Whitsun yodeling

SHADY RIVER

Hobo goes with the flow of things,

he sinks into the green

entanglement of vine

& grape, the stream’s faint ripplings.

His logos is a Lincoln knot

scratched into driftwood

while Turtledove cooed

overhead (so reads Coyot’).

The knot binds everything, as with

her singing spine, the Argo

bound over il Mar Nero –

Noé’s noeud of adoration (myth

turned moth turned monarch seal).

Echoes from a cave

one vanished brave –

Love’s breadcrumb, who became a meal.

All come to bloom in memory...

as the canoe in the garage

scented with Micòl-image

breathes again inscript in Bassani.

A grail of dew sprinkles the summer grass

with Hobo’s oasis-gems;

yearning no one condemns

uplifted where it shall not pass –

into that monarch-realm of dark cedar

where a thrush warbles

& salt breeze marbles

lilac dusk (by Po-Boy River).

5.22.18

crumbs beside the Po

SERPENT-ROOT

The life that spirals from the sea-cave

like a serpent-root, a curious

labyrinth etched across

the limestone of a vaulted nave –

the dappled sparkling of infant

river-wavelets.  Mud-brown

vortex of an unknown

casket – Easter-packet – font

of raven-crumbs, beside the Po.

Or Ishmael’s hieroglyph –

inverted fisher-skiff

of pregnant galaxy below

afloat now, circling – a living hand,

an arm, forehead, eyebrow...

emergent tar minnow –

Tad Pole, or Polly Wag, some sand-

borne seaweed driftwood Jane...

Christa on crossties, or

IONAH (in Paradise).  Your

Queequeg is a queer cuss, man,

but OK – floats all right – can even

swim.  His Ariadne-

boles are capillary –

vein his bones into a crown

of 50 stars (for Jubilee).

The echo-cave is empty...

only Eureka!  She

has found him! crows (from sea to sea).

10.6.16

emerald, magenta, rust

DIVINING ROD

These heavy green butternuts

fall to the green grass

from the milky axis

of the Po-tree – go thump & burst

(each one a miniature globe

of moist black earth).

Thus Hobo mused, at berth

among the river fronds, robed

in emerald, magenta, rust.

One such blade his wand,

divining rod – her land

releasing signs out of the dust;

smoke-signals, signed, co-signed

into a circle (arcing back

to the beginning of the track).

Jade footsteps from a cloudy mind,

a raincloud out of futurepast;

merging, centripetal –

heaven is integral –

a raven knife, a pinecone mast

(that rotates on a maze of grass

within a vapid place

of sterile office space).

Flowers are immortal – pass

then, with Hobo, through the Gate!

Arc-welded acorn

crown for children –

rainbow-faceted checkmate

                 *

that beats Goliath with a tiny mite!

A baby meteor,

a coal of holy fire –

wholeness at heart, golden moonlight!

Her orb gleams like a seal, a coin –

meek penny versus

dolorous minions,

or muted acorn humming down

brass trumpets of disputing despots.

It is the dolphin-seal

of Ocean State, an Israel

incarnate in the rose bee-glade.  What’s

hidden in the earth, a promise

limping with Natasha –

with immovable Nadezhda,

still in Voronezh – liberty, justice;

a rainbow equilibrium, that harbors

simple shining Gates –

St. Frisco’s nail-bites

lifting iron weights, up to palm-arbors

evergreen!  That glory be hidden

like a key, or like a rudder

in the wave – to shudder

into light upon the crest... thy pardon

for this history, White Rose!

Row to the Keys, Hobo –

Eureka by the Po,

our watering hole – look whose Face glows!

9.8.16 

Venice - Rimini - Ravenna

BLUE MARBLE

The lattice-work of Ariadne,

barely (in my crepuscular

History Theatre) there.

The river flows on, over yonder –

Eridanos, Mississippi, Po –

moving past this osier

excellence of rare

dear Dr. Wise.  Minerva, Virgo?

Beatrice, Julie Littletree...

Maggie... Miriam

of Bethany, or Bethlehem...

limpid over hopscotch Sally

gallivanting crost her vaulting

Paradise of glimmering

frater Pantocrator (wing,

knave, to that sheepfold ceiling).

Meanwhile my double creeps along

like Ezra the Venetian

Blind, touching the stolen

Rimini passage with an aching

brow; beyond his haunts by the canal

& sibylline bone-staves

Franciscans hid in caves,

a living shepherd leaps the wall

(disguised by Ariadne’s woof).

These corridors are spongy

depths.  So take the plunge –

blue marble veins Vitale’s roof.

3.22.16

Crossing the Rubicon, again...

ONE SPRING

The river across the street still flows

under thickening ice, ceaseless.

Its lesser tributaries

(Minnesota, Minnehaha) also

persist – all of them subsiding

into Ocean River

finally (only a quiver

rippling Time).  Julius is sliding

a handkerchief across his brow

in 49 B.C.

The die is cast, sez he.

Yokels on Rubicon blow

tubas now – let War decide.

World empire in his grip,

peace is ordained.  Slip

the noose over each parricide

(Brutus, Absalom); the father’s

kingdom will be certified,

et ratified, in blood.

Shadow of a kingfisher

rotating in graffiti’d alcove.

Boethius & father

(Symmachus) share

fort et dur... Ravenna love-

keen (after bronze millennium).

Time’s universal –

history’s rehearsal

for a mangy star-profundum

                 *

deeper in the soul o’man

than Solomon arrayed

or Emperor betrayed.

An agate, tossed in Jordan

sand.  Halcyon day (of almond

shade, & waterfall).

Life’s good, is all –

big benison de tout l’monde.

Reaches through the harvest of

your Martian scythe, O

Death, to something more –

the milky Rio of the Blest.

It is Beyond.  It’s over yonder.

Everywoman’s Eridanos,

Poe’s Eureka.  Moses

glimpsed it in his heart’s far

island (yours, mine) – soul

liberty’s Belle Isle –

Eternity (only

a smile from here).  Glows, whole.

There were 4 rivers flowing

out of Eden, toward

House of 4 Pines (word

lost on the wind).  All knowing

& loving, all doing & being

gathered in a khipu

knot... arc of yew

over limestone grave (one spring).

1.11.16

Minnehaha Falls