Tuesday, September 28, 2010

CYCLES.... OF ALL SORTS

To Everything

From crept emerald
slugged caterpillar
to wet winged butterfly
fresh from chrysalis
poised to soar
a season, a time
for all


On Cycle

Father back-hands a mother's face
then holds her in passionate embrace
Child grows to do the same
Only a slim chance to escape this game
Frigid winter melts to hope bursted spring
Loosening concurrent despairing
Shaking hand does not stay
reaches for the amber bottle after many a day
Suckling infant, grows to man strong
and creates from himself another before too long
Ravaged child in fear quakes
until grown a victim child he takes
There are cycles one hopes to shatter
and others uplifting all that does matter
All that was, is, and will come to be
most cycles a choice only few fixed naturally


White Light

white light flashing brilliantly
fingers,faces,fly
white light flashing brilliantly

upside or downside up

light flash, sound crash, chaos blur
to a finger flicked, a smile returned,
form, order, meaning, connection,
extended, expanded, apparently limitless
until
light flash, sound crash, chaos blur
more or less

Sy Kills


Oh no here comes Sy again
he was at one prompt time into
science but now violence is his pen


"SY KILLS" The back story of Sy Nomore


Knew him at the lab at school
still, poised, silent "tech"
first at work, polite all through

Deferential all he knew
beneath the surface
toxic fuliminations brew

Until today's headline read
dead at hand of one
Sy - quiet man, hatred led

Entered science to dissect
why his father had
dropped from roof rope tight on neck

For P... - Cycle of Sweetness

Little girl's
smooth chest
rises
two small
bumps
into breasts
sweet cells dance in
joyful growth
whirling until

Something happens
who knows?
Maybe one elbowed another
and things turned sour
animus filled
they gathered and
eyed each other

Until forced
the trouble-makers marched
to their rooms
and behaved quietly
reading books
and staring out the window
for a while
until in the way of
trouble-makers they
stirred again

Now
No More Time Outs
Now comes
Forever Banishment
Gone
Expelled
All
But for the joyous and
sweet
again
safely dancing
deeply loving
under smooth skin
into the musical
distance of ever after

BOP THAT CLOCK
(this is a particular form 3 stanzas 6-8-6 and a refrain)

Hands moving forward on the big clock time
Things that moved in rhythm now just rhyme
Up the stairs climbing pushing air like a mime
Up the stairs climbing pushing air like a mime
Wake up with a start straight up in the bed
Heart stopped, heart pounds, fed on the dread

Shake it off – Shake if off – Keep moving on.

Hands moving, hands moving seconds at a time
Want to stop the hour glass pour back sand’s climb
Want to stop the hour glass pour back sand’s climb
Sagging, slogging, physicality
Twirling, sparkling, sizzling, sensuality
Things that moved in rhythm, now just rhyme
Ache to make each second count not mark time
Up the stairs, up the stairs, pushing air like a mime

Shake it off – Shake if off – Keep moving on.

Hands moving, hands moving, flying over time
Dancing, prancing, hip jut, lip pout, jazzing on the climb
Breathe deep- Breathe deep - Drop all that dread
Clear the webs – Clear the webs - Clear the webs from your head
Turn it, touch it, burn the candle – burn the candle - two ended flame
Long as you feel it – Feel it - You still in the game.

Shake it off – Shake it off – Keep moving on.



Oh Me Oh My

The same as in years gone by
Go to the booths push the lever
Tap on a screen or with a pencil write
Curtains open or just walk away
Presto changeo and wallah!
A new President cheered by some
And by others No Way!

When will this cycle change
who can be the one to know
Just carry forward and off to vote there go

You see that's the way it used to be
Some folks heart sick
But always deferring for the country
Their hearts looking up from the floor
Knowing there'd be another chance in four

That's the way our founder's set it up to be
And ALL played along if not happy then at least nicely
Until an unseemly patently unAmerican hatred
Set a table at a Mad Tea Party

Now we ALL hold onto each opposite side
Fearing I suppose that we might just slide
And like Alice long ago
Land in a strange Through- The.- Looking- Glass world
that none of us will know

Yet in the holding hard in fear and mistrust
We are creating a country in which in " No One "
Anyone can trust

This is the United States of America, remember?
" home of the brave and land of the free? "
.....all those pretty words from sea to shining sea
Up to all Americans after the horror visited on WE
to realize the threat to OUR America is if WE become
each other's enemy
Let us renew our nations' vows sitting on this or that side of the aisle
Putting aside petty differences....because they're ALL petty drenched in guile
Our nation needs us all..united all as one
Let's get the work beginning and the renewal done
We have no time for bickering, no time for fuss or hate
There are forces that threaten our ideals of life
Kicking at the gate...
Unite and escort them gently out by the arm
Americans band together against ANY that would do this nation harm
Be the harmers fly across the globe or shout from your tv
Other nations even empires have fallen from on high
It can happen here as well if hatred allowed to putrify


Around and around

Everyone it has been said
Opinion can hold
Facts shimmer but lies fold

So it has been and so it
Shall always so be
In this nation's shining " see"


Cycle's Tears

Why are you crying?
Why grand- daddy?
Because little one
All this is not new to me

Do You Get It?

Do you get it?
Do you get it?
Do you see.
Do you see?
This is no tv
Reality fun
You're playing
With a loaded gun
Aimed not into the sky
But at the heart of
This country
Do you get it?
Do you get it?
We're all in this
Potential slide
While you play
With murderous suicide

Look around
Look around
And you will see
Under the hatred
There is a nation
Of you and me....

Doesn t matter
Who started it
End it, end it now
Act together
Not alone
Then let's slap
Each other on the back
And take a bow
The show will go on
With us or without
Let's listen to each other
Still all the lips that shout
Not ten years ago we realized how much we were one
How could we forget so soon
And let hatred at each other have an applauded run?


Cycling


I dreamt a dream impossible one year when I was twelve
An English Racer bicycle gleaming British green.
I dreamt this dream impossible as my birthday drew closer near
and then as is the way of things one morning it was there
My brother asked Do you want a hint?...Just one ..pinky promise"
He was cute and bursting with his secret news
I wasn t expecting much and the little guy was almost hopping
from his shoes
" it 's green, from England, has two wheels, and in the garage right here
I got my English racer and an important lesson too
A four- year-old has no conception of surprise or the transparency of a "clue

Saturday, September 25, 2010

FOUR-YEAR-OLD-KAITLIN-SERIES

Sunday, July 25, 2010
Four-Year-Old-Kaitlin Jones
The body of four year old Kaitlin Jones found today
Mutilated, raped, and murdered in unknown order
Kaitlin had been missing for three weeks
Police had called in the FBI after an Amber Alert failed and no leads uncovered
A search party had been organized by friends and family
Her mother screamed when night fell and Kaitlin was not found
It had been expected the strong-willed little girl was hiding
Kaitlin had been under the care of Dr. Goode, PhD and categorized as
oppositional defiant
Her grandfather thought she was just a little girl who knew what
she did and did not want
But even he had to agree that something was wrong when Kaitlin was not found in any
of her secret places where she often stayed for hours on
her own
The family was never under suspicion of any foul play
Neighbors responded to the mother’s screams, coming together
in their nightclothes
Making coffee, flyers and organizing search parties, some brought their untrained dogs on long leashes, others stayed with the family
keeping up a stream of platitudes
The day Kaitlin disappeared she had been given
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
with the crusts on and the jelly rather than the peanut butter on top
Kaitlin had fallen to the floor shocking the new baby-sitter with her
melt-down
A moment later she ran from the kitchen into her room and slammed the door
Kaitlin’s room was on the ground floor
In case of such a melt-down, the baby-sitter had been instructed to let Kaitlin “be”
No one noticed four-year-old Kaitlin climb from her window
and drop
to the ground
Where she ran across the field toward the wooded
hiking trail that snaked into the woods
Along the highway unseen but heard
rushing in the distance
beyond the trees
Where a young man had parked his car, walked for a while and waited for
something to happen - Like
a four-year-old girl who didn’t like her peanut butter and jelly sandwich

(note: for those not familiar with the "inverted pyramid form the most important details are in the first lines moving in descending level of consequence)
Posted by Dr. Pearl Ketover Prilik (PKP) at 2:54 PM
Labels: PA Prompt - Inverted Pyramid



****************************************
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Inspired by a prompt to write on "cold"


Kaitlin in the woods
Finger poised above
tender child flesh
upturned neck flops
in impossible angles

The finger has touched
his own daughter's neck
dazzled by its softness

The father finger hovering
here postponing the inevitable
descent, hoping for warmth

and finding as it probes in
gloved professionalism
only the expected cold
Posted by Dr. Pearl Ketover Prilik (PKP) at 11:20 PM
Labels: PA Prompt- Cold
0 comments:
********************
Inspired by a comment to write on "Service"

For Four- Year-Old Kaitlin
There can be
no words of comfort
for murdered Kaitlin
hair washed and
lovingly cleaned
dressed in crisp white
and arranged
fetchingly on
beloved pink sateen

There can be
no words of comfort
for Kaitlin pretty
under that small
shining white
casket lid

No comfort in the heaps of
blooms thrown in
helpless profusion
in the gaping hole
of what he did

There can be
no words of comfort
as Kaitlin in cruel irony
is returned back to
the black earth
where she was found

Her mother shivers
holding air
chilled by warm
words
as the tiny girl
is covered by the ground

Stone faced
at talk of
loving arm's
celestial embrace

No comfort for the
loved ones as they
lean one into the other
a mass of tangled
torment touching
among averted eyes
not one who can them face

Four- year- old Kaitlin
found sprawled kill raped still
in the damp wood
a child who would
have her peanut butter
sandwich made just
the way it should

Words of innocence
above that now covered casket
babble non-sense on
a ruffled breeze

Kaitlin last looked upon
the face of evil incomprehensible
etched into her eyes
with photographic ease

Rest sweet Kaitlin
perhaps for you this can be so
in the woods of your
death sweet jasmine may
inexplicably grow

Drift sweet Kaitlin tumbling
in the sparkled sunlight
on the soft wings of
white butterflies
take flight

There sweet Kaitlin one with
each petal, dancing dust mote
salted sea drop and all
known and more

Soar
sweet Kaitlin
embracing the ripped
grief-dumbed hearts left
forevermore
Posted by Dr. Pearl Ketover Prilik (PKP) at 8:32 AM
Labels: Inspired by PA Prompt Service
********************************************

Inspired by "BOP" FORM ...... 3 stanzas 8-6-8 with a refrain


The last argument


"Four-year-olds need supervision"
"And fresh air and freedom
to explore stuff
to think stuff
to find stuff on their own
not like the way you were raised"

Barefooted Kaitlin lies stone still in the darkening woods.

"There's nothing wrong with parents'
caring for their children"
"Like mine didn't - that's it right?
You called me wild child, liked me then
Liked me well enough - when I was running to you
I never seen you looking for my parents when we got busy."
"As usual, that has nothing to do with what I've been saying.
She-is-my-child."

Barefooted Kaitlin lies stone still in the darkening woods.

Flushed faced faced off, they stop - and listen
to the quiet
a breeze blows on their hot skin, on their pounding chests
as together they look to the open door
look through and beyond over the empty lawn rolling to the woods
willing a shimmered peal of crystal laughter - a game-of-hide-n-seek
as they run racing to nowhere
together for the very last time calling her name to the gulping wind

Barefooted Kaitlin lies stone still in the darkening woods.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Jack K. – Celia’s Husband

Like a "fart in the breeze"
said he sparkle in his eye
dismissing someone or something
not a melancholy poetic sort of guy

clipped mustached
sprinkled with pepper and salt
in clothes his wife laid out
pocket square, tie
matching hers coordinated
dressed without a fault

Appearing in a nightgown
stuffed with melons
barefoot, hands on hips
towel on head, prancing with
delicate calves
bringing raucous tears to eyes
and laughter to all lips

Dispensing wisdom of the road
Turning to talk face to face
even if you sat in the back seat
riding in one of the pricey cars he
fancied - liking eyes to meet

"Drive your own car-
let them worry about theirs”
and when invariably he’d slide
into a car in front handled settling
up with a laugh and absolutely no cares
"Parking is easy - back up until you hear
breaking glass"
As those learning defensive driving
remembered and held back laughter sitting in their class

Born into poverty
Hard work melting into
Depression Days
unlike others of his time
relished gifting others
especially his wife in an
endless parade of ways

Like the day when he
came home with a
small navy velvet drawstringed
sack
sat her down and on the carpet
rolled a handful of large diamonds
“Pick yours”
I’m not taking them all back.

Loved his birthday and good will
as he stood at his coffee shop’s
door…
announcing to each walk in customer
what his special smile was for
"Do you know what today is?"
"No"
they all would say
and at day’s end driving
home exclaim
"Know how many customers
knew today was my birthday?"

Wanted to travel the world
with the wife that stayed his
bride
wanted to see pyramids
fine paintings all with her
right there at his side

“They’ll carry me out of here”
he would often say
and she would answer don’t be
silly you have plenty of time
to retire later on one day

Didn’t exactly “carry him of there”
not quite how it went down
at “sixty-four” got a real
“Hospital President’s Physical”
would have enjoyed the hand of
some Universal great clown
he checked out just fine and died
a rich, yet untraveled man
smiling widely in his hospital issued gown

Celia K. – My grandmother aka “Mother”

I danced on tiptoes
a small girl child
in the cool
forest
of your green velvet
white silk sanctuary

My movie
star Mother
with the
Barbara Stanwyck
smile

My movie star
Mother with
veiled feathered hats
and finger waves
curving against
Ivory Soap
porcelain skin

Elegant in navy
sheaths
mink
silk stockings
and high
heeled pumps
Singing in her clear
contralto of
butterflies, bluebirds


and "pretty bubbles"
in the air

And now like
soap bubbles
and celluloid

My elegant Mother
vanished
shimmering
off into a prism
of rainbow
light

forever
sparkling
like
a sweet
dream
of a clear
song
recalling the
past
preserving the
future......
With laughter
With elegance
With love.......

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Future Future Burning Bright

Future future
burning bright
in the sparkling
off foresight
where we'll be
and who we'll know
as yet unknown
as futures go

Future future
burning bright
might be darkening
might be light
might be both
of what do we
know
this is the
way that futures
go

Future future
burning bright
bright, bright burning
there to shield
our sight
if we could know
what was to be
how would each day
be weighted differently

Crystal Balls

What is worse than a fellow's
Crystal balls astride
A bucking tavern bull ride

Futures

The future
a luxury
denied to some who
must live in the present
of degradation, hunger,
thirst, death, war, pestilence

The future
a ribbon given
slipping lightly through
fingers delighting in
the superficial texture
deciding only on hues
mindless of the reeling spool

The future
sancrosanct and serious
leadening each present
footstep with the echo
of impact yet to come

The future
bold, joyous, sparkling
with possibility
unknown but all positive
as mindless and far a given
as the horizon over the sea

The future
a present wrapped in the
ribbon of luxury, the sentience
of deprivation, the entitlement,
the seriousness, mindlessness
all
lightly tied with the singular
loose bow of the absolutely
uknowable
coming

What Future?

Who says there is a future
that it even all exists
perhaps the future that we
fear or dream
exists only
in an existential
dreamed up mist

The Dancing Clumsy Muse

As the girl with the Red Shoes
there's no stopping the dancing
Muse
although she might be clumsy
feels she has nothing left to lose
the dancing Muse continues left to go
twirling, whirling, on
moving into the never of forever
when tonight is gone

A Few (Future) Haiku

Those who live in the future
Illustrate hubris
That provokes the Universe



Large ego warning up there
plan small live each day
future has no guarantee



Live in the future if you
dare - in the never
been while today becomes past



A kitten becomes a cat
a babe becomes brat
Consequence and not there that


Bumper stickers "Live Today"
Jump for joy and sing
Stickers peel and flake away


Enough with futured haikus
They are not running
Smooth rooted in present

What is the future

What is the future?
when will it come?
I heard a woman crying
and it frightened me some
Should I be scared?
should I get ready and prepare?
What will happen
when I get to that future
place she cried of there?
And do I even have to
Do I even have to go?
This woman said she sure
wished that as a girl she
did know
Know what? What is this future?
I think when I'm a grownup I will
have to go
But what it is, and where it is,
and why she was crying all
this I do not know
All I know about this future
is that it must be up ahead
but tomorrow I'm starting kindy-garten
and now I'm too scared to
get into my bed

When I Was Old

When I was old
the three year old said
looking to his grandfather's
snow-white head

You mean said his mother
"when you will be old"
No said the child "When I was an
old man" high voiced bold

When I was an old man
I was like you
and now I'm here
this is true

They smiled the insolent
way that
grown-ups do
when small wise children
speak of unknown futures
lived already through

Future Young

Bodies wrapt in rapt
attention to smooth
bellied tautness
revel reaching in
bright sunlight
shyly proud
lifted together
in ectasy of eyes
locked in reciprocated
surprise of all that
has not yet happened
as the cycle begins

I See the Sea

They’ll cry and read from what
I've 'wrote'
They’ll joke and
Hug and elbow poke
And when they’re done
They’ll sprinkle
Me home back
into the sun-lit sea

To the Sparkling Sea

To the Sparkling Sea
There I'll be
long dark hair
now silvered
catching the light
as I dance barefoot
in the aquamarine
surf heedless of
ultraviolet rays
or sideways glances
head back catching
the full force of
the sun

In the Gleam of an Eye - To Grandchildren as Yet Only A Twinkle

My future sparkles
in the gleam of
a son's eye
as it is caught
and returned
in the memory catcher
that will
come
sometime
someday
to remember and
speak of me
as grandmother

Saturday, September 11, 2010

There for the first time - Here for the first time

Lying there
long hair
arranged in
meticulous
carelessness
when he left
for just a moment
Lying there
waiting for
it that moment
that would be
remembered
forever
Lying there
clutching the
headboard
white-knuckled
waiting there
for it to
begin
in earnest
Lying there
seventeen-year-old
dancing temptress
with not a
single veil
whispering in
silver screened
huskiness
come to me
only to hear
Lying there
in that
night of promises
kept but unfulfilled
I did

America, america

(this piece was originally published in the 9-11 Memorial Edition of the Adelphi Society for Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy Newsletter of which I was editor for several years ).



Oh beautiful for spacious skies
cut deep by silver steel
For purple mountain majesties
above the
gaping
hole

American, america
heart cut
and bled and teared
Lift now
her face
from evil
brace
from al
that now
is feared

Told us they
did of
brotherhood
of hand held
fast and
strong
those purple mountains
majesty
above a rising
dawn


America, america
I gave my heart
to thee through bombs
that fell
and napalms
hell I held
you close to me

America, america
I marched and sung
and cried
for liberty, equality
for others lost and dies

We learned of
pots of melted
walls
a land of one
for all
A special land
where freedom
rang a universal
call

A place where
free we all
could be
no crematorium
sweet stink
the evil
things that
happened then
too distant far
to think

And through it all
our self-control
belief in moral
might
a land that's
free for all
to be whatever is
felt right

We didn't always
get along
We didn't all agree
But that we learned
was just the point
of sweetest liberty

And so our
buildings went
unscanned
our skies
unmanned
and free
our streets marched
through by many feet
for causes differently

America, america
I gave my heart
to thee
to noble
cause and
idealized flaws
in name of
liberty

It served us well
until this
hell unleashed
its heinous face
but never more
than here a door
to courage
rich embrace

It takes no
strength to fight
for right when
fear is far away
when babies cry
in distant lands
and others
starve and die

Our alabaster
cities now
agleam with
tears and dust
From this came
we to liberty
As then and now we must

American, america
I gave my heart to thee
gave my belief
a child of grief
to dream
of liberty

All children
of a certain age
remember
with crisp
pride
that we stood
so much
taller then
and that we did believe

American, america
it's simple
to believe
when safe and
warm and tall
and strong
invincible we seemed

American, america
for oh so very long
we've mouthed
the words
without a test
of right against what's wrong

America, america
you raised me in your
arms
So strong
and warm
and held so high
america's no lie...