Tag Archive: poetry


Savannah Serenade

Justice

following immense stone steps up to the riverwalk alley
windswept and receptive I am seeking oracles
as spirits lift the moss covered branches
catalysts arriving from Bonaventure Cemetery
whispering to me that these wrongs will be put right
a bouquet of palm roses for the downtrodden

Magician

desire floods my being as I navigate cobblestone pathways
imagining a blue topaz treasure hidden in oak-lined glades
like Savannah presented as a Christmas gift to Lincoln
Sherman’s telegram streaming from Madison Square
intricate wrought iron curves forming an intimate engagement
Gothic Revival follows this tempestuous hour
nine arched windows appear, signifiers of divine love

Devil

he dances his terrible contortions, sneers
compassion withers in a furnace of shame
I resist the way that never requires self-sacrifice
screams haunt: only disastrous manifestations are possible
Psyche confronts and demands confidence
assures me obstacles, great choking vines, will be cut away

Moon

despite fear and bewilderment, what remains unsaid,
terricolous vulnerability, dissolution, confusion
the difficulty of the choices I’ve made
I remain open to unexpected possibilities
good omens, the golden bough, creative forces unfurling

High Priestess

again she calls my name, entwining within the heart of the city,
to awareness of what spirits move against me
spreading insecurity and dependence on material concerns
only the heroine that follows her instincts can prevail
who entrusts herself to that which is transcendent

Hanged Man

acknowledging passage from this phase of life
sterile, sublimated to an ideal, an escape from the harrowing past
now I must let go of people entangled for amorphous reasons
crossroads require discernment and dedication to truth
destiny manifests, all philosophical resistance is overwhelmed
Savannah serenade, your mystic secrets coax my surrender

Cathedral Grove

Cathedral Grove, Muir Woods National Monument

‘And this our life,
exempt from public haunt,
finds tongues in the trees,
books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones, and good in everything.’ *

An odyssey across the continent
San Francisco fantasia of Venetian art, nature and myth
by myself but not alone as I
leave the death of the possible behind

Alive now only to your declaration of love
absorbing Titian’s inspiration from the poesie
intoxicated by the allure of Danaë’s seduction, Zeus’ invisible presence
a shower of gold in a world blessed with perpetual flowers

Arriving radiant as Tintoretto’s Susanna
luminously beautiful and ripe
thoughts of Venice navigate the canals of my mind
preparing me for our children, spinning their sacred story

I took the tranquil path, paid a mythic price
long years pining for our fated meeting
I traversed the stone bridges of the garden
meandered on a winding journey into the woods

Amidst 1000 year old trees, fog permeates
patiently I wait for you to write the stories,
inscribe your legacy within my body,
echoing these immortal helices through the millennia

*Shakespeare

This is Utah, I went through Nevada yesterday and am heading to California today. I’ll be in San Francisco for several days and will try to post a poem when I will have to time to reply and read others’ work. Happy Thursday!

Road Trip

I’m taking a 6-8 week road trip across the United States through Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and back to Colorado to find a new place to live and work. My MINI Cooper has a new clutch, brakes, and oil change so she’s ready to roll. The demands of the trip mean I will be updating the blog less frequently and much of the poetry will be focused on the sites of the journey. Stay tuned for the first location within the next week.

Performative Utterances

Interactive Epistemology

Mathematical models
of conflict and cooperation
between intelligent, rational
decision-makers
as we encounter the sacred space
of the game board
playing field of love

Psychodrama dialogue with the invisible
as objects endowed with psychic energy
become our actors upon the stage
male/female qualities intertwining
an offering to fuel the imagination
activating emotionality

Wholeness, rules and freedom
define our actions
traversing nature and civilization
where the depths of the unpremeditated
private reactions to external constraints
aid us in exploring symbolic struggles
against death, elements,
individual doubt and weakness

A self-contained universe
full of divination and magic

Convex Sets

Before we engaged
in non-cooperative games
modeled to the finest detail
sequential perfect information systems
a theorist’s dream

In these cutthroat skirmishes
competition overtook us
algorithmic measurable motives
induced a sense of control
within a symmetrical pay-off matrix
all zero-sum outcomes
as someone always lost

Mixed Strategy

Your love engulfs
I experience the computational complexity
of trembling hand perfection
this move I didn’t intend to play
an initiation that surprises

Correlated equilibrium
in characteristic function form
these cooperative games
exist to create unity

There are imperfect information tradeoffs
we commit perlocutionary acts
knowing there’s no way to simplify,
say the meaning of the word (x)
has a definitive parameter

In a series of performative utterances
no constate sentences, no verified truth
yet imbued with illocutionary force,
with the potency of action

We proceed simultaneously
in asymmetric, non-zero-sum
combinatorial strategies
without any provable optimal theory
only our communication
assuring mutual satisfaction
as we form binding commitments

Despite the intricacies
logistics and uncertainties
I turn to you and say, ‘I promise’

Entwining

Vishnu and Lakshmi

I am unimaginable, rebirth
Creation unthinkable, promises mirth
Vishnu! Vishnu! Exuberance
Preserver, gift of providence
Rejuvenating Dharma manifest
Color of water-filled clouds, blue and blest

I am contemplation, prosperity
Divine, incarnation, fertility
Lakshmi! Lakshmi! Arise, take flight
With penetrating, keen, true sight
Embodiment blooms from sacred lotus
Shakti’s pure form, love comes into focus

Master of beyond, supreme avatar
Inciter of all dreams, a brilliant star
My love! My love! Kaustubha jewel
Source, dear heart, co-creator who’ll
Infuse atma with glorious pure light
Divali honoring, forever bright

Infinite space this sublime nirvana
Jaganmaatha acts, refines this drama
Entwine! Entwine! Benevolence
Fortune, grace, immortal cadence
Splendor, vigor, strength, rapturous beauty
Kundalini’s magnanimous duty

Linked for the Form for All challenge on Stoccato, hosted by Beth Winter here: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/17/form-for-all-beth-winter-hosts-staccato-form/. Find out all about the rhyme scheme, syllable restrictions, and see examples by heading over to dVerse Poets Pub.

terricolous vulnerability

(definitions and notes at the end of the post)

wind beats, tears tree limbs senselessly
awakens me at two
progressively earlier, as if getting a head start will make it worksecret self enters a prime neologism
(double edged word)

flashes of the road to Hāna
arriving alone on the black volcanic shore
25 foot waves threaten crisis
crepuscule floats atop the violence

enantiomorphic noctilucent clouds appear as hierograms
somnifacient, auriferous divine projections

cover letters must be written
(logical/sequential marches in the margins):
Dear Board of Directors: I am uniquely qualified to bring your organization into the next phase of its nonprofit lifecycle. With seven years of progressive experience as an administrator I’ve quadrupled the budget, secured more than a million dollars in support, collaborated with hundreds of organizations, partnered with corporate donors, provided measurable outcomes for vulnerable populations…

(dear reader, do you know anyone who needs an Executive Director?)

packing boxes! thoughts invade this sanctuary of art,
all my treasures will be (hidden)

polymythical fractious storylines colliding
synchrotron beamlines branch
as abstract futures smash up

i contemplate my tragic flaw

she reminds me i’m capable, intelligent, creative, functional, witty, lovely
believe the list! win                        fight                 perform                wow              charm               hedge                  prove!
oh and they all say i’ve been through so much worse                                                                                                            (this never helps)

kerfs mark raw silk, ripping
tactile encounters are disasters of percipient stratum
yet i was so open, orgasmic (blush)
tracing your words (thought artifacts)

undertow gains potency – i withstand the pelting rocks – deafening roar
poetry swirls, th e   l    i    n   e   s         w   o     n  ’    t      c         o       n           n           e             c                 t
4………………3…………..2…….1
melodies disenfranchise

lingual possession thieved
corrugated smells intrude, demanding
thoughts dropped                                                           jagged edge
up

i’m an imperfect processor with selection bias
questing for an oracle of algorithms
deciphering code
delineating borders

i smile but lick my canine
press to feel solidity
the rage to master won’t rescue this poem
from the brink
of disintegration

pandect induces bradycardia – NO!

where is the intricate architecture?
you can’t build a civilization without infrastructure
life invades organically
intermingling traumas, visions, and vistas

(it is four in the morning)

tender phylogeny
an imposed or inherent order?
steel girders at wrong angles
concrete poured outside the mold

(WordPress keeps undoing my formatting,
stealing all the spaces!)
who needs self-conscious poetry?

reality stalks like a zoo panther
stuck, stuck travelling the loop
loop my loop
loop my loop

my terricolous vulnerability
(liminal space)

who comes every day                                                                         to loop my loop?
to make me face Brutality Between the Lines
damn lines that don’t connect

i redraw with new colors, open ensō
what does it mean
(do you know what it means?)

my pocket atlas is written in symbols
metaphrastic selenography
buried under ethnolinguistic axioms

i’ve become a sojourner
within my own cultural schema
a foreigner at home

Notes/Definitions: neologism: 1. A new word, expression, or usage. 2. The creation or use of new words or senses. 3. Psychology a. The invention of new words regarded as a symptom of certain psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. b. A word so invented. 4. TheologyA new doctrine or a new interpretation of scripture.; Hāna: is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 2,291 at the 2010 census. Hana is located at the eastern end of the island of Maui and is one of the most isolated communities in the state. It is reached mainly via the Hana Highway, a long, winding, 52 miles (84 km) long highway along Maui’s northern shore.; crepuscule: twilight; enantiomorph: 1. mirror image, form related to another as an object is to its image in a mirror. 2. either of a pair of crystals that are mirror images of each other, and are optically active. 3. (chemistry) A similar molecule or compound; an enantiomer.; noctilucent clouds: tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the “ragged-edge” of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice.; hierogram: sacred writing or a sacred character or symbol.; somnifacient: causing or inducing sleep.; auriferous: containing gold.; nonprofit lifecycles: 1. Grass Roots – Invention 2. Start-Up – Incubation 3. Adolescent – Growing 4. Mature – Sustainability 5. Stagnation & Renewal 6. Decline And Shut-Down (as conceptualized by Speakman Consulting Firm); polymythology: A combination of a number of stories in one narrative or dramatic work.; fractious: tending to be troublesome; synchronotron: a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator in which the magnetic field (to turn the particles so they circulate) and the electric field (to accelerate the particles) are carefully synchronised with the travelling particle beam.; tragic flaw: defect in hero’s character that causes downfall; kerf:  a slit or notch made by a saw or cutting torch; percipient:  1: one that perceives 2: a person on whose mind a telepathic impulse or message is held to fall; stratum: 4. one of a series of layers, levels, or gradations in an ordered system <strataof thought>; disenfranchise:  to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; selection bias: (2) selection of samples or studies by researchers to support a particular hypothesis.; algorithm: In mathematics and computer science, an algorith is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.; pandect:  2. A complete body of laws; bradycardia: slow heartbeat; phylogeny: The evolutionary development and history of a species or higher taxonomic grouping of organisms.; terricolous: living on or in the ground; Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the “threshold” of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a “liminal state”) and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.; Brutality Between the Lines is one of my poems (found here http://chromapoesy.com/2011/08/05/brutality-between-the-lines/); Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning “circle” and a concept strongly associated with Zen. Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character. It symbolizes the Absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the Universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an “expression of the moment” it is often considered a form of minimalist expressionist art.; metaphrasis: the practice of making a literal translation from one language into another.; Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon. Historically, the principal concern of selenographists was the mapping and naming of the lunar maria, craters, mountain ranges, and other various features.; ethnolinguistics: a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and the way different ethnic groups perceive the world.; axiom: 1. a self-evident truth that requires no proof. 2.a universally accepted principle or rule. 3. Logic, Mathematics. a proposition that is assumed without proof for the sake of studying the consequences that follow from it.; Cultural Schema Theory (Nishida, 1999) explains the familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge one uses when entering a familiar situation in his/her own culture. Cultural schemas for social interaction are cognitive structures that contain knowledge for face-to-face interactions in a person’s cultural environment. Schemas are generalized collections of knowledge of past experiences that are organized into related knowledge groups; they guide our behaviors in familiar situations. Cultural schemas do not differ from other schemas, except that they are shared by certain cultural groups rather than individuals (Garro, 2000). Schemas unique to individuals are created from personal experiences, whereas those shared by individuals are created from various types of common experiences (Garro, 2000). Cultural Schema Theory proposes that when we interact with members of the same culture in certain situations many times, or talk about certain information with them many times, cultural schemas are created and stored in our brain (Nishida, 1999)

It’s Anyone’s Call (an acrostic)

It’s Anyone’s Call (an acrostic)

Ideographic inquiries entangle academicians
Tracasseries hound the theorists while
Sequacious arguments ensue and multiply

Algolagnic pseudo-logical debate titillates while
Nomothetic investigations misfire attracting
Yabbering masses in hallowed halls spouting
Oscillations of popular opinion each
Notion encrusting the stance of
Estimable scholars cordoned off in
Sterile silos of knowledge, still no

Capacious auditoriums in the mind to signal creative,
Aberrant thought processes, instead they form only
Labyrinthine ruts where we the uninitiated cry:
Let sleeping dogs lie!

For the dVerse Poetics Prompt on idioms: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/12/poetics-what-did-you-call-me/. I have used two idioms and lampoon scientific debate, a dialogue carried out in terms as antipodal to idioms as may be imagined. Thanks Brian this was fun!

Composing Space

This is the final behind the scenes piece at Chromapoesy. The pictures were taken this morning from my home on Conifer Mountain.  Here is my music workspace; I compose a little at the piano but mostly at the computer desk on Finale software. My shelf contains all my sheet music and various instruments from around the world. The flute case and stand are on top. The piano is where I practice singing for performances. On top of the piano to the far left are the ashes of my beloved dog, Buddy. The dog in the pictures is the first dog I’ve ever had from puppyhood, she’s a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix named Jody (after my grandmother). The home theater and 16mm film camera/projector are included as I am often inspired by soundtracks and film to write music. Also, I’m a huge cinephile, you can find my film recommendations here http://chromalexicon.com/recommended-cinema/. Pictures from outside the music area are included as nature is another source for all my creative outlets. Thank you for peeking into what it takes to write, paint, compose, sing, and create at Chromatopia. There’s a link here to listen to one of my cinematic compositions Lago di Garda: http://chromasymphonic.com/2011/06/26/lago-di-garda/. For my books and other work spaces follow these links http://chromapoesy.com/2011/11/07/studio-pictures/ & http://chromapoesy.com/2011/11/04/the-great-book-caper/.

Protostellar Phase (repost)

(This is the first poem I posted when I started blogging back in the summer.)

We were standing in the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Here are painters who want to communicate
They show up on their canvases
Emotive, sensual, engaging,
Pouring over the edges with ideas

They are Hydrogen, capable
Of the complex chain of reactions
Required to fuel a galaxy
Rauschenberg, Mitchell, de Kooning
All Hydrogen molecules
Dancing, spinning, arguing
Contrasting the inert gasses across the hall
Nonreactive as Krypton,
From kryptos, “the hidden one”

It is actually a skill,
This art of invitation
Creating works capable of fusion
Viewer, artist, and painting,
Conspiring toward explosions
A dangerous, naked,
And frightening proposition
Can you blame the countless artists,
Hiding behind flat surfaces,
Incapable of combustion,
Unable to make the invitation?

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