Pdlyons's ExplorationsONLY AUGUST
crows
almost quiet
only feather sounds
rising
almost still
only slow
steady beating
as if horses
finally
taught themselves
to march in order
across the field
almost green
only smoky
spiral dust
descending
mirage
as if insects
finally
taught themselves
to sing
like falling rain
across the mid day
almost yawning
only August
from the recently published Myths Of Multiplicity. Erbacce-press, Liverpool UK. If you order from Erbacce then not only is postage free
but all profits will directly benefit Erbacce writing co -operative.
http://www.erbacce-press.com/#/sales/4528051110
For All The Sylvias
sometimes our Odysseus hearts
slip all those sailor knots
sometimes life, not appalling,
rather free – so free we can choose to fly
we have not always carried
flaming skulls of anger
sipped curdled clots of blood
we have not always harmonized
harsh heavy dogs of our dismay
gristled our own lovers
sometimes we have slipped clearly,
breathless and perfectly certain
beyond all mysterious constraint
sometimes we do not come back.
sapphiric no more
golden filigree no more
sun dress polka dots
tall G&T’s
heart shape sunglasses
our children pail and shovel the beach
their laughter, their chatter
muted by waves
grown more distant,
ever more distant
.
from the recently published Myths Of Multiplicity. Erbacce-press, Liverpool UK. If you order from Erbacce then not only is postage free
but all profits will directly benefit Erbacce writing co -operative. http://www.erbacce-press.com/#/sales/4528051110
In 1990 I was lucky enough to travel to Belize. For half the trip we were doing a horse trekking in the highlands. We stayed at a former orange plantation – i remember most vividly the of free flying parrots. They were elegant airborne acrobats so unlike those domesticated souls back in the states. We wold ride through the jungle for hours sometimes lunching by water falls, or swimming into limestone caves. we each were issued a machete to lop off the foliage as we rode. It was deemed poor etiquette to not do your fair share of keeping the trails clear. occasionally we’d pass trees of ripe citrus – reach up from horse back and pick one. Our guide had worked with Harrison Ford on a film based in Belize. He told us he really liked Harrison and became friendly with him. So much so that Harrison promised to take him back to America where he could work for him. But this never happened and now he didn’t like Mr. Harrison Ford too much no more.
Xunantunich is a Mayan site. It had been excavated years ago, a pyramid complex. The steps of which were terrifyingly steep and slippery with wet limestone. All to quickly we would be done with our days of 4-6 hour rides and return to Belize City our only solace being to go on and spend a week on Ambergris Caye discovering the sea.
Xunantunich
The silent policeman
Lay himself down
Across the great western highway
Tired from watching everyone
He wants a return to dreaming
A return to those days of the high bush
Those days of the interior.
Swimming into limestone caves
Box of toucan matches
Lighted lantern
Floats on a little block of wood
While on a smoke of kerosene
Coming back to him now, the words of his fathers:
“So now you know. Everything is alive.”
The silent policeman
Lay himself down
Across the great western highway
Tired of growing heavy with the world
He wants a way
To avoid
End of Paradise Hotels
ESSO drums
Coca-Cola CESSNAS
To return
To those days of the interior.
Behind his eyes bare foot women light the lamps
Honey shadows seep up into a palm thatch
While owls make questions of constellations
And rolling in from across the valley
A hush answers “From the pale eye of the hunter
A single tear drop fell arching over an unseen face
It touched Earth and disappeared.”
Ring tail ghosts come by
Soft grey kisses through white jungle nets of night
Beyond an ancient plaza
Immersed in some whisper of wings
Jealous eyes of jaguar
Two great gold pearls on the edge of rain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.metbelize.com/lodging.html
(unfortunately I did not get custody of the photos so none from Belize)
2015 NOTE – in setting up this blog post i search for some info re Xunantunich and found this piece of info kind of interesting, keep in mind i wrote the piece on my flight home in 1990 – from Wikipedia listing –
Xunantunich’s name means “Stone Woman” in the Maya language (Mopan and Yucatec combination name), and, like many names given to Maya archaeological sites, is a modern name; the ancient name is currently unknown. The “Stone Woman” refers to the ghost of a woman claimed by several people to inhabit the site, beginning in 1892. She is dressed completely in white, and has fire-red glowing eyes. She generally appears in front of “El Castillo”, ascends the stone stairs, and disappears into a stone wall.[citation needed]
myths of multiplicity by pd lyons 2014 runner up erbacce poetry prize
We use thoughts to protect ourselves from what we don’t know. As there is so much we don’t know we become steadily on the defense, trying to anticipate or predict all aspects of a situation. I can’t know you because I am trying to predict you. To make sense of what I don’t know by guessing. At best I will only create confusion. But this adds to my own existing fear ( of being wrong, of not being in control) thus furthering my need to anticipate, to be right, to be strong. What if instead I allowed you, your own self expression, and then…?
Today –
May I create the courage to allow others space to express themselves. To allow the whole world to express themselves.
STAR NOTES
The house turned into a squat brown man
Got up walked away.
What was there – where the house once was
What remains – that is very interesting.
When illusions getup & leave
Walk, fly, melt away
What is left, what’s behind, what’s there
That’s the thing
Life/death/the original psychedelic
Acid trip.
Knowing how to deal with acid
One learns how to deal with life death.
“There is no passing away
No coming into existence” – Diamond Sutra
What is sacred
Cannot be written
Cannot be spoken
Beyond all degrees of separation
Is the sacred.
The language of accountants
Have no say.
The Druids were Taoist
In their way.
The body that is not me
The ego that is not me
I thank y ou for you are no curse
But rather opportunity.
This is the body
This is the ego
Gives me the chance
If I did not need them
They would not be.
In this world
Its not what’s real
That can hurt you.
Poet as Noun
he did not know what else to do
so he wrote
he did not think of it
he did not believe it to be divine
he was afraid of everything else
so he did this one thing
not that he didn’t do other things
but they were all varying responses to fear
attempts to over come
deny
hide from
himself and others
like the first one to do acid
like the first one to not cut his hair
like the first one to get married have a kid get divorced
get arrested go to jail
leave town leave the country
all the while knowing the falseness of bravado
he did not know what else to do
so he wrote
no matter how high
how angry
how lonely enough to believe that god did in fact exist and had abandoned him
no matter how much sex
how many lovers
how many miles
how many broken torn up hearts including his own
he did this one thing
and because of this he never needed anyone to tell him who was
yeah they could call him whatever
bastard
mother fucker heartless bastard
just a kid
a kid in love
a bleeding heart
ignorant liberal
beautiful lover
hackney painter
failed husband
a traveler of foreign lands
a lover a husband a loving husband a loving father
an outlaw of love a dealer of drugs a rider of fast horses across broken unknown terrain
selfish, grifter,
all these were changeable all these mere adjectives
temporary partial descriptions,
the noun he had always been
because he did this one thing
and then one day he stopped
1974 crosby
We almost changed the world
from hate to love
from war to peace
from stress to joy & compassion
sickness to care
poison to healing
abusiveness to kindness
starvation to nourishment
subjugation to inclusiveness
greed to respect
you get the idea?
and it could have been so much easier than what we decided to allow instead – wtf
nebulous shapes
so no random design
altering this world
parchment tattooed
often at pain
rightfully feared by those righteous
like twin fishes
one dark one fair
sucker mouths
big eyes blue brown bulging
almost touching glistening lashes
gladly met a sea of humanity
gladly back joining in their bed
drown in their ocean
Dear Friends,
I will be taking a summer break this year to travel and gain new impressions for my creative work.
So I wish you all a wonderful time and would be happy to see you again in autumn.
Stay healthy!
Josephine.
——
Picture designed and created by Josephine.
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