EMBRACING OUR MESSENGERS
We are lived by powers we pretend to understand
W.H. Auden
The demons and daemons are dancing
and the head of every pin thick with angels
The dead are with us and the long dead too
with messages for the world
and messages for me and you
We are all guests at Blake’s
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
but do we say “I do”
PRACTICE
This morning I am practicing being a ghost
Thinking of all the people I can’t quite touch
all the thirst I can’t quite quench
Waving my hands, reciting my poems
saying ….. see me ….. see me
FORCEPS AGAIN
Science tries its best to help
nature from birth to death
They grasp your tiny head
to pull you in
and tether you to tubes
to stop your going
THE OTHER CHEEK
I have a long record
of giving in to bullies
A bad precedent was set
when the doctor slapped me
and I didn’t slap him back
I SHAMAN
Once again I touch
and pull back from my Shaman self
the thinning veil becomes
once again a curtain, and a wall
And what if the wall should fall
Could I face the demands
people might place on me for their healing
– the responsibility for my own
Could I resist using powers for personal gain
breaking the balls of traitorous pals
or poking pins in political dolls
Perhaps I will think about this again tomorrow
for as Scarlet says “Tomorrow is another day”
And tomorrow is Tuesday
and tonight is Monday Night Football
SURVIVAL
There are wolves
everywhere and closer
Your parents are busy flailing
at the snarling snouts and dripping fangs
Busy wrapping their own
and each other’s bloody wounds
While you curl up, cold and lonely
in the bottom of the sleigh
thinking, I’ll die if someone
doesn’t pick me up and hold me soon
ONLY IN RUSSIA
Only in Russia poetry is respected –
– it gets people killed
Osip Mandelstap
To have that kind of respect
that blood in the inkwell courage
audience and self hanging on every word
And yet
still hoping for a last chapter shift
from Russian novel to American movie
The last possible moment rescue
by a beautiful spy
the happy ever after ending
WHEN POPES COLLIDE
May 25th 2013
History is being made
two popes are having lunch today
I hope the waiter picks the wine
Just like in couple’s therapy
infallibility can get in the way
JANUARY 21ST 2013
Is is a mostly sunny day
in Washington DC
It is Martin Luther King Day
and his dream continuing to unfold
It is Barack Obama, as Mohammed Ali
celebrating successful defense of his title
It is Richard Blanco reading
a long and rambling inaugural poem
confirming once again
that a poet can be important
because his story is important
If it lacks gravitas, well it lacks gravitas
I am not sure that I would wish him
what he will have to pay to get it
And so I find myself
among the many millions
yawning in their morning mirrors
Except for that one line
that sweet redeeming line
“Pencil-yellow school busses”
all I require to love a poem and a poet
FIFTY PHOTOSHOPPED SHADES OF DORIAN GRAY
In Oscar Wilde’s novel
the picture ages while the man remains young
On Facebook
the man ages while his picture remains young