Tuesday, July 31, 2007

This morning ritual


This morning ritual –
cat Sasha
eyes twin white orbs
pierce window glass
importuning

woodland solitude
gladdened by
birdtalk and song

silence
interrupted by commotion
but listen ...
silence never stopped

trailing
climbing
or standing erect
vegetative sentience
essays mobility

we call regularity
manifest order
when even disorder
is order manifested

‘rules of order’
as if order were rules
rules order!
so too law
is order broken down
into laws
ruled and judged
through intervention

mmv

Friday, July 27, 2007

Allley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part XIV


w
elkin wonderer sez hi
    lookit thoroughfare
        there z shortcoming n shortcommons
        there z long suits n trumps
        there z shortfalls n longhauls
        there z speed bumps n traffic summons
    y takes y lumps
    pavement payment due y'all

wayside pulpit propheteer extolls
    lookit strait n arrow
        there z marbelous walks n fountains    no lack
        there z guilded halls n recitals by bach
        there z haloes n harps n angels in flock
        there z bullion vaults n arches by max

    o laud    sing amen you all

jeremymad sez nay
    second lookit thoroughfare
    direct route leads from what z lapsed
        to what z perhapsed
    turnpike avenue f revenue
        culled sacks by bushel
        cost f express or posthaste
    lookit crooked mile reward
        pecks f kisses from missus
            who z dandlin crooked kid on crooked knee
        halt cant leap crooked stile
    toll litters concourse
        idiots havenots simpletons loonies freaks
        derided scorned despised
        hated hounded abandoned
    hum-hum fall-out peradventure

    singular wail'll tell y
    cry ai ai ai amend y'all
        alack n woebegone y
            alley weal be on y

alley jest supposes:
    wish-on-a-star risk
        salvation by degree or decree
    aint no noble savage manimality to save us
    nor godlinexus tween earth n heaven
        pray for magnumanity
    we iz free to be what we iz to be
    free of our own apronstrings
        if to be human z inhuman
            n to go ape z divine
    alley wail rule y
    alley wail rule y

    godz chillun gotta sing fer breakfast
    godz chillun gotta sing fer fast break
        fulcrum z sprung on no arm-twisting
            bejesus submission-hold
                cryin uncle
        double fiddle-di-dee mooseracktangled knackeryard knot
            aint where it z at
        none f us need eat own shit
        however recipe got

resident alley filosopuss spits ox off tongue
        onto barrelhead
    given body z at odds
    survival-toolshaped n flawed
    tool must sharpen edge
    remove elder burr
    care for wits n senses

    alley-wort hooks alternative abode
        digs in discommodious niche
        flouts landlord with single-minded salute
        disrespectin    rite-n-propertied gallantry
    cross-purpose malefactoring
        later consummate address

    alley green thumb rules extend y
        chess knight moves bent like legs f athletes
        refractory can be canny advocacy

    examine limb as patent crook
        limited animal enjoys joint cooperation
        articulation tangential asset
            machine can wipe own arse
            peeper can fetch bum through looking glass
        limber coupling to strangerself
        schitzy split extended into
            by hook or by crook
        with the corollary: i'll be first in my book
            cutting off friendly hand in exchange for
                prosthetic gauntlet

    roses bred for comely face
        leads to ditto noses
    as inference perforce
        rounds off supposes

This place is mine


Y
ou have the whole outdoors!
    this place is mine    not yours
stay off the premises
    before goodbye
slips into hello
    just go
because we're done with kisses
    and tête-à-têtes
we're done – that's flat!

even though i can't bear to hear
    knock-knock!        on my door
in the tear-drop silence
    fretful    bothered     you'll arrive humming
as if sans souci were doh-ray-mi
    i'll not burn a candle incensed
nor put up a shrine to honour your absence
    oh horrors
damn you    no!
    never forget
this place is mine
    you've got the whole outdoors!


mmvii

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

That unimpeachable moment


W
earied    feeling low
    sitting just so
silence wise
    senses reach through dimensions
inhabiting head
    felt to quick
softly    softly    resolution
    other    out there    let go
sun bright on balcony curtains
    furnishings settle with differences
even traffic noise receding
    simultaneous coincident calmness
presences lose solidity
    talk    justifying talk can frame
unanswerable:    who how what where when why
    let float like motes in sun's bright wands
searching shadows
    needing no perusal
for again that unimpeachable moment of clarity

mmvii

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Out in the vastness


O
ut in the vastness of the deep
stars may crumble stars may creep
whence they come and whence they go
is not for you and me to know

here at home we’re clearer far
more near what is, and how things are
yet we tremble at the stepping stones
and glory in our ignorance of thrones

mmv

Monday, July 9, 2007

Go away, rainy day poet!


G
o away     rainy day     poet!
    mention the sunny south of the hill
the crumbling cliffs of gravel
        or hurrying cricks that hop and skip
among the pebbles     singing of the sea
    and the green treetops on tippytoe
to watch the starry Venus climb     while I’m
    lazily gazing at the farther spaces
beyond mountain peaks     places
    a tide the sun knows     and I reply
to the question: yes     i     yes yes i!

mcmdl

Friday, July 6, 2007

Memento of World War II


W
ar:
that stirs men's hearts
with horror in the aftermath

Future wars are deadly
but not as real, as mud
and blood, and recognizances
in spirit.     I mean the end
we inherit.

As if we should
disport our senseless appetites
in rage, confiding passions
that could eat our hearts out:
a puritanic ecstasy!

This is me: the one who feared
and queered his fate
grotesquely losing what he ate
in nausea. Back when
men were men, in spite of wit
that blunted on the stones of accident.

What was meant by Ghandi when he prayed
for men to come as men in passive sort,
when blood smells blood?    The lip may sneer
until the debt is paid.        Odds are now laid.


mcmlxiii

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part XIII


H
ow many fractured bits can brain juggle
    mind-boggling kaleidoscape gives us fits
    dismiss putative genius machine
    analytical engine cant handle contrary witz end
    logicz compulsion     versus compunctionz prick

take recess
    fork out excess from wallet
    looksee corny carnivalley routine
    whether you eye manna r elixir
        snake-oil mountebank
        gets famous two-cents worth leg-in-door

take yr shibboleth    truth
    other-worldly conception
    high-minded n high-handed
    takes pride in belonging
    implies diabolical opposite
    them n us scenario

summon alley law     yeah
    prima facie case
    synthetic origin

    birth n death
    nearest portals to herebeforeafter
    apposing miniscus in peristaltic tube
        whose orifaces
        neither unfriendly nor benign to lookers-on
    what z behind aint principals 'r participants
    not so z we can tell

comes consummate logic
        ulterior test
    logic z fabulous butcherz hook
        holds pertinent carcass up to light
        dwells at cutting edge
            molesting or unobserved as

maybe

alley pince-nex whiz sez
    use logix excruciating zeal
        as if own tippytoes were dancing
            on knockaway stool
    logix    antiscorbutic
        headhunter n torturer
    logix    occamatic doctor
        cuts afflatus
        sutures deflated windbags
    logix     private soldierz housewife
        kept in knapsack next futile baton
    logix     neat accomodation
        twixt jack sprat n spouse

resident alley pince-nex whiz sez 2
    logix    bullyboy rack f stag
        f'r browbeatin upstart tads
    logix     ebb n flood climacteric
        like doughty salomon salt n freshet battle
    logix     cartwheels denied necktied gantry birds
    logix     man-o-war walkin on air
        over chops n combers
    logix    triumph 'f mindin over matter
        transverse n logitudinal propagations
    cos matter rules mind    natch

    logix    object lesson in lab n lav
        ports n heads fr snoopin n poopin
    logix     poker-faced intro
            to wild cards n boneyard

hazards
        some tricks run tally-ho in packs
        some knaves grab tarts
            flee

    single-minded

        when logic fails
        dice n heads roll
        all bets off

alley bywords n o-biter dicta

    nix on strong medicine
    massive dose moral reason
    thrust holus bolus down gullet
        from pulpitz height
    as if prescription for what ails y

lookit cop-out nostrumdamnus
    heady spoonfulz dial-mass-f-pottage
        sorrel leaves for poets
        noun secateurs for philosofussers
        soupcons for garcons

lookit snakebitten victims f jacobz ladder salesmen
    dumped back on no-soon-tomorrow square zero
    waitin to throw fixit six
    chuckleheadz dice handicap

lookit turnagain worthy citizen
    pussyfootin-boots exemplar
        for mutinous subjects n refactory masses
    justifyin consignment f daffydowndillies
        to dark lordz dominion
    headstrongarmed    contingents f liabilities
    shepherded like vehicular particulars
        down gauntlet freeway to tomorrowyeah

    may alleyways rule y

Sunday, July 1, 2007

When i was charmed and young, lad


W
When i was charmed and young, lad
    i swung a fancy ankle
i was a fancy lass
    i swayed my nifty arse, luv
to catch your fond attention
    to lure you, bold as brass

though i was almost six and teen
    and you were teen and seven
my heart was some mischevious
    and love was nearby heaven

now i am sick and worn, lad
    and languish in a haven
and you are dead and mourned, luv
    and i am sore bedridden

though i am sixteen-sixty, lad
    and frown at what i am
i’d still strut a fancy ankle
    I’d sway a nifty bum
to catch your fond attention:
it’s soon how years has gone!

mcmlxxx