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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

DESOLATION ANGELS AND OTHERS




INSECT PORTRAITS

DESOLATION ANGELS

The clouds open and for a moment,
Form a circle in the sky.  One could
See angels moving within this circle.
Tall and pale, they are towers,
Leaning into each other and moving
Their giant wings slowly, as in breathing.

I dropped the car into a lower gear,
Swerving to avoid the back of a semi
As it exploded the road, caught up in a
Frenzy of delivery.  The sky was all a gold,
A blue hole revealing a churning from
Heaven to Earth.  Highway 80 West,
Aflame with the eccentricities of the early
Evening.  An endless stream of vehicles
Up and down the interstate, a Jacob’s
Ladder where we are all angels.

The spinning of the clouds moves,
Recedes as clouds change shape
Again.  I see Sacramento in the 
Distance, stringing its night lights, 
Claiming the horizon.  There, on
The edge of the night, it becomes
A remarkable presence.  I begin to
Think that perhaps the angels dwell
There, a place of sacrament.  A blue
Camero without lights on, nearly clips
My pickup as it slides across three lanes.
Its license plate reads HLY GHST.

PATCHEN AT THE BAR

There they were.
There must have been
A couple of hundred of them.

Clear balloons floating
Across the road.
Each with a lizard inside of it.

They were the breeze
For ten minutes, then
Drifted out of sight.

Talking to Jody
At the bar, he said,
“They’re going to make
A series out of that,
You know.  You never
Know what you’ll see.

Three persons walked
Into the bar and sat down.
One of them was Kenneth Patchen.
“How’s everything today?”, he said.




MORE INSECT PORTRAITS 

Sunday, April 14, 2013

A STORY IN STANZAS

 Giant Anteater
Giant Anteater
Certainly one of the most incredible large animals on the planet.
It looks as if were created by magic.

Here is a poem of mine that invents the history of an object.

A STORY IN STANZAS

Headline: “A crystal box filled with music. c. 1000 a.d.”

The sound would be lost
At once were the box opened.
It is impossible to record the music.
It seems to create an empathy
In the listener as a Paraclete would.

For each listener, called ‘voicers’
By those who study this event,
The experience of the music
Is significantly different.

This is known:  The music
Is always melodic, memorably
So.  Rhythm is patterned.
Certain passages repeat themselves,
Yet, this is extremely rare.

Oftentimes the music generates
Usually abstract visual information,
But also occasional narrative, as in myth.

Animals, from insects to birds,
Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, seem
To hear these sounds with ease.
They oftentimes pay long attention to
The sound.  all have been seen moving
To the rhythms seemingly generated by it.

Some researchers believe particular
Mating behaviors in many species
Have been initiated or changed by
Exposure to this music.  Much more
Research is necessary to prove this.

It is said that people who have encountered
This phenomena have recorded their names
In a document upon doing so.  This document
While testified to, has never been verified.

The box has moved frequently
Since its discovery.  It is liable to appear
Almost anywhere.  It has been seen and
Heard off the Australian Great Barrier Reef
As well as in the Himalayas and the jungles of
Peru, Southeast Asia and South America.

No one knows how the box comes to
Move or where it may appear.
Its appearance has always had the quality
Of a mystical event about it.
In the past seventy years it has been seen
Very infrequently and very briefly.

One other box was known and was opened.
It shattered immediately and caused great
Disturbances in the Earth’s
Magnetic fields and impressive light patterns
In the ion layers of the atmosphere.

Its existence is usually denied except
In poetry and certain fairy tales.

If you encounter this box contact
Creatures that sing or listen to
Recreate your own experience
That others may know these songs.

Pigeons is a coop. Herald, California
D.R. Wagner
Dancing with the fish.
D.R. Wagner