Saturday, March 31, 2007

Wind doth blow


W
ind doth blow
whate'er direction
it inclines
wind's abode
as weathercocks show
is where it's from
taking no mind
what flags suppose

portentous curse
or mercy's hope
by humbug spread
or rumour''s mill
each condition
born of hazard
with no more malfeasance
than the zephyr
whose prattling kiss
is favour shown
or menace mean
in froward storm

as wind so bloweth
lot that falls
is not duress
nor prophecy
beyond a guess

truth upon logic
verily turns
bound to where
no eyes descry
the world is all
and less than all
till action suits
or falling short
finds wisdom
with a glance behind

in now
our comfort or distress
is proved
when power within
moves force without
this moment tells
what comes about

mmv

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part VII


g
odz chillun got feet
        can choose
        even if godz chillun
        aint got shoes
    hammered thumbz expletive shout
        shatters natal assumptionz dearth f doubt
    where certainty meets nexus up
        threatening status quotas
        plushcan-o-crats sit on restive movements
        defyin alleloo lawz worshipful excremental duty

sully me none
            with yeahwayz initials
        supplicantz apostrophe n apochryphal spout
    alladinz lamp dont pour
        quick buff works miracles f genial light
    wicked snakeeyes stays mumchance
        strolling down storyroad finicky heroes abandon

    where upright n orizontal assemble
        there hunkers three-limbed animal
        wouldbecomehuman
        knotted before pelagian excursion

    dreadful crux is
            what z wisdom

Tad wonders
    wisdom z less-simple made plain, ain it
        not to multiply ignorance
    take good n bad
        polar opposites
    which iz antipodes
        depends whether view from pulpit or pew
        what to believe
    horsez mouth r horsez arse
        both iz equinoxious
    elision f virtues non pareil to non plus

Tad wonders
    readin providential palm
        crossed with silver
    like visage lined for laughter n care
        wearin veil
    bought to nod

imagine great screechin glass bowl f dome
    give me your huddled masses
        turntabled into proper howligans
    pristine maidens
        garden-grown in row
    cavort on artificial grass
        plump behinds
        becomin bosoms
        persecutionz witnesses
    striped umpire sets foxes on run
        hounds in pack pursue
    ballthrowin solution to salvation
    TV hall f fame passes
        modified coups de grace
        attenuated doses f harm by gridiron

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The power of the church


T
he power of the church
the power of the state
institutions that disagree
lock horns
over rank arrogance

mmv

If God is ...


I
f God is the Ground of Being
just being God, unmoved
while worldly things happen perchance
where, then, is the Prime Mover?

mmv

Friday, March 23, 2007

The way i look at problems


T
he way i look at problems
    as if eye to shadowy eye with widow in veil
disillusions me
    might as well hang grief on a nail
why bother with contrary evidence
    frustrates resolution
there's conversion in a minute
    instant prayer
and visitation by the spirit

the way i look at problems
    screws thread of misery
down tight    down tighter
    in my head
like experience of bewildered schoolboy
    couldn't grasp what valency and periodic law meant
victim of ridicule by chemistry master
    and laughter of class
none of it made sense

weigh the pitfalls of a city intersection
    busy with the traffic of a summer weekend
no time to lose!    honk! honk!
    then c-r-ash! a flattened fender
faces in consternation
    and another accident ...
we ask why?    who did what to whom?
    no clue         accusations fly
a search for motives    circumstantial evidence
    and the blame to hang on some unlucky guy

it's him    he did it!    cries his nemesis
    sitting parrot-wise upon a twisted limb
but blame myself?    why stop there?
    i might as well pin the donkey's tail
on society    my mother    or the bothersome happenstance
    of being alive

no! i won't be stuck with demonized judgments
    of right and wrong
i'm here right now
    head to head with the cocksure vanity of the human mind
losing my sanity
i'm reminded of when i was lost
    on the bluffs of a mountain at dusk
unable to go forward    afraid to go back
    i came on the tracks of a bear
        leapt down the crags
and slid down the rockslides
without any fear
    not bothering to ask whether i should or should not
retrieved from hazard by an inspiring dare

196_, rev. mmvii

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Not where the king lives


N
ot where the king lives
    or soul of mine
find i myself
    not in the beggarly thought
or in the nut to crack
find i the me
    not outside the forces
between savage storms
folded a self
do i find
    not one    no thing alone or together
many or none
arrives at the beginning
or end to come
    a mindless gathering swirl
of dead leaves
like moths in air fluttering
or sleepy bees muttering
    no honey     no hive
no life to live
or aught to survive
    godless    god given
no hell     no heaven


1972 (rev. mmvii)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part VI


s
torm flaunts big innings
    comes to terms with commoner front
    swollen colon vents anarchic fart
    aplomb settles on virtual stool
        negating momentum
    pendulum swings alley oop to hail mary
    tadz hung-up exemplar
        providentially stalled en route to pandemonium

    frugal aint hairshirt
    exhilaration aint prodigal
    ice warms up to fluid
    lets off steam without losing composure
        in free state
    yr model     ebb n tide alley hoopla
        or vices versa

carnivalley pitch
    cry up yr bigtop gala n fete
        strawberry tea to follow
    galaxy z newfun coney island
    arcade f follies n spoils ultraglobetheatre
come see comme ça simulacrum f what y dare

    galaxy z untethered cow
        pluckin lazily on tongue-length grasses
        danglin new-fangled tits f'r breakfast
    galaxy z coded missal f orizons thrown
        hail mary parabolayeah across blue yonder basilica
    galaxy z astronomers rubberneckin
        cadaverz freak oversize orifice with speculum

carnivalley sirens call
        yo ho heave ho
        m' tads n bullyboyz
        row milky main
        beat across bar
        graspin telescope nelson-wise
        ridin rods upstairs
            on backs f curiouser bods

alley chorus sighs
    stars z us'n prison shroud r caul

jeremymad replies
    stars z immaculate bowery
        n we z unteaseled weedy mockery f eden

Do you know how many centuries


D
o you know how many centuries
    humankind has struggled to futurity
    for this imbroglio
have we fought the dinosaurs
    survived wars
    of conquest or roses
    or supporters of ideas
    hellbent on the betterment of others
to issue in a sleek blue
    suit or car or mood
jazzing it up
    without a cup to offer in libation to the gods
    or in celebration of that splendid equation
    our sister- or brother-in-us
or to hymn the juggernaut that notices
    each weak little ball of fluff
    in eggshell daintiness of condition
whilst we with armoured boots
    have trod the boards in passion
    trampling underfoot our qualms
    pook-poohing the alarms
    despite the cost
    to nature and the commmonweal
marching with the hordes or the latest fashions
    to wheel-and-deal an amnesty from fate
    which will call presently:
    'kiss me kate!'

197_ , rev. mm

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

What to a void


W
hat o void calls me back to you
     except laziness and nostalgia
     on this chilly july morning
     when no sun is up
     and my sap runs low
I wish to be reborn
     delivered of your sybaritic influence

O for a mantic tangent
     a shot that clears this dread propinquity

What o void calls me back to your plump arms
     you escape-clause in my contract with mundane earth
Is it your offer of incomparable perfection
     blissful opulence of nought
     inhabiting a boundless bosom
     to suckle or nest on
     cleavage adorable

I thought i'd forsaken childish things
     this whirling back into dizzied emptiness
     and guilt-edged dreams
     almost beyond the reach of shame and hurt inconsolable
     as if thrall to the humours of that spume-begotten sea-witch, Aphrodite
     who surfs the bowling beach-waves
     with fractal joy
     spiralling into solipsism
     and faint death

I know why i return o void
     to lie me down
     and enter through the omphalic portal
     the hermetic vale
     forbidden to human consciousness else
     where i would tap
     the psychic impulse
     of the elemental womb

O black sinkhole uncharted
     what to avoid is you
     on your terms
     thou plausible one
     petulant when night is done
     so go    go    go
     before i succumb

     to dream
     is one thing asleep
     and awake another



mcmxcviii

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The laird of Daviot


T
he laird of daviot
    greeted me     this wandering soldier
upon an ill-used roman road
cobbled through nothing but scottish heather

no mean man     himself     he seemed
handclasped     full of unctions and well-wishes

i shook on it for a kern
hungry and footsore
hopefully could sojourney down that knapstone thoroughfare
to a billet fully propitious

instead     after short commons
that night what i lay on was a stone flagging
bare of blanket     with a brick for my head's companion

so i swear to that laird of daviot
not to you     but i to the gude laird above be thankit!

mcmlxxxviii

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part V


w
hat wakes do cost-so-dearly dead prefer
    not mawkish crying over spilt milk
    feral cats can lap up    and proliferate

who z watchin over
    yr poached deserts
    yr admonitory plagues
    yr inimitable wilderness wasted

what avail yer sacrifices n monuments
    what suffices
        not stilted billboard atlas world-on-shoulders muscle-flexing
            gone to head

what fork-branched lightning blasts three o-pinioned stool
            into tyburn tree
    snakeeyes n black deuces     never thrown for loss
            take credit
        while flush-in-hand cardinal sinners
            ladling brimstone-n-treacle to yr reproachable innocents
            refuse own medicine
        and human predators exhibit ancestral bones
            as honourable obits    proof  f profession
    will indignant dna exercise tangential option
            reject gimmekrieg mission
        scatter wild cards in retaliation

    saints n sinners
        both cocksure
        in deal with nemesis
        would turn up trumps from own marked deck

our prodigy Tad
        stoolbound
        squats
        pantomime  f puckered irony
        ogling likewise bivouacked bunkers
        recollects dynasties turn sour
        erasing bets
    what suffices
        when wars  f roses smell like bookend latrines
        touché eliminating unpaid last respects

cry we alley loo inspectorz chorus
    cry we ebb n flow lavages
        flesh n blood cant stand
    cry we flushing beaches
        janitorial Job-job
            sand-n-water cleansing formula
            hasn't got in hand
    cry we alleyloud: 'ware!

    cry we bareheaded
    cry we bootless
    cry we salt tears
    cry we grains  f sand

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

We should each of us sometime

(Poems from the 1970s)

We should each of us sometime
enjoy some time
intently
attending to exactly
how we feel
so as to say later
in answer to the call
it was a ball!
a big round
fuck all!

197_

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Eternity


E
ternity sprang into view
such a how-d-y' do!
no-one could tell what was gone by
from what was in store
how small they felt
like an ebbing wavelet
at low tide
lapping the seashore

mmv

God has butterflies


G
od has butterflies
forecast is unsettled
old folk consult their bones
the weather rolls the dice

Friday, March 2, 2007

Hey, man

Poems from the 1970s

Hey man
    i mean
if not sex
    then what ingenious abracadabra
unlocks the door of fortune's favour
    ambition's hope of future good
and we should never try religion
    work gets harder and harder
rewards come scarcer with lotteries
    so what fluky forte do i possess
that can achieve my bettering

    well . . . i guess sex
what else to trust
    but wanton bawdy lust
legs    thighs    warm breasts    and the rest
-- you can forget the rest     i'm in a hurry --
oohs and delighted sighs
    groans and upturned eyes . . .
exquisite!
    relax     you've made it
in a world that's a great negation
    (full of worry)

    now i'm afraid it's all over
crawl off her     asking the question
    if not sex     then what's left
i don't know
    sonofabitch     what a fiasco!

early 70s, rev. mmvii