Poetry, anyone?

Re: Song of the Grass-roof Hermitage

I really love much of the stuff I've read on here, some of things I read have taken me away if only for a brief moment.
 
Re: Song of the Grass-roof Hermitage

Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago.

You’re a Flower

Yet still in this same world we die

You’re a living thing as I

We both see different worlds

You have never lied

So pure there you lay

If only you see your beauty as I do

That’s the price you pay for eternal peace
 
Smiling Across the Room to You

Was it something that entered you
or something that was always there?
Across the room, sitting cross-legged
on the couch, my friend smokes
something handmade and handed down.
It flows like syrup out of me,
emptying the spit of spirit like a
humdrum claptrap ooze.

Days ago, this place was simple
and shaped like the roots of trees,
pure action and reaction, but now
the sound goes on, the nonsense of static
spreading like a wing, swinging
from stone to upturned stone, pushing
past a muscular shoulder of road into
what white noise is measured here.

And it is measured in beats, clicks and claps
and clips of film snipped and reeling,
snarling whips and pieces of what is real.
In between the pages of a dictionary,
pressed into planting like a flowering seed,
the surrealist dips his hair into ink
as if he were some ancient and drunk
Taoist, wielding pliancy like a harmless weapon.

Clearly, there was nothing special about the sun
that day in my memory, as it bent down
like a shot of the worst liquor--but not at
all like that. No, it was clear and free,
a shapeless fountain that flew upward and out
and how he forgot his name to gain it
that nameless day in July. So temperate and
so mild and then the rain fell as if it were
a sympathetic sensation. There were
echoes of insects thrumming inside a connected
skull, skeleton blooming its electric candlefire
there in the pouring rainstorm.

"So, what happened?"
No one there to ask.
A big, frightful grin,
a shuddering curtain, a quiver, a strong,
strong cup of coffee that cut like
language itself back up to some original hole
which yawned and fell, endlessly pouring, endlessly
falling in love.
 
Alright, y'all. Don't let me monopolize this thread with my surrealist drivel--and I will if you let me! Please, someone, post something! :D

Ocean Roll On


I am drunk and the music has tangled me up
like it has so many years ago. Times before
have me floored like a flower exploring
the space between pages, like an MC on a mic
poppin questions to the Absolute.

In the netherworld comic strip of my memory,
I am peeling an onion, an ongoing onion made
of mercury and sand. And somewhere between
here and there, you and I open our hands
and they are empty, as empty as Aquarius.

When you opened me, you never told anyone
that I was serious, did you? The deck of cards
was stacked before it was cut, shuffled with
salt and somewhere along the coast a man
is running on and on at the mouth.

In a small, unaware country, a woman sits and
waits. Where there was once a dock, there
is only a contrived daisy resting its way through
its growth cycle, a temporary burst of sunshine
rocking the gravel of the ground

And when it stuns us, we shout, "What have we done?"
Because, like all wisdom, we know that we ourselves
are to blame, and if we can smile at that,
we can smile at that and be happy in simplicity.
Yet, I strive for something more and so

Make my world sick in the process. I’m not talking
a vomiting sort of sickness, some retching disease,
but perhaps a slow rot, sweet like a cherry, diluted
slightly so as to produce a flatulent smell
like a flat tire. If meaning is random,

Then we have spoken too much philosophy
in close quarters, dissected too many pale frogs
under the moonlight of sterile amps, cracked
so many fibrous tentacles to reveal their tender
insides like sushi. And that is outrageous.

But when you stop and float there, when you really
look at it like you are doing now, what opens up
is a simple screen door, then it bangs shut
again, leaving you behind, miles behind, under
stretching dotted lines like stretch marks,

Those colorless and affectless lines on the road
that bore us. Before, when I mentioned salt water,
what caught in my throat was the emotion.
A figure moves me and I stutter with my hand,
an impotent gesture, perverse, poignant, irrelevant,

And striking. The proverbial they flipped the century
like a turtle shell and when they were done,
they cut it in half like a mild stick of butter.
Somewhere, we know there is a mountain–
a clear mountain of blue.

But there is a blue bird singing a simple sound
over the green ocean that unfolds below.
Around the city the hammer falls and explains
a peculiar human game that grows from the notion
that we are separate and we are separate

While fences separate us, they keep us apart
from strong cables colored green and stretchy
like the stalks of daisies. Daylight strikes
like a benevolent weapon, automatic, compassionate,
and this is my idea of God, one single point

Exploding; one innocent eye that watches as if it were
a hawk overflowing with hilarious emotion,
tumbling somersaults of laughter, summer turning to fall
and back again through spring, through the frozen sheet
or dismal rain of winter, the overcast tea-colored sky

Brimming overhead, hiding that secret grin.
Tell me what you see, tell me what you mean.
When you outstretch your hand like that, would you
like me to take it? These mixed signals confuse me,
so much smoke, crushed waste in an ashtray

Waiting for a redeemer. What concrete, fictional mythology
we have, and what wonder! Where can I sign up
for touch? Who teaches love these days?
For in empty classrooms they sit, our children,
blindfolded by ridiculous wars, the bigotry

Of it all offending their fresh eyes. But when
I stretch out my lips to speak, the imagery seems
so silly and slick, split like a bad painting
under artificial light, like some elementary newspaper
collage, letters collected together in a ransom message.

If we are fortunate, that melts and buckles back to nature,
where proverbs are unsung and there is a quality
of unconcern. A thick curtain has been thrown back
over everything, and that moment of laughter
hurls itself across the rolling hills.

But certainly I misspeak, and love the grammatical errors
in a sensual way. The sense of the movie is nonsense,
as he would have it, pondering fields of lilies like some
boisterous philosopher, a blind individual shucking
salty sea creatures, digging in, really reaching for meaning

Where there is a full bowl of nothing. So, dip in the ink!
Revel in the peelings of a sense of urgency. Somewhere,
a zealot kneels in fervent prayer; somewhere, a sinner
sinks in the lust of self-destruction, smiling at the progress
he is making. His teeth are crooked

And through them we can see the windows of eternity flapping
like some mad teenager’s jaw, with all the residual effects
of chewing tobacco and too much pizza sliding across his tongue.
Several years later, he has a child of his own, and thus
the mystery goes on, spinning and straight.
 
Vajradhara said:
A NIGHT OF SOLITUDE


In the still night by the vacant window,
wrapped in monk's robe I sit in meditation,
navel and nostrils lined up straight,
ears paired to the slope of shoulders.
Window whitens-- the moon comes up;
rain's stopped, but drops go on dripping.
Wonderful--the mood of this moment--
distant, vast, known to me only!

~Ryokan
Thank you for the beautiful words. It reminds of a little poem I wrote in the mood of a moment.

Sundance
The river hurries,
bears furry
fish scurry.
At peace
in a perfect world.
 
faryal said:
Assalamoalkikum,

I read this poem on the internet,and thought it was beatiful. so here it is:

Rosebud

It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of Allah's (God's) design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
ALLAH opens this flower so sweetly,
Then in my hands they die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of Allah's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?

So I'll trust in Allah for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to Allah for His guidance
Each step of the way.

The pathway that lies before me,
Only Allah knows.
I'll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.


How beautiful!
 
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine said:
Another I wrote a while ago (second draft.)


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Constructive comments greatfully accepted by author/composer.​
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine​
I'm in. Love.:)
 
With pen in hand, I live my life
For each thought from God deserves expression;
In this way have I praised You.

Let the songs of my youth offer an account--
These lines were well-penned,
However ancient and alien they seem now,
They reveal a crimson pathway;
In this way have I testified.

But these days--these new words!
They do not come from me.
Am I wrong to suppose none ever did?
Pure delight it is to assign Your glory--
The copyright is Yours.

Perhaps You have kept me from arrogance,
For if I were like the songbird,
I could sweetly present these lines to the world.
But the spotlight might reveal my face, not Thine,
And my song would fail.

Yet there are songbirds all around me--
You have shown them to me.
And you have touched their hearts with my words.
In this way will we praise You--
In this way have You blessed me.

Father, cast the demon ambition from me;
Send him to a distant place.
Day and night he attempts torment
On my spirit; Thy will must be done.
Poverty tries to trample me underfoot,
Keeping ability away.
In these times, I find myself crying out to You,
Failing to see Your kindness--
LORD, take away my blindness!
For even when hunger afflicts me,
My children are fed by Your hand.
For this, Father, I praise You;
My heart is full even when my stomach is empty.

Today I count blessings, Father--
That always brings a smile.
Innocent on my own I could never be;
Guiltless by Your Love, I forever stand.
I have learned to await that Day--
A day whose mention made me tremble--
Now I am at peace with the vision.

Each of us wanders in our own wilderness.
We take long and winding pathways.
If it be Thy will,
I would pray my path be quickened--
But only Thy will must be done;
For the wisdom of Solomon
Is but a gold thread of Your garment,
And the music of David
But a silver note struck on Your harp.

How many times have I closed my eyes,
My spirit broken within me,
Only to open them and find
The word "patience" scrawled upon the page?
'Twas never my thought which moved my pen to write it!
My life is fleeting and small--
It is like a grain of sand in the hourglass;
It is but a tiny seed in Your garden.
This is why I must lose it--
How can I claim ownership?
I own nothing!
I deserve nothing.

You can tip the hourglass with a thought--
You can till the garden with a sigh.

Yet You chose to spare sand and seed--
Those things You could have returned to dust.
You descended from Your throne to live as men--
You descended to Hell's gates
To suffer at Satan's hand
Because you loved me--this grain of sand.

How foolish to call the rose graceful!
Or the dancer, or the swaying palm.
Or the feline, or a lovely woman--
Grace is yours alone.
Yet after all the grace You have bestowed,
You lend us more so that we may see it,
And give it, and receive it from one another!
Oh, praise be to You, my Lord and King!

I am reminded of words written by another
Whose pen was surely moved by You--
Words not for borrowing or lending,
But freely given for all to use:
My spirit is moved, my lips are parted,
For my tongue could reveal nothing truer--
Indeed, dear Psalmist, your song I remember--
Indeed, my cup runneth over!

--copyrighted material--1987
 
Her Song
(for SHE WHO THOUGHT US INTO BEING)


She is here,
all around us.
She is here,
deep inside us.
She is here,
and everywhere.
Weaver of galaxies
and universe,
She enfolds us,
transforms us
and holds us.


She is here,
all around us.
She is here,
deep inside us
She is here,
and everywhere.
Birth Mother of all heavens
Birth Mother of every star,
Birth Mother of each planet
Birth Mother of everything.
Life Bringer, Thought Maker,
Song Weaver,
Receiver of all our dreams.


She is here,
all around us.
She is here,
deep inside us.
She is here,
and everywhere.
- Carol Lee Sanchez


 
here is a thickness hanging...
invisible.

air traffic-jammed with global thought
worries, tension, heartache

and tomorrow it grows
thicker and thicker

so i bring with me a small gift to you, world
my happy, carefree, positive thread that will be woven into the quilt of global thought

the world brain

happy day to you all!







made it up right now...02:20am. rea-a-a-a-lllly tired...... *sigh* Good Night:)
 
thanks

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
looking up from tables we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

--W.S. Merwin
 
BUOYANCY

Love has taken away my practices
and filled me with poetry.

I tried to keep quietly repeating,
No strength but yours,
but I couldn't.

I had to clap and sing.
I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind
and remember those things?

A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself.
That's how I hold your voice.

I am scrap wood thrown in your fire,
and quickly reduced to smoke.

I saw you and became empty.
This emptiness, more beautiful than existence,
it obliterates existence, yet when it comes,
existence thrives and creates more existence!

The sky is blue. The world is a blind man
squatting on the road.

But whoever sees your emptiness
sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man.

A great soul hide like Muhammed, or Jesus,
moving through a crowd in a city
where no one knows him.

To praise is to praise
how one surrenders
to the emptiness.

To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.
Praise, the ocean. What we say, a little ship.

So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where!
Just to be held by the ocean is the best luck
we could have. It's a total waking up!

Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping?
It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious.

We're groggy, but let the guilt go.
Feel the motions of tenderness
around you, the buoyancy.

--Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
 
UNFOLD YOUR OWN MYTH

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the porphet
and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now there's a pearl.

A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he's wealthy.

But don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.

Start walking towards Shams. Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you've grown,
lifting.

--Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
 
Reincarnation
-by Wallace McRae,
Cowboy Curmudgeon,
http://www.cowboypoetry.com/mcrae.htm#Rein
Winner Cowboy Poetry Contest Elko Nevada

"What does Reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,
And clean yer fingernails,
And lay you in a padded box
Away from life's travails."

"The box and you goes in a hole,
That's been dug into the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted 'neath a mound.
Them clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside.
And then yore just beginnin' on
Yer transformation ride."

"In a while, the grass'll grow
Upon yer rendered mound.
Till some day on yer moldered grave
A lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon this flower
That once wuz you, but now's become
Yer vegetative bower."

"The posy that the hoss done ate
Up, with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed,
But some is left that he can't use
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground
This thing, that once wuz you."

"Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this upon the ground,
And I ponders, and I wonders at,
This object that I found.
I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life and death, and such,
And come away concludin': 'Slim,
You ain't changed, all that much.'"


imho-gotta love that, that stuff is a medium for growth...and isn't that what we'd all like to be rembered as...someone who helps others grow...even after we are gone?
 
Like Nothing Had Happened

And so there you were, separate again, but not,
And drenched in rain. What I am describing
Is a literal scene: the cold, cold rain drenching
A summer night with a bag of flesh standing
Out there, smiling, shaking, and stunned.

The music moved slow, molasses trip-hop beats
Spiking the shattered and floating time,
Floating upon the wings of common birds--
No Phoenix, no mythical Angel lives there.
Just budding eternity in a present moment,
Or maybe the other way around.

Sticky and strange and with the scent of an orange,
It dropped and spread itself thick out on the carpet of
The world. Moss and tender things creeping
Across the pavement like paws or vines, like strangers,
Stragglers, like running wind--and when it hit,
It was like nothing had happened except

The opening of a flute. The rhythm, in alternate
Tumbles of hurting and grinning, spun grimly
To hang there live, a waving spider's web. Truly,
There was nothing to it, and all this effort only
Makes me sick. I should pause and I do.


--(me)
 
Here is part of a work in progress that I have been inspired about this morning:


My blood is boiling
as the placated masses watch TV.
I am
patriarchy's nightmare--
a man born again and baptised in
his own fire.

This is my body,
and this is my world that I have come to
reclaim.

I am the seated masses' nightmare--
the iron striking the forge, while they are
spiritually jello. I am
a sense of urgency I am
the quickening of my own blood
I am colorful and I am the
horned god exploding in language and in doing so
I am a galaxy
I am a flower
I am an atom in the palm of my hand.

I believe in love.
I am love and I will be love and love explodes
in spirals to explode again and there is nothing that is left
untouched or changed by it and its colors.
All colors
Love.
 
Remembering Music and First Light
1/30/06

First woke from the womb
to bombshells blooming
over Africa and the paved streets of America.
With no words in first years, all was blue,
red, yellow, green, brown, black, black,
black; the shimmering darkness of self respect. Infinity
covering over me, born through great streams
of straight, strafing starlight; sunbeams:
remembering--

Remembering vast savannahs
and flowers. Like that day back by the community pool,
on the hills by the community center, moms and I and I
looking out over the stubbly summer hills of ohio,
dotted with dandelions.
Back at home,
in my crib, almost quite literally, I remember,
remember,

I remember those grassy savannahs of Africa
in cartoon style wallpapered on the walls; smiling lions beckoning me
to all the Zions of my future
unfolding as organic flowers,
fold over unsung fold.

When all of the music hit me,
it hit me hard. When all of the music hit me,
that's where I'm trying to get back to,
where all of the music
hits me. It hits me. It hits me
and it doesn't end.
 
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