POEM: The Hour of the Sun

Like muscle-bound bouncers,
the twin mountains stood —
ominous & imposing.

An hour of light per day
squeezed between those broad shoulders.

One hour of sunlight —
in the good seasons,
when there was sun.

The villagers’ days pivoted on that hour.

Whatever is the opposite of a siesta, they lived it.
A fiesta?
an hour of frenetic love…
of dance
of the outdoors
of the sun
of love, itself.

Outsiders found the place dismal & gloomy,
but they never loved the sun
like those villagers love the sun.

Three Tanka

I
plucking strings
the player feels each note,
his eyes closed
he lets himself be surprised
by vibrations of bone or soul

 

II
the butterfly
splays its wings and holds,
in that stillness
it becomes a flower
’til it must butter-fly

 

III

wind tousles
the grain-weighted heads
of ripe wheat
the sway is erratic
the sound is subtle

POEM: Lost in Space [Pantoum]

Under the vault of starry skies,
I lost my Self through open eyes.
I spread out through that vast light cloud,
and heard the wordless word aloud.

I lost my Self through open eyes?
How’d I stretch to infinite size?
I heard a wordless word aloud?
How’d I Know what was wrapped in shrouds?

How’d I stretch to infinite size —
and all between sun’s set and rise?
How’d I Know what was wrapped in shrouds —
secrets felt; not spoken out loud?

I died between sunset and rise,
under that vault of starry skies.
I could feel, but not speak out loud
as I floated in that light cloud.

POEM: Killing Fields

In the last days that stony ground gave life,
those great, green gifts were gained by thrust of knife.
As the blood puddle spread, so went the green —
trumped by colors inanimate and mean.
And when they prayed for cooler days and nights,
they were answered with blazing fires and lights.

POEM: The Ouroboros of Life & Death

The forest floor —
strewn with damp leaf litter
&
slightly twisted twin-pronged needles.

Fungal fruiting bodies,
caps sprinkled with grit,
stand sentry over the rich, black loam.

The musty smell at life & death’s edge
reigns subtly supreme.

We call it decay, and think it a death stench,
but that ground echoes the ouroboros —
the mythical serpent consuming it’s own tail —
eater and eaten are one —
life and death are thusly intertwined in that dark soil.

POEM: Mighty Threats [Clerihew]

Dear leader, Kim Jong-Un
was making bold threats to turn off the sun.

His problem, it would appear,
was turning off only the Western Hemisphere.

Traveler’s Senryu

I
hold travel plans
like a stinky diaper —
not like a crowbar


II
the mountaintop
is always farther
than it looks


III
sorry Mr. Frost,
the less traveled road
is a deadend


IV
eat local food
cheeseburger in Shangri-la…
never sicker

POEM: What Country for Old Men? [Ottava Rima]

There’s more than one undiscovered country.
Hamlet’s is no place for old men to aim.
I urge a fight for foreign shores, bluntly.
Don’t let false gods go staking early claims.
They’ll have one sitting on the couch, glumly —
the fast-path shortcut to the pyre’s fierce flames.
If you can feel the breath expand your chest,
then pick up your pack, and start stepping West.

POEM: Nature’s Spotlight [a Haibun]

Under cottony clouds, my gaze fell upon the borehole by which slanted shafts of light found the ground. A divine spotlight that shone only on the liquid metal surface of a smooth flowing river at a point just before the rapids were reached. A closed-eyed kayaker might feel graced by the warm sunshine on his face. But only for the moment before being cast into a dim and turbulent transition from heaven to hell.

divine spotlight
a beam of sunlight burns
through gray clouds

POEM: Sins & Skyscrapers

Once mankind invented the building, we needed to see how huge one could be built — how broad & how tall. If there was a Babel Tower, it’s testament to the disaster written in such ambition. If there wasn’t, there is still plenty of crushed bone to be found in archeological sites that certify the same.

Once mankind invented evil, the compulsion to see what grand scales it could reach swelled, as well. It’s written in our history.

Nothing can be endlessly stacked without groaning under its own weight — not even evil.