Archive for the ‘Poetry Dept.’ Category

Q

Quark

THE HUNTING OF THE QUARK

In the Seventies
The physicists’
Very most sacred cow
Was hunting the constituents
Of a tribe they called  MU TAU (up)

They knew it was composed of QUARK
But had no method right
To label and identify
A creature that must multiply
To be as large as light

Red, Blue, or Yellow
He’s a very tiny fellow!

Since Light itself outweighs the  QUARK
And scatters them on sight
They must be hunted in the dark
Of sub-atomic night (more…)

P

Parents

Fringe Benefits

THE MORE YOU GIVE
THE MORE YOU GET
THE SELF IS LOST
THE RACE BEGAT
YOU’LL BE RE-FOUND
AGAIN AND AGAIN
ETERNALLY
IN THE RACE OF MEN

WHAT OTHER JOB WILL GUARANTEE
WHAT BONUS CAN YOU TELL ME OF
THAT OFFERS IMMORTALITY
WITH LOVE?

O

Out – Way out

Love Song In Space/Time

THE UNIVERSE
WHEN TIME BEGAN
BURNED WITH A BLUE-WHITE FLARE
(But you weren’t there)
AND IT’S BEEN SAID
IT WILL TURN DEEP RED
BEFORE IT FADES AWAY
(But I can’t stay)
BUT NOW IT’S SEQUENCE YELLOW
AND YOU AND I ARE HERE
LET’S LIVE TODAY
(Let’s LIVE)
LET’S!

N

Neolithic

The View through a Shattered Window*

1        Did you draw the dream?
Did you doom the drum?
Did they plough you over?
As under you come?

Were you under-come
When the over-tow
Forced the blood of the Earth
In the skies to flow?

What laid you low?

2        Were you ever me?
Am I part of you?
In the darkness of down
Foresaw you me too?

Had you sins to rue?
In you off-far time?
Do I think at your fount
When I thirst for rhyme?

Am I your mime?

3        Have the stars grown dim
To your skull-less eye?
Through a million years
Does your seed still fly?

In the Olduvai
Was there Right and Wrong?
And the last of the least
That I know to long

Had you a Song?                * a fragment of a Paleolithic skull

M

Misc.

Miscegenation

HER GATE UNGUARDED
THE GOLDEN BIRD FROM HER GOLDEN BOWER
WITH CLIPPED AND UNTRIED WINGS
ESSAYED
ONE GLORIOUS FLIGHT
FROM HER PENTHOUSE TOWER
WHICH COULD ONLY END IN DESCENT
TO DEPTHS
OF WHICH SHE’D NEVER EVEN DREAMNT

THE BLACK CAT
WHO HAD DREAMED OF HER FROM BELOW
BRED IN AN ALLEY, HAD NOWHERE TO GO
BUT UP
EACH STEP HE CLIMBED WAS BUILT ON STRENGTH AND
GUILE
AS HE YEARNED TOWARD THE TOWER FAR ABOVE

IN  A LITTLE WHILE THEY MET
SHE, FLUTTERING BENEATH THE STRENGTH
SHE’D THOUGHT TO LOVE
HE, TRIUMPHANT AND GREEDY FOR FULFILLMENT
GUTTER INSTINCTS RIFE
DESTRYOED THEM BOTH
BY DEVOURING
THE ONLY INSPIRATION IN HIS LIFE.

L

Last

My Last Pub Crawl

I warned my friends, my character
Would shock them to their core
If drug or drink removed the mask
Of rectitude I wore.
They laughed and said,
“Now, now, M’dear, we’ve heard it all before
In fact, we’ve used strong language pet
Till it’s become a bore.
We’re absolutely shock-proof
So come and join us all
You cannot leave our jolly town
Till you’ve been on a Crawl”

And so, assured, I hid my doubt
And with the group, I ventured out.

Alas!  My friends now look at me
As at a dangerous freak
Their eyes show they’re considering
Each word before they speak.
What shocking glimpse of character
Did I reveal to all?
A thirst for sex or witchcraft?
Or perhaps the criminal?
Oh no, my secret vice was worse
Than even that (Oh dear!)
I spouted Epic Poetry
And quoted from King Lear!

K

Kindred

KINDRED SPIRIT

I feel a goat among sheep
An ass among social lions
When one and all discuss the heat
While I talk sodium ions.

Across the room I catch your glance
You smile, and I know why you do
You  know at once why my eyes dance
Because, inside you’re smiling too.

When points are lost and jokes fall flat
Your look commiserates with me
How sad for them you seem to say,
That some folks simply cannot  see
Those things that are so clear to us
And those of our  fraternity
It’s then my spirit soars and gloats
A Unicorn among the goats!

J

June

Summers Then

Hamburgers were a nickel
Wither everything on ‘em.
At the Greek’s, when you spent a quarter
You got a sixth one free.
That was on the Park Square.
The park was split by State Street
And was way down near the end of it.
One side had a Civil War canon
Flanked by pyramids of cannon balls
And a moldy-green statue
Of someone on horseback.
The other side held a huge squat drum-shaped fountain
It had colored lights and changing sprays
After dark on summer nights.
Families sat with little to say but Oh! And Look there!
Or made promenade in the clear summer dark,
Slowly, so toddlers could keep up.
Older kids pranced ahead
But not too far ahead
Least they should miss a stop
At one of the sparkling shops around the square.
The ice cream shoppe, across from the Greek’s,
Smelled richly of butterfat and vanilla
And made cones with pointed scoop
That piled the ice cream up like a bishop’s miter.
Those were a nickel, too
And so rich that the cream left the spoon greasy
If you used one.
As a small  child
I planned to use the first dollar I ever earned
To buy twenty of those ice cream cones.

By the time I was twenty, I had forgotten my ambition
And the Ecoma Dairy had forgotten how to make ice cream
Now it is composed of artificial everything
Non-caloric sweeteners, and polysorbate sixty
So it’s just as well.
But I do remember summers THEN . . .

I

In

In Words of One Syllable

A Go and See
Why roads go round the bend;
Why crags rise high; some lands are dry;
And where the streams all wend.

I’ve seen the Alps and all of France;
The lands from Greece to Spain;
I’ve felt the breeze of full five seas;
And snow, and heat, and rain.

But when I find I’ve seen this world,
I’ll want to head for Mars
And when I’ve seen what’s there to see,
I’ll want to see the stars.

Then when I go (if go I must)
Ash to Ash, Dust to Dust,
My well worn friends may say of me,
Soon or late, we knew that she
Would have to go there, too,
And  SEE!

(How like Li)

H

Homo Sapiens

HOMO SAPIENS SAP

BY GLACIERS’ WHITE
ON TUNDRAS’ BROWN
WE HUNT THE MIGHTY
MAMMOTH DOWN

Gather Fire

BY CAMPFIRES’ LIGHT
NO HATE OR PAIN
WE ALL MUST HELP
IF ALL WOULD GAIN

Gather ‘round

MAN GROWS MANY,
SCATTERS ‘ROUND. . .
DREAMS OF EMPIRE. . .
BREAKS THE GROUND

Gather Grain

BUT NOW THE WORLD
IS TURNING ‘ROUND
WHAT THESE MEN BUILD
THOSE MEN TEAR DOWN

O  Gather LOVE!

BUT LOVE IS LOST.
NONE SACRIFICE
FOR HOME OR RACE
OR BABE OR WIFE

GATHER DARKNESS.