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188 · Apr 2020
How Pestilence Heels
I read of a mystic who, as a child,
fell backwards, his endearment
for creation needing to race
beyond the boundaries
of his body, when he had looked up
and witnessed the dark underbellies
of flying geese framed against the sickly
verdant clouds of a thunderhead.

I nearly fell over myself tonight
looking up and witnessing the black
veins of the Pin Oak framed against
the city's navy orange overcast.
But I stopped myself long before
a full tumble because I worried
what the neighbors might think.

The grace of creation is always there
to be witnessed, and courage
is the good sense to put the miracle
of belonging well before the loss.
185 · Jan 2018
Posture
My favorite posture is man eating and drinking woman,
but why debate the repertoire of love's manifestations.
Wise, unwise, pure, impure,
love builds up from itself and saves the world,
no mater how selfish nor how sacrificial.
185 · Jan 2018
Eclipse
Our third eye is an eclipse.
It flares with death and creativity.
A shadow without a horizon
will passover,
and we are then eternal.
184 · Jan 2018
Anew
I destroy creation and create it anew
        at every moment.
If a stench lingers, it is only to remind us
        that each creation gives way to more love.
In a crowd of
common men and women
the most valuable are
the young and the lovely.

Research the consequences
of a coy look
by painting your body
and flicking your tongue.

I am very shy, but
bold are the curves
of my body, which
allure and ruin.

I pay a fair price
for what is bartered...
...the rest I steal using
tricks of seduction and devotion.

We cover our bodies
in secret signs, because
we don’t want to be righteous,
but we do want to be redeemed.

The worship of youth decays,
and leaves only questions about
what wild and wise things
are worth accomplishing before death.
180 · Feb 2018
We Free Each Other
Like a wild animal,
you heighten my senses as needed.
Smell is heightened for loving.
Sight is heightened for healing.

I do not love you with my mind,
I love you with my body.
Slight flicks of my fingers
along your naked lips
are the perfect sacraments
even if they are dumb sacraments.

A dangerous dance
jumps out of your hips.
A conflagration
jumps out of the dream,
and spreads like love
till all is ashes.
175 · Dec 2018
Ten Devoted Triangles
I.
This is a simple prayer-
four stones thrown into the river.
It usually works.

II.
Is it really your desire
to burn through my body
to do your work of love?

III.
What will death be like?
I believe it will be sweet
like this moment.

IV.
I'm not much to be afraid of,
but just look at this beast of love
draped upon my shoulders.

V.
How well do I appreciate beauty?
I raise and destroy whole kingdoms
just by exploiting my own.

VI.
Isn't it ironic
that a hallucination
taught me to love.

VII.
We are one people.
One crushing love
is perfect for us all.

VIII.
Paint you face
so the dead
will love you.

IX.
Love smears the foundation
of our bodies, no matter if we
spill, spit, bleed, or love.

X.
Conception continues
even in the house
of one million lies.
Another old piece from a chap book thrown together by a wonderful critique group I was with back in the late '90's. Interesting for me to see how some of the lines and images have been rehashed both in earlier and later pieces.
174 · Jan 2018
The Temple in Ruins
The eyes see the perversions,
and the ears hear the sobs.
The nose smells the putrification
and the skin...

You are always dancing and humming
queer tunes my love.
Why do you not walk with us
and banish the suffering?
Why do you remain near but absent
whenever our bodies cling to this living?

In sleep, I dream a poem about death.
Waking, I forget the dream,
so perhaps there never was a dream
and perhaps there never was a poem,
and perhaps there never is a death.
173 · Jan 2018
Beyond
I have no need of a perfect life.
But, I do need a love that lasts
        beyond all the burning fire,
        and all the rotting flesh.
171 · Jan 2018
Let us walk, you and I
I want to be a valued commodity
on the market of eternal youth,
but I have no currency except
as dried bones that groan
about salvation when rattled.

            Excellence will kiss
            with flame
            the soft skin
            of every
            beautiful child.

Still, I try to taste fire
because I want to run unhindered
across the plains of midnight visions-
and then there are no words,
but there is the moon.

Suffering is a thick liquid
that saturates our scalps,
and prayers happen while full of fear
as the arrows of evil
are aimed at us.

I try to be attractive, physically pleasing
to both the living and the dead.
My tongue wags and is rude,
but it heals while it offends.
Between death and conception,

God is fierce like the prophet's grin,
so trace the footsteps of prostitutes,
mendicants and wild beasts,
because a putrid odor is telling us
about a different path.

Now, let me take that naked taste
of truth that swells inside your belly.
Our lust will tip over
and flood the streets.
Then, we'll take a timeless walk
through our neighborhood of time.
167 · Jan 2018
Foresee
What is timelessness
        when there is time?
What is formlessness
        when there is form?
Being here, loving your body,
        I can not foresee
                eternities more serene.
167 · Feb 2020
My Precious Humility
My baby boy looks
at circular things
as if trying to remember
something that god
was saying.
164 · Feb 2018
How Corrupt Are We?
Horsemen linger unnoticed in the corners
of what might have been while the mind
is preoccupied by the redundant affairs
of making love.

Evil is a man's business, and right now
business is real good, even though
there is nothing to covet and nothing to buy.

This is our Kingdom. Let us establish holidays,
so that we may celebrate our dubious citizenship.

Despite the protests of the genuine,
as long as we keep lying
we shall gain access
to all the common ecstasies.
Could you really desire
to burn through my body
to do your work of love?

How much burning bush
        could possibly be enough
                for all my prayer, all my longing?
160 · Feb 2018
Let's Free the Children
In the Citadel of Suffering,
our confusion masquerades as comfort,
and desert tribes without delusions,
for some strange reason, lead the way out.
We will escape the fortress
despite the beauty and fire,
but no one will praise our freedom,
because we now wear horse head masks.


On the other side of a fever,
you’ll find a vulnerable garden.
If you bring three things there-

      a fearless step forward,
      a knowing brush of the hand,
      and a wild but gentle smile,

then you can disperse the hard knots
of ignorance,
so that the children may know peace.
160 · Feb 2018
The Delight You Bring Me
A fluid like spit
touched my body
and put me in a good mood
for the rest of my life.

The edge of my tongue
is lined with many stupid thoughts,
but also the dumb courage
to lick the tip of your triangle
until you are happy.

I have been instructed -
Heal **** before trance.
Heal skinless during trance,
and after trance,
don't heal at all.

Again, my tongue is
a fat slug that doesn't
get much done, except
when it ***** and *****.

A voice says "no"
everywhere inside me.
Meanwhile, the rain
makes me wet.
153 · Jan 2018
The Vulgar Devotee
The ****** Devotee
tries to answer himself.
His mind is confronted
by all of its absolutes
of which the sunrise
and the sunset have no use.
He sits on a stone and mutters,

First, the gods win.
Then, the demons win.

and,

I am alone when I walk
at night, because the unborn
won't come from their hiding place
behind the new moon.

and,

Even more than the living
or the dead,
the unborn burden me
with countless good intentions.

You see, all his thoughts are fragments
because they accelerate themselves
through history to arrive
at the total ruin before the end.

If I dream about love
just a little bit longer
and a little bit better,
then creation will buckle
under all my conceptions and
I'll offend the guardians of fertility.

Again, these thoughts are so great
they are not even human, but that's
the result of dialogue with the unborn
when you try to resolve the unanswerable.
XV. The Devil: Blind impulse, irresistibly strong and unscrupulous person. Temptation, obsession, secret plan about to be executed. Endurance, aching discontent, materialism, fate.
XI. Lust: Courage, strength, energy, use of magical power, control of life force, great love affair. Resort to magic.
XVIII. The Moon: Illusion, deception, bewilderment, hysteria, madness, dreaminess, falsehood, voluntary change. This card is very sensitive to dignity.

It has been very dangerous for us
ever since lust met the moon.

A kind and wild voice
speaks from the hole in my hand.
"I was born to destroy  the destroyers
and I became your friend
out of love for the world...
I am crossing a great era
of darkness with you".

It is a haunting.
The self talks to the self
and then forgets the self,
wanders in a dark wood
releasing a low howl
because it can not remember
how to remember.

Three tears makes four,
and everybody dies.
My heart is dark
as it is flourishing
during these dark days.
I am not innocent
and neither are you.
Perhaps that is why we cherish our vices
because they will hasten our death.

XVI. The Tower: Quarrel, combat, danger, ruin. Destruction of plans. Ambition, courage, sudden death. Escape from prison and all that it implies
The narrative lines are from The Waite Tarot Deck, and the quoted line is from the Bhagavad Gita translated by Barbara Stoler-Miller, so I wanted to make sure some citation got included. I'm no expert or adherent to the Tarot, but I find the imagery so vivid that stories and images seem to leap right out of them.
I am disappointed.
I can visit the neighborhood
of eternity at any time,
but can never bring
its riches back.
148 · Jan 2018
Forgiven
The moon never suffers
as the savior suffers.
However, the moon is so swollen
with love, we can be convinced
of our survival.
Go ahead, sleep many hours
and have lucid dreams.
If you want to know who you are
indulge a whole season of character flaws
and wander aimlessly
mimicking prayer.

I heal.
I say it the same
to all- "No!"
My body dies
and leaves love alone.

No one knows what I am talking about
but everyone knows I am right.
146 · Mar 2020
The Permanent Bliss
I’m confident you are bolted
to your deathless beauties.
I know mine are always
there - purple, nighttime,
desert, floating,
cloak, sickle,
luminous, wall,
minaret, wailing.

You see, our pleasure
serves the divinity,
and our fluids
have instincts
to drench every
permanent icon
in a flooding rain
of freedom adored.
144 · Jan 2018
The Promise of Our Love
A bundle of love
sits on my lap,
and when I hold it
close but easy,
freedom takes flight
like the birth of a star.

I spit out the last of my inhibitions
because none of creation’s elements
are mine to posses
except for the dream
of tranquility.

Love survives death
because love is
the perfect liar.
144 · Jan 2018
Ezekiel’s Vision
Without prosperity, I love the gods.
I achieve nothing, and am thus made man.
I recognize beauty, and am thus beautiful.
I know the ancient lies, and thus deceive
with today's shy truth.

I dissect my limbs,
the ones that finished
the frantic dance,
to the know the scandal
of bones reborn.
I feast on meats
from recalcitrant cows
and drink cheap wines
to have visions
of an untouched people.


There are worthwhile activities
asides from prayer and making love,
but heck if I know what they are,
and so I minister the radical word.
143 · Jan 2018
Voluptuous
To succeed, be sure
to slaughter the innocent.
A fever is a fractured
wisdom which hallucinates
landscapes that long
to host your victories.
To the East is clarity.
To the West is attainment.
Even in this dangerous world,
momentary trust is the wisest thing.
139 · Feb 2020
The Heavy Coat of Sainthood
I'd like to penetrate the disorder
so that we'll be comforted,
but my hesitations are founded
in the knowing that doing so
will bring us together
in a sacrifice of nails,
and who the hell wants that.
134 · Jan 2018
The Rewards of My Faith
I can afford to worship death
because conception is always generous to me.
I pilgrimage to my own primitive landscape
seeking a boon- a long slurp
of the moon's warm breast milk.
134 · Jan 2018
Taboo
There is no masterpiece inside me
but there is a miracle beyond me
because I understand
horse's head is a rectangle
pig's head is a circle
cow's head is a square
goat's head is a triangle
and the triangle
is the taboo symbol.

The dying have the power
to bless or curse
but so do some lucky young men who know how
to reverently watch women undress
so unburden yourself
of timid nights and little lies.

Beauty lies to me all the time
but every lie is so sweet
each one persuades me
to have faith in the truth
just like that shy undressed promise
"I'll love you forever"
whispered across the pillow
vaulted up beyond doomsday.
133 · Feb 2020
Keeping It Together
I think it's a good idea
to base society on the family,
and base the family on lust.
133 · Mar 2020
Farewell Of The Body
The Song of Emmanuel
scents the room
and I am heart broken
as protection has been mine
since my first days,
but still, you and I live
through our days of body
and the abandonment
of those before us
and the abandonment
of those not come.
He did not come.
She did not come.
But we are here
with our beautiful arrivals
and our beautiful endurances
and we live through
the days of our body, and this
dark night, we say farewell.
A song of lamentation I wrote for Christmas Eve after a year of many losses.
132 · Jan 2018
A Wall
I am not sure
who can answer
but I still ask,
why is ecstasy
so embarrassing?

I come to a wall inside of myself
on this side of which
I have nothing to say.

Still, let's make love
so the rain will fall,
or at least let's start a fire
because you can not
be born alone.
131 · Feb 2020
Honest Rituals
Let's clean our house
really good.
See if we can't find
where we've hidden
all the trinkets
that will explain
our confusion between
what is desire and
what is happiness.
You can get to the light
through the darkness,
but your chances
aren't very good.

So I think I'm going to
call off my campaign
against all the beautiful ones
who are not possessed by me.
126 · Feb 2020
A Miraculous Play
Easily suffer, and be cool
in whatever fashion
fits your celebration of desire.
Walking through the wood
unvisited because it's dull
as the days of my aging,
I don't care the species
of that singing bird,
but, I am desperate
to understand
the language of its call.
123 · Feb 2020
The Decision Is Not So Hard
How disturbing my mind is.
It heads to perversities in
the room to the right
while the conversations of heaven
go on in the room to the left.
A great fear
that I hope I
never resolve,
will my sons
see the beauty
of the world
and will the world
see the beauty
of my sons.
I flee from you,
because you are always correct.
Your numbers always land
on accurate determination.
So I flee from you,
because the spirit flees from you.

I know the spirit flees from you,
because it tells me with the green caress
of the undergrowth on my taught
skin seeking comfort while I crouch
low, and it tells with a fearless bird chirp
landing jovial on my tongue.

You know the spirit flees you,
because you do not hear the spirit,
and you can't deny, the spirit
talks to everyone.
My voice is so simple
and very true,
but it knows too easily
how to disappear.
121 · Feb 2020
Ramprasad Sen
"Does suffering scare me? O Mother,
Let me suffer in this world. Do I require more?
Suffering runs ahead of me and runs after me.
I carry it on my head and set up a stand
in the bazaar to peddle it.
I'm a poison worm, I thrive on poison.
I carry it wherever I go.

Prasad says: Mother: lift off my load.
I need a little rest. It's amazing!
Others brag about their happiness.
I brag about my suffering.


by: Ramprasad Sen (c. 1718 - c. 1775)
Hindu Shakta Poet
from: Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hard
Not mine. Just a really cool poem from one of the great Bhakti poets of the Subcontinent. I like it for its timelessness and its capacity to address the alienation of material discordance of today. I promise to edit in a proper citation if I ever find my copy of the collection one of these days.
Imagine if every breath
were as sweet
as the prayer smoke.
119 · Feb 2020
I Think You Understand
Wag my tongue
and raise my arms high -
           Rejoice -
I'm running down the road
after the new sickle
          moon
without regard or hesitation.

I pray to disappear
in a light sparkling
just as white.
118 · Jan 2018
To What Are We Devoted
I created you to comfort me,
which work out well.
Until, you asserted yourself
and let me suffer
I will write divinity's password,
but I might need a few wasted lifetimes
in which to do it.
Not too many words
because I'm not here for debate.
I intend to assassinate obscurity,
and I'm happy to do it
with a lick, a bullet, or a snarl.
I know exactly what there is
to witness as the sun flashes
in the dance of a million brilliant
diamonds atop the tumble of the sea.
It is the Dead, and each flash a call -
"We were the rich, the poor,
the beautiful, the plain,
the experienced, the naive,
the timid and the brave.
We are the dead,
and you will join us here
in this exile of radiance
and liberty."
All of the body's
****** motions
are quite ******
except that serene
forgetfulness rippling
across the face that's
vanishing into adoration.
116 · Feb 2020
When Everything Satisfies
A Princess of Rio drives by
******* in a tiny white car.
Plenty of times, I have been
          more aroused,
but she and her carriage
are so light
that I can do that impossible thing -
dive deep into the desire
as well as the unsinkable hope.
My mind is now warped
after too many attempts
to exploit the blessings
of eternity for personal gain.
My mind rejects that its
simple circuitry can not
contain the slightest shade
of truth and join the springs
from the ever flowing fountain.
My mind is, in fact,
the abacus of courteous deception
working to protect my heart
from such a transformative joy.
I want to know myself better,
so I walk around with naked feet.

I want to know you better,
so walk around with wild hair.
113 · Mar 2020
Baby Anon
All days are bright, all days are warm and gentle.
There is no distance between myself and the most enviable
lapping of the surf along the shore, because you are here.
How does the miracle happen? Consider my heartbeat
without yours. Consider my thump, and your thump
now coming together under the skin, and here arrives
another thump, another drumming, a falling and rising
and falling and splashing. We have replicated the vocation
of the oceans, and our creation knows that he knows,
and what does he dare do with this knowledge -
he laughs. There is no greater proclamation of love
pulsing among any of the wild beasts of the deep.
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