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There is an inherent discrepancy
'twixt the World in One's Mind
and the World that simply Is.

That is, however,
no intrinsically bad thing.
For, I find, that the world Within
needs the world Without,
though they inderdepend
and thus are not mutually exclusive.

There needs to be a discrepancy
for the pressures, as it were,
to have any room or excuse
to neutralize:
to move towards equilibrium;
however,
it is not linear,
nor is it parabolic:

this, I believe,
is where Calculus
becomes a valid allegory
for Life,
itself.
Thanks for reading.
 Apr 2014 nehyl
Nat Lipstadt
for you

Never have I seen you,
or touched thy breeze-smoothed skin,
caressed the rounded angles of thy cheekbones,
with the worn~smooth heel of my thumb

it matters not

for long and forlorn,
have I come to love you

fat or pretty,
your physicality is inconsequential,
we have bound and blind~binded
our visible connection
by oaths and contemplations,
all codified in worthy action verbs
whispered in each other ears

we have spent our nodules of time
silently caressing,
word gentling,
and falling in love

this night has brought me
no sleep,
this day has brought me
no pecuniary relief

but words embellish me with hope,
dress and drape my face with
coming attractions,
for that alone,
as if more were
even possible,*
I tell you this
straight out and unconfused,

I adore you

we are a lyric, a harmony,
an aesthetic unique,
for you have never seen my face,
yet this night,
thy comeliness has
stirred and up lifted,
thy tone and tiny gasps
my sundered parts
refilled and reattached with our own esprit de corps,
ethereal, ephemeral, yet so real,
I raise them,
to my lips,
and feel you as I do so,
gentling my cheeks
with your breathes breeze,
asking me live with joy....
tho never have I seen you
 Apr 2014 nehyl
Nat Lipstadt
the thermometer's rising red mercury,
a truest signal-fire of  the
approaching well-fated
army of summer days,
their inevitable return
prophesied and more accurately foretold by heated degree,
than any solitary red X penned,
marked upon an island's
dog-eared firehouse kitchen calendar

the imaginary sounds of their solacement
inside the heart beats louder
than any timekeeper's ticking clocking counts,
mechanical reminders of a return inevitable,
comforting but impoverished upon compare,
to the warming solace of hearty silent sun sounds
far louder in the mind, than that of measuring throbbing metal

for nigh, nigh the hour's of your carriage come hither
does near approach and laden heavy by
the long time distanced poet's exhausted hopes,
a labored long voyage, soon to be ended,
yet worthy-word laden,
promised peace, carried within it,
a steady straight forward rolling gait heard,
that, it's Paul Revered lanterned combined signaling,
one if by land, two, if by sea,
for I will come back, traversing both

"return, return poet
to where thy fellow musketeers,
wind, sun and sea
have impatiently waited,
we, your corporate grayed chair's guardians and protectors,
memorizer's of the poetry of our yellow scented,
electric conspiracy, rusted silent, now too many months,
your voice transmogrified
by sophisticate urban airs,
man's unnatural pollutions,
we woo and will you, make over"


Ah, that Adirondack throne,
my summer body's glove,
magical wooden carpet
flying the mind's eye
to places where unfriendly times,
give way to reworked words
in a refreshed world, that makes sense again,
the joy tears that layup on and in it imbedded,
know only of the comfort of a
nature's shelter never withheld

"the winter's pale thrashing has skinned
and stripped your voice of its true timbre,
you gaze only inward, obstacled your vision,
seeing only whitecap seas of internal distress


come hear the seagrasses waving windy welcome
listening rapt  to your summons of convocation,
and the celebration of your traditioned blessed evocation,
a combine of old poems, old tears, and fine oak memories,
new candles lit, new waves crashing but soul soothing,
let us cleanse the taunting taints that inhabit,
our duty to inhibit the unforgiving stale self-reproach
of winter's ugly poems and slushy fears


we are folk honest, your summer companions,
acknowledging that what haunts your interior,
to the task of cease and desist we are inferior,
but in your chair, by the bay, the old words refreshed,
and the new poems of hope and scents
of yet better days promised


of that, of that
we do not promise,
of that that we bonded guarantee
a pledge of mutual fealty


we smell you and taste you in every old recirculated breeze,
as you inhale us and exhale toiled tribulations,
we will be married-vow renewed,
a new peace of sorts imbued,
far far better, than no peace at all!
"
I write more and will post less,
but this weekend I hope to journey
my own one hundred miles, across three isles,
employing bridges and ferry,
to get back to where I write a different kind of poetry,
and the bad, the surface cracks within welded shut,
the winter's road ruts,
filled and sealed,
melded by nature's lighter than air cement

though the cracks within cannot be
filled or healed
by them alone,
a lush quietude invades
and does the best it can...
the photo my winter's hairy tale,
scissored and dispatched,
and an old memory restored, replaced,
my new island audience and followers,
who disapprove or approve of what I write,
by leaving, or honking OK!

if you care, search my old summer poems,
and discover the story's of the chair, the island, and it's unforgiving
demand to write...
It isn't so much
a matter of what One knows
as it is
a matter of what One knows to learn.
"If you cannot find the Truth
exactly where you are,
where do you expect to find it?"
-Dogen

"When you are deluded and full of doubt,
a thousand books of scripture are too few.
When you have realized understanding,
even a single word is too much."
-Fen-Yang

"If you have to ask
what Jazz is,
you'll never know."
-Louis Armstrong

"The only Zen
you find atop Mountains
is the Zen you bring up there."
-Robert M. Pirsig

"When the Way comes to an end,
then change-
having changed,
you pass through."
-I Ching

"There is nothing
either good or bad,
but thinking makes it so."
-Shakespeare

"How shall I grasp it?
Do not grasp it.
That which remains
when there is no more grasping
is the Self."
-Panchadasi

"Whoever knows himself knows God."
-Mohammad

"1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. Amidst difficulty lies opportunity."
-Albert Einstein

"If you meet on the way
a Man who knows,
don't say a word-
don't keep silent!"
-Zen Koan
"Be Master of Mind
rather than mastered by Mind."
 Mar 2014 nehyl
Alice
Flying
 Mar 2014 nehyl
Alice
Have you ever stood on the edge of a cliff
And considered jumping?

Not because you are suicidal, but simply because you wonder
If
Maybe humans really can fly, but the ones who jumped and found out

Flew away because they realized how much better it was to live flying than to live dying
 Mar 2014 nehyl
Ian Cairns
The simplicity I'm searching for
Hides beneath my fingernails
Occupies the dark spaces I refuse to frequent
Consumes the sweet fumes I forget to swallow

I've been told I overthink things
It has never been about mountains or molehills
I always see land big enough for shelter
I do not need reasons
This is what worries me
I hesitate all the time
Then I think I know
Then I know I know
Then I see you in public and you're laughing
And I can't tell if you're laughing at me
So I smile
Not because I want to
But because I think you want me to
And suddenly I don't know anymore
But I wonder if everyone else knows
Or if you know
Then I'm back beneath the mountain
Or the molehill
And I don't give a **** about geomorphology
I just want to see you
walk to the highest peak and shout your name
And watch the echos vibrate off my chest
This is what worries me most

What I need
Is the courage to say exactly what I intend
Believe I already own this certainty
Live within the in between
 Mar 2014 nehyl
Nat Lipstadt
the crystal clarity of each drop
Is my very own
Glass Menagerie.

You are beautiful
In Every Way...
what matters not,
boy or girl,
when entitled to
Beautiful Poet:
that covet,
covers and covets the world
in any language
"Forsooth, my bretheren! That is rather foreboding!"
Translation:
"****, *****! That's sketchy."
Insincerity, Maleficence and Cowardice
typify who you are known to be;
though I am not surprised,
I am thoroughly disgusted;
not that you give a ****,
nor that you ever did.

Although, realistically,
I'd bet you give plenty of *****:
it wouldn't be a new trick for you.
T'is a pity you never grasped
the notion of
"quality over quantity."

That's cool.
You should do what you will,
but I'd advise getting checked out,
and I don't mean by the ****** people,
although that seems a good fit for you;
people tend to be unclean
and like attracts like.

Despite your self-righteous fervor,
and the eloquent ways with which you contort language,
the fundamentally simple and inescapable fact remains:
you're a grand, narcissistic hypocrite.

You could lie and claim to be an honest person,
though I know you can be honest
about your erogenous duplicity.
Tell someone one thing to their face
and then act in direct contradiction.

No wonder you felt so alone;
you push everyone else away.
I'd reply to your messages,
but it seems communication is precluded.

Strange, you seem awfully defensive.

Even after all these months,
you're still such an inspiration.
I hope you found another source
of your beloved intoxication.

It's rather remarkable, really,
how well you misuse potential.
I'm beside myself with awe:
you never fail to impress.
A ******* and worthless poem
with a half-worthless title,
all for a worthless person.

Made me feel better to write it out, though,
so I'd call that a victory.
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