Day 398 October 24 2015 Mixie Kids

Mixie Kids

mixie child, of mixed race:
how seraph,
how cherubic thy face!

all earth waters blending,
into thee;
mankind's discords mending!

--

Fast Day 290 December 22 2012: Newtown

Red Breasted Geese

Newtown

white ladies ballet across the skies,
snow quilts cover up the night;
cold to the tongue, quick to the eyes,
painting the bracken tarlatan and white.

seasonal  kids supernumerary
for Nutcracker Sugarplum -
costumed swarm of little fairie,
oblivious of the next scene to come:

fear under the temblor of firing gun,
tufted marshes once spared from axe;
hand on shoulder, they cry and run:
geese carrying demise upon their backs.

--
notes

white ladies    -   snowflakes

braken       -     plural of brake - as in canebrake, a thick network of canes.  The singular is brake, and the plural vowel a seems to be modified, and is often spelled "bracken" . When speaking, I use long A for the singular and a short E for the A in the plural.

tarlatan       -    coarse stiff white weave fabric;  the snow actually "paints the tarlatan braken white" but we express it somewhat differently in the poem.



seasonal kids supernumerary -   the local ballet kids who dance in the Christmas presentation of The Nutcracker Suite, usually as sugarplum fairies.

fairie   -   means the realm of the fairies and is not a typo.

The destruction of innocence is compared to the destruction of the habitat of winter geese
--

Fast Day 126 Octrober 31 2009 {Barn Raising}

Barn Raising

The Mandevilla vines do cost
a lot at Bordine's Nursery store;
wait a bit, just bide;
until the month of June
inventories are cleared out,
and you may pick it up for a song!

We took it to the barn-raising
planting it along a trellis,
where it will grow in time
to come, and shade provide
and sweetly cense the winds that
pounce the script of poems unfinished.

Newlyweds' life!, not burdened in debt;
we raise it today, and will it present
a gift to them both
and then to ourselves:
for the orchards of their lives will be
fruit of our determined husbandry!

-----

notes

pounce      a material for drying the ink on written documents back in the old days.

cense         to spread incense.

A view of life as simple and free; instead of debt and mortgages, the community invests time, material, and labor in the lives of the young, knowing that their futures will be the payback with interest.

The view seems totally mythological to us, but recall that we are a generation degraded from a golden age.

pix: lower: house:  Cindy Seigle   http://www.flickr.com/people/cindy47452/

Fast Day 91 For Peace And Prosperity February 24 2009 {Foreclosure}

President Obama's speech is tonight.

I shall be occupied through the weekend with other matters, so I am posting early. This is possible since I happen to have a poem. This poem was written between 4:30 and 7:30 PM, last night, Monday evening. I did a 3rd go-over this AM. For better or worse, here it is:



FORECLOSURE


nothing was forbidden now -
even drawing on the walls.
her rental space of happy time at end,
and the gaily painted crayon hours passed
in silken caravanserai of her dreams
and a children's beauty pageant!
she twirled her baton!

Julia Adams lives here;
take note: this is her room!
all you monsters and ghosts beware!
and whatever ills may come!

the house on cottageview haven
was bought with sub-prime money
and furnished without payment for three years;
she could walk to the school two blocks away,
beyond the inconstant traffic light seen
from her upstairs bedroom window.
how they loved that house!

Julia would run with dogs,
and snuggle with the cats;
go sledding on city park's hill of snow,
whip a fierce snowball, swim the swimming pool;
t-ball; soccer, and then little league;
and play xbox "resident evil" :
does something this way come?

Julia Adams lives here;
take note: this is her room!
all you monsters and ghosts beware!
and whatever ills may come!

that life died and was not buried
in the year of zero-eight;
the re-po man took back their joy, and then
the chifferobe of swollen, weeping eyes,
and all the wicker, wicker rocking chairs
to a dark uncharted forest
where the zombies dwell!

when foreclosure came to them,
the sheriff came to tea;
and alice-like, she cried: no room, no room,
until the xbox lay out at the curb;
she took poster paints and magic markers,
and on the wall above her bed embroidered
scream thread in crimson tears:

Julia Adams lives here still;
take note: this is her room!
all you monsters and ghosts beware!
and whatever ills may come!

Fast Day 18 October 5, 2007 {On Viewing A Child's Grave}

Once a week, usually Friday, I fast and write a poem, apparently under the impression that this will help to end the war in Iraq.

Actually, it will, but for the most part, the people that read this are very rational and they will take a bit of time to understand the dynamic.

On Viewing A Child's Grave:
Coming upon a cemetery while walking through the woods to a vacation picnic.

Give him a hat,
a marble lamb;
no name thereon engrave.
Give him a robe,
a swath of lawn,
alive, we never gave.
Give him boots:
of stoney base!-
he'll no more run and play.
Give him a rose
within his cheeks
to bright this holiday.
Give him heart
and give him vein!-
O, undiscovered bourne!
May he wake
within Your love,
O God of Life eterne!



note:
In old cemeteries, there are tombstones which are small lambs with no name or inscription. I assume these are for babes not yet named. Perhaps for some other incident.
This was the start of this work, this poesis - in the Greek meaning "a work, a doing".

A Poem is a soul's doing. Not all souls. Some do other things. Those that swim in the web of language often do poetry.

News From The War Fast Day 1 {Dream Girl Weaving}

Dream girl weaving, dream boy running
these are the residue of life.
On both sides of the street
there were doors of iron
but the hinges were of straw.
The reeds along the river
shu-shu in the voice of ghosts.
I saw a ghost once,
I thought it was my sister's daughter,
little Maha, her only child.
But she snarled like a dog
when I came by
and she vanished...
I heard a splash and ran to the river.
But there was only a widening ripple,
widening into a tsunami of regret...
I cannot eat the food and chocolate
I had set out for myself.


First fast day.

I believe the number of US troops killed surpassed 3,500.
The number of Iraqis killed are uncountable.
This is our doing. I trust it will be worth it.