FUSE
you decanted
the Milky Way
into a
soda pop bottle
shook it up
added fizz
put the quantum
field between
two toasted
burger buns
added relish,
pickles, cheese
inside
your bubble
we come
to the meat
of the problem
how a
realm so
grand
could think
so small
so
insignificant
out there in the desert
lighting a very short fuse
SAND
on my travels
came across
gospels
written on
papyrus
parchment
bound in leather
likewise
uncovered many
a tremendous coat of
living lucid colours
woven by
a mind-altered specialist
and anarchist
of no little renown
sat with all
of this a while
under a palm tree
the Sun setting
the Moon emerging
to add cosmic balance
niggling me, suggesting
that I place
ourageous bets
against the persistence
of light and
recurrence of day
to get
in quick and
win big big
before all
did crumble, everything
stayed dark, became
rule
of night
and desert, sensing
the time was ripe
reduced
these words to sand
FIN
it is the end of the movie
which I mistakenly took
as the endibg of the reel
left me stuck there
in that place
expecting conclusio
expecting resolution
as if
such things
ever existed
simply
exist
in the world today
NEW WAVE
I am in a French New Wave
watching a French New Wave
jump cut
on the screen
jump cut
in my life on
your
screen
I go Delon
I go Belmondo
am ultra chic
scarily existential
the product of
new thnking
film analysis
film criticism
have a gun
and bullets
and the freedom to do
with them whatever
crazy thing
the script demands,
MOMENTARY
I cannot pinpoint them
every moment of every day
set them all out
in a grid, on display
for you
to browse through
pass comment on
their lack of of structure
semnlance of
artistry
put quite simply, little
above what you
see is
what you
get
though you saw
but did not get
did not
take anything away at all.
TRUE TO FORM
True to form
from these dialogues to
Plotinus, to quantum
neurobiology to
good old
Cornell West
(and glitch
in the Matrix)
we find ourselves, even
as footnotes, oscillating between
waxing lyrical and
sternly critical
lacking your faith in
educated elites
a square deal
whereas Puthagoras hitting
us with his right angle
triangles, and leaving
it to Euclid to
circumscribe us
inside circles
and you Romantics
backs to the political
and socio-economic walls
lounging around
the idea of
complete synthesis,
total integration,
hope
in some lifetime
of an ideal world
(collapse of
distance between profundity
and sublimity)
Oh you
overweight poet clamping
down on the word to
speak
what sounded like a moment
like clear philosophy
we find ourselves inclined
to return to, home
back in on
no better
metaphor
crazy as it sounds
MEASURE
measure this poem
give it substance
give it
a location
somewhere in that
relativized field
of space slash time
slash everything you
have ever read your
brain is filtering through
to bring
you ready to go
find , see yourself
in this quintessential moment
as for me
I will just look back
on the process
that brought
me here
put me on
this page
a ghostly presence
a whispered voice
a teasing
play of
sound and sense
only clue
to you
I may have
found my way
to drop a
hint
of life,
suggestion of
touch
put
this as
hypothesis
of length and breadth
and depth
and time
somewhat
transparently
before you
OH FOR AN ODE
Oh for an ode right now
a long sprawling melodious
poetic artifact
one to rival those
I do know, especially
Shelley’s West Wind
which I guess
is up to its tricks
this night
blowing across
a pitch black Atlantic
making the surface
of those giant waters
most unruly indeed
today
what is blowing in from
the West shrieks of
chaos and nemesis
breathes an
air of apocalypse bringing
promise of
divinely mandated
horror and fire
and death
let us not forget death
a demanded
death sacrifice
being the death of us all
and with
death of the word
death of belief, hope
for true transformation
that destroyer
is indeed preserver,
cleansing the heart
as it wipes the slate clean
Oh for an ode right now
ode that
keeps
writing itself
line after line
strophe, antistrophe,
permutations of
form and expression
radical new
structures
revision after revision
layer upon layer
the wind
feeding these lines,
giving breath, providing energy
on the page
at my window
no end in sight.
EVERYDAY
here we are
everyday words
everyday themes
will string you
along with me
for a few moments
I call stanzas
hopefully
you will find yourself
somewhat entertained
perhaps even thinking
this is do it yourself simple
ridiculously easy
writing yourself into new everydays
ON THE RIGHT SIDE
and so, Peter, we hear
you hauled ass to the Vaticanto confer with the other Peter,
or at least his current avatar
saw you heading to the basilica
swallowing as much incense
smoke as I, as
humble mortal,
would not have thought possible
strange, because it
is thermonuclear war you
worship not
anything low grade chemical
all that death and ovlivion
untold suffering
exactly believed to
be the engine
of history and
will of God
concern for light and humanity
the stuff of the anti Christ.
province of the Devil
thanks to you
(yes i feel I really must
thank you)
I know now with perfect clarity
exactly where I stand,
which
book, which
allegory
tells me
the truth about
the side I am on.
poems 2 die for