*
True I’m a magnet for money
But just to make an example of me
God switched the poles
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Vista High, 1967
Cut the tension with a blade
In full pads helmets & cleats
Oceanside versus Vista
Line up in the tunnel
As loudspeakers
Announce the Big Matchup
In full pads helmets & cleats
Oceanside versus Vista
Line up in the tunnel
As loudspeakers
Announce the Big Matchup
solicitation
There I was wedged
Between the resawn cedar trusses
In Fred's attic mid-July,
Attempting the impossible
By boring through the double 2x4 plate
To feed romex wire to Robin's new wall-sconce,
Splayed to my armpits in murky pink spun glass insulation,
When the cellphone rings in my pocket
"Sir, can we interest you
In some Triple-A breakdown insurance???"
Between the resawn cedar trusses
In Fred's attic mid-July,
Attempting the impossible
By boring through the double 2x4 plate
To feed romex wire to Robin's new wall-sconce,
Splayed to my armpits in murky pink spun glass insulation,
When the cellphone rings in my pocket
"Sir, can we interest you
In some Triple-A breakdown insurance???"
Get Real
At long last
America got what it wanted-
Everyone spinning their private squirrel-wheel
In universal pursuit of the almighty acorn-
The old hippie bus
Hand-painted with whales & moons
Outside Crescent City,
Towed away...
America got what it wanted-
Everyone spinning their private squirrel-wheel
In universal pursuit of the almighty acorn-
The old hippie bus
Hand-painted with whales & moons
Outside Crescent City,
Towed away...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
connexion
if you're willing to view the bloodless tear of skin
on your forearm
as a hieroglyph that welcomes vulnerability
in a vastness populated with sidewalks cedar trees
& the devious impulses of grinning figures in ballcaps
& find it all a special blessing,
you're there
on your forearm
as a hieroglyph that welcomes vulnerability
in a vastness populated with sidewalks cedar trees
& the devious impulses of grinning figures in ballcaps
& find it all a special blessing,
you're there
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Spoze
Easy and apparent it is
To suppose the world
A grand globe people'd with passing skeletons:
Obituaries retell their long stories-
However! let's turn
That spoze on its ear
And reckon the world aright:
This the first day,
And never's been tonight!
To suppose the world
A grand globe people'd with passing skeletons:
Obituaries retell their long stories-
However! let's turn
That spoze on its ear
And reckon the world aright:
This the first day,
And never's been tonight!
Flag Day
Behold the red white & blue
Or banner thus of any hue:
What blood is its sport & spin,
Even as it pronounces Win!
Or banner thus of any hue:
What blood is its sport & spin,
Even as it pronounces Win!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
baja revisited
"Standard of Living"
Was his reply to my question
"Well if you could live anywhere
Why not live here?"
But elsewhere
There is far more 'standard'
Than there is living
Was his reply to my question
"Well if you could live anywhere
Why not live here?"
But elsewhere
There is far more 'standard'
Than there is living
Friday, June 10, 2011
Six-Ten
All these signs & wonders
All these strange hieroglyphs
Can mean only one thing-
the start of the world!
All these strange hieroglyphs
Can mean only one thing-
the start of the world!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
barefoot in baja
"barefoot I was born
-barefoot I'll remain" -alvarez
I'll caretake in Baja
Even if it means
One hundred ten degrees
Brutal humidity and bugs in my hair
So long as I can splash daily
In that sparkling blue sea
The Spanish once called "Vermillion..."
Mexican silver
The Chinese prized for coinage
Back in the day
But pirates roamed the seas
Around Cabo
Also had their way
How do you have
The sound of raindrops
On terra cotta roof-tiles
With a sky full of stars?
She warned us
Keep The Gates Closed
Else the wild burros will come in
Eat everything
And you'll have a devil of a time
Getting them OUT
-mooney
She got in trouble
In the big Baja surf
That surged up the sand & back,
Carrying its cargo of swimmers
Where it would,
Regardless of their intentions.
Turned out she was fighting allergies,
Just could not breathe
And soon the current brought us rocks
To negotiate--
The girl in the red bikini
Left her towel
When she recognized our plight,
And a grizzled gringo ran down from his palapa
Upset & angry-
"You people have to respect these rocks!"
He shouted in my ear,
Once we got her wobbly
To the steep strand,
Gasping wheezing & giving gratitudes.
that's what we come fer
that's what we got-
the mantra "manana"
ruling our thought---
bodysurfing
Fine white ocean sand
between my toes
waiting for the Glory Wave
that never shows
every sailor's delight
turning down-wind
to ride his big kite
little girls share the joy
of hide & seek
in the evening zocaloy
Sooner or later
It was bound to happen
Feral burros greeting us at the gate
Back from our evening swim--
And of course we made the sorry mistake
Of feeding them week-old tortillas
BAJA BURMA SHAVE
Why bother with shirt & pants
When they can be such a chore
Why not let your skin freelance
And they'll never call you a bore!
She scolded me
for my hang-laundry sins
"Don't be so damn lazy--
always use clothespins!"
Somehow a wasp
Has gotten into the kitchen
Now I've got him pinned to the window
With a broom-
But along comes the question,
Is it him or I who've met his doom?
Ah to plunge into that Cortes surf
And stroke for all your worth
To the dangerous rocks
With their whitesand coves
And sunglimmer narrows
Following the stripers & iridescent scissortails
As the big baja waves
Tumble across your silly snorkel--
Weightless is that dance they show you
Leave your boardrooms & cubicles
Come frolic with the fishes
That know what life's about
Merge with movement color & light
Big five-gallon bucket
On the beach
A sawed-off shovel leaning on it:
FAVOR CACA DE PERRO SOLO
-arroyo
Cloud-connoisseure yes-
But if cirrus be your thing-
Get your butt to Zaca
Batabing!
If your thing is making $
And finding ways to spend it
Go get yourself an oversized SUV
And a well-appointed home
Get to Galleria Mall on weekends-
However!
If on the other hand
You find your pocketbook full of time
And inclination too
Go disappear in Baja
After awhile they’ll stop looking for you
I dunno, am I bent?
Somehow it's good
To sign up for this tenement
Where they still give advice
On dealing with mice
How good look those blue pesos
Folded squarely in my straw hat
Ready for a walk to Zac's
For a shot of TQ and a beer back!
The hysterical braying
Of the wild burro at dawn
Produces a quick list in the mind
Of the hacienda's gates-
In particular, left open which one?
And how much damage has she done?
Jet fighters thunder over Baja
leaving long vapor trails
spelling out one ancient word:
t-e-s-t-o-s-t-e-r-o-n-e
Montezuma got more than revenge
With this goofy gringo
Who ate & drank everything put in front of him
With gusto & gracias--
Now! he's sprawled across the cool terra cotta
In absolute renunciation
Of every institution public & private
It arrived sometime
In the middle of the night
The moon was high
The air was clear
Even though asleep I could hear
Its slow rhythmic roar
In sets of three or four
The big Peruvian swell
The surfers had been waiting for
The subtext of travel
Is to put yourself in a place
Where the Unexpected can
Must be something amniotic
this turning & freewheeling
heels over head
in the warm clear shallows
just beyond the surfline
large groups of fish bright blue
come school about with you
Whooknowz?
How close came I to perish
Throwing meself this twilight
Into that no-man's surf at Zacatito,
Swept immediately
Into currents surges & nasty rips--
This powerful equatorial swell
Way more than I bargained for
Once again some angel
Steered me through channels in the rock
To scratch out gasping
-All dignity canned-
Onto the steep forgiving strand
True! large spiders subsist here,
I saw one last night dart under the bed-
Though it was allergies she said,
Is this why she actually fled?
Another large truck
Working the dusty network of roads
At Zacatito today--
Single short horn for propane
Two long for water
Thrice just to say Amigo!
"Lo Siento!"
All I knew to say
When I interrupted
The lovers at Land's End
In mid-play
Came out of nowhere
Big eight-foot "sleeper" wave
A top-to-bottom cylinder of pure juice
That caught & hammered me
Heels over head
Into the rough-grained bottomsand
Adios mask & snorkel
She didn't see me peek
When she rolled back her bikini chic
To show her friend
A new rose tattoo
On her perfect end
-Cabo snorkel boat w/ Lew Toll
Hundreds or thousands
Of silver merelings
Scatter in all directions as I surface
LIttle sun-streaks
Transmitting some kind of bliss
Gone
Oceanic
In all the hundred-degree saguaro desert
What compares
To the bold baja sun
Ashine on the wings
Of soaring
Cawing
Ravenings
Low on the twilight horizon
-Soundless-
Green and red fireworks
Stream over San Jose
For fun
We tried guessing the age
Of the dark-haired infant
Held on papa's lap at the next table
While enjoying our desayuno--
Somehow we thought
Between two and six months-
Were we ever astonished
When he told us
"Cuatro Dias"
Try as you will
Fighting sand in Baja
Is strictly uphill!
I look across the palmfronds at the weathered stone steeples of La Mision de San Ignacio and try to imagine a preterite three centuries or more, a land inhabited only by Jesuit friars & Co Chi Mi primitives- here with all the elaborate theology of the Roman Catholic church, here with hundreds of pages of 'revealed' scripture, here with a detailed iconography of sainthood- what in this vast european heritage would appeal to these indigenous baja indians? Was it 'deliverance' or Christ's vaunted martyrdom on the Cross- for their sins? If indeed it was simple subjugation of one culture by another under the pretext of "salvation--" how and why did these robust natives submit?
(this last poem has nothing to do with Baja but is a recurring meditation of mine)--
Tumbling down the proverbial
Loop of time
But Reverse Cosmosis still holds true--
Your condition is universal
And the yardstick is YOU
-barefoot I'll remain" -alvarez
I'll caretake in Baja
Even if it means
One hundred ten degrees
Brutal humidity and bugs in my hair
So long as I can splash daily
In that sparkling blue sea
The Spanish once called "Vermillion..."
Mexican silver
The Chinese prized for coinage
Back in the day
But pirates roamed the seas
Around Cabo
Also had their way
How do you have
The sound of raindrops
On terra cotta roof-tiles
With a sky full of stars?
She warned us
Keep The Gates Closed
Else the wild burros will come in
Eat everything
And you'll have a devil of a time
Getting them OUT
-mooney
She got in trouble
In the big Baja surf
That surged up the sand & back,
Carrying its cargo of swimmers
Where it would,
Regardless of their intentions.
Turned out she was fighting allergies,
Just could not breathe
And soon the current brought us rocks
To negotiate--
The girl in the red bikini
Left her towel
When she recognized our plight,
And a grizzled gringo ran down from his palapa
Upset & angry-
"You people have to respect these rocks!"
He shouted in my ear,
Once we got her wobbly
To the steep strand,
Gasping wheezing & giving gratitudes.
that's what we come fer
that's what we got-
the mantra "manana"
ruling our thought---
bodysurfing
Fine white ocean sand
between my toes
waiting for the Glory Wave
that never shows
every sailor's delight
turning down-wind
to ride his big kite
little girls share the joy
of hide & seek
in the evening zocaloy
Sooner or later
It was bound to happen
Feral burros greeting us at the gate
Back from our evening swim--
And of course we made the sorry mistake
Of feeding them week-old tortillas
BAJA BURMA SHAVE
Why bother with shirt & pants
When they can be such a chore
Why not let your skin freelance
And they'll never call you a bore!
She scolded me
for my hang-laundry sins
"Don't be so damn lazy--
always use clothespins!"
Somehow a wasp
Has gotten into the kitchen
Now I've got him pinned to the window
With a broom-
But along comes the question,
Is it him or I who've met his doom?
Ah to plunge into that Cortes surf
And stroke for all your worth
To the dangerous rocks
With their whitesand coves
And sunglimmer narrows
Following the stripers & iridescent scissortails
As the big baja waves
Tumble across your silly snorkel--
Weightless is that dance they show you
Leave your boardrooms & cubicles
Come frolic with the fishes
That know what life's about
Merge with movement color & light
Big five-gallon bucket
On the beach
A sawed-off shovel leaning on it:
FAVOR CACA DE PERRO SOLO
-arroyo
Cloud-connoisseure yes-
But if cirrus be your thing-
Get your butt to Zaca
Batabing!
If your thing is making $
And finding ways to spend it
Go get yourself an oversized SUV
And a well-appointed home
Get to Galleria Mall on weekends-
However!
If on the other hand
You find your pocketbook full of time
And inclination too
Go disappear in Baja
After awhile they’ll stop looking for you
I dunno, am I bent?
Somehow it's good
To sign up for this tenement
Where they still give advice
On dealing with mice
How good look those blue pesos
Folded squarely in my straw hat
Ready for a walk to Zac's
For a shot of TQ and a beer back!
The hysterical braying
Of the wild burro at dawn
Produces a quick list in the mind
Of the hacienda's gates-
In particular, left open which one?
And how much damage has she done?
Jet fighters thunder over Baja
leaving long vapor trails
spelling out one ancient word:
t-e-s-t-o-s-t-e-r-o-n-e
Montezuma got more than revenge
With this goofy gringo
Who ate & drank everything put in front of him
With gusto & gracias--
Now! he's sprawled across the cool terra cotta
In absolute renunciation
Of every institution public & private
It arrived sometime
In the middle of the night
The moon was high
The air was clear
Even though asleep I could hear
Its slow rhythmic roar
In sets of three or four
The big Peruvian swell
The surfers had been waiting for
The subtext of travel
Is to put yourself in a place
Where the Unexpected can
Must be something amniotic
this turning & freewheeling
heels over head
in the warm clear shallows
just beyond the surfline
large groups of fish bright blue
come school about with you
Whooknowz?
How close came I to perish
Throwing meself this twilight
Into that no-man's surf at Zacatito,
Swept immediately
Into currents surges & nasty rips--
This powerful equatorial swell
Way more than I bargained for
Once again some angel
Steered me through channels in the rock
To scratch out gasping
-All dignity canned-
Onto the steep forgiving strand
True! large spiders subsist here,
I saw one last night dart under the bed-
Though it was allergies she said,
Is this why she actually fled?
Another large truck
Working the dusty network of roads
At Zacatito today--
Single short horn for propane
Two long for water
Thrice just to say Amigo!
"Lo Siento!"
All I knew to say
When I interrupted
The lovers at Land's End
In mid-play
Came out of nowhere
Big eight-foot "sleeper" wave
A top-to-bottom cylinder of pure juice
That caught & hammered me
Heels over head
Into the rough-grained bottomsand
Adios mask & snorkel
She didn't see me peek
When she rolled back her bikini chic
To show her friend
A new rose tattoo
On her perfect end
-Cabo snorkel boat w/ Lew Toll
Hundreds or thousands
Of silver merelings
Scatter in all directions as I surface
LIttle sun-streaks
Transmitting some kind of bliss
Gone
Oceanic
In all the hundred-degree saguaro desert
What compares
To the bold baja sun
Ashine on the wings
Of soaring
Cawing
Ravenings
Low on the twilight horizon
-Soundless-
Green and red fireworks
Stream over San Jose
For fun
We tried guessing the age
Of the dark-haired infant
Held on papa's lap at the next table
While enjoying our desayuno--
Somehow we thought
Between two and six months-
Were we ever astonished
When he told us
"Cuatro Dias"
Try as you will
Fighting sand in Baja
Is strictly uphill!
I look across the palmfronds at the weathered stone steeples of La Mision de San Ignacio and try to imagine a preterite three centuries or more, a land inhabited only by Jesuit friars & Co Chi Mi primitives- here with all the elaborate theology of the Roman Catholic church, here with hundreds of pages of 'revealed' scripture, here with a detailed iconography of sainthood- what in this vast european heritage would appeal to these indigenous baja indians? Was it 'deliverance' or Christ's vaunted martyrdom on the Cross- for their sins? If indeed it was simple subjugation of one culture by another under the pretext of "salvation--" how and why did these robust natives submit?
(this last poem has nothing to do with Baja but is a recurring meditation of mine)--
Tumbling down the proverbial
Loop of time
But Reverse Cosmosis still holds true--
Your condition is universal
And the yardstick is YOU
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