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


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

AMERICANA CANTATA

Keep our Constitution with its Bill of Rights and 4th Amendment
Keep that frontier spirit even in this closed system
Keep ,maintain and extend freedom of speech and assembly
(it allows for growth in art,music,dance and poetry)
Keep those friendly links to all who espouse democracy
(a good idea still in its infancy).Add to all who give to others-volunteers
need support networks to make altruism real
Add to your jazz and movies,your cultural heritage
Respect indigenous land ,values and cultures
Seek alternatives to failed philosophies,
so we might apply ethics to our technologies
Remember why there is a National Guard-
for emergencies domestic-fires,earthquakes,flood
Look for what is good in all you share
so our borrowed name(America) might last more years
We are based upon respect,not fears
Gather reasons to smile.We need no more tears.
(A MIGRANT PRAISING HIS NEW HOMELAND)

IN PRAISE OF WIKILEAKS#3

we know we are being lied to-but by whom?
Release of "secret"documents reveal civilian casualties-
the first being truth!What we are told is not what is said among states-
where realpolitics means deception,spying and necessary cleansing via wikileaks
We are civilians-if we lived in Afghanistan or Pakistan,Iraq or Palestine
we would praise any release of communications
that placed us in a context of trust over fear
Strip searched @airports,with two wars bleeding us
our national treasure and blood lost in foreign lands
for no purpose or clear intention-we need Wikileaks!
Without release of truthful information worldwide
we only have state sponsored propaganda to guide us
and we tend to forget those IDF murders on the Gaza relief convoy
the links between Pakistan intelligence and the Taliban
and the bribing of Karzai in Afghanistan.Fundamentalism has no power
when confronted with evidence of Machiavellianisms.
Crusades and Jihads fail when a fully informed public(that means YOU!)
unites behind intelligent links rather than faulty intelligence
REPEAT=There were no "weapons of mass destruction"
Palestine needs to be unilaterally declared a nation state
just as Afghanistan is a failed state,with corrupted elections
and bribed officials do not a democracy make.
Try freedom of information/not censoring GOOGLE
Freedom of speech/not attacking Wikileaks
Then democracy can be a reality rather than a violated promise
and we can rest,not having to write another poem petition
in praise of necessary Wikileaks!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Five thoughts a day

1.Breath!-this miniature ocean of air that sings in each of us,fills our lungs and swings
through blood to circulate like life itself
2.Dreams!-which sustain us when this world is not enough(the idea that feelings have tangible forms works for happiness too-all dreams come true
3.Happiness!Here is connection to higher energies/when prevailing circumstances can
be attuned to times when joy was the only unspoken language
4.People-They are all we are /all we have.They are mirrors of our spirit and lead us further into the unknown.Avatars /examples-we would only have animist diversities
5.Life itself-the unknown mystery of each moment,wherein and whereby we open to the miracles of the marvellous

Sunday, November 28, 2010

she asks"when did we change from CITIZENS to CONSUMERS"?

i am puzzled at this wizardry of marketry
when at times of domestic and economic stress
we are advised to "just go shopping"
Seasons are subverted into "shopping" seasons
Media saturation encourages massive consumption patterns
in waves of "Black Friday" to "Cyber Monday" sales
Crowds chill outside stores for midnight "bargains"
FREEDOM OF SPEECH sold as FREE SPEECH ZONES
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY repackaged as PERMITS REQUIRED
Constitution disputed yet not studied -replaced by Bible study
Demonstrators monitored,activists jailed
Dare you ask what happened to the Black Panthers?
Issues dumbed down for numbed down folk
until we text more than we speak to one another
Laptop dancers fill coffee shops (with earphones on)
Farmers use illegal migrants for crops,then call the INS
Language corrupted into TV meal choices"paper?-or plastic?"
Nostalgia breeds Tea Parties.We need to listen more than speak
Until DEMOCRACY becomes a verb,and we the people-citizens again
never more strip searched at airports,nor jailed for protesting.

on your day

blue skies/sunlight.a cool breeze sunday
your life like a treasure map-mother,grand mother,musician,poet,publisher-
you review your service to humanity via armories of harmonies
generosities of spirit-documenting living art via film and CDs
co-creating communities of conscience @every venue possible
honoring veterans /Native Americans via constant creativity
attending Pow-Wows to affirm indigenous cultures
opening your only home to house the homeless
standing up for your children and their rights
being example of mobility and active imaginative powers
adding to every cultural context wherever you are
and you even want to share your day with others!
So we will come to honor you -for everything you are and do
gives all of us anew reasons for coming through
with a smile,a laugh,poems,songs and flutes too!
HAPPY REBIRTHDAY TO YOU!
(for Lee Leteff on the day she was born,Sunday,November 28)

HISTORY OF ECONOMICS(a test of your memory

1.When did budgets mean deficits?
2.Why do banks fail?
3.What does it mean-"too big to fail?"
4.Why are homes foreclosing?
5.Who selects who to "bailout"?
6.What is"corporate welfare"?
7.Why are your taxes given to "for-profit"enterprises?
8.Why are police given pay rises while you get pay/job cuts?
9.Explain exactly the role of the "Federal Reserve"?
10.Does peace mean prosperity?Do wars aid economies?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

i bet you i do not gamble

Lotto is for losers! Casinos strip Mall!
Imagine the masochism that invests in disappointment
argues for continuance ,deficits budgets
degrades relationships  and wishes to be legalized
so more can experience lowered lifestyles.
Hypnotism seduces-"this will benefit education /the arts"
(Lies!They skim the profits for a government bankrupt!
launder profits in their cash flow/become that crime cliche
that leads to suicides and murders-it is all degrees
from bingo to scratchoffs to lotto to betting all wages
Addiction is part of the process-allurement of winners
random and rare(computer odds favor the house
Media card games like Texas High Noon Holdems
(as exciting as watching golf  with the sound off)
Whether it be pokies or poker or races or one armed bandits
we are betting that our lives will be enriched by loss
Leave to return,burn our money (like owning yachts-
Odds are against us ever stopping.Drug of random.
Toss the dice and watch us watching.Lost Vagueness
Atlantic City.Martin Scorsese.Boardwalks and boom/bust
Our economy lurches towards loss.(We are lost
and arts and education are stripped of their powers
as we trust in a process that is anonymous.

BLESSING BUKOWSKI

"Tales of Ordinary Madness"
"Barfly""Factotem"-all fictional films based upon his books
All as different as the fantasies of directors and actors
All failed box office appeal-yet each has a poetry
more than the quoted lines that spout between linked stories
of a man long gone,whose work still resonates
even though his era of drunkenness ,racetracks, failed behavior
has been superseded by an age of fear ,war and virtual "reality"
We conjecture his lifestyle via his own Gallic Wars
even when we may have objected to him in the flesh
He still speaks-like Dylan,Cohen,Rimbaud,Baudelaire,Villon
to a new crop of cultural evolutionaries-artists,poets,singers
who take inspiration from the scripted stories and enchantments
being the basis for visual enhancement posthumously
Bless Bukowski! Puritans still curse his swearing
Parents still warn their young against emulating
Lovers still long for an age of simple sex with no fear of death
Nostalgia is not enough-either his voice still speaks
raw and steak and swear and hot-or not
Only his words survive.The rest is lies.

RE/PORT from the UNI/VERSE(friday post Thanksgiving@Fair Bean 5-7pm

Chris Martino started art with computer sounds around his text
John Monbelly beat a plastic bucket back into rhythmic life
Bradley Buedel weaved classically around drumbeats
Brian Roberts waxed lyrically about alternative scripts
Tom Friedley also alluded to Buddhist mysticisms
while Luis on his didgeridoo added rap breath percussive tracking
Southwestern Smoke harped Christmas tunes and melodies
while Tom Johnson sang original love songs /then FOLSOM BLUES in Spanish!
This cycle repeated until all were heard at least once
Then a stranger(Pablo)jumped up and sang ZORRO's theme
adding an element of OPEN to the reading
Amy's name was invoked,in trust of her return next Friday
and Fair Bean closed ,and poets moved on to La Tazza Fresca
This happens every Friday 5-7pm=open,living,free
and Fair Bean is the focus for congenial poetic /musical company

Friday, November 26, 2010

THE DAY AFTER(the end of the world

we went shopping! Bargains were aplenty as most were Malled
They had arisen black and dark as coffee
to freeze in lines for bait and switch coupons
We settled for Half Price Books,Thrift Town,Sprouts
bottom end of the food chain/for the "have-nots"and "want less"
Stood chattering with 100 half price book lovers
scored a bag of SPROUTS goodies to share with Buddhist beggars
found bright overlarge costumes for Sanity Season
Lights have already sprung up to score shoppers
Reindeer and muzak hypnotize November ThanksGivers
and we were caught between two Tsunami-
gratitude and gourmandising-to share goodwill
in two seasons of gift giving.Generosity thin and homeless,
cold and alone.Bright sunshine came to make winter less bone
more meat for thoughts and feelings to share
and that is why we gather nightly.Trust you care!

RAINBOW MANET &THE TORTURERS

To escape TSA patdowns,he decided to mail his body
His legs walked by surface mail
His mind went via media mail
His eyes were sent MEDICAL DELIVERY
same with ears,nose and other sensory apparati
His gesticulating arms would have gone cargo
but since those ink  cartridge mock bombers
he sent the rest by Greyhound.Now,all these parts
had to meet in one time and space.Being together
was an important frame work for all artists
so they all converged on an open mike,influencing Picasso
with new ways for the human body to be painted.
Cubism and surrealism also followed suit,so we must thank the TSA
for their only contribution to Western civilization=The Art of Fear

you can love(more than one

i guess you began by loving what sustained you-
those huge creatures they call"parents"
you progressed to loving what came in to you(food,drinks
and what surrounded you(clothes,warmth
You were introduced to the love of siblings(brothers,sisters
They affirmed you in your growth and life
Friends and peers extended your love light
so you could see yourself in the reflection of others
You moved beyond biological foundations
into freeform affiliations-sports,hobbies,interests-
which you loved-pets,plants,people,products
a bicycle,a rabbit,a jacket,a place you visit
You may love rivers or beaches,mountains of forests
You may love fishing and walking and traveling arou8nd
Your loves are legion-they include all in this world
and all you remember from others-ghosts,grandparents,ancestors
Memories reinforce with a positive glow
all that you have loved once loves you back
Love is sustained by joyous affiliation-a freedom precious
You may collect stamps,or music,stories -take photos/play music
You might have a fave song /story/poem that speaks to the core of you
You hold some things(like people)close to you
Some stay with you for years-adding to you
(even parallel lines meet @forever)
Your loves are legion-they animate and extend you.
The only limit is when you cease to breathe(love)
This you cannot do.For you would cease,too
This is why we give thanks for the continuing miracle
of you
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

you know i can only affirm

that the core of all is within your purvey
and all that emanates is as a stream
from a source deep within your being/we all drink this in
and trust to the purity of your intentions/and give thanks
that you are expressing your deepest dreaming
When you reach out to connect
our ears open-like flowers for one necessary sun
When you trust in our listening,we will
give you the fullness of our reception
Connection just the beginning-
continuance /conversation  all steps for exploration
These smoke trails lead to that inner fire
that warms and illumines each ,every,all-
no illusion island,nor individual fall
These are dance steps of your Sufi
whirling dervish Wu Li masters
All is motion/movement/mastery less an issue
than empathy over entropy
We learn as we co-create what may seem new and strange to you
It is tomorrow's sunrise-cast in Light and shadow
depending upon where you dance.
It has begun All i can do is affirm...

I WAS A WAITER(but i could not wait!

I was a waiter(but i could not wait!
I was in such a hurry to get here/i left myself behind
and moved on to this moment.
Here you are! We have arrived!

Sitting in silence N a sound sprang forth
as flowers flounce petticoat petals sprung from stems
rooted in earth below.Are you clawing the sky?
Is it enough to color where you are?

Keith Richards is not dead!nor his blood borrowed
His marriage to Mick will be consummated again on world tour
Another farewell divorce/separation anxiety/lead guitar loneliness
without puckered lips to air kiss/air guitar audience
downloading antique Stones apps.Sympathy for the Program.Recycle riffs
Here is how you Become History.(stay alive!)(Get Satisfaction!)Be Keith Richards!

PUT IN THE PART where  the artist paints himself on a mirror canvas/then breaks the Dorian Grey illusion.ADD an unframed memory of poltergeist paintings /haunting every vision until you admit to pawn shop borrowings

METALLIC TASTE.White coat tongue.Doctor asks-"are you..?"

HOW TO LEVITATE. When you leave your skin,forget all gravity.

While i was waiting for you to change-i changed.
You changed me because you would not change as quickly as i could.
Now i follow you.

Wisdom Of The People

You must listen to us.We are the people
What else will you call us-terrorists?We are not that-
we wish to travel to be with each other
without fear of drone or Predator
or roadside bomb or intrusive
intimate personal body invasion
or torture or waterboarding
or denial of our Constitutional civil liberties
We will listen -when you lead by example
instead of providing exceptions/exemptions-
allowing Vice Presidents and Presidents to be waterboarded
100% of all Government employees subjected to intrusive scrutiny
including pilots,politicians,airline hostesses
 to be X-rayed/touched in intimate places
then we will believe "one ring rules them all"
Until Zen-one law for the rich and powerful
The rest of us told"do as you are told!"
Your power depends upon our consent
We withhold this for "unreasonable search and seizures"
You are treating the victims of terrorism as the terrorists
Until you listen to us and change these search and seizure rules-
"DON'T TOUCH MY JUNK!"

ARROWS FOR ST SEBASTIAN

1.Boxed meditations.Momentary attention .Flickers.Distracted.Oops...
2.              RUSSIA
Your eyes both give and absorb light
Your ears are coracles/auricles/oracles
Your lips/legs=portals
Your mind much more than computer
Singly,none of these are complete systems
Collectively,you are more than these
We must live together!
3.      AMULET PROTECTION
To wish umbrella in storm clouds
while wettened/soaked
To be charmed as a spell
while whirlwinds of contradictions
Speak spell synchronicities
(silences compound cuttingly
forming scrawled notes in blizzards)
Wind driven slush beliefs
proven error posthumously
4. Stillness before/during/after
Between=we rush into silences
5.Waves of breath/ride through moments
Dump us on memory shores
where we must change.
6   CONSCRIPTION
The President of Blood commands all young
to offer them only for foreign lands
When they come home/they import desert eyes/terrorist sleep
His dreams are sweet/he is protected/by the death of youth
He grows gray/by blood offerings/Dorian Gray
Tithed /ad infinitum...
7.   CRY ,SOLDIER(tattooed &drunk)
All bright the passing /clouds artillery clumps
8.    EGYPT
Eye dreamed you were a god who had strange powers
Eye watched you perform miracles for the mobs
Then they hung you up."TOO MUCH LIGHT!"they complained
Gossip in the villages-"Another god is being born(again...
9.BOOKS ARE SO SILENT.They sit like juries on the shelf
Sedentary so long,they all have diabetes..
10.Skin is not smooth.It sings touch.Aura glow bananas.Peel me!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

someone you know

is growing gardens,feeding others
building community via planting seeds,publishing dreams
linking to those in need,affirming your right to be
as you are(perfectly human!.Someone is writing novels/
translating speech/sharing time and energies
You can focus upon dinosaur corporations greed
or those green weeds arising around their feet
Someone is making Muse,printing views,singing flutes
waves of goodwill emanate from smiling actions
You are as free as you enlarge others 'freedoms
Whatever form your rainbow takes,
bend it  to be that pot of  metaphorical gold
so every bright spark fans a brighter flame
and what rises Phoenix-like needs no name
Someone is preparing foundations for your future
Perhaps you see yourself in this mirror?

Monday, November 22, 2010

VIRTUAL vs REALITY

"You can spend your whole day online
and never meet a real person"(South Congress Post Office customer
She rescues birds-had chosen a card to send
to Colorado to her friend who rescues cats
"We are destroying bird habitat-best we can do is welcome them
into our homes.They live up to 80 years-my Macaw is 26-
when i shared i was going to walmart to buy her parrot seed
she translated this to mean"so i am alone again!"
Birds talk-they tell you what they mean
We need to listen!.."She was next in line
moved to the counter with a "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!"
We all need rescue in these dark and difficult days-
cats,birds,lovers,friends,poets,musicians,artists-
this is why we gather nightly to affirm the reality of fantasies
in November 2010.Dream this in to your day.It happened
Somewhere,two smiles are rescuing birds and cats
The rest of us will have to start rescuing -or to wait...

BLUE MOON

"When in doubt,mention the moon in your poem-
she will come and guide you through your dark night lines"(CHUCK TAYLOR,Nov 21)
Zeitgeist of November sees crowds at Austin Poetry Society
hippies dancing on Snake Island,and Kick Butt fool to brimming
(Moon has entered this building,blessing everyone-
smiles appear for no particular reason
Songs of praise celebrate Thanksgiving
rather than Black Fridays shopping recession
Tonight another open mike poetry session
just before holidays close down freedom of expression
substituting muzak and Xmas caroling
and SPECIALS for the shopping Depression
It is a blessing to be in these fool moon times-
when partings and departings send angels heavenward
We are left here to sing with Mother Moon
as long as she reflects upon this
poetry will not be lost
Just us..

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Gift of Time

Your presence is an unwrapped gift
to be enjoyed more than fine wine
Every moment precious(while you are alive
all is possible.I do not listen to ghosts or gods
and those who do are distinctively individual
This world kaleidoscopes /careens spinning madly
Speed of events faster than headlines
Daily disasters larger than our lives
dictate much of our dedicated attention
yet we make time for this-contact!
Strange how we both become more by this-
connection affirms and strengthens
Seasons allegedly for celebration
often become shopping distractions
We affirm each other's choices via divergence
Each voice a bird in hidden forests
Song smiles define us.Thank you for chorus!
And this gift of time/attention/focus.
It makes more for both of us...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Dear Bob

The Austin Poetry Society met today
at the Austin History Center.We gathered chairs together
but they were not enough for the spillover crowd
(more than had ever been seen @an APS meeting-ever!)
The last two rows were devoted to friends and family
of the two winners of the Young Writers Award
supported by the Poet Laureate of Texas 1964
who said "I am 83-and i still write daily!"
Awards were presented,poems heard,applause shared
but then our direction was directed to the table @the back
where name tags awaited members of APS
There ,on that long table,was your name tag,Bob-awaiting your return
See you end of March 2011-for AIPF,APS,Forrest Fest,Thirsty Thursday
and the new Poetry Festival to be held at St Edwards University campus-
the genesis of this coming from one of the two young writers
Jake Ryan.More details to follow.Trust poetry and art and music are alive
where you are,Bob! Bloom where you are planted,then float across borders
like butterflies ,birds,bees and poems-to live
is the best art form.Epic.Narrative.Free Verse!
May every moment be a step towards your flight!
Your name (tag)is on the program.You are already here!

Friday, November 19, 2010

i went to england in my dreams

and i walked upon the heath
on paths as thin as anorexics
seeking remains of things historic
and we found them(close at hand
for everything is close in this small land
Houses rolling over hills
inspired poems,songs and thrills
of encountering familiars
from many dreams millennial
It was cold and it was chill
yet a gentle warmth of smiles
insulated from those stones and rocks
that resisted feet and time.
In the company of friends
i walked among this Holy Land
where England was New Bethlehem
and Arthur's maidens sang him back
and Blake,Newton,Eliot,Greene
spirits heard and yet unseen
haunted every English dream
until the morning came,reminding
we are still in Texan scenes
and all those hills are Hill Country
and houses mansions with iron gates
defeat walkers into Paradise

MANY LIVES

One watching other people's movies
Two reading other people's lines
Three learning @the feet of elders
Four waiting for something to happen
Five forgetting everything i ever learned
Six when time stopped/became eternal
Seven a witness for brighter lights
Eight thinking,feeling,digesting,consuming
Nine-expressing!This is now my tenth line
Teach me more before another life
is lost(and it just might/be mine...

HAPPINESS!

Happiness? I will settle for contentment
Enough is enough for me/more=too much!
to hunger/to touch/to want more than there is
is to fall before the moments cruel Caterpillar
I am more than one/though numbers fail to convince
the difference less than remembered pleasures
Past will not suffice/present existentially transient
future has no guarantees /it is enough to be
Today I will sit in sunshine in a borrowed garden
My rescued cat will beg/i will respond to her needs
She mirrors me.Simple.Basic.This sweet bliss heavenly
I do not wait to die.I live (with you)here.Yes.Happiness..

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

TRIPLE WHAMMY

Musician friend has a benefit for his medical expenses
Poet died-her wake @same time as our open mike
And the host burned out,leaving choice of life or death
(i like this world -wherein and whereby one never knows
what will happen next-nor did i (bringing candles for remembrance
lighting them on tables /dressing in black for she who so recently departed
Now we all face the choice in every moment-to live or to die
So when chantreuse asks-will we/won't we?
YES! is our only reply-and a line of songbirds
sang words in lines,while anarchist individuals
leaped the stage and shared their lives
(Every moment is precious-we may only have tonight)
Tonight became winged-every voice sings!
Every one who wished to be heard shared words
More sipped their liquid wisdom dressed in shadows
Tea lights shared aromas and tiny brilliance
and she sang,and he stretched sounds
and every soul sang their bones and flesh
fell away-to reveal how humans play
even on the edge of precipice
There may be tigers in the night
but we have word wings
And we fly

Monday, November 15, 2010

ALL OF OUR TONGUES ARE BIRDWINGS

all our words=canoes
where we stroke,oar,paddle
waves oppose our rule
So we slip silent obedience
Become less by lack of belief.
Remembrance is everything..

ALL OF MY DREAMS HAVE NUMBERS

Names blank tags/AWOL.Remembering less than half a glass
Shadow fax fox night/day light outlaws fire extinguished
Shades/shapes/shadowdreams entangled calendars
in darkness,forgetfulness/stories shared by available light/moonshadow wing
Donated space/by the grace of algebraic equations
on the rigged tax forms of midnight/on the ship of mutiny
staffed by anarchist volunteers/with a Titanic tilt tolled
told souls cries loudest

GHOST SONATAS

Road tripper/bureaucrat/cultural catnip
knowing only the names of things(not their content)
because names are powerful!Which war?=
defining ourselves via conflict rather than resolution
Rodney King dethroned/free jazz seduction
Derangement or derailment?Love over remembering
forests of correspondences/sleepwalking devotees
Nation of documentarians/laugh @my anger
Numinous objects/incantatory qualities
Myth and archetypes pre-transformations..

EDITING

Each eye sees differently-
Rashomon,Usual Suspects,Memento,Inception
Every film a vision of imagined scripts
As our lives are surveyed/under surveillance
we alter our stories as we glow

He says she does not understand
She feels she is not seen
Each eye witness spots a different accomplice
How explain our deepest dreams?

Partners' perceptions partial
perspective ?or portions thereof?
Full picture means more than GOOGLE
or what you say after HELLO!

Who knows us less than ourselves?
Who cares less?What we see is only one line
dropped into an ocean of perception
fish thoughts await the hook ,line,sinker
Depth means more than perception.
Drag in White Whales or dolphins
They all end up Mermaid's tails....

ONE DAY YOU WAKE UP

and you decide to do no more harm to animals/humans
You might decide that all war is immoral
or that a specific conflict fails the sniff test
You might recognize the humanity in those you are trained to kill
You may make a personal decision to live-and to allow others to live
You may seek others who share your beliefs-
they may be rare and hard to find
that is why individuals gather
in coffee shops,libraries,homes,churches
Shared beliefs allow for individual choices
UNDER THE HOOD in Killeen provides sanctuary
for those undergoing a change of heart
The best experience is always shareable-
which is why we gather to support those
who support others who need space
to decide what to do/with the rest of their blessed lives.

159 teardrops

159 roses(all shapes,forms,colors-just like us
159 origami peace cranes(with the name of those lost
159 Austin homeless bodies buried in 2010
49 rememberers listening and singing with each other
One peace tree with peace doves hanging
One new bench facing Lady Bird Lake(paid for by House The Homeless)
4 bodies sleeping on the benches at 6am
$500 fine for sleeping in public in Austin
$7.25 the minimum wage
48% of all homeless disabled
4000 counted homeless every night in Austin
671 available beds(a lottery to decide who sleeps inside tonight)
This includes women and children(fastest growing numbers)
Something simply does not add up.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

no one is paid to witness dawns

yet,without them,there are no songs
same with midnight,despair,solstice,dewdrops
what is not seen still exists
Angels are necessary illusions
dark ones in horror movies
sell desolation
White ones in movies
sentimental as teardrops
still no budget for miracles
no payment for poets
no spiritual accountancy
for the relief of this wold's woundings
yet everywhere/inadequate bandages
streets filled with dispossessed spirits
hungry empty eyes
asking for a fix

AGE OF AMBIVALENCE

Walmart gives poor wages and worse benefits
yet their gas is still this town's cheapest
Bouffant Governor an arrogant selfish narcissist
Yet he talks up Texas with a necessary positive mythos
Road closures slow down gridlocked traffic daily
yet freedom of assembly is cornerstone of our democracy
Gold artificially inflated as dollar deliberately devalued
yet QE2 is seen as liquidity assist (sans productivity)
Hatred is directed at all political incumbents
yet tea party activists scramble for public office
RIGHT TO LIFE go round shooting doctors
"Compassionate conservatism"cuts unemployment benefits
Education is piously defended while all budgets are shredded
Prisons bulge with non-violent drug offenders
while medical marijuana specialists offer quality services
Heterosexual marriages 50% divorce-yet gay marriages still banned
"Don't ask,don't tell"witch hunts lose qualified military personnel
Sex"education"means keeping adolescents in ignorance
while teen motherhood and single parenthood become epidemic
Junk food and colas promote diabetes,yet are served in schools and prisons
Propaganda replaces news,while comedians enter politics
and living poetry becomes a rant of unresoloved dilemmas
THIS IS THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS!

Friday, November 12, 2010

pointillism for beginners

Seurat @a French picnic
before Impressionists daubed emotions
precise as bullets in a firing heart
each singular digit a Matrix of micro/macro art
If every DNA is all and each
if snowflakes are starguides in sand
if beaches are universes of galaxies
if we are angels on pinheads
May forests fall with no sound over distance
scream from the man on the moon
deep space,no credit cards required
disposable diapers in plastic Sargasso oceans
This is forever-radioactivity,rats,cockroaches,
crocodiles,sharks pre- and after us
A blast and we are dust.Points in time
Part of a bigger picture.French atomic tests@
Mururoa.Gauguin.Picasso.Guernica.Pollock.
with Warhol merchandising mutants
of Dali's melting ant clocks.Art is not life
It is a visual representation thereof.
CLICK! @a point in time.Watch what develops...

BOOK MUSIC CIRCUS

Time changes formats-we adapt.
From cave art to stone tablets to cuneiform on clay
to papyrus to paper to page is a leap of ages
Ipads and KINDLE remind us of past styles-
yet rely upon battery/electricity to survive
As music once was live,and only recently recorded
we went from 78 shellac to vinyl 45s,331/3 LPs
from steel needles to laser beams reading CDs.
Now downloading means most do not buy old pasts
which are remastered and reissued on new formats endlessly.
Covens of vinyl collectors retain records for DJs to play
much as books become antiques and artifacts of earlier days
Who owns a cassette player-mush less cassettes?
Who remembers 8 track?Garage Sales and museums
make artifacts of historical stages.Books adapt as stores close/
we retain nostalgia for formats,and retro defines our age.
All e books will also be replaced in time ,as change compounds
and digital children demand GOOGLE with FACEBOOK and HULU
All you have seen is just the beginning.
In Australia,there are no animals in circuses-just acrobats
Soon,books will be screened ,and music seen
both live and virtual,digital and analogue
Markets dictate formats.Adaptation is everything
Join the Circus!(Virtual-a digital fantasy game sans sawdust
while children still sit through real Barnum &Bailey performances.
Download this commentary.Find an app that matches.
TWITTER this!

TOOTS

Too many stray cats in Austin!
Emancipet spays and neuters-yet still they breed!
So we pilgrimage to the Town Lake Animal Shelter
to see if we can relieve one cat from execution.
GINGER a legend,LOVECAT our last-
so we stare at loving ginger kittens ,generic tabbies
seek one with charisma  and panache!
In the corner of a cage,desolate ,unloved
a scrappy generic street cat stares with ferocity at our staring
THIS IS THE ONE!We take her home-
she fights and bites all the way.A rough life
We keep her inside to play.Slowly she comes to know
she is loved,and does not have to attack.
World of wars outside like that-this cat becomes calm
Over time,she purrs and talks to us.We listen
If this can happen to one street cat
why cannot this happen
for every unloved human?

RITUAL HABITUAL

i use habit to deal with forgetfulness
senior moments /gaps/ellipses
i carry keys to my cages around my neck
like some ancient mariner's albatross
i place objects in certain fixed spaces
so i can return like indigenous
and know the place for the very first time
I repeat rituals like pill taking
at certain defined hours (as per instructions)
i go to the same places when traveling
as a form of reassurance
that some things do not change
(like me)-even when hair disappear
body weight remains,with extra layers
due to sedentary patterns of behavior
I do not know if i will always be this way-
i find change hard,so stick within comfort zones
Tomorrow is today with extra time to repeat
that which has sufficed for so long is enough for me
Ritual habitual -circles within spirals-ad infinitum. Zen./
Need i say this again?

it is a blessing to us that you exist

your life a gift to yourself and us
we rejoice in your celebratory impulses
by relating,you make more joy
(some call it poetry-we call it life!
each moment you exist is extra -
heartbeats,drumbeats,flutes,guitars
the music of your smile is a start
Art is life sliced into edible proportions
Unframed and free as air,with extra emotions
Belief is a coat you wrap yourself in winters
Autumn is the Fall.We all live in Eden
with apples and pomegranates
snakes and ex-lovers.Stories are told
and shared round fires.We are in them
You live by tongue and eye and ear and touch
You are more than doubt and pasts
Art that you are makes more
This only begins when you breathe
continues when you sing and smile
becomes astonishing when you are revealed
as these lines are footprints to your heart...

even with wings

by the side of my temporary highway
stilled kookaburra with blood beak
did s/he meet glass ceiling windscreen?
stop eye/pick him/her up
wrap in blanket as in shock(warmth is love-
proceed to happy hippy land where my puppy tent
held two-one with wings,me feeding him/her
(i do not know what birds eat-snakes yes
this jackass was not laughing/his/her beak shattered
by intransigent forces(gravity,logic,weight,acceleration)
i fed her/him grass,meat,whatever i could gather
Wings come from a sacred world-this visitor of soul
was teaching me vulnerabilities and trust.
I wrapped her/him in my blue blanket
arose morning light to find s/he flown.Freed,
i left for home-with new wings
2
Kangaroo,hit by road convoy,curled,dying
Shudders waved through her /his furred flesh
I sat next as to a dying dolphin.Looked into her/his eyes
Saw thought die.One star .Black night.Stillness
All the rest was noise and damaged cars.Like death of leaping deer
swift had been this collision between the living
and what carried motion sans negotiation.
I never saw her/his leap-only last gasp when breath left
a broken body to be cleared from progress
a final chapter in the Great Leap Forward.
3.
Rescue he-largely dolphins,whales
disoriented,come to beach and die.Looks into their eyes
asking for life.Cries when eyes close/knows
choice is only time over loss.Still brings water
to wash whales back into river.Oceans we came from
disgorge cetaceans.We,now mammalian,reptilian
witness our lost origins.

"Everything worthy is under fire"(Wendell Berry)

Libraries shut down,schools closed
while police and prisons boom with pride
Books are seen as history,earth defiled
conversation reduced to txting,ipod earphones
It is not that common sense is common!
They do not pay volunteers.Demonstrate on your own time!
We smell bad air,taste worse water,degraded soils
only a few ask the necessary questions-poets,philosophers
are everywhere in decline(seen as discredited
Religions war,governments lie,music becomes muzak
art a commodity rather than initiation.Change resides
inside every one who questions.Every singular one.
No clump nor clan nor clique nor coven represents us
No flag nor symbol nor speech can save us
Your questions,marked.Your bravery,becoming different
Singular as thought,with no safety net
this exploration is in process and may never end
We are in times that have no name
Bravery is being attuned to values that will save-
others,forests,earth,air,water,the future
is in the hands of every one with hands
and all those born without.Every one is a world
Every voice can sing-and shout!Work it out!

ANGELS IN AN AEROPLANE

Bright breezy programming music on their ipods
Bubbling with Seventh Day Adventist joy
They had left their children with their husbands
and were holidaying together (two college friends)
for the first time in many years.Conversations between us
Southwest is a cheerful airline/holidays a reason to be positive
Her mother writes childrens' books/plays music
has a novel under her belt and more books on the way.
Retired from career /decided to have her life's work in play
now she is successful in a creative and personal way
and her daughter is so very proud of her-and aware
that life can get in the way .Time must be tithed for Muse
She smiles as we land,awake,aware,knowing i will write this
and she will dream her way into future expressions of...

REHEARSAL
Twenty years of BLISSNINNIES means empathic connections exist
Start with a note/a chord/each smile and launch
into revamped DEAD,Dylan,Band,Beatles,originally laundered
into a new brighter process/tonight in this garage
they beam with laughter/Mark is back from his alcohol holiday
Each has professional success in their own way
and they come together to play with a power and passion
that defines this as more than band-it becomes a work in love
demanding,petulant,astonishing,original in this-
their reason for playing...is bliss!

BROOKDALE LODGE
Lodged within redwoods in the hills above Santa Cruz
Haunted by ghosts still active as tarantulas
Blissninnies had performed here many owners ago,
and wanted to link again with this celebratory space
where band and vibe tribe might park overnight
and party without fear of driving while
Now the band is professional,loadup clear and conscious
Friends and allies volunteer for  sound and lights
CORDUROY JIM  begins,as tiedyed smilers dance in
Soon the Bliss will begin-everyone smiling and dancing
Together for two decades.Vibe Tribe survives!

SATURDAY NIGHT
and the word is OUT! The band is BACK! The music is TIGHT!
More folk filter in to fill the hall.They all want to dance!
GRANDPA's CHILI leads the night -did i mention
that members of Blissninnies were central to both support bands?
One of the great initiatives of Vibe Tribe shows was the rotation of headliners
and bands that shared members and jammed like Heaven
Tonight is no exception-by the time Blissninnies begin
the joy level has risen to SPECTACULAR PROPORTIONS!
Folk who have known each other at Festivals for Grateful Dead and Phish
weave with their children and parents among the consenting dancers
Multiple encores later,the band has cemented goodwill with everyone-
Brookdale,Vibe Tribe,volunteers,support bands,dancers
all agree-the energies were positive and sweet
BLISSNINNIES means dancing feet
and new adventures will soon levitate
those whose need for joy
brings out the bliss in every one of us!

POST SCRIPT
Two more angels visiting Round Rock
laughed all the way to Austin from San Jose airport
They had come from Burbank to visit sisters
who had lost jobs,mothers ,fathers
Their sweet pilgrimage enlightened the return
when we re-learned-adding to joy is easy=
"Add your Light to the sum of light-
and never forget your dancing feet beneath!"

Thursday, November 4, 2010

every thing you say/every thing you sing

will be remembered/vibrations ring
then reside within the visible and invisible landscape
emotions cling like film to our memories
until we become what we recall/all is never lost
to be remembered is a giving and a gift
Harmonies exist -within us and around
When you speak,birds find wings
When you sing, they soar above dark clouds
"The way out is the way in"
As you recall those whose example touched your skin
so too/they become living again,fleshed in your dreams
This is as old as cave  and plant and fire-
desire is the warmth we give
Response the chorus we receive
When you speak,whole libraries rise and fall
When you sing,Akashic Records are recalled
This is the way it will always be-rivers round mountains
We are sustained by our living memories
For AL GRIERSON via STEVE BROOKS,MADELEINE MERCIER

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Californian welfare recipients can no longer use
state-issued debit cards at medical marijuana shops
for psychics,as bail bonds,in bingo halls or on cruise ships
They are also banned from tattoo parlors
And no longer can they be used to get cash from casino ATMs
Morality is money .Cash is King.And debit cards are not worth
the plastic they are issued upon.
2
San Francisco's Board of Governors have banned Happy Meals
All fast food will now be fruit and vegetables in order to get free toys
Happiness has now become a government proscribed commodity
3.
California has banned violent video games
Players no longer have the option of killing,maiming,dismembering
or sexually assaulting virtual images of a human being
Grimm's Fairy Tales are protected by the First amendment
Rap music has warning labels compulsorily stamped
All films are subject to censorship ratings
Are we not lucky to be able to separate church values from state?
Do not ask about Proposition 19
nor state aid for church schools.Fundamentally,
something is missing in these family values...

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

what happened was

we arrived a@the hideout to find a film crew
(independent,like the best of little austin
applying makeup to their volunteer crew
They courteously asked if they might film before
our open mike for poetry begins-of course! Yes!
so we start the art of open heart and watch
as they enact a scene whereby an actor steals bagels
and an actual barista chases them down Congress
(two,in fact,which was the only exaggeration in this scene
The weird part is-this fiction had actually happened!
Folk have attempted to steal tip jars and food and drinks
on an intermittent and irregular basis/and to see this enacted
was grist for the fiction faction that characterizes life in 2010
Three takes later,while our open mike was in full swing,two forms of art
co-existed happily-independently-freely,sans conflict/culturally
"our only enemy is a criminal culture-culture adds joy,thieves steal it"
FOR EVERY OPEN MIKE IS A VOTE FOR YOUR PERSONAL FREEDOM

SIMULACRA

our times compound-retro ages
50s cars and fashions merge with 60s peace signs
Vietnam becomes Iraq,80s Wall Street repeats
(Money Never Sleeps).We FACEBOOK based upon 90s pioneers
Our digital children assist we analogues
All our heroes dead,dying or issuing denials
No one inhaled,define "sex",i am not me
We recast our history .lie to our children
dare not replay WOODSTOCK without embarrassment
and PEACE still resonates,even with two endless occupations
Cliches ring in our ears every time we watch TV-we compare
THEN with NOW-comparisons become odious
The music downloaded but inconsequential
Familiarity becomes programming.Time stopped somewhere
and dumped us with tinnitus and sad fashion sense
while chips off our block rule with mock cynical smiles
Farewell,our youth! Hello,senescence.We forget
more than remember,and smile at what remains-
ghosts,shades.shadows,chewed memories
and a page of a book we forget to turn
just in case we might have already read it...

silence and stars

Two gifts remembered when in my desert-ears clear to hear
the sound of snakes in bush  and curled black on tarmac
eyes opened to uncountable constellations above and beyond fingers pointing
Now combine the lack of people with attunement to each night
Time slows and freezes as stars fall in slow and quick time
Earth vibrates as it moves(you can hear heartbeat earthquakes
Another life is gifted-and it is this one! Listen! Watch! Slow down-
the speed and pace changes according to where you are
Just to sit and steal time to watch stars-apart from city fed luminaries
Out where distance is forevers,deserts hold secrets they will share
only when you stop long enough to learn how time stops with you
every star is a story,every sound stolen from The Book Of Silence
Here is where you are.Cast deep in waters of skies-your eyes attune
when you look past solo moon to every point of light.Watch it pulse/vibrate
Even in stillness-movement.As it is with us,when we slow .Stop.
Become deserts.Drop distractions.Make time .Become time.Watch
this only world become many moments-filled with silences(and stars!
FOR DESERTS LIVE WITHIN US EVERYWHERE IS HERE

PANGEA ULTIMA

Earth changes continuing-predictable and un-
Hurricanes,volcanoes,tidal waves cycle and repeat
We clean up messes and repeat patterns of habitation
Housing along San Andreas Fault Line
Building in flood plains.New Orleans below sea level/
Haiti has a history of hurricanes.We cannot help ourselves.
Slowly,over eons,continents drift apart.We create illusory nation states
to divide us like Koreas.Sometimes wars unite us(Vietnam)
Yet all the while we get further and further apart
Icecaps melt/polar bears drown/global warming changes us
The heat is on and we are on the front line.
There is no other habitable planet .No moon nor space station.
We are here on a piece of rock spinning through space
with a dying sun and one old moon and some historic stars
to define our path in the moving map of our collective path.
Where we are heading separate from the earth we walk upon
even though our ashes and bones reside here
Once we relate to the fate of our only home
perhaps  we can love her /empathize with her
as she spins apart in her path further from us-
Blue planet gaia.Pangea Ultima.

BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING

What you love defines you/decides your choices
Voices around you influence in your allocation of energies,time and space
You can live your life clipping coupons for experience
or be"bold,brave,and resolute"in exercising your personal choices
The illusion of free will sustains us-apples?or pomegranate?
Snake?or nakedness?UNRATED or X Box?Now ?or later?
Cookies on your browser track your path.
"HTTPS Everywhere" means constant surveillance
You can encrypt to avoid eavesdroppers-yet even GOOGLE
data mines (except in Communist China!)
Those wall ads you saw in MINORITY REPORT are real-
to sell politics or dog food,the techniques are the same-
track your patterns,home in on your choices,influence change
Mediated,medicated,moderated data world
Soon -embedded chips in more than animals and Alzheimers patients
Soon-1984 in 2010.Sooner-advertising rules!(Brave New World)
Soonest-all this has already happened yesterday.
Vote 1 to change your predictable patterning!
WRITE YOUR OWN WAY OUT!