"borderless" poems
I like immigrants, immigration. Legal immigration,
Jane passionately corrects. Actually my goal is a borderless world.
Gathering the neighborhood like family.
The men discuss sterilizing welfare mothers. I say You're working
around the edges,
humanity has exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet,
even those with jobs. And spouses. And houses.
Yet it's an idyll of an early summer evening, new cut grass,
two baseball teams of children playing in it. Safe from Pakistan.
News photos of Muslim refugees, women in blue robes, biblically
carrying children away from holocaust. The fundamentalist army
not far behind, beheading sinners, sure in its righteousness
as the Holy Roman Empire.
Somehow Joel Osteen the evangelist comes up
while talking about how the Catholic Church is irrelevant in North
America,
even Latin America and Africa are going evangelical.
Izzi likes Osteen, awesome extemporaneous speaker, no teleprompter,
up from bootstraps message. My wife says he's probably Jewish.
Fortunately no one claims the Holocaust never happened or slavery
was voluntary.
What is the carrying capacity of the planet?
In China is it each couple or each adult that gets one offspring?
As life expectancy and standards rise,
family size diminishes. We draw together into greener, tighter cities.
The children of three monotheistic religions, atheists and agnostics
play in city streets, work farm fields, explore forests, deserts,
grasslands, space.
Two ancient female poets: Enheduanna and Sappho
are a revelation. The clarity of their complaints:
lost lover, lost city.
Aug 11, 2015
Aug 11, 2015 at 10:48 AM UTC
A graceful water weaving dolphin
swirls wakes of gentle waves -
a white, silver blue phantom
shimmering in the noonday sun.
Piercing the surface,
she dances an aquatic ballet
of corkscrew pirouettes
and majestic somersaults.
Diving beneath the spray
she churns her engine upward -
soaring through the flaming hoop
to the "oohs" and applause
of a throng of short-sleeved hominids
bleachered beyond the rails.
Plunging into quiet depths,
she lingers for a moment
perhaps to recall the fresh sea air
and the borderless waters
in the golden days before the ships came.
January, 2007
Aug 4, 2013
Aug 4, 2013 at 10:52 PM UTC
promised you a new love poem
every day till forever arrives,
for it will until then to
exhaust the crazy no limit ways to communicate
how my love for you consumes my
fragility, uncovering my core of strength,
that is never exposed, but for/to you,
but for/to you
*my unidimensional surface
unpierced,
no one sees what you x-ray,
and I fess willingly, with ease of mind,
that my secrets are safe stored best within
the borderless country where our ven
diagrams of souls
intersect with iron & steel & titanium
ribboned lines of inviolate invisible
pure white*
*here I stop
lest I die of bursting,
and yet I weep
for us,
for
you,*
no longer
read my poetry
Oct 30, 2024
Oct 30, 2024 at 12:19 PM UTC
Ethereal and Base a harmony so diametric a solid.
Wisdom's forgiveness lands to the unyielding new,
white spray on black lava, merging
elemental minerals in salt water.
Life the mediator, yearns for compromise
algea harvests sunlight at the hard shore, grows into plants
fish munch coral creating sand washing up, a tree's foothold creating soil...
can rock become Earth any other way?
Mother's beauty, an unknowable generous smile
and confident grace from the sun.
Ages
sitting wrinkled and depleted to her waist,
beauty transforms
into unknowable generous laughter alighting graciously from wise eyes,
like a flock of Heaven's doves so close to home
stirred by her running children: daughter and son.
All the while all the yearning is unrequited.
For her children, Beauty is vertigo,
painful reality rooted to the shore.
Eyes long for the horizon, Vision Country
between sky holding its breath and water measuring out patience,
The heart spills out futile on the crystalline sea,
but Sadness, belonging to clear water,
lightly buoys lonely Ecstasy,
Completes the voyage.
The Vision pairs selfless love with unmet desire,
opposites' harmony the firmament,
but the sound breaks from tension and the echoes fade,
and the senses footing gives way;
vertigo with dove's wings tied shut.
Descending minuscule between dissipation
falling through molecules of bliss,
and diffusing atoms of despair,
to the last remaining positive and negative
and the tension's silver thin wire between.
It cuts tied wings free,
slingshots the dove's soul back up,
at the last second, the tension's iridescent thread tangles loosely on her foot.
She hurtles back up through the scales of size:
Microns, amoeba, minnows, birds, primates, people,
over trees, looking down at cities, mountains, yet higher
borderless nations, green and sand continents,
and again all the crystalline blue seas.
The silver filament draws taut, holds the dove's ascent,
wings slowing in awe as she views Mother Gaea
her intensely brilliant sphere accompanied by vivid tiny stars.
in a cold cold soundless night...
Grandmother teaching her children to fly;
Beauty's yearning realized complete.
Jan 22, 2013
Jan 22, 2013 at 8:52 PM UTC
"In the borderless kingdom of poetry,
poet is the emperor"
KALIDASA (Sanskrit classical poet circa,3Cen BCE)
His words
"Apare, Kavya Samsare,
Kavireva prajapati"
Sep 2, 2013
Sep 2, 2013 at 12:25 PM UTC
pulling hair, mounting the scathed creature — feelingfulness straddles
the lovelorn fringe of shadows coming
to a feint.
under the canopy of the guava tree
i reminisce dissonance of claims
drunken recall or some ill fortitude
and borderless as it seems,
capturing the eye.
mirage dazzled, writhing on the
darling loam, fisticuff of birds
swarming ecliptic passages
finding a hidden codex somewhere
in archaea — women pulled from ribs
and men wrought out of tears.
Nov 12, 2015
Nov 12, 2015 at 4:20 AM UTC
Summertime in Berlin
City of possibility
Quaint and lively
Large and small
Soggy and crisp
Comfortable and borderless
Perfectly flawed
European cornucopia
Harsh language, soft smiles
Birds awake me every morning
Neighbor plays Bach loudly
U-Bahn here and there
Perfect coffee while the perfect song plays
Perfect barista with an English accent and lovely smile
Smooth and lucid caffeine buzz
"Must try before dying"
On to Italy soon
Farewell, sweet Berlin
Jun 30, 2013
Jun 30, 2013 at 2:54 PM UTC
claim the lands as borderless
find yourself in peace
feel the calmness in your chest
abandon your beliefs
Feb 7, 2017
Feb 7, 2017 at 6:20 AM UTC
hard edges
relentlessly slicing my soul
rending to tatters if allowed
forever protecting
constantly repairing
I gaze seawards, skywards
to vistas beyond vision
worlds with no hard edges
expanses where souls dance
to the lullaby of love
borderless
beyond time and space
leave me there
Oct 5, 2010
Oct 5, 2010 at 3:42 PM UTC
A toxic wave of heat swells over the foothills
Suffocating everything it touches
A coyote's desperate howl echoes through the empty void
Cacti sprout abundantly up through the desolate earth like skeletons of the past
The land is empty, deprived of life
Barren
A borderless labyrinth stretching on into eternity
Solitary
Lifeless
Lonely
Jul 5, 2013
Jul 5, 2013 at 4:13 AM UTC
Ever eluding formless form,
An ephemeral enigma, expressed.
Gone with joy, gone with doubt,
No future, no end, no past.
Streaming streams, weaving tears,
An absolute, borderless, unimaginable Void.
Blackness so bright it dulls distinction;
The ethereal haze returns home.
Unspoken mysteries perplex, but why?
Beyond the patina, cracked to the core,
To the everlasting end, lies an answer.
Because.
Holding on to threads once torn,
Grasping the buzz that fills the warmth,
Tying up wind with seasonal chains,
Setting it free then pulling the reins.
Adorning its crown with ribbons of gold,
Running with fear when tones turn cold,
Remembering love as melodies soften,
Ceasing to Be - a self-inflicted coffin.
It is.
It shall.
It can.
It will.
Go forth and phonate silence,
With stillness prevailing all.
Go forth and leave no trail behind,
Trekking far with no reward.
A label-less label deserves one of its own:
Vibratory Substantiality,
The silent spectre of my dreams.
Jun 3, 2012
Jun 3, 2012 at 3:42 AM UTC
Shapes
borderless shapes
shapes and indefinite shades
are slowly coming back to me.
Shades
blurred shades
shades and bits of color
are all that come to my mind's eye.
Colors
dull colors
colors and images
are depicted in my head.
Pictures
brittle pictures
pictures and old movies
are recalled to my consciousness.
*Take those Shapes
Take those Shades
Take those Colors
Take those Pictures
The collection of the senses grow into
Memories*
Memories
vague memories
memories of my past. Nay- our past.
good and bad. There's not much left.
Bliss
sweet bliss
our time I will cherish
in fondness and thanks.
Mistakes
dumb mistakes
your mistakes are a teacher
and I have learned an important lesson.
Lessons
valued lessons
a lesson I learned from you
is to only love those who deserve it.
Regrets
deep regrets
regret and remorse
I pray you feel when you think on me.
Feelings
no hard feelings
I hope you discover yours
and no longer bury them deep down.
Goodbyes
bittersweet goodbyes
you finally shut me out
cold, harsh and to the point.
Friends
dear friend
to you I will no longer be
just a fleeting, vague memory.
"Ta ta"
Mar 31, 2013
Mar 31, 2013 at 2:56 AM UTC
Vaulted Sky
Shaded canyon breathtaking heights does the angry wind speak if so in a whisper the granite peaks austere and bleak seem to frown on the trees and lowly grass lands with their fertility and ease of growth. While he the monarch bristling with his cold barren armor of granite invites the stares the awe inspired gratitude of nature and mortal man he knows there dreams and thoughts how many have stood at the edge of wonder on his brow with fainted hearts. Their thoughts drift out and away ever upward reaching the clouds filled and clothed with mountain air brightly they are displayed in these untamable rays. Voices of the ancient ones still echo their wisdom still resounds in the summer thunder they visited and released many a tortured soul. Before Blind they stood before the closed door of their minds knowing there is a path but where can it be found. Riches unbound await the searcher who will go to any and all lengths to conquer unbelief freedom his guiding star he walks in great shadows. Mountainous men Jefferson Lincoln his stalwart companions stand with grandest stature takes from the mountain those teachings not found in musty universities. Thoughts born on creations morn formed and laid on this rocky foundation now for centuries they have bore the weight this colossus purified they are words more noble than gold. Share them invest them in the borderless world of human kind that circle the globe. Moses was familiar and consorted with mountains the angel made one his sepulcher. Waste not the golden hours they are the thread that sows life’s most exquisite moments together making a life. Turn aside seek the heights they will give you respect and honor words will flow that are uncommon they will fit any and all circumstances filling the empty void where hearts bleed without ceasing. Your voice will be like the cool mountain breeze soothing filled with substance and comfort.
Nov 17, 2011
Nov 17, 2011 at 4:54 AM UTC
Vaulted sky
Shaded canyon breathtaking heights does the angry wind speak if so in a whisper the granite peaks austere and bleak seem to frown on the trees and lowly grass lands with their fertility and ease of growth. While he the monarch bristling with his cold barren armor of granite invites the stares the awe inspired gratitude of nature and mortal man he knows there dreams and thoughts how many have stood at the edge of wonder on his brow with fainted hearts. Their thoughts drift out and away ever upward reaching the clouds filled and clothed with mountain air brightly they are displayed in these untamable rays. Voices of the ancient ones still echo their wisdom still resounds in the summer thunder they visited and released many a tortured soul. Before Blind they stood before the closed door of their minds knowing there is a path but where can it be found. Riches unbound await the searcher who will go to any and all lengths to conquer unbelief freedom his guiding star he walks in great shadows. Mountainous men Jefferson Lincoln his stalwart companions stand with grandest stature takes from the mountain those teachings not found in musty universities. Thoughts born on creations morn formed and laid on this rocky foundation now for centuries they have bore the weight this colossus purified they are words more noble than gold. Share them invest them in the borderless world of human kind that circle the globe. Moses was familiar and consorted with mountains the angel made one his sepulcher. Waste not the golden hours they are the thread that sows life’s most exquisite moments together making a life. Turn aside seek the heights they will give you respect and honor words will flow that are uncommon they will fit any and all circumstances filling the empty void where hearts bleed without ceasing. Your voice will be like the cool mountain breeze soothing filled with substance and comfort.
Sep 19, 2012
Sep 19, 2012 at 6:45 PM UTC
*Let us be like the oceans that travel the world;
Borderless like the sea,
Vast in knowledge and mystery,
Through the waves that crash towards one another.
Let us be azure, gleaming with the light
In the sky, where Mother envelops us
The Earth our bed,
Amidst the stars we shine.*
Dec 2, 2016
Dec 2, 2016 at 10:22 AM UTC
If you aren't looking
you will never see them
hidden in whitewashed caste systems
forced to conform
to federal papers
which fit in a folder
that fits in a file
of an emaciated white guy
who doesn't fit anywhere
checking the boxes and "disorders"
voted on by
a majority of uncaught criminals
who are protecting store front lifestyles
while the real merchandise of their lives
lays in the back storage room
with the rats of their conscience.
They judge sanity
setting rigid walls
and hanging permanent badges on
Salvador Dali dream catchers,
borderless thinkers,
and geniuses
of the things not yet discovered.
Just because the gifted can not
or will not
stop thinking,
they are detained for their
Difference.
State Hospital No. 3
titles every page
framed in frayed edges
and unfrayed passion.
Lions of courage stand
with childlike joy
in traveling circuses
obliterating demons of oppression,
overwhelming reoccurring ECT...ECT...ECT.
An etcetera of living
beyond electroconvulsive therapy
where the spelling of ECTLECTRC is perfect
in its grammar and definition,
standing in banners atop
the wide-eyed portraited guardians
of institutionalism.
Glorious art shuddered on a curb,
lost and intended for *******
Thank God, beauty beholders come
in all ages of eyes.
14 year olds also find treasure
in garbage piles
clutching dearly to the feeling
that greatness lies in colored pencils
dancing on unusual stationary.
Edward Deeds
comes of age
in the same moment
as the scavenging boy does
opening the binders
on their inter-joined journey
36 annuals after dislodging it
from a leftover ham and rye.
A voice is unmuted
merely by being seen.
Revelation is given
by turning on the light.
Art, music and knowledge is infinite
when boxes are destroyed,
ignorance rebuked,
and courage is embraced.
Let us dare to never be
just what we know.
Let us live to be
what we have never yet seen.
Mar 12, 2014
Mar 12, 2014 at 1:06 AM UTC
Exiles from a dysfunctional global pipe-dream
of borderless corporate matriarchies,
multi-kulti nonsense and data-driven diversity
where virtue-signaling despots ruled
and those so confused
they didn't know their own gender
competed for victim-status
as they shrieked,
where rainbow torches on the filthy walls
smoldered with toxic smoke
barely illuminating the fragments
of computer carcasses we had to step over,
we fled the oppression
of passive-aggressive elitists
suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome
to found a pure republic, based on poetry, goodwill and faith in God.
We emerged from the labyrinthine caverns and malodorous tunnels
into the light right outside the cave:
Clear, strong patriarchal light
purifying the fresh air.
We breathe deeply.
*Once I saw some Vikings
sail the sea looking for Diet Coke
only to find angry gulls and mothers
squawking in parking lots
as the dust of the gentle hills disappeared
down the unpaved road
of rolling Scandinavian seas.*
I was emotionally engaged once . . .
but she was a neurotic feminist poet, so I broke it off
and moved to Kekistan where
(thanks be to Kek)
I married my TWO Kekistani brides.
Apr 12, 2019
Apr 12, 2019 at 7:18 PM UTC
I take a pen
I cut my wrists and bleed
My life flows onto the page
Bright red, so terribly wonderful
The mountainous peaks and unending vales of my pysche
Stretch out in a flowing river of ink
Of blood
Of my immortal soul
Of me.
I paint the portrait with hues that can not be seen
And sing with the silent voice of trees that have since been felled.
I pull you in, I take you down
I want you to drown in an ocean of ink and paper,
To become lost in the borderless forests cultivated within my mind
I want to pull you into my skull,
So you can see me how I truly am.
I want you to know how truly alive I am.
Sep 3, 2013
Sep 3, 2013 at 2:17 PM UTC
DON’T TRUST MY WORDS
Don’t trust my words as even I, myself
of all people, have begun,
quite often,
to doubt my own utterance,
the urgency, this (self-professed ) poignancy
behind these skilful, self-deluding words,
For,
how could I speak against myself,
be my own accuser,
and become the laughing stock
of all those around me?
You see,
I have become a prisoner
of my own words, the seeds
sown since my childhood
have taken hold
surreptitiously
of my whole being:
I have become what my words
want me to be.
So, my love, if you still love me
or think you still love me or know
still what love is
you should not ask,
but be quiet… look into my eyes,
feel my pain, share my sorrow-
we would both find truth
beyond words
in this borderless silence.
Aug 30, 2015
Aug 30, 2015 at 8:55 PM UTC
To the stranger’s eye
It seemed to have no divide
An intangible singularity
Yet corporeal and multifarious
Almost non-existing, but
Standing
Still, in time
Was
My quiescence,
A Frenzy disguised within
An exuberance
Placid,
Alacrity latent subdued by
Lament
Silent,
An eternal gaze injecting an
Iridescent daze,
Incessant stupor creating
Solitude in clamour
Upon realizing
My find,
That a mirrored everything
And more
Was her too, and
Becoming
Was
I, half of
Her borderless soul
Two distanced voices
Once unsure and fading,
Now becoming
Each other and one,
Us, what seemed to be an end,
Ended, a start
Becoming.
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013 at 7:12 AM UTC
he seeped into my life slowly
and it was like being 8 again and
finding myself
suddenly carted 12 hours away
to a new life, one
that feels like brand new shoes
but suddenly it's broken in
& everything was familiar
& he was familiar
before I could even drag
my heels in resistance
he spilled words and ideas,
I licked them up like the coffee
that I carry, escaping onto its lid
and he is borderless
I am walking under a blue sky
unpunctuated by clouds,
it is endless &
the dopamine rush makes everything brighter
I look up and I am lost at sea
the sky is so blue
I am lost in his smile and his quirks
& God, he's so awkward
but I feel safe
like
I never want to leave
&
maybe I'll tell him everything
&
bitter coffee spills again on its lid
I sip it slowly
the sky is so blue,
so deep,
he is endless,
how am I not drowning
May 1, 2015
May 1, 2015 at 2:10 AM UTC
The whole earth resounds
With the exuberant songs
of nature’s majestic harmony.
And sways to the steady pulse
of all that breathes and roams the land,
That inhabits the rushing brooks
Or soars through borderless skies,
Of every seedling, flower and chrysalis.
And every newborn calf and golden field.
All that rise to greet the sun
Intone their festal hymns
To nature’s exultant harmony.
The boundless wonders of nature’s realm
Sustain our spirits and illumine our paths
With wisdom taught by the lakes and mountains
And solace sung by the forests and plains.
So with steady and transfigured hearts,
we forge our trails through hallowed land.
When the sun has run its daily course
and twilight claims the fading light,
we offer thanks for the nascent moon
and the radiant star-jeweled night -
tuning our faith and aspirations
to the music of the spheres.
The whole earth resounds
with the exuberant songs
of nature’s majestic harmony
Sep 1, 2014
Sep 1, 2014 at 10:16 AM UTC
it is something that has
made me once laugh.
and now that it is something
that is done to perpetuate
a divinity of its savoir faire,
or unfurl the evocativeness of
sartorial workmanship,
it is something that inhabits
me like an imagined pit
that a body should plummet into
and crash, having fallen off
from the boughs of a bottomless dream.
like snow or silence, drops onto its vastness and fastens in it such felicitous rigor greeting it
like an old companion, reminding
me of these unimpeachable occurrences: as a wrinkled log is petrified, where mosses pullulate to archipelagic green, where wild ivies sprawl like children in the high-afternoon, or clandestine Paraneoptera ensconced somewhere within the triviality
of demarcated stones in
the dark's cunning edge,
my body knows its peace,
all borderless without flounce
flourishing in its still life.
Sep 18, 2015
Sep 18, 2015 at 1:58 AM UTC
Oceans and so many miles apart
Two souls meet
Their hearts....
REACH
Feeling each and every beat
Doesn't matter what others say
Nothing
And
Nobody
Can tear them away
It's already written
It's already done
The two souls
In-love
Are now ONE
REACH
Run
Climb
Fly
Once together
They will say goodbye.....
NEVER!!!
Love is borderless..........
Nov 29, 2014
Nov 29, 2014 at 8:58 PM UTC
i am the father of these words yet,
these mischievous children
run away in the loquacious dark
chasing lithe-clothed, supple-limbed
girls whirling up and about the prairie
of these versifications without home
in mind or remembering —
(the home of my mind wary of
the past and its old cobwebs,
or the slaughter of ordinariness
with a dull blade poised to cull,
these mindful creatures assassinating
diaphanous muses disrobing themselves,
serpents shedding their integuments.)
oh and when they return home sullied,
after a day's squalid scamper past
the muck, the twitch of atmosphere,
the horizon ladled with clouds
in white metamorphosis, i remove their
clothes and send them to the fences of sleep — impish dream-callers,
yes I am the father of these words
and they flourish, swelling up, learning
to harangue their own father, sending
him to borderless retreat.
Oct 8, 2015
Oct 8, 2015 at 9:08 AM UTC