Depending

weeds have grown over the petunias

making the petunias stretch sideways seeking sunlight

but sunlight has scorched the grass that lay exposed for dogs to sniff and urinate on

curious dogs find delicious morsels along their route - treats to their daily diet

perhaps our prize - the real treat to seek is

a petunia touched by a sliver of sun living on unscorched grass strong enough to survive roaming dogs and

weeds

they kill
sometimes strengthen
all dependin'
 

 

- mailed to Ohio this week - 
Artwork by Heather Gwen Martin

Bruised

Bruises are breaking a child
into unequal portions
for future distribution

Not the toppled bicycle kind of bruise
nor the mean friend sort.
The dead pet bruise along with the
failure to excel type - all exempt.
If clothed, fed and able to recite an address,
sorry, relevance to you is minimal too.

These are bruises from extreme ambivalence
accentuated with designed cruelty.
Bruises produced by abstract religio-political belief:
war, causing an upheaval from the home.
Emotional bruises when humans near or far battle.
Insanely, they are bruises made from others' wounds.

Rage and ache for those bruised.
Understand, as different parts of the bruised
arrive in society, they may not add-up as expected.
 

 

- mailed to Michigan this week - 
- Artwork by Rachel Whiteread - 

Go Tell A Story

                     I.
a hint, a wink, a slight move
an explanation, illustration, description
all options for communication

                     II.
Experiences slip into memory
and are squandered if not told as stories.
Story is needed
for the experience to live beyond memory.

                     III.
To tell a story can be
sweat inducing, adrenaline producing
and on that rare occasion -- 
when heads nod and eyes get bigger -- 
satisfying.
When the cycle works flawlessly --
experience - memory - story --
another, different story may be born.
 

 

- this one sent to Alabama - 
video here...
Artwork = Gerhard Richter

untitled Church

A church that questions more than commands
Enables its religion to give more than demand

A giving church receives from its community
While its religion inspires the intellect with impunity

You will never know the church aright
Without depositing your spirit and talents and insight

So reach high and low and discover your best voice
Wherever you find church, you should be given the choice

 

- mailed to Tennessee - 
video here...
Artwork by Henrietta Shore
 

Magnificently Futile

A curtain flutters from an open window. A story begins,
romantic and devastating in one genuflection.
A person mourns their loss of potential.
They were involved in making art.
Their long flow of success, stopped.

Upon opening that window last evening,
   the bomb exploded right there.
     Startled, then stumbling on a stool causing a
       smashed ear on the edge of a laptop screen;        
         Feeling the heat of blood rushing into the skull;
           Limbs responding slower as thoughts become static-y.
Trapped all night in a cycle of:
   jarring explosions - 
     fueling the skull with blood -
       causing less limb movement - mind fleeing.
         explosion - blood - less movement
           explosion - blood - less movement
   Feeling the mind evaporating
     as blood hemorrhages into the skull.

Unable to move now,
the curtain flutters in the morning.
A body alive, but finished.
A groan, an ache at the magnificent futility --
A terror is not intended to steal art from people.
But it happens.
 

 

- this one sent to Kentucky - 
video here...
Artwork by Adam Katz

Dress The Noise

                         I.
It is noisy over here.
Voices in-the-round
     consuming my patience;
Demanding attention like the car seatbelt
     beep-beep-beeping at me.
I want to clean up the noise --
scrub it hard until the dirt gives way.

                         II.
Adding noise upon noise yields little.
But finding the space between
     and around the noise --
it could be called harmony.

Make the noise yours by dressing it --
like a salad.  Dress the noise in context.
Give it relationship,
     and watch it disturb someone else.
 

 

- this one mailed to Indiana - 
Artwork by Gerhard Richter

Some Sense

Somewhere, Sometime, Someone Somehow suggests Something;
and we listen.

Sometimes, Somebody makes Something Somewhere and Somehow,
it is useful.

Someone Somewhere decides that Somehow, Something Someday should improve;
and they do it.

Something Somebody Somehow needs, Sometimes surfaces Someplace;
and they use it.

Somehow Somewhere Someone in Someway screams for peace for Something;
and we hear it.

Some believing needed...
 

 

- mailed to Mississippi this week - 
video here...
artwork by Alberto Giacometti and Yves Klein

For You

This day your birth day:
go play
if you dare
go play
in the world all day

go play
with the ones you scream with
go play
in that mind you dream with

go play
until you are panting
just like that dog
who does all that chanting

go play
within the work that calls
go play
not caring when that heart stalls

go play
aware that a birth changes the world
go play
demanding that earth sing like a bird

stop now.
look very closely to your heart,
your gifts
and this reason you exist

 

- mailed to Illinois this week -
photo by EAG
 

Gift

Somebody cares about you
But where are they
How do you find them, tackle them

What if you let them find you
What if you open every pore,
every opening, every door

How about if they don't care
What to do if the one you want
blows a giant hole in all those doors

A gift, a gift, one answer is always a gift
You give give and give
for many moments minutes and years

And when you hardly remember
for how long how many or even why
you gave those gifts to those you adore

A blizzard of memories interact
with the stories you tell
Blending a potion attractive-as-hell

 

- mailed to Wisconsin - 
video here...
artwork by Jackson Pollock...

Another Our Father

Our Father, who eventually will retire,
        today we recount your name.
Through all your life
        you've earned said privilege
        by championing your lot in every way.

Feed us a life that is all our own.
And forgive, please forgive our teenage years,
       as we dismiss now 'our' children's errors...

The path you swept wide, for us to see,
refused to hide danger - introduced beauty so free.

Dear father O father today's forever your day.
Lay-down, breath-out, recall the life that you played.
 

                                    - a riff on the "lords prayer" - 
 

- this one sent to Minnesota - 
video here...
Artwork by Sol LeWitt

Particularly Sweet

                          I.
You want me to celebrate you?
In all you do, did, and might do.
The frustration with education
dissipates with graduation --
          your epic hard-fought battle.
Learning to read then reading to learn,
          look look,
you've come out ahead, on top of the norm.

                          II.
If at any time you believe love nurtures love,
today is the day, on graduation day.
From all those dinners and drama and jabber,
a person emerges that is believable
          and not likely repeatable.
Therefore today, today!  I applaud applaud this day.
Realizing the celebration is particularly sweet
when it is not my achievement
          but yours complete.

 

Artwork by Roy Lichtenstein
- mailed to Iowa this week - 
video on YouTube here...
 

Be

                                Be

Dear                                                        Dear
everybody                                        anybody
do not be afraid                   please be afraid
to push somebody         to pull down a mate
to be great                        when they're great
today                                                someday

 

 

Artwork by Lucio Fontana
- Poem mailed to Missouri this week - 
video here...