Bare Foot Education

(Miss the good news? Be sure to check out my previous post for details on an upcoming poetry reading, award, and radio interview – it’s a busy couple months ahead!)

Exploited feet

diminished spirit

ashen world detritus

clogging pores and pouring

 

out live within

sanctuary of knowledge

fortress by education, maze-like

without the cheese, just history and

ink dripping from the binding—

 

not a prayer

nor a thought,

it’s the brick and mortar keeps me

it’s the paper worlds that defend me

it’s the flesh and bone that births me

 

beyond, the living

not made, clandestine

nights of exhaustion for figments

and apparitions—yet

no imagination save “away”.

 

Familiar is the chirp

of the restoration aria

gentle minds contemplate

as they dream bare foot dreams.

Mr. Philosophos

I am the way.

Knowledge

beyond the knowing

not

–       wisdom

–                       as such

for learning is love

but loving its possession–

–       sophos

–                     self

the search yearns

breathes and breeds but

possession

–                   9/10s

–                               nothing

We are on the way

or we, drifting in the ripples

are nothing but

flavored

–               answers

–                               drunk.

Educational Hush

Twilight hush amidst the room;
a voice, rising through the shadow throng
commits the universe to notes
and I, swooning through the grace of logic, rise
drifted on the captivated stars
onto the mystic sea, glittering in
transcendental mysticism fires
that will not be bound by flesh:
a word, they say, a notion
but in that heaving sky
the rush of majesty;
souls which lie
Beyond.

Belief

When you are young

belief is hard

but it is hard like death

creeping from the birthing room

bloody, entombed

featureless among the lives

its sadness would compensate

energy that caresses old noblesse

but never will its time oblige.

Encircle the World

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
~ Albert Einstein

The Gift of Curiosity

“I have no special talents.  I am only passionately curious.”
~Albert Einstein

Not all of us have the inherent genius, nor the training for all that we would like. Some us are, sad as it may seem to those without, better at certain things than others. But it is also the beauty of the human experience that this can be made up for by another quality, one that Einstein knew well: curiosity.

The drive to investigate, to learn, to poke and poke until the curtain falls is more than mere persistence, mere stubbornness–it’s a passion. While it may prove the longer route, its results are also often the most satisfying. For in indulging our curiosity, we work our minds and our bodies, push ourselves to unravel the secrets of the world, and impart on us the talents to engage them. Will it always pan out? Of course not. I could investigate the workings of higher math functions day-in and day-out, but I dare say the ever-increasing layers of calculus will not unravel before me.

If you want to learn something, though–if something calls to you from heart or mind–then do not hold that curiosity back. It killed the cat–doesn’t mean it will kill you. Unless, of course, you want to learn how to properly lick an outlet. At that point, there’s nothing any of us can do for you.

Yet I will add this point: nothing–hear me: nothing–stirs creativity, like curiosity.

“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
~Ralph W. Sockman

A Gambol Song

Beneath our hungry shore

between life and grass

more skin blossoms.

Leap off moon–

man is wild,

a gambol

song.

* My latest submission for the great gathering of international poets known as One Shot Wednesday. Short but sweet, and more than little cooky to more than a few of you, I’m sure, I give unto you “A Gambol Song”, my latest bit of free verse.

Quotes of the Week

This week’s theme: Responsibility. Can you dig it?

“A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.”
~James Allen

‘”It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince told me later on.  “When you’ve finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet.”‘
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard

“Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it’s addressed to someone else.”
~Ivern Ball

And, for a touch of humor on the matter:

“Responsibility:  A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one’s neighbor.  In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star.”
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

The All-Song

Beneath the microscope

metaphysics sang,

the organism of

meditation

Peacefully

shameless self

altered secretless

wisdoms in non-judgment

to the scope of everything.

* My latest contribution to the wonderful One Shot Poetry Wednesdays! Once you’ve had a look, check out some of the other One Shot Poets as well–they’re a skilled bunch of poets, with a strong and supportive community.  Enjoy! And while you’re at it – vote for us in the Shorty Awards…we have a chance to take Number 1 in Art!

East meet West

Photo by Danielle Kelly, "Coney Island Mermaid Parade"

Veiled visions copulate

Between realities of bodies

Grinding against the backdrop

Eternity laid bare before the gown,

East meet West under the shade

Of world watching, still unseen

Mulling mass forget: I am.

* A response to the photo prompt from One Shoot Sunday at One Stop Poetry and the talented Danielle Kelly, a New York photographer I recently interviewed. For the interview, the prompt and a whole mess of lovely photography and poetic replies, give One Stop a look!