Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Earth Day Poem from revised 2008


1

the returning violence
and re--birthing,
of new worlds cycling
the wheels and wheels
and recycling circles of

hell and earth
all extensions to heaven
and around
he shivered, he heard a rustling
there in the aspen woods

as he painted that light--
he didn't often talk
of that kind of light
on the trees
the yellow gold,

shimmer, shake
a shiver
a daimonic eruption
allegory of otherness
slipping through

in transparent mirror
the cycles
showing each in turn,
the nothing--
arriving to a surface

reality represented THERE!
THE REALITY
Here, felt it,
the older god,
this recognition--Ha!

the bird flutters
and lights upon a branch,
there—



2

the stars revolved round
even
behind the blinding blue
movement, signaling change--
how can the earth be whizzing
at 23,000 miles an hour

the spirit that occupies everything
SOME WHERE AROUND HERE
another part--
wind in the hair
"no clouds in Monument Valley today"
but still as he said


all those times before
"beyond remembering"
the splendor of--
Koyanisquatsi blaring--
there are more lights all the time


the dogs barking, all night
the something off in the darkness
bringing back the boon
they keep him awake
now coyotes, join in
night journey

but the, the making
and, life
is just as mysterious
as death--THIS NEW LAND
made new--New
Orb Aloft!



3

the old sun and stars

the planet on the table
the earth in blue spinning
sun, stars earth, revolving
the parts, that whole
feeling

in the studio
he kept coming back to
that tent idea
black drawing into idea--
the shield
red and yellow
Buddha colors
ideal beauty from death

the idea, beauty, order
all this as an after thought
"a poem" he said
and backed away
the studio-- red,
red reality
he was talking of irony

presence and absence
da forte
a copy of the original
all sounds like, evasions of

--god, again
or reality, big
deal just everything there is,
out there thrown in, to--
definitions crumpled up

thrown in, to--
all a good storyI
HOLD THIS fiction UP
AGAINST MY DEMISE--
that is Eliot,
he was just going to say it simpler
his lie against time

a shield
going back, laying out
the string
back into
the death like dream
and seeing what sufficedIT

to keep one there
a SIMPLE surface
maybe diamonded design
what we called reality, to be
an adequate, representing--
the building is underway
"THE new TEMPLE,"
Jack laughed



4

they were of the earth
he loved

packing the truck,
carting it away
WITH hired hands
art is what’s underneath
that irony, thinking he sees
his life here
at the crossing--

New Mexico border

scribbling life’ on dashboard
through Virginia, Tennessee and
Oklahoma
into New Mexico

he said to himself
that he was doing the right thing
rolled up paintings
like dead bodies in the back
he thought of that time
carrying them up the stairs
at 68 Jay Street
THaT different war
its like a heaven here, maybe

he was gone,
gone and gone
arriving to these clouds
"Crystal sight,"
he'd remarked before-- always did
arriving to these clouds