On his way out the door Bonnie kisses Clyde goodbye / and says in her quiet voice, y’know, that voice, / “Hey Honey, pick up some money at the bank / on your way home, will ya?”
Will you help to keep the flame alive? The tip jar is always thankful.
social/
Peace is yours / Mine / Ours / Peace is ready now
Are we beggars now?
Are we beggars now? Must we beg for peace?
—from whom?
The War-Men have no peace to give.
.
Published in: “3201 e’s” 2018
As ye love
Do not the mothers and the fathers
of Islam love their daughters, love their sons,
love the children as ye love?
Published in: “3201 e’s” 2018 as “Do not the mothers and the fathers”
No Justice on Stolen Land
Along Victoria Inner Harbour
Behind the granite wall
Next to Capt. James Cook’s effigy in bronze
Next to bold bronze plaques of white-worlders-
Come-by-water
Across from The Empress
In front of the Assembly of Other Nations
Under an iron bench
Scratched in concrete—
No justice on stolen land.
Update, July 2, 2021: The statue of Captain James Cook at Victoria Inner Harbour was torn down by a group of protesters and thrown into the harbour. It will not be replaced.
Included in Make A list: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts by Marilyn McEntyre: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. A lovely book.
Published in: “Letter to the White Imbongi” 2013
We Will Survive
Take away the sun above
And burn the air we breathe.
Take away the moon and stars
And everything believed.
Take away the green of life—
The blue-green seas below.
And take the glow that lives in them
And everything unknown.
Take the candle. Take the verse.
Take art. And take the artist’s words.
Take each thing— its form, its name.
Take everything. What’s left but blame? More blame.
One thing’s for sure— We will survive
We have gone on and left this song behind us.
Published in: “souls arriving” 2006 as version “9/11” : “3201 e’s” 2018 as version “We Have Gone On (9/11)”
WAR
WAR is NOT a spiritual preference (except to the insane)
WAR is NOT a spiritual orientation (except to the Merchant of Chaos)
WAR is NOT a spiritual experience (except to those who die)
open our eyes together and we will dream
open our fists today and we will build
open our doors tonight and we will sing
open our eyes/fists/doors
(close your eyes and never mind
(close your fists and build collateral damage
(close your doors and scream
oh no
open our eyes/fists/doors
send our prayers to the front lines
send our light to the front lines
send our truth to the front lines
send us
and we will build for beauty
and for freedom
and for love
send us
Published in: “souls arriving” 2006: “3201 e’s” 2018
Members of the Jury—
It was a drive-by versing
A poem invasion
An act of irrepressible aesthetics
Unmitigated form and passion
Premeditated meter
Alliteration
Aggravated by both rhythm
And rhyme
It was a drive-by versing
A poem incursion
A wilding of fact and fantasy
By all accounts
A Declaration of Words
When my home town made it illegal for singers and performers to freely work the streets there was a protest rally. I read this poem from the old courthouse steps with bullhorn in hand.
Published in: “souls arriving” 2006
.
Paris, November
I remember. I remember
The flying leaves and floating leaves
Blazing yellow-orange-red
Until, wind-felled, their final embers
I remember to this day
This wet-wool gray, this end of day
Paris that November
Paris attacks, 13 November 2015.
Published in: “3201 e’s” 2018
THE NEW APARTHEID
Yes, segregate.
Create a slum for me.
Build walls.
Render us apart.
Hide.
The New Apartheid appears in full in Walling In and Walling Out: Why Are We Building New Barriers to Divide Us? by Laura McAtackney (Editor), Randall H. McGuire (Editor), as the epigraph for Chapter 11, Conclusion. Available on Amazon. The Introduction’s epigraph is a quote from Mending Wall (from which a line provides the book title), a poem by Robert Frost. Randall McGuire wrote, “I want to thank you for capturing in 13 words what we struggled to say in 100s of pages of academic prose.”
Also published in: “souls arriving” 2006 as Apartheid: “3201 e’s” 2018
Joy of Acknowledgement
Spoons
c-d-lick-k-k
pots/pans
b-bang-ng-ng
bowng b boawng
Hey!
-ey!
lids
CRSH-INGGG
Hey ng ng-ng b-ba-wnng Hey!
Hey!
HeyboangHecd-ba-b-yonnHey!
HeyowngHeyboangdeclick (SHiNGHey!)
Heyang-b-bang-c-dlick bongHey!
c-Hey-c-baowngSHINGGbonng-nging-Hey!
Dedicated to all those who’ve helped: Pots, pans, lids & spoons from balconies around the world.
Published in: “souls arriving” 2006 as “Joy of Kitchen”
The Hateful Man
Let each hate, and ours for his,
Be scraped away. Hopefully
He cared for some—At least the few
That may have cared for him.
Allow unchanged what good remains.
At length, with love or hate or both,
We go. In time, some with pause
And some without return.
Published in: “3201 e’s” 2018
What color is a heart?
What color is a heart?
What faith bleeds some other red?
What rhythms do our hearts beat?
If they could what would they sing?
Peace
Peace
Is not withdrawal
Peace is the surge
The urge
Peace is arising
Swelling
It’s an overflowing
Swing of
Upturning
Turned-up rhythm
Peace is resurgence
Peace is expression
In and of
Common Purpose
Cresting waves
Of purpose
Aligned
Upon a new dynamic line
Peace is
Not withdrawal from life
Peace is not placid
Not flaccid
Peace is active
Busy
Peace is believed
Conceived
Crafted
Peace is for
And not against
Peace just is
See?
And you are its source
And I am its source
And we are its source
Reaching
Reaching from and for and to
Every searching soul
Peace is strength
Of integrity
Peace is faith
In living
Peace is yours
Mine
Ours
Peace is ready now
Some folks say
Some folks say
that other folks
get their opinions
from the media.
They can be right.
Other folks say
that some folks
get their opinions
from psychics
and mediums.
They can be right.
Some other folks
have their own minds
and use them.
Their opinions
can be right too.