AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

Rumi Sufi Seuss

April 28, 2013 1 Comment

Rumi world – foto Smith

Lady: I’m going to look into the Sufi, they interest me and I know very little about them.

me: I like Sufis, they’re the sect with the greatest sense of humor.

Lady: Rumi was a Sufi.

me: Rumi Sufi Sufi Rumi. . . what, he could only afford two vowels, the U and I?

Lady: Ha . . . ha . . .

me: So is the Sufi Rumi the Rumi with a view? And if he lives in a large place, would it be a Rumi room? If he ran a thoughtful country would it be a Rumi-nation?

Lady: Steve, you should write those down. I mean, they’re not very funny, more like lite humor, but the fact you said them so quickly is impressive.

me: High praise.

Rumi by way of Dr Seuss
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you” — Rumi

“Only the lonely” the radio sings
to my heart inside with its variable wings
that fly through the cosmos inside and out
giving universal oneness an outright shout
for I am you and you are me and we be
together illusion rounded about
rich in collusion and agreed upon see
each with our input, each with our clout
we’re all many ones combined into swarm
merely collapsed Heisenbergian wave form
so do not feel lonely, as Rumi says
our out is within, a morality play
we are not only this speck trapped in time
but many an any wrapped Rumi rhyme

— Smith, 2012


Rumi nation – foto Smith

Be Guns Begone Begun

April 26, 2013 1 Comment

danger – foto Smith

Be Guns Begone Begun

13 I put the muzzle of my single shot 22
against a bumblebee buzzing flower
and BAM
no bee to be
rather or not no question

14 I was shot at by an irate owner
who objected to two kids stealing his car
out of his attached garage next to the picture window
he was sitting with his back to
while watching TV
as we rolled his car down the driveway
hoping he wouldn’t hear
but he came out yelling
then dashed back in
back out with a rifle
and started shooting
AT HIS OWN CAR
I mean, we were in it of course
so he was shooting at us
but still it was his metal between

23 I robbed two stores with a gun in my belt
made me feel big
until I saw the second clerk’s fear
her not knowing I’d not hurt her
me knowing I’d lost

Which led to more running from cops
but for once getting caught
with twenty gunned cops
pointing pistols at me
and a year in prison

67 sees both ends wrong
violence do or done
downs all
force don’t purify course

— Smith, 4.26.2013


don’t play with guns – foto Smith

SMOOTHY GROOVY LOVING-KINDNESS

April 25, 2013 No Comments

I cannot help my thoughts

I mean, I can help them
but not continuously
not all the time

I don’t have some kind of
thought filter
that works all the time

Mine’s kind of this
wide
open
thing

It lets everything
in

And it operates
by power
of association

Sure, there are habits
Healthy practices
Purification
Grooves I groove
to smoothe

There’s this relationship thing

This relationship thing
I picked up from
Christians

“God is like a husband,” some say, or,
“Take God as your lover…”

I prefer to see my husband
as the worldly manifestation
of my personal interface to
God as fleshly lover

But God is so much more than lover
There’s worldly manifestation
of my personal interface
of God as Mother, my moms and other moms
of God as Father, my dads and other dads

There’s a lot to it

God as friend… I like that…
God as friend.

So I’m hoping this relationship
this friendship with God,
is helping me get through my thoughts
easily
without guilt
just letting them slip by
or using the ones that have good use

We can cherry pick
That’s the thing these aphorisms have
tended to forget

We can cherry pick

We can take the best
from everything
and take the worst cautions
as just cautions
a kind of cautionary scaffolding
as we build the honed reality
everyone would like to see

(There’s discernment
and then there’s discernment
based on new revealed lessons

Don’t forget the new stuff

For me much old stuff
is new stuff

Don’t forget the old stuff

Or forget
only what’s useful
to forget

Or juxtapose
only what’s useful to
juxtapose

What has utility
What lets you
bend
the corners
better)

You know what?

The best thing is
not
just
thought.

The best thing is
how
thought
creates your actions.

Can your actions
create your thoughts?

I mean, that’s where you’ve worked it all out, yeah?

That’s the best way
to express intent,
well-considered action

Sure, I’d like some kind of capacitor
filter, whatever-thingie
to take irritating spikes
out of my mind

But God, ifn we do have this here friendship thingie
I’m-a-thinkin’ that You can be that capacitor-filter

Take this here Advaita
and do some manipulations
so what cascades
is pretty smoothy groovy

Smoothy groovy loving-kindness

~ Lady

arrt whorl

April 24, 2013 No Comments

arrt – foto Smith

Don’t know what Reality is trying to tell me.

Three weeks ago my year-old wristwatch band broke. I stapled it back together. Week later the watch rightly died — it was 5-years old and was tired, deserved a break.

Last week my 8-month old camera died.

Also last week my year-old laptop power supply cord died. Dug out the faulty one I’d replaced and kept right on computing, so the laptop said I’ll show you and started over-heating and turning itself off after being on anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes, so I’d let it cool down and if I were lucky I’d get 10-20 minutes an hour.

So I said heck with it, I spend too much time online and on computer, maybe it’s time to go cold turkey. Been concerned about my psychological dependence on the internet anyway. And who needs a watch when you’ve a dumbfone that tells time and date. But then we went to Target for her shoes and I got another $20 Casio because it was old-timey with a round school clock white face with black numbers and actual second and minute hands.

Figured I could borrow Lady’s camera for the occasional foto, and use her laptop when she goes to bed anywhere from 6:30 – 7:30 (she gets up at 2:30am).

Then I remembered I’d bought a 2-year replacement warranty on the camera for $10, called Micro Center and inquired, and they said sure, bring it in, we’ll give you a new one. Since we were going out there, Lady glanced at their laptops and found one on sale for $279, which may or may not be cheaper than repairing my intermittent one.

Got out there, Lady suggest I use her camera instead and she’d use her smartfone camera so we could apply the $100 camera replacement to the laptop. Micro Center said fine, so we added a 2-year extension replacement policy and I now have her used camera and my new 3-year protected laptop . . . last laptop lasted four years.

Of course new computer has Windows 8, which seems to think I’m an idiot with fat slow fingers and slower mind, and all the keys are different so I’m going wrong places doing incorrect things, and the touch pad is so sensitive it confuses passing air currents with finger taps and goes strange places to do unknown things, but all that is what keeps life interesting, yes?

Oh, in transferring my files twixt cyber critters, find I have around 50,000 fotos taken past 10 years, maybe 5,000 of them posted.

Laptop Dance

Set laptops in laps
“Armed, Captain”
open monitor lids
“Shields raised and ready”
turn on
“Make it so”
go cyberwhere
parasitic lap lover
excreting heat and bitten bytes
symbiotic sex self
slaving in lap
mingling freqs
freak to geek
pulse to pulse passion
flowing go
upload and down
with a bit of the old port in n out
until she cries
“Use me used, you USB”
(if only I had more RAM in my ROD)

– Smith, 2011


sunarise – foto Smith

Danger danger . . . Mr. Smith may be off net awhile

April 22, 2013 No Comments

I may disappear from the net for an unknown bit, hopefully short if it goes that way. My computer is malfunctioning, turning itself off with no warning after 10-20 minutes.

Weird omens from the Great Mind . . . week ago my wristwatch died, last week my power cord went out and my camera died. Today my computer may be trying to depart.

So if I’m not around and not answering emails, posts and comments, t’ain’t my fault . . . although on one level since we create our own reality, it’s all my doing.

Bad day to start my second day without grass. Decided I was relying on it rather than just enjoying it so taking a respite.

Go thee and suffer less says The Church of Not Quite So Much Pain & Suffering, the Irreverend Smith & his beloved Lady residing.

1st Annual Tremont Poetry Crawl

April 21, 2013 1 Comment

Lady reading 1st Annual Tremont Poetry Crawl – foto Smith

My segment of today’s reading was fast and effective:- 8 poems, 6 minutes, most new, never read. Folk laughed where there were supposed to, especially over Lady’s and my Valentine Day conversation.

We had to read on the sidewalk in the cold without a mic since the Doubting Thomas Gallery was locked, which made it a bit more special.

Here’s what I read for the 1st Annual Tremont Poetry Crawl.

~ ~ ~

Old Debbil Weed

If Eve hadn’t given Adam that apple
I wouldn’t be smoking today
Even so
I tried to serve Sky God
but I was drawn to that old Debbil Weed
I became a happy pappy
papa puff daddy
gadfly to gladly
nouveau bohemian in old school crowd
Sir Laugh-a-Lot of Pot-a-Lot
to Queen MaryJane
Lady Day to Lady K
Kafka to a kiss

~ ~ ~

Hors d’Oeuvres

Grandma had this cocoa clock
each half hour a small cocoa cup
came out and steamed its whistle
while every hour a cocoa bean
popped the door
and piped “Cocoa Cocoa”
once each hour for hour it was.

I’d sit and watch in awe
sipping my hot cup of cuckoo.

Of course Mother Goo’s other gruel
was soft paws, sharp claws,
in-laws, life cause,
and preposed pause.

Been there
where ain’t no way to win
or even come out even.

I prefer the cocoa clock

~ ~

Be Mine Valentine

She: I am Kathy Lady, majestic being of the Universe!
me: Do you put out?
She: I put out for you.
me: Do you go all the way?
She: Yes.
me: Can I get to home base?
She: Yes.
Then we left for grocery shopping.

~ ~ ~

Neither Neck nor Necklace

No necklace for the neckless
no creature for the creep
just loops around the landbound
and features we must leap
to catch the fly that’s hovering
just outside our reach
luring us with promise
of seeing what we seek
to satisfy the fires
that wage within our keep
except there is no neck or necklace
no fly that’s fit to eat
just lesson, learning, leaning
which make us ache to meet
what we cannot with grasping
or rending with our teeth
but only when we leave
the prison of our need
cuz there is no neck or necklace
no return on what we bleed
what’s tied to ego building
instead must plead retreat
let want, need, desire
be free from what we teach
stop fomenting fire
focus each to each

~ ~ ~

Cosmic Cable

They claim we’re born in violence
from Big Bang boom
and thus are doomed
to thrash and threat
with no thread of solace
but yet
they’re wrong
if all we are are coded bits
between recorded sheens
beamed along
by some Cosmic Programmer
to amuse whatever’s watching.

In which case we come not from violence
but silence
before we’re turned on
our code run
which is why
we dance and stew and bow and hew
to keep our corporal sponsor
just a little longer
as silence to silence we slip in journey
slowly becoming more worthy
learning the less we know.

~ ~ ~

Cock-a-doodle Do

The Great Gauze Above
wraps Earth below
in white cumulus cloud
burnished sun bright sky blue
over gleam glass ocean
green grand land
morning star to shine on through
egging me to do
something higher righter better tighter
for the light, not the liar

~ ~ ~

Wail Song

The lone train wail going somewhere whistle call
once filled my want with anywhere but here
anyone but me

This was in my youth
before military
before marriage
before prison
before divorce
before death and death and death
before sobriety and travel
and Lady and marriage
and bright sun adventure in far shadowed land
filled me with fuel and fed me with fine
made me meld me mold me mine

So now rail wail six decade down the line
no call of yearning but passing hail
from one going to done been gone

~ ~ ~

Empirical Data

Everything depends
On who and what and where and when
It never ends
Cuz everything depends
On why and high and low and then
It’s worse than Zen
This never end
If I’m awake it’s now
And constant daily harrow
Toiling morn to morrow
To somehow slip the sorrow
Trying to round the bend
Ahead of time’s outrageous arrow
Which never mends
Which never ends
Which always depends
On what reality recommends
Or the trends tend
Eye gloss ago
So
It’s now and how and when and then
Again and again and again


Lady reading 1st Annual Tremont Poetry Crawl – foto Smith

4:20, 4/20, 4/21 — poetry & pot

April 20, 2013 No Comments

Oaxacan Gold, $30 per 1/4 pound, Mexico 2007-2009 – foto Smith

Lady & I will be part of tomorrow’s 55 poet 11 venue 4 hour Tremont Poetry Crawl.

Along with poets Shelley Chernin, host Cavana Faithwalker and the rarely seen Jim Lang, Lady and I will be reading for 10 minutes each at the Doubting Thomas Gallery Sunday April 21 from 1-2pm.

There are 16 other poets reading simultaneously at three nearby venues. Same scenario from 2:30-3:30 (14 poets, 3 venues), and again from 4-5pm (4 venues, 21 poets).

Somewhat of a dilemma because too many people I’d like to see reading simultaneously at different sites. Here’s schedule, poets, and sites: Tremont Crawl.

There’s a lot of mis-information floating about over the origin of 420 as the national day to celebrate and the daily time to smoke marijuana. The most common misconception being 420 is the California police code for a marijuana bust, which t’ain’t true. In actuality it came from four Marin county California kids who met at 4:20 every afternoon to hunt for an abandoned marijuana patch in the forest. They never found it, but they smoked a lot of weed in the process and in the process adopted 420 as slang for all things marijuana, and their hanging out with the Grateful Dead during their rehearsals helped pass it on to a much larger crowd. They even have letters from the 1970s to prove it to High Times’ satisfaction.

Origin of 420 >> How ‘420’ Became the Big Day for Weed Smokers Across America.

Our 15 months in Oaxaca Mexico were a toker’s paradise – a quarter pound of Kind or Chronic was $30. Every month I got a quarter pound of weed and a couple $2 grams of black hash; the last 4 months I also bought a couple $2 grams of opium as well.

Lady K

If Eve hadn’t given Adam that apple
I wouldn’t be smoking today
Even so
I tried to serve Sky God
but I was drawn to that old Debbil Weed
I became a happy pappy
papa puff daddy
gadfly to gladly
nouveau bohemian in old school crowd
Sir Laugh-a-Lot of Pot-a-Lot
to Queen MaryJane
Lady Day to Lady K
Kafka to a kiss

— Smith with Lady K, 2006


grass seed for sale Amsterdam 2006 – foto Smith

web we weave

April 19, 2013 No Comments

spider 2007, Croatia – foto Smith

“Oh what a tangled web we weave” — Sir Walter Scott, 1808

My previous post was my latest poem, “What Web We Weave.” Today going through my ‘W’ titles, I found the same 4-words with the 1st two words reversed titling a poem I wrote last year. I must like that phrase this time of year.

Web What We Weave

Tibetan jumping spiders
attach safety strand to rock
before jumping
just in case
because it’s a long fall world up there
and there’s no prey down here.

Irish spiders glue strand to this side
then leap for that side
knowing too far
but count on breeze
to blow them over
if not they climb back up
and leap and climb and leap and climb
until on other side.

I climb through karma life to life
make new knots of old oughts
while dealing with this plot
mistaking me for my shadow.

Got no safety web
no wrapped supply of fly
but I do court the blessing breeze
to lift me up and over.

— Smith, 2012


spider 2006, Croatia – foto Smith

WEREWOLVES AND THE DALAI LAMA

April 18, 2013 1 Comment

Adding structure and convention
to my day to enforce
ideals and happiness

Dalai Lama says “bar the door”
to practices that cause one
to feel ill,
make it such that it is not
easily possible to get
caught up in them

I am not a werewolf
but I love them

Men who would be wolfen
scraggly bearded bears
of men

Honey and bread
on the table

Butter on the knife

Crumbs on the floor

The tending of yogurt

Cheesecloth

Fruit in a bowl

These men, their stews &
hermitude

Monks

Barring the door to the
outside world
lest the outside in them
come raging through to meet
the outside out there
knashing of teeth
clashing of bones

In ancient times,
werewolves
sucking the marrow
from sacrificed
virgins

Marrow me,
marry me

Marry me
fill me up
fill up my marrow

am mirror

am wife

~ Lady

what web we weave

April 17, 2013 No Comments

the cat in the crack – foto Smith

What Web We Weave

Left in Leavenworth for smuggling yeast
I sold two who towels to hoot owls
and reasoned with beasts

Had I two evils
I’d rent them by the hour
be the leaser of two evils

Down Heartbreak Hotel on Lonely Street
I dream of nooks and crannies
spooning moon sheet

A determined indeterminate being
I better be butter
honeyeye sweet

Ride shotgun on sagecoach
backside the bar code
in tarnished brain land

I’m arrogant flux, it’s the who I am
but I’m cool with it, say aw shucks
get away with my scam

— Smith, 4.17.2013


grrrrr – foto Smith