may we all be heard
words are bells
let them ring!


Thom World Poet Austin, Texas, USA
Global Radical networker and activist for promoting the live Creative Arts,
at every possible opportunity, especially in his home-city, Austin, Texas, USA


Monday, March 29, 2010

SPOKEN AND HEARD

She -young,bright,fresh as book and Cds
He,kisses her then melts into the distance
She has carved her words in hearts and drained the blood as ink
She loves the forms of infant truth as it speaks

This is her night to shine within her light
she has watched and waited,experienced too much
Wild birds burst out of her tiny frame
She has a plan.It may not have his name

She seeks to engage us with her lives
Organically,her page poems take winged flight
Now see her off the page as she rises high
to shine bright sunlight upon our pale wan

More plans will unfold as her illuminated manuscripts
This is her life.Her poems,.Her songs.Her personal screams

SUNDAY NIGHTS from 7-10pm SPOKEN&HEARD@kick butt
5775 west airport.Hosted by Element 615.Features/round robin/surprises!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!

BEWARE OF IDENTITY THEFT THIS EASTER !

CELEBRATION CIRCLE

Gather ye rosebuds in one circle Sundays
Have musicians,artists,parents play
Make bread to share and adorn your altars
Give praise to all the Four Directions
Bless everyone present and all of consciousness
Share who you are in circular breathing exercises
Invite the whole world in to participate as they see fit
Extend this circle until all can fit within it
Repeat ad infinitum.Extend these gatherings
until each and every being within San Antonio's environs
feels attraction to these principles of living-
respect for earth,water,sky -all creatures who walk
and those who fly.Two and fourlegged ones
who bless us with continuation-
and the diversity that allows humanity
borrowed time on a rented planet
Our age three score years and ten
Then a new Circle starts again
Time to join in! Every Sunday Morning @11am!
CELEBRATION CIRCLE@BLUE STAR ARTS COMPLEX
S Alamo ,San Antonio-opening the Circle of life for all to Celebrate!
March 28 and every sunday forever

Sunday, March 28, 2010

BUCOLICS ANONYMOUS@BOGGY CREEK FARM

Within the original wooden walls
of the oldest continuously occupied house in Austin,
six musicians,one poet and a recorder crunched together
in jovial re-enactment of Thomas Hardy's poetry set to music.
Hurdy-gurdy,violin,percussion,tin whistles,stand-up bass and guitar
with various sound effects via xylophone and violin bow
created soundscapes that enlivened his worthy words
and made a dance of the devil's instrument
to the accompaniment of planes,trains,chickens and birds..
For some reason,the word"muslin"became "muslim"
no matter how forgiving these musicians were
the verbal score was all for Hardy's original creation
less for its verbalizing antipodean re-creation...
No matter.Forgiveness is required on this brief earth
Thomas Hardy's words were conjured up to dance once more
and Boggy Creek Farm added soundtrack of animal farm proportions
Such a sunny Saturday to stay indoors to play
the results of which will be melted and molded
into a conjured up play of consciousness
to be offered soon in available formats
for you to judge why indoor sports
called us all to enjoy being Bucolics Anonymous
on Saturday March 25,2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

ELDER WOMEN WISDOM

Half-Price Books Half Price Sale
I buy libraries and give them away
Today I range the shelves seeking printed wisdom
but i stop at "LEAD WITH A LAUGH!(Liz Carpenter
She still resonates with her penchant for poets and wit
and we are all less for the loss of it.
I restart the search for living wisdom between those gone
Stop again when Molly Ivins smiles from a cover
She and Ann Richards two brave public Texas women
whose singularities redefined the possibilities for half of Texas
I leave.I ask only that you love
so we might read your life force while you are here with us
not have to wait for epitaphs and memorial services...
and posthumous books to celebrate all you loved


GOLD CREATIONS
Gold rises in value like fear
Sign on the door warns-
TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ONCE
THEN AGAIN TO MAKE SURE
(thieves cannot read-so bars fence in Gold Creations..
For some reason,my beloved breaks jewelry
and gets her ankle bracelets repaired continually
in exchange for fresh baked bread
Sign on South Lamar door yesterday hand written-
MEDICAL EMERGENCY!.CLOSED till Wednesday morning
Return today-still closed.Gold for bread
Give me bread any day!
True as on March 24,2010

virtues of darkness

you do not see the future
you do not know what will happen next
every night brings new dreams
it covers blood and mistakes
you can hide here like a cave
you can defer,demur,withdraw
you can build a fire and burn your paper pasts
you can stay warm by glowing
you can visit the other side
you can return before morning
you can stretch time
you can bend space(all lines die in darkness
you can rationalize
you do not see the horror(only sometimes,by the burnings light..
you tend to hear things clearer
you do not rely on one sense alone
you meet others banned and banished
you meet gods,goddesses,exiled,stoned
you hear stories that go on like travelers
you learn eternal patience(time is a teardrop
you become a cave.You attract bats
they cling upside down in your dark spaces
they claim rights of occupation
they tell you of their times and travails
you relearn listening and hear trees creaking
all of earth has motion ,movement,meaning
all of air has wings.Fire becomes ash in you
Cold as shivering morning,you become a coat you wear
to protect you from those darknesses within




WINTER ON THE MOON
"Man,if you think THIS is bad
You should see the OTHER side!"

POETRY OF POLITICS

i do not ask you for your vote
nor your love
i ask you to love
i have no crusades
nor chips nor crucifix on shoulder
i have broad shoulders(two)
as you do
Carry your own life!
i do not ask you to change
even when you demand i do
Demands will not produce change
only love works
You can play games
but the rules are simple
Everyone who plays games gets gamed
When you seek to win,you lose
And if you believe votes or belief will save you
You will be voted out by those who do not
You do not need to believe a thing
Poetry is as free as breathing
and when it is caged,or broken
it becomes fragments(just like people
and here is where you come in
Now you write your version(if you wish
Life is where we steal experience
Diversity is...
the difference between
poetry and politics...


YOU BETTER BE HAPPY
Say this is your original moment
(they are not making many more of them
And there is a definite end to breathing
well,then...

Monday, March 22, 2010

APOTHECARY OF SOULS

By light of computer screen,she dreams
Visiting friends in hospice on the lip of leaving
she cries with them,fills a cup of tears
gets them to drink her stories in
(She heals via listening)
He plays violin.Harmonies dwell within
When spirit fires ,his strings lift higher
than any script prepared or since
She sings-her chants and ululations lift
all within a circle of Light towards Within
where altars of flowers and gardens dream
He digs-and in the good earth finds mere mud
to make daub scratch sketch with
as ocher,blue,brown and gray
art of this earth in these our digging days
She listens to children
as they seek ways through dysfunctions
Guides gently paper boats on rough seas
saves young lives via life lines
These are the New Poets-they tweet and twitter
and blog and web their way in our actual world
with the chemistry of choice they find new trails
through a wilderness of choices.You are they
who as yet have no name-one day
all who heal via loving will be saved
by the self same love they gave to others in their way
Many paths ahead of all our choices
We took the one in silence with our voices
on March 22,2010

SHARING STORIES

Ly Van Addadipo was a Buddhist monk
He lived to his ninetieth year
He died in January 2008
after surviving the Khymer Rouge
He wrote in his notebook-
O! Maha Mount Dangrek(Oh Mighty Mount Dangrek)
about the mountainous plateau between Cambodia and Thailand
that refugees were forced to climb to escape the Khmer Rouge
He wrote of forced labor camps,starvation,infant executions
He wrote of his dreams of escaping to America
1.7 million people died of starvation,disease,and executions
Most were forced to work 14 hours a day on farms and public projects
Ly Van wrote poems describing what he and his generation went through
Now they will be posthumously published
Photos of Khmer camps and Thai refugee camps accompanying
Truth always comes out(even in a poem-
14 cities in America will be blessed to share this one
From Lowell,through Chicago,Philadelphia,St.Paul to Long Beach
text and photos will be supplemented with Cambodian music
The horrors are bones buried,but remembering is the task
of monks and poets and all of us
That is why we share stories like this with each of us
Alive enough to know the difference!
REMEMBER THE REMEMBRANCE READING@AIPF Th April 15 3.30-5.30 Ruta Maya

Sunday, March 21, 2010

INFO FRAG

Tweet me.Text me.Email so passe.140 characters all we need
KINDLE my ebook so i can swap apps.FACEBOOK IM
Myspace music .Webbed we are ,instant as now.FREE content! (GOOGLE this)
Information overloading.Selective editing.Monitored for content.
Branding.Monetizing.Net plagiarism.So sue me! Rewire my brain receptors.
Is Information technology? Virtual Reality?Mash-ups monster hits?
News is entertainment! Digitalise this! Paragraph Tweets..
Telegram obselete.Haiku Corporation.Chinese Government Monitoring
Youtube me! ipod my microbroadcasting capacities! MP3
Text Haiti,Tweet Iran,Youtube Tibet demonstrations.Blood on film.
Post your profile.Identity theft.Pundits proclaim Tea Party cliches.
Blogjam.Attention span(micro-seconds).Instant not quick enough!
Cyberbalkanization.Fururists outsourced.Cyber Gibson.Neuromancers.
Particle bits/bytes.Apps for everyone!Post fact/fictionalized projected headlines.
Deconstructing authorshipsinking.Watership Down Copyright Violations
Download content random.Upload videos.Fanbase boards.Tiger Woods.
Celebrity Culture paparazzi cameras.Surveillance(universal)
Computer forensics.Art appropriations.Recombinant technospeaking.
Nostalgic malaise.Online retro rehash porn channels.
Eating its own seed stock footage.REPLAY.DELETE.REBOOT
New Media,please..WIRED on March 21,2010(sent from my iphone

Saturday, March 20, 2010

THE VERY BEST PEACE DANCE EVER HELD ON MARCH 20

Comparisons are odious-war expenses endless
Did you forget someone is fighting 3 wars in your name and on your dime?
At the Capitol,Machelle tweeted when a war woman whooped at us
We held our peace and presented poems and songs
which warmed our arts as we stood "blowing in the wind"
Each smile became solar powered/as chill winds whipped
over PA towers and snatched hats from musicians/we
laughed at the outrageousness of elements anonymous
as every hug and cuddle kept us together /one by one
we listened to each others' dreams and visions
By 2pm the marching band began to lead this orchestra of souls
down Congress,7th, 6th ,back on Congress,down to City Hall
where Guy and Carolyn and Shelley welcomed sweetly
Yes-we danced to the music.Yes-we smiled,too
And took home placards to remind us to bring peace home
We like each other-but do not want to have to do this forever
Wars must cease between us.I declare unilateral peace
and surrender to your best dreaming.See you @Cafe Caffeine!

IMPROVISATORY IMPROVEMENTS

Poetry of life is ever fluid-to dance
is to follow the flow via tai chi/yoga
subtle /supple body flowings perambulate
Thoughtclouds hover while rivers ripple oceans
Blood circulates (mostly water-we are movement
and when Zen calls.We stop.Listen.
Like some wolf /moonstruck.Change direction.
Sniff the air.Paw/scratch
Rhythms within us activate primal tracks
Traces of ancestors in our genes and actions
We are connected in the Great Chain Of Beaming
To be able to change is a dream(well worth imbibing!
Weather reserves its rights.We are all dancing partners
Tonight new dreams will slip across borders(illegals!
And we will move in a rhythm that makes us more
by allowing us freedom from all forms
apart from the ones we all embrace
like bodies in a tango /on the dance floor of Fate
Now step each moment as a lily pad/frogs
PLOP! haiku in a Japanese fog
Carl Sandburg enters the room playing his banjo
and you are released from all you know.
so..MAKE LIFE UP AS YOU FLOW
on March 20,2010

THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL FOR ENDANGERED KNOWLEDGE

Where everything is on the curriculum-capitalism,communism,poetry
anarchy ,Buddhism,unionism,Tejano history,Turtle Island histories
tribal stories,ancestor worship,oral cultures,all languages
every theory from creationism to cults-all systems of worship
and their antidotes/inventories of all civilizations past,present,future..
Personality cults from Kampuchea to Cuba,art from cave to installations
How to dismantle atomic bombs and other classic U2 tracks
Music from click sticks to post modern instant orchestras
Game theories mathematical to digital.Physics to philosophies.
Chemistry of dating sites.All real/all virtual/all universal
Media and other conspiracy theories.Panaceas and folk remedies
A universalist curriculum based upon skills rather than content
How to edit.How to listen.How to publish.How to increase circulation
Examples would be found from every field of endeavor
to best indicate what really works,and how failures happen
Evolution would be practiced as well as preached,and questioned deeply
Critical synthesis would be offered to all prepared to think
and feel simultaneously.This school is everywhere.There are no fees
apart from curiosity,applied intelligence and positive energies
You do not need walls to make a cage
The bars are those parts of oneself we choose not to see
They only work when we ignore and DELETE
You founded this school-now open it!
EMBRACE ALL WISDOM! on March 17,2010

AVATAR

Thirsty Thursday April 8 with Bob Mud will have the theme"early memories"
Tonight it was 'Fool moon"/confusing all brought up on solar seriousness
and not lunatic poetic after midnight revels among starlit darknesses
Christa suggested we are moving towards full moon wisdom
acknowledging the darkness and reflecting more Light
Nancy saw moon men and crone women as Holy Fools
bearing Diana,Artemis,Selene instead of a man on the moon
(feminine wisdom-receptive,attuned-rather than mere nuclear beaming)
Each added parts of the sky to our nights constellations
Lee suggested we go out to see the crescent moon Cheshire Cat grinning
She added her flutes attuned to moon frequencies(and fresh poetry!)
Steve 's songs of the moon sparked"a single new star"
Poems were written in trust and in hope that creation
might invoke that old cold bone crone Light carrier-
to hear our poetic supplications to her tidal powers
to wave to us on a rising frequency-to allow us one night
for reception,perception,transformations
from Roman CIA Centurion Spartan Old Sol war energies
into starlight,gardens,moon planting by alchemy
Farmers Almanacs include a moon planting guide
Why not we? O gardens of midnight stars!
O harvests of dream children! Midnight to dawn
our new wisdom/initiation/lined poem/song!
SING ON!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

POETRY FOR BREAKFAST AND EVENING

Cafe Caffeinated South Austin morning.Leslie is lounging
Engage him over tacos/migas as to when
he came to old Ruta Maya and recited INVICTUS from memory.
Note perfect,he delivers those lines again(performs them
with panache and aplomb-shares that his Scottish father reminded him
"no matter how low someone may seem,there is always
something to be learned from him.."We learn from him
invite him to the Million Musicians March for Peace celebration
Sunday March 21 from 2pm @Cafe Caffeine.He reminds me
he forgets things easily-like peace,and stories,jokes..
hands me his phone number to remind him
He is an original for Austin(was not from here
but his presence adds a quixotic charm unique as peace-
we do not want to lose him.He will not forget this.

POETRY FOR EVENING
SXSW-a live film in progress.HIDEOUT Monday 16
lines of laminates stretch along Congress
Parking is impossible .Traffic gridlock.Chaos!
We are alive on stage in the midst of this...Poets.Musicians.
Bemused,these laptop dancers withdraw from us
They slip into borrowed darkness for their illuminations
for which they have paid a pretty greenback or three.We are poetry
report back their consciousness within a dance of words
Soon this world of image will need a soundtrack
We supply it!Free of charge,we range within and around-
Lee on the streets with her Native American Flutes
Chris bemoaning these temporary Austin imports
We are poetry.They are film.And a film will never be made of this evening
unless and until we remember to remember
both the verbal and the visual!

METAPHOR INTERNET

This is not an apple.This is not a window.This is not a cloud
Yet you function easily in the poetics of technology
with only tangential connection to our GOOGLE (adjective)(verb)world
There is no web.Data is user neutral.There is no net as such
and poetry owns your corporate world.You borrow Beat terms
until people forget this is a borrowed term.Interface Dilbert truths...
We sell stories and songs to each other to share our lives
We gather tribally in ancient modern circles every night
to pass the message stick and pass the peace pipe and watch smoke signals rise
These are all metaphors!Digital children laptop dance during open mikes
They pretend their screen contains the world.Outside,dawn to dusk to midnight
flowers poems and gardens ,weeds and Light.Our lives
depend upon the quality of consciousness we convey
Each night new furniture neighbor dreams move in and out of sight
Reportage is censored,edited,diluted by Spartan Centurion CIA daylight
But O! that FOOL MOON! round and white and wide-each night
new bundles of dreams fill all available eyes and ears and minds
What you will next say is a metaphor.Our meta-world translates these lines
Data may be neutral-our lives are on every line.Be wise.SHARE YOUR LIGHT!

Friday, March 12, 2010

ASYMETRICAL PEACEFARE

All magic is reversible.Wars have a USE BY date.Peace is inevitable
BUT we can accelerate this evolutionary initiative via adaptive strategies
1.being at peace within at all times
2.seeking peaceful activities and companions
3.extending peace zones from home to work to world
4.meditating and maintaining that deeper focus
5.being with those of like mind/spirit
These are tactics,strategies,improvisations-like volunteerism
They are at present happening -but need quantum responses
before a visible and tangible PEACEWORLD can emerge
Energizing towards these goals is a start
What happens next is in the hands of art
Life follows when we each take our part
Combine the eyes,the mind,your willed intent-your heart
beats irrespective of conflicts.This is a good example of unconditional life
Sun beams across all borders upon rich and poor
Same with moon-reflect upon this-
You are peace.
MILLION MUSICIANS MARCH FOR PEACE meeting sunday Cafe Caffeine
909 west mary from 2-4.30pm-BYO PEACEFUL ENERGIES!
Then meet Saturday March 20 at noon outside the Capitol
to dance quite smilingly towards City Hall where musicians will invoke your harmonies

YOUR NOW NEW(THE EMPTY CHURCHES)

Holy Mountain Moment
Each Epiphany(Instant!).FLASH! Ezekheil's Flaming Chariot
Rolls Through Heavens ,Bones Crushing Evil Beneath
Each Morning (Fresh As Innocence!)-Each Unwrapped Sunrise(Colors!
Every High (and Low)Noon Duel Between Gods /Goddesses
Each Snake in Garden,Apple And
Every Temptation(succumbed to!-every WAKING Moment
All of your Lost Thoughts(Ships,anchored,Sargassos/TITANIC
That Specific Moment when you CHANGED(Caterpillar/butterfly
This Now (NEW!-this one ,too! And this fresh NEXT! (Redemptive for you
Grass beneath,clouds above.Everywhere =LOVE!
It is not you that stops time.but you do=in sleep,dreams,
meditating,listening,walking-just being different to
that person you once called YOU!
Step outside the skin of thought.Now FEEL!
Words shake you to your core.You are MORE! ALL
THE EMPTY CHURCHES IN THE WORLD CANNOT CONTAIN GOD
yet you are more than you can attain/explain.How come ?-this?bliss?
When every thing reminds you of another dream
wherein you are new and glossy/changing
just like this one.And this.And this next one
wherein you challenge every thing just dreamed
and become your own best challenge,in/
ANSWERING A NEW DAWN on March 12, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

"totakearmsagainstaseaoftroublesandbyopposingendthem"

if peace is our wish/our reality is violence
from domestic abuse to random shootings by lone wolf gunmen
suicide bombings,attempted hijackings,piracy and endless wars
we need to examine this conundrum-we are part of an invasion.
alien life forms violating prairies feng shui/building geometric shapes
that pollute the very air,water and earth we live with,
because and on
Soon we will only see a sunset if it is on television
and our digital children will have only virtual reality-
clones,replicants,androids and robots.Thye may ask
"what is peace?"-ancient elders creak towards cliches
but a wish is not an action,and war admits no prisoners
Perhaps it is time to update our cliches-
when even walking down streets attracts violence
Random insurgents claim revolutionary fervor
yet we have seen the stupidity of shoe bombers and underwear terrorists
There is no rationalization for harming others
We need to withdraw from all war zones/come home
meditate upon personal responsibility and collective foolishness
and creatively (harmlessly)finally play the peace fool with each other
SUNDAY@CAFE CAFFEINE 2pm LAST before MILLION MUSICIAN MARCH Saturday March 20-meeting @noon@the Capitol /dancing to City Hall

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Loving the Living

while you are here(it is temporary
you have my time,energy,attention
when you leave(it will happen
please do not rely upon my perception
memories are selective and poor witnesses
Reception is tentative at best(we all have fears!
and when openness is not mutual-
how can you then blame me for withdrawing?
i will love you while you are alive
smiling and Spring,green and golden
and i will learn to love you as you grow lines
between us or within your warzones
It is always harder to say this to those
brought up on Hallmark cliche and only Readers Digest
but the ease of mutuality adds to me-
co-operation ,goodwill,alacrity-
these matter to me.They add to us as well
you have stories to share and to tell
I have ears and time and a mind to listen
You are worthy of attention-
but only if you affirm the living
May we both choose to remain in this dimension
until a greater Revelation sparks new Wisdom
and we learn more from those who no longer agree-
Love the living? or those of history?
TELL ME? on march 9,2010
AIPF REMEMBRANCE READING April 15,2010

Monday, March 8, 2010

USED TO BE A FUTURIST

Now i am a nostalgist-looking backwards
gives me a hind side view of what happens next
in a retro world of redux reduced recycled riffs/and this
present becomes my past overnight.Futures looked bright
as atoms bursting in power stations,leaking positively
into ground water systems.Solar powered optimists now
shine in Texas deserts,where huge wind towers
chop birds migration patterns into half wings.
Every elder dreams of renewable energies!
"If only"sings 60s dreams at the same age
Passing of wind and time ,decline of mind and eyes
Young pups barking at the same old dogs
Everything olde is new again-we are recycling,walking
backwards for Christmas(across the Irish sea)
Familiar familiars present themselves for our immediate attention
but we have drifted into reveries of what what once was
and what will never be again..I used to be ..
(do i repeat myself?-on March

"WE HAVE ALL BEEN HERE BEFORE!"

Remember ,friend,when times were bare
and you felt alone out there
painting houses as a meditation?
Your music stored in the basement of your parents home
you toured /loved/tried not to be alone
Tides came in /went out again..
This is all cyclic/and will happen again
This is when you really need your friends
to reassure that more will enter when it will-
dreams do not stop(like music)-lots
of people feel that Trough of Despond
Connect!The Bridge Between Islands spans
between friends and every living being,and
we do not know when the tides will rise again!
Trust to the fact that you are elder
Youth is a flower,old age a hardy perennial
Weeds have a right to be ,and we
will be round for the next harvesting.
SING when you can,smile at the joke
(the punch line is always on us-and most
are lost before we share rememberings..
There is more to this story than endless beginnings
We are in the middle of a span that bridges years
Time to pack away loss and fears ,regain that life joy
that empowers us out of aloneness-back in chorus
to be with and within-to listen and to sing
like every chanting chirruping bird at a new dawning

Meaning

Words have meaning.In fact,words have many meanings
and when they are taken out of context,or stretched beyond credibility
they lose currency."Eliminationism"is not genocide.
"Terrorism "may be State-sponsored.And "Palestine "is an historic term.
Today is International Women's Day."Sharia" is questioned in France
as is "Scientology"in Germany.Adapted words have contexts-
"enhanced interrogation"@Bagram Air Force Base.
"extraordinary rendition"within the CIA,
"targeted assassinations"within Mossad.
Our pirate language grows to cover unresolved issues
"concealed weapons" to "open jacket"demonstrations
Language is stretched beyond cliche
"bombing the village to save the village"
"friendly fire""collateral damage"
This is us beneath these drones.First the language is sedated
"everything is going to be all right"
Next the massacres of meaning -"democracy" becomes"corporatism"
"Freedom" a feminine hygiene product
Dig deeper.Bodies unearthed-Iraq,Northern Ireland,Kampuchea
Tibet,Turkey,Chile...Before more is lost @too high a cost
ask yourself what is REALLY meant
when we are asked to accept an Official Secrets Act-
does that mean there ARE "Official Secrets"?
From Area 51 to September 11,Waco to Ruby Ridge
From Kenya to China to Russia-ask why these casualties of truth
are called"suspected "extremists-and who is next?

IN THE GLARE OF PUBLIC OPINION March 8,2010

Mediated world.Medicated people.Moderated for content.
Cult of Personality now becomes Religion of Celebrities!
Images of fleeting fame flicker fast past us
filling frames@fashion awards-we ask
"what is your contribution to Western Civilization?"
They reply-"Talk to my Press Agent!"
You see them in smiles and shark suits,sitting by mikes
with gleaming dental work and canned applause
They are being interviewed about their views
on world peace or Haiti and their new Benefit Cd
which will place them within the demographics of instant fame
perpetuated by permanent paparazzi
trailing them like chemtrails in a Texas sky
Now a new breed is following them-Celebritologists!
They who earn their living off those earning a living off us
They report on their miniature dogs and drug habits
who is canoodling with who and Tiger Woods irons
until gossip becomes a supermarket of headlines
and we forget we have our own lives to live
We are led and we follow in the footsteps of celebrities
medicated,like Michael Jackson,mediated like Tiger Woods
a casualty list of dysfunctional personalities
until the image in our mirrors is a borrowed one
and we have to return our reflections like 3D glasses

Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Taste


WHERE THE FUN BEGINS!
You come to a road that is blocked
You know you have options-you can stop.
Meditate (if the traffic will allow) -
or seek a detour. If none, you can contemplate alternatives..
You can fantasize about driving over or around the roadblock
You can decide that greater logic rules
and the roadblock is there for a reason
(Rationalize why you are not in motion on your life path)
You can cancel your trip right there and then-
others have before you-they have handed in their chips when
odds were stacked against them
You are no hero. You defer to mortality
IF you chose to ignore this block
it might end in your demise
IF you resorted to cheap fantasy,
(that the roadblock will melt in the face of your persistence)
you may be proven wrong entirely
And still-every day-that same question remains-
are we to be blocked arbitrarily by random fate
or to make our own every day?

MY OWNED MORTALITY
Endings? or endless beginnings?
Denial? or acceptance?
Bargaining? Anger? Resistance?
Victorians excursed on graveyard Sundays
perambulating stone family plots
placing flowers and weeding like Egyptians
Afterlife meant remembrances .Rituals. Relics.
We are ash moments. Flame furnaces. Flash bombs. Gone!
Small anonymous squares in green lawns
Boxes and urns our modern Pyramids.
Smaller by degrees. We become less when forgotten
We have forgotten our ancestors. Which means
we will be forgotten. Often in our life time.
Anonymous as job cuts and random pain
dispensed to individuals generically, we
wound and are wounded by neglect
more than intention. We forget origins/let
animals extinction become ours soon-
polar bears drown. Bees disappear. Birds too
our wings grow smaller /less. Mortalities beckon
We rationalize. Bargain. Laugh @emptiness/
Read obituary columns. Wonder who will be

WEIGH MY HEART WITH A FEATHER
weigh my body with my carbon footprint
my luggage with a gold brick
my airline with a deficit budget
my staff cuts with my pilot error
my crowded skies with air traffic controllers
my anger with my Zen
my TSA with my CIA and FBI
my SECURITY clearance
with my HEIGHTENED SECURITY ALERT
my ozone layer with my hole
my weather disruptions with my predictive capacity

EXAMPLE

example is best—the artist
on street corners
harassed by police,
the musician moved along,
buddhist beggar smiling.
Little jesuses,
all murdered like birds for their song


LEAVE

Too easy to leave the room
to those who push and jostle.
There is space enough (and time)
for every body, heart, mind...