box labeled BURN

but the moon is a crescent over the bay tonight
and a fire down on the beach would be a prefect thing

i'll burn the old with the new and nothing else need to happen
the perfection of what is burned written or said

i can write it later and burn it again after this
even unevenness arises evenly in this flawed human being

praying to god or the literary angels to be spiffier
with a little light on the beach under the stars



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HB
2015.2.17

Poem - they said my ego is a joke / stop laughing this is serious

they said my ego is a joke
but pay attention to it
and you'll always have
something to laugh about

i go back and read
about the shortened lives
of those who loved and wrote

for one
after a lingering
yet graceful death
gloriously he was burned
in a an iron machine on a shore
as a great storm came in

my burning heart
will never be snatched from the flames

instead
i will write this poem
at the mall stop laughing
this is serious



*

Poem: when the revolution started \ they killed him \ he was a poet

when the revolution started
they killed him
he was a poet

you must kill
all the poets and writers
when a revolution starts

we don't always know
where the poet's and writer's
sensibilities lie

they shot a lot
on the side of a road
it is simple to do you see

after he was dead
all sides mourned him

we persecuted
the commander

who had him shot

*

on the road between
alfacar and the village of víznar
the day was splendid

hearts beating faster
a humming bird flashed by
stomach full of nectar

humans loved by god
slowed to the roadblock

the hummingbird loved by god
over the ridge to a tree
and rested

*

how big is the mind of god

---


for
Lorca

Poem - but i will always be willing to come back

i keep realizing i am in nowhere
then i am walking back in my mind
to the present moment

when i get there it is like breaking
a glass window the whole thing shatters
with my head

i stick around for however long
and then my heart or my imagination
whirls me back out to wherever

but i will always be willing to come back
it seems to be important to be here
in this batting cage or battle


*

Poem - not knowing / all i know

not knowing
the exact name for something
proves you have not
destroyed the purity
of what it might be

then going
more into not knowing
to some a void
or waste to be avoided
says ego

all i know
is the sun is like a hot balloon
and this grass is splendid
with you


*

Poem - i live in a city of words

i live in a city of words
in a so so neighborhood
of one of the small paragraphs
you should have read it
before i got here

i am the citizen of a work
that is full of magical-realism
and won't be published

it will be buried
in my body and my mind when i go
to the library in the sky

we are all short stories
and poems and collections of verse
walking and talking and dreaming

some are lists and others
diatribes rant or manifestos

but we all have work to do here
and that is to narrate
to help make sense
when the plot turns

or a chapter begins
or ends



 - - - -

Poem - even unto death

brother of st francis to the center
of a town that hated him
to be humiliated

the citizens freely and enjoyed
abusing the man and beat him
screamed and spat

the brother went back day after day
for more abuse from the people
how easily did he fare

for in all of us are crimes and deeds
we have done to ourselves
and we have inflicted

we acting out of self-admiration
with spite or amusement
even relish

even unto death

a juniper tree bends under a storm
is greener and is thankful
for such punishment

indirectly shields weaker things
by being upright and easy
giving but not breaking


___

for Fra Ginepro

Poem - conquered by any simple act

when i read about the sad thoughts
a russian astronaut had when he beheld the earth
pollution and inequality
technological corruption

i see a hummingbird flash up to my window
and i realize i must go get a feeder
to feed all them in the neighborhood

conception in the world seen from space
or seen from my seat or in our minds
conquered by any simple act



*

Poem - go to any lengths so get the message through

i want to tell you something
i want to know you again
find you

go to any lengths to get the message through

but it was just a dream and at 2.45 am
i turned into a old indian
who had a hat


*