Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Birds



The window was open a bit,
like parted lips, and from its
mouth came songs to interrupt
my dreams.

It was more than interruption.
It was an integration of
of mixed language and trills
and dreamscape.

As if Hitchcock put sub-titles
underneath their chirps and
squawks and whistles and
a foreign film rolled on.

The robins and the grackles
sub-titles started wriggling
under them like worms
in the dirt.
 
“You know Grack, why is it
we have wings and we are
sent to the soil to get
breakfast?”

“I have, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve
gotten that conversation
 reeling in my brain too.
Robin, oh, if I were a bird
I would fly away from here.”

“Sometimes I pretend I am
a rabbit…hopping down here
from worm hole to worm
hole.”

“ I I I feel the earth move
under my my my feet, I
feel the sky tumbling down,
a tumbling down.”

“Hey, get real, that’s
groceries you’re hoppin’
past friend.  Let’s see a
little neck action over there!”

“Now, now, don’t you you you
get a little feather bent over
feeding your little ones
second hand goods.  I mean
worms are are are gross
enough the first time.”

“Not the huge earth worms,
hey watch this…”

It was then I started to wake
when I saw the big
orange breast dip and
yank an earth worm like
scarves from a sleeve.
Pulling and pulling and
pulling a gewy dirt soil
freckled beast and sucked
it in like linguini.  The robin
stood among the blades
perfectly still for 13 seconds
and then cast the worm
out. 
And there it lay, divided in
three equal sections
by square knots.
The robin said nothing,
jutted out it’s chest
and nodded and
ascended like a
harrier for a moment,
and then flew away.

The grackle stood 
with its beak hanging open.
“Well,  I’ll, I’ll, I’ll be.”


Posted for one shot where poets do their poeting.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

If a Bird Speaks


I like your sleeves,
they're puffy.
Your hat has the
Wright idea.
I am not looking
down on you.
Are bee hives
a pain in the neck?
If only times were
different, the sparrows
would build a nest
in your beard.
Don't worry,
I just came to
stretch a bit and
leave you a little
something.
My friends told
me about you
how you were
a watershed of
religious history.
You are like the
peak of the church
we usually perch
on,
and now you
stand here and preach
on.
What's your name again?

This is submitted for One Stop Poetry's One Shoot Sunday.
Photoghraphy of James Rainsford.

Friday, February 18, 2011

It Just Is



the words never written are
perhaps the purist

the pictures never taken are
perhaps the most perfect

the music never played is
perhaps the most transcendent

the freedom comes when
you don’t have to
                                                                                                                                     and love is never a
                                                                 should
                                                                 it just is
                                                                 it just is

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Limping Eagle


It was either custodial
or cathedral.
I entered in with my
spirit bound.
It was freedom that echoed
off the clapboard.
It was splinters that entered
my meniscus.
I cried as exit wounds
revealed an inner light.
For moments I laid there
in the neutral zone.
The Great Spirit came
and I wrestled with the
infused refracted light.
I knew I couldn’t win.
I really didn’t want to.
From some skin deep,
soul deep place I wrested.
It was not the Spirit.
It was myself that I overtook.
It was my stubborn
reflexive pronoun.
I rose in sweat to see
the night swirling,
splashed with colors
replenished by God.
I limped to the window
to look on the glow
of freedom and
thanked God I wasn’t alone.

Just a note:  Sean McCormick, the photoghapher took this shot in Alberta, Canada, in an area called the Nuetrals.  It's a prairie between two ranges where, centuries ago, different tribes hunted and weren't allow to go to war.  This photo is copied with permission for One Shoot Sunday.


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Kernels of Truth

Kernels of Truth

Pass me some Jesus words please.
How about the ones lying like kernels
in the bottom of a popcorn bowl?
The little seeds hard enough to break
an ego like a tooth.
                                                                 “Come unto me.”
All the heavy butter glazed on my fingers.
The exploded grenades like cumulus
clouds have disappeared by the hand full
as I watched life like a movie.
                                                                  “Be not afraid.”
Sifting the bowl like a panhandler
more and more hard polished words
role around golden like a rule.
Butter fingers plucking tightly
one at a time.
                                                     “What do you want?”
Amaized at the possibilities
of these seeds falling into my soul
and dying, I welcome the broken
casing pealed back by grace and truth.
                                                                  “Follow me.”
GAB June 2010