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


Sunday, October 31, 2010

"a hope,concealed"-inmates of the Black Eagle

Once you abolish capital punishment,
you then must deal with permanent inmates
Those who kill know they are here for life-
yet they read,hope and dream of possibilities of reprieve
Confinement does not kill such hopes-even when escape
is as impossible as forgiveness.Some are innocent-
at least of intention.Others acknowledge their relief when caught
and the necessity for adaptation to incarceration.
There are poets,artists,philosophers here-
remember Jean Genet /Papillon?
All prisons are not alike,nor are their inmates
Once the possibility of execution is removed,
we must all deal with time,duties,fear and guilt.
We are our own harsh judges.We are our own hanging juries.
The walls are visible to those who have been caught
Most escape via lawyers or good fortune
The rest forget most of those stacked within prisons
unless they are related,or love them,or are paid
to make sure they do not entertain
any possibility of escape
to be with us.That is why we pay guards
That is why we build prisons.Mirrors glare hurts.
Always,within-"a hope,concealed.."
for the INSIDE BOOKS PROJECT


INSIDE BOOKS PROJECT is an all-volunteer nonprofit educational initiative to provide free books to those incarcerated.There is a commercial on YOUTUBE,and they have websites, a blog on myspace and are on FACEBOOK

COMEDY &POLITICS-multiple gods on multiple channels

Both take over the Washington space for public gatherings
one to deride the other to debunk/both involve values
Are we to laugh at the absurdity of beliefs?
or cry when those fundamental beliefs are violated?
Separation of Church and State finds internecine churches
while the state beggars belief on every dimension
hence Tea Party promises of shrunken heads of government
while running for public office only to destroy belief in same
Physics posits multiple universes simultaneous in time and space
We can entertain contradictory positions via philosophy and religion
"First the execution,then the sentence!"says the French Revolution
followed by Mao and those Killing Fields of Kampuchea
all of which posited belief in change at a basic social level
(After the Russian Revolution,one million people died-of starvation)
(Mao's backyard furnaces for energy independence made bag pig iron)
(Quantitative Easing is printing paper forest of money without value-
all are posited upon beliefs .All prove false.All belief is false
Observation shows that we like quick fixes/easy answers
Hard gods demand sacrifice-especially of their followers
Beliefs of our times(HOPE! CHANGE!)are empty politics
The physics of crowd estimation meets the philosophy of rationality
Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber vote early and often
Name 10 politicians whose words and actions coincide
Then count the numbers @any Rally To Restore(fill in the blank)
May many gods and goddesses secure your early voting
Every cliche has been recycled by its polar icecap opposite
SUBVERT THE DOMINANT PARADIGM becomes dominant
Advertising works!"I am not a witch.."Don't Tread On Me!
Soon beautiful chaos will become more than a theory
Philosophy will restore both Diogenes and Socrates
but this time,they just might"kill all the lawyers!"

Saturday, October 30, 2010

BEATLES as of October 29,2010

Soon you will download music from decades ago
The format that you use  did not exist when those songs were made
You may never know the scratched sound of 45 rpm singles
Nor of EPs(that four song double sided format)
Nor LPS with their 10 songs(5-7 on each side-and yes-
you DID have to turn the record over/and just sometimes
there was a scratch scratch scratch that meant
you had to lift the stylus over the dust/and yes-you did have to clean the vinyl
or this would damage your treasured records
Some peopel9like me)have whole museums of defunct formats
like LOVE and PEACE,HOPE and OPTIMISM
So when those Liverpool Mop Top 4 started TWISTING and SHOUTING
we all listened (deep!-single by EP by LP by newsreel by movie-
soon THE BEATLES became a cult bigger than Jesus
So their pix were burned along with their records
and as they split,we split apart ,too.Let It Be.1970.
It would be 1980 before the first CD(never mind CD Rom!)
CD is not LP/quality drips over time.Remixed Beatles hits became THE GRAY ALBUM
Elevator muzak claimed ELANOR RIGBY /YESTERDAY
Now your children watch YELLOW SUBMARINE on children's television
One by one.Gone.They return as GHOST BEATLES-George.John.
Frozen wax museum.So young.Cryogenic black &white Hard Days Night
flash splash to color HELP!Magical Mystery Tour.Let It Be!
No more!They have dredged up every last drip drop of John Lennon's blood
splashed on his New York streets 1980.Shot.Number One (with a bullet!
SOLD by Vampire Yoko whose solo records sold solo
Now the BEATLES are a trademark,brandname,ROCK STAR game
of visual retro engineered by young George Harrison's son
We have come to a mockup,a mashup,a virtual retro  replica
of GREATEST HITS editions re-issued like Elvis-or 2D AVATAR
and 1962 goes into 2010 only once.CUT!
O K _DOWNLOAD!

Friday, October 29, 2010

9 heartbeats

i am sitting in this afternoon's newspaper sunshine
my rescued cat watching from a safe distance
a solitary butterfly lands on my Financial Times
i watch her slowly rest her wings..count ...to nine
she ,rested,flies to her certain end in this sunlit afternoon
i cannot resume reading..come inside and share this
these nine heartbeats of one butterfly's wings
on an afternoon when sunlight defined the day
and all seemed right with life and death
Dr Marvin,Byron Kocen,Al Grierson,Burton
butterflies all-some of song ,all of smiles
all singular songlines sharing their life and light
i am inside as i write.i must return to the Light..

Thursday, October 28, 2010

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

sent eyes out as exploratores
visual world(art galleries
they see @eye witnesses

ears to the ground (train tracks
heard Light@the end of tunnel
express to auricles

touched outline of camel in cave
elephant Tsunami wave coming
graffitti scrawled walls

smell stank of recycled worlds
plastic oceans Sargasso sewage
war graves

tasted pomegranate,apple Eden
fruits of harvests sown
bitter ,sweet

sixth sense,intuit
 is redemption possible?
ask exterminated species...

seventh shakra,trust
in ourselves or others?
both,and,or,all,none.

NOT NEEDING TO KNOW

more needing to trust-i walk
the path of bliss and ignorance
what tiny lights entrance
are blinking anonymous
awareness less than intuition in this depth
all sea creatures seem illuminated
To survive below,they have defenses
i explore with eyes cameras
knowing i cannot survive at length in depth
i stick to skin surfaces
hold close to hugs and cuddles/insulating
from the cool currents that would sweep all tides Tsunami
and leave only devastation when once the promise of sweet change

by gathering,we compound
levities over gravities,"add our light to the sum of light"
intrinsically,this  is a start.Art.

outside

beyond these walls are fences
beyond them,roads leading away from us.
Within,all seems boat calm,serene
rocking of waves of air unseen
convection currents kept moving
in an orderly manner.
Here dreams get clipped like sheep
to safer fit with the cage of thought.
Outside,there are stars falling through ages
Lightning and comets,meteors,constellations
Whole galaxies of stranger stars
Light that blinks like UFOs,pulsing colors
That is where i am.Outside the walls
Above.Beyond fingers,pointing...
Look out one night-beyond the walls..

5

age of 5
4 bullets in her mother's chest
drunk father/lost mother
how many tears? Years before this block
can be dissolved with salt tears
They can fall now(it is Fall-waterfalls now
All Come Forth!(Volunteers...waiting...witnesses
She still young.Older than mother
Still 5 frozen.Witness.Loss
dis/solves in tear/drops
ink.

i listen as she speaks-
"now i have the love of my life
i no longer drink,nor drug,nor prostitute myself
i have found something stronger than my needs
and he loves me .."then he enters,and they hug
publically,privately,pluperfectly,grammatically free verse
smiles and teardrops..

always,ever,more

baby in a box grows through cries
ears of a parent bruised /sleep deprived
the need of others is its own desire

youth in a spin burns out cars and friends
the need exhausts both far and near
till time and age are anchors

through the mindfield,random eyes survive
alive to the nuance of what is required
to make it though another day for night

to even be here is a huge delight/
there are no guarantees/no safety net
what follows next is questions,marked

elders rich experience
becoming emotionally inarticulate
back to baby cries each night

and in between,chewing memories
it is this moment on which we feed
grist for the ever turning mill

into the sea (from which we came)
the deepest species never had a name
that is why they sing

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

FOR BURTON SUNBURY

All you wanted was to sing your songs
In this heat,you had to lay roofs to survive
When you fell(first)-it was not Adam but a stroke
that took your strength and gave you time to sing
I used to see you walking round South Austin-
i remembered when you sang-ERNIE THE ARMADILLO
WATERFALL-humor and love you were smiling in
Now you are gone before your time(deprived of oxygen)
We deprived of your smile and Texas charm
You played our poetry open mikes when no one came
You sang as a gift at parties,Saxon Pub-with bands you loved
and that was the mark of who you were-"a lover ,not a fighter"
I do not want to have to share your absence
with anyone other than those who loved you then
when you were bright and smiling in an Austin Spring
and every one of us young and green

ART IN AUSTIN LIFE

By the side of our gridlocked highways=
plastic flower memorials/murals against drunk driving
folk art reminders of the link between life and art
White bicycles where cyclists were killed
Flowers and crosses where pedestrians were murdered
Everywhere,murals!Spraypainted graffitti/railway tagging
Absurd and surreal slogans on the back of STOP signs
CRITICAL MASS moving art/peace demonstrations
Outside Galleries,unframed wildflower masterpieces-
gardens around Taco Marias,ART cars outside PLANET K
New art inside every independent coffee shop-
This is to celebrate the granting of a permit
for the Cathedral of Junk today!You cannot frame the sky
nor sell a cloud.Art is Austin/ is a living dynamism
to make every humble living artist creative citizen proud!

FOR AUSTIN GREEN ART/ENCHANTED FOREST/ART OUTSIDE and YOU!

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT(2010)

1.All data is neutral.Emotion is gratuituous.(and skews results)
Empathy assists .Holistic thinking includes the "observer"as well as the "observed."
There are no secrets(WIKILEAKS,GOOGLE,WIKIPEDIA).Media changes everything.
Objectivity is a witness in a jury trial.We are all under continuous assessment and universal surveillance.2010 is not 1965,nor 1972,1992,nor 2001-and not yet 2012.
Terrorism is emotionality.Robots are programs and can be human.Clones are identical yet not.All reality has a poetical base.Same with fantasies.Projections are everywhere.
The danger of history is being obselete.Same with retro fashions.WE are not one.One is.

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
Everywhere,we assert dominance over species (rather than empathy with..
Species disappear when they are no longer wanted
We eat our companion creatures and hunt our friends
Birds of the air are soup.Jungles are not.Rainforests vanished-like bison prairies
Clear space is part of the art.DO NOT FILL UP THIS SPACE.
Solutions exist-but the desire for same is not yet sufficient
Hard times do not make for soft people.tragedies kill.Comedy has punch lines.
If we listen more than speak,watch more than act,affirm more than critique
Once i gave a bird poem to a friend,who criticized it.My bird died.

INVENTORY(33 Chilean miners for 31 days.(from CAMP HOPE)
100 cigarettes per day.99 rosaries.66 empanadas.
66 towels.33 multivitamins(daily).33 camping mattresses.
33 camping chairs.33 minitubes toothpaste(weekly.33 loads fresh laundry(weekly)
33 harmonicas.10 MP3 players.10 magnifying glasses(to read Bibles).
33 pocket-size bibles.4 decks of cards.4 domino sets.
1 video projector(do not screen AVATAR!)0 bottles of wine.
(Happily,these were all FOUND poems.Now,about those Chinese miners...

CRY OF MY SOUL

Unfocused rage and anger @ a distant government
brings overseas explosions black smoke homeward
Palpable/tangible as bile,it chokes on inarticulate particulates
regurgitates cliches,serves heat instead of Light
disputes,cavils,carps and questions everyone in site
These boiling bubbling witches concoct conspiracies
to separate separation church from state
even when their alleged enemies are fundamentalists!

TITLES AWAITING YOUR POEMS
1.Transparent as butterflies
2.Punk drunk breakfast
3.Re-burning of the Hindenburg/re-sinking of Titanic in 3D
4.Jungle Suspenders
5.Fear Of A Floppy Disc

TAT GIRL
She scar herself to own her skin
She color/you black&white judgment
Cannot get in/she hook her lip like fish
Hoop her nipples/labia/her ears dangle
Eyebrows metal alarm security airports
She has strip searched herself before society's rape enters
She is a metal fence between foreign countries
She is a young witch spellcasting self defenses
She belongs to her self.ALL of her/marked/pre-emptively..

EYE CARRY THIS BUCKET OF SALT TEARS
They tear my tissue eyes out/uncomfortable allies
When eye wake,it is with twin tear tracks
falling like trickling rivulets/miniature waterfalls
down dry creek bed emotional cheeks
These tears eternal(crying Virgins,weeping statues
They will not stop raining.There will always be a reason
Reasons can wait.Lick my teardrops.

THE LAST THING I REMEMBER(was what you said..
Bodies falling out of my morning newspaper
Decapitated Mexican headlines
Body of print articles(obits)
Exorcism vs facadism.
Apollo vs Dionysius
Forget?Remember every thing!

LEAVES OF GRASS

it is no coincidence that BLOCKBUSTER EXPRESS
allowed me a FREE DVD -and it was LEAVES OF GRASS-
a tale of twins who learn each other as mirror origins
and who smash the image of poetry as mere soundtrack
Then,@THE HIDEOUT,she brings the actual book
of he who cut his life off-reads passages to us
so we can feel the body electric/and sing the life force
back in
Did you forget how Walt was FREE VERSE/self-published?
as popular then as now/even when its vitality and vibrancy
could not save the life of one whose love was poetry
We listen.I watch and remember.If one line saves one life
this breath is gold.If it is your life,platinum
Worth more than all the rescued bailed out banks in America
our culture sings our body politic electric
and saves our lives with every living line remembered

for all and each and every

in a ward/under care/temporarily disabled
This is a petition to your consciousness
You see this world as smoke and mirrors
while the fire in your heart still smolders /art
is in your breath.Death is only suspension of belief-we
are all under water at some time.Find
the who you wish to be/connect with living energies
with the freedom that clear communication brings.
Fruits and flower visitors come to implore
your return to the ways that burn with passion.
Fashion is fickle/friends bond close as skin
We are in this earth together /and we win by breathing
Deep.Deeper.Slow.Slower.You are more when you allow
yourself to exercise your rights to be fully conscious/
and this is a petition to your eyes and ears-to hear and see
the you we love as it returns to be..

EDITED AVATAR

Our lives will be re-issued in future formats-
by AKASHIC RECORDS,UNlimited
not READERS DIGEST,nor TIME magazine versions
every tint emotion will be revealed in widescreen versions
channeled by entities we can barely comprehend-
empaths invisible as devas,sprites,[pixies,elves and faerie folk
who live just beyond our perception fields,in trust
that one epiphany will open our eyes(all of them-every one)
so we can see again-how butterflies affect Tsunamis
how every word is a cast spell/how chants and affirmations guide us
through those coral reeks of dangerous emotions
while tempestuous shipwrecks still sail close to the wind
clouds are still held together by thought/threads of connexions
bind us all to the gravity of Gulliver-Yahoos in Brobdinag
we GOOGLE military installations,find censored WIKIPEDIAS
wonder why SECRET means-secret only from us...

HIGH DRAMA

at the garage sale,two masks called to me-
i bought them both(comedy and tragedy)
Halloween approaching and the season to disguise
All Hallows Eve,ghosts,goblins,witches ride
Trick or treat?or both -all -or none?
Those who wear their mask have come
to shapeshift as a hollowed pumpkin lit
by those who by candle light illuminate
Less the substance(removed,like seeds)
than the need to be aligned with consonant frequencies
This is why we gather while we can
and share the dream of seasons autumnal
Leaves may fall,they color all we know
Even trees stripped bare present a living show

MANY MASKS

Onion life/we claim core
end with scent of wolf
elusive smoke/seeking fire
burnt hands and offerings
Settling down(one becomes stone)
Altars made of such foundation
Even stone emotes/substance fills space
and time is what it takes to break
Pyramids and monuments
They are masks,too-
what happens within less
than appearances.
It is the finding/recognition that affirms
What happens next is always exploration
This is why we dig-
to find our selves.

Monday, October 25, 2010

OUR POETRY EXCHANGE RATE

You are reading this while i await your poetic reply-
"all that glistens is not gold".Currency wars demand re-evaluation
while your poetry lays like bullion stored in unwritten flash drives.
The yellow brick road leads to Rome was not built in a day/
every classic cliche rejected @G8(now G20).I propose a poetry standard-
free floating the currency of ideas in an exchange of poetry via email
Economic anthropology dictates that all value is "relative and culturally anchored"
Gold cannot be"eaten,burned,nor used to drive a car.Poetry can!
Trust in your own expression revalues it.Exchange becomes a currency market.
What do you FEEL about this?-that your creations have both worth and value
and the market is simply those who will listen,respond,and exchange their ideas for yours?
If you have as much faith in yourself as you do in gold-start now!
Respond to this provocation by return poem!
We will soon see where worth lies!

older.elder(61)

clothes that used to fit
now retro

teeth at risk
of becoming false

eyes see less
(don't ask,don't tell)

legs walk
to the car

memory?
wha...?
(senior moments)

you told me something...
do you remember?

all my friends
look old

someone stole my mirror
(that's not me?)

i had something important to share

can you come back later?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

NON-VIOLENT AUSTIN

Consider our Buddhist beggars-
friendly,genial,pleasant-panhandling
arrested for their status of poverty

Our bank robbers come in disguise
Most ask for money without menacing with weapons
Given it,they flee-on bicycle or foot(poverty!

One man comes with a gun to our Capitol
but even he only fires it into the air
Resulting in SECURITY stressing everyone who comes
apart from those with licenses for concealed weapons

Another enters UT's Library as a student
He fires into the ground-hurts no one except himself
All the stress is caused by excessive SWAT response

Same with our Guy Fawkes arsonist
who firebombed our Governor's Mansion
Now it has more alarms than Fort Know
and our Governor lives high in a Mansion!

Blame the fluoride in our water supply
Most of our violence supplied by our police
who taser ,harass,violate civil rights,and kill
Our Police Monitor quite useless.Violence is not Austin-
it is imported by drug lords and officers
who see a soft city and want it
but do not understand this Velvet Coffin...
67 homeless dead on Austin Streets each year

WELCOME WIKILEAKS!

"The first arm is silence"The second arm the shrugging of shoulders"(Julian Assange)
Nonchalance as to the death of truth (civilian casualties,war crimes,torture..
led to the banning of digital cameras @Abu Ghraib,
and the banning of pix of coffins arriving Stateside
Censorship of civilian casualties continues
and few investigations of prisoner abuse
are initiated or concluded successfully
We are civilians.If a war zone enters our land
we need to reconsider what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan
This is happening to us.Censorship,destruction of civil rights..
It starts with silence.Then the shrugging of shoulders..
Soon,at Nuremberg,we will say"we did not know"
"i just was following orders""why can't we all just get along?"
"Don't taser me,bro..

Saturday, October 23, 2010

SIX DIRECTIONS!

I was born in water(Le Boyeur)
When you look at this planet from black space,it is blue!
This is the fluidity of currents  singing to
cetacean consciousness within you
You see-you came from oceans too!
There will always be-water within you!

i was born in fire
Your remember Vulcan,Thor,Wodin-war defines you
beneath you volcanic seismic shifts
Lava flow retook Pompeii,Herculeum
Hawaii belongs to Pele
There is a fire within you

I was born in earth
All peasants know me as mother
Close to them-they eat dirt,build adobe,mud huts
daub themselves in mud -they know me
They know their bones and ashes will rest within me again

I was born in air
First breath  SO AH! (first chant,first affirmation
You cannot live without me!
Check your carbon footprint at the door

I was born in forests
Green Man /Woman,merging with trees
Lay on the good earth look up at tree canopy
Your cerebellum has branches resembling!
Many still live in tree houses/Amazon
Green consciousness is everything

I was born in metal-ask yourself
why gold is so valuable?rarity is only one reason
Japanese eat gold flakes.Egyptian masks golden
What you store to defeat death lasts forever
I am old as gold .Value me

I am all of these and more
Definition limits me
I am the seventh direction
as above ,so below.as around so within
what cannot be named has more power
you cannot write me !

Do writers need paper?

Started with clay.Carved in a cave.Berries on stone.Inventories,named
for possession and ownership has always been fundamental.
Sumerian scripts.Alpha Beta.Papyrus.Tools change.Beaten reeds
to digital screens.What remains?Museums?Antique typewriters?
Photostat machines?Fax?Modes change.The question remains-
what is worth preserving?Memory over time?Tales untold on tongues silenced?
To speak is a key-but people forget.They need tools to remember themselves-
who they once were(and can be again-and here is where paper comes in.
Forests are killed so books can be pulped,remaindered.
GOOGLE seeks to digitalize all copyright free materials
All the pine plantations in this world cannot record all our dreams
Literature is always partial(to editing-selective as who reads..
Reeds are still beaten into paper for books forgotten
Same as e-books do not guarantee perception
It is we who choose our formats who lose
the punch of typewriter keys,the click of carriages ,stained berry fingers
and illuminating manuscripts who feel the need to preserve heritage.
Whether books are burned,pulped,ignored or forgotten is only one issue
What we value-is entirely another...

MIDNIGHT FOOL MOON SNAKE ISLAND

Captain Blood was there,and Joe-banjos from Philadelphia,Dan
fire,hoops,pot luck buffet,margueritas,thousands of guitars ,a flute,one saxophone,two million butterfly smiles,laughter,giggles,conversation,sally and good cheer.
Moon watched us as we ferried from The Point or Youth Hostel landing
to bring light and laughter to this circle of jubilant souls
carousing and singing along to said moon above and within
Van Morrison ,blues(an amplifier(for the first time)
general conviviality,and numbers commensurate with defiant optimisms
Ferries flipped off hourly,yet many stayed to circle around
both the fire physical and the warmth within
I blame the moon for being so anonymously joyous
Soon there will be circles around stars
wanting only to add to Light and increase both frequency and powers
Levitation is in order-while Holly Power Plant grows dim and skeletal
on Lady Bird Lake,by Fool Moon Light,fires of happiness
increased the general joy juice level,and sparked
a new electric human energy source-
sing -a -longs!

and:

ANOTHER SPECTACULAR ADVENTURE!
6.58am dark skies are calling!Moon hides behind raindrops
Lots of adventures (garage sales beckon!
Out in Green Suburu /to find the stories who
hide within objects discarded by owners
Bring home a Goddess,one maraca,half used perfumes
and the auras of those leaving behind
things that once defined their lives.
I treasure the measure that marks them-their value
is in these stories i am sharing,and the adventure is in the seeking
those souls releasing,to move on to their next adventure by morning...

Friday, October 22, 2010

HEREAFTER

Dr Gupta (he of 70 Volvos in West Yorkshire's Bradford
who drove a blue Rolls Royce in one of the poorest areas of England-
invited me Saturday nights to the Spiritualist Church-where we would listen
to messages from those who had "passed over"into the "next life"
The Good Doctor was near death and wanted to learn what they knew.
After a while,when the messages all seemed like sedation,
he gave up going."Mumbo-jumbo"he complained.-
"just because they are dead does not mean they are wise!"
So I pilgrimaged with Clint Eastwood towards HEREAFTER
just to see his take upon the life after this one
Vague,gray and unsettling-amorphous and out of focus
Beautiful acting ,superb photography,murky conclusions-
a widescreen excursion into soft focus spirit visitations
more gentle than PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2,
or vampires,ghosts,or goblins-but ultimately unsatisfying
Go see it if you feel in need of a vision
I dream of checking out what happens
in the life BEFORE death.This one.
Here and now-and hereafter can wait..
for a remake.

MARILYN MONROE'S POETRY

Just released="FRAGMENTS"(poems,letters,musings
misspelled (taken from leather books in her own child's handwriting
"since i know from life one cannot love another,ever,really.."
Arthur Miller called her"a poet on a street corner
trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes"
Saul Bellow chimed"she conducts herself like a philosopher"
("she had a curious incandescence under her skin")
Marilyn read Proust,Freud,Carl Sandburg-
she associated with intellectuals(married one)
became an icon of America in the tradition of Mae West/Jean Harlow-
blond beauties who had wit as well as looks
Her clones seem less -Madonna,Paris Hilton,Lady Ga-Ga,Britney
insubstantial waifs substituting scandal for  substance
Her image invoked from Who's TOMMY (as a healing force)
to those new biopics hoping to cash in on her street cred.
She is dead.Her poems survive.Would they had the power
to keep her alive.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

balance and the tipping point

hot eh?and yet some dispute global warming
(not polar bears,drowning-nor Arctic icecaps,shrinking
more those with fixed ideas in a moving landscape
Cartesian Duels in mixed media messages
Pressure Groups applying pressure on candidates
Media glosses over what is most important to us
claiming to give a faux "balanced"coverage
Bill Reilly provokes walkouts on THE VIEW
because of his jaundiced ones
Rightwing commentators crow when PBS sacks their own
while we witness poison Tea Parties hate politics
destroy the very ground we walk upon
We live in astonishing times.Species become extinct overnight
Who mentions carbon in our air as toxic ?
Water so degraded the fish die?earth radioactive forevers?
Suited smiles dole out headlines and editorials
We need to live a balanced life,with balanced views
But we have gone past the tipping point
We should have listened to our earth
rather than a Disney documentary

bALANCE

in the retirement farm,where elders in wheelchairs
were parked in front of huge screens providing their only color and movement
we came in as fools,clown,poets
(my tomatoes are poets-they do not know they are green and out of season'
a few have ripened to nourishment-the rest wither on the vine)
it is still raining in England/while our heat makes autumn tired
(seasons have been suspended due to literary criticism
Solomon divided babies on the basis of punctuation
The most important thing is to be aware of the most important thing
My sister tells me my mother will soon be 80
while we will always be younger,the cliff edge of time cuts closer
like a laser extricating skin cancers/we stay indoors
balancing Light and Dark,Court and Spark,
Age and Youth,Knowledge and Innocence
Now they sell a health bar called BALANCE
I bought it once.But it did not work..

ENTERTAINING DAEMONS

WE pay snipers well-their cool professionalism
increases our kill rate.Operation Phoenix officially terrorized
a Vietnam we lost to those with no taste for the blood of infants
There is a Hell on earth reserved for those
who do not see their own.Each day,they shit and piss and bleed
but never mention these in sweet poesie.Meanwhile,grindhouse brothels
sweat shops human trafficking makes a profit(and poets do not!
Realists acknowledge market forces(no matter what the product-
arms,legs,blood,sex,children,war,ammunition,bombs
Those numbed by TV or dead via school cage vote for bosses
who would kill them or deport.Hate radio addicts scream loudest.
All conspiracies are just the tip of the sword.Assassination works!
To be employed,eat meat and kill.The rest is words.

FOOL MOON MOAN

full moon outside my window
now she enters!
burglar of dreams!

it is early morning
yet the night is old

before noise,she slips
Cinderella stories to pumpkins

blame tidal madness on her seasons
white and blameless prisoner she

there are no sounds in space
unless we make them

autumn-before anorexic winter
these trees demonstrate green!

i do not remember any moons
before this one now

made our moon a goddess
so we could land

mining the moon?
its just a question of depth
and distance

calendars count moons
i celebrate this one!

for three days-
as happy as jesus

why
do you take up the sky?
(in my mind)

look OUT!Look UP!
we all see one

memories of moons
flavor this white knight

there is a poet on the moon tonight
can you hear her?

when moon goes
you may as well
throw away the night

soon silence
will crack
dawn's egg

color of night
absence.

do not leave me moon!
(i know you must leave soon-
or is it i who desert you?

i talk to you
as if you were human
(you prefer to listen.

projecting upon you ,moon
what else can we do?

first car
steals the dark-
two white moons

HERE COMES BUDDHA(drunk as Bukowski!

Jealous of Socrates(endings always define us!
Now he Ruminates while his wives cook
(Food is an edible art(like love
Dionysius has followers in the hill Country
(retired rock singers with hidden habits-
who reminesce upon God Status to their grandchildren
Apollo is a rocket at parties!He goes through stages
though he has been said to moon people
Diogenes is doing a Cassandra in the kitchen
Chicken Little is watching American Idol
Rock N Role Play records are being set in the Back Room
where 60s spin stories of the 60s as Tall Tales
are spun among the young detached as ipods
They are up on the download.They have virtual jobs.
Thin Buddha cries when he slices tomatoes
Fat Buddha rejoices when he devours potatoes
In this Retirement Community,every god is geriatric
retired like Air Force One in a Desert Storm
to wait until their Legend can be restored
and they can fly high on to mythical planes..

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

PARALLEL UNI(VERSES

Underneath these waves of sound
are fish of facts flapping beaches
lacking oxygen,they seek/deep to hide within
More explore sans silence/trapped by muzak and retro-
(In this Golden Age,best to Make Your Own Weigh
Metals( heavy metal) play riffs on Stock Exchange
Gold corn translates into energy ethanol(EAT ME!
Aware before you knew(you knew!-you feel more (deep
stranded sans oxygen on life's a beach
BUT THIS IS THE ONLY PLANET WE SWIM IN
Moon solitary cold gray distance/sun burning up
stars so far away they fall like fixtures/underneath it all
we fish flap fantasies/weave tidal patterned melodies
steam consciousness dry creek river bed drought arts
Instead of cutting funds,why not increase fun?
That way,we can play on these parallel bars!
CREATE A SAFE PLAYGROUND FOR US!

"don't go back to sleep!"(for Chinwe

alert you are,aware and wary
the stories they share are insufficient
there is a hole in logic in heaven
and hell is just too vampire evident
angels keep falling off the heads of your pins
you are awake at obscene times,dreaming lines
that sink fishermen into Titanic tales-
White Whales,Ghost Ships,Marie Celeste
(all of these are true and real)
You are a prisoner of what you feel;
the future means more than a palmed card
you intuit hereafters/spill your beans
upon a leadlined ink page with graphic novels
disturb and disrupt the sleep of victims
to awaken them to oncoming violences
Congo rapes,Somali predations,Sudan starvations-
every warning bell was rung before the strike
even afterward,you chronicle consequences
sing lines of starving potbellied children
with empty bowl eyes,watching
You can not go back to sleep,poet!
Watch and wait,write and speak
for when the next war comes,
may you have escaped from
the big sleep.
FOR CHINWE ODELUGA

it is important to remember

there are luminaries we recall /brave spirits all
for whom challenge means response
limits simply mean adaptive strategies
you remember being astonished and amazed
at what was possible in these days
when despair and defeat were the solitary themes
Such individuals embraced all possibilities
aligned with positive energies/added to and compounded
all those dreams you thought were only dreams
It is not that they are sleeping-they were dreaming you
in to a world that is new in every moment
(being born is just the beginning)
and now your time has come/to stand ,walk,move,run
out of the cage that limits and makes less
You have equipment for speech
Hands that can reach ,eyes that see ,ears that hear
all is as near to possible as it ever was
What will you do next?Remember your ancestors...
Examples guide us,even in darkness
a certain light within,and more surrounding...

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

we all know

people who are no longer with us.some we remember
more than others(as if the act of remembering secures immortality.
No matter.They become more than matter when they matter.
Even now,there are those who are close to us
and whose lives sing a sweetness  like roses of angels
or the scent of saints.We absorb their example
and become more like them.I once heard a violinist
play for free for hours for the "sweet joy of being alive."
I once saw a sparrow dancing to its own reflection in a hubcap
I once saw a naked woman walking down the main street at dawn
All of this is true.You know others who by their actions,nature or intention
create a parallel uni-verse we sing into.The music is you.Your attunement
aligns with available frequencies to sing in this new second hand day
wherein and whereby we allow ourselves to learn and relearn and play
the why of our being ,in line and in time and in tune with the music of spheres
and the innate beauty of simply being here...

as long as you live(change is possible!

as long as you dream change(you become change-
as long as you hold each moment(then release it-
more becomes born into nativities,resurrections,revelations and enlightenments
Education is not a a cage of books,nor a prison for ideas
It is a feral free ranging wolf wilderness of personal choices
It is a circus with no safety net.It is being a standard rather than demanding one
It is a frontier where respect is due to examples and ancestors
to the many paths presenting themselves of value and service
It is you right now.You do not need to believe this-but LOOK!
Notice how this world changes when you open your eyes ?
You hear more when you listen(deep,deeper
You become more when you add more to life
You absorb better via listening than speeches
Wolf knows this-and bird.They watch,wait,move with ecology of actions
aligned with a world that does not need quantitative easing
They are at ease within the womb of this world
You are at ease within the ocean of air
Your feet can feel this holy earth rise to meet you
You hands grasp the task of this new moment
While you are here,all is change....
What do you see as possible?

"You must change your life!"(Rilke)

@the Conference of Butterflies,the moths complained
that beauty and the width of wings was soul criteria
Rats complained about the politics of Hamelin Town
Cockroaches the porcelain Princess cleanliness syndrome
Lizards resented all that snake publicity in Eden
while Heaven battled between Lady Ga-Ga and Madonna
as to who best represented Dionysian ecstasy
Baby Apollo poets,buried with their chapbooks,resurrected @readings
Pacifist doves lay down with broken hawks and eagles
France and England shared navies.China Border Wars.
Nepal and Tibet refugees.Our habitat like Arctic Ice(shrinking)
Soon we will be familiar with every familiar in this human zoo.
Authors will sign wings of threatened species they have saved via petition
Seed Banks will defeat Corporate Frankenstein Foodstocks
Organic Gardens over fake Farmers Markets
No more corn(food source)into ethanol(fuel source!)
All beer and wine brewed and distilled naturally
All censorship of Internet removed as Firewalls Fall
falter,flicker and fail to convince.Palestine 's perimeters peacefully employed.
Disarming became an industry as large as recycling
Every mammal felt safer when their arms were not prosthetic
Every rescued cat and dog and horse and bird set free and safe as wolves
Feral restored wilderness.Rainforests regrew after logging.Indigenous returned home
Every fantasy you weave comes true.Make your solutions new....

Monday, October 18, 2010

I LOVE CHAOS!(Theory!

I love fractals,and tiedyes,bright image projections,wave theory,string theories
harmonic vibrations,butterfly effects,geodesic domes and astral projections
I love art ,photography(same thing!),movies,music,sunshine,moonglow,bananas
very early mornings,dreaming,rainbows,happiness,goodwill and altruism
I love community radio and community TV,libraries and the New Renaissance
i do not like quantitative easing.I prefer gardens,where growth is natural.
I miss Benoit Mandelbrot and his Fractal View of Nature,Risk,Ruin and Reward
I like philosophy,and poetry(same thing!)-absurdity and surreality
I believe our times are unique and repetitive.I love metaphysical engineering
I love the idea that ideas MEAN something,and should be entertained like guests
I like the exploration and the journey as well as the blank map
I like both question and exclamation marks.I do not believe in punctuation
e e cummings did!And he is dead.I want you to know this is the start
of a continuing group poem-THIS IS WHAT I LOVE!
and you are hereby invited to continue writing your likes
and there is no end to it-please start here and now
so we can better seek and understand the whirl we live within
and speak of joy in every moment!


I like...




RESPONSE:


I love the laughter of children early in the morning
fresh as dew on thirstless leaves.
Kookaburra early laughter
sprinkling the morning chorus of birds
with tickles of fun.
Children blowing bubbles of nonsense
making much of nothing without ado,
unlike adults rushing to work
for early board room meetings
to make all that ado about nothing.

Bob Mud 

PAY POETS INSTEAD OF POLICE

i have been watching our police force-
as they guide traffic and monitor motorists
sit at road construction sites and chat amongst themselves
this is what POETS do! They can drive (most are taxi drivers)
as well as text and write ,and give cautions to aberrant drivers
and when it comes to negotiation-poets are a plus!
They are the PEACE CORPS of 2010-a viable alternative to force
If you need stronger words,we have SLAM poets-rappers&hiphop
They do not need guns,tasers,batons,pepper spray
A good reading of a very bad poem will drive anyone into submission!
I have noticed how much of our budget goes into FEAR-
security,police,public health,fire brigade,ambulance-
but mostly to police.None for poets!Nothing for poetry-
even when it is a periennal public impulse that drives everyone
into reading,reciting,memorizing at some time in their lives
This is what saves lives-wisdom(shared,remembered-
and this is where your poets come in.Pay them! Be them!
In fact,at the very core-you already are....

RESTORE OUR LIBRARIES!

When we wish to learn our history-
to explore what it means to be community
first step is towards a local library..SHUT!
Librarians are generally helpful people-
non-assertive,reasonable,rational and sweet
So when their numbers are shredded/we are less
Books are still the main repository of wisdom
coupled with GOOGLE/WIKIPEDIA and blogs on the Web
Where can all ages access other than via Libraries?
Because we are afraid,we pay SECURITY
(this does not make us feel secure)
We make homeless (us)feel less welcome
NO BLANKETS,BAGS OR BEDROLLS
Libraries have become de facto community centers
They hold(and sponsor)community events
They are the skeleton of our body politic
and need to be fleshed out with adequate funding
open 24 hours a day,7 days a week
This is what we need.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

WHY I LOVE THE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL


It is free! It is open,living and accessible to all
It is casual and eclectic,embracing all ages and cultures
It promotes universal literacy in a most basic format
It encourages village conversations on important issues
It is a benefit for libraries-those abused ,maligned and neglected banks of knowledge
It engages the center of our Capitol
It sparks ideas and challenges complacencies
It aids communication between citizens
It fosters a market for learning via books
It does not shrink from public debate
It is a tent city of ideas,sponsored by those who care
It is a blessing in Autumn-to engage our polis in spirited discussions
It is a model for effective learning processes
It is fun.(and did i mention-FREE?

NOTHING NEW ABOUT NOW!

Japanese have had take away for years!

MEMO TO SUICIDE BOMBERS
Take it outside!

WHAT THE FROG DOES NOT KNOW
is that frogs cannot swim.(ignorance is fatal...

ON A BUS IN PERU
with a coven of existentialists
debating philosophy
in a landslide world

we do not need storytellers!
we need better stories!

THOSE RESCUED MINERS!
which version-unsafe mining practices
bankrupted mining company
or the selling of life to mass media
mining for rights?

RUSSIAN MAFIA
privitised by jealous government!

IT MATTERS,MATHILDE!
When,parched from the lip of languages
(Aymara,Spanish,English-
your dutiful daughter took your ashes home
Lake Titicaca,Andes,your family home
honored by and honoring your ancestors in song
your home land has your essence
we shared some flowers from your living garden!

BIG BULLY CHINA
censoring free speech /killing dissidents
even the Nobel Peace Prize has you blustering-
Empty Dragons!

CRACKED TEA PARTY CUPS
want to take over government
to destroy it?

THE OLD GENERALS MUMBLE NUREMBERG
Flash crash digital warfare anonymous
(we are more than twice victims)

A LIBRARY IS LOVE
in silence,as in a monastory

SHE LIVES IN HER GARDEN
when the world of old wars
seeks new green shoots

THE ORIGINAL FALL
was the same for all.

SOFT PEOPLE(i am for you-
because i am you.

WE DO NOT REPRESENT THE PEOPLE
(we are the people..

CAUGHT A VIRAL VIDEO
Yes,honey,the future is interactive!
Your responses?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

BARISTA 2010

age is not a consideration/though in Austin
noserings,tattoos and jeans are de facto uniforms
You will need to update your coffee languages
and,if a bar is attached-cocktails
It is assumed you are an artist/musician
and this is your day/night job
as well as driving taxis/pedicabs/selling flowers/delivering pizzas
and being a student on the side.You may be a writer
looking for Kerouac adventures
puzzled by those long down times when no one enters
You may be writing THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL
in which a humble barista saves the world
You may be a cartoonist -someone who sees
their future in customer's faces.Or you may be just unemployed
and desperate for work/subjecting yourself to whatever the future holds
in order to survive in the world that values coffee more than art
and pays less in tips than you might think.
(the rest is for you to write -from your personal experience)

the age we live in(is a battered hearse

carrying ashes of wars past .warriors walk
with ghosts of those/who left their flesh behind
to remind us of our loss.Words mime.Time stops.
Then starts again.Discontinuous narratives double-speak.
Babble on the TV.Babel in the streets.Revolution co-opted by the Rightwing.
Now the debate is not which war -but more(arms
So boys will be bundled off like GAMEBOYS to drone onwards
Elder PACMAN parents plead.Who listens?TVs everywhere-
HDTV,3D-all that is missing is the teeth of hard content.
Unconscious censorship elides what we wish to say
from what you are reading.Raw wounds remain.Palestine stillborn.
Children abandoned.Adolescents intuit and self-terminate.
Adults despair of retirement benefits(cut in their prime
to be soylent green fodder in rest homes.The good news is
continuance.Each day's momentary epiphanies.Sweet behaviors
Examples everywhere.Invent a new world within the olde
where we can rest our dreams and hold
the future like a rescued cat-and trust like that...

THE ACCIDENTAL EMPIRE

Rome was not built in a day
All roads lead to Rome
Forget Indian Wars,Border Wars
incursions into Mexico,Louisiana Purchase
Spanish-American War-even the Philippines
Ignore all those proxy wars in South America
The American Dream began after WW2
when Yalta divided spheres of influence
and America found a Berlin Wall
long before the Great Firewall of China
Presidents vacillated between Manifest Destiny and Fortress America
Pearl Harbor precipitated an Anglo-American Alliance
that took over post-colonial Britain's role as world policeman
Suddenly-Communism!Korea,Vietnam..
We never sought ownership,possession nor dominion
Red of the Britmaps became red,white and blue
We did not know what to do-so we oscillated
between withdrawal(Vietnam)and engagement(Nicaragua,Libya,Grenada,Panama)
But we wanted no Empire.We saw Walls fall
and withdrew behind ours.Dollar denominated currencies demanded leadership
We were dragged in to arbitrate.We invaded.Now we withdraw again
and they countdown to Chinese domination
Whatever happens,it will change(again)
We will withdraw again/invade again
And when they ask what happened to the Great American Empire?
we will simply say-it was an accident of Fate.

the station after grief

your son died.you are broken.oceans of dolphins wash up on your beach
you cannot see past your drowning seas.(yes you can
time is release.there is a station after grief
death leaves us.less.we cannot pretend.lost tooth.gap teeth.
the bite is a hole in us.we eat with air.there is a station waiting
when we leave,we leave all this behind us.including handkerchief grief
remembering the best of us expects the rest of us
to give tithes to sadness ,not to tax to death.Move on-
the tracks do not stop at one.Everywhere is loss and birth simultaneous
Children are more than saints and angels with dirty faces
Idealizing them makes you less.Release!These carriages of grief
click cameras to remember,draw curtains to forget.There is a world beyond death
It is this life.While we are here,visit with respect.Give death dues
but not more than now.You must move on.Your train is waiting
At the platform they will remind you of your destination
Keep moving.There is more to see than loss.Being born is continuous-
a process of unfolding wonders.Letting go of sorrows lets them leave
You can grieve-but there is more to know
and you will only find it when you go

GREAT WORKS

when they ask
what are the seven wonders of this world?
Pyramids,Stonehenge-Uluru-stone comes to mind
yet i am reminded of birth
how that novel within you seeks the light of day
how paper is papyrus for Osiris
a cradle for Sananda,the last rainforest Amazon
how beauty requires beholders
how a song forms on the lip of your tongue
gestates in dreams,enters this Holy World
wrapped in swaddling clothes
to be unwrapped in the eyes and ears of hunger
There are always witnesses.We are always moving(experiences
Assimilation and integration migrate to new countries daily/nightly
these dreams arrive on the docks-in fresh languages
with no Rosetta Stone to decipher them.Mysteries.As we are.
Until we unlock the key on our tongue
that is rusted from lack of use
and sing the new into view
You have an opera within you-
house lights dim.Orchestra begins...overtures...
SING!

NOISETTES

behind the counter(culture!
he pretends to be a barista
but (just add MUSIC-voila!
NOISETTES!He buys old tapes from the Library
records over them lowfi ,makes random video clips
sweet harmonies arise.He leaves them piled on the counter
for customers to peck and salvage.No price(PRICELESS!
The music .in a retro package.Reminds me.of us.Retro We
Remembering 8 track boom bass,tape players that broke down
LPs with the original scratches on vinyl.(i even remember 78s!
and can play them with those tiny steel needles
like the heroin addiction to harmonies of Heavens
Life raced fast past us-we (Childe Wonder!-stared open eyed
as cars grew into trucks and went to wars
and came back as broken HUMVEES
All the while we were practicing
Now it can be released-in glorious MONO
NOISETTES! a band you will never meet
as Clark Kent behind the counter of the Hideout
every Monday night fights a never ending battle
against boredom,ennui,and the escalating price of coffee
Amused to death?Maybe!But we are alive pre-Cd
and find in GOODWILL -ways to play Paradise
our retro-parents would never have considered
wise for us!

it is different close up

when you meet the smiling murderer
and he complains about his executions
how it takes his spare time/history will not understand him
targeted assassinations rare in any media
it is not as if he seeks glory-Operation Phoenix killed many
Right wing juntas in Greece,Chile,Argentina made Generals out of torture
and who would not confess after waterboarding?(it still happens-
rendition,disappearing,everything we accused those Nazis of
exists within our repertoire/and who would not join a Tea Party
to protest (safely)how the Rightwing fail to impress?
Fascism popular until the stringing up of mistresses
shaving of collaborators heads,while those responsible fled
safely to havens where they haunt the living and the dead
History is a story told by winners-survivors contend another version
Poets are unnecessary.Journalists get targeted.Gangs know who fingers them
A sonnet will not sing your name to police.Silence arranged for a price
Distance settles in,the official version is released,every one agrees
the trains run on time,prosperity renews for the rich
democracy can be Greek history,where Socrates dies for corrupting youth
and Platonists and Peronists preen their Bibles from bully pulpits
Do you ever get the feeling they are lying and they know it?
How many more must die before we can show the massacres?
Truth went first.Culture followed.Give them sports/advertising/movies
Our taxes pay for wars they die to fight.Pat Tillman.False heroines.
Hide the body bags from poets.Ban all digital cameras.
Even if we know,we will not admit.Death close up
gets closer the more we look away.

Free Lui Xiaobo

all you have to do is believe
that freedom,equality and human rights are universal values
and profess this publically(even in poetry-like this
and you will reveal that up to five million detainees
do not have these rights.That many are beaten into forced labor
for professing such freedoms.Some are"disappeared"
so no public media or trial might embarrass.
I know you believe in these values
They are core democratic essentials
Freedom of speech and assembly need supporters
So when the Nobel Peace Prize winner is detained
and his wife punished,the question remains
what do peaceful people do to affirm freedom?
I petition you in this poem.While we can,
each of us can awaken others to what is happening.
Before poetry is banned,pass on this petition
for the release of Liu Xiaobo-before it is you
i have to write on behalf of...

Book

there is a cult/that worships books
it will have none of KINDLE nor NOOK
it collects leather bound volumes
and smells the covers after publication
They even sneer at paperbacks
leave pulp fiction on the racks
own libraries at school and home
and every book is one they own
They started young-read to by parents
who encouraged them to take more risks
soon they were speaking words aloud
following examples and feeling proud
Perhaps they won a prize or two
(this is what book lovers tend to do-
for a published poem in anthology
or a locally published short story...
Perhaps they want to write their own
They have been to writing programs
learned the tricks of every trade
begin the first line(got it made!
Perhaps a novel lives in their skin
At night-this is what they dream
That they will be a published author
if it does not work out(well-it oughta!
They will scribble and scribe their way
until the bells on Judgment Day
No matter what else gets in their way
Authors Need Attention Paid!
So my warning if its not too late
become a text based illiterate
use cell phones for your conversation
join the ranks of TV nation
Trust only in advertising
You will not need to write a thing
Just BUY CONSUME WORK and DIE
You will be your own short story!
someone else may share the tale
of a life so ordinary,it even failed
to make obituary worthy of poetry
No worries-who buys poetry?
Be your own story!Take a look
there will always be yours -in someone else's book

46 cents

it is worth a stamp to mail a letter
that will arrive @its destination in a timely fashion
delivered by a professional person
It is good to send books via BOOK RATE
that eventually arrive(slow as time
to delight perfect strangers
It is good to converse with postal counter staff
even as they shrink in number(and get more stressed
many are still blessed in their intentions
It is good to join the line to employ the services of those
who see the point in a public postal service
and are prepared to construct effective pricing mechanisms
so our epistolary traditions might continue
before said services are effectively stamped out.

CURRENCIES(a basket case
Comparisons suffer.So when you get a yen for a yuan
or even the price of a peso/know what it buys depends
upon who is selling.Every currency pretends to stand for something
Once it represented gold-but gold now far outstrips paper
and is buried as bright bullion in bank vaults
while paper churns out of government printing presses
Pennies worth less than the copper they contain
Same with aluminium smelted in our name
Sure-they all have the heads of government
but they are all in our hands/and we know where the money goes
Canadian coins (like Irish/Australian)are fauna-and art
We hold the old in some esteem/dream Roman coins will resurrect
like Greek! and we will seek a treasure trove
Anglo-Saxon coins in a field of stones.Gold.Diamonds.Dream on!
Notes mean nothing.Mugabe.Zimbabwe.Denominated dollars .
Remember Weimer wheelbarrows Deutschmarks?70s gas prices?
Remember your futures.All currencies relative
Blood simple.The price of families.Feuds.Value is what you ascribe
Reality is a currency depends upon trust.That means us..

Sunday, October 10, 2010

SALMON (ELLA)

Genetically altered salmon(bigger,better,not necessarily cheaper!
will be released into your digestion soon
to join vaccinated cows,genetically engineered goats
Frankenstein crops of soy,corn and cotton.
DO NOT WORRY!They are unlabeled
just as in oils and processed foods
Natural hybrids have now moved to square eggs,
straight bananas,cows that don't produce methane in their flatulence
and pigs whose manure is less polluting..
RELAX! You will not notice the difference!
You can't breed a cow with a starfish-but you can mutate genes
and make mutations that are irreversible.
Pollen of genetically altered crops crosses borders
like Chenobyl radiation.Unintended consequences
produce untended food sources.Mad Cow's Disease,
listeria,salmonella.Recall food recalls?Not all of them factory meat!
Eat what you grow-even then,chlorine and fluorides added to water supplies
change chemistry and results.Big Mac.Big Business.Big Pandemics
Do not worry.There is nothing you can do about it.
We will go where the wild salmon go..
Leap up waterfalls/defy gravity.Get caught and released
from a wild (undammed)river.In our dreams...

FLOWERS IN THE BARRELS

Meeting the moment /with a temporary kiss-
What happens next?

in his mind/he is a lion/untamed
in his room..King In A Cage

HOMELESS(with dog).Always the dog
happier than her master

Slap of vinyl on turntable
Scratch of black shellac furry repet repet repetition

DO THE MATH!
Add the meter to the parking fees
(do not mistake form for function)
All the sprung rhythms fall
when money makes only markets
1000 monkeys with keyboards
random as Stockhausen(FREE MUSIC!
Download this-it is voice to ear best translates
Page to stage.It all adds up to..

THE ENTERTAINMENT MODEL
If as Roger Waters suggests
we are all AMUSED TO DEATH
Perhaps instead of currencies
we could compete like AMERICAN IDOL to see
whether Chinese imports gain more audience
than American War Exports..

say you are a musician(a blessing to all harmonies

a motorcyclist stops next to you
pulls out a pistol/puts it to your head and says
NO MORE MUSIC!NO MORE TEACHING OF WOMEN!
IF YOU DISOBEY,YOU WILL BE SHOT! YOUR FAMILY,TOO! TALIBAN!
So you stop playing music.You leave your homeland
You apply for political asylum.This is secured.
Now you and your family are in a new land
where music is free and musicians thin
You sing Rumi/Hafiz.You play tabla/sitar
You are a living national treasure.
This is the measure of life itself-
that love should express in all its forms
and every human beaming enjoy these freedoms

Say you are a cartoonist
and you draw Mohamed
and you get death threats

Say you are a film maker
and you film the life of the Prophet
You are stabbed on the streets of peaceful Amsterdam
a note explaining why knifed in your chest

Say you are a teacher of women
Your school is bombed
You are threatened

Say you are a woman accused
You get scarred/lashed/jailed

This is not religion.This is murder.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

LE BIG MAC

Fall of Rome,Fall of War,Fall of Dollar-and it is Fall!(again!
One Big Mac is $2 China$4 France$7 Japan $9-
Yuan rises like a sleeping tourist/battles yen in
South China Seas where fishermen gather in fish stocks
for a $2 fishburger,find themselves in the fish fry
Even Swiss cheese buys more burger than our currency-we
cannot afford more Chinese take-away,as they send us
contaminated prawns,melamin milk-foodstuffs condemned
We cannot afford to eat out on the world's stage
This takeaway in trade is bad for our digestion
We cannot stomach declining appetites like birthrates
Who will eat American Hamburger Happiness?
How can we sell these arms to people with none?
Are we too slow for fast food?Shall we sell off Golden Arches
as the price of gold skyrockets?To the Emerging World
fast becoming the Front Line World in the ALL YOU CAN EAT
smorgasbord of currency market manipulations?
Would you like fried civilians with that order,Sir?

OG,BOG,LOG,DOG(it all happened so fast

when we were very very small,we all believed in O!
it was marvelous!Every one of US under G!
Big he was,and powerful.We could trust him to save us
In the last war,against B,many of us were undecided
We did not want to be involved in war.We might get BOGGED down
in fighting for others rather than defending ourselves
BUT we were attacked,and we felt we must defend our alphabet
All the letters stood with USA against foreign alphabets.We won!
Although it was Navaho wind talkers who translated victory
more than any dogs of war.We put logs on the fire and got warm
We got BIG.We grew worlds.We Expanded.Pax Americana.
Manifest Destiny.God was with us!Stars and Stripes!Rome #2!
We grew then by Berlin Airlift,Peace Corps,American Aid
but then we got bogged down-in endless little wars
Third World Countries tinpot dictators military assistance
Suppression of Civil Liberties.Arms Dealings(to all sides)
Now Everyone Is Against Us.They say we are in decline!
China barks reminbi,Pakistan aids Taliban,our trucks on fire!
in Khyber Pass of Previous Empires.This all happened so fast!
How come they no longer love us?How come we no longer love ourselves?
We were all united under O!(not T!)Words fail me!
Alphabets of arsenals scatter on our own streets
Our youth gun down gangs.They seek Empire,Dominion
One Nation Under Gun.G is powerful-
but there are other letters outside wanting true Representation
and the November Election is only a beginning

i have loved you all my life

born in slow suburbs,where sleep was recreation
drawn to the magnet of ley lines,to my living Stonehenge
i have loved you all my life.O City-how predictable you are!
Crowds commute /they enter you/do their business/withdraw
safe in their dormitory suburbs.I stay because there is no end to you
Every city the same and not Lines drawn (Brasilia,Canberra).Plots
Next,a surge of migrants.Construction.From village to town to polis
a leap of panthers.Mutants in your Town Halls.Citizen Zoos.
Shank's ponies to cycle,steam to gas,industry,heat trapped
Stress and pressure from the lack of touch.Parking problems
So you rise high in Towers.Dense your urban orbs.
Core Gold Castles.Sprawl strips development.Mauls.
Whole lines of disenfranchised.City history migration archaeology
I love your anonymity.Your uniform architecture.Your machine robot skyline
I love the way you allow me in and then deny.I have been with better
They treated me as golden guest/but temporarily
Each city loves generically.You can skim mosquito surfaces
Sink deeper and the rot of stories fills stink alleys.
Tourists click and photograph.I live in you and love
the fact that no one can own you over time you are your own
creation/Mayors change,buildings demolish,roads break
bridges over waters..process over contents.
You are as anonymous as i am.

why it matters

last helicopter out of Saigon
(you should never have invaded-
same with Grenada,Beirut,Libya.Empires fall
faster than butterfly wings.Art of broken walls is partial scene
Always,civilians. (Farmer in small handkerchief field sustains
while Huge Banks fail.Vegetable gardens green flags of hope
while Therapies become Industries.Little is lots-your next breath
delays,defers,demurs from death just long enough to trick the hangman
into visiting the sleeping .Consciousness connects-seeks Electric Souls
Bright Sparks.Leaps between .Sharpens Spirits.Adds to and Compounds
Rescue Remedies.Healing via happiness.Call me naive
yet what is your desired outcome?Income?
What we make=we are.Who we are=what we make.
Two Zen fish following Tantalus.Samson Agonistes.Paradise Found.
This is it.Simple.Where you are right now.What you do
Seek no more Heaven than Your Best Action.Nature abhors vacuums
There is a Bright Key in every melody.Harmonies Heal.Sing your day
Hum moon night.Slip star silences.Sip siestas.All olde is knew.You
are a Crown Of Creation-and you make,weave,sing,dance,
prance in a woven unspell when you choose.Even when you choose not to
You have more love than you knew.(you knew!
This is why it matters what you choose to do.

green frogs in barton springs

their memory blessed by enchanters and declaimers
who grew in those waters/who drank in the springs
whose mothers bore children from shallows to depths
who saw with the salamander and played with the fish
Zen stories for children and grandchildren watery and free
now fences,pricetags,rules and park police
Tales of freedom once bold and mythical
Now building on watershed and chopping of trees
Now silt and flood damage and cleaning and scrape
Now we must live with violation of feng shui
Assuaged by Tales Of Elders who Bless
All Who Have Passaged Through These Waters Of Spring
Now celebrate the lost green frogs of Barton
fish forgotten,crayfish gone,salamander threatened
Now in the hands of musicians and storytellers
who love what is lost in a poem and song

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

word to the wise(hard times)

2 heart attacks since the divorce
.homeless and disabled
i sleep at the arch when the lottery allows.
get a day bed when i lose the night shift
when nature calls,i find no rest rooms
(barred apart from customers)
i was given a warning when lying in a park
i told them i was not sleeping
they let me off since i was so gracious
i am 56.i cannot live like this
if i get through the paperwork,
i will soon be officially disabled
i am writing about these experiences
people would not believe the poverty
there are so many with less than me
i have a sleeping bag.i still have me
this was supposed to be a velvet city
i do not see crime-i see hard times
can you let me off near the Library?

into the unbearable brilliance

of this most perfect autumn austin day
remembering two fold charisma sunlight
burning away distance /avoiding intimacy
sole burden of Goddess/her worship safer
than sustaining a relationship with that which burns
in a ferocious Light expurgating all rusted reluctance
making bare the bone wound/true the mirror
Who brings the better news,o messengers?
Who stops all wars and creates a peace?
Who allows prosperities and harmonies?We
who mediate and are medicated/resile from righteousness
delegate activism to artists,sit in empty tip jar audience
carping,quarreling while bonfire vanities conflagrate for Guy Fawkes
Parliament as tribal as town hall poetry circles
Gathering an election of trust in each other's singing
These bright days give way to night
where approximate starlight imitates daylight
yet who dare be that brilliant?To burn is only this-
those who take the risk .Be bright,bold,resolute-
you mapmakers and street singers bring
enlightenment to our tortured times.Let every voice ring!

an extra morning

each night your KA leaves to esperanto with stars
returns SNAP! into your snoring body when lights alive
you START to attention,buckling into the belt of another day
Different every night(like birth
you never quite adjust to PLANET EARTH(o star child!
swooning among starmaps/constellations call
and you are Cassiope,Cancer,calling into consciousness
as a SHOUT! into a seashell/the orchestra of oceans
waves you in to another counted calendar
This one is extra.Fate fell to free will-you decided
it was easier to be here than swinging around Heavens
your feet find earth ,you breathe deep(deeper
you step and release into brightness from dream dark deep
Speak not at all of what you have seen.They discount dreams
Wonders after midnight.Silence before dawnlight
Your joy returns.You slip it on like a supersuit
Step into the glare of daily domestic doings/forget
where you have been all evening/swing into another dream
that day is all their is/and Sol rules everything.Moon winks
She knows where you have been-and where you will be
this very evening...

from the front lines

this one is camping out /stuck without transport
another paints when he needs to sing on streets (painting pedestrians
another to Oklahoma to earn enough to thin string Austin
more imprisoned in prosaic jobs longing for poetic relief
listen closer.none are cynics.they carry rosebuds in their cheeks
starlit eyes smile horizons/adding their energies in soft release
so when you paint your chemical sunsets,remember green
imitation never was original(although we need mimesis)
bright blade scimitar thoughts slice through ennui
forests of feelings cleared via intent
we are earth,air,fire,water,metal ,wood
elemental,alchemical,connected,continuing-
the contract is for all living to honor and respect
Know there are creatures of harmonies gentle and watching
They do not believe disaster scripts
They build in the gap between funding and fun
They link to sentients like human radios
Your signals are beaming now! Whole worlds await and watching
What happens next unknown-perfectly preformed /spontaneous
This just in-you are as free as your poetry.Release all the wild birds
Set yourselves free!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

TEA PARTIES (AS A METAPHOR)

When visiting poets came to Austin
for the Austin International Poetry Festival
they were driven down to San Antonio
to Gini's Tea Rooms,where Gini herself
accompanied by elves,pixies,fairies and gentle folk
served tea and scones and cucumber sandwiches
with a variety of comestibles gently known as"tea"
They then sang and performed and shared their verses
with citizens of San Antonio and surrounds
(a town best known for its defeat @the ALAMO
and the city that has grown around that Mission statement)
Gini was the consummate host.Poets gave their best
The tea flowed hot as summer in Texas.It was a MAD HATTER's TEA PARTY!
Those times of welcome and hospitalities have morphed
Tea gave way to coffee.Sweet Gini cooks in Austin now
and counterfeit "Tea"Parties sprout like magic mushrooms after rain
Tea admits of varieties and diversities-green,white,black -and all
can be served both hot as politics or cool as culture
The REAL Party lives in the teapots and hearts of those who welcome in change
They meet each night@open mikes.They are happy to sing and share
and tea becomes more than a commodity
when someone cares.

stepping in to the next moment(new suit!

Wallbound/blocked in by limits/until you sing-
Jericho shatters Glass Castles
Was it your voice?or choice to live beyond borders?
Conflict imported /projected upon you as screen
Your movie screening in a separate theater
You cast the movie with friends,family,lovers
The script is in your hands.Empowerment is not conflict
Parallel dolphins among the sharks
Your feet are always on the path.START!
Fog clears-daylight lights your way
Moon comes-stars are charts that play
Your music guides you -through the harmonies of heavens
As within,so around.As in air,so on ground
Silence always mates with sound.You are a FOUND poem!
Let your dreams take you in and on-every line will turn to song!
FOR RUDI HARST,EDUARDO GARZA,JIM STEWART

ELDER

is it eyes go first?-or memory?
senior moments become my only ones
synapses extend into sepia afternoons
sleep seems deeper(and more necessary
Naps extend into the ..what was that?
Hearing fades-or is it listening?
Watching seems easier.Gardening memories.
Tilling friends.Mulching meals of moments past
Island you.Even before sedentary wheelchair
less seems possible.Time slips away-faster
Everything must be done NOW!
Let it go.It has gone.Looking behind
a rear view vision golden blind
Light interrogates you.Shadows seem cool
What was i about to share?..o ..yes
it is not the years that count
it is the lack /the loss
those released capacities that crowd lifeboats
Thin again.Child again.Shrink wrapped creases
Decline.Recline.Incline yourself towards the Light
Where was i? o yes..you cannot tell this to the young
They will come in boots while you are slippers
They see you as past even when you are among them
They are right.Ghost.You walk insubstantially
even these warnings will be forgotten.Remember me..

REVELATIONS OF EMPOWERMENT

1.Nobody owns the next moment
2.Redemption is re/versible
3.Change compounds
4.Dreams come free
5.Awakening is momentary
6.All advice is good-example better
7.Your parents are not you
8.Your children are not you
9.It takes lifetimes to remember
10.You already know this.

LET ME IN/THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Vampire people need your energies to survive
They cannot stand the crush of Light
Myths and legends still abound
littered in images found widescreen
So when technology codes
become monetized /all friends
become litigants/and seek
the blood of revenge and victory.
Everything continues/until it stops.

"TELL IT TO THE MOON"
Primal this-voice raised in song and smiles
Music ally and companion/sweet melodies/harmonies
harmonica lifts the lips to notes in Heaven
Angels always were musicians
FAIR BEAN FRIDAYS 5-7pm
2401 south first .Hosted by Amy Zamirrippa

MONETURNER

Give Turner bold bright oranges and red of fires-
slave ships,seascapes and Hannibal snowstorms
swirling conflicts of olde and new worlds
where trains and ships and battles contrast
with tranquil towns,rivers,castles
Give Turner brown earth emotions
tempered with smoke and fog and mist
Give both watercolors-make Monet blue
Waterlilies are his,ponds and bridges
Both portray Houses of Parliament
Both paint Venice and London
Both imprint impressions more than descriptions
Degas Monet.Titian Turner.
Give Monet Giverny-gardens,paths,flowers
Sea roses instead of sea battles
Peace of weeping willows
(filter through emotions)
Water belongs to both-Turner seas to Monet ponds
Turner rarely used blue-Monet was blue.
he was also skydreamcloud waters,
at the mouth of a river,listening
Paint what you see-both dreams
take us deeper into Psyche than we
are comfortable with/moving meditations-
sunsets and rises,towns,villages
occasionally a stray human(Girl with a Parasol)
or mythical Greek hero turning in turmoil
Choose your emotion-gardens await
Palettes and spectra take us further and deeper-
Monet Louvre,Turner@the Tate

come share your saturday night with us

as Celebration Circle visits Austin!
They who have welcomed poets for years
now to our Bahai Center pilgrimage
Rudolph Harst (fine singer-songwriter)
supplemented by Jai Medina
From Jazz Poets of San Antonio-
Eduardo Garza whom we know
as poet,musician,improvisor
and Jim Stewart of creative fire
From Austin,Michael Aaron Casares
and Robin Cravey of our Green Belt sagas
Bring a dish for the POT LUCK @interval
Cans for the POETS PANTRY fill
2215 East E.M Franklin site
Map on (www.austinbahai.org)website
Phone 9268880 if lost
Watch out for UT traffic (LOTS!
Doors open @6pm-all ages too
All we really need-is YOU!

i shall sit by this womb river and wait

i shall sit by this womb river and wait
for the new child to come forth/sparkle and shine
old man counting gold,young man counting dimes
it is not just faith in a future(in an expanding uni-verse
that trusts enough to not close down-more to reach out/up/across
Doomsayers and Naysayers crowd marketplaces of meaning
seeking to augment their Empires via rhetorical deceiving
Science can ask and Myth can explain
how Chenobyl still glows forever in the acid rain
What stays with us is memory/the rest repeats until we see
how cycles,sagas,epic domestic struggles define our destinies
She sits in sunshine in the autumn coffee/he reads
how technology has replaced books-but poetry is proud
(it has always been a gypsy-deported from France
there are no borders that cannot be owned by someone else
All languages are foreign /all influences fear
unless and until we embrace change-allow the stranger near
Open up Doors Of Perception,so we can plainly see
that what we are most afraid of-is the you inside of me
UNITED STATES ART AUTHORITY (5 THINGS series)

after the wars(when you come home

and find that folk have moved beyond conflict
and wish to heal/and you are still @war (within-
the Great War(or some not-so-great)has defined your memories
so what returns are dreams of horror deep
that you must live with/while those who urged you on
have moved on.Warriors stand with begging hands at intersections
Limbless stump their days in medicated nightmares.
You thought you were doing the right thing-
earning an income via fighting.The world has moved on
and here you are,with only other veterans to share.
Without work-to fill your time,you could re-enlist
suicide,get violent,drink,drug,or just try to understand the WHY
by making films or books or speeches for your peace
depends upon moving on-via non-violent means
to live within all citizens who need to see
that peace was the reason you resisted terrorism-and still is...
UNDER THE HOOD BENEFIT SUNDAY NOVEMBER 14 from 6-11pm JOVITAS (come!

just because the angel lands

does not mean this is paradise.Eden is a jail
with razor wire and watch towers.Nirvana is a drug
sold to the hungry to assuage.Pain is a doctor
who treats all wounds with contempt.Dark angels tempt
They bribe,cajole,urge.We succumb to comfortable temptations
pretending no one is psychic,and all is not visible to all
Waking from a dream takes desire.Sleep is easy to deny
Sweetness seduces with a promise of continuance
Sanctuary in her eyes.Siren,Harpie,Calypso,Maenad song.
Your path is dewdrops @dawn.Temporary as time
Forgetfulness Estuary (tidal,Tsunami)
Wake Quickly Now!Waters are rising around and within
Surf these moments while they sing.
Each angel lives on the head of a pin
Sharp as a needle's eye of a camel
The point is -every angel is different.Sleep through this
and pretend this was never said.When you wake,forget...
TEMPLE POETS MEET THURSDAY 30 @7pm at Temple CAC off IH35-come and see!

YOUR VOICE

it is a raw wound/a challenge
a call to the drunken art/a split lightning sky
a guidebook for the kind/a reprieve of laughter
a slap in the face of giants/a link to Heavens Anonymous
a warning to the scarred/a yellow CAUTION sign
a track off the main into the jugular/footprints upon waves
a handshake/a hug/a happy ripple below the surface
a termite in wood Paradise/ant determination
a list of grievances swinging like a bell
a village of intimacies/a film of sounds
an accusation to the Fates and Destiny
it is what we would like to release
if our box of butterflies would allow us this
unlicensed liberty-to be free to employ
vibrations of joy and sorrow simultaneously
to unseal all contracts and make all provisional
to let freedom become a verb and sweet a noun
Break All The Rules Of Grammar!When you sing,
we are stilled to silence.Violence slinks out of the room,ashamed
You allow us to be at ease with our personal being
you release us from the need for crying
You sing for us.You sing for all of us
We who are taught only to be silent
watch your wings and envy the skies.
FOR MICHELE SOLBERG@cafe caffeine wednesdays 7-9pm
909 west mary-open to all-waiting for your call!

AFTER THE ILIAD

"Men are made for war"so said Homer
about whom we know less than blindness
So we gather in the sunshine post-suicide UT
(he came to stain the peaceful Library with his immolation-
no hero he,no Hector,nor Achilles-more a sullen,silent one
of high intelligence but not high degree.At 19
no youth should end so brief.We heard Homer on the need
for "a long and comfortable life rather than a glorious brief"
Whether the gods are with us -or the Fates
We voted for peace and poetry with our presence
and all the wars outside and within must wait.

ARE THE GODS OF WAR ANNOYED WITH US?
Hermes took Priam to the tent of Achilles
when Priam killed the hands that killed his sons
(19 from one mother,the rest from women in his household)
Achilles,enraged that Hector should kill his Patroclus
swore that"dogs and birds would eat every last scrap"
Yet when Priam beseeched him with a Prayer of Entreaty
reminding him of his own father ,who had mated with a Goddess
yet had but one son to carry his Light onwards
Achilles agreed-"let pain lie at rest awhile
nothing to be gained from cold grief
the gods give two jars to each of us
one is joy,the other pain-and they commingle..
They are the ones who added pain to mortal life
while they watch from a comfortable distance"
Achilles and Priam united in grief and mourning for the loss
of those they held most dear /while we could not forget
that solitary one(less than Charles Whitman)who imported self-death
into a most precious peaceful sanctuary-our Library

MEDEA(via Euripides)upbraided Jason
when he went off with another woman-
"i would rather throw spears in many battles
than suffer the pain of one birthing"
Men may be made for war-body bags await
Women cry and wail ,for it it is their sons and husbands
with spears and swords being buried
The birth of sorrow as continuous
and endless wars that have no living heroes
POETRY ON THE PLAZA WED OCT 6 @high noon on the plaza outside Harry Ransom

@the Cafe Caffeine this evening

you will meet the man who wants a New Renaissance
as he details Raphael's paintings of Parnassus and the Muses
You may enjoy a Powerpoint presentation on LOST AUSTIN
from closed coffee shops to continuing Eeyore's
Gordon the White Rapper will entertain and elucidate
with jammin on words and sounds Channeling the English
and maybe two touring poets from New York will arrive
to share what they create via Cd book and jewelery
All this between 7 and 9pm this evening
All this @909 west mary
Did i mention they have fine snacks and drinks?
Did i say it is an open stage?
Much fun awaits when you do not hesitate
just come on in to cafe caffeine this evening'
wednesday 29 september between 7 and 9pm
and just see what can happen!

JOVITAS FRONTIER LAND

Mixing woman was for us-servers were for us
The poets pranced.The band was grand
a vibe of energetics lifted us And from these heights
we listened wide and deep/each of us made more by explorations
imagery and visual vocabulary extended our repertoire
Chips and salsa a margarita,laughter and goodwill
This is the alchemy of Evermore-compounding sharpness and clarity
by hearing each other's stylings.The model is respect-
for every adventurer who dares extend beyond comfort zone
took us with her as she rode the waves like mermaids
Each given chance for redemption-each honoring both stage and time
Chapters of a book that will never be written
films that exist but will rarely be screened
Words uttered once and Zen forgotten
which means we need to gather together once again...
Why not October 26?That fits!2 Fish &the Evolution Jovitas 7-10pm $5
for La Love Robinson and Stacey Shea

shadow before the axe/fear before the blow

you fall before the punch/Rome fell from Rome
within white-ant towers,rats desert the stinking
David did not fear Goliath,why pale@Palin?
Check Beck's checkered past,and dodgy donations
designed to subvote democracy.Browbeat via Faux news
anger in the unemployed.Do they know the hand that hits
is funded via Corporate?Tax dodge dollars designed for self-interest?
Mock populists pretend crocodile tears,then SNAP!
as soon as your attention lapse,allows frauds in public offices
Elites have one vote too-they buy you when you refuse to trust
that democracy works for all of us.Not just those who purchase office
then bend the rules for low tax dollars.Corporate welfare ,Halliburton,
bank foreclosures,welfare shredding-voting against the people
by withholding support.Who put these foxes in our hen house?
Who watches as they tear us apart?Doves over hawks-
yet endless wars profit the corrupt.When will we ask for what we want?
Peace and prosperity,truth and integrity,populist democracy
a Bill of Rights that means more than Amendments
We are only at the beginning of this story-
vote with your ears and eyes opened.Watch the vultures and the warhawks
Your very life depends upon peace.Speak now and avoid the Patriot Act 6.

i smell like cat

Town Lake Animal Shelter-we support the "no-kill"policy
and have longed for Cat Spirit to return
so seek out the scrangiest,most unloved scrappy rescued cat
pay for its ransom from wire cage
bring her home still scarred from necessary shots
(it is not only children subject to abandonment)
Gentle her with welcomes-for my 3 previous
are Ghost Cats-Dog,Ginger,Love Cat
and she is young as year,soft as claw,fearful and sharp eyes
that question our intentions with necessary Diogenes
She has been abused and left in a bin
brought to the shelter like battered children
right near the end she was still unredeemed
now she can practice being Queen
Ginger was rescued(gift from a friend
Love Cat had jumped the fence to be with humans
Dog died when he knew we were watching
and TOOTS is now learning to trust humans
We are always provisional-she has smeared us with licks
and fur kisses.Rooms smell of cat again,and we are learning
how love redeems,when all of us need rescuing...
tues 28-MELANIE ROSE invites you to Ruta Maya open mike 6-9pm(3601 south congress)
JOVITAS on south first from 7pm has open mike with music $5(free for poets!)
wed 29-CAFE CAFFEINE POETS PARTY 7-9pm 909 west mary-art,voice,song,poems
with MOLLY,JUSTIN,CHRIS,JULIAN,GORDON -poetry,music and YOU!(open to all!
fri oct 1-FAIR BEAN 2210 S 1st from 5-7pm
sat oct 2-EXPRESSIONS welcomes CELEBRATION CIRCLE!2215 E.M Franklin ave 9268880
Bring a dish for the pot luck/cans for poets pantry.RUDI HARST&JAI MEDINA
&EDUARDO GARZA&JIM STEWART&MICHAEL AARON CASARES&ROBIN CRAVEY&MOLLY&JUSTIN!
Doors open 6pm.ALL AGES READING!SATURDAY OCTOBER 2 @Austin Bahai Center!

before your heart glows out on tour

make sure that your words are packed tight
your emotions stored for perfect pitch and passion
is directed intensely towards logistics-where and when and who
is all a matter of trust in human nature.We are fallible as friendship
People blow out like tires.Roads break down as we do.Weathered emotions .
The alchemy of intentional change requires energies applied and resistances overcome
You have a frame for your art of motion.String beads of trust and truth between
There is only ever new and now,old,trusted,tried and true(as every cliche sings to you
Learn by doing.Bold,brave,resolute.The road demands attention.
Your boat becomes the river when every moment illumines
Outside your borrowed home,you sip transience
drink ambience,absorb experiences in an egg of time.
Do not plan too much.Change owns us.Once you drop habits
the Unknown resurrects.your voyage starts before you do.
Footprints before and after you.Watch as the New comes through
It has a different name to you.ON THE ROAD.
for Molly Kat and Justin Vinokur on tour
@Ruta maya tuesday 28 september 6-9pm
Cafe Caffeine 909 west mary 7-9pm
COME OUT AND SEE WHY!

6 4 JIMMIE

WHY WE LOVE JIMMIE RODGERS
One man with a guitar changed our listening-
with his blue yodel he could engage every ear
With his original songs ,he shared traditions-
slave songs,train songs,blues ,hobo and cowboy-
from which "country"music sprang fresh and clear
as a voice of the people who sang to their hearts
of trains and love and bar rooms and jailhouses
he became our"singing brakeman" right to the TB end
He built a home in Kerrville and was a Blue Bonnet Mason
He was the first inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame
His records sold millions.He toured with Will Rogers
His signature tune"T for Texas!"still resonates
He has influenced a pantheon of poets and singer-songwriters
His songs are covered every day.127 recorded in his brief 35 years
He came from a time of trains and left us with carriages of memories
That is why we still love Jimmie-one voice lifts all others to sing-
T for Texas,T for Tennessee!"I'm in the jailhouse now..."

JIMMIE RODGERS IN BLACK&WHITE
One man with a guitar and one voice
that could yodel its way into your art.
He could play banjo and ukelele
but his songs were for voice and guitar
See him for nine minutes and three songs
His blues chords and vocalizing hold you
even though that was 80 years ago-and in black and white
His image-thin,pale,wan .As if his life was struggle
knowing his end was certain.Radio and recordings
remind us of his originality.He loved Texas
had a home in our Hill Country/a radio show in San Antone
Such love animates more than image
His songs still move hearts.Even over 80 years
Even in black and white

JIMMIE RODGERS 1933-2010
Now that he has gone,we value his songs
Voice and guitar,haunting and strong
words from the first Great Depression in our time
singing of hobos and homeless,bar rooms and jail times
He was the first to popularize yodeling
in records that sold in the millions
He made the first music film clip(3 songs,9 minutes)
He merged slave songs,blues,cowboy into country
before there was such a category!
He put all his passion into song and entertaining
filled his brief life with us now-his heritage lives on
from Doc Watson to Bob Dylan-simple and strong
He was the first to love America into song.

BLUES FOR JIMMIE
You went out in a rainstorm
Your tent got blown away
You caught TB/consumption came to stay
Nothing on this earth
could make you cease to play
You sang of TB(and the TB blues
You sang of TB with those TB blues
when your woman poured likker on your back
you licked it through and through
You would not let TB slow you down
You would not let TB knock you down
You sang even when you couldn't hold that guitar hand
You wanted to die singing-that was all you planned
Well,you sang and rambled,told your own life song
You sang till your body simply wound right down
Now we sing for you,buried in the ground.

JIMMIE LOVED TEXAS
Texas loved Jimmie back
Jimmie sang of Texas
Yodeling down the railroad track
He built a home in Kerrville
was on San Antone radio map
His songs of travel endeared him to us all
He was of the people,unique, individual
His influence can be heard at Kerrville Folk Festivals
Now it seems so simple-to sing lyrics of your life
strum a guitar ,yodel ,laugh and smile
If that were the case,there'd be Jimmies every single mile
His passion for sharing led him to the blues
He learned at the feet of those who taught him tunes
which he then turned into memorable melodies
still sung by folk artists both wide and deep
Here's a tune for Jimmie-one he never wrote
To remind us of his heritage (a yodeling throat)
To praise the Texas that we love-the only one we know
and to remember Jimmie as we go...

JIMMIE RODGERS BLUES
I ran away from home to sing my life away
I was brought back my father but i could not stay
i worked on the railroad until my health finally failed
My marriage broke up,so i married again
My daughter died,my banjo i pawned
to get to her funeral-yes,we were poor
My second daughter died within a year or three
i sang the blues because that was the truth of me
Blues pursued both me and my family
I recorded songs when my band broke up
i met the Carter Family (that was a stroke of luck)
to live as an singer took everything i got
Consumption caught me /could not stop my song
My life intense(although i did not live long)
Remember me a yodeling along!
What you call "country"was my own life song..