“Prescience” by Charles Houghton Howard
touch tomorrow
reach out with the curious
fingers of dreams
yesterday having become
just another numb brain crease
Archives
All posts for the month October, 2017
Higgs Boson Illustration
God has won the Nobel
elementary particle physics
rejoices by dancing
to strains of electro-weak music
with Einstein’s long suffering ghost
in the church of the Hadron Collider
they tangoed and jitterbugged
down the main tubular aisle
past the bone-happy tombs
of dear Fermi and Feynman
right up to the quantum field altar
and placed the found boson
with paradigm reverence
within the ark safekeep of their
divine wrought Standard Model
already containing
the seeds of the stars
(originally posted October 2013)
“Butterfly Effect” by Adriana Groza
fickle caprice
compels tiny triggers
of force majeure moments
butterflies cause hurricanes
borrowed pennies cause revolutions
we just can’t predict
if what where or when
(originally posted April 2013)
My dear friend and fellow poet Kieran Davis, affectionately known as Baldy, has honored me beyond measure with this gracious post on his widely followed UK blog Baldypoems.
Baldy’s creative talent is amply evident in his remarkable first collection of poetry Lacuna. Make it a point to get hold of this enjoyable volume and keep your eyes peeled for his soon to be released second offering “Legacy.”
Thank you most kindly, Baldy, from the bottom of my Yankee heart. Blessings to you and the entire Davis family.
Delighted! I received two recent additions to my ever growing collection of poetry from Paul F. Lenzi. As Paul’s biggest fan across the pond, I heartily recommend reading any of this wonderful poet’s endeavours.
A prolific and pensive poet, Paul F. Lenzi has written more than twenty books, and pens a hugely popular and successful blog (https://poesypluspolemics.com/). Paul is a keen advocate for other writers, and has long been supportive of other poets (myself included). This man has as much love as he has talent (no small wonder, he is widely adored).
You can get a copy of Time Before Time here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Before-Units-When-ebook/dp/B075YDQF2B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509188124&sr=8-1&keywords=paul+lenzi+time+before+time
You can get a copy of Range of Motion here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Range-Motion-Paul-F-Lenzi-ebook/dp/B00GIZQHC6/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1509188184&sr=1-7&keywords=paul+lenzi
And finally, I am delighted to share that Paul F. Lenzi has kindly written the ‘blurb’ for my forthcoming collection, ‘Legacy’ (of which I’ll keep you posted).
Keep smiling and keep writing, much love from Baldy.
“Color Spectrum” by Peter Dranitsin
You soar in sadistic circles.
That ridiculous tail
drops from out of the blue
like a hangman’s rope from an unseen scaffold.
Its scaly black tip
traces unctuous curves
on the ground
round a gob-smacked towhead
you caught upside down
in your rivet-hot eyes.
Why punish a naïf whose
pink innocence
ought to be penance enough?
Why did you choose
to abuse him? Why set about
squeezing out humors,
in gleeful violet spurts,
from the hominy husk
of his purpling thorax?
Your jaundiced
anaconda fingers
put the devil’s red smear to bruised parchments.
They iterate vig on each wager,
noting gray small-print terms
and the succulent tangerine odds for each
seductive indulgence
borrowed
from white clapboard
jungles.
There is where brick branches burn
dull clay flambeaux
upon neat little termite mound hearths,
casting barely ambient
light on your motives.
Why so important, in other words costly,
to lift up their lavender smoke,
goading ultradian rhythms,
to your haughty flared nostrils
staring down
on pathetic
but oh so normal
subsistent grass green
desires?
(originally posted April 2013)
“The Sea at Dusk” by Emil Nolde
evening rain whispers
diminuendo of day
gives voice to the moon
a melancholy music
in tempo of transition
“Occam’s Razor” by H. Whitver
we like simple things
simple rationale for war
simpler yet for peace
reductionist thought
shaves away all the puzzling
hard metaphysics
but problems arise
when the simplest formulas
turn out to be wrong
“no” is so easy
while “yes” affirms commitment
entailing some work
beware the straight line
without testing his razor
may lead you to doom
(originally posted April 2013)
“Abstract Brain” by Jack Davis
You disappear in the light
after spending the night in my head,
taking back what you gave me,
the crystals and gems
I have no chance to wrap up in muslin.
You just snatch them right out of my brain,
assembling kaleidoscopes
inside your pockets,
already too full of
amnesia built up
of so many bland
indigestible sleeps.
But for whom will they sparkle
their herringbone joinery?
Are there eyes in your pockets,
amygdalic orbs
set among that detritus
of subconscious chattels?
Surely not mine.
That intricate overstock,
hard with translucence,
must be intended for somebody else.
Unless you have notion
to bring them again. Is that how you play?
Giving and taking, over and over,
the same limbic baubles
you won’t let my open eyes see?
If so then I beg,
before vanishing next time,
please leave me
a name, or a smell,
some imprint
my tongue can re-taste
or my fingers retrace,
so I can be sure
when I sleep
I don’t die.
(originally posted April 2013)
my friend Peter Notehelfer writes here with elegant simplicity – this is the best baseball/life metaphor I’ve ever read
“Winding River” by Mr AMeeBa
The mortuaries for young hopes and dreams
Are built in middle age when first we find
Real obstacles impede the flow of streams
We mapped for navigation in our mind
But callow yearnings for romantic end
Should not be coffin-laid before their time
Such wonder is their power to transcend
The tortured course that challenges our prime
Experience yields choices grown more sage
Less likely to abjure a changing line
We modify our prospects as we age
Through crisis, chance or canny redesign
What matters after all is done and tied
Is did we find the bliss beneath the pride
(originally posted April 2013 – written years earlier)
Poesy plus Polemics 