Unframed
1
neutrinos flung from furthest
out flying galaxies
infiltrate our membranes
in unknown ways
participating perhaps
in our deep cellular life
penetrating perhaps deeper
than our familiar demons
deeper even than the trance
of our infantile anxieties
neutrinos are slipsliding
this and justlike thataway
through the infinitely complex
layerings of this existence
who knows who knows but
when it comes to what it is
neutrinos may do among
our private lives
no news might as well
be good news
2
with every accomplished breath
each spark that crosses
the heartbeat gap from the first
mothering feeding we get
we are singeing these walls
our cell walls and all these walls
we do well always and everywhere
to remember and foresee
there may indeed be no next time
for anything whatosever you know
and i for one am very conscious that
i am not in control here
i know this type of work may be not
so happily done on a given day
or painlessly or elegantly done
and not always so easy to watch
as we juggle our karmic collisions
across celestial balancing beams
step after step you can feel it now
through the soles of your feet
and there are serious issues here
with heavy consequences
depending on the outcomes
and you may feel right now
that you can feel right now
those massless neutrinos
flowing invisibly through
our subtle little experiment
and flooding through your most
sensitive personal agenda
3
we are here to balance it all somehow
the wounding-anger-aging-dying-grief
but there must be-something to it all
because we feel something to release
let us hold the very symptoms as-such
self-evident stuff that we may dream on
heartbeat to heartbeat and now we pray
through the night our heat to keep
unto the great trance of just
another ordinary thursday
that we may and that we might
awake unframed in stark grace
a cruel fog possibly to dissipate
a yellow break a cold pink perhaps
and let us join now advancing
dancing that most sacred bliss
that there is-something whatsoever
it is that we can know
in our deepest aloneness
and by our loss
4
everything that is everywhere
up and down the ladder of life
rising into existence falling away
it is a cosmic vision
with angels descending and
ascending flaming free
fractals maybe you see
fractals in the flames
I can see beach fires raging
down below volcanic cliffs
I can see halos in blazing mists
out blooming extravagantly
billowing over us to the limits
of our abilities to contain this
along with what pain we do not
understand so much perishing
when everything is burning up
all our houses burning down
i may just rush out onto the street
we can take turns
in and out taking turns
up and down in turns
there is no other way
we must keep up the heat
we must grow each day
to glow each day
we must come alive each day
there is no other way
5
and we shall arrive unto the morrow
pretty much as we have already
met up here today and aren't you
wondering what to do
about the breakfast news
about the morning list
and what for lunch might be
shall we do lunch got milk
after work and for dinner
after dinner before bed
in bed the bed is a big wide boat
upon a silver river that
swallows down our daily substances
as silently as the ocean breathes
after the traffic dies down
after all the traffic dies
down and out out and away and that
may be a good moment for you
to dream all you can and to dream
all that you are allowed to
i will now lift this ancient conch
to my ear and here I shall stand
dreaming along beside you and
we are wide awake and dreaming
dreaming awakening
just like this one
we are allowed
this we can do
6
your breathing is oceanic
silent but i do hear you
do you hear footsteps
falling like ashes
out of your hair as we
run down dune
between black lightning bolts
out of the serpent's eyes
a lone gull squeals far and away
the very rocks cry out
in silver veils She enters
a yellow break
and suddenly this lavendar hue
is what's new
this moon this very old moon
is swerving soon into the sun
and all I want is near as you
we can kneel on the kelp
we can drink the whole ocean
out of our hands
July 1999