"transients" poems
We were the transient children
windswept youth
marching to break the barrier
between nightness and dawn
whispering immigrant secrets
of our fathers
and mothers
lying on rooftops yelling
arrays of stars
speeding away
racing light
racing racing racing
hearts as we crawled
down fire escapes to
street corners
to proselytize
Amen
Hari Krishna
Namaste
As-Salāmu 'Alaykum
silent God
May 8, 2012
May 8, 2012 at 3:48 AM UTC
There's movement afoot.
Occupants and sycophants
Are scattering
From the Rainbow Rooms
To the more concrete setting
Of the Oral Office,
Where the North and South Porticos
Admit the transients
Behind the secure cement walls
Of the Skinners.
Jan 2, 2019
Jan 2, 2019 at 10:35 AM UTC
the sea is cold,
but the sea contains the hottest blood of all.
killer transients.
people and whales.
he needed to see his son smile
& he did.
a blue-trucked boy, hometown hero.
he loved to fight
& he fought to love.
died in afghanistan for the pentagon boys.
blame them. bomb them.
submerge your vestigial limbs in days and home
& simple mammalian living.
wage and pray.
little hours.
little sweet nothings.
people and whales fall older.
think. write. ferment.
the good deep.
the hottest blood of all.
Jul 10, 2015
Jul 10, 2015 at 6:56 AM UTC
the criminal element is lost
have you fought with your boss
each day is fraught with challenges
but that's what makes you stronger
all along the water's edge
the waves break and connect
like threads of poetry
lines of beauty
curving at the moon
luminous intrusions
before we are fallen
dreams seethe
with colorful landscapes
and i am a blade of grass
threads of astral fire
aspire for the sun
my magic is beyond recognition
it ignites the silence
and burns bright as day
words are living
breathing entities
families of sounds
consonants and vowels
are relatively harmless
unless you dare
to speak them out loud
control your tone
and let aspiration resonate
this assonance is rather transient
so lets embrace our scansion
mansions of impermanence
lands of intransigent transients
its tragic really
how the lead of vehemence
can spread so rapidly
sentient powers stake their claim
in soil that remains dutiful
despite your shame
have we gone insane
its quite likely
or are we still the same
that remains to be questioned
better to drop this game
and keep up your crazy vision quest
Nov 13, 2018
Nov 13, 2018 at 2:03 PM UTC
It's such a silly paradox
The lonely man
The island of one
Till someone enters your stage
Then you love, leave and turn the page
Cause a spirit needs to be nurtured
And most of us haven't felt that since birth
So why bother trying
When they sing freedom songs
From shackles of iron
But why not skip
On the cruelty of duel thoughts
You could be crazy or corporate
But your real father is spread wide open
I know your brain is bleeding
You rather have it broken then
Try to mend a torn hem
Living for the moment
Can make you rather numb
So you wear your jeans inside out
Hoping the future comes
Sticks and stones
Bring warmth to your bones
But words will always hurt you
But why not skip
On the cruelty of duel thoughts
You could be crazy or corporate
But your real father is spread wide open
Everyone around you
Is wearing the face of Jesus
But you see their roots
From the Judas tree
And they hit
Every branch
On the way down
Back to square one
Is back to the flora
And dumb
Nov 26, 2011
Nov 26, 2011 at 1:03 AM UTC
At 10:20pm on a Tuesday night
The number 14 bus is full
Bright, glistening, and fevered
These tired commuters expend vast energies
on wishing they lived here—so they’d be home by now.
Transients—the unhoused—talk in believable lies
About Portland’s oldest bridges
And salmon runs in the Willamette
And every time the bell signals a stop requested
Those of us remaining heave another sigh of delay.
At SE Cesar Chavez, which was 39th when I was growing up,
More people get off than on—
A man in a brutal cavity t-shirt,
A 30-something in a grey hoodie –
Both transferring, probably, to the line 75.
I get off around 47th,
Pass the long-closed and over-priced vintage furniture shop,
Cross the street at the fading crosswalk,
Pass a bar, a home cooking joint with and early bird special of $2.95,
Another bar, and a lonely busker playing guitar and singing Weezer.
In my building, on my floor, the hallway always smells like chicken
I’ve yet to cook, to even finish unpacking
But all of this already feels familiar
My first night’s commute home
And I am as practiced and nonchalant as a New Yorker in the City…
At least as much as a Portlander can be in Portland.
I’ll have wine, or tea,
Put on my lounging clothes
And settle into an evening alone
As if I’ve been doing this forever
As if we never were.
Feb 24, 2012
Feb 24, 2012 at 2:42 PM UTC
Oh old days of past lives lived -
West coast ridin’
Thumbin’ ‘bout the coast -
San Diego up to L.A. -
Zoomin’ through Big Sur with strange friends,
Stranger than strangeness itself.
Arrive Santa Cruz,
Cops called,
No transients allowed,
Caravan keep tumblin’ northbound -
San Francisco Bay,
Oh, that Oakland scene
With Park Prophets
And worn-out crack minds
Panhandling supermarkets
Begging coins for fire -
The Sun isn’t enough -
Old man needing dirt
Paid with by pity,
Smoking up the score
Singing little ditties
On Piano, beating keys
loud, Loud, LOUD
until Cops called
by neighbors afraid of God,
claiming Jesus freaks of being demons,
Oh old days of past lives lived -
Walking Telegraph to Berkeley
In the rain Rain RAIN,
Stolen bicycle,
Making friends, People’s Park
No more noise -
Just rain fallin’ fallin’ fallin’
And in the rain, I do miss those lives -
Those faces. And I know, forever I will. Forever I will. Forever I will.
Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 11:56 AM UTC
do fires kiss my skin's senses not when I should be kept back at a spines distance
not when I solicit crimson splashes
from transients that gaze longingly
from a screens distance
but for the aftertaste of tenderness
I often wonder if the inferno that burns in a particular shade of loneliness
could be extinguished with nothing more
than what you call a "hug"
Mar 24, 2021
Mar 24, 2021 at 3:00 AM UTC
of what's a house built,
tatami mats without
figures, ghosts within walls,
haunted by the absence
of anyone of substance who calls,
ozu, can you hear me? in
these rooms of noh occupants,
transients staying only a night,
staging a performance for no audience,
except me, turning slowly to dust,
late spring in tokyo twilight,
floating weeds in an empty house,
by a projector's light.
Aug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 at 4:29 PM UTC
Tommorrow is on my calendar
as is every day next week.
I have interviews, appointments,
Dinners at which I'll speak.
I'll make some time for family
and writing ,I suppose.
I may find time to barbecue
and to launder my work clothes.
When evening comes I'll settle back
with a glass of Pinot noir.
I'm a transient immortal,
I'm on loan here from a star.
The future is a game;
against ourselves we play
We act as if we still have left
forever and a day.
In truth we all are transients
For just this moment free.
Self observing stardust
poised t'wixt two eternities
Oct 26, 2012
Oct 26, 2012 at 8:21 PM UTC
I heart Blackpool, engraved tankards
Little old men & full kit wankers.
Bracing wind with rain & sleet
******* blowing in the street.
In Blackpool.
Kiss me quick & squeeze me slow.
Madame Tussauds, pier-end show
Grubby track-suits, baseball caps
Homeless people search for scraps.
In Blackpool.
Sun and rain, blue & grey.
All four seasons in one day.
Drug ravaged transients dressed in rags.
Haggard old women smoke their ****
In Blackpool.
Flashing lights & lots of noise
Flirty girls & drunken boys
Abba tributes, yesterday’s stars,
Rattling trams & clapped out cars.
In Blackpool.
Penny arcades & bingo halls.
Amusement rides & market stalls.
Drag Queens flaunt with macho men.
Stripper seduces drunken hen.
In Blackpool.
Rooms by the hour, rooms by the night.
A £1 burger & a £2 pint
Rolling sea & golden sand.
Lowest life expectancy in the land.
In Blackpool.
May 1, 2020
May 1, 2020 at 5:37 AM UTC
Margaret, are you grieving
over Hillary’s unseating?
The victory you expected
was denied, and you are dejected.
Fears and tears are your companions
as you grieve for undocumented transients.
But no tears you shed in years gone by
when bombs fell on children from drones on high.
Nor did you protest the stop and frisk
or needless deaths of black men at risk.
Slaughter in Gaza was no cause
for you to protest, or even to pause
from your Twitter feed or drink at Starbucks.
(The world knows you didn’t give two *****
I sit and watch the roosting chickens
who have returned from the wide world sickened.
Nov 22, 2016
Nov 22, 2016 at 9:53 PM UTC
I live in the corners now where the light is a reflection
and the shadows are real:
The comforting shadows of what was and the
painful shadows of what was expected.
My corner is crowded with transients, like me, pulled
slowly or fast, into the farthest nooks where they are
finally lost to the ephemeral light of here and now.
It's hard to remember some of them, glad they are gone in fact;
Others are seared in my consciousness, smiling there as when
we shared the light that seemed everlasting as the sun.
But not even the sun is forever.
So I look for something beyond the nooks where my friends
and loves and dreams have gone.
I will tell you, who are still in the light, truly from the shadows
of the corner: only love and hope and Love will mean anything
when you reach this place.
And you will be here too soon.
Feb 8, 2016
Feb 8, 2016 at 12:57 PM UTC
The night falls so swiftly the darkness over comes
As the moonlights up the sky the transients begin there cry
The motor bikes soar as they are looking to score.
Greed, theivery and dispair floats thru the night air.
They are watched from a distance Indulging in sinfull ways
with begging brings a penny or two to get them thru the day.
asking for
assistance as they are watching your every move.
We close our eyes and turn away
Life is starving with dispair Is their no repair
The streets are lonely and ***** no where to sleep pushing and pulling carts full of stuff we throw at their feet.
Everyday struggling to survive.
Uniforms push them around making life more shallow as they are already eating off the ground.
Lost souls walking ,waiting for a chance to excape
People have no refuge
Scamming to get high hoping for the next free ride
Always confused and no self worth being criticized ,boy if only they had a clue.
You will Surely be changed living life in the dark,smelting heat ,dusty wind ,darkness is here this is all they have now.
Once you land here stay your distance the forces will pull you in and you will never get out. Dont even try to be a scout.
So forget who you were and rest assure.
The heat will melt your soul
Always watching behind you and nothing's ever there.
Is this what the future fortells ? hold on to your shirt tails.
Hell on earth is what they say
No one lends a hand and no one cares as they are only thinking of themselves
Warp sense of morals all for a buck or the next hit.
What a ***** horrible place this life can be in this city in AZ
Poor you poor me its not the place to be.
Jul 16, 2017
Jul 16, 2017 at 11:16 PM UTC
door slightly ajar,
footprints linger in the dust
doormat whispers, “wait”
Sep 7, 2016
Sep 7, 2016 at 12:30 PM UTC
Cars, Diesel trucks Motor bikes and Transit Buses, rebar and structural steel beams, sounds like fading sirens in the distance. Freeways and black topped school yards, city streets without enough tress, jails without enough beds.
Tents blocking sidewalks, cardboard castles where the forgotten go to smoke their prize.
You got millionares next to transients all waiting to be served. 6th and San Julian on another friday that happend to land on the 1st of the month.
Cops killing everybody, not even the innocent stand a chance, courtrooms sit silent as judges all retire to go play golf in the desert. Another innocent man awaits his execution, it'll be a grey day in hell when the blood of the wrong man soaks its entry way.
Beautiful girls and I mean Beautiful girls, start dancing as soon as they learn to walk in heels.
They know what works those filthy ******** who own everything and don't mind if you know it.
They want it this way.
They want her that way and her and her and even him.
City full of *** shops and not a dam thing left to smoke.
Cops still bust down doors like looters in a riot.
No ones has told them Nancy and her War is dead.
Leave where you left off right where you left it.
Lies don't deserve another chance.
I got a new way for you, I got to take some time to fill you in while pulling you out.
We are'nt going anywhere, this place wasn't built to explore.
See the mountain, see that tree stump, giants once ruled our world.
Aug 8, 2016
Aug 8, 2016 at 2:00 PM UTC
The muffled hum of a thousand voices
Fill the terminal; a child shrieks, a baby cries,
A drunk laughs and coughs, a glass drops;
The moving walkways are crammed
With the non-stop parade of transients.
We sit at the gate with tired eyes: Delayed.
Perhaps the plane will come by midnight.
Above us on a hundred silent screens
Ice skaters waltz to imaginary cantata.
“Salchows”, “toe loops” and “triple lutzes”
Fill the closed captioning;
The skaters with swan like bodies
Swirl in a high-speed pas de deux.
For a moment we glide in serenity,
Dizzy with joy from their spinning.
A vengeful voice from the loud speakers
Reminds us to report suspicious persons-
Our eyes leave the safety of the ice
To pass judgement on each soul we see,
As the judges tally their points and deductions.
Apr 10, 2018
Apr 10, 2018 at 1:15 PM UTC
Tomorrow is on my calendar
as is every day next week.
I have interviews, appointments,
Dinners at which I'll speak.
I'll make some time for family
and writing, I suppose.
I must buy steaks to barbecue
and must purchase new work clothes.
When evening comes I'll settle back
with a glass of Pinot noir.
I'm a transient immortal,
I'm on loan here from a star.
The future is a game
against ourselves we play.
We plan as if we still have left
forever and a day.
In truth we all are transients
For just this moment free.
Self observing stardust
poised twixt two eternities
Oct 26, 2017
Oct 26, 2017 at 7:12 AM UTC