thurs thots

let the lantern be lambent
a soft flicker
outside my windows
before cool air blows
a lucid layer of frost

i can see through,
though barely
so i turn back to the tome
nestle in some soft space
between lines of pages

and find freedom
and life the cold
could ne'er o'ercome

for monday

sentiments untangle
like deliberate hands on knotted rope

emotions wound and tightened
over time
tension has seeped out
of fibers, of strands
careful
rope burns from fast motions
make skin commotions

brain sensory up
heart beat jump
ah!

we sit together
take turns
to take this apart

loca elocution/2

Zanmi Eyes
know

sunlight of day as vim that imbues

you,
tree soul
and
you grow

crazy talks 2

take off your jacket and step into the
home of my heart
a fire burns and soul foods on the stove
find me
with a book and smile, with words for a long while
with you
we light up and begin bursting --
sparkling excitement, human connection ecstasy
ayiiiii yiii yiiii yip! yazoo!

understanding the oxygen for fires,
for mouths to respire

breathing, we are alive
we feel the strength of marrow
to bring you and i to this place
and with gratitude, be as we may in this space

loca elocution

a white woman, age 22
speaks
a white woman, age 52
counsels

the speakers' mother knows the counselor
who is not with degree, but--
is with
two ears to listen
and let the speaker be free

a subtle session-- casual sunday coffee

---
10/25/08

crazy talks 1

human being
you
burning
words
into the palms of my hands
wrinkles and lines
to my finger tips
printing
comedies trajedies

of societies
with my
thumb
or was it
with my eye
or a pen

D, all the above
mark the full circle
on paper
from trees, a forest
of worms and leaves

now-- as paper
of words and needs
burn burn burn
flame of truth wrinkle my palms
beam truth from my eyes
speak truth from my words

friday discovery

take your time
and peel back the rind
of who
you be
get into the juicy orange flesh
be squirted in the eye
squint**! for a second

open your eyes
and bite into truth
and if it is not truth quite yet

then,
discovery

symphony

she stepped across the stage
violins on shoulders
trumpets at mouths
deodorant under arms
hairs combed
ties tied
knuckles cracked

blink

not a woodwind in sight
not a brass in reach
and no whiff to waft
no curl to twirl
no loop to undo
no finger to pop
or play

blink

why did no one care to stay?

painter:
do not stop painting

Wists

thunder boom world crack
split WIDE open
like legs, improper and
asking for adultery
no
that cannot be
the reason why
they speak, words kissing in the air
like Merlin and his mistress
from my eyes' corner
from my quick shoulder glance
i see their love shatter
all that is stable surrounding under and around...

thunder boom world crack
bursts of earth split and severed
illuminated by lust, lightning
a new world un ordered
split and deserved
natural love--
organic chemistry,

yeah-
we can do it
after class
she said
and they stepped out to create the storm

archaic words

the great mystery of being: coming alive, breaking, opening, piecing life together, rising up and walking, embracing life, understanding all these (ings) the great process of imbibing life and letting it imbue us

Thank you Nikki Giovanni

Zanmi Nikki G
this is for thee!
You, a catalyst to engender community!
writers, mothers, pager turners
of your words, ebullience
your pellucid vim!
Smiling, nodding, hoping
at the possibility of roping
time in with you- eyes meet
teeth in a smile greet
Zanmi Nikki, this is for thee!
thank you ! mil gracias ! mesi anpil!

--
October 20, at Joseph Beth Book Sellers in Cincinnati, I had the great honor of meeting Nikki Giovanni at her book signing: Hip Hop Speaks to Children (2008) and Lincoln and Douglass- An American Friendship (2008)

Favorite quips-
"We owe it ourselves to re-create ourselves!"
"Poetry says No to destruction and Yes to possibility. Poetry is a good neighbor. a good friend. a good idea. Let's write poems!"
from Acolytes (2007)

short sunday

hopes
changes
birds
who rearrange landscapes
fires rains
which rescind certainty

evolution!
continuum extant ...

Lins

Te extraño
estas por mi corazón,
toujou, still--
memsi, even if--
distance and deity and dissapointment

breath
blink
breath

bones 1

grind these bones
go, blow wind
whooosh
friable fragments
vestiges of human structure
who walked talked did
follow'd as society commanded

go, blow wind
with exhaled breath
with migrating birds
with beaks full of seeds
with hope to sew
new beginnings

----
friable- (adj) easily crumbled or reduced to powder
vestiges- (n) a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence

Friday anko (again)

Fall Break 2008:
my brother Dave, or DJ Chronik, is incredible
we're hoping to record some poetry/spoken word this weekend
more news when it breaks-- read Words below and let me know
your thoughts-- rlgorley@gmail.com

also- if you have any reading rec's... digame ! (speak to me)
also- check out the following for some great readings:
Undersong, Audre Lorde
Collected Poems of Audre Lorde
Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni
Acolytes by Nikki Giovanni

peace and love

Zanmi B

Gotta Catch up

Fri-dee whoo pee
home sweet ho-mee

jammin with Dav-ee
so live you life
says Ree
ahna, and life gets swallowed
by the pirhanna
dontchu wanna
get outta
the jaws

yeah shake off da slime, bite the riddle
swallow the rhyme, wind the crank
and quit the superficial mime
bust out stand up LIBERATE yo'self
shake the skin slime and sink yo
teeth into Life Lime and
squint and breathe and taste
home-n-no more waste

poem of day: wedd

Allowed the freedom to fall
tumble down a hall
with painted portraits on the wall
strokes shown by my local bee flown in for a face
do not erase my memories
and how i hold them
head tilted right, slight nod
strokes rather natural wing buzzing
being of an artist is being of self

and yet still faces get
put on a shelf above
waist hight because they are
historically, profitably taste
ful, full of life

on i walk cutting my time
with a bee, hall, extant notion
with word
not with alcohol, weed or knife

poem to lovers

miss you love you
you are beautiful
--an enchanting mosaic design
in the center of my heart
that blood must pass whiishh--
and pump, bom bom- bom bom
through
and was it not Dalton who deemed
this blood does not end in my veins
but continues through the veins of humanity
do you feel the warm life of human energy?
the groute between the vibrant glass pieces
stained red, burns orange and glimmers gold
each night with sunset and
purses pink -magenta magic
each morning with sunrise and
breathing in i calm my body
breathing out i smile
i uplift my heart beats remembering your - our
paved homes and streets, pieces honored and placed
memories never erased

love you always all these days

now its tuesday

i see all hours of day and night
like colors in the rainbow
i hold the hose and the ray
to make a palpable prism array
ROYGBIV display, hooray
isnt rhyming gay

oh, silly rhyme
that no one will pay a dime
for
oh well, in two hours it will be
four

this is for Tuesday

seconds tug on the
seams of my heart
a patchwork, pieced together palpitation
no logical explanation
except,
i tried

seconds and minutes and hours
and still the sand sliding
solves no questions, nor riddles
of heart wrenched rant drenched rhymes

no page 108 no solution to turn to
and no answer no fate
no clothes pattern to piece the organ
to palpitate and resonate
into a chorus



... oh how love implores us

Mon dehh

doan-chu kno mon
dehh gots da mon dehh
blues
painted canvas stroakes
tickled iv'ree notes

set to sail out of bay
how hearts happ to floats
mon doan-chu know mon
she paints da mon dehh blues
she plays da mon dehh blues


--
Jamaican inflection

Sunday Sounds

October 11
a light tree lisp slips
into my ears
like a handwritten letter
into an envelope

poem a day (PAD): saturday

i love you
i dont know why
these words, my beloved, friend...
and (i know) you are never "mine"
to the very day of my life's end
you will reside in the home around the bend
the final beautiful one in my heart
with purple lilacs, orange day lilies, hammocks
hummingbirds, sunflowers and crimson clover
do you forget or remember
what walking together
felt like
to me this
was the force that pushed the sun and pulled the moon
then pushed the moon and pulled the sun
unending undulations
perdurable palpitations
aye yai yai
i take a breath, sigh, breath
my will and gravity lets
these memories, my hopes fall to the side
behind me, for one moment in my shadow
i walk on
i walk on
stepping over sidewalk cracks, uneven slabs
you blow away with leaves in the Fall favonian

friday

obligations pour down like
thursday afternoon showers
a great gray sky frown
lightning charges
illuminates forehead wrinkles

looking up to the
waves of the face
soft thick and deep
gray fades into white into gray

Rilke would say
take this moment, live the questions
get wet but not washed away
in this day

already thursday

i have never experienced
such stinging ringing pain
memories
as those of you
let see:
swallowing coal in throat
incessant fly in ear buzzing
gone one sec, stolen valuable
throbbing headache
fire burned down house
missed, delayed, no plane
hair buzzed off

no. still not to the threshold
of pain
which is, for me
of loss through distance
for instance: now

whats weds

Wednesday
ready to fall captive
to fatigue seas
sweeping and drenching
floating rafts
not impregnable
rather, feckless
and poetry is not worthless
as i find to express
and uplift...
to NG: Poetry says No to destruction and Yes to possibility (from Creative Writing-Poetry)

and yes NG, Poetry continues to be a good idea. a good friend. a good neighbor.
and yes, let's (continue) to write poems!

PAD PAD PAD

PAD: poem a day

the people in my head
said to me today
in a meeting they held
on the 8th of may
in the year of life
with too much strife

take words as your wife
soul mate, carry them
with your spirit
dreamer you are
even a dancer must have
vision, a beating heart
before twirling across floors

PAD, PAD, PAD
chanted the cheers
this was their convival-
a revival for rebecca,
for zanmi: to be true to thee
write a poem a day
unless into listless lull you
deem worthy and dive to
deep sink in the sea

ClosdDoor

head buzzes like bumble bees
around my ear
in the open room
i can hear
the frequency of wings
can feel the pain of
the almost stings

oh, you are
cloaked, holy and distant
oh, i am
bare, unchurched, and near

and fear
shuts me down
wings wait and fall
an attitude of a frown
disappointment, shhh
a closddoor, no bee no honey no sweet sentiments
anymore