Our Pope was a Young Nazi

To be American,you must swear not to support
the Nazi Government of Germany(which has long disappeared)
Right-wing ideologues may still spout racist hate speech
(Free Speech is at the core an American value)
Shouting"FIRE!"in a crowded theater
or targeting people because of their race
is sometimes(selectively) prosecuted
Israel has jailed whistle-blowers who revealed Israeli nuclear capacities
Israel has spied upon American armed forces(jailed Pollard)
Israel receives $4billion of military aid from America yearly
Israel daily threatens a first strike upon Iran
and has urged America to do this for them/and to subsidize it!
War is against our(American)interests(we cannot afford it!)
There is no gain to be made from expending our blood and treasure
on any nation-for another nation's benefit.Every body loses.
For a poet to warn about bellicose saber-rattling militarism is a Cassandra warning
For a nation to ignore poets is the way of this world
May all your cautionary verse be free...

soft stones/pebble avalanches

Blue eyes-
Sea? Sky!

COLORS AMONG GREEN
Flowers?Birds!

River,slow,lost-
Dammed.

Hole in sky-
Ex-trees.

Ask not for whom
the road tolls

Old books?Literacy
Unplugged

Skin Flower
Blossoms!

Wildflower highways
Seeding rainbows!

Allergic 2
chemical sunsets

Hills had a haircut-
Bald Rock !

Flat black tarmac
car strapped

Snake skin gardens
expelling Eden

Earth opens
envelope skin

Slip ashes &bones
Begin again..

towards sacred/pilgrimage

a tale was told of a Golden City
Conquistadors plundered /took home yellow fever
what is most valuable/adored

Yellow Brick Road to London/Elton John
Capitol of Commerce and Commercial Hits
He marries his love/wears a new wig/like a financial district

Da Vinci Code/Conspiracy Theories
Jesus escaped from the Apocrypha
Had a child with Mary Magdelene

Tourists click Pyramids/Olympic Games/Titanic Exhibitions
Digital Art Galleries Damien Hirst/decaying shark/diamond skull
The Sacred Sold as Holy Indulgences/ART!

Still we line up for SPECTACULARS!
Jesus,Buddha,Dalai Lama,James Cameron
Tickets sold for artifacts that will survive us

Touch the Holy!Buy your Crucifix!
Be the First One on your block to wear a Crown Of Thorns
Now you know why Socrates never wrote anything down.

TITANIC&THE PYRAMIDS

In their time,both were world wonders
Both remain in vestigial splendor even now
Both were initiation chambers
Both are surrounded by corpses
Empires have risen and fallen
Museums filled with artifacts from both
Both are symbols of Babylon-
an arrogance to brag and to boast
None of their original crew still exist
Technology has yet to establish a sequel
to Titanic and Pyramids were both made by man
Did gods get jealous?Capstones removed/artifacts auctioned
Hubris of engineers/pride of construction
We may never see their like again
No modern cruise ship follows their example down
No human makes Cheops @Thebes or Karnak
Valley of the Kings still reveals new secrets
James Cameron still sells new formats
Behomeths both/symbols of lost Ages
Opulence and astronomy /aligned with the best
We will never see their like again
unless in 3D ,HG,IMAX special effects spectaculars.
Touring Exhibitions of the Grateful Dead.

On not being able to ask for help &

i did not make it here alone
i cannot stay without assistance
i am part of family ,friends-networks
that sustain via positive inputs

if i were to pretend uniqueness
my sisters would laugh because they know
my mother wants rhyming poetry
and i cannot supply her-so

i ask them for assistance
they supply the stated need
she is brave in asking
i both cede and concede

without others-there is no point nor purpose
in communicating who we are and why
this very artform demands shared audience
and you know why...

voice is choice

to chant,hum,sing,affirm,converse
repeat choruses of positive enchantments
to bring one into tribal unity/and we
are never silent

outside the shouts and screams /protests
angry @a world of wars and want
stressed out @lack of participatory engagement

inside one heart propels blood beat and pulse
courses through each/all/every
to make a rhythm that sustains us

if the inner could rule all outer
so the harmonic circles and spirals
curl like waves of joy towards light
and we might all surf sunrises
rather than sun sets...

calendar selves

he rips off the day from each page of the calendar
tears off the weeks and the months and the years
he thinks he is change /yet he barely remembers
who he was yesterday/who he really is

date of his birthday does not define him
year of his birth just another fact
how old he may be /what he can do
all of these are just random like that

his limits become the world around him-
how far he can walk(or run)away
if he cannot move (or find an alternative)
then for the moment /i guess he will stay

ripping out articles from daily newspapers
throwing away subscriber magazines
all that he was no longer matters
most of his life is composed of old dreams

what is sweetest of all

is adaptation to adventures-
to turn in the moment as opportunities present themselves
Travel is wearying/exciting simultaneously
as we grow elder,guided we need be-
that solo spark fire becomes a warm bed and breakfast
that hike through the hills a rest in a room
May your steps take you to bright new sparklescapes
May your eyes delight in astonishing scenes
And if the walk is too hard,may you be well rested
in the cradle of gentle sweet traveling dreams...

second hand world

luminaries flicker through front doors
sharing Tales Of Brave Adventures-
Argentina,England,Australia,Canada,
they were there in Golden Times

i listen like a microphone
to stories from another time
transport them through rhyme
witness second hand

too many wars tub thumping hate
when we need more to relate
tales of peace and harmonies
art,music,love in poetry

so this reminds our warring times
we all may live in different minds
Solutions we have yet to find
A garden we are growing in..

Relate

word is alive and well!

but it has morphed and spawned many children-
text and Tweet for newbies/Ritalin Generation/dyslexic/ADHD
HALLMARK greeting cards for the nominally emotional
Country and western for the sentimentalists
Novels for airport reading/ebooks for instant messaging
Magazine articles for leisure and dentists offices
Poetry for teardrops,loveloss,departures,fragments and moments
we share with intimates-a private/public language
that whispers to each prisoner"YOU ARE FREE!"
and this is where the door is-as it swings open(in imagination
it is not the rules or cages set us free
it is the lilt of our magic and music underneath...

chants,spells,invocations,incantations,affirmations
as soon as your voice reaches cadence and resonance
you are alive as well!

and this is why we sing

shades,shapes,shadows

someone you love will leave
(hole in your heart)
they are unique-no other has their history
you picture them in their shine
bright as daylight/stronger than sun
now gone.darkness comes
you wear black and grieve
it is for the hole they leave
dig them in earth -ashes/bones
you carry their picture in yours
a part of you leaves with them
best-a part of them rests in you
Here is what you do-
carry their best @all times
Picture them present ,prescient,smiling
We all have our ghosts
They all own a part of us
until we leave
or forget

selective memories

words go to war before boots on the ground
Falklands?Malvinas!English?Spanish!
Argentina so close to tiny Malvinas-
few folk with more sheep than hope

Empires Historic vs Geography
Who owns littoral?Who owns sea?
Carbon footprints yomp across inhospitable terrain
to "recapture"freedom for a British name

Exocets,Sheffield,aluminium burning
Dumb bombs and malfunctioning weapons
1200 young conscripts on the General Belgrano
died for no reason in the Exclusion Zone

Reagan/Thatcher-alliance geriatric
American Intelligence/British weapons
Troops flown half way round the world
for ungrateful sheep herders

It could have gone either way
Malvinas could be Argentine today
Folly persists when Empires play
with human lives for no real gain

Generals send the young to graves
Empires always kill their slaves.

drones,robots,distance education

momentary fad is anomie-we
cannot afford live bait/hence robot wars
Talk to the machine/it responds
to commands like drones/cars/phones
bombing homes/women/children
Pilot Error becomes Program Malfunction-
to wipe out a village to save a village
It takes a whole village to mourn and resist
One drone can ruin your whole day
Just because you have power does not mean
You have any right to abuse it.

for the worker in words

and the player of songs
it is less the walls that divide
than the bridges on guitars
Tuning in to the whirl
while words clouds pass
seeking rain of inspiration
life as art.Start!

Spring Green Man

A Light Rain/A Reign of Light
Spring will not be denied(i tried!
Green shoots in lines along tree bough
sends insurrections down the ranks
of waiting volunteers prepared to rise
against the reign of lawnmowers, fences, houses
Their anarchy is no surprise/the last time they died
was drought time/it lasted long and deep
the price of life was steep(we could not pay
so all our green children were all brown decay

Outside, i hear new birds gossiping/moving in
now they have green worms to live upon
Knowledge must be passed down generations
The price of ignorance is to be consumed young

Thin weeds are now triumphant pirates
bearded buccaneers swashbuckling bushes
They will not wait but rise in new revolt
at anything that limits revolution

Rain is accessory. She aids and abets.
Without water, all resistance would dry up
Love is lonely without another. All nature made of
lovers
and we were undercover white winters/now green
succulent Springs!
Thom World Poet


BLUE
Picasso's period-emotional as music
Sky blue-impossible optimism/ contradicted by chemtrails/vapor trails
Sea blue-layers and levels of depths of truth
All babies' eyes are blue to begin
Theme in Blue-jazz composes us
Blue Danube-a river of Strauss
Blue Bayou-Roy Orbison lives here!
Blue Hawaii-Elvis turns color from black and white!
Blues Muse-turning Black and Blue into bruises
Violet Indigo Blue Green Yellow Orange Red
Hazy horizon separating blue sky from blue seas
Blue as the day s/he left. Bluer when s/he returned!
Blue Velvet-where images toxic /noxious bumblebee
suburbs grass
Blue Man Group-who is beneath? Why multiples
touring?
I am blue-Monet Blue-purples and pinks kiss me
You are blue-Magritte blue-apples and bowler hats
Blue as swimming pool David Hockney
Blue as Geoffrey Smart.Mirror sea blue
wave blue. Reflecting blue. How can you be blue?
So many ways to watch these waves of blue
Sit on the horizon and feel blue. Sky blue
Watch this apple world from space-it is a blue planet
The only one with potable water. It defines us
We are loved by blue. More than the man in the
moon
Blue calls you to oceans, seas, rivers, pools
DIVE IN! You will become blue in time
Your time is blue!


HALF A THOUGHT
i have half a mind to lapse in to nostalgia-
about the Golden Age of poetry
when everyone shared their words and thoughts and dreams and songs
and met at every available opport/unity
to make/create/renew associations older than time
This is you. Now. Yes! and we compound and spin
eccentric orbits
like privately funded space projects. We subsidize
ourselves
If there is a way to add to and make new this moment
find us polishing our space capsules in preparation
for launch
Flow goes with us @all times
We are in process, in orbit and in flight
There is no point repeating choruses of past lies
The gift of present intention makes all right
(we will be here all night folks!-
this is only half a thought-the rest you get
once you express your response
to the possibility that we have only begun to
sing
and dreams enter new/ each and every evening...


NIGHT FISHERMAN
Each night,i cast
this web net for words
i bring in stars and one lump moon
a good night's catch! Reflections
of heavens above while on the surface
enough love to feed a family
Waves away and deeper, larger issues swim
They have been here before my expeditions
Sometimes, i snag upon them
I tear my nets and need repair
Hobble back to safer harbors
to meditate upon white moon whales
shark corporations, the cost of licenses
details that add up to less than what i started with
I shall set out again tonight. Stars are wise enough
to keep their distances, and moon don't mind if i
catch her
She thinks it is only optical illusion seas
reflecting on my waters what is so far beyond me
I let her go(of course)-mysteries so beautiful
are always catch-then release

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
vision-quest
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

Sun

Spring sun heats our green garden
until plants cry out /parched and bone
Water barrels are still full from last showers
Rain is only a promise away.As they rise
we watch green limbs meet.They seem to need each other
In this heat,shield each other.Perhaps the plants
are talking amongst themselves.Perhaps if we
listened very carefully,we might be less pink
more green and golden and blooming!

On Ladybird Lake,one blue heron

rose in a flap of wings out of the waters
into a sky blue as Van Gogh
Around the edges,plastic bottles and cans
congregated together to make mass out of mess
We do not know hat impelled her flight
i dare not think of plastic rings on beaks
nor pecking at our detritus/we stole moving images
that omitted the truth of squalor/cropped frames
so only wings filled eyes and skies
could be a refuge/apart from exhausts from traffic
falling kerosene vapor tails,chemtrails
and a watery cage that held our pasts
as it sank our future
into WARNING signs
Birds cannot read.

one night (for a dare

we were tempted to compare
W H Auden with Phillip Larkin
a posthumous duel ,with favorite poems
quoted to see who might carry the trophy home

Memorable lines repeat without weariness=
Refresh,refresh,refresh!
Sex for me began in 1963...
Of each other ,we should be kind/while there is still time

Epiphanies are rare.Lightning bugs,few survive bottling times
Is not the test of a waterhole or sacred place
the desire to return just one more time?

Choice is all.Each footstep falls where it will.
What is written cannot be un-
Both Auden and Larkin are done
We await new creations.

each year,another tree planted

the winds of west texas are strong and severe
they test you with grit in your teeth
you plant a hope seed when you plant a tree
the test is to see which succeeds

you may think that the flatlands have nothing to hide
that a forest would never breed
where there is water ,and earth,and sunlight
a tree can find roots that it needs

it takes a whole village to love saplings
to nurture the young and fragile
if they make it to elder status-only then
is it time to smile

with a kiss,each circle commits
itself as a tree to this earth
birth may seem easy as planting
it is life asks for the real work

some will succeed,some blown down
some give up before they bloom
we plant seeds in the earth in trust
for water,wind,dirt,sun and moon

FOR FORREST FEST April 20/21(Preview April 7,2012)

ETERNAL TRIANGLE

Baudelaire,Verlaine,Rimbaud-reactionary addicts
referencing each to each -like Beats
whose social milieu was slim and suicidal.
For those so full of life-they were"mad,bad,and dangerous to know"
Bohemians via consumption of alcohol,sex,drugs
Ill via basic health violations,dying young became their cardinal definition.
Baudelaire venerated Poe-yet saw in him a "creative beatitude"
Verlaine venerated Baudelaire as role model,and drank with him
Rimbaud loved Verlaine with a sadistic eagerness
Verlaine's prison based redemption was never secure-
his poetry praised Baudelaire,while his life degenerated into a squalid mess.
Rimbaud felt himself "cursed" and sought a way out of Hell by being totally modern
All three adopted contrary stances ,embracing their misery as illumination
It is not their misery that illumines them-it is their acts of creation...

PERSONAL EMPOWERMENTvs EMPIRES&CONTROL

Despots and tyrants bribe,cajole,enforce loyalty
Devas,faeries,elves ,piskies advise us gently
The clash of Empires crumbling in our times continues
Yoga ,tai chi,meditation ,Reiki vs guns,bombs,incarceration
asks for balance both personal and political
Earth based future temporary autonomous zones like communes and Findhorn
are rare and threatened via internal politics
Overnight,despots destroyed via social media
Autonomy and individual freedom rare,precious,lost and losing
via universal surveillance,epidemic fear and monstrous mass media manipulations
Dynamic interplay of influences poetic,philosophical ,political merge
with a continuous stream of ideas antique yet revived under new labels
Cliches cannot cover change as much as choice
We are in astonishing times.Use your voice!

LOVING OUR LIBRARIES

spaces as sanctuaries for people to flip through silently
updated technology -from video and cassette to ebook,kindle,nook
computers plugged in like a modern monastery
Cheerful cheeriness ,knowing learning is liquidity
and change is part of the learning.If you look-everywhere is cut
Libraries,parks and gardens more than most
This blind Stoic austerity will not stop their Herculean tasks-
to share the wisdom of both pasts and present to make a better tomorrow
Of course Google has replaced Encyclopaedia Britannica
Of course digital is replacing hard and soft covered texts
Of course the young have different reading patterns
Yet the hunger for learning and curiosity in gathering
makes libraries a perennial community tool.
We will always need to learn.Mostly after hours
There will always be spaces and places dedicated to this search
These are called "libraries"and the lovers of literacy="librarians!"

CANYON OF DREAMS

"if the sun would doubt
its fire would immediately go out"(William Blake)
long roads.no pit stops.eventually,we go offroad
into the new.without knowing(a Cloud of Unknowing
self-initiation.a new suit grows.green.golden.
tadpole to frog.chrysalis to butterfly.
blows that beat us down now no longer
Lizard grows new tale.Snake a new story skin.
Wings of levity defeat gravity via lift and lilt and laughter
Songlines become apparent.Invisible dewdrops as roadstops
you drink,refreshed.New yous are waiting for your flight
You stand upon the cliff and trust your dreams tonight

DEMOCRATIC PARTY ESTATE SALE

Once upon a Texas time,there was a Democratic Party!
Celebrated names included Faulk and Yarborough
supporting Federal McCarthys and Kennedys and Carters
Some go back to Harry Truman for example-all of this in books,
posters,photos,histories bound in dusty time,patrolled by guards
to be sold to those who treasure their pasts.I see Carl Sandburg
I see William Blake.I see a glass piece of art and some Beerbohm caricatures
War via Bayeux Tapestry i ignore-more has been sold from the estate of this lawyer politician
who funded posters and stickers and badges and buttons for Democratic candidates
Populism's artifacts with prices half off Sunday,75% Monday.
The poetry collection is traditional,anorexic and slim
Politics is thick here-men in suits with power
staring out from pages of grave books
covering times pre-us.History.I look at the rich cars illegally parked.
Admire people's desire to learn their origins.Buy nothing-lust for Blake,Sandburg,Beerbohm.
Libraries are lost like this-dispersed via deaths
Democracy an ongoing experiment in populism
Once the past is cleared from collections-what is next?
As Sandburg said"We are the people.What else will you call us?"
Terrorists? Nostalgists?

i have a friend who has a son

who is being trained in piloting drones
she is very glad he is not being posted to Afghanistan
that he will remain thousands of miles away
from the people he will be killing

"29% get burnout"
more experience moral qualms
no Heidegger might assuage
he loves his mother very much

the training that he gets pays well
he comes home to visit and helps her
soon he may be married and have children
never having actually been to war

here is where cyberwarfare offshores guilt
by killing distances,then going home
after a long hard shift.

messages in the trees

apparently indigenous bent young saplings down
to show where rivers,springs and pools
might guide one through with no paths
these trees remain today as signs and symbols

apparently energy use is now multiplicitous
(not reliant upon any one source)
post-Chenobyl/Three Mile Island/Fukoshima
Hiroshima and Nagasaki

apparently coal mines strip earth and our lungs
apparently fracking destroys water supplies
apparently batteries cannot store energy for long
electric cars are like bicycles on batteries

apparently forests denuding,global warming
apparently temperatures rising in concrete cities
apparently we did not listen-to tree ,nor indigenous
apparently we still have alternatives-

to listen,watch with respect ,reverence,wonder
how to best be with wind,water,sun,tides-gaia and mother nature

breathing spaces

between breaths-
mindfulness!

selecting thoughts-
Greatest Hits!

Selective Memories
re-issued in sepia

One Moments Reiteration
Never two snowdrops

Stone in a pond
Philosopher

Garden Soundtrack
Bee busy,flip wing flutter bye

Frog watching
Us

Tree branch embrace
Baby birds nest

waves of days
stars of nights

old crone moon
changes her costume

ants on overtime
miniature Pyramids

our work is best @night (when silence and stars conspire

deepest drops taste better via morning light
when you can see the skin page your diary mind has milked
and legs can perambulate around your writers block
Night releases all that is concealed via noise and light
Darkness is a womb for fertile circulations
it breeds fantastic proportions that simply will not fit within a box
Work may wait,but words are bricks of cloud dreams
built when we are sleeping.They may divide us from each other
yet their solidities are reassuring for Yellow Brick Roads leading to unknowns
The road to London was paved with Gold Bricks for Dick Whittington
If we are deep and silent,sometimes walls of attention fall
and we are exposed to the full spectra of starlit constellations
They pierce curtains enough to draw thoughts out
Feelings can then enter,and drama begins(again!
Whatever happens next is always unknown
It is wise to dream.

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

Sonnets of stars strung Xmas lights
Moon balloons office parties
Blinking spy satellites smiling smug
Flash of comet splash!
Armageddon or Rapture?
The Party Has Begun!

anarchist grasses OCCUPY lawnmowers
illegal weeds WIKILEAK
Spring rains splash ANONYMOUS
Everywhere =EXPRESSIONS!

by any poetic means necessary
by the light of the silvery moon
by Heavens,we will be gladdened
by our own hands,we will write poems

Each moment dedicated to our common Muse-
She slips silver stars,Apollo Sun,Fool Mother Moon

WORD WAGONS

Loading Lexicons in pre-Lexus sedans
taping oral dialects of divergence and differences-
colloqualisms ,argot Americanisms,regional verbalisms
fons et origo evolving into a dictionary of common speech usage
1965 from Madison,Wisconsin,cars collected linguistic contemporary conventions
transcribing tapes of speech stylings,patois,vernacular,
utilizing etymology,orthography,pronunciations,
hunting dialect lexemes,lemmae,and phrasings(annotating all!
For the first time.,our American language was demarcated via
geography,topography,heritage and immigration.A linguistic census!
Never before and never again has slang been elevated to more than ebonics
Fred Cassidy's "Dictionary of American Regional English"exists
like Encyclopaedia Britannica pre-Google
a quizzical and unique time bound imprint
of a language long changed,for a people
even more altered via speech ,class,dialect ,region and accent.

PESANTEUR!,(PERFORMATIVE PROVOCATIONS!)

Style over substance?or text over context?
Jazz rhythms,repetitions,choruses,blues
assist the birth of declarative statements
Whether language tools replace the message
challenges substance over style.How over why.
Aphorisms exist due to pithy truths
Music a language of feelings mixed
We are language animals,Heraclitus!
Exegesis is an artform,too!Conceptual density rules!
High art may need high priests,
but culture come sin divergent containers
Spinoza,Sartre,Stendhal,Steiner all sing
it is the notes in the register that ring!

REMIX,REUSE,USE,ABUSE

Pirate Bay members jailed for file-sharing illegally.

Google bypassing privacy settings on Apple iPhones

Anonymous posting online hacked audio recordings of FBI and Scotland Yard meetings

so then Interpol busted 31 Anonymous LulzSec hackers

Piracy vs copyright,sovereignty vs freebooters,privacy vs invasive government agencies

Vint Cerf,Jeff Moss,Joshua Corman and Dan Kaminsky personify these conflicts

Internet Evangelists vs encryption,Patriot Act vs Arab Spring

China's Great Firewall censors universally.War Games vs Dead Addict's DefCon

Darknets vs Iranian  Internet spying.Sopa and Pipa vs Anonymous.

Transparency vs Security Agencies.Hacktivism vs NSA/CIA/FBI actions

Taxation vs data privacy /cyber-security.Freedom vs boundaries.

Organized Chaos vs botnets.Conflicts of policy/security vs community.

Closing the Internet in Egypt and Syria /spying in China and Iran

government and commercial criminal violations of privacy everywhere

This is your Internet 3.0 (2012 style.What happens next is ...

what happens next(is engagement

Two Myths accuse our Generation-
Myth of Narcissism and Myth of Solipsism
We are not just talking to ourselves for ourselves
This is a conversation-begun when we engage
to ourselves/for ourselves with other than our singular selves
Every facet of a bee's eye.Every fragment of this world's mirrors
reflect upon our common unique problems and solutions
await our applied attention and intention
is required to activate more than Muse
Love,Will and Power transform simple self-absorption
into a ferocious engagement of energies-we
are breathing the same air as past and future poets
The time was always now to activate new scripts
Did you forget your lines?Can you improvise?