“Internal Conflict, Eternal Enemy” by Candace Fong
right brain left brain
crease to crease contest
intuition takes on logic
faith is the referee
From my book Bullets from Bones
Brain
All posts tagged Brain
“Rusty Bucket” by Jim Gensheer
thoughts leaking precision
from buckets of brains
hauled from decade to decade
old scholarship banged up
by too many trip-and-falls
clumsy with age among
fast moving new-minted minds
never stepping in classical stains
from incontinent seepage
of once settled science
From my book Bohemian Scents
Image from Etsy.com
neurons misfire
embarrassment fills the air
strangers speculate
From my books Ephemera and Riverthink
“Labyrinth of the Mind” by Kath Mander
we arrange life
in warrens of chambers
miniature worlds
we govern at whim
kings and queens
within mirrors who
rule all reflections
refusing the sing-song
of strangers abroad
preferring ad libitum
sounds that our tongues
bounce off surfaces
all facing inward
waiting for each
note to die
in its echo
before giving out
with the next
model freedom
for privately
living the life
that we choose
even one that sustains
no true melody
nonetheless
stretching our
singleton phonemes
to dullest of limits
attaining atonal
longevity
long as we don’t
step outside
where it’s others
who make all the rules
and play music that
surely will kill us
(originally posted October 2013)
“Brain 1” by Radu Suciu
words in verse on a page
amply tattoo the literate skin of the mind
two-dimensional representations of thoughts
given vascular voice
speaking meaning to membranes
that pulse with the purpose of poets
absorbed through the draw of a subdural thirst
to be sated by lyrical genius
(originally posted October 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)
“The Demon Flying” by Mikhail Vrubel
the drumbeat that no one hears
rumbles over and under electrified skin
raising follicles up into tiny volcanoes
bristling with vibrating hairs
that prickle the sulphurous air
apprehensive antennae
pointlessly searching for danger abroad
unaware that it swims underneath
airless membranes of reason
submerged in cold currents
of viscous mucosa
irrational medium nourishing growth
of bi-ovular twins
paranoia and manic delusion
stalking even before legs develop
gripping without any hands
vital organs of shadows with slithering tails
and reptilian wings
who slip inside walls to only emerge
when doctors and nurses
retreat from the room
with their keys
(originally posted April 2013)
“Speeding Train” by Ivo Pannaggi
a train runs through my brain
it rattles the glass of my spine
driving payloads of pain across
tracks of dark neurons that spark
in black cracks of dead bones
it keeps picking up speed racing
farther away from the moment
they split me apart just to lift out
my heart leaving microbes
to seed their invasion and set
down to feed on my parts that
once dreamed of a gentle old age
(originally posted December 2013)
“Book Shelf” by Kyle Poirier
Scent implants memories
Deep in the regions
Where instinct and impulse
Lead unconscious lives
They sleep until called
By odd stimulations
Off time, out of place
But familiar no less
Though decades may pass
Since first scent encounter
Its slightest recurrence
Can involuntarily
Flush from our brains
Recollections enriched
With circumstance tied
To that unique learned smell
A whiff of her perfume
The nose of that vintage
The intimate odors
Of bedsheets at dawn
Sweet fragrances fanned
From her garden of blooms
By the flounce of her sundress
Immodestly twirled
Cracked-leather mustiness
Seeps from dry bindings
I rescued from stacks
Crowding bookseller stalls
Hung from medieval quays
On the Left Bank in Paris
Where sleep is no fit
Companion of night
Morning kitchen aromas
Waft up the back staircase
To lift me from slumber
With crave for the day
My appetite whetted
For bacon and biscuits
And beating my colleagues
To American dreams
Acrid gasoline fumes
Pervaded the cubby
Of an auto garage where
I learned to play poker
And came to realize the
Professional purpose of
Pin-up girl calendars
Sockets and ratchets
Redolent orange peels
Clustered like blossoms
Direct on blue flames
Of a porcelain stove
Where their gradual char
Gave a zest to the air
A homespun technique
For welcoming friends
A palmful of talcum
Piques nostrils with rush
Of pure innocence
Nuzzled from infants
Who snuggled my neck
And filled my tomorrows
With joys that yesterday
Could not imagine
Faint pungence of rubber
Will tickle nostalgia
For cloakrooms festooned
With galoshes and slickers
Where we might be banished
By humorless nuns
For class misbehavior
Or dunce-like performance
Salt air slips in slices
Through my open moonroof
With vivid recall of
A weathered gray beach house
Its tumbled-stone jetty
Where I met Aquinas
Surf cooling my feet
Spray cleansing my soul
Hot barbecue tidbits
Curl hickory smoke
With power of transport
To summers abandoned
On green Catskill slopes
Where I rode as a lad
A red rented trike
Grill-scarred hotdog in hand
Treading my forest land
Kicking up pine needles
Harks back to Christmas trees
Dropping their scent upon
Presents that exercised
Curious muscles
Erector sets, microscopes
Crystal radio kits
Laundry starch triggers
A callow vignette
White stiff pointed collar
Crookedly split by the silk
Of an ill-knotted tie
That crazily flapped
With each gyrating step
To a rock-and-roll beat
Pipesmoke laced drapes
Soften oak-mullioned panes
That lit yellowed pages
Of Dante and Kant
The overstuffed arms
Of my reading chair
Propping the wisdom
Of classical genius
Uncannily keen
And accurate smell
Is the paramount sense
Of numerous creatures
Whose very survival
Rests on its recalled
Identification
Of peril abroad
Unerring it locates
Foul foes and fair friends
Compelling behaviors
That follow the nose
I’m thinking we could be
More truthfully human
If only we had
The sharp sense of a dog
(originally posted December 2013)
Light Painting by Simon Berger
reaching backward
through sparks of
umbilical memory
seeking the source
of disturbances
plaguing the peace
of an age-advanced mind
reaching backward
through sparks of
confounding cosmology
seeking the source
of continuum
time curving space
in philosopher minds
reaching backward
through sparks of
progenitive affection
seeking the source
of sweet sentiment
free from the harsh
cold mechanical mind
reaching backward
through sparks of
enlightened epiphany
seeking the source
of the godhead faith
that nourishes
famished indigent minds
(originally posted January 2014)
Poesy plus Polemics 