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The Journey to the West

Though we journey to the West We pray to the East More or less that's the way Each day begins and ends It’s a tale everyone ...

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Ode to Serendipity

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Oh to the
Serendipity
Of things
To the zippity-do-da
Of life itself

To the almost but
Not quite eternal flame
Of happenstance
It used to be
People would be killed
For donning purple robes
As Jean Louis had only
Just finished explaining
To me that morning
Over strong French Roast

And there I was
Standing online
At the Staples store
When this woman
Behind handed me the 
Purplemost pen
It seems we shared
An uncommon name
After a fashion

And quite miraculously
It enabled me to
To compose this poem
In haec verba
Not even yet
Outside the store
Ere these purplemost words
Were fully formed


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Poem for A Desolate Angel

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This summer I read a lot of Jack Kerouac – first the Dharma Bums, then Desolation Angels, now I’m dipping into Visions of Cody.  It’s interesting to see how Kerouac’s writing developed over the course of more than a decade and how his spirit steadily deteriorated; in style he seemed ever more daring but in his heart he seemed ever more inclined to despair.  

I think something happened in the few months Jack spent on Desolation Peak. Or maybe it’s more a matter of something that didn’t happen.  He went in search of an epiphany and all he found was a trash heap.

So this is my poem for Jack, the Desolate Angel


 * * * * *

There comes a point
In Mind's development
When stoned or not
Becomes all but
Indistinguishable

It's a moment of both
Enlightenment
And grave peril

The stage has been set
Like hostages our
Fate hangs on the balance
Of a final act


To scale the heights
Of Five Phase Mountain
The question is
Can we ever be up
To such a task

Sunday, September 22, 2013

A Few Things I Learned From Edna


To borrow a conceit
From the good lady
Edna St. Vincent Millay --
There are a few important skills
A poet must acquire before
He or she presumes to speak
On behalf of humanity 

East and West will likely 
Start to pinch at your heart
Unless you first learn how  
To pump with your ventricles extended
Wide open in anticipation
Of the oncoming beat
For as long as you can

And if your soul has
A propensity for flatness  
You must learn to navigate
Sightlessly just like a bat
Because the sky is probably
Going to end up caving in
On you sooner or later


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Are You Social


Are you social
What’s your Klout Score
Do you host in the cloud
Do you disambiguate visitors
To your home page based on
Cookie or domain name
Do you tweet
Do you soar

More and more
These are the questions
That matter most
Whether you’re a corporate attorney
A con artist or a poet
It’s all the same
You must learn to reap
The harvest in these realms 
Of purely binary gold

Thursday, September 5, 2013

5774 - A New Year's Resolution


It’s 4 pm Thursday
On the first afternoon
Of the Jewish New Year
5774 to be exact
And the resolution I wish to make
Is to connect myself
To the ding an sich
Or noumena or whatever
You wish to call it
In a more direct way
No matter what
Immanuel Kant has
To say about it
From here on out
For the rest of my days