Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Culture, Dies at 62

WHEN A POET DIES
for a short time,every one remembers his/her lines
They get quoted in bylines(never the full poem)
A picture flashes of them (usually @the height of their fame
Never a picture of them as they lay dying
Never in their last Fat Elvis days
A byline may allude to drugs and sex and children
but it is the poem that will live on-
thin and ruthless,true as spear and fire
If the line is taut and stripped and bare
Naked as newborn and barking @the moon
If each word fits like the coat of your skin
You will wear this poem.You will remember her/him
That is where the point resides-deep inside the flesh of mind
like St Sebastians arrows making martydom
The arrow of truth -a burning poem.

APHORISMS

EMPTINESS
I am full of it!

HOW MANY NIGHTS
have i missed the moon?

BEFORE YOU-
sun,moon,water
and after...

HEARING LAUGHTER
becoming laughter!

PLANTING VEGETABLES
harvesting flowers!

MY NEW ILLUSION?
that there are none!

EVEN IN HEAVEN
still longing for heaven!

BEGGING BOWL

@open mikes,a tip jar waits
like an invitation for response
it goes home alone/unless someone
sees a point in poem.
Buddhist beggars seek attention
when beseeching homelessness
or peace/ prayer function
On streets,one or two seek immolation
to capture our temporary attention
Distraction rules.Time seeps in movies
magazines,headlines,gossip,opinions
Focus.It is not the next
but this present moment
that you are in.I beg
for your attention.

last/first words

baby cries ,naked ,wet wombed
we go out silently.if we knew
these were our first/last words
would we share them freely?
listen-those who know they are leaving
have a respect and reverence we lack.
They are defined less by dreaming
than our memories of them-
in their best light,we re-arrange
the furniture to fit our available space
Over here-family-there,friends
in between-current events-
job,bills,TO DO lists(always stamped URGENT
When we awaken to this temporary
how we fill our time is like water-
we drink it in/knowing too much would drown us
and not enough =a drought.
Between two haystacks,the donkey starves
Between two lives,we live each day
as if it were our first.As if it were our last.

GA-GA GOSPEL

"All that is important is finding who you really are
and being that!"So saith Lady Ga-Ga to assembled media
following the footsteps of Lady Madonna's KABBALA experiments
and every Hollywood mystic music maker .Money does not matter to her-
her tour lost millions.She does not care.She cares more for her "Little Monsters"
much like Boy George of Culture Club.She follows in the footsteps of her antecedents-
Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce,Mae West outwitting everyone.
There is a string of platinum blondes from Jean Harlow right up to Ga=Ga.
All bright,witty,talented individuals
All had to settle for stereotypes -in film,music,fashion,stardom
They became Royalty when there was no glamor otherwise
Queen Bees,Goddesses of Style,Leaders of Lost Young
Generations have lusted after Marilyn/Madonna clones
whose nakedness and bravery adorns desk calenders
making little bleached baby monsters in their wake.
Even stereotypes get monotonous-who remembers Britney Spears?
headlines are random,cruel and constant.One needs scandals to fill the hole in paparazzi lens.
It is endless,shallow and repetitive.Unlike the characters they must play in public,
each actress has depth,dimension and wisdom beyond her years.
Is this why they are adored?Or is fickle fame so fleeting
it must eat up all the young,sell them fashion /adulation
make them consume mirrors(with a short attention span)
so next year we might see NEW BRIGHT BLONDE BOMBSHELL !
(whoever she may call herself @the time?Go Ga-Ga-Go!

satori shakras

Economic Austerity-
Fat Buddha makes 10 Thin Buddhas
Thin Buddha makes no(h) Buddha

IN(SECURITY)
Monks devote their lives to prayer and peace
Some also learn martial arts
Which teach?

GLOBAL WARMING
Climate changing in world's dressing room
Oil or fish?Oil or water?
Which eat?Which drink?

DINOSAURS LEFT BEFORE US
Leaving only Corporate Tax Write Offs
Stock Options,Golden Parachutes

MONEY IS NOT WORTH
the paper it is written on.Forests unique/precious
because you cannot print more forests.

CITY GOAT GRACKLES
cackle @our detritus
Like APD,they feed upon us.

PAY CUTS FOR BILLIONAIRES?
Pay rises for poor?THEN tax cuts!

BEYOND OUR CONTROL-
every thing.

ALMANAC OF DOLLAR STORES

give
the art of gifting is a smile a day
give something to someone you love every day
select the person first,next what is appropriate
if they like an object-give it them
it is release for both of you
will benefit if the gifting is true
you were born with nothing
and can take nothing with you
Through the eye of a camel's needle you must pass
and that is hard/with excess baggage
Look around at those who surround you
Everyone will benefit if you gift in truth
Add to the usefulness of who you truly are
by gifting not just to those in need-

BIBLIOMANCY / ANGELS / NIRVANA

BIBLIOMANCY
Pick an incident -any incident
that dents your memory banks
and gets an emotional response.
Remember any text that deals
with either event or emotion
Next,pretend neither happened
Invent a fiction(subconsciously based upon ..
and you will get to Writer's Heaven..

NOW IT IS TIME TO SPEAK OF ANGELS
of spirit guides and miracles/
not necessarily because they exist
but because we absolutely need
new myths to sustain us.

NIRVANA MORE THAN A BROKEN BAND
and every fact a double edge-commission/omission
what was done and the how to and why
We are all journalists with scratch paper
Fleas of facts roost in our hair
until we can construct
a better Paradise.

ALMANAC OF DOLLAR STORES

i love those not beloved of others-offshoots,outcasts,loners
We all pilgrimage towards GARAGE SALES,Clearance Sales,bargains
So it is @Half Price Books and Dollar Stores/where all stock is seasonal
an archaeology MADE IN CHINA,all plastic and perfect
where nothing over a dollar is ever contemplated.I can live with(in this
Boomerangs,Hawaiian luaus,cat statues,food items not found in grocery stores-
all these and more tantalize and delight my senses,and i always leave
with more than i bargained for.Same with Opportunity Stores-
although they have become more privitized with high prices
even when all they have is donated freely for charity purposes.
I wish GOODWILL was worthy of its name.Same with St VINCENT De PAUL!
All one can do in this shopping world is to be a bottom feeder-
to exist beneath the profit margins,to live in a second-hand world
so every thing has both a story and a past life
and everyone you meet -the same!

close

survivor guilt that we are elders now
only because the young absent themselves?
death by one's own hand puzzles all close-
the WHY? more important than the HOW?
So young! Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
to self-extinguish all Light and hope and life
To not trust in continuation /whether depression
or a Trough Of Despond took this young one down
and took him out of the daily gauntlet we assent to...
(we do not know-unless a note was left (like Kurt Cobain
dare we assume departure was an accident?
and if deliberate-for how long this nightmare nursed?
It is what we love binds us to this planet
When that glue unsticks and the fabric unravels
we fall through the holes and exit ourselves
It is important to consider the possibility of extinction
It is more important to release those thoughts
so that each magic moment affirms and assures each of us
we are all connected,even when nights are dark and full of falling stars
and days are full of heated interrogations.

MUSICAL PHARMACOLOGY

Take one Delius ,one Brahms,one Erik Satie before sleep
Avoid Stravinsky,Cage and Stockhausen
For exercise,a dose of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky
some Sibelius and a Wagner
Avoid military marches and dissonant New Music!
Strauss waltzes and operettas for light mood therapy
Gilbert &Sullivan for comedic effect
Gershwin and Cole Porter to sing along with
Rogers and Hammerstein/Hart for joy
Life is a jukebox of available pleasures
If breath is prana yoga,singing voice therapy
then Muse can heal us with harmonies and melodies
Were you just singing along to the Beatles?
Every generation has their themes
Memory has a sound track..

"CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE!"

Woodstock 94-"The Bottle"-"Everybody needs something"
Paris"Is That Jazz?""Don't Give Up!"
Selective attention means we may never hear "Angel Dust"
of "The Spirits"-only his BIG HIT"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!"
I blame TV for this vacuousness/emptiness-GSH 's spirit was best encapsulated
in his mantra oft repeated @Woodstock 94-"CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE!"
In an age of LPs and singles,when urban black music poetry was rare
The Last Poets carved public attention long before rap
I was in New York when his 90s revival had him alive and well
lost a friend who went to his show rather than ours
Long ago,had heard his words from afar
and loved them more as a signal of truth and power
a jazz infusion of electric shock lyrics
to awaken all to connection.He is gone
Gill-Scott Heron 's poems live strong
Truth has a way of defeating time
via music,via rhyme...

COSTS OF DISTRACTION

$2000 to repair my car when i drove through Amber
listening to loud radio/$300 speeding fine
when dancing (in my car)to the Rolling Stones
More for repairs for driving absentmindedly
over lumps in the road that destroyed struts and me
This is the high cost of pretending to be free-
distracted driving projected upon me via Distraction Industry!

OUR GOLDEN AGE

not peacocks ,nor gilded altars nor gods
more a shining bright as atomic bombs(for we may never see a H Bomb
and if we only start @A and never get to H(i will be happier
sans Princes sans Paupers,Paradises Promised via Politicians
Now the Price Of Gold has never been Higher
The price of Time demises(many doing time rather than vice versa
There may be a Gold Rush in Gold-but that is largely Futures
(ours is assured-we are More Than Minerals!
Earth still quaking ,planes still falling (in prices
Floods,pestilence,famine-simultaneous with unguided missile Optimism
There are no stats upon Happiness.It fills the brim with Hats Off To Happiness!
Misery is Rational./Happiness has No Facts.Project Your Preferred Fantasy!

"if you own more than you can carry(you own too much)"

There were seven of us-like that seven pointed star
on the underside of his pine drum he fashioned with rope and hide and stones
We sat upon the grass and waited.Native time passed.He had fired the stones
until they were red heat,and made a covered space within with a central burn area
where we could sit around in circle old as fire.Prior,we had passed tobacco both in to the fire and upon bear stone,
where we asked permission for our healing to begin.We went in.Sweat lodge was explained-.
Songs and prayers for the healing of pasts and release in to the new.
Four sessions would ensue-with water being poured upon new heated stones each time,and songs sung
prayers made,and petitions for the healing of all wounded ones
Our leaders were sun dance veterans,with scars to share their experience
They carefully explained the sacredness of purpose-
how the right way was respect and reverence,how healing invoked ancestors
and how right intention really mattered.
In the final round ,corn and berries and buffalo meat were shared
Each session had water given to deal with sweat stone heat
We thanked our ancestors-the fire,the stones,the water and each other
With gratitudes and in silence,change follows after...

your garden(is you!

Seasons define us-one day weeds
next,gardens.He is trained in European gardens
and with that sensibility,arranges geometric patterns in defined spaces.Calm,tranquil
He knows of Japanese Zen stone gardens-ruthlessly austere-
more than Chinese gardens with wisps of weeds and willows waving
One day she will be a tiger lily,next a sunflower with bright sunshine
Roses will bloom when the right combination allows them
to bud into blossom.We are all these reasons to continue
What is planted is an act of faith
What rises up a prayer
Between the two -land,water,air
All kiss us in to existence
so what we grow
is us.

Our data, ourselves

Rape is a question of consent
So it is with data.Governments and marketeers coerce and bribe
or simply take what information they need.Consent is the issue.
Law agencies violate all privacy frontiers-their surveillance
often results in the wrong doors being blasted open
by SWAT teams hungry for budgets and drug asset seizures
Privacy is a noble concept-in these days of sex slavery
consent is the real issue.Who asks us?(apart from Census)
When did we sign up for intrusive body handling @airports?
Sometimes we need an Alex Jones,a Julian Assange to remind us
that we are not fodder for 1984 universal surveillance intrusion
We actually need Privacy Rights-perhaps the same given
to selective governmental agencies immune to prosecution
When everyone has rights,every body can feel secure
Until then,this is a petition for privacy-for all!

CRANIUM HUMANIUM

In New Guinea (up to 1930),cannibals ate their enemies
Some Native American tribes were (according to legend and lore)-cannibals
There is something potent about devouring one's enemies
to absorb their magick/and by so doing-to conquer their power
Irish writers have added to English literature (longer than bards-
Swift,Sheridan,Shaw,Yeats,Joyce-endless ,ever,on
You do not need to manipulate a potato famine
to have more Irish in England than in Ireland
Just ask them for a poem-or a song-Becket,Lennon,McCartney
will strum until Godot finally comes
and you can say you drank the Guinness on Galway Bay
without ever having to feel the pain
of being a cultural emigre..

PERMACULTURE RECONSIDERED

Q:But the chemicals in newspapers?
Will they not leach in to the soil/into our precious waters?
Like those seeking to dump MORE radioactive waste in Texas?
Must we rely upon those modern mutants post Chenobyl
who eat waste like goats and who survive like cockroaches?
A:The Austin American Statesman uses organic inks
They may come off and smudge when reading
but they do decompose.Thanks for asking!
As for the CHRONICLE? It is printed @the STATESMAN offices...

ANASAZI, DETROIT

Once,there was a thriving civilization here-
no one knows why they simply left,leaving a central core
of once beautiful buildings intact yet empty.
Core of a village is community-
when that glue link grows dry /brittle/cracks
we fall through the holes in history.
Every village needs a watering hole.

THE SINGING GRASSHOPPER

His/her cheerful CHIRRUP! a salutory buzz
when all would be wind and leaves otherwise
Singing each to each ,signalling leaps
sometimes solitary,yet always capable of company
(if there were too many ,you might call it a plague of locusts)-
yet the same is true of water.Drops for flowers and gardens
floods for towns,cities,villages.Quality over quantity!
One silver line of singing may redeem us
too many become advertising in newspapers.

THE ROSE

"A rose is a rose is a rose"
"O Rose! Thou art sick!"
"A rose by any other name..."
"The Wars of the Roses"..
Roses are not @war,yet they are used -
as brand names for Cadbury chocolates
and epic disputes between Yorkshire and Lancashire
Thorns too have their Bibical references-
Crown of Thorns(added to Coral Reef Starfish-
Holy Thorns(as if from the original)/
while varieties of white and red roses
denote both sex and spirituality
Historic as these images may be-
every rose blooms seasonally and innocent
Lady Loyalty may deign to give White Roses to Knights
who did not pillage or rape-but that was in the 14th Century
Now no flower can prevent buds and blossoms being stolen
The gifting of red roses remains as a sign of affection
Antique roses adorn selected gardens
Mexican roses cross border guards with impunity
Roses still have power-petal by petal
they mean more than mere virginity.Dreams and stories
are projected upon each gifted stem/thorns or not
a lot is placed upon this ancient species/we
evoke The Name Of The Rose
often without regard -for its true content...

CHRONIC CONFABULATION

This"compulsion to narrate"is defense against poor scripts-
an improvisation driven by wit/to make dull life a dance
Hyperbole his parents,metaphor a friend
one may utilize all literary devices /until the story ends
Politicians are masters-and paedophile priests
Think how much we adore actors and comedians!
Storytellers have embroidered for as long as there was Art
every mischievous schoolchild lies to learn their part
And when you are confronted by an acronym(NSA,FBI,IRS,TSA)
what else can innocence do but add to simple truths?
Examples in the media -from Stock Market to prisoners
a simple leap of faith to make the narrative sweeter
We all have a taste of what it is to dissemble
Art comes from many sources-just add punch lines-and assemble
And yes-you can do this @home/for home is where the art is
Domestic lying is the basis for all life experience!
So next time you make up stories you want others to believe
Just remember -art is life-you must practice to conceive!

WITHIN THE RAIN

there is no other world
windshield wipers fail
when floods downpour
World of wet and clouded vision
Wait until a sun will brighten?
Travel in the blindness guessing?
Pull over ,trusting that no car will hit you?
or just keep driving-fish in an ocean of nets and hooks?
Whale too near sonar submarines?
Dolphin coming in to beach?
We are too deep in this-
walls of waters around and within
Motion seems elixir-we are not sharks
whose art is moving to keep breathing
Little gold in a bowl existence
Small as a teardrop in rainstorms
When we are within
There is no way out.

STORM BOY

To bring change is to bring pain-
birth,argument,divergence,divorce
The split of atoms burns a fiery furnace
and it is no consolation to praise survivors
Pre-us,(and after)there will be storms
They are headlines now and often
They devastate towns and flood cities
They FEMA rescue few from detritus/debris
Who counsels the storm?Bringer of woe
messages of destruction-even when you build in a flood zone
or camp upon shifting tectonic plates/blame is a way
of forgetting cycles and history.Nothing is willed
that has not happened before.Wars and woe are not Nature.
Storms and floods repeat like answers to prayers
There were storm gods before us-Wodin,Thor
Wreaking devastation happens randomly
wake to a stranger in your bed in a house of enemies
House flips out in a hurricane-wilde winds tear @foundations
Yet every wound is original to the victim
Every death the final,one,only ..

FLAWED STORYTELLING

Like the Pentagon Papers and Wikileaks
ask yourself-who is this speaking?Do i know her/him?
Outside our village,HERE BE DRAGONS
On TV we see innocent Neda shot in Iran
Hundreds killed in Syria-yet when gold and oil in Libya
bomb Presidential Palaces-Baghdad and Chile resurrect
Our memories are our true inheritance
Resist that which is still killing Palestinians
yet demands its only right to exist.

RESPECT

First you abuse and denigrate,next you destroy
that which seems so different to your world
it is as ALIEN,ALIENS,ALIEN RESURRECTION-
Zombie Apocalypses that allow childrens games
to become violent visual battlefields
until they graduate to drones and unarmed aerial surveillance
Digital dots,drones ,explosions do not kill-
but these are real civilians with flesh and blood and relatives
and our numbed down Ritalin children with ADD and ADHD
are being trained a neutral lack of respect
which clones them into killing programs
and tells them who to kill next.

THE WHITE RIBBON

Story tellers enchant us away from prosaic worlds
They hypnotize us with possibilities-when we listen
it is as if speechwriters hold the Key To Paradise
Hans Christian Anderson has nothing on
The Hanging Of Saddam Hussein By Kangaroo Court
or
The Assassination of Unarmed Osama Bin Laden
yet are they flawed intelligence-
the same sources who lied about WMD
and invade ex-Allies territories
after CIA and NSA have destabilized their stories
The scripts are contemporary and repeated-Iraq#1,Iraq#2,Bush#1,Bush#2
These stories will be repeated unless and until they are understood
Yet the key versions are always TOP SECRET-
this is an age of censorship and propaganda
This is an age for editors as storytellers..

POST VIRTUAL DEATH

When you leave your body(as you will leave this computer
where will all your emails go?Is there a virtual Sargasso Sea-
wherein and whereby all virtual expressions park and ride
Valrykie funerals in to oblivion?Millions of Tweets-
transitory as dandruff-are they like 8 tracks and Edsels-
soon to be prisoners of redundant formats?
Like BETAMAX -and video itself-
like BLOCKBUSTER STORES post NETFLIX
who will monitor your surveillance
when AVAST expires?Ask now-before our digital children
seek clouds of knowing and find none-
a privitized Corporate logo Heaven
for old computer programmers,old computers,
analogue thinking ,binary dualism ..and telegrams...

PERAMBULATION

IN the early morning(before this weary world awakens)
i walk -not TO,nor AWAY FROM,but BECAUSE and FOR-
i join the solitary ranks of neighborhood walkers.We nod /sometimes smile
All on separate quests-mostly to lose/the weight of ages/of meals
and sedentary thoughts /that sank/Titanic time into icebergs
Dogs earn theri meals via bark and growl
We sweat silently ,slink or stride/along roads
where cars have yet to establish their domain.
Surprise of trees ,their nodding Chinese wisdom
Lawns,homes,gardens-each tour yields more revelations
until realizing Demosthenes also walked internally-
to rehearse the speeches that would convince Romans
to war or peace,on sandaled shores foreign as languages
I know the news is waiting like a skull on my front lawn
I am here to walk away from ends,even when
i know they are inevitable

10 Strings / Flamenco

10 strings
First string is for one moon-string of oxygen and Muse
Second is the tree that bred guitar,and made it capable of singing
Third has nine lives,and is a cat (she loves the moon-and all who sail to her)
Fourth string is a river,which you can tune to
Fifth is a mountain-earth frequencies,and air
Sixth string is your sixth sense-intuition(clear)
Seventh string is for your seven shakras
Eighth is for the ear-she who hears (knows)
Ninth string is as high as you can go
For the tenth is harp,and lute,harpsichord,piano
and all we have is a ten string guitar-and it speaks only in Spanish!

FLAMENCO
Hammer heel loud to this percussiveness
He strikes strings with hand and fist
Controls shape and form of she who responds
with passion,possessiveness,jealousy and romance
Twin twine double helix,we move voraciously
His hands stroke her body while she gypsy dances
Soon sparks will fly like a red dress.
Soon he will put down his guitar and take her steps
and she will flow with what the guitar already knows
What is held in your hands is time and music...

Is Bitcoin the Wikileaks of Monetary Policy?

WHAT IS OF VALUE?
Someone says food(we all need it-scarcity ensues-
and futures markets in pork bellies ,corn for ethanol
Someone says shelter-overheated housing prices
property crashes when flipping replaces settling
Someone says transport-millions fly
so the price goes up even with access to cheap flights
Someone says cars-so second hand cars now cost
almost as much as new ones.What of life?
Health care costs now drain us,even with longer life expectancies
Currency itself?Rare coins become a new gold
as gold exceeds its asset worth
All metals inflate as scarcity dictates markets
Dollars ,yuan,and euros battle for exchange value
yet are simple symbols of governmental deficits
Soon air will be on sale-
(oxygen machines in San Francisco/hoses @your garage)
Water is already privitized in plastic bottles
Earth is real estate.Fire is a brigade burning in West Texas
Even Dr Kevorkian is on the lip of voluntary extinction
our lives matter.They mean more than matter/symbols/exchange
Some things have intrinsic meaning-their value relies upon life itself.

F is for Forgiveness

Failed forgiveness.Carried grudges.Loads and burdens.Projections,blame games
Guilt edged insecurities,paying in paranoia.Could not release,nor reprogram
Even now,past poems haunt like poltergeists-reinterpreting events like RASHOMON.
If i could only leave this moment behind.And this one.Iraq#1.Iraq#2.Bush#1,Bush#2
Familiarity programming(not family viewing).Censoring miracles through lack of belief in them.
Even now,Niobe/Didymus.Even now,Diogenes over Archimedes.Just will not let go
Dogged teeth clawing.History over prophecy.Even science needs myth.Gods need us-
to believe in them,so they might forgive our lack of belief in action.Release is a fantasy
screened upon blank eyes ,hearts,minds."One day we will be free.."
If i have to wait one day,i will never be free!Meantime,in the Dreamtime,forgive me
I cannot do it for myself or ye (who have more faith than i-that forgiveness tried
will lead to success in acceptance.What is left is continuance/habitual
When you cannot change ,forgiveness is all...

SWEAT LODGE

Each night,beneath deep blankets,dreams seep(sweat deep-
yet these are shallow waters compare to steam and heat
which opens pores to allow the past to evaporate/escape
like shadows who live in your skin until you can name them

Now shall i repair to a space where stones are heated
the skin of clothing is removed like fear.All that is broken repairs
Each cell wants only to be whole again/and seeks companions in the struggle
Evolution occurs when old skins are left like lizard tails by old moments

In this heat,sweet sweat will complete a process.Ancestors knew
They sought the few who wished to leap through barriers of past
to become the steam sweat that escapes easily when released
Each Lodge releases all rocks lodged within us

Now new in gleaming truth,to enter in to zones of home wherein
at ease within this spinning sweat lodge world,i can safely sing.

here is a door(a way out)-here a window(to new stars!-new start!-new art!

Begin by acceptance,end in forgiveness.Process as perfect as we are
There is no door that cannot be unlocked.No window we cannot open.
Outside,other worlds await us when we release-ourselves ,all limits,needs..
Control a false god.There is none.Even science needs myth.God needs us
Judgements limit us(yet we create more out of lessening).Letting go
allows freedom.Change suits for chameleons.Colors of rage
become blank white pages to write new spells upon.Incant freedom!
Decant /distill essence of energies-always dynamic,active as search engines
We move towards when we move away from.Direction random(even when planned
All maps are blank in an open heart.Each moment allows another.Permission -based cultures.
YES! and WHY NOT! adventures allow us out of the cage of habit forming habits.
What happened up to now has already been forgotten.What happens next unknown
Here we are-between two masters-as free to forgive as we will be forgotten
This tiny space station.These signals-radiating.Acceptance.Forgiveness.Trance formation...

ways of adapting

some put their clocks ahead to cheat on time-
which seasonally defeats them
some store grain like gold(or buy gold like grain
when food is used as fuel(corn in to ethanol-
in trust that barter will replace rapaciousness
we have had many ENDS OF THE WORLD warnings
like those color coded mock-terrorist alerts
which elevated the panic mode without content
so when a prediction (Bibically based-that THE END is near
cartoons and blogs burst forth with Apocalyptic hoaxes
(we do not want them to be right/nor will assist in their publicity
We remember the turn of the 21st century-when computers went beyond borders
and we still woke up post-Armageddon.We remember back to Atomic Cellars
Mormon food storages,religious haranguings ,sermons of doom and gloom and death
There is already enough.Life is our season and our reason for continuance
and we are lucky to be here.Civilians need to be released from war fears
Bible bashings and false paranoias.May we be nurtured via truth and harmonies
in peace and prosperity for the term of our natural lives-and may all fearmongers be left
to their own predictions-if they wish sudden endings-well-here is one...

AN ARROW OF SORROW FOUND ME

matched me with targeted gravity.I own more than i need
Things pile up like the dispossessed.Think too much-thoughts solidify
They become more than sorrow can buy.Weight of worlds comply
More carry more than eye can see.Sweet company(sadness/melancholy
Triste,lacrimae,teardrops.Sanguine mood storms plop fat raindrops
Water weighs more than me.If i move on to the next moment,
will gravity cease?If i leave my body,will unanswered emails pile up mountains
unanswered rainstorms from clouds of information?
No matter-laugh if you will.Comedy is an industry ,too
I will wait with and for you.

FEEDING THE BIRDS

To feed the wild birds is an ethical question-
are they our homeless?Are they begging?
Will some squirrel come in with a privitised contract
to make a profit from feeding caged prisoners?
If transporting waste can enrich fat people
why feed thin birds like doves of peace
when black grackles take more than they need?
Goats of the sea may mutate our detritus
why can't we cut budgets for those who rely upon us?
Someone will sell what was once owned by all-
water in plastic,oil in drums,tools for wars.
Someone will come after us -the birds are not waiting
Scavengers survive on what we throw away-
people rely upon the birds .They fly away.

Fukushima

Radiation lasts
longer than three score and ten
How many lives lost?

Chenobyl cancers-
25 years later,still
leukemia kills

We do not know when
the fish we are catching now
will glow inside us

Mushroom clouds above-
Hiroshima,Nagasaki
Fukushima

Do not eat the food
Do not drink the waters now
Half-life forever

Nuclear power
Radioactive waste dumps
inside our waters

Unleash the genie!
Little Boy and then Big Boy
Who cleans up their mess?

Uranium kills
Poisoning water supplies
Great Green Ant rises!

You are part of this!
Food chain contaminated
Why is this not news?

subsidizing gentleness(please consider this

24 hour libraries,staffed fully
with spaces for people to use as community
Libraries as community Town Hall meeting spaces
same with schools after hours.Staffed fully
so folk could have child care and remain students
A breakfast club to welcome all ,so learning
might take place after basic nutritional requirements
Research to be empowered via public funding-
the usefulness of such determined via practical results
Homelessness to be solved via hostels for transients
on a sliding scale,staffed via volunteers/or those convicted
of a non-threatening offense against community.
Volunteerism via bicycles as basic transport
Basic health care available @casualty wards-
open,living,free public services like phones and rest rooms
for those who need might have more to give
if they are allowed basic respect/resources.
Cut public subsidies to for-profit enterprises-
make a condition of enrichment be a tithing to the wider community
so all might profit from applied intelligence,not just a few
What we have is wars-on people,poverty,the poor
What we need is peace and prosperity,so we might restore community
and change from "I"to "we"

recently,awakenings

in states assumed corrupt /tyrannical
where people come out in their streets
and request democratic reforms
They are shot,beaten, imprisoned
yet they persist .@funerals,they choose
to remember the Nedas of this world
shot in to the next through innocence
They only ask for democracy...
In Egypt,they get military dictatorship
In Iran,patriachal Fundamentalism/secret police
In Libya,civil war.In Yemen/Syria-bullets
In Bahrain-police and army(like Qatar
The question for us is this-who told them?
Who speaks this language "freedom"?
China, terrified,arrests everyone
Yet GOOGLE shows a larger world than communism
Great Firewalls of China fall like Jericho
when Wikileaks and Tweets add to Facebook and Nets
and we who colluded with their torturers and jailers
must now consider who to bribe-from Sudan to Washington
we are no longer top dog
just a pack of barking animals
howling @inevitable changes
as wolves ,the moon,and worlds beyond control
make us smaller in the scheme of things
and question who can be bought and sold.

the speed of things

Susan Bright(pancreatic cancer
4 days and she was gone from us
Zen Bob last Friday
By Monday gone from us
To hold you,we remember
traces of the best of us-
your bravery,smiles,laughter
when ours went West like fires
Embers among us-charred ,black,burnt
Our human homes flamed out
and left us with this hollow husk
Remembrance a hunger
for the milk of human kindness
turns sour with a sense of loss
that cannot be made up
You are gone from us
and we cannot negotiate
with terrorist death
any more than we can sing your songs
or write your life
as you lived it first-
brave and bold and glorious
You are the best of us
We are the rest of us
Hard to be soft enough
to taste this suddenness.

i know why i did not see you @poetry

There is a band i love called MUMFORD&SONS
They are as fresh as ARCTIC MONKEYS once were-
bright and shining lyrics of heart and depth
and i would have dearly loved to see them.
They were in town for one night only
and have become headline acts @Glastonbury
Yet,no matter how much my desire to see them LIVE!
I had no energy after poetry ,and could only replay PASTE clips
to authenticate their original expressiveness and worthiness
Same may be true for you(i guess-after work,words may depress
especially if you are subjected to them compulsorily/
and all our talk of freedom! and free speech! becomes static
when energy is in crisis mode,and priorities demand attention
(I am only guessing.Venues depend upon folk attending
and we all know what happens when nothing ...
but then again,there are nights when i would dearly love to see a Poet Laureate
or simply adore Poetry on the Plaza
or roll and revel in a culture that allows language out to play
yet ignores what you really have to say
This is a petition for your return-that you might burn
with passion and engagement/and animate open stages
with the bright flame of your personal commitment
For if you are missing(presumed lost in streets or business
who can we speak with?Conversation requires all of us
and silence lies.

"what motivates you,o artists?"(Michael McClanahan asks

the possibility of extinction/silence
the possibility of creating/newness
the limits of energies and the end of time
the wars outside and the peace inside
the sanctuary of free speech
the desire for more when there is less
autumn.winter.diminishing seasons
droughts.floods.pestilence.
every thing i do not agree with
every one i do agree with
the myth of individuality and uniqueness
crying in the lost wilderness
the truth that this will be forgotten
gratitudes for this being forgotten
the next attempt @Paradise
fault lines.human error.repetition
the fact that we are not there yet
the chance we just might make it in our lifetime
the dream that keeps waking me up to write this
golden words you share when all i have is silver
the exchange rate of energies gets higher
this might be my first/last/chance to express
the truth of silence swallowing this last line

"skimming along the surface like a song"

how many lives have we?how many loves?
art and music ,dance and life-all petition for halves
we tithe our arts until Well deep,we stop
to realize (one life,one chance,one heart)
Now dedicate environmentally /emotionally
to those who dance with you(will change-as you
step in to the new World/as it unwraps other parts of you..
Midnight moons give way to family breakfasts
Travels become domestic.Care specific.Named loves historic
Attention to This Present Moment gives context and New Depth
No more grasshopper forgetting winter with a green chirrup song
More a Jacobs Well of water demanding attention to our Source
Before too long(we will all be gone-we dedicate our lives
to love,life and all that sustains us in our song
Birds at breakfast sing each new morning in
Replace the waters before we all are gone

"and the first shall be last"

her first lover.first on the moon.the New World
first footstep.first birth.first mistake.human error.
first train across the prairies.first telegraph/telegram.
first one across the line.first science.first dream.

now we contemplate endings.last dodo.dinosaur,dolphin
last car museum.last white buffalo.last Concorde.last Twin Towers
last oil field.last war for oil.last pure water source.last ice berg.
Last Continent.Last day.Last hour .Last minute to Midnight

Earth shakes,rattles,rolls on axes.We are fleas she forgets
Scratch that itch,Gaia!Ride Fires,Kali!Be Energy,Shakti!
Arrogance of species to believe they were the first-or last
One tiny earth for so many empty mouths

Rocks off on Apocalypse?Armed for Armageddon?
or in Rapture @the very Gift of Life?Giving,given,gone..