Monthly Archives: June 2010

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Poem: Invention of the Camel

The invention of the camel was
frosting on the desert’s cake

just as the invention of the whale was
to the oceans which were splendid and

magnificent in themselves but when suddenly
whales moved through them they entered

a higher magnitude altogether

Like clouds in the sky were for the earth shining
naked without them whereas

with their fluffy ermines draped around its
rocky shoulders no ball nor opera opening is too

fancy to keep the earth away

So too by the same token the heart is
a perfect vessel for getting blood from

one side of our bodies to the other but the
placement deep within it of the crystalline

palatial gateway and the

secret door to the treasure cave and the
singing inhabitants of the isle of contentment

as well as the arduous ascent up
vertical spiral stairways to God’s dustless precincts just

one touch away from where we are now

are as whales to their oceans and
camels to their deserts

Perfection placed by the Divine Hand to
complete the intended picture and

bring it to life fully lit from within
breathing His original Breath
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12/29/06
(from Invention of the Wheel Poems / 2006-7, soon to be released)

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Poem: The Good Ship Rachel Corrie

Israelis called the “Rachel Corrie” “Linda”
as they boarded it to force it into port,
they couldn’t call it by its real name
for shame of crushing everyone for sport.

It’s not enough they shot the other folk
for trying to get through the false blockade,
it’s not enough Israel defies humanity
with its hypocrite’s democracy charade

It doesn’t seem enough this well-armed country
thumbs its nose at basic civilization
for other than themselves, who suffered
such humiliating annihilation

How the world can let this continue on
is more than I can understand at all —
have we all no shame to hurry to the aid
of those who must endure Israeli gall?

America’s hands were bloody from the start,
our own natives know how just we are,
African Americans tell harrowing tales
of where we stand pretending that we’re fair.

This can’t continue as it is, for both
the Palestinians as well as Jews.
O wake us, God, from this dark nightmare
before we all hang dangling from this noose.

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Poem: Peacefully Sleeping Reapers

Crossing the river Saint Christopher scratched his ear
and a mosquito became enlightened

Saint Theresa stepped on an ant that
hobbled home and delivered the good news

Hasan of Basra sat for a moment in the
shade in Basra and the sunlight
lamented and the shade rejoiced

The threads of light that travel our universe
from heart to heart are such that
if we adorned ourselves with only a
flicker of them the world would

sigh with relief and relax its tides and
tidal waves around us all

and that thing every child wishes for
blowing out birthday candles
might actually take place

and horses in their stalls whinny with delight
and moonlight through the high small

windows of barns slant down onto
peacefully sleeping reapers instead of the

fiery and fierce swingers of scythes
over the lamenting heads of the living

so longing for death
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4/17/70 (from Invention of the Wheel, in preparation)