3 MORE HAIKU
Framing seasons three
Winter starts and ends the year
Annual bookends
***
A breath of warm air
She comes around the mountain
Chase Winter away
***
She pushes forth life
Her pungent verdant bower
Earth's labour's give birth
sunday verses
SUNDAY VERSES #13
3 WINTER HAIKU
Winter ice on trees
glitters like festive tinsel
under morning sun
***
When days are shorter
fiercely blows the winter wind
piling snow in drifts
***
Frigid air on skin
Persistent chill burrows deep
Winter wet and cold
sunday maxim #1
I would not expect you to live your life based on my life experience; DO NOT force me to live my life based on YOUR life experience.
sunday verses #12
sunday verses #11
4 haiku for the end of Autumn. (12/01/21) Leaves begin their fall. Colors changing while you watch autumn's rich pageant. (11/27/19) Cold, dark, windy night; trees shudder; dead leaves unchained make fierce their escape (12/01/21) Distant in the dark. Sweet sounds the soft piano. Music in the night. (12/01/21) Chill'd, damp autumn night. Sleepless bare trees sway slowly. Unwrapp'd, expos'd heart.
sunday verses #10
(untitled) 1/29/19 1AM … with bigoted clam-shelled-shut heart pinched accusation and fervent digit all gesticulation their unctuous moral fortitude no reverence for creation razes the standard none can achieve happy to fail, happy to fall into the boiling cauldron of righteousness reason lost Who will avail the good, decent, compassionate and forgiving soil? … planting seeds to each grow its own kind fruit bearing and fruitless watered by streams of untethered acceptance. Virtues are best left in deep shadows where they are not exposed to the light of… …haughty self-aggrandizement, bleached by self-promotion or discolored by false humility…. … left in the heavy darkness when eyes close and sound fades to sleep… … perchance to dream.
sunday verses #9
HOLES IN MY CITY (2014)
There are holes in my city
where buildings used to stand.
Empty spaces are all that remain
where factories made my world.
A dream that never was
cannot be remembered or built upon.
There is no foundation
there is only dust and wind.
Remembrance is only a delusion
sickness of mind and soul
for a community that is trapped
in its struggle to free itself from nothing.
There are holes in my city
where buildings used to stand.
Places where people lived
where the voices of children could be heard.
Now there is silence
even the ghosts don't linger here.
Some say silence is golden
but the same silence can drive a person mad.
There are holes...
sunday verses #8
PLAYERS SONG (date unknown)
what you lookin’ at?
what you laughin’ at?
what you makin’ fun of?
the end has come
lights gone down
crowds are gone
strides across
this sawdust clown
baggy pants
dirty shirt
worn out shoes
treading through
another broken town
hotel room
lonely bulb
peeling paint
dingy and dank
inhabited mold drown
what you lookin’ at?
what you laughin’ at?
what you makin’ fun of?
the naked man
in the bathtub
smokes a cigar
wearing the painted
face of a clown
milky surface
soapy water
shimmers like diamonds
one deep breath
he’s sliding down
what you lookin’ at?
what you laughin’ at?
what you makin’ fun of?
warm wet meditation
wraps up the man
mind quiet, at peace
distant thunder
smoking cigar lifeline
rising up
paint-stained flesh
reveals the man
washed renewed naked
suffering reality frown
what you lookin’ at?
what you laughin’ at?
what you makin’ fun of?
sunday verses #5
10/27-28/21
ENTER THE EVENING
A shadow crept across early evening.
As I was retrieving the mail
I stopped in my tracks and looked up.
A thousand wings whispered across the autumn sky
in undulating murmurations of velvety simplicity.
None collided with the other but danced a ballet
in perfect synchronicity across heaven.
The tinted hues of sunset;
royal purple and brilliant orange painted
against a dark blueing background.
Even the cricket at my foot that stopped its chirping
and, propped up against my shoe,
seemed to look up in amazement.
A pair of local chipmunks scurried about in the chilled air
foraging for nuts and berries to store for winter -
oblivious to the magic in the sky.
In one step I had travelled
from the reality of a chaotic and stressful day
into a calm, quiet and peaceful evening.
sunday verses #2
WE ARE MEDIA (10/02/2021)
Welcome citizen,
WE are Media.
WE are message.
WE are massage.
WE are information masturbation
That you WILL enjoy.
If you do not believe
what WE tell you to believe,
And if you do not act on
what WE tell you to do,
Even though WE show you
only what WE believe you need to know,
Even though WE show you
a heavily redacted, edited, one-sided view,
Even though, when WE do show an alternate view
it is completely ridiculous, unbalanced and unbelievable,
Then, you are a bad citizen.
A bad and corrupt member of society.
Suited only for OUR censorship.
Dear citizen,
You and WE both know that you,
A mere individual,
Are incapable of making an informed decision.
Information is power that WE control for you.
WE simplify the information for you.
You are free only when WE say you are free.
WE have done all the work for you.
You may now bow down and thank US.
You're welcome citizen.
We are Media.
sunday verses
Toilet/Potty Poem (10/2021)
Sitting on the toilet in
Solemn contemplation
Staring at the shag rug
Covering the Autumn-chilled tile floor
Faces and shapes emerge
Beasts and people
Both fantastic and frightening
Revealing themselves
Emerging in the trampled fibers
Of bare footed traffic
Before I roll them up
To erase their existence
In the reality of life's washing machine
Like shaking an etch a sketch
Re-setting the tabula rasa of imagination
unfinished business
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
culture wars
begun long ago
and no one cares
living in the moment
ignoring the past
you did not ask for
this war
I did not ask for
this war
yet here we are
stuck on the front lines
drafted by those we did not vote for
A war fomented by the news media
shaped by the influencers on the internet
and social media
Systemic Racism
Economic injustice
Everyone’s a victim
We consume victimization like our favorite foods
We digest our own destruction
21st Century Ouroboros
vipers all
We ignore the shit that comes out the other end
We stubbornly refuse to clean up (it’s up the other person)
We obsessively and repeatedly fuel our consumption of outrage
The scales have tipped
As a species we are tilting at windmills
in our self-prescribed delusion
I did not ask for this war
You did not ask for this war
And the question is not IF we should fight
But HOW we should fight
Military wars always kill
Culture wars are fought for control
control of your mind
control of your freedom
control of your expression
control of your creativity
control of your religion
(even if you have no religion)
control of your education
control of your own body
fingers point everywhere
but no one cares that
when you point one finger
at someone or something else
three fingers point back to you
And the question is not IF
we should fight
But HOW
we should fight
How should I fight this war
that I did not ask for?
It seems an impossible dream
to fight a war
with love, compassion, grace & humility
when all around you
is blame, blind rage, raw hatred
and venomous pride
Jesus didn’t die for any one person’s sins
Two things killed Jesus Christ –
Politics and Religion
Their control threatened by the gospel of peace and love
“You see, control can never be a means to any practical end…It can never be a means to anything but more control…like junk..” (1)
“Is Control controlled by its need to control? Answer: yes.” (2)
The way to win this war is to give up control
to lose control
The death of one is the birth of another
Change is coming that we cannot control
Change is here
Change we can shape
“I awakened to the cry
That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
Upon the meek the graces shower
It’s decreed the people rule” (3)
We must surrender this culture of complaint
and realize we will never be able to control others
we can only control our selves.
“Just Do It!” *(4)
Let the lion lie down with the lamb
Let the darkness meet the light
Let hell and heaven merge
in the forge of life on earth
to burn off the dross of our misgivings
revealing yours and mine
shining gold dream
“The siren and the ecstasy, … the one in front of me
New gold dream” (5)
I did not ask for this war
You did not ask for this war
But we CAN end it!
Will We?
“And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
In a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I’m not afraid to die” (6)
1 quote by William S Burroughs from NAKED LUNCH
2 quote by William S Burroughs from AH POOK IS HERE; AND OTHER TEXTS
3 lyric from PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER by Patti Smith
4 slogan from Nike commercial
5 lyric from NEW GOLD DREAM by Simple Minds
6 lyric from MERCY SEAT by Nick Cave
... on being and becoming ... 