POETRY CLUB POEMS
August in Eighty Eight
August 1988
Summer – about to end –
Fall days – coming to us –
And fun – I hope you had -
Wonder. Terrific Days -
Your school - beginning –
New mates – Gold like Sun’s rays.
Listen – Hear the right tune –
Merit. Galaxies' Stars.
Cycles
August 1988
In spring there’s sacrifices’ glories
Summer’s a time for becoming human
There’s love in fall to heighten awareness
Winter shows us a measure of refrain.
Mysterious genes starting up at spring
Into summer’s explosive dominance
Then back into the earth at fall again
Dormant winter but still our masters.
Spring days lengthening, awakening desire
Summer evenings, heat waves, our exhibits
Fall’s horizon glow reorients us
Stark and cold nights hide us during winter.
The Lord of Sipan
September 1988
Sipan, you laid hidden those many years
Undisturbed as you were left with your gold;
How nice to find you intact, giving us
Treasures of knowledge about your old world.
Huaquesos, rummaging the world’s treasure
Acts of rambling and rampant destruction
Fouling lords like Sipan; being manure.
We’re now a too concerned institution –
Harmonizing the long, great disorder
As Sipans are painstakingly dusted;
Now accurate and scientific we are
Building on what they have generated –
Preserving and caring, used to retain
All lords which will forever be again.
To the Moon
December 1989
I need you,
Not to walk on,
Or as a captured rock
For identifying the composition of faraway places.
I need you,
Not to make all
The seas go in and out,
Or to show me the end of a time span called a month.
No,
I need you
To watch you float across a silk black sea,
Awakening the mysterious in me and opening the flood gates of my feelings.
Contra Lines
July 1990
Then the caller steps
to the microphone –
“Find a partner and form contra lines!”
Down the line –
Every two
couples
hold hands
in a group
of four.
Within
each group
one couple
is active,
the other inactive.
Actives move
away from
the music,
in-actives to it,
until each reach
the line’s ends
and reverse.
The caller goes
through the dance –
“Actives face down,
in-actives up,
turn by the right
one and three quarters,
to form lines of four,
join hands, balance
in a line, and
males turn by the left
a half.
Swing your partner
and end up proper,
to form lines of four,
face down and walk,
turn as a couple
back and circle
four to the left,
a full.
Do-si-do
your opposite
one and a half
until you meet your
new opposite, and
having progressed,
turn by the right
starting again.”
Twenty males and
twenty females
feel breast to breast.
Twenty couples in line
in unison,
sharing the same steps
rhythmic pulses
beats
and responses.
Immersed.
Exhilarated.
The musician’s rhythm
is the language
of the dancer,
whose steps
are like
a poet’s voice.
Zentrum Markt Platz
(To Freedom)
July 1990
Irises, roses, lilies,
chrysanthemums, morning glories –
Exploding on top of long lines
of patterned formations
of green-uniformed soldiers
at attention.
Carrots, beets, turnips,
asparagus, squash, potatoes –
Bizarrely-designed
daring to be named
and described.
Berries, bananas, apples,
pears, plums, grapes –
In debutant lines
wearing brightly-colored dresses
to excite
a suitor’s fancy.
Breads, buns, rolls,
pastries, cakes, croissants –
Carefully crafted
and streaming
a beckoning ambience.
Scurrying crowds with bulging bags
and overflowing pockets –
celebrate their happiness.
An Elegy for My Father
July 1990
Starting poor,
like the sun
going down.
It happens,
as darkness
always comes.
You found your good way,
without help.
It happens,
and the rain came,
and the crops grew.
I do care,
but always
it’s too late.
It happens,
like the world
revealing secrets.