Grass&Gravel Times

Poetry Thursday _ August 9

2007-08-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

link to other August 2007 posts

Repeating the Sounds of Anonymity

Carousing poetics trap a word drunk surfing bum
With muddled message similes in the margins
Leaving rod vision minds peripherally dumb
Not being there online becomes the place to be

There are those who cannot go where they say
Fellow homonym-niacs may reveal their privates
Make Thursday an unresponsive tomorrow today
Exposed like language unheard by the left brain

Mired in wiki trivia, a most unknown obscurant
Belies common knowledge with jaja entrails
Temptation lurks between the words eye can’t
See what I won’t be in its hidden cognate forms

Baseball - the adolescent phase

2007-08-02T04:12:00.001-07:00

Baseball, the game of life, in 4 parts

Every true American poet has a baseball ballad.
Every true American writer has a baseball masterpiece.
It is America’s game, at least we invented the myth.
Facts found by an official commission rarely are questioned,
It is how we learn to believe in ourselves.

Forget it. Baseball is just a game for slackers!
Lots of time to muse about pussy,
Pussy you thought you got,
Pussy you never thought you’d get,
Pussy that, well just good old warm pussy thoughts.

Mind games. Limited symbolic action.
A game invented for men by men, balls and bats,
Other than that pretty much a women on her back,
The diamond and the key parts exposed for play,
A euphemistic metaphor that spells out sex.

There are the numbers, measures of success,
I guess, 3 for 4 is an outstanding day for a hitter, who
Plays at night, under the lights, but things average out.
Not many hit over .250, and that is a ball knocked
Where gloves cannot catch the prize.

Nobody really wants the prize though, like men
Playing the game of life, they don’t know what to do
When luck puts them in the spotlight.
So they throw it away, and try get the hitter out,
Making him just another dugout stiff again.

Most anyone can play this game,
Some guys are better at the symbolic parts.
The numbers expose their successes, if they are too successful
They raise the quality of the pussy.
Mostly that is a matter of size and numbers too.

Tight is huge by those measures, especially if
The legs are longer, and the pitcher has good stuff.
What do they really mean when the commentator says,
“He struck out on a pitch that was way inside?”
Talking the talk is all about the unattainable.

Most poets try to get funny with the numbers
Making out like the verses are innings, something artificial,
Kind of like a good bit of baseball.
Most of them miss what the game is really about, anyway,
Not here, this is just the seventh stanza stretch.

Return to Poetry Thursday

Transgenic Pasquinade

2007-07-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

<

~~~Click the pic to read the words~~~~

I resurrected this site for PT

Transgenic Pasquinade

2007-07-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

<

~~~Click the pic to read the words~~~~

I resurrected this site for PT

Cloud Appreciation Society

2006-02-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

The Cloud Appreciation Society came to my attention from the Idler just before they were a Yahoo 2005 pick for "wacky and weird (or something like that). Gavin Pretor-Pinney who is the founder also founded the Idler. I submitted an earlier version of a poem to them called "how humans get to heaven."

I published the longer version on Portable Poetry Portal which is republished here

Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Spirit in the Sky

I could not help but be inspired by the contradictions that clouds pose for scientists as the site Cloud Appreciation Society so aptly displays. After leaving 30+ years of a science career behind, I finally understand it takes poetry to explain the affinity of humans for clouds.

How Humans Get to Heaven
 Men make photographs of their shapes
 Make them appear like objects of gravity
 We animals descended from the apes
 Are captives and makers of earth’s depravity 
Writing a formula for a cloud is pointless
When we think we have it right
It vaporizes and mocks our foolishness
Exposed and basking in blue light

Water is such a common thing for thus
It takes a cold day to expose our breath
Show us that clouds are spirits within us
Whose airy domain transcends our death

2006-01-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

Two poems added to the
Voices in Wartime
Opening of the Heart Educational Project.

Solitary Soldier Digest

and

A Granary Full Empty

Both written on my annual visit to the VA Hospital for a physical. It is a place everone should visit, especially the young people. It is the best way to explain why there are no survivors of wars only victims. Only the heartless could choose war before any other altenative but the last unless of course personal gain without gratitude or sacrifice is all they know.

2006-01-26T05:47:00.000-08:00

SpokenWar

To my audio composition companions I'm known as

Sunny Day

Go to the SpokenWar website and listen to my audio composition

FriendsfromtheBeginnig

and others by some pretty well known Spoken Word artists.

2005-12-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Among the Poems of the Week (December 18, 2005) on Poets Agaist the War

POEMS OF THE WEEK
A showcase of best poems

“Nobody Hero” and “Fighting for Jesus” (Volga, South Dakota, USA, 12/11/2005)

Nobody Hero

Iraq
rookie bonus
medical care payment---
lifetime VA visits . . . no legs
attached.

Fighting for Jesus

Judas
lives as a king
in the white house.
Oil greed payments
crucifying the truth
with war.

Actually "Fighting for Jesus" has evolved into a longer poem as many of my Cinquain-T often do. It is now a part of audio production piece called "Faith from the Beginning" parts of which are on Brigid the Blog Muse

War is not the Answer
Ride a Bicycle

2005-09-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Once in while a person has to do an internet search to find where his work ends up. Today's search revealed one ended up on Bicycling Life A Web-site for Everyday Bicyclists. I reprint below but this is a pleasant site and reading the rest of the poems and browsing the site is worth the time. I like their attitude towards cycling:

Many bicycle web sites are "event" oriented. Lots are interested on races or racers. Most are seasonally oriented, and a few are advocacy oriented. We are not disinterested in these things. We are simply more interested in the promotion of cycling as a "normal" means of transportation for every day travel needs as well as recreation and healthy exercise.

I don't remember when I submitted this poem but. . .

Bicycle Commute

Stillness returns as I retrace the path
Daily rhythms hold at workday close.

Spirit wind is a constant companion.
Even when the leaves are idle,
The breathe of life is called forth
By the joy of movement.

Time is irrelevant, the sun moves
The mind to reflect on the day
As gravel stones sing a broken melody
And the horizon communicates purpose.

Machine, sacred ring of Black Elk's vision
Revealed in steel and sweat.

2005-06-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

One of my poems from Dec 2002 published in South Dakota Magazine (Jul-Aug 2005). Reprinted below. It was kind of nice to open up to the poetry page and find one of my poems that I had submitted a a few months ago among the poems for this edition. The first selection,"Prairie Rock Crossing," was published in the Jan-Feb 2005 edition and now the second in the group in the latest issue.

West Wind

Tickle me with flower sweetness
lift my hopes little dreamer.
You come with the sun
breathless, then fervor,
playful prairie wind.
Darkness
reclaims your vigor
and coolness
holds my cloak until
the morrow
when foolishness returns
and curses cannot calm you.

I added the earlier one here too. The page had a photo of a rock pile that is making the rounds in several publications. It was an honor to have the photo on the same page. It was taken by Bernie Hunhoff the owner of the South Dakota Magazine.

PRAIRIE ROCK CROSSING

At the bottom of the rock pile
Covered by soil and late arrivals
The smell of sweat and aches
Rises like a spirit from that heap
Old Philip was under it all
A support that all us family got.

Men and boys struggling
To make a field fit for a plow
Rooting up points smaller than a fist
Yet sharper than rough lament
Of “work too hard.” Still, buoyed
Forward by savage memories,

Rock piles we made.
Points we saved as trophies
Yet, did not, could not honor them.
We did not understand the land,
It grew wheat, made bread,
A sacramental companion to wine.

Russian wheat and Deutsch
Sent west to replace a bison herd
With pointed steeple and iron cross
Thus Peter became the new rock
But rejected prairie stones ascended
To anchor a father’s dream.

2005-06-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Latest submission to Poet's Against the War listed in the June 17 "poems of the week."

Nobody Hero

Iraq
rookie bonus
medical care payment---
lifetime VA visits . . . no legs
attached.

2005-01-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Follow the link to a one of my poems, "Mother Nature gets over the Big Bang," that popped onto the screen and went off in search of its own identity. It's on theAxis of Logic site.

Don't stop there. Click back to poetry and check out the other poems, commentaries, find out who these people are. It is worth the time.

Read the article that inspired my poem, "Mother Nature" by Lance Broughton.

2005-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

Once in a while a poet has to go public with a bit of dogerel.

Check out The Daily Dogerel where HL decided it was a good place to post.

2005-01-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

I have not been paying much attention to this site although there has been lots of activity: Readings, writing, performing, and of course holidays:

One of my early poems was published in the South Dakota Magazine page 96, click here to take a look. It may take a zoom to make it large enough to read. I like the picture by Hunhoff just above it that carries the theme, kinda :->.

I have had a good time arranging it for spoken word performance. I hadn't even thought of doing spoken word at the time I wrote it, or even when I revised it to present in this magazine.

The Germanic chorus "Old Philip was under it all/A support all us family got" shows up in several places.

2004-10-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

I added another poem to the Poets Against the War site about a month ago. New Century Bush Tale is part of a three part look at Christian faith, misconceptio n and war. This poem has a focus on the current rendition.

2004-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Poets Online Archive - Revisited

Thanks to my friends at Poets Online (check the link above and on the right side under Links), another of my poems has been published. I was mortified when I submitted it with sugar mispelled (sic.), the editor was so kind to correct it for me.

2004-07-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

A poem that I composed specifically for the Quiet Mountain Essays Summer Open Issue is now available online. Gender Conflict speaks to peace and justice issues and the deep conflict of Western Culture set along gender lines. Quiet Mountain Essays is a "A Monthly Journal of Women's Writing" that speaks with a voice very close to the heart--from the heart of women. It deserves to be heard. I consider it a privilege to have a chance to have one of my poems in this issue.

I have been away on a mission to discover the spirit of rural Minnesota these past 2 months and have experienced another chapter in the story of a land and community trying to clarify its identity and redefine itself for the changing times. I am sure that it will become a source of inspiration for my work although it is barely noticeable thus far. I have done the riding, listening and the observing so I have confidence meaningful things will come of it.

2004-06-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

I have find inspiration in quilts--the geometry, the color; visual dialog touching the spiritual level. This is a poem presented in dualist format incorporating the Fibonacci Series in the number of lines per stanza.

Fibonacci Patterns from a Quilt Show

Quilt Spiral

Poems evolve like quilts
word pieces, color image, quiet dreams—
slowly, abruptly
together they go.
Sometimes they surprise you, tempt you,
leaving you anxious.
Does this fit? Is the color right?
Days pass.

Working evenings, rearranging,
small changes,
big change,
go back to the dream.
Let the pattern speak.

Magically,
the message appears,
your fingers working—

transforming wisdom
exploding from familiar scraps.

Awesome.

Poet’s Piece

Pf f f f f t.

Poetry is defiance work.
Quilting is compliance work.

Tyrants love quilters,
but they hate poets
Rules. Poems use them, quilts follow

them. Few words. Great power—
one piece can propagate a wave
or quell all dissent.
Protesting or praising ... Words
speak louder!

Louder than warm wraps in desert cold,
war dead in vain,
blood shed for mother’s mum regrets.
Poets scream out. Peace!!!
Patriotic quilts?. . .
Morally justified murder,
killing for home land contentment?
Hear the poet. Speak loud. Defy the familiar tramp.

Authors note: Every group should have a radical poet for a companion. They see the hidden messages in every day activities. They lift the scales from the eyes. I was awed by the quilt show but there remained an uneasiness that I had to explore— something that seemed too good to be true. This observation and response drills to the very core of the extent of the fear avoidance in our society. Freedom cannot prosper when citizens are content with things as they are, when the patterns we have inherited are not questioned and updated for our times.

2004-05-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

Prairie Poetry's 8th Anniversary - May 2004 -- Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Edition -- is out with 7 poems. Looks like only one curmudgeon made the cut with something called '04. That be me.

2004-04-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Look for a Special Edition of Prairie Poetry it will have a Lewis and Clark focus. It is usually updated with new poems for the month on the first or second day of the month. It is an excellent online journal for prairie poets and those who appreciate the sparce nature of the plains.

I have been writing in the ciquain form for a couple of months and one of them will be featured in the Special Edition linked above. It also has been added to the links section on the right. Look for 'o4'. I think the form fits with the prairie ethos and its realation to the land. It is a place of few words and abundant solitude for exploring reality.

2004-04-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

Somthing to share and think about.

What man does not know,
Or has not thought of,
Wanders in the night
Through the labyrinth of the mind.

Goethe

"a keeper that I found after I had written this cinquain."

Problem

Try this.
Write poetic
syllable algorithm.
Turn number into muse words. Think
Goethe.

2004-03-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Well I see it is more than a month since I posted here. It is not because I have not been working. On the other hand, if I am a pote (the one syllable form), I should say something once in a while.

I have been composing quite a few pieces in cinquain form (see Spiral Galaxy Harmonics below) the past few days. In the process I stumbled on AMAZE: The Cinquain Journal. I read a few and didn't get too excited until I found the experimental section in the Spring & Summer 2003 edition. It was at the bottom of the page but it is definitely at the top of my list.

Maybe it is just me, 'but shouldn't the experiments come first?'

It any case I came up with one yesterday that I like and I don't know what to do with it yet so I thought I would post it here.

Don’t Ask Me

Clueless
Texas cowboy
Gave tax breaks to the rich
greedy crooks abort our Repug
freedom.
Tell us
who they worship,
Skull and Bonesmen, Daddy
War bucks, 9-11, One World
Order?

Dubya
tell us who you
pray to! God in heaven?
Where is that? Undisclosed with Dick
Cheney?

[an aside: did you know that 5 more words can be formed from the anagram of post?] in the process of composing one I thought was going to be morf, I discovered this neat little quirk about a sign post---stop sing.

A Word From . . .

Art form
goose or gander
north tessellating south
flying black into white. Escher
form morf

which was inspired by "Day and Night" even though they look more like ducks.

2004-02-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

I decided to add a links section to this site (on right below the archives), starting with Poets Online since it is my favorite and most useful poetry site.

Ken puts out a prompt on a more or less regular interval. It really helps to have a topic that others work on at the same time.

The last prompt was for a cinquain based on a google search. Read my contribution, Spiral Galaxy Harmonics, in the archive.

Take a look at the latest prompt while you are there. There are many other useful sections as well.

2004-02-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

Check out my latest addition to the Poets Against the War sitePledge allegiance to President Bush . . .

2004-02-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Back to Sacred Geometry

A guote from Sacred Geometry that I believe applies to poetry.

Geometry in nature arranges the shapes of the molecules and crystals that make up our bodies and the physical cosmos. It is the key to the creation of the universe. A good primer on this subject is Michael Schneiders interesting book A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe. In his introduction, he says: "It's a shame that children are exposed to numbers merely as quantities instead of qualities and characters with distinct personalities relating to each other in various patterns. If only they could see numbers and shapes as the ancients did, as symbols of principles available to teach us about the natural structure and process of the universe and to give us perspective on human nature."

Studying and meditating on geometry helps us to better understand the laws, patterns and blueprints within nature. As we are part of nature, it can help us key in to and become more of our true selves, the magnificent spiritual beings who we really are. But if you are not into that, just studying the wonders and beauty of geometry is a healthy and thoroughly enjoyable past time anyway!

I observe little evidence of order and shape in contemporary poetry that uses English (I don't know about other languages). That does not make it bad poetry, just naive of the roots of Westen cultural origins. Thus, fallacies pervade the art and it reinforces the naivete of the audience.

Pythagoreans placed high value on geometry; geometry placed high value on Pythagoras.

I compose poetry, I know geometry, and I place a high value on Pythagoras. The Fibonacci Series is an estimate of perfection which is the best that can be done in 3 dimensions.

Just an aside here is that the evidence is very strong that the Pythaoreans are the origin of the Christians and the New Testament so it is still in our genetic language heritage despite the perversions of the past 2000 years.

"<(-^-)>"

2004-02-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

May the power of Brigid be with you.

On the feast day, Bridget would visit and bless homes. If the sun was seen on this day winter was over but if the sun was hidden behind clouds winter was still to come. In the British Isles, spring is already on its way. Flower buds are poking through and the greenery is returning. Milk begins to flow in the udders of cows and sheep as they ready for the birth of their offspring. Older pagan names for Candlemas include Imbolc and Oimelc. Oimelc meaning "milk of ewes" and Imbolc translates as "in the belly" (pertaining to the earth).

Take a break and

Learn about Bigid, the goddess of creative inspiration and poetry.

A Candlemas Poem

Night of lit white candles

darkness turned into light

"everything she touches changes"

feast of waxing flame

fire of heart and hearth

fire on the mind

flickering of spark

quickening of air

warming into inspiration

thawing in her innocence

snow into desire

"she shines for all of us

she burns within us all"

sipral heat of life

"she shines for all of us

within us all she burns"

the fires to create

"she shines in all of us

she burns us all within"

awakening arising is her need

"she shines for all of us

she burns within us all"

Her candle is our only source

-From Diane Stein's book "Casting the Circle"

2003-12-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

The following poem was published by my friends on Poet's Online . It is one of my favorite online poetry sites.

In the version below, I have added the syllable count to the lines to help you identify the Fibonacci Series (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89...) embedded in the poem. Hint: the title (1) has 5 syllables and the (1) epigram 8;8 and together, 5+8+8=21. By using lines and syllables and symmetries you will find each of the first 11 numbers in the Fibonacci Series. Another hint: 5 lines on each side.

The Time of Your Life

life is more than just consumption; consummation is more than time

4 Don’t you reject
9 consumption trying to be real life?

You don’t reject 4
real life that is a consummation! 9

8 In malls, measure value—no price—
5 the time we squander
8 shopping is garbage we throw out.

Price—no value measure—in life, 8
the time we consume 5
musing is treasure we grow in. 8

Part of the inspiration for this poem was the work of MC Escher's Day and Night . I present it with Day and Night as a watermark to elucidate the relationships. Copy it into a wordprocesser and try it yourself. Send me an email if you have trouble getting it to work.

2003-12-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

The development of the Golden Spiral in poetic form and graphic imagery is my current project. I suggest you visit the Museum of Harmony and the Golden Section and explore with me.

If you want to go further, visit my main blog site where Brigid details a list of adventure sources.

Here is a test of image recruitment and placement from the Museum.

2003-11-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

May the hiatus end. I have neglected the blogs but not the poetry. Lots of writing and readings. Poets Against The War finally must have taken me off the black list after I sent them Exception to a Ruler (link below). Search for my name or Kilroy's Daycare

2003-09-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Read about the About the New Poet Laureate, Louise Glück who succeeded Billy Collins on August 21, 2003. You will also find short bios on some of the previous Laureates. You can sample Glück’s work on Plagiarist.com. I like her concise and powerful language. Take a look at Matins one of my favorites.

2003-09-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

It is about autumnal equinox and my fall creative activities: The article By John Cory on Truthout.com Angry Fiction lays out in exquisite detail what this next year and future of liberal democracy is all about. Here is a quote to encourage you to read the entire article.

"It is after all, the poets, playwrights, and novelists, who reveal the truth to us, and speak to our souls."

Stay tuned. I promise regular contributions and invite your comments and suggestions.

2003-06-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have found Poets Online to be a very useful resource of writers of poetry and sharing new poetry they consider of acceptable quality and appropriate to the prompt . I have responded to a few of the prompts posted there:

In God’s Image

Hydrocarbon Holocaust written under a pseudonym and published on the Poets Against the War Site

My Jesus
Rides Shotgun

I would encourage anyone interested in an opportunity to be part of a group of poets working on a common theme during a limited amount of time, or just looking for good a source of information take a look at Poets Online. Be a contributor, they have a new prompt every few weeks. If you don't get it published there, you still feel like people have had a chance to read it.

2003-06-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

One of purposes of this blog is to make links to some of my poems that have been published on line by other Journals and Poetry Sites:

Prairie Fellows has just been published in the June 2003 Edition of Prairie Poetry. I composed this after trading lies with a friend of mine from North Dakota who had lived and worked in Medora, and has a daughter married to a fellow from the high plains.

Exception to a Ruler was posted on another site when the Poets Against the War group was collecting poems to protest the Iraqi invasion . I composed it as a comment on the special exception quality of the recent effort. The title is a play on the slogan of Freedom Radio at Democracy Now brought to you by Amy Goodman who is a long time peace advocate.

2003-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here is an example poem that has not been submitted anywhere else. I composed it in anticipation of a National Meeting of the
National Federation of State Poetry Societies that will be held in a city nearby. I plan to attend. ;-))

        Carnivore Ritual

                          They call them F2F meetings
a euphemism for sniffing assholes
Getting to know each other
They say
So who are they
who write the rules without pens
devise agendas by the book
crowding the conferees with too many papers
when all they want
is
a chance to mark
the hot corner                                                 where
       all the big dogs
choose new hunks of raw meat
to feed
the frenzy for another year
                                               of anal pursuit

2003-05-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Grass&Gravel Times is all about how mindful bicycle riding on grass and gravel creates a poetic vision. This is the blog that keeps track of the new developments in this venture.

Grass&Gravel Times

Poetry Thursday _ August 9

Baseball - the adolescent phase

Transgenic Pasquinade

Transgenic Pasquinade

Cloud Appreciation Society

Men make photographs of their shapes Make them appear like objects of gravity We animals descended from the apes Are captives and makers of earth’s depravity

life is more than just consumption; consummation is more than time

Men make photographs of their shapes
Make them appear like objects of gravity
We animals descended from the apes
Are captives and makers of earth’s depravity