Lesser Known Stars

I believe the persons reading them have a right to interpret poems in individual ways. I certainly know what my poems mean to me but that does not mean that you should try to see it my way.  Everything I write is meant to be “seen” by the reader through their lens.  It’s not really about what I meant.  It’s about what it means to you.  I think it is quite wonderful to throw my words out into the world. I love that once they are free of me, you might read them and perceive them in ways I cannot even fathom.  So, thank you for reading a few of my poems and interpreting them as you see fit.   

Image Title: Lady Midnight Artist: Christine Schloe

Swallow the Moon

Night is my lost compass

Foolish I swallowed the moon Thinking she would take me Through all the phases

Becoming full Emptying out

Foolish moonless rudderless Tearing through night black Blinded by day white

Having eaten the moon I have lost Her sight.

Image Title: Death and the Maiden Artist: Edvard Munch

Death and the Maiden

Long we have danced Indeed, it was certain you attended the birth leaning over The bassinette Bony fingers stirring my breath

Not certain you registered Standing there New eyes bleary upon mother

But when the lasagna Clotted with mozzarella Lodged stealing breath There you were

Among the ruckus Of uncles aunts and cousins Passing bread And powdered cheese

Was it your tap upon her shoulder That she saw her child So silent Turned blue

Her fierce hug The pop and cough

Later you were on the road The night The rain washed The mountain Away

As the water poured in then shoved the car a shoulder away from water in the lungs

I danced with you then

And when I carried my children My body a traitor to them

You leave hard marks That speak of time and chance

Specter of bone Intimate of breath and Beating heart

Let us dance Once more.

Title: I Didn't Mean to Offend you. Artist: Tanya Gomelskya. Source: beautifulbizarremagazine

Winter Letter

The flesh I wear is December flesh Dry pale parchment Suitable for fine script

Suitable for the letter I send Offering

Forgiveness

Yet Behind my loose skin Neatly stripped away are only pallid underpinnings devoid of blood

My ruined skin a husk

My heart drained The pen carving ceaselessly

It takes every scrap of me To write to you There is nothing left to Lick the stamp.

Image: "Gennie Messages" at Manteno Illinois State Hospital, Artist Kristyn Vinkour. Photographed by: Tom Kirsch. Source: Ruinationstation

The Gennie Experiment

1944 the locked gate Opened for you

The college girl who just couldn’t be free From family entanglements

Would never be free

No pathological signs and portents

Of whom they Would Break You Into

You were just Gennie before The ice plunges The scalding dips

Being held under in Insulin comas

Shuddered by shocks

Tinkered with skull open

Made mute Made incontinent

No longer an inconvenient daughter Just fully unraveled matter

Long dead and the ward closed

Someone stirs the dust of Manteno State Hospital Raising the first echoes of you

Speaking with some of your own words Finally setting you free.

Image Title: Summer Days Source: Seamlessoo

Your Mouth

Diving in between your teeth I find an ocean Under a universe of Shared stars.

Image Information: Artist Henri Matisse and his Model- Place Charles-Felix, Nice South France, circa 1928. Image Source: Frenchvintage gallery.

Matisse and Lorette

Tea and sketches were only Foreplay for paint and color

Matisse the bespeckled gentleman chaste always Tie straight and shirt buttoned high Right up to his stiff collar

Consummation for he and her were Measured in proper brush strokes

She looks out from of his paintings Wearing the opulence of sin

Then fades almost to obscurity Never leaving the sordid gossip Of odalisques and loose women.

Image "Slime Mold" Source: exercicedestyle

HAIKU: Bio of a Slime Mold

Paraphyletic Eukaryote family Coloring life’s rot

Image Title: A dog plays seesaw with children in Scotland. Photographer: William Reid Source: National Geographic Society Historical Photo Collection.

March 1919

Childhood in spring Fresh air, peacoats, a loyal hound

Joyous play up and Joyous play down

The war was over The flu at bay Hopeful play yard laughter Rang throughout the day

Running feet and the barking dog Around swing set in a grand game of tag Simply caught and let go again Everyone a foe and everyone a friend

The march of seasons mattered little To children reveling this particular spring Heedless of The burdens they will carry or The death that they will bring

Marching off the playground Into the uniforms of men Moving eastward to defend dear Britian Once again.

Image Title: Shark Teeth Source: akaghosty

Night Swimming

Avoiding the ocean Carefully dipped toes at the edge of beach Reach for nothing

It’s better being in Ocean Deep

Kicking hard and feeling the teeth As you are pulled under

'Cause in a life of second chances Everyone eventually finds The maw of a shark.

Image title:"Mirror" Source Bloody--Cherry

Mirror Mirror

Such an old tale

What do you see Am I princess Am I a crone

Looking in I’m seeing out

A forest of glass Brittle and cold

Made to shatter Made to slash

I am breaking though Learning to bleed

Learning to live in a world Of broken

g

l a s s .

Image: Nara Dreamland, Japan Source: Zombilenium

Jilted

Mist and feral grass Take you slowly Nara Dreamland

The sounds of life Dissolving into Crickets and rain

Breezes groping Your abandoned spaces Caressing rust

The noises you make The soft sighs of settling The tender groans Of loosed bolts

A faded jilted harlot All flaking paint And missing teeth Taking pleasure In one’s own decay.

Source: Digitalmuseum.no Image Information: Portrait of little girl with lamb probably from the municipality of Sunndal Norway.

Silent Passengers

The flash powder caught them so still Quiet girl in somber black Quiet lamb in clean white

Old as sin Quiet and stealthy Victorian bindings Buttoned tight girl

Lamb so silent Removed from Some bleating bloody barnyard

Great great grandmother Before the boat The lamb almost used up

Just before stew

Carried all this way In the trunk Resurrected in dust motes and genes

Still blond but unbuttoned In bright wool flannel and indigo jeans.

Untitled Painting Source: rearte

Motel

Your fine back in a shabby room Dark hair, one smokey eye upon me With the rest huddled toward The thin wall

My wants Your cold shoulder

Just one more midnight bargain Leaving me cooling Haphazardly In the precarious office chair

A Gideon bible on My knee.

Image Title: The Wave Source: Weheartit.com

The Wave

There is nothing in this universe Able to Quell the sea in its rush to crush me

The water tasting of you Crowds the breath from my lungs

And grinds me into sand.

Source: AngieFalanji

Artist: Jak Umbdenstock

Damned Cat

We might have fallen in love Sitting on the couch sipping wine

Conversation The surreptitious touch The tingle

Such anticipation Cupid certainly was nocking His bow

But for the damned cat All flying tabby fur Crashing over your shoulder Tipping the wine On his way to kitchen

Trailing feathers

You sneezed as they tickled your nose The mood was dead Cupid was almost certainly

Dead

Peering into the kitchen Observing the self-satisfied Feline in the throes Of the crime

I knew it was time to get your coat.

Title: Le chaudoir de la rue Sauval, Les Halles, Paris 1968 Photographer: Robert Doisneau

Le Boucher des Halles

The gore slops underfoot It leaves spots and smears on the apron It glistens and glints along the well-used knife

But the bench is clean The dismembered head of the cow Angelic Gently Sleeping

Above the clatter of corruption

Fresh death and flesh dissolved in rising steam Cling to the butcher Hand quiet upon the bovine nose

Knowledge of death Knowledge of flesh Knowledge of life.