Sight

Photo: Diego Fernandes 2011

July 4th’s vigilant gaze above leftcoast cliffshores
Probe passions inside from landside an outside
Buddyless lone surfer surveys cold western swell
Where seafoam tidelines mark California edgerock

Green Pacific waters dissolve to grey Pacific mist
Fogs waft north to hide Marin and Point Reyes
Boredom of onshore hours in flat sessions
Send Buddyless and board wheeling homeward

Can the dragon guard of an approaching stormfront
Hear whispers of struggle between angry friends
C'est une question morale ancient exemplars adjure
Green eyes seek new horizons beyond the Farallones

Fever

In the middle of my fever I see you play at understanding
My aching head repeats, “Mankind needs understanding”
Insects and elephants

And I hear Mr. Shah’s deep English inflections saying,
You need understanding in both ways, to be understood and to understand
Insects and elephants

I know you want to be understood, now desire to understand
My fever-racing thought of slaughtered terrorized millions
Insects and elephants

Recall this planet, the earth, The Earth, is an ark, The Ark
Not just to carry pairs of beasts of every kind, but you too, all
Insects and elephants

Of us, strange dark bushman strange pale American , them
Strange homo sapiens strut abilities for terror and empathy
Insects and elephants

But your capacity for them versus us fills you with pride
You understand who are the innocent and what is real and what is just
Insects and elephants

You know the who of we the why of them and the because of that
Our destinies never seem to intertwine our fate never to see
Insects and elephants

My fever speaks to consider shipmates, arkmates, them is us
Every strange I is you is we is us and to them we is us
Insects and elephants

Pursuit

Photo: Diego Fernandes 2009

My search for you begins anew
In futures between silver linings

That veil’s razor-bright edges
Slicing through my armor

Sending my bloodfall surging over
The distant rim on a far horizon

First blood of agon is yours
Triumph is eternally yours

The coup infuriating my slow pulse
Waking all my meteoric pursuits

In early days my chases
Crafted an impatient make off

I hear soft laughter
Behind your fingers

Now you hide because
I so willingly bleed

Past seasons remain like your
Garments thrown in the mud

Your watery footprint
No signature of return

I know you return to prove
Devotion is irresistible

Source

Source generates sound
Sound generates thought
Thought generates word
Word generates speech

Hear the speech and the word
Hear the word and the thought
Hear the thought and the sound
Hear the sound and the Source

Find the speech from the word
Find the word from the thought
Find the thought from the sound
Find the sound from the Source

So Live

What is liberation?

Is it in food?
Protein
Lipid
Carbohydrate
Eating?

What is liberation?

Is it in a word?
The shelves of books
The playwright’s pen
Soundtrack recording
Music?

What is liberation?

Has it got a place?
Has it got a sound?
Has it got a movement?

What is liberation?

Is it only in living?
Passion
Spirit
Art
Is it Pasolini’s murder?

What is liberation?

Is it the coming of a season?
The falling of leaves
The burst of flowers
Drying grass
Frost?

What is liberation?

Is it in a city of millions?
The frowns of friends
Wondrous strange window displays
Highrise graffiti
Gridlock?

What is liberation?

Is it in a small town?
The faces of strangers
Familiar storefronts
Sidewalk graffiti
Traffic?

What is liberation?
Is liberation what is?
What is liberation?
Is liberation what is?
What is liberation?

Whose chains are these?
My courageous world’s
My culture’s hand
The family’s arm
Mine?

What is liberation?
When all cry
When all suffer
When all starve
When all die?

What is liberation?
When every god speaks
When every god lies
When every god laughs
At freedom.