OUR TIMES HAVE HAPPENED BEFORE

in retrospect and miniature
Not Narcissus yet necessary myths
we need explore
Tantalus/Aesop/La Fontaine
need a retrofit/an update
to cover cautious optimism
and enhanced interrogation
All the ghosts of September 11
will rise up and address the nation
defying all popular sentimentalities
They pitch their bodies out of buildings
We have survivors guilt/compassion fatigue
know too much of massacres and intrigue/
fall of nations compromised by diplomacy
still"huddled masses yearning to breathe free"
underneath this one world economy=
you and me

people are disappearing

First the homeless one by one/in a jail cell or a Potters Field.
Next the young in schools or job cages.Then the old in rest homes with no rest.
(An empty bed one morning)And here we are among the anonymous
the shape of shadows slipping on the wall.Until noone round to comment
on this at all..

loving london

start with a one-day offpeak travelcard
for a highspeed javelin train between
ashford international and st.pancreas international.
Walk(or bus)your way to the National Portrait Gallery(free admission)
where english luminaries are depicted in oils and photographs
(This time Mick Jagger from the 1960s,with pix from record sleeves)
Walk(or bus)your way to Trafalgar Square ,where Prime Minister Cameron
is boosting the Para-Olympics,surrounded by best of Britpolice and many media
Walk to the Academy of St Martin In The Fields,then bus to St Paul's Cathedral
If you do not wish to pay admission,choose a buffet from Chinatown or Pizza Express
Catch more red buses to the Idea Generation Gallery.Stop at the Owl and the Pussycat pub.
Atten a launch of Nigel Waymouth's 1960s art,which launched the UFO club
talk to Mouse who did the lights for Sgt Peppers,and who shares the lyrics
dropped into the trash and casually left there.
Hear tales of legendary bands-Pink Floyd,Jimi Hendrix,Soft Machine
all who played the UFO club-a spawning ground for International Times
soon to become TIME OUT.Meet the survivors of the swinging 60s-
still bright of eye and sharp of mind.Respect is due their brave accomplishments..
Take some pix to prove you were among these luminaries
Catch a bus then train then bus then high speed train back to Ashford
Drive home after stopping at ASDA and talk excitedly about London,September 8,2011

you are your kittens/prepare well

count your days on a calendar if you will
my friend has guinea pigs/four have died/four remain
she cares for each with love and equanimity
each will die and not be replaced
they occupy a temporary space in her capacities
graveyards of guinea pigs litter her yard
Death is more than a mystery-it is an end
Every journey home needs to start at the beginning

last days of the village pub

we need to meet.we need to talk.
we need to be with each other while it is possible
come on down to the pub and have a nattter
not a franchise pub with no choice of lager
more a warm wooden Ark of smiles and laughter
with two of every creature on the pool table
and bubbles of conversation filling the liquid air
This is not romance-nor history.It is happening as you read me
So i went down the local to see what is
and the Coach and Horses in Lyminge exists
as a village pub where folk still gather
to keep up with the news and each other
And we laughed and joked until the night grew dark
and we walked back home with a conversation sparked
by a space where words were both warm and welcomed
and we regretted the loss of this fine tradition
and we may never be here again/when
pubs are closed and closing /and
where can we meet in a time of austerity
to talk ourselves back into happiness and prosperity?

if these walls could dance

they would be all ages-
elderley arthritis bone jump
young spring step grass smiles
middle age plump matron jiggle
wild thin juverniles kicking high
it is the people make the music
instruments ofenergies in theirhands
they play the hall like exploratores
dance you in to another land
and the band may change but movement remains
the way to deal with work and woes
step inside theat dance hall and you will know
where the community goes..

I GET DISTRACTED (easily

forget you are in a different time zone-already in a new day
and you have already heard all those speeches
we are just getting exposed to.Revolution was a Beatles tune
and it had different endings-just like Russia ,China,Kampuchea
You want to believe in human nature-yet even that became a pop song
Every cliche has been expropriated.Every song a bandwidth and wagon.
In Frontierland,one can pretend the West goes on forever
You remember Chenobyl,acid rain,Sellafield
and must live among ruins of past invasions.
I can only visit .Grit tough and dirt poor,
you withdraw from debate when speeches
are replaced by muskets and bayonets
Bodies of miners ,Luddittes,Fenians,Chartists,Socialists,Communists
Karl Marx wrote his Manifesto in your British Library
Trade Unions still march on May 1
here,we believe all can be changed by a NEW NEW
You have seen the olden fall in to decaying mansions
You still have a National Trust.
Blake's New Jerusalem vision survived Industrial Revolutions
Punk music now as passe as mohawks and chains
I get distracted easily.Remind me again
about the cyclic chains of tides of history..

[austinpoetry] WAKA!

Woke to anew.
Lost shell old-
welcome to nothing!

PERSONALITY PRISON
Escape!

MY ONLY HOME
This body/planet

FISH USE A HOOK
to catch our attention

AGE OF MY BOAT SKIN
Sinking.

OFF THE PATH
Another Path!

62 cycles
still new each morning

MY WINDOWS LOOK OUT
as you look inwards

EMPEROR OF FLOWERS
cannot rule all weeds!

Laughter,friendship=
Remedies,panaceas!

Tea Ceremony(not the tea!
Coffee Shop(for poetry!


5-HOT MAMAS 5-8 @2401 east 6th/KICK BUTT 7-10 @5775 west airport-OPEN STAGES!

rescue remedies

we have a rescued cat(TOOTS!
still wary,wilde,free to scratch,claw and climb,she
does not know how lucky she might be
You have a rescued dog(BASIL)
he is barking,nervous wilde-
you send him to dog obedience classes
but he forgets
Sometimes,when i look into their eyes,i wonder
what has happened to them in this wilde world
how it is they were abandoned/.Whether they remember
more than the traumas which make them insecure
or are they to be defined only via disasters?
Are owners like their pets?
Are we recsued via them? Is caring for another
a form of rescue for the human animal?
I look in to your eyes and wonder
what led you to compassion,caring,graciousness
Can we all be rescued via kindness?
Is there enough room in this Ark-
for two of every creature?

every leaf a mulch,every compost garden

we live among what has been before-
relationships sinking,deserts of emotion
within all tides are sailors,dreaming waters
their last our first,only,every harbor a port
They translated all emotions in to thoughts
They make maps that we must update-
here a roadblock,there a variable speed limit
All the while camera eyes digital as distance
judge yet will not asist.Yet'i love the modern world'
accept all change,remain as water and as flow
into the new that grows/deeper than all we know

SO MANY,SO MUCH,SO OFTEN

Visualise flowers,a garden,wilde and rainforestry
Coloure,scents,sounds of living among fernery
This jungle lives inside you and me

You roam as primal and as free
as virtual is to AVATAR imagery/we
are hunters of the impossible dream

Mother,lover,friend,ally,companion
You wander,associating with good company
Noting Eden before,Armageddons after

Paths are plentiful awaiting exploration
We are primal instinctual actual
Creating what is out of dreams of what may be

IN OUR TIME

resurrecting circle,spiral,tribe,orb
elliptical as Chinese poetry
smiling rivers

all elemental transforms
us in to we/who affirm such alignments
as necessary medicine

bye,bye,dualism/duelling duets
hello more and many
altered natives...