There comes a time when who you are
And what you get
Look like two sides of the same coin
They meet exactly and without quarrel
giving you at that point, at that time a living reality;
Comes a marriage – a two-ness that is closer than a oneness
And from this promising junction of this X of x’s
And this Y of y’s,
a spiral stairway takes shape and form;
And the DNA of your destiny begins to pulse
With a pulsing that is beyond all dreams
The thing I’d like to underscore
Is just how ridiculous
Is this thing called war
You’d think we’d have something better to do
Than to cut someone’s body in two
Just because he thinks different thoughts
Or talks to different gods
Or prefers his chips with flounder
While we all swear by cod
Or because he speaks
In a strange tongue
Or prefers a lethal dose of gas
While we prefer to see them hung.
Or differs from us
In ways middling and small
As when he likes his women fat
While we like ours tall
Wouldn’t it be just dandy
If we who are about to die
For reasons not fully explained
Gave our wives some candy
Or went and baked a pie
And left the masters of war
Foiled, failed and frustrated
Standing recruit-less
Out in the rain!
Unabsorbed by others…
Absorbed by and into ourselves
self-absorbed Jonah-like
both prophet and whale
Into a self that is more Not than Is
Made so by time stopped and frozen
For Years upon years
Made forever frozen by the dull steady ache
of pain and not-ness
And no-ness
And the rictus grin of
No-grace and no-hope.
And all this time so far from home
From home’s reach and home’s love and warmth
So far from the promise of “I,” “I am”
And “I need not be afraid.”
So far from the promise of this good earth to
Lovingly anchor the soul and
Give our ourselves and our thoughts flesh and blood
And sufficient might.
Leave it to other tribes; other Folk
To lay back and suck on the breast of
Lives untwisted and unskewed and unbent
Not for us the psychic bounty and bonus
That comes from being one with rocks and trees
and the stars overhead…
so that we can say that these
things are are ours and we theirs
Not for us God’s good moods
Rather rats and spider webs and the stale smell
Of fear;
Our home
A house built of unanswered prayers
forged in a furnace of pain
pain coming through the tines of
an angry peasant’s pitchfork or
Through the malediction of a Man of God
Gone astray with hate
or from an equally deadly stream
From unknown places deep within our souls
A messiah must arise…
An existential Messiah
So that all of it,
Rocks, trees, hills, thoughts
of time lost
Of thoughts spoken and unspoken…
Must be as if they were just for us
And when lost time itself comes rushing
Back to us as a downright pogram of
savage and atoning love
And each moment of hell cast into the sea
Then all will be right
And all our dreams will be good.
…to purchase “Diaspora” click on this link:
Do you think time will tell
Do you think America is going to hell
Will it get better
Will it be swell
Will the economy recover
Will we be saved by the bell
Or will we go pell mell
Thru trials and tribulations
Ordeals painful and grotesque
While svelte lords and ladies
Sit happily at their desks
Watching dreams fade and hopes die
Perched like eagles
At their nests in the sky
In buildings made of glass and steel
And occupied by tenants
Who think only greed is real
And agree on one other thing mainly
..thou shalt not feel
Without the tension
We wouldn’t have to mention
That loving online
Isn’t always so fine
Because we know for a fact
That it’s easy to act
When you’re halfway across the planet
And your face is just a pic
Be you Brad or be you Janet
A guy or some cute chick
You can fall for a bunch
Of text on your screen
and your heart can be aching
For someone you’ve never seen
So take my recommendation
And listen good and hard
If you look for love online
You better be smart
If you’re looking for some email
To make your heart melt
Then get ready to be steady
And buckle that seat belt!
The World is changing…
The world is forever changing
From “Lisa” to “tower” to iPod to iPad
From Blackberry to Schmackberry
From parallel to USB and USB to
G3
From G3 to G4
From G4 to G5
Where will it all end?
I just don’t know.
From analog to digital
And ultra sound to Sense-a-round.
From rat s___ to bat s___
And bat s___ to cat s___
Where it will end no one knows.
My cat sleeps.
I sleep
You sleep
We all sleep
Gadgets rule
Computers reign.
And newness rains down on us
In wave after wave.
While in the background
Faith dies and love flees.
Is every life a syllogism
An analogy
An algorithm
In all our tries at shaping a commonweal,
Are we just
So many energy fields,
Along with other life forms,
With whom we share attics and dorms
And bedrooms and halls.
Such as lizards, cats, and squirrels;
like seahorses, boys and girls; the really great thing
That we to life’s table bring
Is that we can put out light, motion and heat
Because energy
Is really
the thing
That can’t be beat!
Can this world beat the odds
And burn its old gods
And face its future
Rid of its sutures
Its old wounds healed
Its faith congealed
Into something sweeter than today.
Of something much nicer than now…
Will what lives in the hearts
of those who fight death with their art
On today’s soul-pained earth
Prove to be stronger
Than the impossible dearth
Of all that has worth
Of love, life and hope
things at which
we still blindly grope.
I prefer old cultures to bold cultures,
I like cultures where men dance with men
and good meals end with grateful burps
Where funerals and weddings are for immoderation
And women come with girth
Where Grandpa’s wrath is godlike
And Grandmas help give birth
Where life is a mystery to be lived
And love a party meant for all
What if the English were without English
Or the French without francais?
And Spaniards without Spanish
Even for a day?
We all must have our say in a tongue
That is fitting
So we can all get around
Whether standing or sitting
It’s a funny thing this ability
To make our needs known with facility
By twirling our tongues and
Moving our lips
And making sounds soft and hard
So it doesn’t matter if we’re busboy or bard
We won’t have to shuck and jive
When the moment has arrived
To commu-
ni-
cate
