Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

In Memory of Li Po,
My Drunken Bodhisattva
 
Buddhist bamboo stands strong
Yet sways flexible right or wrong.
Resisting breaks the stalk,
Surrendering, giving-in creates paths.
Scientific, philosophic, theologic
Thoughts do not reveal my walk.
How I am to exist.  What I am to do.
How I am to live and for what I am to die.
The other whispers, “The drunken ‘I’.”
The Other whispers, “The [...]

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In Memory of Hank Lampi, Carpenter
 
The Jack plane smoothes wood
Cut rough by the teeth of the saw,
While shavings, like words, stare out
From tight curls—up from the floor.
 

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>< 
Homespun globe circumnavigating lonesome planet
            Finding refuge in secluded den
                        Perusing travelogues bound multicolored atlases
                                    Whale of Telltale library classics
><     ><   
Earthborn into secure landlocked circumstance
            Lubbers faraway from oceans favoring
                         Freshwater lakes over saltern fishpond
                                    Yellow-belly sunfish to killer sharks
><     ><     ><
Words cannot express wondrous vastitude
            Rearranged givens craving subterranean exploration
                        Needful privacy indulging familiar comforts
                                    Trailblazer adventures dusted off restacked
><      ><     ><     ><
Avoiding nauseous seasickness distressing travail
            Stay-at-homestead safeguards never [...]

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Earth’s spit-polished veneer chipped away
            Without skin we cannot live
                        Sea levels rise coastlines retreat
                                    Overflowing glacial teardrops flooding basins
                                                ><  ><  ><  ><  ><
                                    Spitfire core molten anima meltdown
                        Crust scraped like burnt toast
            Streaming butter sugary cinnamon sprinkles
Teapot spout letting off steam
<>  <>  <>  <>  <>
Wanton destruction of lonesome planet
            Diminishing water supplies agricultural clashes
                        Recycled excuses uprooted windswept soil
                                    Heat waves droughts tempestuous extremes
                                                ><  ><  ><  ><  ><
                                    Smoothing wrinkles soothing battle scars
                        Plump wrathful grapes [...]

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Unlined silver satin cloud sprinkle
            Stained dirty linen wrung out
                        Hand-me-down drizzle grown out of
                                    Drip-dry fabric wrinkles steam ironed
                                                > > > > >
                                    Varicose veined old leafs overturned
                        Serrate edges rusty switchblade hitters
            Bent twisted tongues stirring honey
Yawning crotchety slingshot stoning outcasts
< < < < <
Hemmed in by evergreen canopy
            Looking up virgin forest’s skirt
                        Hollow trunk bark stripped clean
                                    Bare limbs spreading [...]

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All we need to know
is on a chalkboard somewhere.
All we need to do
is to find the right one,
rearrange the equations,
extrapolate the conversations,
and update the vocabulary.

Not settle for mediocrity as a way of life.
Throw the mediocre bums out of office.
Find a cure for cancer, end world hunger,
even keep the world from melting down.
Attenuate greed.
Invest in more [...]

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Sprung from apparent inspirational stimulus
     Obamama described as original feminist
          Taproot source wondrous probing curiosity
               Unconventional revelatory truthitudes discovery learnt
 
Heir-conditioned daring free spirited breakaway
     Embracing not shunning cultural diversity
          Chillaxing all that jazz cool
               Struggle to make a difference
 
Generously empowering others celebrating life
     Championed rural development core issues
          Created sustainable microfinance program model
               Encouraging savings for destitute poor
 
Intellectually way ahead of time
     Pinball wizard full [...]

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for Barry

way out in space
out so far
that if a man went that far
& came back
to talk about it
he’d be younger
than his grandchildren
…that far out in space
a red giant implodes
slow grey clouds rumble
in gale-warning wind
over the lens of Palomar
but when the game isn’t televised
there’s always the radio
play-by-play
& if perchance we fall asleep
listening to the twink & [...]

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dust devils dance on
the floor of decayed chicken houses
kicking up heels of white feathers,
the smell of the daily grind
that had encyclopedias calling
this place: The Egg Basket of the World
Captain Bill & Billy Ralph stand, crow bars
in hand, ignoring
the growth of golden rolling hills,
eucalyptic sprouts…
40 feet high, sway & creak—
spearheads spiral down from their limbs
to [...]

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                            Unscrunched –
At-a-pinch an illusory surface.
Rucks are crushed points, downstream.
An air-oozing atlas
Of fingerprints, smears.
A bubble ground to its pinpoint
In some see-through, unrevealed way.

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this is a portion of part 1 of a 4 part poem
focus, i am a house of rubble, pull out from beneath the ruined pangs of sobriety, set on collapsing your aura clear into an ocean of visual and sonic phenomena. prisms and mirrors abound, buried under the color of headlights in rainwater at night, [...]

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growing up inadequacies
motions slow unbalanced questioning
clouds moving far grasping grays
is it better to know or flow with blind hope
to follow each day’s residue until maybe’s tomorrow
but a kite can fly only with its steady anchor
as the leashed can never be lost
free as one can be- cautious hesitation, contemplation feels key
to be unwatched- thrilling
and looking behind [...]

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What do I do when I don’t have a clue?
sit here, and I wanna be angry,
but it’s so hard tonight.
There are so many reasons to cry,
tonight,
not one can I find.
not a reason.
Wonder Why…
I don’t hear an angry word
all I see is beautiful
everything is dissolved in the night,
it could be ’cause I hear you…
or maybe I [...]

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this is a portion of part 1 of a 4 part poem
 
lastly but not a blue floral moon, incandescent and silently struck the pavement before digressing its directive was somber, says go and be tides sweeping your fatal tectonic plates, forks, knives and spoons, written on a napkin “we will not bother you.” we will [...]

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I got crack. I got smack. I gotta pocket full of twenties. I got dis corner and, my boyz, they got my back.
So let’s be realistic, don’t  need me no mystic . Got my glock for ballastics. I don’t plan on becoming nobody F-in statistic.
So don’t try to stop it. Yo! My pockets phat and,
your 9 to 5 can’t  top it.
Don’t need a [...]

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