April 3, 2016

Example

Thought, Word and Deed.
Can you imagine a being with integrity enough
to think, speak and act love merely by willing?
Well, you may say, there is always Venus on the half-shell.
But, still, that is in the realm of the ideal.
What about the big bang then? 
God muses: "Hey, I know, Universe!"
Then God says: "Universe!"
Then: Universe!
I can give you the stick-figure diagram,
But God gives you the symphony of spacetime.
Enjoy the concert. Follow the example.
Be a Whale.

Easter Two Thousand and Sixteen

WWJPB
Pardon? i say to the public man. "WWJPB," he repeats, "You know,
What would his playlist be?" i ponder this.
Maybe Suzanne Vega's Book of Dreams
The image of Thomas with eyes wide as he touches
the wound that is not an issue any longer.
And likely Bruce Cockburn's Child of the Wind
Where the world is changed by inserting love into the
interpretation of what one sees.
For instance standing up to bombers and killers and haters
simply by saying homeland security has nothing to do
with reacting in kind to hatefulness. Simply smile and say would you
like to come in and talk to us about why you are so angry?
Why are you so angry, anyway?
Or maybe Weezer: "What did we ever do to these guys,
to make them so violent?"
And definitely, John Gorka's "Where the Bottles Break."
Still i wonder what rough image did we forge back in Bethlehem, PA and Oakridge, TN.

Palm Sunday 3-20-2016

Faith 
(Apologies to Emily Dickinson)

The courage to get out of bed amid
Imaginings of Hitchcock's hashtag rebellion
To look death in the eye and say:
"Oh, it's you again, ok. come in.
Care for something to drink.
Take your cowl off and stay awhile.
Why would i be frightened by passing delusion?
Sorry, but i don't believe in the two certainties.
And yet you persist in the public eye.
Dread is just not worth the drain on being. 
So i will say it again:
'The reflection in a friend's gift of a moment is life distilled.
We bloom by simply treasuring the image in the iris laughing.'
i laugh you out of the picture."

February 26, 2016

Bird is the word

As the Trashmen collect my thoughts 
The scavengers dine on what's left of reason. 
Some pinpoint of light, of thought, projects what's 
migrating from a single name through all seasons.
Ibises on a pot shard broken with Egrets 
Flock beyond number from a single egg.
Hans Christian Andersen's emperor frets
that the gem-crusted effigy begs
the truth and beauty from nature.
While Mr Klee laughs a constellation:
a twittering machine of info raptors
that sweep across the internet nation
To keep the students of Yeats from napping
While the Gyres gimble in the wabe's soul trapping.

12-24-2015 Miniature Nativity Scenes

Background: i was born in 1959 in July. Near the day i was born is the date of the so called Kitchen Debates between Nixon and Khrushchev. 1959. A time between complacency and revolution, between capitalism and communism. At the beginning of the space race, Christ still standing by to launch in peaceful stillness.
From this time-forge i came into the world. Here are two poems about my experience: (Not Sonnets, but, oh well.):

My Kitchen Debate (First published in Alive Now June/August 2006)
Agape.
I remember
No recipe.
Mass produced
and still 
My first experience of Christ
May have come 
On a plate
After Kindergarten
In the Kitchen:
Tomato Soup
Celery,
Peanut Butter and Jelly,
Wonder,
and Bread.
 "Tell me the story again, Mom."

Too Beautiful to be an accident
In my childhood kitchen we had on one wall 
A refrigerator (on the left)
A freezer (on the right)
In between was the space where
our portable dishwasher
spent most of its time.
On the opposite wall was the sink
where we connected the dishwasher
to run the dishes.
And when the dishwasher hummed,
I would sometimes sit in the space
between fridge and freezer, 
and feel the appliance warmth
and dream.
One day when i was maybe 10
I sat tween freezer and fridge
(amid the soft washing hum)
i spied a pattern of dots 
on the side of the freezer that
appeared as the likeness 
of a bust of the Virgin Mary
looking down at me: 
a mystery
my first real, true mystery.
How did it get there and who made it?
and the voice came to me
"However it came to be,
It's just too beautiful
to be an accident."

10-19-2015

"I've never been on the Robert Frost Trail, but we can go there if you like."

That's the next thing that Daniel heard Wu say to
Him and it felt as if a year had passed. 
Eternity in a moment is what he felt and Wu
Brought him back with a seeming non-sequitur. Aghast
Only in the pure disconnect between Kairos and Kronos,
Now Daniel continued his cold war discourse as if
Every internal moment was a nose
Breadth from the fall of the Berlin Wall. "Stiff
Reality gives way to understanding? 
Is that what you mean?"  Wu responded without diffidence:
"Don't overthink it. I only mean that Gorbachev is not demanding:
'Go on the less trodden path and that makes the difference' 
Every high school year book is riddled with that dense,
Basic interpretation. The difference is the journey's certainty and its comrade in arms: chance. 
Yarrott Benz can teach us a thing or two about when vision and art together can sing."

10-4-2015

"How many time codes do you think Daniel has broken?"
Asked McPherson while Jack was looking at his crepe.
"Plenty. Not that it matters now," Jack returned as if he needed to be woken.
"Pancakes are continuums!" Jack let escape.
"Yes, that is it!" Jack came to life. "McP! You can't lie flat if your
Being bends back on itself!" McP. put his hand to Jack's forehead
"I believe your fever is getting worse, Jack!" "Nevermind that!" Jack said bolting for the door
"Returning to the scene of the crime as if it were aborted.
There is no reason to chase Daniel. There is no crime.
He does not play by our rules but he does not intentionally break them!
Do you know Yoga? I think there is a pose called Bridge! Daniel can do it to spacetime.
And you, wonderful McP, Have helped me understand. Contino Diem!
You brilliant babbler, you! I feel like Selena
Gomez at a Barney audition! How's that for a time patina?"