Friday, April 26, 2013

Swamp Spring





slow crawl home by the semaphores of spring
the swamp inhales all my old woes
and i sigh smiling quietly into the polyp clouds





the cherry blossoms buzzing!
all day, single petals tumbling in troves
even into full flower-moonlight
with that hush-murmer of midnight;
dark geese that pass north
and an owls sounding
as if to measure
the forest night





i'll go sleep out in the creeping myrtle at noon
dream of stars that decay on mountainsides
(star-mountains i cannot forget)
and the ones we cannot see in daylight

wake to the pastel body of spring beside me
and whisper my demands;





make my mind a spiral of blooms!
the dogwoods umbrals,
the forsythias yellow-fire, 
the magnolias lotus loomings

o make me the tiny petals
that i may know the orgasm of abscission!
i want to tongue the anthers!
i want to dust the stigmas!





she only stared my blue eyes teary,
stood and walked away,
her colors blending in the bright wet blur








Monday, April 8, 2013

How to die in the Mountains




When lost in the mountains

consider yourself lucky

and make friends with the stones



When lost in the mountains

don't be so quick to find doom

plenty of ancient chinese men

died with smiles on their faces

under some wind broken pine




When lost in the mountains

don't forget to blush before the birds

as cute as you think you are

they could still show you the proper way to die

and help you avoid any unpleasant experiences



When lost in the mountains

find the highest peak

from there you can listen

to the strange sounds from the city

from there you can see

just what you left behind

from there the wind will speak

in cool tongues if its chosen you

and if it has it will carry your shattered soul

to the place inside the mountain

where old hearts go to die

where dirt is a language

where the uplift of mountains

is the only way to get to heaven

where the slow murmur of the continents

sliding on molten earth is all you will ever hear

for the rest of those thousand lives you know you'll live

if you've managed to get

lost in the mountains