STONES

STONES
  
I saw the scene
in the Chess Studio film

so iconic and
yet the moment did
not know it
yet

revolution in the music
of the muddy river
with all
its deltas and
tributaries
(do not
   trust me to
describe it, go read
Derek Walcott’s
fabulous poem)

broke blues legend affronted
at the cheek of these
five skinny
     ultra pasty white
long-haired
dionysian ruffians

unloading amps on their turf
like it was all
        in a day’s work

just part of the process of
legend, transformation of life
into mythology

yes, Mr Waters, welcome
to epic
    they took their name
from one
of your records (or maybe
it was some
Jewish folk singer’s)

step opon Olympus
they say and of course
do not say

they are the music of this time
this changing time
come full circle

from hereon in
it is pure Rolling Stones

GARGANTUAN

GARGANTUAN

my room is expanding

I am expanding

everything is expanding
emptying out
taking up space

this, as I checked with my
man De Grasse Tyson

is specified by
the recipe
  
      prescription has it
                   nailed

(never using the word nail
without conjuring with the obvious)

you must check
          it is possible
if infinite time in an
              infinite universe

that you might
        have misread the message
or not
received it at all

on your lonesome out there
contracting contradictarily
or at least
      counterintuitively

heading down to a size
where subatomic gets huge
takes on
       features best
described as epic and
gargantuan

this everything notwithstanding
whatever will be
        
and so we must conclude
that right from the outset
was
   huge aspiration

room tearaway expansion
including both
        window
and door

and yet, as relayed earlier,
nothing seems to have changed,
all appears stable

world still the case in
its logical ways

as much as is deranged yet
perfectly in range

ARTISAN BAND

ARTISAN BAND

I try to sniff out
poetry anywhere
and everywhere

omce I thought
a few flashes in
a band on the Reeperbahn
four working class guys
irreverent, cheeky,
full of irrepressible
young life

watched them
began to get excited, thought
I saw, felt poetry there

but they
were just getting better
tighter
   practice making perfect
as is the way with bands

some of their lyrucs
and harmonies suggesting
promise, revelation of something

a capturing of the heart
of rock
      and roll

but I must have been mistaken
projecting my hopes upon them

tough business, hope
they make it
      my artisan band

SCORPIUS

SCORPIUS

Last time I saw you
it was middle of November
just after your birthday

you were with someone
who looked alien
on the dark
side of the Moon

Scorpius was at its zenith
and you wwre discussing
telekinesis, expanded
consciousness
and meme
transmission

wbklst I stood quiet
as a Sentinel
         unobserved

as I had been through
each of a host of
                   less
than celestial
shapes
     and incarnations

defined by the demeanor each
                      tragic loss
to survive.

LINGER

LINGER

unspeakably glad
you have
taken time

to read this poem
stepped outside the habitus
of your time zone
embraced relativity
treated each
word as special

allowed
your mind to linger
dally with the craziness
of each idea

such time to spare
such acumen, breadth
and depth

all of
which

a function of our modern
exponential economic
and social development transforming our

time space
space time
mindset

rendering our
reality much
more malleable, elastic,
receptive

which
you so most
beautifully exemplify if

you
have made it so far