POET'S MOUTH

Grey

He leaves too soon
But not before finding April
She cannot breathe

When winter’s cruel breath
Turns her spring to waste
His still young promise into ice

Romance is not lost
But lives in her earth
Becoming who she becomes

Changing who she changes
The quickening of love
God’s only answer to

Why?

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Not Exploding
(For Becky 11-04-08)

My sister is in
Grant Park
Listening to dreams come true

I watch from the west
Remembering Goldwater in ‘64
Me still trying to be loyal to my father

But wondering what my big sister
Was doing on campus
With all those liberals

I secretly wanted to win

You led our family
Away from hate and fear
Toe to toe with the old man

Paying a fearful toll
With your life and your love
You did it

You did it for me
Perhaps unaware of my need
But nonetheless

I learned
Your head did not explode
You did not die

So toe to toe
We all went
Not exploding 

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Spring Blossoms
(For Marjorie Britt On Mother’s Day 2003)

Spring blossoms at home

Now garland
The losses of your seasons

Your memories

The many blues in the iris
The yellows in the daffodil
The many hues or races of tulips

Those fortunate enough
To be remembered by you
Infused with infinite energy
Roll in the heavenly new grass with joy
As if they were earthly and young again
Hucks, and Toms, and Sallies
Getting all wet and stained by your
Green love

Now they stand up
Shake off the green cuttings
Straighten themselves up
God love them

They look down upon you
In this age
With their love
With their gratitude
With their memories
Of your great beauty
Of your kindness
Of your tolerance
Of your way of being honest
Of your tough no
Of your gentle yes
Of the way you sought them in friendship
Of your rascally nature
Of the smells of your suppers
Of your determined protection
Of your warm home

They know
Of fragile hours
Of fragile years
When your needs were not met

When hurt
When tested
Your strength and your faith
Your hopeful nature
One step at a time
Brought you through
Brought them along

Garlands straightened again
Those fortunate ones
Sit now in the grass
And talk of you

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Stalagmite’s Birth Day

They came with orange suspenders
Tee shirts over pillows
And slacks
Graying wigs

Friends trying
To look like me
At fifty
Love is goofy

After the party
You allowed
Me to take you to Denny’s
For coffee

Time took a turn
Here we are at sixty

Love is odd
With meaning
In piles
Here and there

Where we focus
Attention
Gathering stalagmites
Of love or hate

Ten years of love
Focused on me
Now I am just
A stalagmite of love

Tall and pointy
Proud and pleased
Otherwise unaccountably
Feeling worthy

In our universe
Human meaning started what…
Forty thousand years ago
And can end in a poof in the next five minutes

But ten years now
You and I
Keep looking at each other
Building wet piles of meaning

That want to live and live

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THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
(09-06-08)

I was thinkin’
I might just leave

Go on up to Canada
Or down to Australia
Any place without their scorn
I’m sick to death of their scorn

But hell no!
I’ll not fall for their dark pap
I’ll no longer give it the strength
Of my eyes

I’ll not leave
This Land Of The Free

I herby remind them all
I’m stayin’

They can’t’ shame me
They can’t make my heart small
They can’t get me to emigrate


I’ll stay and Organize
I’ll stand in the Commons
I’ll claim the Commons for my brothers and sisters
I’ll claim the Commons for their children.

I’ll shrug off dismissals and blacklists and brickbats

I’ll speak common truth
In the Commons

I’ll address scorn with
The steady voice of the Constitution
The revelations of the Bible

Then the angel of God
Will strike the earth
With her sickle

The blood of men and women
Will pump together
And work together
And produce goodness together

The children will
Smile up their cheeks
Nothing to do but play
After the harvest


You can count me in
I’m for stayin’

I’m for eatin' up
All those Grapes of Wrath
In common meal
With my brothers and sisters

Sittin’ right on the earth
Right beside any road
Eatin’ bunch after bunch
Tellin’ all our stories of Victory

To kin
To neighbors
To anybody else who shows up

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No Map
(08-17-08)

Today the weather changed
Old dreams occupied
More space

Surrounded by
Upwelling clouds
Shaken by fire

An invasion of senses
Front rolling
Through earth and sky

Making known
Un-insulated
Currents

Shaking
Every thing
As one thing

More power
Imagined more
Nervous animals

No wonder
You can’t tell me
Time and temperature

In doubt
More accurate
Than knowing

What next
Old dreams?
How now?

Give me new
Dreams to map
My fears

As earth and sky
Decide what
To do with me

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Waiting To Swing
(06-18-08)

“Ha! Ha! White folks yo'all sho is a mess. Ha! Ha! Swing!”
Louis Armstrong

I can define me
But only by my actions

I can
Let
Other voices define me

I can
Let
Epochs define me

When waiting
Is my action
My choice
Is my death

Doing jazz is
Me defining me

Doing poetry is
Me defining me

Doing healing is
Me defining me

I can not define
Any
You

Am I healing?
Am I a poet?
Am I a musician?
Is it Jazz?
Is it Poetry?
Am I just white?
Am I irrelevant?

Race is the point
When I am the oppressor
The self-enslaved

What race is my voice?
Who silenced this little boy?

I silence my own voice when I don’t listen to
The enslaved
The colonized
The silenced
The survivors

In this epoch
Jazz
Poetry and
Healing
Swing hard

Culture speaks loud
Voices abound
Ears are stretched thin

The thing is

For
Thelonious, Dexter, Billie and Cecil
Langston, Toni, Sherman and Alice
Jazz
Poetry and
Healing
Wait not
For your ear
Or my ear

The mode the rhythm the tone the flow the syllable the meaning and the anticipation
Waits
For no one

I silence my own voice now when I don’t speak now

Oppressed or oppressor

Waiting
Is the wound

Listening
Is the healing

Voice
Is the power

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It is birthday time

And Mom is dead
Gone to the land of gathering
Where all mothers must go

Down here
58 years since
The original event

The birth you gave me
Keeps happening

Meaning is not found
Rough diamonds
Unearthed and polished

It is created
Nerve excitation after repeated excitation
DNA birthed protein memories

Combining unaccountably
Under decades of stratified pressure
Intensifying vibrations

Each pressed memory recombining in
Coherent legislature of ideas
The sum more than the sum

Until the jewel emerges
From the forehead a
Holograph before the eyes

Floating vibrating prism colors
Rotating so as
Not to miss any of the wonder

The father
Calling love finally
Leading without armor

The brother
Singing strong chords of family
Inviting my harmony

The sisters
Holding each other safe
Both holding father at the brink of chaos

The son
Needing me to hear
What he does he thinks he feels

The beloved
Accepting holding yearning
For all of me

Her first daughter
Seeking no credit
Claiming self care

Gives the right gift bringing
Well loved children
Magic yeast for my loss

Her second daughter
Choosing me
To share the healing stories

Her child brings to
Her husband
Her self

Until the jewel emerges
From the forehead a
Holograph before the eyes

Floating vibrating prism colors
Rotating so as
Not to miss any of the wonder

The birth you gave me
Keeps happening




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Rain comes
The time of rocks
Listens

I believe
The rocks are changed
By rain

As twining trees
Grow
And fall

I believe
The rocks are changed
By Trees

Lovers come
And go

Changed by the
Rocks they stand upon

As trees
Are changed by the
Rocks
Lovers stand upon

I believe
The rocks are changed
By lovers

Yearning

The time of rocks
Listens

To falling rain
To falling twining trees
To yearning lovers
Falling

Through
The time of
Listening rocks

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COMMENTS: http://www.transvalue.info/contact.html