new stuff
 

"minimal me"

I am learning my lessons well.
Reflected in ancient tidal pools
I see how shallow I am.

The numberless stars say
I do not count for much.
The September moon casts sharp pine shadows across my brow.
It is so far above me.

Dolphins smile, knowing they are superior beings.
Eyeing me, they dive deep,
demonstrating I do not see beneath the surface of things.

Even the sand fleas make me twitch like a puppet.

Nature teaches.
To be free, I must be free of me.
To make sure I understand.
It plans to kill me.

Wow. I just love that line. Very powerful choice of words in that one among others. I really liked this. It's so smart too. I think most can relate to feeling like that sometimes. I need to learn to start writing like this...in that kinda format n stuff too. Never tried it maybe I should give it a shot. Great stuff I'll be sure to keep my eye out for more of your works.

Asta!!

To some, this may sound like badgering, but I think you'll understand because of the conversation we had earlier. I read this with a mock british accent in my head for some reason. This made a few lines stick out awkwardly... it's hard to keep the flow and tense going smoothly, but each line speaks clearly for itself. Message delivered.

Appreciate yourself
Appreciate your surroundings
In the end we are all one & individual
A paradox
Empathy




Good one, art

im depressed now :). fantastic writing. i like the visualisations i get when i read it. please post more :)

Thanks,
Yes. I do think it sounds better without the English accent
;)

OK. This next one is similar but even more loose in its construction.

(Please see next post)

"I am old and I will die one day"

I am old and I will die one day
So I thought it was time I came clean.

I gained enlightenment at an early age.
I lived a so-called “normal life” with this knowledge
So that you would believe me when I decided to reveal all
As I am now doing.

It’s not comforting to know
Hearing this will not set you free.
Freedom is not for us in this life.
We cannot be other than we are.

We pass our time with useless things
As if we live forever.
It’s our bodies doing this.

Our minds know very well we die.
But our bodies refuse to hear of it.
Our bodies desire the useless things.

We go about our days in service to these dumb limbs
Serving them endless amounts of what they desire
But does not sustain them
Making them as comfortable as possible, as they demand it
Because they refuse to accept they will die.

Our brilliant minds are filled with petty annoyance.
That’s our lazy bodies talking
Constantly forcing us to confront ourselves in mirrors
So we can see the damage we’re doing.

And while we know love is the answer,
We are faced with the hard fact
We can only be loved to the degree we love ourselves.

And we do not love ourselves.
We are our bodies.
And because they are such stupid brutes
They are utterly unlovable.

I am good looking enough to know looks are worth nothing
And wealthy enough to have figured out it has no value.
I am intelligent and know I can never be smart enough.
I see far enough to see an end.

Enlightenment is like these things.
Once it is yours you see right through it.
And you know
Like everything else
It is nothing at all.

The secret of life is life.
We all possess it for a while.

I am old and I will die.
It's time to say the things I've said.
I am old and I will die.
You’ll know it then.
I was already dead.

my chills' chills have chills, art.

now i know without doubt that a theory is definatly right. we are all connected, you just touched my soul, dude. something that only a very few select precious souls can do. this made me laugh... not in a funny way.

when i have clarity or when something works i just feel alive and i laugh a deep, deep belly laugh. wow.

my whole time on tfp was worth it for this one passage. Thanks, Art. thanks a lot.

Thanks you, Z.
That means a lot to me.

I was already dead... What a great way to end a great poem...Glad to see you in the lit forum.

You have immense talent Art, but if I wasn't a regular reader of your journal, I'd be spooked.

DD, undertstood.
I'd scare myself if I didn't see the humor in it all.

the insights are very on point, and your words are very well chosen for the task. its very interesting to see how you construct your view of mind and body, and i think i learned something very valuable. thanks again...

"I am good looking enough to know looks are worth nothing
And wealthy enough to have figured out it has no value.
I am intelligent and know I can never be smart enough.
I see far enough to see an end."

I love this part. Please keep sharing with us... I, for one, will look forward to your writings.

"Isabel"

Bottom dwelling
Looking up - I sometimes do
The old air ocean everywhere
Disturbed

The fringe of your turbulent skirt
On my head
I’m so small I can’t see your knees
Or that deepest black hole
Of yours
I can see on TV

They call it your eye
But I know
What it is

Isabel Gone

Here up north
A hundred miles inland
Air's like it rolled off a south sea beach

You left a mess, you know
You must have been too proud to care

And everywhere
The trees bare more
Tell you the truth
There are fewer trees today

You were a murderess too
Bittersweet in my hand
This orange Monarch
Died young

Getting rough out here.
The cicadas of late summer are silent.
Their crisp skins, strewn around
mixed with acorns,
lifeless leaves.

My path is crossed by doomed survivors
- old bees getting a final buzz off of their chests
- limping crickets fooled by mid-day sun
- crazy drunken flies in kamikaze loops

The praying mantis I spy
poised on a fire escape downtown
has no religion.
And the green katydid
flying toward me
with impossible wings
is unnerving

These squirrels are way ahead of me.
Summer was just a dream
and they knew it.

It is nice to see that you are posting here far more than you have since I first joined.
Thank you for sharing your work.
~Angel~

Thanks Angel.
The poems are happening as a result of regular daily walks I have been taking for a couple of years.
They've become a spawing ground for poetry, which is a good thing, I think...

man and dog
 

our pact with dogs is we are their masters.
we get to make the hard choices.
they get to accept them.
they never stop loving us.

we never stop loving them either.
but it's harder for us.

Brain Freeze
 

Words are frozen mind crystals.

Sentences are chunks of ice.

Once they are formed

That part of the brain stops thinking

And just repeats the words

Over and over.



We end up with titanic icebergs

In our heads.

Oh how very true this is!
Great analogy.

sound underfoot
 

once, sound was all above me
buzz of crickets, shrill cicadas
shook the trees

absent now
instead it's the sharp crunch
of insect bodies
mixed with acorns
beneath my boots

there’s old leaves too
one day they’re tree-bound and wind-rustled
and the next day they show up
down here

this transference
seems fraught with some meaning
that’s beyond me
like the warmth that slips farther
away each day

I know it is gravity
that does it
but it seems
much heavier than that

Late in October
 

Playing the odds of one more warm day
The last katydid is hanging tough
While a mantis prepares for hara-kiri

Nervous chipmunks pool intelligence
They’re drawing up secret maps
And hiding them in burrows
I hear each year they forget
Where they’ve stashed them
And so must struggle like the rest of us
Blinded by frozen eyelids
Stumbling, falling
Toward utter hibernation

Squirrels are in my face
Staring right through me
Peering for nuts I may have hidden
behind my ears

I guess I’m no threat now
Compared to what’s coming
The ones who can’t take the pressure
throw themselves in front of cats

Really enjoyable. Both thought provoking and entertaining. I tend to write poetry only when I get inspired, usually by something someone else wrote. I get jealous that I never thought of this or that line. You have inspired me over and over again today. Thanks, and keep it coming.

Eyeing me, they dive deep,
demonstrating I do not see beneath the surface of things.
_____________________

The secret of life is life.
We all possess it for a while.
_______________________

The cicadas of late summer are silent.
Their crisp skins, strewn around
mixed with acorns,
lifeless leaves.
________________________


Really liked these lines. They got to me for some reason which is what is so great about poetry. Thank you for letting complete strangers get a view of the world through your eyes.

That is the type of writing I love to see on the boards, keep it up!

it's a good way to hone one's thinking, I'm finding.

appreciate the comments...thanks

Fault for the Fall
 

You’re just being cruel now
We really did all we could
To pretty things up around here

A lot of us are trying to pick up after you
But it’s a lost cause and we know it

Leaves are strewn around
With no concern for what’s getting clogged up
Don’t you know the rain needs somewhere to go?

Treeloads of berries are just rotting on the ground
The sidewalks are all sticky
And it’s starting to smell
We have to live here, you know

It’s cold, too
Getting fat is making sense
Already, some of us are starting to give in
Those white flakes you threw in my face today
Were an insult, weren’t they?

Not only that
You threw my hat in the dirt
When I walked out the door

And this killing spree of yours
Goes on and on
I know for a fact
The doe on the highway
Was innocent

How do you expect us to act
With such a wicked Mother?

Unappreciated
 

Sticking to my boot heels
Soft flesh of rain-pelted trees

Downed too early, the newspaper said
To show the very best of fall color

Another failure like this
And the whole year will end
In the middle of December

Instead of just freezing
It will be two weeks
Of absolute zero
And no light at all

Then we’ll be sorry
We criticized
Autumn’s best effort

Low-Rent Birds
 

I fall for common birds
My youth misspent
With bushtits and boobies

Robin seduced me
Each and every spring
I loved her
For her breast alone

I'm still thrilled by starlings
Simple silhouettes
With little hearts as grand
As the beating cores
Of brilliant eagles
That have no time to flirt

All birds are lovebirds
Equal in the blue eyes
Of the empty sky

cloud-flecked
blue air above us
summer green
surrounding warm skin
we’re free here
like butterflies
hawks, foxes
deer, serpents
like undulant trout


we're arms and legs
splayed wide
at play with each other
spead under radial boughs
of wide open elms

we're hot pink
as thistles
and naked
like the flesh of day lilies
pulsing nearby

as we pound each other
into the ground

You've got some great stuff here! Thank you very much for sharing it with us all!

Art, you are simply one of the most fasinating people to me. Your thoughts, your poems, you simple are an fasinating person. Even your face. It's so very much your own. If you've read Stranger in a Strange Land then you will understand what I mean by that. Don't ever change, or more to the point, don't ever stop changing. I really want to see what direction you will go next.
As one of my friends used to say, "I only you were gay, and only I were gay." lol

heh heh - thanks NiceGuy and Seer666...nice words - much appreciated.

I'm so sorry. Don't lose hope.

I took about 6 pages of notes and the result, so far, is this brief meditation:

...

cloudscape

up there in solid blue air
architecture of vapor
white water lakes
lacking shorelines
move cautiously
aware of imminent dissolution

their slow billowing crawl
is stalled by Sol

Some very powerful works Art. You are a very wise and talented man.

As always it is a pleasure and with deepest sincerity an honor to read your work.

Your kind words are very much appreciated, pan...
Thanks.

Wonderful....you have a way....a very good way.