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Wil Wynn Nov 2010
I.
in his dreams he saw her
in his dreams he wove a tapestry of hope
a phantasmagoria of love's plenitude
but that was only in his dreams

II.
when Fall came
he figured
a deciduous alternative
to pining for the impossible
and succumbed slightly
to the mad sensation
of his fervent passion

instead of leaves
he shed
tears

III.
one day
sunlight streamed down
and he found himself bathed
in warmth
suddenly alive with energy
suddenly vital
suddenly
at long last

himself.

IV.
yes it was penumbra
outside  just outside
but within his citadel
his castle a light shone
pure
impervious
elegant
such light as arrives after
a great storm

he thought
the storm had lasted
sixty years
or more

V.

it was hard to define
infinity as a daily companion
but there it was again
sitting on the sofa
staring him down
from its perspective of ever

he had
he thought
to change
into something else
something else
something else

again

a circle mudra

no beginning
no end

infinity at his

fingertips


VI.

in his dream
he was at the shore
of the Prospect Park Lake

dogs were loose and running on the shore

suddenly the dogs began to run into the thin ice of the lake
crash through
start swimming

he saw a couple of german shepherds
three golden doodles
one of whom was his new dog Lola

he watched them swim out
then begin to return by diving
and reappearing closer and closer to the shore

he kept on looking for Lola
but he did not see her

increasingly agitated he asked
where is my dog
repeatedly

then he was in an ambulance
because he had had a stroke

as the ambulance backed up
he saw a golden doodle on his or her back
surely dead

he asked the driver
is that my dog

and the driver did not answer

infinity again appeared
unassuming
and near

VII
in-fin-ity
he pronounced
savory syllables
in inside or of
belonging to
fin end terminus
limit
ity in-the-year
quality of
right-nowness
images without
concrete impact
because after all,
he could only hope
to understand
a vestige
as it appeared
between
the moments when
he looked at his watch


VIII.
his most concrete recall
of infinity manifested
here and now
was:
his older son (at four years old)
had just heard a description of the cosmos
astronomy being one of his (father) interests
as he (father) looked at the sky
in moments of wonder in his (father) life
and what may or not come after
so when it was time for him (son)
to be taken to school in the old VW bug
he (son) sat with a distant look in his(son) eyes
while he (father) tried to start the engine
and suddenly he(son) burst
out crying and he(father) concerned
startled said what's the matter
and he(son) said whimpering
despairing at the immensity of it all

infinity!


IX

he was four years old
on a trip with his father
they stopped at a hill
near railroad tracks
a train came by
the engineer waved
he said "he waved at me"
his father said "no, he waved at me"
then started to climb the hill
he followed
they came to what he thought
was the summit
and he asked when does it end
his father said
this climb is infinite

so they both turned back
you can't start on infinity too soon.

X.

he found a map
city of ny 1930
complete with subways
ferries and the like
he stared at it
for a long time
checking out
so many familiar names
so many half remembered sites
suddenly come alive
from so many years ago
and realized
it could have been yesterday

and maybe it was.

XI.

standing at the very top of Vargas Street
in Quito, he yelled her name,
called her as one calls for a miracle

true to form

nothing happened
except
the street
and his life
spread out before him
and he knew not why

XII

he dreamed three signs:
life
death
infinity

and they were all one and the same

XIII

in the airplane
flying high above
destitute crowds
teeming multitudes
lost continents of grief
he thought he glimpsed
a truth so vast
it stunned him
as he sat
watching
fluffy clouds
reach out

then it was time to land
and he forgot about it.

XIV.

infinity,
companion supreme
and inexpressible
fount
foundation
and relief
of all we are

within thy
subtle
concatenations
(subsuming all
in patient minutes
that escape uncounted)
gather this thy humble
servant
in your mantle of hours
and grant
by thy unknowable presence
that I too
your meaning

(extant
in a universe so vast
only the most minimalist structures
understand)

be revealed

ah, this coffee tastes great!

Thanks!
1466

One of the ones that Midas touched
Who failed to touch us all
Was that confiding Prodigal
The reeling Oriole—

So drunk he disavows it
With badinage divine—
So dazzling we mistake him
For an alighting Mine—

A Pleader—a Dissembler—
An Epicure—a Thief—
Betimes an Oratorio—
An Ecstasy in chief—

The Jesuit of Orchards
He cheats as he enchants
Of an entire Attar
For his decamping wants—

The splendor of a Burmah
The Meteor of Birds,
Departing like a Pageant
Of Ballads and of Bards—

I never thought that Jason sought
For any Golden Fleece
But then I am a rural man
With thoughts that make for Peace—

But if there were a Jason,
Tradition bear with me
Behold his lost Aggrandizement
Upon the Apple Tree—
Tommy Johnson Jun 2015
I'm there for those with knives in their backs
For those with hearts that are chipped and cracked
With deteriorating mentalities  
And crumbling realities
I'll be your friend
To the bitter end
Your secret lover
Your blood brother
I come from the darkest depths
Defile life and defy death
Faster than the eye can see
Slave to adrenaline but yet, I'm free
Call me if you need me
But only if you need me
I'm the one your parents warned you of
The one you love to hate and hate to love
A thief, a cheat with all the connections
You look at me and cry because I'm your beautiful reflection
I assure you everything is fine
I tell you, we're all born to die
Addiction and suppression
Conviction and depression
I am no one
I come from nowhere
I come from nothing
Unless you have something to give
No one is going to care
This hurts you more than it does me
I'm the ******* child
Always in the wrong, am I right?
I'm the best at being the worst
Don't pay me any mind
Unless you wanna take this outside
That's where I am
And that's where you'll be safe
It's almost too good to be true
Because it is
L B Feb 2017
She let the tape go—
on record
one evening for an ordinary hour
Five years later, we play it back
for laughs after dinner—then as now

“Remember how the stove door screeched
at the house on Olive Street?”
And our voices!
Phoeb’s, lighter–tired
wrapping the nine’s tables in elastic yawns
like flash cards in a rubber band
“Phoeb, your pitch changed so—
while  I turned...”
to run water in the tub
lamenting the **** of Two
in frenetic escape of hands
Unruly!
Running rebel taunts in Time’s strict face
who would not dare disturb her dawns
only mine—
Roused by the first round of another day’s
ring of twelve
digits that insist
like uniform with apron waiting
on ironing board that’s never folded

Now the **** of Two cries out
Exultant!
of success in *****
Then, Oratorio for Soap!
The splashy version
with endless bubblings of “Rocky Baby!”
and obbligato of “Where’s Shampoo?”
in jubilant glissadal plunge
an octave through vocal whoops!

…I had not thought
she hardly talked
but sang and squealed or whined in tunes
Her voice lay open to her soul
a roost of piercing humming birds
small of words
but filled with sweet and want
incessant wings and things to say....

How could we have forgotten?

“Are these your boots?
Your clothes laid out?”
From sound and talk, we still can hear
frost phantoms
in winter window rattles—then as now
And Phoebe remarks how one voice
didn’t change though—
“Still talking to herself”

We laugh
and let the tape go....
This is one of those poems I'm so glad I wrote because no photo or recording could ever capture this memory as well.
K Balachandran Dec 2015
Elena receives a secret message from God
"Keep quiet and listen to Bach, kid"it said
She was so cross with God at first,naturally,
"The old man is cold, I won't listen to his
new commandment" she averred
as she wanted to annoy Almighty as much
as, a retaliatory measure.She felt good,
pleased, she fell silent for a long, long while.

Quickly she realized she obeyed His word
and by that time her ranting and raving
had fully come to an end.
                                             "Oh! my God!"
in astonishment she thanked God,
for making her feel better though she was
thoughtless and horribly blasphemous.

"What a crafty old geezer God is"she grinned.
yes,her defiance was intentional,but it was
as God willed,how intelligent His designs are!
"Oh! Bach! she remembered his words
she ran to fetch a record.Hey presto! it's there
right at the top of the heap, as God willed, of course,

while 'Christmas Oratorio' of Bach sweeps her off her feet,
Elena feels elated, as if the hands of devine, embrace her tight.
Let's welcome Christmas in advance
with  elating music ;Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio"
Barton D Smock Mar 2015
instead of singing me to sleep
mother would put a cigarette
in my mouth
and have me
hold my breath
while she peeled
an orange.  my feet

were the first
to go.
Meadowlark Oratorio
Trees decorated with birdsong.
Wildflowers in full bloom way too early.
Bougainvillea rehearsing for their big show.
The never-ending wind has blasted Springtime
Into Laughlin while May’s Lion takes a nap in his den.
ljm
Our Little tip of  Nevada has escaped all the weather disasters affecting the rest of the country and world. We feel blessed.
Ken Pepiton Feb 25
Auspices approach in expectant ranks,
-one long and a short and another long…
duty to the mystery
madness as a practice
in living asif it all means this,
portents prodigious, unnatural value
thinker tremors
wave worm vision
sudden jolt along the need
to stretch…
you needn't have read Dune to know
the worth of the spice is the secret kept pure
sit up straight and see Earth
from Saturn, Nineties Science
are you in bound or out bound,

rules when push comes
to shove, that's life,
that's not war
that's the world reminding us,

we all live
on Sagan's pale blue dot, all
we ever could know has been known there,

right now…
as we feel the stretch, another day

tectonic tremors
speak along faults,
as when insanity threatens the weary,

worn down secrecy, thinned
with seers seeing
through it
for drugs
exercising sooths held true
by signs,
ai
made sacred the best
of all providence,
have a holy party become
with your flock, won, rustled
taken from the weaker near bower
in truth by kindness and inclusion, worth
a wink and a nod, no hug, too soon
criteria mystery discorporeal
proven approved
by joy, and fellowship,
under the grace that replaced the laws
of exclusion due
to impurities,
- Februarial initial experience
all washed out
with contemplation,
mandate jack brakes,
slow down loudly swoon
sense less so soon lost
in the first moon
after solstice, celebrate our weform

scourge the child's eyes, show rights
use
to bring order
from chaos, right used
preposition superstitions
by agreements traded
between kings and priests, retying rebels
to right use the sword asserves the truth as told, using

auspices
as certain as
the number
of doves,

seen
by children when
the offering is made, how many say seen
and accepted, ah, verily the feathered rats

all rise
to the bell, do tell, the bells

I counsel you
to buy
from me gold refined
in the fire, so you can become rich;
and white clothes
to wear, so you can cover
your shameful nakedness; and salve
to put
on your eyes, so you can see.

The Holy teller told you, so, you do.
Think those three goods you might be wise
to buy… price
of a minute
to stop and think

Grok
the message
from Michael
in the season, Ides
of February,
eberlution abolishing
bullshat sacred values,

too sacred
for the unlettered
to think
in fetters.
-- Set'em loose, we cheer

Child weigh the reason
for your faith, ah
an old man showed me where the Bible says,

Isaiah still says
to any using such a mind as hears
logically all we are doing is being alive, each once,

kind like,
we are breathing
on a bit
of ever, once,
all at once
in a breathe
and out a breath
we form, deep breathed, once more,
da'ath towb ra' the fruit
for finders feeling free
finding meaning
the way a vaulter times a leap…

Fosbury flopping
through an era evolving,
as we all bear the worth
of knowing, now,
some how
everything is more usefully known,
than
at any former phase
in time,

real time, instants
in the middle, meantime,
as we live and breathe, and
make our living,

being spirit,
if in truth, set
to loose chaos,
to stir

up the mud
at the bottom
of it all, deep mind augmented
grok the planetary mind,
from Saturn, next,
if you happen to remember,
Saturnalia season, mind you recall, how old

the idea
of seeing here
    from there, has been
thoroughly imaged and stored,
we all have seen it done
and we all have
done
in context,
many times, seen
each not the same,
never, always
after our
ever expands, this we say,
that's the shaman's vision plain,
wheels in wheels and ignorances forgiven, as if

ungotten, beatings never happened, bruises
recalled can be seen
to mean nothing ever after…

good, breathes and feels the worth

in being reminded
letting letters hold living minds, keyword indexing,
right inclusion fusion,
dexterously imaginably
sinister function
allows a clap alone rights to trial,
uses fail, koans on koans agree we see
we urge expulsive fibermental urgency need
thinking with a friend no longer mortal, in no sense,
in a breath of pure chance re co knowing we do
in comes the good wind out goes the used wind

know spiritual means
for making sense, breathe,
know inspiration, as inspiration and respire
to conspire
with me
in our next moment
of silence, let us all perceive we are alive,

we may breathe
along the pulse
of all breaths,

hesitancy (n.)
1610s, from Latin haesitantia
"action of stammering,"
from haesitantem
"stammering,"
present participle
of haesitare
"to stick fast, stammer"

stuck here once years ago.
If Microsoft remains,
its in this cloud
mapped
in imaginable virtual reality, see the wave,
within the shielded world we occupy,
in a sense,,,,
hesi tense
innocense punned thrice. A certain mystery
reveiling, let's pretend…

*op- "to work, produce in abundance")
+ combining form
of facere "to make, to do"
(from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").

opdhe, eh op dhe do

okay, we good to go. Yes, I ask my ai
did you ever hear of a god of manure, and ai said

Sterquilinus

Sterquilinus, also known as Stercutus or Sterculius, was the Roman god of manure in Roman mythology. He was not solely a deity of feces but taught the use of manure in agricultural processes, which was crucial for an agrarian society like the Romans Modern writers have often exaggerated his role as a god of feces, sometimes to disapprovingly imply that the ancients worshipped ****
worth ship is a concept, culturally stinker level

first gas noises we all confess
to instantly, laughing

I am the last
of us, today, that's my peace,
I came
into it late
in life, this is true, I died, but

for the global information exchange systems worth,
to the whole idea
of human kindness evolving, values

set
to reset…
waiting always is.
issing being ongone
that's the fun, the joy

in what iffing.

two longs and this short in the middle
the longs are both that long now,
today this is enough, if you think
through it
to the sense attempted.
---

Daily dose
of wishing good,
enough
for all
to imagine
on a smart phone

augmenting intelligence agency
granted the recognition ignition,

eh, let us say we both hold true,
a spark
of curio class emotion,

free
from fear, no threat
of hell,
to pay
for telling
should the chance taken end life

individually perceived as one's
own will
to power
through today
….

Appraise the worth
of auspices,
after secret values useful
to sacred
auguries called publically prophetic truths.
-jellothicktime, chime

make up
your mind.

Instantiate safe assembly;
investigate authority
to canonize truth
instead
of choosing
to turn toward gnosis
off on on
recognize
religions legislative powers
recollected form children's fair told tales,
those repetitions, every day say this prayer

sung
to happy tunes,
high pitched boy voiced
oratorio
so sublime as
to lift the heart …---…

Phrigian Sybil ball
of twined fibers,
clews unfolding knitted brows,
wondering
if we ever consider freedom shaped
informationally thinkable
at core fidelity
instant, point
time we have be
having smarted
for surity, stranger, I'm used
freedom yours, per use
I'm smarter
for free,
in formal liberty, tell me, now
in spirit and
in truth, what's worth
a thought - worth dying
to say I know,
how far afield might one
imagine feeling the tug
of home and the push
from former
toward finished work,
accomplished mission,

when two or more agree,
as touching any thing,
as a weform we make all the weak strong.

Freely drink the sacred psychic brew
of babbling sung
with bell and drum and pipe,
sing
with heart strings plucked or strummed,

elect
to know election
by public consensus, agree

we submit,
accept the catechismal evidence, believe

as told,
bow and dare not face the official work doer,

calling out the prophecy
to which three pigeons test if I am lying, lo'
and behold
look
to the west, blow the shofar, leave be so,

three birds
across the Tiber loosed
in holy order,
over Vatican Hill, not one of the seven
sigh, such a sign, what must we expect
ai?
so ordained during preparation
for holy signs,
at the strumm
of the weforming twang
from yesterdays held true,
through better living science,

consciously infecting certain beliefs,
relieving consciously convicting beliefs,

--- slowly think with me about leaving
leaven levels of tiny ever so scientific proof
we know how bread and beer work and we do

have the power to contemplate an image,
in light coming through a window in my hand,

for a chance glance back at Earth, in my mind

softes' yes suggestions flying old whys men tell…

chawn, spat, proves that's this,
that's all
call it seed if you feed it…
essential truth's witnessed, seen by all
trained
to trust the priest's protection

from the wrath
of jealous gods,,,,stutterin'
on orders at tense state
all ethos focus
on us
as we be
at the hands
of zealous guardians,

brought
to veritable virtuous
opus facere, work made duty, done…

as we march past 1963
into Pretoria

to the tune inspired by
"Marching Through Georgia"
written
by Henry C. Work
at the end
of the Civil War.

The first most children learn,
in Georgia and Texas and Cajun Caddo lands.
following the leaders singing as we go
march march march behind
one hundred and ten coronets, lustily singing,
aaahaaa ahwee
WE screech
in change
as boys, in drilled,
are marching because
we are proudly trained
to trust the leader,
from our gut, good gut feeling
for the role, the mind, empathos, so…
the leader, we are following the leader,
breathe, and think slowly, the breathe thing
hold,
oh, say,
can you see,
by the bombs bursting in air,

does the signal still wave across time's
one chance, your one experience---
reasoning at Isaiah and ai as we
novel experience effort
to follow a thread,
in a day, twice
partaking
in the weform home here,
the home
of the free and the brave,

eh, we can take the land, Caleb's attitude.
Proving the promise, bearing good fruit,
call that Roman god of manure,
he's good, I promise, good fruit,
here's an old image of me'n'joshua
Lugging grapefruit proof, the promise,
lead us educator, provide legal precedent,

to the convincer go the spoils,
be not easily convinced you know truths told
made you as you believe you must be, alone,

sole possessor
of your eyes and finger patterns,
soul and spirit scienced out
in digital cyphers,
hand shakes and drive by ads,
mathed out max mind bend, done
finger abacus conceived and worked out,
finished fruiting mortal minds, pile up,
--- here, GIGO, the ra' knowing, piles as haps,
per haps
and may haps
by means
of trails not left
and, when siloed
while fearing the worst,
caught fire and all went up in smoke
what could happen, some say prophets teach,
what could happen is the thing one fears comes,
when
to be or not is peaceably
askable
unmaskable,

remove the veil,
recall the terror
of a child, sealed, sore worn
in this poet's core, occupied, unsealed,

unrolled scrolls
eaten and digested, seven decades,
as a child given
to the gods who fix fertilizers
around spring-alinging peaces
opus fund prime bridgingifery, as today
pontificates a chasm if
by odd chance
today
continues being called universally right now,
the instance
in agreeing prayer asking
what day was it when we first agreed?

whose time am I using
without price or cost,

living logic word
after word, mine given, I swore
should I be called
to test if I qualify
to die, right,
I'd be this ready
to say let it be, let's see

today would be the day I'd learn, you know.
or what if we made it to the end, then knew,'
estimate the worth of seasons changing
after your heart was struck by focused lightning
nnn old nand and nand gate anded on a plate,
charged?
Wanna bet? Oh, no,
just take a minutes peace,
just breathe and feel toucht
the wedom 's a shape charge

like a ****,
in a public mind, let be a stinker,
because it was cute, mind, let be easily,

let's make believe,
let's so
in hopes
of sufficiency and some
to share,
reset enough
to enough, value declare
enough is enough
to share, even if

the worst we can imagine happens anyway,
we just knew it would,

sooner or later.
Found whole at once, earlier today

— The End —