Bottom Line

I will meet you halfway 
If that is what you want, 

But please don’t ask me 
To decide for you. 

The Buffalos and Billy the Kid: Raymond, Washington, circa 1951

Sharp shooting pin- 
Ball wizards shoot 

Wads of nickels 
Into bellies 

Of blinking beasts, 
Then mosey on up- 

Stairs to vanishing 
Breed of past 

Prime whores still 
Alive but barely 

Kicking on dying First Street— 
Saloon’s mascot urchin 

Gets down on all fours 
Under Ballys— 

Has more than a hunch 
A few stray buffalo heads
 
Have yet to bite the dust. 

Bleeding Heart Haiku

Go on—bloody cry; 
Your heart hasn’t run out yet— 

Give it one more try. 

Reverse Arrested Development

Why is it 

My three-year-old 
Granddaughter can 
Entertain herself 

For hours on end 
With nothing save her 
Imagination when 

I try musing with that idea 
I end up with nothing 
But a dead end. 

Flesh Wound

look again— 


nothing too 

superficial— 


how even this small 

sliver working it- 


self out 

has to 


heal. 

Troubling Inner Sanctum

Call me 
Quasimodo if you want, 
But whenever I feel 
I have to venture deep 
Inside the troubled 
Heart, I make doubly sure 
All doors are barred 
And the window 
Shutters shut tight— 
I brook no grotesque salivating 
Straitjacketed curiosity 
Seekers disturbing 
My mind’s deformed slant. 

Kudos for Joe Blow

Congratulations, sport! 
In belated recognition 
Of your exemplary service 
Above and beyond the call 
Of the daily drudgery roster, 
You’ve been selected 

To receive everything 
Your heart desired but 
Never had time for before 
Now, but you must act now— 
Please sign on the dotted line; 
You can read your eulogy later. 

"Write a Poem for Me, Papa?"

If I’m reading her 
Three-year-old mind 
Right, this could mean 
Either she wants me 
To write another 
Poem about her 
Or for her or who- 
Knows-what but how 
Tell the difference, 
And find words 
To describe how 
Her mind works 
When she’s disarming 
Me so ingenuously right 
Now with that telling 
Look that’s looking right 
Through me as if to say 
It’s all right, Papa 
Whatever you write, 
You’ll still be 
The only grandpa 
I have who’s a poet— 
Whatever that is. 

Snuffed, Or the Demise of Existentialism

When your livid 
Being’s being torn asunder
By frivolous absurdities

And you find yourself burning
All your candles before 
They come to an end. 

Hopeless Romantic Aspirant

It appears 
I have no worldly ambitions 
In the least, at least that’s what 
My discerning, highly 
Esteemed colleagues mostly 
Accuse me of, and I suspect 
They are right—after all, 
All I’ve ever wanted is 
To make myself comfortable 
Before a blank piece of paper 
And make believe 
It’s my whole world. 

Bald Eagle on Cloud Nine

Oh say if ever 

Those hawkish glorious
Talons of yours turn the world 
Upside down, watch out— 

You’ll always be a sitting 
Duck there on the top 
Looking down. 

Vindication of the Flash in the Pan

It’s true 
By the time you read this, 
I shall have departed 

Forgotten by all 
In a flash of a second, 
And my body too 

Soon dissolved into dust, 
But the mite-like words 
That swirled round 

The whirlwind I once was 
Tell me ungrateful ones, 
Are they not already 

Bedded down on the tips 
Of your bloated and too soon 
Forgetful tongues? 

Think Again

the voice 
you think 

you hear 
inside you 

thinks twice 
as hard 

as you 
and you 

never know 
it hears 

you, too. 

Back to Square One, Misfits

From where I sit, 
The long and short of it 

Is that where 
We’re going everyone 

Knows but no- 
One’s falling over 

Backwards to be 
The first to fit 

A square peg 
In a round hole. 

Spiritual Matters Do Count, Poet

Soul-wracked, sick 
To death of hearing 
About their exploits

In the outside world, 
You will not be there 
Upon their return; still

You wish to leave a message 
That will convince them 
You were there all those times 

When they were elsewhere; 
You have made sure of that 
By leaving your body as evidence. 

Paying Obeisance to the American Dream

Most poor souls who ended up 
Leaving their bodies here 
Came over because friends 
Or relatives wrote 
And told them it was not at all 
Like the old country; 

In this new world 
There was more than you 
Could imagine, plenty 
To do and more 
Money than you 
Ever dreamed of— 

All you had to do 
Was keep your head 
Down, stoop over 
And—without 
Missing a beat— 
Pick it up. 

Greek Mountain Tea

near 

a stone


hut in a high

meadow of wild mint 


infusing it 

Recycling for Obstinate Dummies

Let me try 

Breaking it down for you 
Once and for all— 

Environmental waste is what remains 
When we take everything 

We want from the earth 
And leave nothing 

But our stinking remains. 

Ionian Threnody

These children being washed 
Up lifeless on our sun-drenched shores, 
From what illustrious race are they descended 
And what woe has brought them to us 
In God’s name? 

Surely some great catastrophe 
Has befallen them 
And they seek nothing 
But a far, far better world than that 
From which they came. 

If we could but tell them 
At last the journey’s over 
And their lives not lived in vain, 
Who would cleanse our bodies 
Of our frightful, faceless shame? 

Peace for Our Time, Brothers

Sometimes—and it just might be 
This time around—one has to 
Come to terms with the term 
“Unconditional surrender”— 

But like any survivor, be he 
Vanquished or victorious 
Breaking down each 
And every article of war, 

I wouldn’t guarantee it. 

Poet Found Sleeping on the Job

I bet you’ve heard this one time and time again— 
Your next word could be your last. So why 

Weren’t you paying attention? 

I Reckon That Wannabe Done Reckoned Wrong

There was this whole slew 
Of opportunities awaiting 
His every beck and call, 
But each was blind and deaf 
And couldn’t walk at all. 

Finally, Out of the Summer Doldrums

The calico dying 
Leaves swirl wildly 

In a grim, grey wind 
Rain pelts down 

In sheets, the poem 
Your writing’s still 

Like that fat cat 
Curled up, purring 

In its fur- 
Lined basket 

Near the fire- 
Place in the corner 

Of the plush living 
Room again. 

The Letter I Like to Imagine My Father Wrote to President Truman in 1947

The White House, 
America 

Dear Mr. President Harry, 

My English not so good but 
I want to write you about problem I got. 
I know you a good man and you listen. 
I go to America in 1912. There 
I work hard in lumber camps. 
In 1917 I join Army 
And become proud natural citizen. 
Army send me to Europe to fight Germans. 
War over I come back to America. 
Work hard again. Save little 
Money and go back 
To Greece 1936 for find 
Good woman and make family. 
Have two boys now, 9 and 3. 
War and Germans keep me here. 
In Greece then life very hard die many people. 
War over now but things not good still. 
People poor hungry no jobs. 
No money for return 
With family to America. 
You and America last hope. 
Send tickets please. I honest 
Swear I work hard pay you back 
Every cent because I want you know 
All my life I never vote Republican. 

God bless you, 

Anastasios G. Zambaras, 
Loomi, Messenias, Greece

Dawn by the House of Stone That Jack Built

Bent over, carrying 
The slate-grey 

Sky with me 
As I descend 

The winding steps slowly 
Into the garden, 

I cannot pretend 
It’s been easy 

From beginning to end, 
Nor can I not 

But hesitate at the last 
Step and look back on 

To where the house, 
Smothered 

In a sea of jasmine, 
Floats ambivalent, 

As if hewn out 
Of clear blocks 

Of diaphanous air. 

The Massive Poetic Time Bomb Missive

Dear Tom, Dick and Harry:

Strange you should ask 
What it is that makes us 
Tick—and boy have you 
Ever got me there— 

But I do want you 
To note that 
No sooner do 
We think we’re close 

To taking apart that 
Blankety-blank clock 
Than the alarm goes off— 
No time 

To gather the odd 
Bits and pieces, no 
Time for no 
Bodies like us 

To even blink, 
Let alone think. 

On a Phrase of Aeschylus*

No sea in Syria, no sea 
In Afghanistan, only 
A sea of suffering 
Humanity and if it is 
With difficulty we see 
‘The Aegean flower 
With corpses’, it is not 
Because we have to 
Wade through 
A sea of the world’s 
Indifference to witness 
It but also because 
We do not wish to hear 
The siren-beset ship we are 
Sailing on is well 
On its way to Lethe. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 *Agamemnon, l. 659
 
 cf. the following link to see how George Seferis uses this phrase in one of his poems: 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-manner-of-g-s/

Stopping by a Grove of Ancient Olive Trees Near Twilight, I Think Myself Fortunate

Lost in recollection
Amidst deep ancient wrinkles, 
This is where one should spend 
The dying minutes of each wasted day.

Autumn of My Mother-in-Law

In straight- 
Backed chair, crumpled 

Wispy hands on lap, 
Mind gone 

To the rocky hills and sheep 
She used to tend to 

On the slopes spring 
To summer behind 

The village up here, now 
All behind her she waits 

For the fog to lift 
For a glimpse 

Of winter approaching 
In the lowland 

Meadows that must be 
Somewhere she says—slowly 

Lifting her right arm 
And pointing 

Straight ahead— 
Down there. 

Heraclitus on the Boob Tube

First notice that 
Nothing is as 
It used to be, 
Thus everything is 
No longer on 
Familiar ground—even that 
Couch potato you once 
Thought was impervious 
To change now 
Looks to be sprouting 
Eyes in the back 
Of its cabbage head. 

Rainy Day Exploit

“. . .the poet— 
brats in the street fling shit at him. . .” 

—George Seferis, “Three Secret Poems” 


The drops keep pelting quite 
Poetic the tarmac stupid sheep 

Keep dropping glazed 
Pellets that end up stuck 

Smartly to your feet. 

View of the Ithome Mountains (with Bats) at Crepuscule

In lieu of a poem--my favorite crepuscular vantage point--a poem in itself. (Please use headphones at high volume.)

Why Some Poets Have No Business Calling Themselves Angels

Oblivious to all 
That’s ugly 

On the face of the earth, 
They call forth heavenly 

Strains of pizzicato, expansive 
And graceful picking 

Within a modicum of space, 
There where 

They dance stark 
Naked with demons 

On the head of a pin. 

On the Refugee Problem Besetting the European Union

Dear brothers 
In a common cause, 
These teeming masses 
Of supplicants besieging 
Our sacred borders 
Seek nothing 
Save a sanctuary where 
They can rest their weary heads; 
Their plight does indeed cut 
Us to the quick—pray 
Let us show compassion, 
Home in on each and every one 
With heaven-sent teargas, plenty
Of angelic cudgels and lay 
Their worries to rest before 
The final, merciful kill. 

Orgasm of Greed: All or Nothing

Jack of all trades, master at abating 
All save avarice, no need 

To squirrel all the precious fun— 
Just work those nuts off silly 

Neutered all the way 
To no kingdom cum. 

Approaching Knowing Night Birds from Afar

Strange we should be so taken in 
By warm, childish cries alighting 

On our shoulders on the wings 
Of a sultry summer night, 

Only to have them turn palish 
Cold without our knowing it,

Grey silent owls taking flight.

 

Banner Year

This was another one 
Of those years 

That had something 
For everybody— 

Even the homeless 
Have-nots had the usual 

Copious shares of nothing. 

Young She-goat in Well Still Wet behind Ears

Hearing her 
Owner’s frantic 
Yells for help and before we ran 
To raise her and she romped off 
To dry in sun-drenched meadow, 
She was down there a drowning 
Blatting bobbing waterlogged pandemonium, 
Dog-paddling round stony ring of death accompanied 
By chorus of cacophonous frogs stoically croaking 
In deadpan disbelief. 

A Childhood Lost, Just Like That

That classic Greek landscape you left’s done 
A disappearing act. You recall 

A just man like many long dead saying 
It won’t be here when you get back 

With you still homeless, 
Twice an immigrant. 

On Piscine Poets out of Water

--for Huuklyeand Cinquor, il miglior fabbro 


Don’t piddle precious time 
Sounding your position out— 
Your next line is always 
Easier to swallow 
If you don’t know 
You’re hooked. 

Melanoma

All you bigoted zealots rejoice! Whatever 
Blemish defies washing away keeps 

Sinking further into the skin 
Till it turns purple, drowning 

In its own unfathomable joy juice. 

Natura Apocalyptica

Astounding— 

Under the umbrella pines the crowd 
Of revelers moved ecstatically 

By the buzzing of its own 
Voice does not hear the mass 

Of cicadas busily burying it. 

Manunkind Unrattled

It’s time to dispense with the usual 
Time-consuming formalities 
And tell you right off that 

Just as you live unfazed and breathe 
In your man-made stench, so 
Shall you expire before you know it. 

Think about it. In the meantime, 
Kindly grab all the quality 
Time you need, mensch. 

The Weight

Up in the village 
Watching my wife doting 
On her mother sliding quickly 
Downhill into oblivious senility, 
I cannot but recall how 
Many times she’d made 
The long haul from the village 
To that little summer garden 
Two twisting miles straight 
Down to the gorgeous 
Gorge and back, a straw 
Basket in each hand laden 
With freshly-harvested vegetables 
And hauling more often than not, 
The latest of her six 
Children in a sling 
Across her now 
Bent-over back, 
And looking on all 
That had to be 
Done each day as inevitable 
As the sun rising and setting 
And never once asking why 
It had to be that way. 

Intangible Air of Reciprocity

The wind believes 

It has an aura 
As long as the pines 

Long to hear it. 

Straight from the Horse's Mouth: Huuklyeand Cinquor on Why Valéry Is Still Valid

One thing is clear 
In your work, dude— 
This insistence on purity 

Validates absolutely nothing, 
For nothing is pure 
And it’s certainly not 

Unadulterated horseshit. 


Moderator’s comments: "Hi-ho, Cinquor away!"


 

One Way or Another, Wisdom Grows on One with Age

My father was old enough 
To be my grandfather 

And I too young to know 
It made no difference. 

Mendicants Toeing the Capitalist Line

Don’t breathe a word— 
You can’t see it but that 
Rucksack on your back 
Has just enough 
To carry you through 
Another day, 
But no need to worry— 
That other beggar 
With a rucksack 
Just like yours 
Walking before you 
Will never give you away. 

Phenomenologically Speaking

In the dim 
Cramped light of the old 
Folks’ home there was 

Still enough room 
For the shadows 
To come alive. 

Tsunami Crisis Management, Hellas 2015 A.D.

What do we Hellenes do when a crisis is over?
We go back to a life with more crises,
One life with one crisis after another,
But we despair not!

Millenniums basking
On the sun-drenched shores
Of the Mediterranean have taught us how
To perform wonders as long as we persevere

In sitting back in our beach chairs,
All the while making like a wave.