The Filtering of Light

In a space we call dreaming
where body and brain step off
different platforms like when trains
going off in different directions
take us here take us there
only to return anew somehow
magically or maybe oddly
to that place we call awake

While dreaming all the world
arises and falls seeps in vaguely
staying as light as salt crystals
scattered on potatoes steaming
giving rise to taste what is more
true the salt or the root or the heat
do each of these overhear the other
mixing metaphors soil and cuisine

Dreams we call them conversations
they are each one overheard by this
collective organism of perception
yours mine ours who possesses
and what is private public distinct?
We send you off to do the deed
only to come along tag along with
knowingly or unknowingly so

The body awake a node or locus
a conglomeration somehow particular
to one yet an entanglement quantum
of several or many spread over
here over there transparencies one
into and through another another
indistinguishable where if any are
the seams as each interpenetrate all

An arc of overhearing

D, M, J, T, & L ~ Wishing you all a wonderful round of readings today and tomorrow ... love, Janice

Misread email subject line: We've Improved Cloud Prayer

From: Amazon.com 

Subject: S. Cascadia: We've Improved Cloud Prayer

Amazonian cloud prayer? 

what would it look like? would we be floating on clouds, 

and as clouds are prayers, praying? wielding and sharing 

prayer-rain across landscapes of empowered womyn. 

womyn. Womyn. Gargantuan giantesses, 

as the rain drops hit us/them, we/she/they/shey 

sprout instantly upwards, the cloud prayers activating

the Amazonian genes [/epigenetics], after 2 seconds,
already 10 feet tall

after another 7 seconds, 17 feet tall

after another 3 seconds, over 27 feet tall

our skin drinks in the cloud prayer rain

and we become green and polkadotted and furred

we carry quivers of blessings

we become moon walkers, kicking off

from neptune and venus 

into deep space, flying liberators, on space clouds

raining liberation to other planets

our fertile rain brings the three sisters to sprout 

on the moon: ancient squash, beans, and corns, thriving on Luna

we decide we'd like our cloud prayers to rain down 

galaxies, and reveries launch rainbow planets, purple stripe

zebra people and blue birds with hippopotamus bodies

frolic on magenta planets with tangerine oceans

we keep growing, from the cloud prayers, until 

we are each a big bang flower 

in a multiverse of organismic flourishing

yes, spreading the good news, we've improved cloud prayer

lighter load

lighter load


The young guy leaning against a building asked me " Do you want to hear a human allegory?"
his brown eyes/ water too deep to measure
his hands held scribbled notes on tablet
I do a double take
"Well, sure"
he says " If I smile at you, you smile back"
& I do to his
" If I sneer at you, he/she wants you to smile back"
“If you smile at a sneer you won't have to carry anything away"
lighter load

Overheard/underwater

"I was just thinking of Paris too"
"It is like telepathic waves"
a metro tunnel under the Atlantic, no Stations before the other side.

IMUNURI Prompt: Snippet

IMUNURI Alchemy Dazzles at Two Portland Shows

First: IMUNURI Poets Scooter, Daniel, J and TK will stir it up at two interactive poetry confabs in Portland in two weeks.

Please help us spread the word to folks in the Portland Area who would enjoy a great night of readings, music, collaborative poetry making, open sharing and more. Shows take place:

Saturday, August 11, 6-8 pm Bipartisan Cafe 7901 SE Stark

Sunday, August 12, 7-9 pm Tabor Space 5441 SE Belmont

$5-10 suggested donation. No one turned away.

Now, for this week's prompt, take a snippet.
Overhear something at a bus stop, in the office, around the block. Grab a bit of a conversation from the playground, the line at the DMV, the elevator or the supermarket. Steal some words that weren't intended for your attention. Repeat them to yourself so you don't forget them before you get a chance to write them down. Consider carrying a scrap of paper and a stumpy pencil with you this week so you can be ready.

ALTERNATELY, don't leave your snippet to chance. Ask somebody for a sentence, a phrase, part of a story, an idea or an inspiration.

What amazing tale does that airy, momentary comment indicate? If you asked for details, for clarification, elucidation, evidence, what might you uncover? What can you invent around the snippet? Use it as inspiration to write. Be unexpected. Be interested. Be unmistakable.

labels: snippet, your name, poem