NATIVE AMERICAN POW
There is a legend in Africa
It says that you cannot ever really
kill a people or take over their land
Because their souls
will be reborn in
your children
WOW!
Category: Audio Recordings
LOUIS AND SUZANNE
LOUIS AND SUZANNE
Suzanne gets cancer
she gets cancer real bad
The doctors get out their big guns
They wage war with everything they’ve got
The cancer laughs at the doctors
It breaks out on many new fronts
The doctors, defeated, suggest surrender
Louis and Suzanne go to Mexico instead
Suzanne drinks fresh juices and does cleanses
Louis quits his job and takes care of Suzanne
Suzanne gets well
Louis takes care of many people
He took care of people in asbestos mines
For years he has not slept well
and he does not breathe well in the mornings
The doctors are treating him for sleep apnoea
Early this year he has a bad cough
The doctors do X-rays, Louis has cancer
Too much asbestos, ten years growing
It is too late for the doctors, or Mexico
Louis dies, life is funny
THE UNCAGED BIRD
THE UNCAGED BIRD
(For Maya Angelou)
Sometimes we read
because we cannot not, because we need
to find that one story, one friend
one note of truth
Sometimes a young girl, repeatedly abused
hides
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”
under her mattress
And keeps on living because
she takes it out after he has gone
and talks to Maya, who understands
DEBBIE OH DEBBIE
DEBBIE OH DEBBIE
Debbie oh Debbie
are you thinking of going away
because no one ever asked you
hard enough to stay
Debbie oh Debbie
were you always so beautiful strong
that no one ever thought to carry you along
Debbie oh Debbie
the brave wolf that still shows its throat
and bleeds inside of its coat
Debbie oh Debbie had we but loved
less wisely, but more well
who can tell who can tell
Debbie oh Debbie
are you thinking of going away
because I never asked you hard enough to stay
FEEDING THE SOUL AT VARGOS
FEEDING THE SOUL AT VARGOS
(for Debbie)
The soul is fed in many ways
Walking
on a sunny Easter Sunday
in Vargos gardens with the one you love
Marveling as peacocks surround us
and salute that love
Meeting by chance
your surgeon ally in the cancer fight
Sitting by the window
breaking bread in gratitude for it all
THE FIRST SUPPER
THE FIRST SUPPER
As above so below
In a life between lives
I sit at a table of light
Set like Da Vinci’s last supper
A table of light lined with people of light
The one in the center the brightest of light
Takes a knife all of light and cuts an arm all of light
The slice of his flesh drips red with his blood
(the only color in the picture of light)
To each at this table he offers
The gift of his flesh to the people of light
(the only color in the picture of light)
One by one they have a choice
not a last supper, but a first
By accepting the gift of his flesh
(the only color in the picture of light)
They come to this Earth
their own gifts to give
HILLMAN
HILLMAN
A shadow on the wall in Hiroshima
ashes on a lake in Austin
Donna looks over the side of the boat
and cries as they drift
because she cannot see his face in the ashes
She might also have looked
for 81 years from China Sea to here
for the feet of the best dancer she ever knew
the graceful movements of Tai Chi
the hands of massage
and the mind and heart of a poet
The ashes drift to the banks and bottom of Lake
Austin
All that remains are the shadows on our minds and
hearts
And the walls of Hiroshima
THE TWINKLE
THE TWINKLE
(Eulogy at Father’s funeral)
There is a thing about light
no matter where it starts it never stops
even if it takes a million years
to get from the twinkling stars to here
There was a twinkle in the eyes of this man
A twinkle of innocent mischief and inner joy
greeting every man and woman
every girl and boy
When you saw it you knew that he liked you
and never doubted that you’d like him too
AND HE WAS RIGHT
Because there is a thing about light
A million years from now
and no one knows how far
they will see it on some star
FATHER’S POEM
FATHER’S POEM
My father’s poems
did not come down to us on paper
He was eight years old when his mother died
his youngest brother not yet three
They say he adopted the care
of the sweet sad child
and told him a story each night
Night after night after night
New stories he made up each night
And he would gather him up in the story
and hold him there
until he slept
DAD AND ROY
DAD AND ROY
Dad and Roy were the best of friends
they drank and fought and played
and laughed like nobody laughed
for fifty years and more
Dad had a room in the nursing home
way down at the end of the hall
when Roy was admitted as well
a nurse wheeled him down that hall
They sat footrest to footrest a minute
then Roy said “So it’s come to this”
and they both had a hell of a laugh
Dad died in late December
Roy lasted three months more
They are buried twenty feet apart
in the prairie town where they played
I can see them there now
sitting on their shiny new stones
having a smoke and a chew
and a good pull on a forty of rye
Roy says “So it’s come to this”
and they both have a hell of a laugh