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Phil's Previous Poetry

September, 2000




9/24/00-He was a tall, thin man of youngish yet indeterminate age and a very nervous disposition, trembling a bit and acting strangely, standing alone at first in one of two very large buildings. I saw him at once in each edifice, the one a huge church, the other a parking garage at some little distance from the first. The air was still. It was a gray day, late in the morning or in early afternoon. It seemed a Sunday. There was the impression the great house of spiritual devotions had recently been all but vacated following morning services, though a minister and a few chatting hangers on still remained. The pastor talked of the troubled man, saying that he stayed in the area, had no particular place to lay his head, seemed to have a seizure disorder of some kind as well as mild mental health difficulties, and that, from time to time, he had given him assistance, in his capacity as the church executive. Back at the parking garage, on a high level, but still not the uppermost story, the man's unusual behaviors were beginning to attract attention. A small collection of folks, concerned about his behavior, had come close and were considering among themselves what ought to be done. I was the only one among them to realize, having also heard the preacher's comments, that he needed help, which probably the minister could provide. By now someone had called the police, though the youngish fellow had not, to my view, done anything at all criminal or even vaguely harmful to himself or anyone else. He was just looking rather out of it and still had a little shaking in his limbs. So, I rushed back to the church, intending to enlist the minister's aid and so prevent some unfortunate fate for the disturbed man. It seemed to me that the interest of strangers and law enforcement officers could lead to unforeseen, likely negative, developments in the life of one not clearly a member of the privileged classes and with no evident means of support. When I got to the religious center, however, I found only one or two people left in the large sanctuary and the pastor not in sight. Instead, that noble gentleman, I was given to understand by the last of the nattily dressed morning worshipers to leave, had hurried upstairs to his vicarage chambers, asking not to be disturbed for, it seemed, the afternoon football game was about to begin; and he could not be bothered for anything from watching it...




9/21/00-Cetaceans fields of intermingling energy heights and depths without limits breathless naked painfully grotesquely pleasure-filled tidal ebbs and flows isolated insular beyond all familiar intimate landfalls identities memories echo-chambered nautilus knots of distance speed karma emotional blockage the finest sharpest edge two molecules one molecule thick to cut all ties float free on winds rhythms music of the spheres released from fears...




9/14/00-Lightning flashes across the globe as seen from outer space, amorous or angry squid their instant changes of hue as in a race, aurora borealis' glowing shimmering sky curtains as if billowing in a cosmic wind, huge flocks of fowl in sudden simultaneous group fluctuations, fish schools' synchronous shifts of speed and direction, or a moving, color CT-scan display of a human brain in thought, all alike, from the immensely vast to the smallest creature, from the simplest to most complex, the universe and all its phenomena are in constant, ephemeral, brilliant transition and motion, as if organic, as if all one seamless, living, conscious tapestry, one whole, one...




9/11/00-Coastal flows, darkening dusklit marsh, inexorable predation, blue, white, brown, and fawn-colored water birds stalking, distant freighter lights on the horizon, wisps of low clouds, bright red and transparent crabs, implacable impersonal black moccasin stealth, green amphibian chorus, huge brown apple snail laying eggs at the base of a yellow reed, insect swarms, the wind picking up across the incoming tide...




9/8/00-Slow flow of red viscous fluid over pale smooth skin, translucent face, her inner organs barely discernable, her pulse still slightly beating, pumping out more scarlet rivulets, one of which descends her bare chest, eases into and fills her navel, turns a bit sticky, slows further, darkens, and drops to the white tiles, dripping there until a faded crimson pool has spread, like fresh strawberry pancake batter on the grill, then still...




9/4/00-Here lie the markings of a compulsive scribbler. Here the shades commune with the gray creatures of twilight. Deepest dark sea beings of eternal night, shunning all bright. Hysterical laughter. Cosmic jokes. Damned bodies, souls of no insight. I touched her soft flesh gently, the hearts thumping in resounding blasts. She smiled, the eyes agleam, aflame. Torches burning intensely seeking the destruction of truth. Charred debris of former love. Alone he walked the desert, little barbed seeds imbedding themselves in his feet. Scorpions scrabbling about. Vipers sought out within him their kin. A great opening in the darkness, momentarily blinding unadjusted eyes, as if a meteor flashing down had shattered his cranium, his optic nerves incandescent wicks, flashing with a million candles then shorting out; and afterward he understood nothing. The serpent rose a little higher, its life force to express, tasting, caressing her breast...

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