Applause

Photo from ‘The Guardian’

(Originally posted February 2014)

(For Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014)

what agony pierces the veins
with such pleasure that art
must be murdered by muscle
and malice self-loathing the
criminal mastermind inside
the psycho-biology tortured
by exquisite talent and pain
breaks the hearts that erupt
in applause moved and lifted
aloft by a consummate body
of work time and over again
left to grieve and consider why
some gifts are so ill-endowed
with inherently punishing
conflict of blessing and curse

Sparrows

Illustration of China’s Great Sparrow Campaign from “The Free Republic”

 

(Regarding the ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’ of Mao Zedong)

 
 
an arrangement of sparrows

disturbing to new revolutions

a cultural warning that power

cannot be extorted from nature

no surly deployed great leap forward

can subjugate raw ecological forces

no matter the vulnerability suffered

by man’s own prerogative politics

turning of guns on each other is

ultimately in the great cosmic

context of no lasting consequence

politics being at best and at worst

an ephemeral human estate

but in drawing a bead upon nature

herself even tyrants need recognize

nature will have her revenge

Old Waters

 

“Water Abstract” Digital Photo by Carlos

 

in the belly of seas
ancient rains
once washed
truths taught
by myths
of Olympus
gave glisten to
Greek golden age
under Pericles
bathed the
inquisitive impulse
of Socrates
seeking for answers
to questions
that in themselves
elevate man
and morality

in the belly of seas
down and deep
the same waters
that nourished
antiquity mix
with new fluids
the discharged
remains of the
modern democracy
drained by neglect
of minds moved
to an arrogant
dryness of dogma
truths fixed by
presumptions of
self-proclaimed
demigods

Identity

 

“Identity Crisis” by Thomas C. Fedro

(Originally posted June 2013)
 

am I who I see

in the mirror

or in the sheen

of your eyes

 

am I who I hear

in my breathing

or in the beats

of your heart

 

perhaps I am

all of them

but what if

I am none

 

I Am Autumn

“Autumn Abstract” by David Lane

 

I am autumn

come sit here with me

bring your silence

as summer recedes

give us listen

my speeches of color

each outburst

a soundless explosion

reflecting the thoughts

that I know to be

troubling you

draped with despair

helpless grief

at the dying of summer

and with it its promise

to make you a place

in its ancient admired

beds of beauty

a place of respect

an inclusion

in cultural gardens

conveying a dignity

long in abeyance

withheld by ambivalent

warm sun and sky

too preoccupied

with their familiars

to recognize differences

strengthen their realm

that diversity serves

to enrich their dominion

their vast astronomical

prelacy pointless

unless it will bless both

the silent and vocal

the dreary and vivid

the weak and the strong

I am autumn

come sit here with me

mark my colors

these old and new

foreign and

native phrased hues

brief reminders

that illustrate why

life is better in spectrum

my job is transition

my joy to recite of those

unfulfilled promises

dying does not

lead to death

but a fading to sleep

for a season of rest

a few months of reflection

to contemplate coolly

the culpable civics

mistakenly geared

to aversion of change

I am autumn

come sit here with me

let’s compose a new world

a new portrait of words

to arrive with

fresh ethical flourish

of wider compassion

awakened in spring

Churchbells

Postcard of Burlington IA Towers & Spires

 
once ago

city Sundays

sang out

sacred chorus

of churchbells

the calling

of Christians

to prayer

the air heady

with hopes

of redemption

but that was

when men

could admit their

own sins and

experienced

genuine guilt

5:00 AM

 

“Forest Sunrise” by Do Olesovic

(Originally posted June 2013)
 

 

dawn crawls through the forest

pushing first glow between dense

hands of pine boughs and

flat fans of oak leaves

slipping onto the porch and over the sill

to settle itself in my unsleeping eyes

 

 

Skyfall

 

“Geopoliticus Child Watching Birth of the New Man” by Salvador Dali

(Originally posted February 2014)
 

pulsing like the blood of a star
our imperfect symmetries
map out an atlas of eggshells
broken in the fall from a sky rope
ambition tried climbing with
gloved moody hands till shocked
by a sound that concussed the
thin air lost their promising grip
the great noise came from mouths
of swarmed murderous microbes
unleashed by indifference they
screamed with malignance of hunger
and now in calamitous aftermath
pieces of eggshells lay rocking
with insult on curved broken backs
staring up at lost destiny even as
they became slowly devoured and
changed all the maps of the world

Blood Orange

 

“Blood Orange” by Kim Blair

 

sweet delicate pain

infuses a ripe

wounded flesh

taste of color

exotic to eye

and to tongue

touched by reverie

round in the rind

a skin pungent

familiar yet filled

with delightful

traumatic surprise

not unlike

private injuries

suffered by strangers

whose fruit

we might never

select or enjoy

Hearing the Fire

 

“Sound of Fire” by ademilo

(Originally posted February 2014)
 

 

loud whoosh-whooshing flames
smother ambient sounds
burning brain gases
hissing from open-cocked jets
geriatrically triggered in
cochlear coils blotting out
the sweet noise of nostalgia
the concert that otherwise
rings with red rhapsody
memory music internally
broadcasting anthems of
cool supple youth but the
blistering roar of the fire is all
that old age-punished ears
are allowed in this vascular
prison of stultified senses