Today is a day of mourning for the United States since right-wing conservatives have taken over the country’s Supreme Court. And let’s not neglect to mention the death of Coretta Scott King.
Archive for January, 2006
Day of Mourning for U.S.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006The Toil of Words
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006Who knows – the toil of words
stuck so deep – in human flesh?
Even the most strenuous striving
but a strain for the secretive soul.
Light pierces the alabaster hoard
that emits no shriek or sigh,
no way no how – are you of a
hapless tick-tick-ticking time?
My eye brings its own brand,
searing with no resort to heat
to hide what no rationale can
sing…
Shore Mirage
Friday, January 13th, 2006We always ride
the present wave
into the future
whether as perfectly
poised surfer or
dragged by our
big toes through
the roiling waters.
Though riding long
erect implies grace
and fleeting fame,
no life lacks
the thundering surf
pounding out gasping
breaths, choking briny
water. We do
our best to
avoid sharks in
the salty sea,
or pulling weeds
from the deep.
No expanse voids
our silky song,
the castaways’ motley
dream parched in
watery plenty. Most
bob listlessly in
peace deep sinking
souls surround surrender
tubular striving to
the distant mirage
on the shore.
The Underlying Strife
Wednesday, January 11th, 2006I recently found this tidbit from “The Underlying Strife” by Calvin Hernton of the Umbra workship in the Black Arts Movement:
A poet is not a plaything
A poet is a perpetual struggle … an eternal
Cause-of-the-People
Toward the self-liberation of a wilderness dream
Deep-frozen in a profit-making civilization.
Haunted Heart
Sunday, January 8th, 2006Specters of one-time friends
rattle my nightmares –
nightsweats from that spicy meal?
Age-old anxieties push tears to
my brow, well up from some
diffuse and wandering center of pain.
Is it high blood pressure hammering my heart,
indigestions’ pit against my stomach’s pit?
Headache sinus sore throat raw omen of death?