Category Archives: AI on my poetry

KING OF SWORDS

KING OF SWORDS

War is
not part

of my nature.
Said
    many prayers
had it
excommunicated.

Hiroshima
      is not
my business, neither
is it in my chemistry

my molecules do not
resonate with that
Einstein equation, are
left stone cold by
Oppenheimer’s
        Gita paraphrasing

should you, when you
slip curved Katana blade into
                                     my hand

I become aware
of the gravity

way
     beyond my capacity

                         very thought
of shearing, slicing flesh

turning
    my fingers to sushi

                for a moment
but then the power
and the craft

      such beauty in steel

steeling my spirit to point
I can do anything

kill or
be killed       let those
ancient dice roll

for here
      the rush comes

goes

      and maybe wounds, maybe
death, perhaps
   slaughter and havoc

maybe
       not a scratch, blood
to expatiate

peace in my heart: who knows,
can hazard
       a guess how true

and longlasting

      sigh of regret even
in victory with the sheathing
of such
      a blade.

FINE MAN

FINE MAN

when you deliver
on the subject

pretty soon find myself
delving down into subtext
subatomic
    constructing the code
that lets me
read between the lines

need to do this
because regardless of
anomaly, overlooking
                  essential paradox

need to
  emerge from
              this astute

I want to be
  a better man

    not just an atom better
no, indeed, a fine man,
                            a
better
man by far

like Richard, without
his love
    of lovers,

one who can
    call the tune, fix
the rhythm of the Universe

tapping his bongos, sometimes
covering the page with
astounding hieroglyphs

prattling away
                finding his way
into the
heart of
  the labyrinth
      source of the problem

pattern suddenly grasped, and
gist of everything

want to see
        how it all interfaces
where
    the imagination?

look at this diagram
    carved into his desk, by
                              our
science
shaman

    now
visualized in tiles
on the Cal-Tec floor

ANCHOR

ANCHOR

I am
at anchor

around me deep currents
connive; slurry unseen

so what
    can better can worse
move you, break you
topple towers

    leave our whole world,
your world, my world,
                    entire planet
hanging
    by a thread?

thread my spool less than silken
still deep into the distance
way out
        towards forever

and all that ever amen you
feel duty bound to add

eyes closed
        fingers steepled

so much further than any horizon
beyond what eyes can see
mind
    believe.

HITHER

HITHER

I wandered through poetry
thought I knew
this place
well

looking for wisdom
looking for humanity

my outlook by
no means negative
      though by no means
expecting
wonders
        miracles, transformation,
soul-shaping
life-
defining metaphors
and sadly I must add
conceding
   no possible hope
for love

which is exactly where I found you
    chatting to my Muse
(why is
   Muse never lover?)

man
     most well-measured
not a syllable out if place
but your
voice
      your voice

I do not hear
       perhaps it is just too
comfort-zone, risk
averse

   agrophobic
when it comes to

to the beyond, the boundless,
our freedom
           in a nutshell

shattering it to smithereens
with the force of
poetic pressure

and perhaps
     the poet too

perhaps
we should stay contained
work like
jewellers do
in miniature

for this is a dangerous age
bad time
      for words

and I, for my sins and
pretensions of
truly sinning

have wandered so far
of course, too
far away            thus
with
    grace

let me leave
             you here

for who
would now come hither?

MANDATE

MANDATE

we combed
the galaxy

looking for protein

searching for
   wonderful, strange, intelligent,
civilized moral beings

scoured the cosmos
          every chink
and crevice

beings that
as is
   our mandate

     we might colonize
                             eat
and kill

Mandate