write poems

Who opens up your heart?

it’s there and ready
there and waiting
open close
open close
the automatic muscle
volunteering constantly
for work your thoughts wouldn’t consider
the heart never does not
punch the clock
it is always on a full day job
rain or shine-miles through the snow
or evenly through the rolling night

the heart, as you know
has more than that single employment
it knows, as your body does
more than your brain
but for those who satiate with the minimum
you can teach it to only be a worker
but it knows more
you can exercise it into gorgeous shape
but it knows more
you can teach it to sleep obediently at your feet
where it will remain quietly
knowing how much more it could be
if you allowed it

At the bowling alley
far into my bowling years
someone turned on a flashlight during the midnight
pointed it in my mouth
showing the warm glow of my heart
and how it reached up and through my cheeks
cracking through the established belief
that my heart was fine the way it was
and broke it
the tears that tore me
watered me
and left me in the desert to wonder
drifting slowly back into the weather of my state

later, after I had officially wandered away from the whaling town
I took to fitting slippers on the rich and the poor
the ecstatic and the needy
the calm and the unsteady
when I found my foot in the hands of another
where, in an unveiling instant
I began to unfold
and unravel
until I was buoyed enough into thinking that I am new
and interested
and about to begin another life

translation:
I inadvertently met someone who cracked open my heart
not that I had been Scrooge
but had never found out
that more than a little more was possible
my heart remembered
but went back in for preservation sake
because it couldn’t go there
then, when that same heart went out into the world
was released to go seek it’s fortune
which it did in a somewhat cavalier yet cautious style
it tossed and bumped around other hearts
which were not too pleased
having been opened to see the wider life of their own heart
and then placed alongside me in the big sea
not pleased because they wanted a harbor
something I was not really looking for
until I landed on the shore of the unexpected land

translation:
I fell in love and though it is still early and a little scary
for a lumberjack like me
it’s pretty good
it’s good for me

translation:
my heart grew a pair of wings

pulling out the listeners responses and letting them stand on their own
from MLK’s American Dream Sermon

yes sir
yes it is
make it plain
yes
yes sir; make it plain
glory to god
preach
all men
make it plain today
sure
Amen
have mercy
yes, Amen
yes sir, everytime
preach it
no sir
no
get in the door
yeah
great dream
Lord
Lord, Lord
a dream, yes sir
all right

Ease Goes

the achievement mystery
we go on so about Prometheus
and his wily ways
sneaky man going out of bounds
put into chains for not listening to his elders
would he have worked for the underground
with a Mohawk and spiked necklace?
would you have honored his heroism
or come to watch the grisly display
in the warmth of your living room?
and
why
is it that we zero in on the falling man
the upside down teenager caught speeding
and now, with melted wings
descending to the splashing sea?
meanwhile
back at the ranch
with the soft glide of ease
Daedalus goes

i am going to fly away
from your television
and place of nothing more than fried hope

all I ask of you
all you need to give
is something small
a sip
the gentle smile reminder secreted without
a sweet effort of a slowly placed finger
the limb of a spoon moved toward me

dedicate the motion
gesture to only me on the other side of the glass
outside
surrender the one thought
and a day to day ease of repetition
reflected one upon another

leaf on the water
turns in the wind
on the glassy surface twirling lightly around to see
and ask
are you ready to hear of touch in return?

how to be in love
here is the diagram
raise the window
open your mind
to open the heart
lift it up
and change
turn on your confusing intentions
and ask them fierce questions
pull up those sucking receptors set on default
re-wire them toward a nicer, more brilliant outcome
all said and done
it’s what is in you
what is in you to put forth
what it is you want to put forth, what you want to receive
and how to negotiate with what you’ve been taught
raise the window

create that which you want
will take either fear of dynamite or
acknowledging the shared molecules
the former falls

he is being your just king
the queen’s strength measured by her calm forceless power
eventually, you have to acknowledge what is and what works
he wants more than the allotted space
is he supposed to crumble?
she wants more than the time allowed
should she breathe any faster?

the siege, with gunpowder now
pushes bigger projectiles
breaching the impregnably heavy walls
before
a narrow window could fend off those in the water
decidedly vulnerable

you can’t squeeze the present
out of what isn’t there, or what you can’t see
can’t create what you can’t ask for
can’t say it’s an orange while looking at only a color

the poet in me, even if I don’t do another thing
will be two more things added and then some more too
aren’t you glad i didn’t rhyme
a boat load of swans, chocolate glue
i sent up a flare, we’re all brand new

a month of peonies went by without you seeing them
how clear must it be to realize
you are the wind
waiting on rain for my tendril to wind
for the vitamin in your approval
to develop my blossom
she does not even know she loves me
her wind too busy to hold
she threw them out not even knowing what they were
seeds that grew and surprise her now

I

when you wish upon a star
that’s what’s coming out of his headphones
the guy with the window seat is a busy texter
tidy suit with blue and white striped shirt
clean head phones hang loosely over yellow tie
he has some life if life is measured by intermittent responses
tuned in to the passing while anticipating the forward
tapping and swaying, little head movements in time to
Earth Wind and Fire
what your life can truly be
he’s in love, texting and waiting, writing, waiting and swaying
this can’t be work
on the train to the city this Friday morning
two to a seat right next to me; grey suit and cargo pants
a glimpse of his life compared to mine, oddly woven with angel hair
what does his say
jump the idea from mine to his and his to mine;
his eyes could drop to see your words, and he would understand
he types back, knowingly, I send along an equivalent
the messages braid in upon themselves
shining bright for you to see
what your life could truly be

i wrote back today
said it that i was feelin it
said that i could see it
i didn’t say one other thing
oh but just this one other thing
and that is what i am going to tell you,
the reason i can feel the whole universe
it’s because of you darlin
because you are in it

i am full enough
fine
i was plenty full before
but now I have this fullness of you filling me more
it goes on forever, this overfilling
I spill and fill
over the edge

and it lets me saunter down main street
casual and full
full of ease
not having to search for anything
that’s what I see

cause I am full of it
i get to be in it
in the whole thing without having to look for it

cool eh?

i wrote back today
said it that i was feelin it
said that i could see it
i didn’t say one other thing
oh but just this one other thing
and that is what i am going to tell you,
the reason i can feel the universe
it’s because of you darlin
because you are in it

i am full enough
fine
i was plenty full before
but now I have this fullness of you filling me more
and it lets me saunter down main street
casual and full of ease
not having to search for anything
I’m seein it
cause I am full already
i get to be in it
in the universe without having to look for it
cool eh?