Quote: John Coltrane Poem:This Moment

My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music.
—John Coltrane

This Moment

More people are walking
Into traffic; so terrible
So traumatic.
A few get run over
More than once
Shape-shifters
Like coyote and armadillo.

We follow human aftermath.
On the teli, in the paper, from
No name to identification
To obituary.

Many times there is no
Summation, was he/she,
German, Irish, Sudanese?
Did I attend school with them?
Did she work for my dad?
It behooves me to demystify.

Yesterday
A road side bomb killed 35.

Quote:Shelby Foote Poem:Jesus and Junk Yard Dogs

Shelby Foote said, "A writer's like anybody else except when he's writing."



Jesus and Junk Yard Dogs

You found a door
And just had to paint
Jesus, or would it
Make sense to say Christ-
Resurrected from such
Yard junk?
That’s where He is most
The refuse of our being.

Sorting
He looks over His shoulder
Hounds of the self are unleashed
In fits of healing. And at that
Moment of pouncing, all dogs pounce
Christ uncurls to expose
Wounds of belonging
Dogs adjust their snouts
Sniff, and unsnarl, lick persecution
Till scabs form.

The door, where it is
That’s the key, consenting us
Into ourselves and Christ’s
Love, unsure foot by unsure foot
Over and over.

Quote:Arthur Miller /Poem:Getting Sentimental Over You

Arthur Miller died on February 11, 2005. He said, "Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."



Getting Sentimental Over You


I had an older sibling
I never knew- aborted
Decades before I was conceived.
I pondered my siblings trail
Down birth canal, assisted
By stainless steel, body cramps
Shame and scrubbed hands.

Mom was wounded to silence
Leaving bits of unborn
On all of us children
As we slid down
Her common tideway.

Prior to their wedding day
Mike loved Ellen and Ellen
Said I will, and she did.

Quote:Nathanael West Poem: Rules

Nathanael West said, "Forget the epic, the masterwork ... you only have time to explode."

Rules

Dad had a rule
that he could punish me
till I was taller than
the chest of drawers.

I was already over-height
and did not know
it was the one in his brain
he measured me to.