sound touching silence

first a fiddle solo in my ear
bend that note push the cork in tight

whisper goodnight to surreal
and start the dreams with stories

another bath amongst a galaxy milkybright,
amongst creekstones algaewhite

then in bed with natalie, floral
sheetmusic conducting the incense formed

of motions, of movements, feeling sound
touching the silence


1998 swale canyon, washington

calculus in the middle ages

your whispering look of refined depth
is etched in the oceanglass
i wear as a necklace about my mind,

it rests on a pendulum of patience
i clearly acknowledge

i'll most likely gnaw the cuffs of eternity
awaiting yer nod to dance
slowly along to no music save the swish of oak& pine

whose roots imitate the strands of hair
in that they hold my soil
from boiling to dust in the aftermath

of betrayal, in the deserts of love's long
dry cry

between the apple's eyes

leary ginsberg burroughs dust

earth lowers her stems
into the rhythmic fold after time

has worn the skinbag as a nitrous balloon expedition
to the sun, ikons ikons made to last

that's the thing, "to last" through
hobbled flight attempts, pentagon levitations,

chants to nullify and retrace will tell's
blunder supreme....his nike ad

sure is tough to get historical
without dancing tables for yer $$$


1997, portland or

paths of duty

wars erode and demean
the basis of the world
to exist

heron does his duskish duty
performing a sortie
silhouette blackscissor routine
down the creekbed
canopy

mirroring the rich flurry
of particles bubbling digitally
from the sun's good lung



1997 swale creek, wa

dulcimer creek

dulcimer memory necklace
creek eats the shore
then spews it back
clad in fern

*

you hair started wars as blackened july combed the theatre

*

under shimmering blasts,
deeper tones of chanting menace

*

secrets flash you unawares
displaying overcoat linings
hung with their wares

*

language small and strong

immense yet delicate

*

and love seems to exist......to pull
its own plug

*

in event of any event
call the supervisor's eventual
bluff

*

stuffed and fluffed the pilgrims
neatly sank their boat
while still in the drivethru

*

ridiculous is preferred
to the opinions deferred
when idiots confer

*

all at once
clapping hand
laughs to shake
form of yer aura

*

islands, meals of gemstones,
family plus solitude , gallons of kissies,

grains of sand
in a dreamstream


1995 klickitat, wa

museum of modern moods

surreal hollering in
new sfmoma
gallery space, forest! forest! as
asian guards usually uptight and stern
laugh as she slaps
'em five under
pollock's guardian of the secret

***

bigboat go
toot, toot
moves

***

worked our way pleasantly
past matisses picassos diebenkorns
under one landscape she played
with her shoe
velcro arneson's great selfportrait
pedestal crumb
-ling to re
-veal the empty
nest around the critic comment

***

teenybirds
float alongside
nevertheless impossible
i believe
to run over per se

***

astute chaos surreal
exploded on the top floor
sparsely surrounded
by canvasses the size
of barndoors
splattered neonspooged
&watched over by
more guards, protecting
no secret, than flies
on vegan shit

***

...what time
was it, the fog, lifted
to ask...

***

beautiful the cold the cold
whistled wing the wind
etching the paper sack
paperstack tenpercent postconsumer
past redemption cooling
the beautiful cold
sea of departures

***

departures where are
your papers
how many waves
define where you go and if you stay?



1994 
san francisco

never called an asshole

sad eyed harlequins flipflop
thru dirty alleys of paris
at four a.m. as picasso gets up
to put out the cat

he isn't wearing a shirt the moon is humming in a pool
of pissed flower water
&a taxi is headed home for a pat
on the fender

pablo pauses at his doorway
considers the shifting planes of stairs
only briefly
to inspire more legend

a warm bed awaits



1988 lawrence ks.

circles

in midst of past weeks work
floats turbulent peace leaves, autumn---

the jewelry goes out
to sustain our material needs,

over the sienna soiled island
soft as coffee grounds percolating dark clouds

as sol glides westward suavely
dragging hours and the invisible paths

on which we play in circles,
avoiding punchcards

with ducks of ease


1994 maui

good moves

flipflops on hot sand
that's why dolphins ditched their hands

too conspicuous to ignore the urge
to forge they opted for sonar
giggles and undersea nipples

while whales had the backbone
to regress in favor of
floating bulk's beauty using

supernatural appendages to lick
the stamps mailing oceanglass
back for their
return deposits


1993 maui

handmedowns

algae's white fossil

collar from winter
still clings at highwatermark

the emergence of submerged
dialects
recollects all that is to be

whispering baby waters
of summer
rumbling to sea

wild mint tavern
cards none with wings

even the stone has its greencard
displaying vast vitality,

beard of white
ancient
graceful
mennonite


1998 swale creek, wa

sex with infinity

words are sex with infinity
&music is light strangled peaceably

flavor is a patterned dance
&breathing is a biochemical dialogue

fire gets the wetsoul blanket blues
ice been long hot to try some burn

cloud went wondering how to vanish
and keeps the key beneath a rainbow

love is some workless smoke of dances
flooding the desert unaware

(first time in a thousand jillion years

meat market

folks can smoke and shop, eat meat
off sticks at their leisure, wander about

with weenie dog balloon hats
to thwart the rain

people are of all types,
smiling or harrumphing at the prices

they say isn't that cute
or you've certainly got an eye for unique designs

these people are busy coordinating
their uniforms for the season, do

we accept checks? they say i like your
blackbean display, and if you don't

sell anything......most people,
will east most anything

***

and yet the exuberant sadness
in the peruvian pipe/drum/clapclap

far from home perhaps
to earn a living wage

cool hospital flavored sky
tramrails squawl with brakes

doors open awhile then close
to glide clattery slithering

thru the metro area

***

nothing surprises here
more than kindness.

thank you, and please
come back.


1995 portland

on fire in captivity

dolphins (can) make sounds
so high they are heat
killing other fish
so say
our scientists......also----

understand television
as a simultaneous representation
of abstract reality-----ready

on both accounts for music tv
award show

***

raised in captivity
(who ain't)
released on bonds promisory
issued thru umbilical

***

the only alpine parrot
equals innate tenacity
& blown spores
over a cold, well, maybe
lukewarm, cosmos

***

not to chatter like boring potatoes
that's the trick
to reach people, yer goals,
and a brand new car
full of fun plus nutrition!

***

the paragon of animals
touched by
bolt of lightning felt
rather special in the bulk poetry section,

hair on fire


1995, klickitat county, wa

sirensong duh

nowadays prometheus kleptos
zippos @ coctail whingdings, elegant
venus steps naked
out of virtual reality beerfoam

to impassion the dullard epic
hercules.com cleansnot stable, rather
scours congress
to emblazon history with parsley,

odysseus don't poke out ogre eye
he just flips on donahue
to equal-access
sirensong duh


1994 klickitat county, wa

haiku, maui, haiku

waveform lullabye
somnolent subterfuge blinks
awakened dream breathes

*

time spends day on credit
geomagnetic cashcow
volcano nipples

*

relax the asphalt
please earth by treading softly
mills of moments spun

*

beauty unbounding
fragmented day disperses
random collections

*

bosom blossoms heart
chug-a-lug goes blood bud
floralflame arrangement

*

insistence provokes
perpetualemotion
deliberate life

*

instance invokes one
kaleidoscope dressing
nude truth gets censored

*

harmonious wisp
Light& plant& flesh& soul
coming fullcircle

*

bone is artifact
time fleshes us out in dream
deciphering clouds

*
wastenot the water
subsidize integrity
commonsense slithers
*

a center builds less
emanating radiant
pure space, nonetheless

*
form farms the forum
disperses sentient word
fresh air elixir

*

much to do, to go
pack bags, tend the time, move
say hello-------------to each

*

our child tumbles smooth
rotunda sanctorum bliss
dreams---------------spun of beauty

*

the ground crumbles fine
sky and firmament waver
another aeon

*

clear resolution
"things" untangle, effortless
stone, to sand, to silt

*

island revolution
"things" revolve, unraveling
rewinding our clocks

*

stratified system
dimensional chessboard
knight takes bishop-pawn

*

front-end alignment
planets cue-up friday night
imagi/nation

*

prenatal stasis
suspended animation
exile in mana

*

tan/experience
pale innocence radiates
welcoming freckles

*

destiny stretches
magnificent horizon
endless art bouquet

*

morning plethora
seamless illumination
wind-tempered branches

*

planetary surf
immaculate tidepools
opportune moment

*

plaintive expansion
taut belly teaches lessons
flexible precision

*

real circumstances
sweet configured symmetry
lush paui farmland

*

jewelry islands
earth's nipples, petulant, pure
creation chakra

*

night concentrations
particular entropy
rings of fire in ice

*

dissent-eye-gration
complete harmonious thought
wisdom unveiled

*

prismatic sunset
porchmusic overlooking
sensational sky

*

flickers of brilliance
surrounding basalt gemstone
descending nightshades

*

magnetic impulse
harmonious symmetry
mosaic mama

*

children frolicking
lifestyle lesson masterpeace
ouchies&booboos

*
halleakalea
balloon in the rain
wainapanapa

*

clouds over haiku
molecular symmetry
river finds the sea

*

my daughter singing
glistening raindrops falling
nurturing voicetruth

*

pregnant momentum
contraction reverberates
motherhood sanctum

*

experiences
culminating pleasure-fields
bouquets of moments

*

family members
humanity enlarges
encompassing space

*

fortunate being
imprints memory circuit
mammary circus

*

sea remembers creek
branches interwoven merge
ocean/cloud/thought surge

*

fluent parthenon
gallantry hyperbole
new guacamole

*

recess/itation
actual guesstimation
self-service station

*

developmental
instrumentation complete
post-universal

*

language sewage
compost manipulation
conceal ambition

*

incorporation
homeostatic control
peace installment plan

*

apocalyptic
carcinogen candidates
all-out reprobates

*

natural verbiage
enlighten& instigate
example thyself

*

wordsworth millions
silver-tongued slitherings
name recognition

*

power energy
pre-breath silent infinite
omnipotent child

*

circuitous route
starplasma transmigration
---leaf-----in small puddle

*

redundant beauty
it's ok, it is ok
re/view.......the ......future

*

nations dissolving
civil disobedience
genocidal men

*

pathlessness prevails
mind externalization
modern poetry

*

poempeii gentry
crafting lightverse vehicle
conscious re-entry

*

saturation point
philosophical spanking
impure petulance

*

humility wave
spark-speaking enlightenment
optional mirror

*

artisan guru
tsunami bonsai project
irradiated

*

honesty spacesuit
teflon character velcro
magnetic impulse

*

pure genius children
forgetting yet imprinting
inquisitive eyes

*

affecting spirit
gravitates toward humorous
self-controlled system

*

renaissance maestro
uncovering sphinx in sand
search identity

*

i am that i am
i be that i am all time
resonating, one

*

miraculous art
chakra shakti mimicry
rejuvenation

*

jumprings& spirals
steppingstones illumined
briefly....o.....briefly

*

windows of vortex
windings of water returned
gaseous aura

*

carbonbased lifeform
xeroxing genetic codes
moleculecheatsheet

*

barnyard animals
flamboyant pre-dawn yodel
stereotronic

*

health& strength prevail
infinite blessings in life
our child& future

*

banyan consciousness
branches drooping meld w/root
versatile buddha

*

lahina market
pretty art for sad people
lush sunset coctail

*

consign the sunfire
darkness buffs the gold doubloon
(wise proprietor)

*

history teacher
moment by moment by mom
seashore erases

*

fragile habitat
water-tumbled beachglass walk
barefoot consciousness

*

afternoon labor
turtle rolling off the log
dilated mama

*

energetic sex
centering birth-chakra-zone
poem contraction

*

natural process
subverting chaotic norm
with maternal charms

*

infinite wisdom
perpetual emotion
welcome to now

*

ancestor guidance
timerivers unraveling
whirling "new" streamers

*

digestive system
primary eruption---------poop
(only one) food source

*

isis and mama
symbiotic symetry
entire beauty

***


may-june 2000, haiku, maui.
as isis was born.

mantra for a weird alley

witches and plants,
narcs and bugs

only a child born of sun
treads fearless

****

agents and booze
redtape and voodoo

only a monster of the moon stands tearless

****

accidents and shit,
plots and gonads

---only a dream---
misted of woman

i move the clouds
and go with them

becoming rain


2005 swale canyon, wa

staying, warm

i cut fresh fir limbs
and carpeted the stone floor

around my bed
in the strawbale room over

looking the creek
&its sessions of fog

as the valley temperature
wobbles with the flight of days

skirting the sun


2005 swale canyon, wa

the business end of it

the vanity of we who
strum and stroke
our egos whilst whittling wooden notes

appears
verbatim
offstage

in dilettante mannerisms
consistent

with showbuzz,
politics
poetry& war


2005 swale canyon, wa

national park

brrrr the luscious winds& purple flowers
living to accompany
pine needled crags of gentility, issuing
from lands indigenous to igneous vocabulary,
sedimentary minds asilted with starcinders,
fractured colors returning the nest
to the broken tree
from which nothing birthed chaos in the presence
of someone washing the television
in rainwaters, sparkling gusts of
lightning-heavied clouds, and meanwhile
squishing out the pattycake people
so each could drive
hearses of oldgrowth poetry into the
kyoto morning sunrise
to introduce bonsai walmart chains

take photos, leave footprints

that's what the Logos discerned
on the fragile basalt

near the video petri dish


1994 klickitat county, wa

bushome

beautiful bushome
with electric umbilical extension
cord
affording light

to play its music thru the daze
of fueled imaginations

under eyeballs painted
above our sleepspace,
forgeting watches and dreaming

the plug of pull,
out into country like treeroots,
working soil

to a soft delirium love


2004 portland, or

two haiku

to go out like an
august apple tree, splitting
my vows with ripe fruit


to experience
hunger, a skeletal lick
over her fingers


1987 lawrence ks

in the hammersmith garage

winter prys its icy fingers
into the crack of the huge sliding door,
pointed gusts color in the car exhaust

greasy joe slides under a car
&wrenches at pipes, straining
not unlike a man milking a cow
in the frost of four a.m. iowa

he loosens a nut that drains the oil
and the cow wobbles weakheaded,
he puts a feed sack over the hood
and gives the back fender
a fleshy, familiar slap


1986, lawrence ks

a mountain of clouds (2005)

the wizard's soil in a pouch of water
the moon behind a mountain of clouds made of birds
the muscles that move the eye within

the lake's thousand leagues of unwhispered remedies
the branches of vision seeking final repose of the acorn
the beginning of tying one's hair into a ship of mercy

the rocks that built her body out of milk
the wind in and of itself
the sleep actively awakening other forms

children and parents, grandmothers and fathers,
the food they gathered, the water that walked within them
the sky questioning, the flames warming

the instrument made of all earth and related positions
the ancient enchilada
the hands of a man



2005, the dalles, or

fields of tomorow

those great grandaddies were right-on,
we're farmers not men farming,
students not men studying,
just doing
the minimum for parole
and charting another sentence in grad skoool

why leave the IF out of the GRE: imp/lied
maybe i should sell my hi-fi
for seeds, write burnt stick poems
on hot buttered tortillas,

maybe write anasazi elegies for untended campfires
or worse, hearths smothered in plastic limbs

maybe
i should go into computers
or healthcare. i hear
they're the fields of tomorow tomorow forever. this,

a dutiful poem of intentional
melodrama. drama mine! and
on a skoool nite



1987 lawrence, ks

black ink octopus

black ink octopus
strums thru water with hands of a hypnotist

weaving thru fish with beltstrap appendages,
makes quilts and sweaters
from sewn sharkskin

poseidon called out to the tailor
for a coat of sea trout& starfish

he strutted down by broadway after dark
with a pretty mermaid
reflected in his grey sponge eyes,

his coattails swam the night
clouding the past
like black ink octopus



1986 lawrence, ks.

one that got away

god took his only son fishing
in a dinky rowboat on a lake in louisiana. they
put the boat

in the water

and fish leapt into the hull until it was full& then
the dynamic duo chose the top ten
and loaded 'em into the limo
and were driven home

to have servants prepare them. over dinner,
they cursed good-naturedly about
"the one who was atheist"

&fed the bones to their cats


1986 lawrence ks.

escher drawing of the oread campus

like asn escher drawing, a step
forward sometimes equals
three spits in the ocean

progress is metamorphic

checkerboards becoming fish that feather and fly into sharp
cubist angles

college is like eating antimatter,
books whiff and mix
with billing notices and when you need to move on,

the ground before one is a mime's ladder



1986, lawrence ks

poetry of forest bloodgood

i love words. i am a lover of words. this means we sleep together, move our bowels in one another's company, exchange hot glances, and sometimes squabble.

my mother introduced me to poetry. she has a doctorate in "the humanities" whatever those are....she published her poetry in her hippie days as a grad student at oklahoma state. and we read some charles dickens when i had chickenpox back in 5th grade. deep impressions!

i started writing my own "poetry" when i was 17 and girlfrisky. they are embarassingly bad by my own reckoning. trite, cliched, and not even sophomoric yet....but the object of those affections, a girl named gay (really) let me cover her bedroom wall in those scribblings of my senior year.

my family's home WAS in the country, outside of stillwater. her home was a few miles further out. on several occasions i'd sneak into her bedroom window at night to be with her, rise before dawn, romeo style. never got caught. one night, going out there, cop cars were blocking the highway...a guntoting killer was on the loose. really. he'd shot a convenience store clerk and was on the run, in the hills around our home in payne county.

he was found hiding in a barn days later, across the highway from our home. i walked out that day and saw more police and their big toy cars than ever in my life, lining the highway. there must have been 20-30 squad cars, and a helicopter flapping the sky. they gunned him down, alright.

so anyway, i kept at writing poetry my first horrid year at OSU. the year of my parents divorce. my poetry improved, though the pain saturated all i did. when ann ewing and i moved to lawrence, kansas, my heart focused on writing more intently. i was away from home!

the first poem i ever submitted was accepted and published. it is "in the hammersmith garage," published in The Allegheny Review, an annual anthology of undergraduate literaturd....whatever that is...

and then KU gave me some smarmy award and good cash for the poem. but i didn't become a poetry major ha ha ha. no, i read and read and wrote and read, becoming a well rounded square from oklahoma. i published here and there in a few literary rags. my favorite mag, now defunct as most seem to go, was CALIBAN. Lawrence r. smith,editor i believe. my poem, "hairbrain" was about ann having brain surgery for a ann/u/rism. she had long, fine, straight blondish hair.
she got a punko hairdoo and they took care of her brain, thank you.

when i graduated with an english degree, i had been accepted at Columbia University andBrown, two grad writing programs that didn't require a GRE test. duh, why should word/artist/poets be judged on such limited terms? i decided to move to san francisco instead of more whipwhip read read school.

and with all the time in the world, i wrote. and wrote. crazier, longer.

the last poem i sent out for publication was to The Exquisite Corpse. i'd met codrescu in lawrence, sat with him at the bottleneck during the river city reunion, a beatnik get together featuring burroughs, ginsberg, creely, snyder, di prima, waldman etc etc. i'll go into my ginsberg stories later. anyway, the corpse didn't publish the whole poem, it ended up in their BODYBAG where a few lines out of context made for a disillusioned poetboy=me.

screw publishing! and to heck with even sharing! i used to read at cafe lena in portland in the early 90s. that was a fun scene. certainly a scene. then i moved out of the city into a schoolbus with my baby surreal and her momma becca. selling our jewelry at the portland sat. market on the weekends, "in the sticks" the rest of the week.

which reminds me: "burnt stick poems." that is one codrescu liked
"we're farmers, not men farming/i should go into computers or health care/the fields of tommorow..."

i wrote that with an actual burnt stick on some paper while camping in the gila natl. forest. taking slightly from whitman i think he thinked.