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, February 27, 2011

"you still are!"

emerging from earthquake devastation
to marry that fiance who searched and was waiting
floating through floods and found
in a mine when hope and oxygen were timed
survivor of cyclones ,hurricanes,snowdrifts
pulled out and rescued against impossible odds
each day a miracle/continuance a skill
reliant upon the goodwill of rescuers and remedies
by healers and huggers and singers and poets
chanters and ranters,declaimers and ravers
quiet librarians feeding minds of the future(rescue them!)
and when you cut off your arms and legs
in budget cuts that still overpay police
What Rescue Remedy is this?-when fear is paid
and love is lost?The cost of jobs is community-
lovers of learning need structures of support
cutting library hours is like burning books
and you who were taught by example know well
stories your teachers would share when they tell
tales of Depressions in Grandfathered times
when workers dug deep in coal black mines
We need to dig deeper to share what we are
with those dreamers and lovers who would illuminate like stars
splashed across the night skies of minds
open to the Sagas of these Amazing Times
Create more opportunities for storytelling poets
who will sing the praises of patrons who know that
unless and until we add to this world
we will leave it with cuts,bleeding,budgetless,beaten,broken
and love must await your support and caring
If you have a better dream-
it is time for the sharing!

CATERRORIST

Who's that scratching at my antique furniture?
Shredding scratchmarks with her claws?
Who wakes me up before the crack of dawn
demanding feeding-then some more?
CATERRORIST!
Who demands to be adored?
Will not come near us when she is bored?
Licks parts of herself (then all)
Has absolutely no shame at all?
CATERRORIST!
Who would breed if not spayed and neutered?
Who screeches personal territoriality?
Prowls night paths with strange eyes?
Knows too much to be surprised?
CATERRORIST!
Who do we feed because of love?
Hold and cuddle groom and touch?
Makes silly absurd videos of?
Look @all these photographs of-
CATERRORIST!
Who do we brag and boast about?
When others prattle their dog tales?
Only one species rules our roost-
She is our miniature Egyptian goddess -
CATERRORIST!
So when your little life has gone
and they ask you what you have done
Point out the rescued ones/the furry visitations
Your life invested in the best of these-
CATERRORISTAS!

2011 NIGHTS(LOVE YOUR WAY THROUGH THIS WORLD!)

Flea says to sleeping tiger-AWAKEN!
Slap!

Ant revolution-black,anonymous

Peace dove music Austin hippy
displaced by grackle APD

At least a rattlesnake warms
Budget cuts

Information revolution-
who knew?

Clouds of crowds converge
crossing borders

Censorship is #@!$%&*

Beware!Spring !Illegal as green !

The trees have been armed
Their boughs against bulldozers

Earthquake in New Zealand
Floods /cyclones in Australia
(Never compare pain)

She feels love means someone else
will leave her

Poets pre-priests
Bless em!

Better notice the weather
changes

To believe projections
Make your own!

There is a reason
people are irrational

Bad science/mock science
Creationism.Just say NO!

Medicinal plants formed a Corporation
(we owe them royalties!

These days we live within?
Both unique and deja vu!

Wisconsin front lines-
watching Tunisia,Egypt,Libya

everything bigger in Texas-
public debt,illiteracy

Right Wing crow-
let them eat cake!

on the streets again-
new issues,same resistances

peace is a verb,noun,participle-
our whole grammatical vocabulary!

we use music to awaken
not sedate

there is no market
if we are not slaves

every line is a WAY OUT
follow your own!

politics means people
are waking up

the sleep of reason
breeds tyrants

tonight ,i have a dream
every night-different!

imagination?FORECLOSED
(think about it)

living on a gold mine?
think you are the gold?

Magnolia Cafe-hands me Buddha
i prefer leaving
a bigger tip!

Blog jam.Web man
Send you a text (but this is it)
Zen.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

LUCKY NUMBERS

233 dead in Libya
means $3.05@Walmart gas pumps today
One million to one Texas Lotto odds
will not restore adequate funding to our schools or libraries
I trust librarians more than police
Trust them with collective bargaining-
discarded by career politicians(make THEM unemployed-
and the odds are then more in our favor
Literacy attacked by sub-literate hysterics
who scream"cut !cut!cut!"(but not army nor police)
If you wish to REALLY balance budgets
look for where the black budgets hide
where wars devastate and arms sales continue the slaughter
Pork barreling self-serving mock fiscal conservatives
could cut their salaries and volunteer-as example
for all those working full time and paid half wages
Example is everything-until figures include EVERY expenditure
This is a hatchet job/witch hunt upon soft targets
Cut politicians/police/army-watch as they cry poor
68% of our Federal Budget is defense
Why not ask those we occupy to pay for their occupation?
The odds are stacked against rationality
It does not matter how good you are @what you do
The guillotine and slaughterhouse 5 /Catch 22 await all who
trust that politicians have wisdom in what they do

PAINT YOUR PERFECTION!

Draw your Paradise nearer  when you visualize
Attune to sunshine frequencies when weather is hungover
Clouds part when you paint gold suns on icons
All religions elemental-all life a gift(provisional
Every moment is a choice.You-artists,singers,sculptors-
in your hands that Michelangelo maxim-
to carve away extraneous matter/refine gold in to beaming
Alchemists know this metaphor-transformations are spirit forms
Periodic tables mere numbers for
a world of flux and changes
You are part and apart from this-
create your bliss! Move towards it in physical dimensions
Watch as your visions come 3D,4 then 5!
Dimensions mean more than your mind!
Worlds await your forming-work as with mud and clay and earth gardens
Bring forth new brilliance for your inner shining
See the golden! Be the gold,then!
Paint your perfection!Dance your dream in...

Sunday, February 20, 2011

PRACTISING FAREWELLS

Today i will release Czeslow Milosz(and American Tanka)
Life is a time-limited exercise.They have been golden in their time
New lines await the mutant iphone laptop fish of Sunday
What survives beyond our time gratuituous /surreal
Walls fall(Tunisia,Egypt-while shots steal lives in streets
bombs burst @irregular intervals.Do you know when you will leave?
Bookstores close,libraries/schools cut,jobs deliberately lost
Release our panacea in this Age of Sudden Endings
Beginnings birth,too-you self-initiate spontaneously
make your space a garden,make your art a lifetime
Weather patterns mirror us-but we smile sunshine
Something calls us-salmon up waterfalls
Releases us from prose,exposes us to hidden wisdom
Beauty has changed,too-those parts of you acknowledging
these unique moments-to bless and release each ,as we rise
in the light of this day,under stars tonight(whether we see them or no-
we must all let them glow/most evades our border controls
Practice farewells before they become fact-
fictions sustain us.Our maps are blank
The voyage started ears ago.Now you know what to let go-
every thing you ever knew before...all...and more..

DORMANT ROSES
Sleeping Beauties for our garden-winter cut stems
with thorns ,in packaged soil,awaiting our care /ministrations
We are that which we will plant-sleeping for survival
Awakening for future visions..

FIRST&LAST

Every thing we do now now unique-
as if ending eras.My father in law WW2
on the lip of stuttered silences.
If our age is digital ,count me zero.
This is always the first attempt
before silence moves in(again)

How do butterflies cross borders?
Monarch migration!

Stars stolen! Your eyes-
burglars of Light!

Every part of you GLOWS
apart from electrical sources

Meditating,she counted waves
to infinities.

The failure of wings-
Time limited/life flights!

Collecting feathers/to make wings
Learning how to fly(again!

One body.So many shirts!
Ghosts...

Even the ripples in this lake
remember you!

Eye turn from the canned TV
open windows /let Light in

Between soft covers/eye lie
reading tattered old truths

to find my way home
i had to leave

soldier trees(obedient
do not know(they will be chopped
next!

MUSE FLICKS HAIKU
The Social Network-
Boy meets girl,then loses girl
Makes do with network

TRUE GRIT RIDES AGAIN-
Jeff Bridges as old John Wayne
Young girl steals the show

THE KINGS SPEECH stutters
Factual costume drama
Made for radio

BLACK SWAN's Natalie
mimes movements with her new wings
of paranoia

THE FIGHTER's support-
BATMAN upstages the stars
Revives new fight films!

"when you asleep,i awaken"(MK)

those parts of us acurled in embryo
cat content to dream through this
awaken when the spark of stars
windows our opened inner eyes
Some dream daylight @their desk-
float siesta afternoon away balloons
drift out through windows,where the moon
is just a promise of tonight
You are a world within/worlds within
and when they spin in planetary alignment
astrologers/astronomers agree in orbits
aligning harmonically.Now,when your eye's curtains
fall upon your daily drama,and
you sink into your ocean (again
deep as dreams can reach-
that is when eye awaken..

EVOCATION,TRANSFORMATION
her art (of life-spills on to canvas
oils and watercolors mix and mingle
Bright outlines kiss her, content
to be scene.You are there(in still life
(There is still life.DREAM!

back to BORDERS

Cafe dark and finally closed
Thin barista memories
Lines of book vultures picking @shelves
going to a funeral to buy the coffin
Seek SPIRIT section(Rumi,Hafiz)
yet their $16 will not free them
20% off Girl  and Hornets Nest
Janet Evanovich,Dick Francis,Tony Hillerman
Liquidators will be here soon-
this literate Saturday night special crowd
lines up with purchases to the doomed staff
Underneath this engine economy
people strive for service(it does not matter
Budgets slash jobs/crash household income
We rescue orphaned book titles-
thence to SPROUTS where Henrys
have just bought them out.Underneath all economies
people are wanting to serve-all they need
are more opportunities(not to be offshored
nor liquidated...Houston BORDERS survive
Everything selective these budget daze
Everyone still waiting to be saved

Saturday, February 19, 2011

you are on these front lines

Snake Island Fool Moon fire burning
singers,dancers,shakers moving
until the midnight ferry loads up with smiles
everywhere is home again

I like that surrealist barista @BORDERS
thin as a smile,serving customers who know
they have closed the Austin BORDERS
Solo staff server says"i feel bad for those
for whom this was their career-for many it is
a bridge between college degrees"

(then my cat comes in with the moon in her eyes
and i dare not ask where she has been)

they are cutting soft flesh to the bone
they say it is necessary surgery
it may be an EMERGENCY budget
but we prefer EMERGENCE

they want to cut off public funds for public radio
privitize profits  like FOX news
would you put a FOX in charge  of your information?

black budgets,untouched
while rainbow coalitions ask
us to value books,schools,libraries,learning,love

she starts a story circle
where we listen to each other-
elders,knowing stories are a circle
eternal as ears,hearing each to each

so she sings @open mikes
where the harmonies are huge
and the healing rises like stars
sparks from campfires

all those houses never sold
sit like librarians,foreclosed
so we must be who we really are-
books in an age of e,love in an age of endings

and we will have a Festival!
and you will come with good news
we must be who we really are-
Celebrants of Eccentric Altruisms

Thursday, February 17, 2011

this night sky

i look in to your eyes-and find
two bright stars shining out
looking deeper,whole constellations spin-
comets,meteors,planets all stringed together
gravities within distances,imploding and ex-
@ exponential rates.Some historic as ice ages
More pulsing pulsars-all Light and Power
Dynamic as this night sky is,a certain silence sits
There is no speech in space-and between us
this meditation when the words cease.
What is seen is only ever one dimension-
more is heard ,lost,edited,subliminal
dogs howl for invisible masters
Then i realized-the whole world may be in your eyes
but it takes lifetimes to get there(and when you do
your eyes still are only one night sky
uncounted worlds await new openings..

BLESSINGS(and release!

i could say i do not know-
but the truth is this-
we can only ever do
what is consonant with our spirit
Aligned with Muse,we are as rivers,rising
All our companions are as beacons,shining
We separate when our separate Fates call us
to only follow our own footprints
to seek a path that sings with us(not against the wind-
where voices are drowned by superior powers
and truth is a small child in a dark forest...)
To listen and to follow is a gift-
two in fact that make a third-an aligned life
that allows us to be in our highest truth-
what comes from within /in full and public view
To share this is a fourth -integrity of vision
others may then feel brave enough
to build their Paradise on earth
in art,mud,earth,air,song,verse and dance-
the way their Muse whispers"this is good!"
and smiles light the way when ere it works
and Spirit sings,because it can (and must!
Bless and release -our selves/and all of us!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

"i just want to talk about happy things!"(MARIETTE PAPIC

PENGUIN PARTY CANCELED
Everyone in their dinner jackets
Missed the memo

MUSIC WENT OUT WITH POETRY
Together,created
Children of Paradise

ART IS THE SLAVE OF FREEDOM
as assertion is the title of a song

ACCAPELLA,SANS UKELELE
she still strung the moon strings!

VIRGIN ON THE MIKE
requested his hand for her ring
Surprised,assented,smilingly

COUPLES ON ST VALENTINE'S NIGHT
amused at genuine fun via solos in groups

THEY GIFTED EVERY READER
with more to read.

LIFE(like love)IS A TIME-LIMITED EXERCISE
(it just(like long poems)seems to go on forever)

he was so happy
he forgot all his sad poems

when you do not turn up
i disappear
like this!

FOR THE LOVE OF CZESLAW MILOSZ

To step outside-
control stops.
Moon enters.
Rock.    Cycles.
Silence.

ASTONISHMENT
This gift!-
silences &speech
This world
Between.

MY CITY(all cities-
Anonymous as cats
Change names(same)
High Rise Skylines
Find tiny life despite
Mass &Clump

LIFE LINES
thrown(away
catch fire/for warmth
we burnt our boats
Now no more oars
Float.Weighed down
by feathers.Weighed up
by (the possibilities of) flight.

NOT FOR ANOTHER TIME
(All times only in this one!)

SCREENS.HUGE!.CROWDS.SEE!
A tiny man in front of a wide screen
Silently,they watch (not he-
more the image projected,Presidentially..

BORN IN TO LOVE

and from that wet womb washed moment,
have been loved and beloved-of family
broken in to nuclear split atom divorce
under hard pressure coal mine work
drinking fluids to make despair dance
alive and aware of thin continuance,and yet
that bond familial still resonates/blood alone
means less than friendship/stretch long distances
find us still beaming each to each within
our separate homes and spouses
sending signals through this email
through the very air we are recycled
prana ,chi,ka all adding and compounding
to make more families grand in children
Love is a verb-an action.It flows between us
at all times,invisible waves affirming connections
On all levels,we are linked,think of love as an engine
as our body cars drive on,separate yet similar
loving and beloved,on this day and in this night
Love is the birth of wonder,and the key to life.

"life and life only"

i only know death from a distance
i know life close up
i only know those who have left us
and are not coming back
i delete their email addresses
i write poems to remember
but fear is no factor/no emotion at all
in fact,even loss is a shock that does not last long
and a song displaces a dirge any day
as we move along,some fall like leaves
autumn in the winter of their lives
this is natural,loss and regret natural
we either fall down or move on
life is a line of every poem/all songs
sing ON!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

"man is not a bird"

bird morning/cat calling(to be fed(again
and blue as the sky in your eyes
love rises like a winter garden/all mulch and compost
soon to be seeded for Spring
We are as the weather /all Austin jams
car kiss gridlock/in love with the sun
Solar children in sunglasses jog and walk their dogs
chat in parks,hike and bike their laughing way
through the blaze of a sunlit day
Worlds away,in frigid walls
Reiki healing finds homes
You stir,under blankets,remembering Light
Stars in your eyes.You smile,sunlight
the promise of a gift of Spring,when every human garden
is re-awakening...

"COMMUNIQUE#1"

Revolution of Respect.The Dignity Revolution
Peaceful(apart from the 300 young killed)
Powered by digital  Wikileaks ,dial up Internet
and every media that was not blocked by government fiat.
Censors,beware!Internet is everywhere-
Iran,China,Burma,North Korea,Russian,Cuban propaganda
fails when compared to what their people are saying among themselves
Information Revolution.Independent Revolution
While Tea Party candidates reinstate the Patriot Act
Superbowl distractions funnel into advertising
those attentions that might otherwise ask questions
about what role the American people might play
in their own Revolution.We are all Egyptians.

LINES WRITTEN@YOUTH POETRY SLAM WORDSHOP Sat Feb 12,2011

Synapses click! snap!
(Camera! Phone home!)

Universal voices speak
when silence breaks out/down

Stress each syllable
to make more bridges

Perfection can wait
We are only human.Only today.

The dogs of silence
meet the moon of words

Sacrifice the notion of "sacrifice"
so you might survive all rituals

It is as much as a bucket can carry-
A hole to fill/water to cry with

The tick of silliness-
2 clowns in a circus

Scrawled walls hieroglyphs
find graffitti sandwiches

Freedom is only what you can
when others say you can not

All alphabets end somewhere
This is where i stop.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

TEN CANOES

your first is when you learn
how to create your own canoe
how water(steam)and fire blend
to make wood(bark)pliable to your will
next canoe is elemental-to water
where you trust your creation will float like Lotus
capable of sustaining your own life's weight
Third canoe floats as one
to seek sustenance and nurturing
Fourth is connection,when all you see is part of you
Fifth is when you bring it home to share
Sixth is when you exaggerate stories about your visionquest
Seventh when these stories /songs are repeated/amended
Eighth is when you hear them again ,and re-learn the Art of Canoe
Ninth is when you change-design,purpose,aim,intention
Tenth  is when you teach others how to make their own canoe
Eleventh is your ghost canoe-all that lives beyond your lifespan
floating in the lake like a Lotus,like an empty canoe

Friday, February 11, 2011

bonded by the air we breathe

by this freeze,and sudden snow
by every fear and rising hope
by the tarnishing of heroes
We are common as our earth beneath
solid as our commitments
as real as trust in dreams
we project as poetry


WHEN MY ANGEL FELL
(because the wind,because the chill)
i picked her up again/moved on
When she was moved by stronger pressure
i reinstated her wings/moved along
I know there will be stronger winds
I still restore my angel/and move on

DEALS ARE BEING MADE
that seek to divide us/but we wait
and watch and witness,
as tyrants resist the will of their people
We are people.We know what they mean
You do not cut off arms and legs to balance budgets
You need teachers and counselors and schools for the young
and elders need to be cared for as they age.You do not need F1
Cut the fat salaries first,administration second,properties third
Listen to the people.Act on what you have heard

IMPORTING WINGS

there is a world shortage of imagination
hence the need to import wings
over seas,they hear our language
and the call and cry of birds
sings each to each
so birds of all varieties migrate
in patterns ancestral and ancient
they roost in our nest for a time
amuse us with song and with rhyme
then go back to other climes
where they can chime
of unique Texas skies
where every bird is encouraged
to fly!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

"MY HEART CHOSEN TO BLESS YOU!"

when i am silent,it is not because there are no words
it is to give pause,respect and depth
to what is necessary between us
when i walk,it is nothing against bikes or public transport
i am walking to or from my car
in trust that we can meet in time and space
when i listen,it is to respect you-your being expressed
in sound,song,words and silences
when i speak,it is to reach you(wherever you are-
and to greet this bridge between us with open arms
when you sing,you let your soul out for a walk
where it may perambulate,listen,speak,sing or fall
into a silence we may learn as well as words
There are many ways we link-more will come to mind'
when this last line lapses into a comfortable silence

BUTTERFLIES,BIRDS,BEES,BORDERS
No passport has each butterfly
Monarchs of migration
Waves of wings flip shortened lives
over and above our squabbled gardens
Birds that are not shot for food,in season
escape over borders and outside cages
where the wilde are fed by the mild
for the beauty of their flightpath of the free
Bees(their vanishing busyness) should not fly
yet they do,straight to the art of flowers
to lift and levitate like seeds through skies
Sweet the honeys of their labors
Deep the drink they take to give us
Borders are for straight lines
There are none in Nature.Anarchist migrators
have crossed our warzones since the cave
and will again/wile we must ask ID of each of us
who have not wings,yet live in cages.

ESCAPE
unconditional this gift of gold words
exchange for space and time and sheltering food
beneath us,caves of meanings(subterranean)
where each may taste artesian depths
You do not need to dig in earth /to extract
what is so important between us
has depth and consequence,and is a gift
given to the blessing air we share
outside the fences

HALF/AIR

thom woodruff
 to Will, Agnes, Mandy, Ed, brian, Debbie, JR, BJ

show details 10 Feb (1 day ago)

Halfway through his first solar flight
Icarus canceled his return trip
giving Brueghal  and W H Auden verbal visuals
Challenger failed.Terror regimes pass
yet right now i am holding my breath in Cairo
and Burma,Iran and Yemen ,Sudan and Tunisia
for we are half air-in breath,suspended until
wings of love and peace allow the gentle to live
At present they are under house arrest,detained indefinitely,
awaiting a mythical return to democracy
while i write poetry to freedom-they are putting lives on each line
and i want all of us to survive-no thuggery ,no infiltrators,agitators
who think that peace is a victim.We are all winged-hawks,doves,pigeons,eagles
We all sing freedom.To defer to tyrants or delayed elections
is to deny full flight freedom.We are not puppets
We are sitting here until evil leaves
Peace can sit with us.We are everywhere.Everyone.
Egyptian.Tunisian.Iraqi.Palestinian.in Austin,
as it is in Heaven-everyone has wings-for freedom sings!

"Every wave is different"(for Ken Bradshaw)

Archers know-the target is one with you.You are the arrow.
Perfection when you split the perfect score.
Ballet dancers know-each movement 's taxonomy/ecology
as defined as ragas in a structured day
Pianists know-notes cluster ,yet each has pitch and tone and frequency
Each has a voice within a symphony
You know.Each day another fresh attempt @Paradise
False starts,hallucinations,mistakes are all part of the learning
You may never make the perfect wave/poem/song/symphony
You may improvise each moment ,attuned to higher frequencies
You may pretend to perfection,knowing deeper waters beneath you,
higher angels above.You may love(unconditionally)-
and still be left,lost,alone,numb.Telling is the story-
it enlivens in your retelling.Cast pearls before sharks.
Watch their disinterest.Yet curiosity will nibble @a surfers leg
and bite a random liquid explorer to the redness of blood waves
What you value most defines you.Attunement to the highest frequencies
still means there are more beyond your range.We are here to learn
Heraclitus knew.Scraps of Sappho.Someone before you was heaven
On this earth,in these waves of air,we ride and rise and fall
Every wave is different.Surf them all...

word UP!

Austin Cafe Poets listings get levitated
by the use of the term UP!-word has morphed into soundtrack
TWITTERING,Tweeting,Youtubing-instant as flash mobs and flash fiction
Now see the Square with people whose very life is on the line
Tanks surround them(stern editors)prepared to unleash furies
if the forces of reason(David)fail against Goliath .Bibical and epic
with no end in site.Tremors felt Yemen,to Algeria,Morocco to Syria
fault lines in dictatorships crack earthquakes in tidal uprisings
No end in sight.We are all in process-see reflection of unemployment here
Job shrinkage here.Offshored futures here.Elitism here.
The failure of trickle-down economics/voodoo economics/war economies
leads us to venture capital and small loans/stimulate the tiny gardens
rather than the weedy cash stashing "too big to work"past mistakes
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party
The quick brown fox jumped over the yellow dog Democrats
Government dare not hire.Companies cut workforces.
Tax cuts mean service cuts mean structural unemployment.
We gather nightly to rhyme with reason/a miniature Renaissance
Patronage of energies and positivities continue community.
Word is OUT,images are IN ,and the only way is UP!

Monday, February 7, 2011

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

HOT MAMA'S
Crowds @Colosseums/still we
one by one gathered to hear the strings
of each others' singing.Chill wind replaced sunshine
still we sang and listened/knowing what comes from us
more important than what is sold to consume
There are lines burned in to consciousness/
memory replays THE LAUGHING YOGA
and conversations sparkled around those on stage
We add more light to a diminishing day
and roll in circles to spoken&heard
KICK BUTT
Small is beautiful-especially when
you share your life stories with those listening
Leave your pages behind-
tonight we engage with open mouth and mind
Each steps up and offers their own slice of life-
embarrassment fades as each is received as wealth
Gold is in the ears of the receiver
Night clicks by with our lives a common frequency
Long live human radios/all they see and feel
sharing time with stories that are bone/blood real!

OUR CUP RUNNETH OVER ON SUPERBOWLED SUNDAY

Saturday, February 5, 2011

it is like(as if(every body knows

and whether they are watching,waiting ,witnessing
or walking down the streets in company
they know what they want
it may not be what we want
(we have interfered too much in other's lives
and there is too much interference in ours
The lives of others are intertwined in ours
but they have rights to determine their future
as we have choice in ours.Every one knows
what choice means.It is real as life itself.
Change is ever present and compounding-
surprising watchers,waiters,witnesses and participants
You watch the youtube.You see the news.
Iran,Tunisia,Yemen,Morocco,Egypt. are also
watching,waiting,witnessing,participating
They want to know what we will do
Our weapons and renditions or support for civilians
It is no longer OUT THERE.It is in our own backyard
Will be be Tea Parties or Poetry Parties?You know-
and the whole world now has many channels
We are only one-and getting smaller every day
Speak Chinese.I cannot hear you.

"i am free!" "I am free!"

this was supposed to be the story
of that dedicated teacher overloaded
who worked herself to the bone,and left
crying to realize budgets do not care

it is also the story of every second hand book seller
who exchanges the past for children of the future
half his stock is paperback romance
half his life is below poverty level

or that independent coffee shop worker
who cannot afford staff,or mistakes
works a day job to keep his night visions alive'
(he welcomes in poets and musicians open mikes)

and the white world of snow joke covering us
when they shut down public transport
so we had to transport ourselves
via visions and dreams/stories,poems and songs

or she who convened a circle old as hearts
a listening grotto/sanctuary for arts
and wrote her lines of love while hearing others
accelerating imaginative enterprises

or you who realize the difference
between public wars and private bliss
who feed the flame for yourself and your children'
encouraging everyone to express

whether a new age is here,or a second coming
or the end of the old as we grew to know it
someone can still laugh in airports
smiling on the inside"i am free! i am free! i am !

Thursday, February 3, 2011

"WEIGH MY ART WITH A FEATHER!"

We live in an age of specious reasoning-
we do not control the weather-
even when the CIA seeded clouds over North Vietnam
with silver nitrate to flood civilian areas
and chemtrails crisscross our eyes skies
and all those planes burning through the ozone layer
leave kerosene pollution in our breathing air
and cars and trucks black exhausted gridlock
and cruise ships dropping off trash in fragile eco-systems
and a Sargasso Sea of plastic bags swirls slowly
and ice melts ,drowning polar bears
and deafforestation ,and acid rain,and burning off Mexico/Indonesia
we still cannot control cyclones or hurricanes
China sought rain via artificial means for Olympic Games
Towing icebergs to alleviate water shortages has been contemplated
but we are not in control of ourselves(much less the weather)
Prepare for a new Ice Age.Pole reversal.Climate adjustment
We are one blip on the planet's radar.Before and after us,
there will be changes

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

On being so common as to read a book for pleasure

Journey as the process of unfolding flowers
Lotus can wait on lake,we are busy
smelling the roses in every garden
There are so many art forms,one takes lifetimes
in just one branch of this human tree
swinging to a jazz riff or an art performance piece
And when these sing within the frame of a page
investments of time and attention regain
an interest in the process of aliveness
and how this is as variant as every petal
and every weed.

whatever reason

whatever reason you advance/our weather patterns are askance
whether cars or factory smoke/or cannabis smokers massive tokes
carbon monoxide from car exhausts/or farts from cows with many stomachs
i for one like the folly/of pretending we have surfboard or brolly
if we really have this much choice/when we we hear Mother Nature's voice?

GIANTS BEFORE US(Google this...

Susan Bright,Dr Marvin Kimbrough,Albert Huffstickler
so many more ( a litany would steal your life-just know
they were on your streets with pots and pans and poems for peace
encouraging literacy with deep and abiding commitment
Trees around Barton Springs?Thank you Susan Bright
Poets park bench in Hyde Park?Thank you Albert Huffstickler
Houston-Tillotson poetry performances?Thank you Dr Marvin
What lives is what we remember,and even memories fail
The world we live in has been made by those hands
who carved silences into songs,and whose presence convinced Councils
to spare trees,support Springs,and love this (borrowed)land
as much as those who go before and after us.
Whether they were larger than us depends upon perspective-
their achievements pass a baton to the young-
will you be brave enough to see beyond yourself
into the community that relies upon each and every one?
Your contribution may not be poetic-but poetry lives
because each tongue speaks a different language
and every ear needs listen to the differences
This is why we gather-to hear the future
acknowledging our elders/ancestors
to make our space a human place
where each and all and every might be heard
and honor life as much as every word

we are THE OTHER

fear makes me smaller-i shrink from view
cannot engage with you-afraid of what you will do-
torture/rendition/punishment/prison
if i am foreign or of a status-
too young,too poor,too black,too loving,your
Light makes me in darkness when
i am afraid of you /what you will do

i am uniform,reduce myself.cut hair to bone
follow orders.i can truncheon those not in order
punish those out of line/imprison myself via regulations
die for orders of someone on the back line

i am native,indigenous.my cultures/heritage
made war upon via imported divergence.i do not understand this.
alignment with wind,water,earth,sky makes sense
(there is no other home than this-and these
who say they follow gods deny ours
we only wish to follow our ancestors

i am critic/distant as death.i see from distance(perspective)
i remove myself from the equation/yet cast aspersions
upon any act of creation out of the norm
i am death to the unborn.bitter wind me.authority.

i am unknown(without form)
water knows me(flow and fill,tide and moon)
weather knows me(unpredictable)
you know me more by effects than source
all of us live within you/sit round your campfire
to which one(s) will you give voice?

THANK YOU ,JOE SPEER!

Always a smile,a story,time to share
Always generous with your spirit,there
are few who could match your energies,where
you and Pamela Beatlicked everywhere
We shared National Poetry Jam
(Las Vegas will never be the same,man!)-and
we never saw the video BUT we saw the show
You filming everyone everywhere we glowed!
Now Beatlick News took poetry to people
Your travels and your book expanded our vistas
and when we think of you,it will be with a  smile
in a VW Kombi van,filming endless traveling poet miles!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

cannot carry this

you have your Mecca and your Churches
we have hermit hobbit coffee shop borrowed pilgrimage centers
you have police,army,religion,rules,authorities,laws,traditions
we have art ,dance,music ,poetry(exceptions
you have wars for real estate
we have slum reclamation for studio space
you have Realism,Reality,Gravitas
we are light as air comedians
you have the weight of history on your side
it has always been conflicted
we cannot carry this.it
it is far too heavy.we kiss and move on
love is and always was our mission and our song
not Hollywood,New York,nor Los Angeles
so when the weight of all this violence is imported
we recognize it is not ours(it never was
we left her by the river.(you are still carrying her
levity wins over gravity.Laugh in airports!
the weight of the world is as a feather on a bird
defying gravity is every artists job.


more ways out
when you come to this moment
you may stop for refreshment
listen .wait.watch for fresh influences
"where there is a way,there is always a way out"
you hear gunshots,hear of random violence
someone imports it to a coffee shop/among poetry of life
Group consciousness expels death from paradise
You live as long as you are of peace
Every line of every artsong and lifepoem sustains this



the question remains-
how can innocence (peace)defend against violence?
it will not be with violence.Art of peace is breath(flow,control,continuance
Will(aligned,focused,intent
Perception(when to move away/when to return
Every moment requires different response
What happens next is in your next poem.
Until Zen,carry this one.

CONTROL,COMMODIFY,COMMERCIALIZE(how to balance the budget!)

Franchise Free Speech Zones as we privitise prisons
Wackenhut airports /wrest control from TSA
so profits can be made from instant incarceration
Make prison farms into farms-a prison-led recovery!
Ban books so folks cannot organize their own defense
(especially poetry-so beauty is banned,and the concept
of continuous surveillance,assessment and imprisonment rules!
Exceptions being secret police via acronyms( NSA,FBI,CIA,FCC etc)
Black budget SECURITY and billion dollar invasions
so folk who object to cuts in schools and Medicare
will not even ask where their taxes go-o!make taxes stealth
so the rich with trial lawyers can appeal and pay less
while tax cuts for the rich are balanced by job cuts for the poor
We can even franchise free speech,so folk will compete for cash
pay @the door,internalize class war,never mention the real issues
just personalize,trivialize,sensationalize-make more media lies for headlines
Once homeless are criminalized unless they can sing for their supper
and thus become a product themselves-set up AMERICAN CELEBRITY centers
so show business becomes the only business in town
Audition for distractions ,so mass media and movies only show
children's movies of competition-or cartoon versions thereof
Do not allow free speech except as entertainment-
tightly censored ,images controlled via FCC like dollars from the Federal Reserve
until a cascade of laws and lawyers allow no poor can afford defense.
Happily,no body buys poetry ,so they will not know
how control,commodification and commercialization were sold
so slavery and union bashing became hate radio
Guns may be necessary if Tea Parties fail to con
Trust that the people(will not know what is really going on....

pilgrims on a journey

leaving prose and certainty
boxes of structures/guns /gold
on a thin Buddha path to Enlighten their wallets
come they to a Cave of Silence
Meditate moon nightly
next,a Lake of Fire(once was forest)
deeper meditations upon wood ,ash and change
Mountain,and the point thereof
Clouds of Unknowing and a question,marked
Essential trees,with roots in cerebellae
Manuscripts,maps(blank as faces),stories,songs
Chants to cheer them ,laughter(random)
No leaders(only consensus)that each path unique
Intuition as to the Right Steps.Divergence actively encouraged
For how else would we find ourselves here(together)again
with so many different destinies?

not Xenophon,nor Caesar's Gallic Wars

when you shot me in Arizona,i was 9 years old
i was 72,i was a judge,i was a democrat,you
had smashed plate glass with brick hate
Targeted me a la Sarah Palin hunt
gun over defenseless civilians
We see gun shops  selling to Mexico
gang wars on borders,decapitating soldiers
Every bullet returns to sender.Wars cross borders
Who you hate may be random,but your victims become specific
They are beloved and innocent.They number more than your defenses
When questioning pathology(WHY did the violent boy(s)...
too late to ask the victims of drive-by hate crimes
Die once(projections) Die twice(mortal life) Die thrice(truth)
Casualties include you who will not stop more
by being less,and bowing to NRA
asking that more carry arms,strip searching innocents
and never finding home grown terrorists
because ye are they who terrorize-
bombing abortion clinics,killing doctors,
demonstrating against single mothers,shouting down all who disagree
This is an age of random violence/and targeted violence
How can the innocent survive this terror?
By being such peace that no arms come near
except the ones that hold,cuddle and kiss
These are the answers,panaceas,antidotes to fears
Starting here and now,with you and i,all wars will cease..

UBUNTU

Percussionist,empath, kombucha grower,friend
he listens more than he beats
antidote to drum circles
meter poetry by his smile

He will play until you say STOP!
LOVES Muse and music is his LIFE!
Exclaims ,declaims,energizes
where he glows,harmonies follow

Healer,musician,drummer,poet
Allows spirit to flow in every moment
Rides the waves of inner vibrations
Shares all she is in manifestation

Flute player,sitar,poet,trickster
He has become a master storyteller
This was his idea-to show
how One affects the Whole

Photographer,singer,poet,too
Set up AUSTIN CAFE POETS for you
to be examples of those who
express,volunteer,compound and add to

Everyone chapters of The Book Of Life
This resonates beyond their Light
When more than one becomes more than two
You find your (more)stories unwinding from you

Aloneness a myth,a lie,islands
have both bridges and peninsulas
On this small earth (our only home)
We share the story that we are not alone

SOUTH AUSTIN COMMUNITY GARDENS

Allotments in these winter gardens precious as South Austin
Greeted @the entrance by friends of friends
digging in the good earth for greenery to grow-
lettuce,mustard ,garlic chives all aglow
If we came from a Garden and were expelled for wisdom
here is where we regain all lost learning
in the good earth,with good friends of friends
still green in a world of gray/digging and seeding a way...

THE BLESSING PATH

Today i carry my spear/woomerra/bow&arrows
to meet with one who is on my path
bring her home to feed our family
bless the confluence of both
Tonight i am to shoot a metaphor
see what birds are in blue skies
falling blackwards in their thousands
asking earth to hide
Now shall i seek what is awaiting to meet
upon these streets/appointments made before me
to bless the joining consciousness
the "one-that-is always-more -than-us"
Tomorrow will be different
(even when i seek the same)
Seasons of indifference change the game
New species of conundrums seek me out-
free speech zones,hate radio
whatever i may chance to meet
may it sustain more tomorrows

2011 adventures!

anywhere,any time-meet you in an independent coffee shop
circle of light-usually well met by night
steal time to hear each others' breathing
(what harmonic patterns form when we listen!)
There is reason in emotion,propelling devotion
to more than text and ancient beliefs
Wherever we are,we meet more than minds-
pulse of passion seeking perfection
More than weight of words-more energies among,between,beneath
and we compound when together-chemical compositions change
DNA reconstitutes Little Nirvanas Among Us
Sparkle and Light,Sound and Visions,Share and Release
all simultaneous/we /ongoing comm-unity
seek deeper ways to unbind freedom
so we may never need to seek
more than speech

where to live?

she lived in the lap of mountains
to be reminded of things larger
he lived by rivers
in solidarity to fish
she lived in cloudtops
to get the point
he lived in gardens
to grow deeper
he loved the plains
endless as prose
she loved her village
pie shops/sausage rolls
he wrapped in country
silence and distances
surrounded by trees
just to listen
we sit in cities
camp on the fringe
central habitation
we live with/as we
have always been
his story

who came first?

silence says she was here before us
in deference to her,we observe a minute for the fallen
the rest is gridlock
silence says she is golden
and the price is going up all the time
try to find silence in your life.(gone

speech is silver,and commodities precious
rich as an Australian miners dollar
en route to Chinese marketry
word boats float surface rate
upon deeper seas of meaning
yet each devalued via dilution/abuse
no body believes..

song enters (rainbows of colors
lifting spirits into higher vibrations
instruments (including your human voice) give rise to
compositions of harmonic tones
attunements to "the good,the beautiful and the true"

and here is where we come in-
tiny on the evolutionary scale
to merge ,melt,massage all three
into tones,notes,speech,song and silences between us
no one is ever always wrong

feeding the lines

to get to this moment in time(some have not yet/some never will
many despite their will,are frozen in timezones historic
like buildings that once housed famous gangsters
acquiring notoriety second hand /or secret lovers
spilled via wikileaks of the gossiping hearts
splashed naked headlines paparazzi richer
with only a mock"reality"series as Alaskan salmon President
We seek exposure(like Kodak-suckered via image
into a thin veneer that substitutes for community
How many times"i USED to believe?"
Who dies from nostalgia?Replay riffs from adolescence
find everyone bruised,waiting for bus salvation Sundays?
Supermen now Clark Kent,rent on this planet due
foreclosures imminent.To get through ,we need (re)lease
all that has happened before,and our modes of response
Only when the camels eye needle is Bibical
(and we know who REALLY wrote that movie)
will scripts re-align to allow silence back into Heaven.
Until then,the blare of trumpets and the cry of cool jazz cats
waiting in a deserted cafe,remembering the blues

"even the moon is political"(for Michele Solberg)

Diana/Selene/yet u only see a man on the moon
Land a man on the moon.Moon boots on her face
Plant a flag/rocket away.Leaving light lonely for the dark side
Pink Floyd  vs Syd Barrett.Blues versus murder ballads.
Who sings space silences?Between us ,your moon cat eyes
Politics of personal relationships sinking.Distance
Look UP! each night,apportioned light.Stars,blinking.
Weaving astrologers Conferences.Planets.Comets.Meteors
Celestial configurations ancient  calendars before/after us
(we will never be the end of this world/nor see the beginning of another-
Light flashes fast past us.Past ages resurrect with new names.
We send smoke lines into chemtrail skies.Fires burn
Bodies by the Ganges.Politics in Pakistan.Kashmir.
Every border politics.Between us,distances increase.
Words alone have no passport,nor visa
They are refugees reliant upon uncommon compassion
Watch the moon if you wish to avoid committal.
Even the moon is political

LESLIE BY MORNING(Cafe Caffeine 10am Wednesday January 5,2011

Who owns our homeless? APD? Here is Leslie in a leather jacket
naked below the knees/but he is from Colorado
where winter sees ice cold waters where he is fishing
hence when i draw attention to his bare legs
it matters less to him than a good conversation
Tonight the poets will gather again @Cafe Caffeine
They will bring songs,goodwill,poems
They will project images upon a screen and improvise to them
They will screen fantasies of a better world
and seek to answer eternal questions
like-who owns our homeless?When 104 departed flesh
in one little year in our little village
Who opens to them?Like poetry and poets
i guess we all need an invitation

Here is yours-=to attend
tonight@Cafe Caffeine 909 west mary
where open stage meets open minds and we
become temporary as com/unity
Come early  for a seat -bring your flas drive
your wit,heart,liver kidneys and wallet
We will provide the fish..

OSCAR WILDE

Fire first.Then to sit around in circle
share stories of the hunt-all myths/legends
larger than Dorian Grey.Spear point sharp lines-
that cut to the chase.We want to know how to live..
Wake up in an ancient age,where Wednesdays
we gather round tables to eat together,share tales of hunts
for that perfect truth which crystallizes like snow in Europa
Elders relate /cross borders of age/youth ditto
Middle class/middle age absorb suburban songs
share who they are with whoever comes along
Tonight is such a night.South Austin Bar &Grill/Cafe Caffeine
Two fire lights are seen.Voices heard ,rising to the hunt
Soon sharp eyes will be watching the times we live within
for trace of primal in our reasoning.They,too,will seek the words
to hunt the Snark/White Whale/Marie Celeste/Titanic iceberg consciousness
Deeper we will dive tonight-gannets with fish eyes
Find nutritious within the waves of sounds
inside our caves,where fired foods warm circles
and stories take the chill out of every winter's bones

SHEHERAZADE

When you cross the border of a New Year
with an arsenal of alphabets
best call upon your ululator
to enchant a newer spellcast
Anyah brave as splinted fingers
bound and binds the cats together
even when the monkey man
sculpts the sounds in cords of fire wood
Smile through those who will not listen
talk their way through other's visions
yet demand attention when
they repeat their ancient dreamings
Smile when the lapping waves remind one of a war zone
where harmonies of prayers become as alien as life forms
Respect is due as new eyes open/
ears begin a wider highway.She is dreaming!
and the evening begins to sing
2011 original first responses/best responses
Pre-edit,image and vibration /consonant as vowelled castings
making fresh moments that cannot bear repeating
FOR ANYAH DISHON