Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

[Larry Robinson]

The Good Life


When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
Who went out to buy milk and never
Came back, and it makes me nostalgic
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,
Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday
Like a woman journeying for water
From a village without a well, then living
One or two nights like everyone else
On roast chicken and red wine


- Tracy K. Smith

[Larry Robinson]

Autumn Rose


Autumn rose lays its petals like eyelids on the last evening light,
On the back of sorrow's delicate hand.


It gathers the huge and powerful irony
Of my tiny life,
And places it gently upon.


Amber hush comes for the blossom and the hour both
And because I cannot swim
We slip together
between the walls of time
Where survival is meaningless
And only this rose
Will know my name.


- BSue

[Larry Robinson]

The Magi


Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of Silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.


- William Butler Yeats

[Larry Robinson]

Solstice Poem


The world will not end tonight,
though the wrinkled horsemen
slumped over their antediluvian mounts
are standing by waiting for the cue
and who knows where the trumpeter’s gone by now
itching to wet his whistle ...


though the placards and signs are lined up
against the crumbling walls proclaiming the end is nigh
and the ones on parchment vellum and papyrus
curl in their glass cases as generations
of school kids careen by, oblivious. ...


though the fountain of youth persists beneath
the track at Hialeah or maybe next door
under the ersatz jungle pool at the Four Winds Motel,
plastic pink flamingos fishing the crew cut lawn, ...


though the bomb shelters sink into themselves,
faded labels peeling from crushed and dented cans
whose combined shelf lives equal
a number we have not yet reckoned, ...


though the cryogenic warehouses await occupation
your choice of sheepskin or stainless steel lining
your pod stationed on site or shot into space, ...


though the falling dreams, the flying dreams
the nightly haunting journeys through
an unbound space time confluence...
(Did you ever ride an elevator to the moon? )


though the green leaves furl crimson and gold
and fall in the gusty autumn afternoon
and the sky stalls, a stark white glare
under the wraiths of cloud, the shroud of fog....
though the brewing rain a deluge in the drought, ...


though we are saturate of blood and oil,
the tape loops of disgruntlement,
the strung beads of grievance,
the squandered slain of battlefield and school


and though we grieve the sacrificial lambs,
petals strewn on blind archaic altars,
though we toll the bells and count our losses,
cast our nets, jump from cliffs,
or dive into the cold dark heart to find the molten light,
The world will not end tonight.


- Carla Steinberg

[Roland Jacopetti]

The Magi


Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of Silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.


- William Butler Yeats

Isn't it time for Yeats to be reborn? We need him badly!

[Chris Dec]

Dog Ate Joseph

Every other figurine is there in place:
the sheep, their herders, the mother and the infant
But there is no Joseph... the dog ate Joseph
And all I can do is leave an empty space
as we wait until we find a man
to fill the job
to find him finally,
missing in action,
deployed Joseph,
Joseph crushed with anger and fear,
junky Joseph,
crazed Joseph.
The wood woman has no idea she’s a single mother
for in her world, there’s no other kind.
The wise men bring a purple heart, the yellow vest, a folded flag.
The partial creche in the candle light, solemn, serene,
has no idea what is to come.
Because the God-damned dog ate Joseph
Chewed him up and spat him out a splintered stick of a man
who cannot find his way back home.

Chris Dec
2001

The Magi

Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of Silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

- William Butler Yeats

[Timothy Gega]

Dog Ate Joseph

Every other figurine is there in place:

to find him finally,
missing in action,
deployed Joseph,
Joseph crushed with anger and fear,
junky Joseph,
crazed Joseph....

Love this, Chris Dec., makes me want to both cry and laugh.

[Roland Jacopetti]

Fantastic poem, Chris! A fitting companion to Yeats.

Dog Ate Joseph

Every other figurine is there in place:

[Larry Robinson]

Beannacht
("Blessing")
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

- John O'Donohue

[Larry Robinson]

For Bill Kortum (1927-2014) - one of the good ones!


I Have Walked Along Many Roads


I have walked along many roads,

and opened paths through brush,
I have sailed over a hundred seas
and tied up on a hundred shores.


Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve seen
excursions of sadness,
angry and melancholy
drunkards with black shadows,


and academics in offstage clothes
who watch, say nothing, and think
they know, because they do not drink wine
in the ordinary bars.


Evil men who walk around
polluting the earth. . .


And everywhere I’ve been I’ve seen
men who dance and play,
when they can, and work
the few inches of ground they have.


If they turn up somewhere,
they never ask where they are.
When they take trips, they ride
on the backs of old mules.


They don’t know how to hurry,
not even on holidays.
They drink wine, if there is some,
if not, cool water.


These men are the good ones,
who love, work, walk and dream.
And on a day no different from the rest
they lie down beneath the earth.


- Antonio Machado
(translated by Robert Bly)

[Larry Robinson]

Toward the Winter Solstice

Although the roof is just a story high,
It dizzies me a little to look down.
I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights
And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;
A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook
Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine
The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs
Will accent the tree’s elegant design.


Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause
And call up commendations or critiques.
I make adjustments. Though a potpourri
Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,
We all are conscious of the time of year;
We all enjoy its colorful displays
And keep some festival that mitigates
The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.


Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,
But UPS vans now like magi make
Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves
Are gaily resurrected in their wake;
The desert lifts a full moon from the east
And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,
And valets at chic restaurants will soon
Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.


And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk
The fan palms scattered all across town stand
More calmly prominent, and this place seems
A vast oasis in the Holy Land.
This house might be a caravansary,
The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead
Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces
And ceintures of green, yellow, blue, and red.


Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem
Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;
It’s comforting to look up from this roof
And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,
To recollect that in antiquity
The winter solstice fell in Capricorn
And that, in the Orion Nebula,
From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

- Timothy Steele

[Larry Robinson]

A Christmas Carol

Away in a manger
or a crack house
or under a bridge
or in a bombed-out village
or a refugee camp
or in the mesquite shade close to the border wall
some Mary is giving birth.


Even as you read this
a child is being born.


What if one of these were the promised one,
the beacon of hope,
the seed of a new light
in a dark time?


What if they all were?
What gifts would you bring
if you were wise?


- Larry Robinson

[REALnothings]

Beautiful. Thank you!
Sharing it onward.
Blessed [and Blessing!] Christmas!

[Roland Jacopetti]

Larry, your gifts are beyond price. Thank you for your wisdom.

Roland

A Christmas Carol

...
What gifts would you bring
if you were wise?

- Larry Robinson

[wingpoet]

Larry,
I appreciate your poetry selections so much -- read Chris Dec's "Dog Ate Joseph" at the Healdsburg Literary Guild's Third Sunday Salon this past Sunday, because it was too good not to share. And have passed on many others. And now this wonderful poem, from you. Thank you so much for giving us this beautiful message of hope.
And for lighting our days with poetry.
-- Michelle

A Christmas Carol

Away in a manger
or a crack house
or under a bridge
or in a bombed-out village
or a refugee camp
or in the mesquite shade close to the border wall
some Mary is giving birth.


Even as you read this
a child is being born.


What if one of these were the promised one,
the beacon of hope,
the seed of a new light
in a dark time?


What if they all were?
What gifts would you bring
if you were wise?


- Larry Robinson

[Larry Robinson]

The Coming of Light

Even this late it happens:
the coming of love, the coming of light.
You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
sending up warm bouquets of air.
Even this late the bones of the body shine
and tomorrow's dust flares into breath.

- Mark Strand

[Larry Robinson]

Christmas Trees


(A Christmas Circular Letter)
The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods—the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I’d hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine, I said,
“There aren’t enough to be worth while.”
“I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over.”

“You could look.
But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”
I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north. He said, “A thousand.”

“A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?”

He felt some need of softening that to me:
“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”

Then I was certain I had never meant
To let him have them. Never show surprise!
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents
(For that was all they figured out apiece),
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends
I should be writing to within the hour
Would pay in cities for good trees like those,
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools
Could hang enough on to pick off enough.
A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!
Worth three cents more to give away than sell,
As may be shown by a simple calculation.
Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.
I can’t help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

- Robert Frost

[gardenmaniac]

The Night Before Christmas redux

twas the day after christmas and all the thru the store
people were shouting "we need to buy more"
most feared they'd missed out on the best deals of all
so early they got up and drove to the mall

I'm sorry to say it's the 'merican way ...
there's never enough in old Santy Claws sleigh
to fill up that void we buy things we don't need
it's really appalling to witness such greed

I remember when we would behave in this way
only that one late November Friday
we forgot to be grateful for all that we've got
so here's an idea; let's give it a shot

maybe next weekend to start the new year
we can relish our good health and those we hold dear
be grateful for everything good in our lives
our sisters our brothers our husbands and wives

Christmas Trees
...

[Larry Robinson]

Hymn to Matter

Blessed be you harsh matter, barren rock; you who yield only
to violence, you who force us to work if we would eat. Blessed
be you, perilous matter, violent sea, untamable passion: you who
unless we fetter you, will devour us. Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible
march, reality ever new born; you who by constantly
shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further in our
pursuit of the truth. Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable
time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations;
you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards of
measurement reveal to us the dimensions of God.

- Teilhard de Chardin
(Translation by Bernard Wall)

[Larry Robinson]

Happiness


There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.


And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.


No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.


It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.


- Jane Kenyon

[REALnothings]

Just beautiful! Will leave anyone, I believe, feeling like a member of the Human Race. (And I believe to evoke that feeling in readers is one of the main purposes of poetry, for, when expressed at the right "angle of vision" and insight: "the universal", truth, and love are all the same thing; eh?

Deeply appreciated!

[cynctysings]

What a lovely, lovely gift this holiday season! Jane Kenyon, one of my favorite poets, is gone too soon from this plane for my liking, but what a treasure trove she left in her wake. Thank you, Larry, for your impeccable sense of what to share with us all. namaste. Cynthi

Happiness


There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.


And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.


No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.


It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.


- Jane Kenyon

[Larry Robinson]

As Ferguson Burns
As Ferguson burns,

I hear the outrage of a people
with lives rendered valueless
once and for all.
A people with hearts that can bleed
onto the streets
without recourse.
As Ferguson burns,
I hear the anguish of a mother
twice destroyed.
First by one man, then by a country
whose justice
does not extend to her flesh.
As Ferguson burns,
I hear the conscience of millions
INDICTED.
Who hoped for more
but expected nothing less.
Who will wait for the flames to be extinguished
during the commercial break.
As Ferguson burns,
I hear the voices of unchecked power
and shudder at the knowledge
that they will come for me one day.
That my day, too, will come
to bleed onto the street
without recourse.
And so,
as Ferguson burns,
I hear the voice inside me chant,
“Burn on.”
Let the fires burn
until every ear
is ripped open.
Let the fires burn
until the weak
the disadvantaged
the oppressed
are not alone
in their hot rage
at the brutal confirmation
of their own expendability.
Let the fires burn
until every city, every town
is on its knees.
Until there is no choice
but for all of us
to burn alone
or rise again
together.
As Ferguson burns,
I hear my voice cry out.
“Burn on.”


- Angel Butts

[Timothy Gega]

Wonderful Poem, Larry. This poem expresses the sentiment of many people today.

As Ferguson Burns
As Ferguson burns,

- Angel Butts

[Larry Robinson]

They carved “Nigger Lover”
On the hood of our car
After Dad came back from Selma
He went because he said he had to
Just like he’d done in ’44
To him it was the same war
Fought in a different uniform
But you there
Breaking windows
Just remember:
You have no right to right
If you do wrong yourself
And revenge is not justice
Just wrong turned inside out


- Mark Steensland

[Timothy Gega]

They carved “Nigger Lover”
On the hood of our car
After Dad came back from Selma
He went because he said he had to
Just like he’d done in ’44
To him it was the same war
Fought in a different uniform
But you there
Breaking windows
Just remember:
You have no right to right
If you do wrong yourself
And revenge is not justice
Just wrong turned inside out


- Mark Steensland

I (personally) was in the riots (as a victim) of the late 60s as a high school student. At the time I felt that these protestors had every right to protest. After all, they are humans and they should be given the same respect and dignity as any other person, (yet they weren’t).
I had truly hoped that we would have turned the corner on this Racism, (a long-longtime ago) but today as we can witness, haters still exist and so does racism. (See GOP comments regarding Pres. Obama). This is such a terrible reflection of Society in America. My best friend and I both joined the US Air Force on our18th birthdays to fight for this freedom. I didn’t go, he returned from Vietnam in a casket. It seems to me that we fight too many foreign wars (for big corporations to expand) yet we cannot fight a real war here at home for Freedom to actually ring in clarity for every citizen here in America. It’s such a pity being #1…(from the bottom).

[Timothy Gega]

PRISONERS OF HATE

To create an enemy:
Start with an empty canvas.
Sketch in broad outline the forms of men, women and children.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of the myriad loves, hopes, fears that play through the kaleidoscope of every finite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward arc of cruelty.
Exaggerate each feature until man is metamorphasized into beast, vermin, and insect.
Fill the background with malignant figures from ancient nightmares – devils, demons, and myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete you will be able to kill without guilt and slaughter without shame.

Quote by Sam Keen “Faces of the Enemy" (1986)
(From “Prisoners of Hate” By: Aaron T. Beck, M.D., 1999)

©2009 Tim Gega Alpha Moonprayers
Emotional Awareness & Literacy

[Sara S]

For a great vision of corporations and their relation to war, see the film "War Inc."

It seems to me that we fight too many foreign wars (for big corporations to expand) yet we cannot fight a real war here at home for Freedom to actually ring in clarity for every citizen here in America. It’s such a pity being #1…(from the bottom).

[Timothy Gega]

For a great vision of corporations and their relation to war, see the film "War Inc."

Thank you Sara, (Auntie Wacco) for your constant support here. I will check out this movie, "War Inc."

[Larry Robinson]

The Light Beneath Sleep
Sometimes, underneath deep sleep
is a certain diffused glow,
as, in the rainforest, luminous toadstools
glow green among the leaf litter
and beetles crawl about with winking abdomens.
One night when I followed this glow
I came to an upturned tree
that was a kind of cathedral for glowworms
and the light beat against my face, my chest and my hands.
At the end of the corridor of sleep, a dream stands.
It may be that at the end of the corridor of death
there is the walking slightly uphill
through the green fields;
and then the light underneath sleep
is both in front and behind.


- John Tarrant