Blank Page Oracle

Blank page, work your wonder!

Pull me from my pondering

Tear the guts from out of me

Make a considered feast of the tales of entrails

Harvest what has long been growing in fertile soul

Each time I come to you

Record what my face does not expose

Make me feel again in subtle strokes

Sift the sediments of my sentiments

Show me who I am

Mirror opaque, I see now your reflection:

Greatly blessed it’s clear you are

Although distracted by thoughts afar

Well-fed, well-clothed, and at ease,

Still you toss upon the seas

Fury drives you from underneath

Lusty blows you wait for sword in sheath

As fighting stirs your blood and spirit

Calmness pleases you once you quit it

You search and seek and never tire

A questing mind fueled by desire

But make up your mind before the night gets late

Goals sharpen your aim and decrease your wait

For as much as you drift and dally and digress

You’d be less lonely further ahead with the rest

The power of the expansion of your mind

Requires the effort of an uphill climb

As you were told let it guide your mind’s fitness:

“Every step takes you closer to Mount Olympus”

Gods and Goddesses know what it means to never die

But you’ve yet to prove eternity beyond a lie

So slow it down and speed the pace

And when you do anticipate

For if you stretch the length of Reason

You’ll make seconds epochs and minutes aeons

And if and when you memorize all your roles

Remember to forget and be your Soul

Without saying much at all

Oh, to be alive
Warm gulp of coffee
Laid back, big comfy office chair
Sound of muzzled ghazals, dampened only by blurry sound quality, with the enduring, endearing broken promises of nostalgia
Writing my self
What events criss-cross to weave the moment?
What sequences of time will now unfold?
For now I’m happy to sit and sip
Sheltered from the tornadoes of world events
Selectively calling upon mystic utterances when it feels nice to try them on
Making invisible the stark reality perceptions
Dipping into the all-pervading hot bath of spiritual hope
I put the foreground of my thoughts, a puny identity, into a photo frame that now I peer into from above
Could I imagine living many other lives just the same?
No, not really- One has been enough
Making each move with the careful real-time deliberation of a person defusing a nuclear bomb
…gets tiring…
But sometimes there is no other way
Every letter typed
Every thought unleashed and then subdued
Better yet, with the superpower of word processing and an artful amnesia- undo undo undo.
Pretending retroactive causality is something I understand
Fitting the word into spaces
Verbs and nouns, nouns and verbs
Barely an adjective-
(Im)precise
But all this to say, I’ve borrowed your time
Collected your attention
Become indebted
Without saying much at all

Power Glass

I venture quiet deeply in all the halls of the beasts,

Plotting all my steps and the position of my feet,

The attitude of my eyes and the spirit underneath,

Determining the future behind my gritted teeth

On the surface you can see me floating placid, peaceful, calm,

Intoxicating slowly like the liquor of the palm,

Aware of all surroundings whatever may become,

I look to meet the master, Napoleon on the farm

My mission stretches backwards, catapulting me through time,

To fossilize the remnants of the essence of “You die,”

I meet every slaver, every tyrant and I’m not afraid to pry,

To understand the machinations of the murderous of mind,

I brandish my sharpest weapon, the simple question, “why?”

And I verify the answers as I look into their eyes

Among the living there is a menace,

Glorification of bad ideas,

The raising of the heinous,

Dictatorial policy.

So I go about my ways of capturing evil in a flask,

Of the millions of grains of sand that I turn into a glass,

The mummified remains of tombs and tombs of power,

I tilt them back and forth with the changing of the hours.

You and You (Ode to Shivaji's Maji) - Amma Donyanhi

Poetry commotion

engulfed in devotion

Thought slowing motion

Action the potion

Painting on dival

letters to the law

A yellow hatter calls

intoxication mauls

A plan unveils John Rawls-

the cherries in the drawers

not in fame but down the halls

To worldwide clarion calls

Not seen but heard in thrall

Whisper Jamaican falls

bat rests in shade of Fall

Trinidadian boring gone

"Don't be scary" of me song

when will you bowl your ball?

you've been running oh so long

here to Cal to Kol

Gardens light we built so tall

unorthodox forward fall

between each leg the wall

willow firm yet sweet in stall

Stands fiending silent awe

feeding not the weeds

but giving to the street

returning home with broken feet

the apple dropped beside the cleats

remaining in the ring,

As the ropes are meant to wring

the Freedom as you sing

so hit a four or hit a six

cross the boundary with a skip

so the kingdom that you rule,

as wise man preaches fool,

remains hidden from their view

known only to the two

You and You

Row Your Boat

Whatever I feel,

What’s done to me,

I’m still the one in charge.

Live life large

Or with serenity,

This life is my property.

For all those blows

Beyond my power,

It’s up to me to face the hour-

To stand up or capitulate,

As rising waters undulate,

Stay behind, duck, cower,

Or elevate my state?

I know I have to choose and yet,

No telling what’ll come to be,

What really separates my good intention

From insanity?

I think I’ve made the right choice,

So off I go smug and content,

Only to find catastrophe-

“No that’s not what I meant!”

Let go of what I can’t control,

I’ve heard it many times.

I’ve even heard I’m not my acts,

Nor the thoughts within my mind-

Just an awareness floating free,

Not shackled by free will,

Or tortuous responsibility,

Neither innocent nor guilty.

That sounds nice, that sounds easy,

I think I’ll drift along,

Row, row, row your boat I think’s the song-

Now I’ll sing it consciously.

Lightness

Use the mind as an instrument

Is what the lesson said,

Remember that you’re more than living

And always less than dead.

Lightness also means not heavy

Like the properties of light,

The here and now is where you are

No matter how dark or bright.

Speak more or less or not at all,

Feel the quiet of sun swept mystery,

Embrace the pain and joy of life,

Love away the misery.

Disappear into a word so deep

You understand it to its core,

Then live in wordlessness a while

Or else what is living for?

Continuum

The knots in my muscles

Release themselves

Bit by bit

Like water falling over stones

Descending step by step

Loosening

Not holding me up

In awkward poses

Anymore

I think of where I’d like my bones to be

What seems most natural

Looking for balance

And uncovering

The logic of the body

Taking its position in space

Changing over time

Not imagining any purpose

Other than to be

My body

My awareness

My mind

Now I see it now I don’t

Now I control it now it controls me

Now I wonder

About the I

And the inseparability

Of all these things

Extending now my body my mind my awareness

I become the space around me

The strangers in the room

My mother sitting next to me

And I see the world

As the continuum

That I am