Mint & Juleps

Experimenting--minting--Experiminting--

--Can it be a verb?--

--Mint & juleps--summer tea--

Flowers arranged in soft light, twinkling fireflies are captured in masonic jars, they are used to light the entire night--

--only trees to cover love making--

--love making--making love--

--love is a creative act, something built--does that mean you can contract the work out?--

--Love Architects: designing their dream loves, but always committed to other people’s--

What if there were love poets greater than Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly, Byron, but they were too busy having sex?--

--sex--text--love poems were the original sexting--

--People prised Byron because he burned metaphorical--

--Egyptians were writing on papyrus about how good a girl looked in those silky, silky robes--don’t believe me?--look it up--check out poetry pre-circa 1850 and tell me that humans haven’t always been animals--

--Do animals write poetry?--what would that even look like?--would it be in another language?--

What language do animals tell poetry?--Is it vocal, physical, mental, emotional?--Is it some beautiful combination of all of them?--

--Is that the dirty secret?--Love poems written by animals are written with their bodies--

--They produce young and no one is ashamed by it--

A boy masturbates because he is told it is normal, masturbation stays with him his whole life, unlike his love poems--

Love poems aren’t normal--

--love poems are normal--

--this isn’t a love poem--this is an experiment

The vines are digging

The vines are digging

In brickwork skulls;

Invading portents

Of cities come and gone.

The shattered rims

Of wary eyes

Proliferate:

Nuclear families are undone.

The fractured masses

Are huddled close together now,

Constricting round

The skulls civility has bought,

While seizures wrack

The naked mass

Who wait for news

That neither god nor man hath wrought.

And years of work,

It lies undone

In happy ashes

That cradle children

The kitchen heart,

The bedroom privates,

The foyer tongue,

And basement ruin.

The maw is stopped

By vacancy;

There is no feast

Of furniture,

Not since before

The vermin scurry

Around the hollow

Devoid of visitors.

Where it falls, the tree does grow

Where it falls, the tree does grow,

Though it travels many miles

Seeing wonders on its way

Roots itself one day

Planting flags

In the womb of earth

Cracking open her.

Up it comes,

Who is to say when she will end?

But, the seed is not the tree.

Where is the tree?

I cannot find it still.

I’ll seek no more.

Instead--

Rest under its boughs.

This is never what I wanted

This is never what I wanted

And I keep punishing the both of you

In ways none of us ever imagined

But, things keep vanishing

Between the cracks in communication

And I'm tired of it

I don't want to do badly anymore

But, I don't know other ways to be

I'm trying to learn and I keep failing

Over and over

All I ask is a space to call my own

And every day I am reminded I am not alone

But, I keep hurting

And I keep hurting others

I'm so tired of it

I don't want to do it anymore

So do whatever you think is best

I'll be in the ruins

There is a hallowed field

There is a hallowed field,

Filled with the crushings of stars--

The seeds of all creation

Kept for all to see.

There is no gate about the field,

No fence, no lock, no key, no bar, nor guard.

None, none, none, none, none.

Instead, the field extends everywhere.

All roads, all paths, all journeys

Lead to the field of stars.

It lies in the heart of every journeyman,

Of every trader, crafter, and adventurer.

For this is the place where dreams do grow.

Not all of them sweet, not all of them pleasant,

And yet each is born of a hapless heart.

Therefore, blame not the dream, but the dreamer.

A dream is oft a fragile thing,

Too sweetly made,

It ripens quickly, turns sour and then dies;

Made too stern,

It never grows ripe, but remains green and rings hollow.

Small and precious are the seeds;

They take no space, no water, no soil, nor time

Save love…

Love, love, love, love, love.

The field is a heart, the heart a dream,

The dream is a child, the child is me.

Be careful with the littles ones.

They only require love.

The Trunk

The trunk grows round the center
Ripples rippling round a wound
The core
Round and round and round again
Circles circling circles.
None thought of a seed till now
As a wound.
Creation as a violation...
The trunk is not at fault when the blight sets in.
It suffers as all suffer:
Through pain and pain and blinding pain
That settles in to roost,
Crying loudly in its nest
While the trunk cries loudly
Without escape.
And yet, it stands firm,
Holding up to wind and water
And sun and storm
And cloud and love
Until it falls
As all must fall.
But, the trunk is not the tree.

The Leaves

Leaves grow and flourish

High, high in the canopy

Dangling and dancing on the boughs

Turning their sunlit faces to the sky

Drinking the ocean of daylight

In, in, in…

When the sky darkens,

They do not hide,

They make their noise the louder.

When the sky threatens,

They do not quaver,

They turn their underside

Up, up, up

To the darkness,

Up to the pelting pain

Up to the storm.

They show their souls

And are rewarded with pain

With water

With life.

Life is tied with strife.
This the leaves know.

But, the leaf is not the tree.

The Ants

A tree is a city.

Ants crawl up highways

Carving paths

Through tree and bark and time and space.

Purposeful strides

Unseen by the tall,

Unloved by the small.

Industrious

Little

Ants

That live and grow

Wide and large in their multitude

Their graves outnumber the stars,

But the ant is not the tree.

Night Lands

Cracks across the sky,
Splintering into Night-Roads--
Deep-dark
Blood-dark.
Spreading puddles
Of Nightmare Pitch
Ensnaring the Moon
As all the Stars go out
Pissing on Heav'n wrought gears.
None are safe.
None are saved.
Saviors fled
And angels dead
Where He hath bled.
Hope is sundered with a smile--
The Jackal knows--
Slathering His chops with milky paste
Tasting stars on His pitiless palette
Mouthing them even as they go out--
One
By one.
Burning Seas cannot quench
The deserted farms
Lost to bruised Desert
Blight digs deep into crop and faun and flesh.
None are judged
& None are damned.
This is not the End, but an ending.
Night-songs lour upon the roofs of homes,
Straining beams and souls alike.
They huddle down lower
Under shadowed eaves
As Shadows draw nearer.
Shelter from the Storm--
There is none
There is none
There is none
There is no one.
A howling echoes through the land.
There are none to hear it.
The Night Lands acquire a new land.
If you listen closely, you can hear them--
The echoes of screams.
They are coming.

Echoes

Breaching births
Wailing whales,
Wailing walls,
Walling wails...
Frozen agonies
Solid structure
Giving grief
Through the years
Through the tears
Threw the tears
Hopeless keenings
For long lost memories
Of ancient histories
That mean something
That meant something
That meant some thing
That meant some, thing
That meant one thing
That meant....
That...
T...
Echoes echo inside the Echo
Echoes echoing
Ecce homo
Echo

Witch's Hut-Spices

Spices season the pot:

Cinnamon,

Rough and red and ruddy in hue

All the more full with you;

Oregano,

Leafy, choppy, ever green,

A biting scent, a cloying herb

Basil,

Parsley,

Garlic,

Bits and tinier bits

Fleck our leaf-lined bodies

Beneat the trees

Committing heresies

Shadows within shadows,

Unseen,

Unkempt,

Unwatched we lie,

But never lie.

Witches we in

Blooms of red

Blooms of nightshade,

Hebanon,

Wolfsbane,

Ambroasia,

Nectar sweetened for the asking.

Spices flavor

Our well-seasoned bodies

Beneath the trees

Committing heresies.

Witch's Hut-Sister

Sister mine, O sister mine

Came knocking at the door.

Sister mine, O sister mine

Knowingly implores.

Knocks again and finds us dressed

Bubbles foaming on the floor;

Laughing, mocking our distress:

Our aching, breaking, bone-sore, joints-sore

Pots and pans and tea a mess--

Picking us up from off the floor.

What she might think, I dare not guess--

Sister mine, O sister mine,

You are spent and we are spent;

Sister mine, O sister mine,

Secret groves hold no bones from sibling torment.

Derby

Derby full of piss
Show'ring on my head
Raining round my ears
Down a broken back
Out of winter boots
Soaking up the rain
And all the while
I smile
Cause
I've never
Been happier
Not ever.

Kalpa

Kalpa                                                 Kalpa
A world ends                                     A world begins
Kalpa                                                 Kalpa
Not a sound                                       Renewal
Not a sight                                         Rebirth
No thing                                            Rebirthing
Kalpa                                                 Kalpa
An age passes                                    A singing across the stars
A youth passes                                  A boiling in the verse
Youth passes                                      A crying that isn't shameful
Passed                                                Filled
Past.                                                   Full
Kalpa                                                 Kalpa
Light falls                                          Suns rise
Night sleeps                                       Dews drop
Blight leaves                                      Stars shoot
Fight gives                                         Souls twine
Sight dims                                          Lights shine
Kalpa                                                 Kalpa
This is the way the world ends          I celebrate myself and sing myself
This is the way the world ends          I celebrate myself and sing myself
Bang                                                  Song
Whimper                                           Singing
Kalpa                                                 Kalpa

A Soul

A soul is like a tree:
Untethered and it falls,
Unbowed and it swells
Undaunted and it grows
Unblessed and it sews no seeds
Unconquered and it never dies
Unhelped and it never grows
Unwholesome and it cannot stand
Unappreciated and it withers
Unkempt and it has no community
Unsheltered and it has no family
Unbroken and it climbs too high
Unburnt and it flourishes
Unkissed and it cannot sing
Unhugged and it cannot hope
Unloved and it cannot be.
A soul is like a tree.

Lost Child

I rest myself
Upon the shelf

So many seasons.
So many reasons.

Awaiting help
From someone else.

I see so clearly
And hold so dearly:

An empty box,
Clear sides.
One side:
A little boy is staring.
Another side:
A little mother glaring.
Another side:
A big bad father swearing.
Last side:
A little girl is daring.
Inside:
The lost child scaring
Inside the lost child:
Caring.

The Winter Storm

A ruddy risk,
A ruddy life,
A better life.
The worser soul,
The worser sole,
The well-worn shoe,
The well-worn path.
A thousand miles,
A thousand eyes,
Belittling me,
Belittling me.

With far-flung cries
And forlorn tears
Cascading down
Like waterfalls
Like drops of rain.

Against the winter storm
Undying, fight.
Unfurl your furrows
Dig deep inside
And drive through the drifts
Unmask your heart
Set it against the plow
And push almighty.
You'll find it hurts
Unbearably
But that is the way
The only way
The only Way.

Witch's Hut-A Prelude

Stove tops firing Kettles filled with Love are sated.
Witch's Eyes on me, I stiffen--petrified to stone--a Gorgon.
Bodies twining--willow Tree and sapling mated
Sharing merry times with merry-making Organs.
Falling leaves and fallen Sun are falling now
Twilit branches knotting one another
Summer Cottage growing pregnant, growing heavy now;
Rubbing here and rubbing there;
Waxing greater, waxing brighter underneath the boughs;
Rubbing, rubbing everywhere.
Twisting, twining, merging into one branch, one Heart
Never, ever, never, ever falling hard apart.

Sea-Green Child

A wasting wind
encircles tides of blue.
The sea -
a river running wide and wild,
Outreaching sandy shores
of fine, fine glass.
And there I stand.

I am a sea-green child,

A breaching in my breast
is calling me to rest.

But never rest
Upon their chest
Breast to breast
Heart to heart
For even as I stay
Face to face
or seated in my lover's eye
I am away
on distant shores
in far away lands
and far away sands.

I am a sea-green child,

My skin -
the sand
basking in the sun.
My eyes -
the coral
ever reaching, ever seeking
My breath -
a zephyr
carrying sins and medicines away
My moods -
 the weather
sometimes happy, sometimes halcyon
My fever -
the clouds,
covering my mirth, covering my birthright
my wrath -
the storm,
wracking ships and sacking hips

I am a sea-green child,

a child
A child of the air and foam and light
A child of the dark and deep and wet
Hot as July, cold as December
Running wild from spray to ember
Boiling away, churning away pretenders
Even as the offenders surrender their splendors
What is given is what is taken
No more
No less
What you give I receive with thanks,
But, never seen again is not uncaring
If you look
Beneath the surface
In the dark
There
There are your gifts
The ships,
The princes,
The gold,
The jewels,
The love letters,
The bottles,
The cutlery,
The finery,
The bones,
The brushes,
The glasses,
The memories,
The stories,
Lying on the ocean floor,
Preserved,
Cared for,
Loved.
You do not love the sea
Because you do not understand her.
But, I am a sea-green child.

I am a sea-green child
awaiting a Moses.

Dandies Ashore, Princesses on the Ship

The ocean in my blood sings everlasting,
Of seas and ships, princesses going abreast
Upon the crow's nest, ever first, and e'er outlasting
The waggish lads in castles contrasting
The ladies on their rising tide o'ercasting
Their prim and primy mates unfastening
Their breeches flapping wide ashore,
Who none would take for mates of theirs
Being foolish rogues and nothing more:
Abetting their petting amongst kiss and dares
Breathing their dandies whilst women implore
The mainsail open even as they bare
Their dalliances to the wind and tide
Enacting secret rites of spit and swear
Climaxing in desires to shoot and stride.
None hold the princesses still
For they fight where none may follow
No suitor may hope until
The ladies return from their lover's hollow
In a far away land of ocean green
Where dandies never are allowed to preen.