32 AUTUMN FLIGHTS OF WILD GEESE
The autumn trees are beautiful flaming torches,
the sylvan paths are parched,
and glorious colors carpet the ground;
October twilight and stars in quiet mirror waters,
on the grass along the shores the graceful wild geese are grazing.
The 32nd Autumn has arrived for us,
since we first started counting;
I saw, before the moment had been absorbed
by my soul, their quick departure
mated pairs for life wheeling upward and away
a flurry of wings beating against the gathering darkness.
I’ve gazed at those magnificent birds
and heard them call to each other, while V-d in flight;
and my heart aches. Now, everything is different
from that first time, listening to them,
calling out of the approaching Night,
when life floated beautiful amidst great seas of translucent colors.
Lightly stepping, not yet tired and hurt,
the lovers stroll hand in hand
along convivial talking rivers beneath friendly murmuring trees;
the fierce flames have abated and burn with less ardor,
our hearts now produce a steady warm comfortable glow,
as we watch the sparks of our passions ignite and burn where they will.
But, now they reflect from the river’s still surface
serene, mysterious, and radiantly beautiful;
by what teeming waters will they nest?
will it be beside the flowing stream?
or, back among the trees’ deep pool of shadows,
when I awake and find them gone.
HOMAGE TO GOD
Today, like every other, I’m tormented and tortured.
But, instead of opening the library door
and taking refuge in reading,
I’ll pull out my father’s pipe.
Let the recondite happiness begin, found in the beauty
of a curling wisp of smoke that expands time,
exhaling through vowels and history; we dearly love what we do.
There are thousands of ways to pay homage and humbly honor God.
EXIT STAGE
Inside the great mystery of the universe,
where private property is but an empty illusion,
what is this vainglorious compulsion to compete
for results that are soon forgotten; before we silently steal off,
one by one, through the same stage door?
EMBRACE ALL OF LIFE
Stop the music, and cease singing! Excuse me, while I become impertinent and personal,
who do you worship lost and alone deep down in the dark confines of the church,
with its doors hermitically locked shut? Open your eyes!
Can’t you see that God isn’t here!
God is outside harvesting, with the migrant farm workers,
and working, with the minimum wage day labors.
He’s with them in the sunshine and rain, His humble clothes are sweat stained and soiled.
Take off your fancy suits and vestments, and meet Him in His fields
in the good clean Earth.
Salvation? Where will this redemption be found?
Christ and the Apostles joyfully lived celebrating life.
They happily declared that there’s nothing evil outside of man,
and, the universe, which is all God’s plan, is very good. God lives inside each of us -
now and forever.
Stop your senseless asceticism, and leave off nay saying to life with your stupid prohibitions. Where is the harm in moderately embracing God’s gracious gifts?
Depart from your fancy furnished ivory towers. Does God mind an honest worker’s dirty clothes? Discover God in the streets, where the poor people work and play and:
embrace all of life.
ALL THAT’S LEFT
Lord love me so I don’t hear
the shriveled years rattle dry Autumn leaves,
as they ravage me
with racking pains that cripple ambulation.
Life’s diminished
perspectives are all that’s left
to persecuted social lepers.
And, make me a happy breeze -
that plays with flower seeds,
or shares jokes with cheerful fountains
in serene silent parks -
that self-actualizes itself in full becoming.
And, giving you to me
so easy to love,
in green grass
growing to light,
and in wounds
that penetrate aching bones
and pierce throbbing nerves.
I pick a prefabricated life:
initially everyone is tentative,
we all start naked and vulnerable,
wanderers on a great quest.
Steadfast you have with me:
we sit resting in the shade
that stretches expansively toward Sunset,
where the sky spreads crimson
in a profuse outpouring of blood that spreads toward Night.
WHY ME?
I know my fate waits
floating among the clouds.
The people who would oppress me, I don’t hate;
and, the future generations, whose rights I champion, I neither know nor love.
I am a citizen of Portland,
just one more of the growing working poor;
but, Bush has, while not making us more secure with Homeland Security,
enslaved, and impoverished, and made us more miserable than ever before.
No one forced me to stand up for Liberty.
Neither torture nor terror could compel me to join the thoughtless manipulated crowds,
solitary reflection and the right of reason determined that it was the wrong thing to do,
which lead to this conflict high among the clouds;
I carefully weighed the legacy of freedom of our forefathers,
and compared it to my experiences during these desolate years, when life was a waste of breath; and, thought of my life expanding un-free, in a bleak and barren expanse of time.
In a land without liberty, life becomes a burden, a living death!
A NOVEMBER VISIT
The stark scene stands stubborn:
indigent trees, heedless spendthrifts, they gaily caste off last years leaves to the wind;
white druidic elegists vainly try to talk dryads
into wearing crepe colored sack-cloths;
and, under the great, heaping hordes of leaves, already beginning to disintegrate,
are the emerald slumbers of silent grass,
whose sweet dreams embrace eternity;
however, the vain scornful minds disdain
humble serenity. The impoverished Autumn landscape,
where the dead victims’ cries
echo down the city of stones’
straight and narrow streets, harvested hearts and
pruned brains free of sciolist restrictions.
One exploded pillbox skull
silences the eloquence of Saints:
while worms wait for their next buffet;
and, flies reflect in windows on the resurrection of the Sun,
while outside dirty glass panes fat garden spiders spin their webs
around the irrefutable logic of power that centers on nothing.
Stare at the skeletal landscape stripped of leaves,
till you can see the radiant beauty dancing beneath the wind:
which ever of the last souls flare
their mute warnings at the Damned heedless hosts,
who howl from beneath their misty shrouds,
fanatical fools who drag the chains of their impoverished minds,
which depopulate the dark bare rooms whose blank walls surround empty air.
LOVING GRACE
Descending infinities of despair,
where fate has imprisoned me,
where darkness rules without anything happy and fair,
and where I’m kept isolated as if in solitaire.
An honest freedom loving poet who from the start,
they’ve tortured and taunted, while, I write and expose their dirt;
where as slaves of today’s tyrants, they try to lacerate my heart.
Societies conscience, I earnestly strive to get on with my work.
But, God in its infinite mercy and loving grace
provided me with you, a lovely vision that brings beauty
even to the smoldering ruins of this wretched place.
And, when we’ve soared together to the gates of Heaven,
I know only God could provide such a wonderful thing:
as you dear! My beautiful brown eyed girl, so radiant and serene!
STILLBORN BIRTH
(Iraq)
Who dares to destroy the Earth,
with their savage pounding
which pulverizes her face,
while she sleeps lost in oblivion.
No stars sing at her wake.
The sky recoils from pain.
Nor will this veil of darkness
hide and protect her.
Rebellious power impotently retreats,
Heaven has no experience
to qualify for this pageant of scars,
rain falls, her ancient balm
provides solace for the parent’s shared torture.
Such tender shoots
sprout hurriedly from the Earth.
A struck snake slithers,
its dead tail dragging uselessly after
across the barren expanse;
and, silently returns
to it’s mourning burrow,
wretched wombs filled with grief.
Night brutally embraces her,
broken as a bombing caused stillborn birth.
WINTER RAIN
Mozart, rap music, and a popular tune form a Dissonant Symphony, it sounds absurd.
Sue sat behind a curtained window. No light shone from the street,
not one light lit the room. The moon was shaped like a horned owl.
“Whose there? Is it you Mark?” - “Sorry. No. Is that you,
then, my pretty apple blossom?” - “No, I’m not some talking bouquet. Is
that you, again, Mr. Caugh? Good night, Sir! Always poking your nose into other people’s business!”
The neighbors on their phones: “Mr. Caugh, the arrogant right winger will get his
wings singed playing with fire.” - “Our Don Juan doesn’t fear Sue’s husband?” -
“Are you kidding? They work together on radical right stings, and he’s off in Italy.
Sue, doesn’t though, she has nothing to do with those corrupting things.”
Meanwhile, what was whispered between? “Four hundred dollars down,
followed by a hundred a month.” - “Super!” - “A black colored Honda.” - “Great!”
“You get the key to my condo downtown, with a view of the river and mountain.” -
“How special.” - “And, all of my love.” - “Oh! And, a beautiful diamond ring for my finger. How terribly thoughtful.”
The neighbors still on their phones: “I saw Sue, laughing at their side gate.” - “The snow queen begins to melt.” - “Yes, indeed! In this corrupt age of glacial warming, even the glaciers start to thaw!”
Sue, calling a neighbor on the phone. “Mary, hurry to your side kitchen window, so you may see tonight’s performance of theatre of the absurd.” And, shortly after Mr. Caugh was showered and became all wet from precipitation that didn’t originate in Heaven. “So Mr. Caugh,” cried the angry woman, while turning on the outside lights, “here is the principle actor in tonight’s comic farce, caught in the spot light, which he so justly deserves.”
ECHOING VOICES
Day dawns a great gray expansive plain,
with none of its features discernable;
and, time, a slow opening rain soaked rose,
is as painful as always,
like some small creature dying.
But, she knows pain now, too,
she who rules my love, and holds hostage
my heart; her pale silk skin
blossoms with bruises,
having been brutally beaten.
And, if I survive this torture,
its all because of one dream: to be free!
Then, like two small children
who’ve climbed a mountain;
we’ll watch, while the Sun cracks the darkest night
and pours over the mountain’s dusky silhouette
and radiantly cascades down its featureless slope
dispersing shadows in the mist choked valley below.
Up in the high country
we’ll walk where only eagles nest,
in a world wrapped in pure white clouds -
not hunting God’s small precious creatures,
but listening to the echoing voices of the dead.
SMELTS’ FUTURES
The North smelts’ futures….glass will never reflect;
larynx learns the imperative, “Open the door!”
I was extorted by hungry days that to warm,
my hands hovered my fingers over the keyboard.
Freezing, among the stark trembling tree limbs
I watch the bloody Sun sink behind boiling seas,
without a soul in sight. Either, the Earth spins away from my soles,
or, the World curves in an abrupt Archimedean arch into itself.
And, the torrent of my mouth, where elegiac poems,
or tea, or melodic streams of laughter should be the standard,
dream weaving
the silence of falling snow grows immense
and goodbye, descends in a dark curtain,
wrapped in cold gray Winter rains.
THE PASSING OF THE YEARS
Beneath this weather worn exterior,
I exist resilient as my dreams,
beneath conflicting currents
distorted reflections appear inferior.
And, all during the long tedious day
I think on my lady’s beauty
improving with each passing year,
her inherent goodness bursting through
a sunbeam on a gloomy day;
a radiant vision of loveliness,
pleasantly filling these eyes
that gaze from today’s grave;
the discerning senescent senses,
who delight in learning and strive to be wise,
for, in spite of time’s insults and injuries,
I’ve improved with age, too;
and yet, this is not what I meant to be at all!
Is this the beautiful Truth
that I dare to dream?
If only we had met
In a time which wasn’t stupid,
when this land was young
before rigor mortise of the soul had set in
and one was free to be
what ever one dared to dream
and arduously worked for.
But, I grow old among my delightful dreams,
a crumbling ruin
covered with the dirt of the age.
GROUNDED
Park your plastic star wars space ships,
in the crayon colored shoe box hanger,
little space cadet, and sleep,
so you wont see the evil swarming spirits.
By the kitchen herb garden, an unseen owl sits
solemnly hooting, as Autumn smoke hangs heavily and nudges around roof tops.
The long waited moment, which overwhelms and shatters life’s delightful delicate dreams, still isn’t here; in spite of the insidious wicked work of slow stupid years.
Secretly festering, the right wing fanatics latest set up: CRANK
Bursts with an explosion on today’s tired street scene.
A generation ago, they afflicted us with CRACK, straight from Col., and
now its speed, arriving just in time for the election.
(Again, another highly visible, vulnerable set of victims;
besides, being opposed to speed freaks is like opposing violent crime and tooth decay,
even old fashioned hippies opposed speed, remember the 60’s speed kills warnings?
Another contrived high profile epidemic, this time CRANK, and a subsequent wave of oppression, which is supposed to protect the public from pathetic speed freaks, who if left alone, only entail 100th of 1% of the population, if that. It is used to distract the public from the corrupt policies of tyrants, who search for ways to justify abusing power and condition society to states of bondage and being motivated by fear.
It’s an unfortunate characteristic of tyranny that the prejudices of tyrants are reflected by their extremist minions, and they are soon forced on society, as society becomes progressively more oppressed.)
A straw man argument trying to justify -
Democracy destroying subliminal technologies,
right wing child prostitutes and perverts,
and relatively privileged and profitable lives of career crime,
in another round of self-serving self-delusions designed to rationalize their tyranny.
The busts are coming: swiftly like a squall line.
They know the time line that they’ve carefully orchestrated for the all too familiar show.
Only, now every one’s dreams, except their own, are grounded and “safe”,
even if not sound. Chain your flotilla little one, in the dark closet;
among the worn out shoes, with the holes in their soles.
RUMOR MILL
Election 2004
The election date is in a couple of days. If you have not done so already, please VOTE. This is the most important election confronting America in recent history. The future of our nation will be decided, whether it continues lurching to the right down the path of tyranny with a Democratic façade will be decided. Will the Republican Party under the Bush/Cheney administration continue to view government as a means of making a few people large amounts of money, and transforming government into a conduit for right wing factional financial interests, which uses government to exploit the public, by taking money from the citizens’ pockets and putting it into the private investments controlled by a few extremely wealthy individuals will be determined. Or, will the United States of America narrowly miss a bullet, and save Social Security among other things by voting for Sen. Kerry of the Democrat Party; and, resurrect a good democratic government true to America’s time honored traditional values based on sound principals of government. Government by all of the people for the benefit of all the people, only you the American voters will decide.
Rumor Mill has decided to let the Republican Bush/Cheney ticket speak for itself. In the concluding remarks made in the final national debate on public TV, the Republican candidate said we should vote for them because of their position on the following issues; education, health care, social security, the war on terror, spreading freedom, our county’s prosperity and public safety. The Republicans lied on each issue! Here is what they said on national TV, and here is why it was not the truth.
Bush said repeatedly that with the Bush/Cheney education program “no child was left behind” and minority children were doing better closing the performance gap in schools with the general population, and early intervention was very important. The fact is the Republican Bush/Cheney administration has seriously under funded Head Start and its own education program. Early intervention and no child left behind? The Republican Bush/Cheney administration’s education program has approximately a 50% drop out rate for Hispanic and black students. No child left behind? The performance of minority students was measured after their lowest 50% dropped out, and so were not measured. This meant the minority students weren’t doing better, they were doing worse; because, after only measuring the best half of their students, they still couldn’t keep up with the general population. This is an obvious attempt to lie to the public, about what can only be viewed as the Republican Party’s education plan’s failure. Tax cuts for the rich are more important to Bush and Cheney than poor people’s children.
Bush said the US health care system based on private competition would solve all our health care problems. Bush said that it gave prescription relief to the elderly and that litigation costs to trial lawyers was the only reason that the cost of health care was increasing. Court costs only account for 1% of the 32% increase in private health care costs during the Republican Bush/Cheney administration. Health care costs have gone up by 17% during the last year alone, so the problem is getting worse under the US private plan, which means that health care costs if they remain steady over the next four years will be 68% greater under the Republican plan, and if not then the insurance companies will go bankrupt and the US citizens will have no health care. Under the Republican Bush/Cheney plan prescription relief comes only after your forced to drop Medicare and choose between certain types of private insurance, which will be subject to the previously mentioned cost increase pressure. The Republican health care system which is privately based gives worse health every 3 years to 50% of participating Senior citizens, poor and the chronically ill. The Republican Bush/Cheney plan provides the worst health care to children and families in the industrial world. The Republican Bush/Cheney plan is the most expensive to operate and the most unfair health care in the World. Unfortunately, it must be concluded that on this very important issue, the Republicans irresponsibly lied to the US public about health care on national TV.
Bush said the US had to “rethink” Social Security. The US had to make Social Security viable “for our children and grandchildren by increased returns” brought on by privatizing the system, and the Republican Bush/Cheney plan would sustain the current system for adults already invested in the system. This is a lie! The historical rate of return for Wall Street is approximately 9.5% since records were kept for about the last 100 years, with Wall Street remaining stagnate or loosing money roughly 50% of the years that records were kept. The historical rate of return for Social Security has been approximately just under 9.5% since the system started. SO there is no benefit, in terms of greater rates of return, for privatizing the system, which experiences periodic catastrophic collapses. The last one during the first year of the Republican Bush/Cheney administration, which resulted in up to 75% of peoples retirement and life savings being lost in a matter of seconds. Also, if the current system doesn’t have sufficient funds to meet its obligations to current participants now, and it doesn’t, if you take young people’s money out of the system for a private system it wont be long before the current Social Security system will go bankrupt under the Republican Bush/Cheney plan. Here again, the Republicans lied!
Bush said the war on terror was going well, and we needed to invade Iraq, because Iraq President Hussein would have provided weapons of mass destruction to Ibn Ladden in Afghanistan. Again, Bush lied. Consider First, Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction to give. Second, Iraq had just fought a vicious 10 yr. war against the Shiite Moslems in Iran, and he had been committing genocide against the Shiites living in oil rich regions of his own country. In the course of these operations Shiites were nerve gassed and gassed with other lethal chemicals. Now a short time latter we are to believe that Hussein is to give the Shiite Moslems in Afghanistan weapons of mass destruction. If he did the Shiite Moslems would have used them against Hussein and not the US. Bush lied to the public, with an absurd tale.
Bush said the US was spreading freedom and that was our most effective tool against terrorism. But, in Iraq the US has placed two US generals in charge of a country it invaded, and during that time frame it repeatedly refused acting governments proposed by the Iraq people. Finally, it replaces the US generals with a Iraq CIA operative. Then, the Republican Bush/Cheney administration claims on national TV that they are fighting terrorism by freedom. Once more Bush lied to the public on national television.
Bush claimed we are now safer after invading Iraq. How? Before our two wars in the Middle East we supposedly had one group of Shiite fanatics against the US. Now we have two nations Afghanistan and Iraq, whose populations both hate the US; and, instead of one group of fanatical Shiites, the US has antagonized all the Sunni Moslems in Iraq and several of the Shiite Moslems in Afghanistan. And, potentially the US has antagonized every extreme Moslem, Shiite and Sunni alike, throughout the Moslem portion of the World. Obviously, like the largest newspaper in the Western United States said on its front page, in one of the few times it has spoken the truth. The US is as unsafe now as before the war. And, Bush has lied again.
Bush said we were recovering economically. He said he was responsible for 1.9 million new jobs. He did not mention the fact that during the same time frame it was reported that the US lost between 5 and 2 million jobs, and outsourced another 3.2 million engineering and computer programmer jobs to India. Nor did he mention that the average salary for those jobs he took credit for paid $9,000 less each year than the jobs which they were replacing. Our country is supposedly currently economically expanding by 3%, but most of that is government spending; which means that most of it is military spending. Unfortunately, fighting two wars means that large portions of those expenditures end up going abroad to further exacerbate the trade deficit problem. And, we have over 1,000 dead soldiers to show for this type of Republican government spending. The private sector is only responsible for approximately 1% of the economic expansion. Unfortunately, the current rate of inflation for the same time frame is reported at 3.8%, which means we are not in a recovery. In fact the US is losing ground by at least .8% and if you adjust for military spending our economy is losing ground by almost 2.8%, which means not only are we not in a recovery, but the US is in a depression with stagflationary pressure. Consider, Republicans Bush & Cheney coauthored the largest national debt in the history of the World, and the largest trade deficits in the history of the World, too. Also, consider seasonal sales are down, factory orders are down, jobs are down and salaries are down. However, Cheney’s company got a $7.5 BILLION no bid contract, while under investigation for corruption charges! Perhaps that is where the recovery is! The point is Bush lied! In fact the Republican Bush/Cheney ticket has consistently lied to the American public to the tune of over $300 million throughout the entire election that is why it is close.
PLEASE VOTE!