Monday, December 30, 2013

from the new surveillance revelations

it's clear that every key stroke
ever acted on
or maybe even
thought on
has found a hole
to be placed in
the vast storage underground
of the great equalizer
rubbing shoulders
with the infamous
glamorous
     even entire football teams
     some coming up just short
     of the playoffs
the embittered
and eternal optimists
all strewn
through the sea
of no redemption
nihilism of a red-white-blue face
all predicted by the great minds
     ignored by power
     forever eating
     its own siblings

--- e b bortz


(published in opednews.com, Dec 31, 2013)

Sunday, December 29, 2013

earth note 268

rain swept in from the north
     it left nothing untouched
fronds losing their composure
cutting in the wind
slicing coconuts
in a storm that surprises
     even the path it takes
until bottoming out
in the coral shallows
both sides
of ocean highway
taking a breath
sighing
waiting
for another pass

--- e b bortz

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

christmas in the keys...camus & rebellion

if you stay true to the scientific method
not of the technocrats
but of the pureness
of the mindscape
it will be clear
even on a midnight clear
that yesterday's revolutionary
is today's banality
all the way back to the early christians
and then on to 
de sade        marx lenin stalin mao
     opening space for jimmy buffett & endless sunsets
the end of history
the end of progress
the last of the rebel poets vanquished
from plato's republic
rejecting the rejectionists
     noble
as an aboriginal rebel poet
     & migrating millions
     driven from a breathing land
     all of whom
     the great philosopher left out
like a lost pod of short-finned pilot whales
dying in the shallows
off snipe point

camus reminds us that
the rebel is no
vanguardist professional revolutionary secret police apparatchik
with show trials and executions and drones and nsa technology
     no
but the simple spirit of
a resister
a worker
a jesus
     what's forgotten
is life
beyond the confines of dogma & man
as it struggles with burning seas
forest fragments weeping
at no-freeway no-exits
     where synthesis
     & honoring a pelican
is no wisdom of luxury
where nonviolence & noncompliance
in a new world order
of new moneychangers
might at last
be salvation

--- e b bortz

Saturday, December 21, 2013

so the winter solstice

passed over our collective bodies again
     leaving scars from the year
of the snake
who will witness
even in the darkness of the longest night
the death of thousands
     by war      starvation      disease
from the hand of one abuser
     there's the enabling of another
from an empty vault
there's no space for empathy
     recurring cries of the evicted
     are dismissed in the silence
          of the noise

--- e b bortz

Friday, December 20, 2013

earth note 267

a northeast wind
in the florida keys
is like a distant cousin
of a new england nor'easter
related but never acknowledged
by the family
their steadiness & eruptions similar
even fifty degrees apart
the eventual rains
like a bloodline
of opposites
growing
fading
in their own path

--- e b bortz

warsh (wash) day

climbed up a ladder today
close to half the elevation
of little torch key
(o.k. some of the key might be below sea-level)
just to re-attach a clothes line

problem was of course
the ladder was too short
for an average height
so a piece of rebar
had to substitute
to give my arms
that extra two feet needed
to fling the pulley
over the hook on the pole

after a couple of tries
the pulley made a perfect landing
with still enough sun
for another
load of clothes
     i vote to forgo that
     today
     & instead pay homage
     find a new spot
     & watch the sunset

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

half a highway story

about the time
we split-up hitchhiking
near toledo
on the ohio turnpike
the afternoon was droopy
sinking like a last gasp
of summer
1965

we took our turns
at the entrance ramp
     finally
     each of us being singly
     picked up & thrown
     down the highway
some miles closer to chicago
what seemed like incremental lapses
passing thru the rain and darkest
of indiana

the steel mills of gary & east chicago
rose to meet a glimpse of dawn
beneath an acid sky
my ride      a salesman downing the last
of his jim beam whiskey
disguising his condition
     i've often thought many times
whether death of a salesman
unrelated as it might be
ever met him halfway

not sure how i found a commuter train
to the west side of chicago
in time to make a meeting
but it happened
just that way

and even if
i was late
(oddly each of us arrived minutes apart)
     certainly
     the revolution would
     go on without us

--- e b bortz

Monday, December 16, 2013

earth note 266

on state road 4A
the seagulls have occupied
the osprey nest
at the top of the utility pole
screeching
squawking
for reinforcements

a shoulder on the bridge
crossing torch key channel

blacktopped & open again
with creamy gray jersey barrier
pre-cast concrete guard rails
a bicycle's view
is not for sale

away from the highway
middle torch key
its subterranean roots
become big torch key
mangroves almost seamless
'cept for a left turn

quiet as a pelican's glide

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Saturday, December 14, 2013

at nineteen

a friend told me
she wouldn't wait
for me to grow up
and figure out
what i wanted in life

and she didn't

& my question was
and still is
what's the hurry
is everything so
goddamn plain
that the roadmap
you have stuck
behind your eyebrows
will somehow fade
and be unrecognizable
if you just floated along
for a while more
looking more
closely
at the terrain
outside of
yourself
thinking more deeply
might just be
a revolution in itself
bringing forward an unexpected
revelation
not just another crescendo
or dousing
of your inner heat
like a transaction
     you never intended

--- e b bortz

Thursday, December 12, 2013

earth note 265

desperate jellyfish
cashing in their
credit default swaps
at money key channel
something like defending their turf
throwing some stingers
from the floor
of the kayak shallows
     out of sandbars
     & camouflage seagrass
     arms & legs take some hits
reminding all
to poke around gently
when you're in someone else's house

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Saturday, December 07, 2013

morning in paradise

i'm going to stop moving
for a minute
and see if this
love pain
from a past life
will move on
if not
i guess i'll just have to
find new motions
carve a new trail
past the beer cans & houses
snap a few more nature pictures
crank the pedals without letup
cover the kayak in the mangrove
face the anger of the wind
     the vision of the osprey

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

earth note 264

light green
to dark blue
to light green again
until the sky and sea
meet at the horizon
some scattered clouds
drop their secrets
directly on your feet
bury themselves
in every grain of sand

--- e b bortz


three months

is a window
opening to the sea
though
i'm trying my best
to not see it
like a schedule
creating seems
like unwrapping
a box of dreams
which may not
always jump out
& take the form
you first imagined

if the breeze
has the strength
to turn over
or reverse a tide
surely words
will breathe
in and out
as the spirit
moves them

--- e b bortz

Monday, December 02, 2013

untitled again

the gap
at the old bahia honda bridge
     a section surgically removed
seems to parallel a void
i keep flashing back to
years in the making
emptiness is a process
that i'll never give up on
in it
are the bare essentials
driving the mind
to touch new limits

--- e b bortz

earth note 263

heat returns from the mangrove
in the form of a tortoise
every deliberate step
a body of work

pavement starts suddenly
like the crazy ingrate
revving his engine
in the afternoon

bicycles pass
from a cluster of coconuts
silent water
waves

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Friday, November 29, 2013

earth note 262

little torch key

nothing divides the atlantic
from the gulf
as the last of the darkness
shrouds two-thirds
of the moon
north wind-torn
black water murmurs
nothing is still
the big dipper
has lost a leg
moorings strain
boats hang on

--- e b bortz

Thursday, November 21, 2013

long highways

always seem
to bring on loneliness
     unlike the landscape or destiny promised
concrete & engines provoke the void
     as the void leads to tunnels
     tunnels stripping life
     right off the trees
          a startling opening
          a gambit
          with no opponent

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Friday, November 15, 2013

critique

poems are emotions
i don't need footnotes
alienation
love
the planet
politics
it can be scratched into a wall
or it can bring a wall down

--- e b bortz

 
(published in opednews.com, Nov 15, 2013)

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

foresight

i've come to despise
the word
inevitable
mistrust all its promises and despair
hot summers of love
growing out of scoundrel times
iron heels
lopsided & skewing
every new fashion statement
there are hidden agendas
in the pastels
forbidden colors
that warm you up
pick you up
off the park bench
to escape
the bone chilling rains of autumn
getting you down
on this day
on any given day
there'll be a thousand voices
coming at-cha
about the great coming
     choose your own inevitable

--- e b bortz

Thursday, November 07, 2013

impatience leads

like there might not be
an escape
or a next

and the politicians blow out
one more fracking scheme

and the regiment of schemers
grows in the up-tick of the dow

and even on a cloudless day
the sun sneaks off before awakening

and the bus riders step off in town
with strollers and blank stares from the street

and when night finally ellipses light
a million more stars have gone missing

when the eyes
have it
be sure & open them wide

--- e b bortz


(published in opednews.com, Nov 7, 2013)
(published in firedoglake.com, Nov 8, 2013)

Monday, November 04, 2013

earth note 261

when the crows speak
it's usually with an exclamation point
& a bright contrast between black & autumn gold
nothing is
as it appears
on a postcard
even from the glut of cyber sound
     the wind simply responds
     with a change in direction
     sometimes too small to measure
just before the sparrows leave the wires
     you know the crows will say it all
          and after every pause
               more cries

--- e b bortz

Thursday, October 31, 2013

red-blue-red, part 3

poetry will come after you
even if you're in hiding
stalk you if necessary
until you pay attention
come to terms with it
your veins will ultimately
take the medicine
     bleeding is just the beginning

daylight left a blue hue
     far away
     gray mixed in
clouds skirting beyond the tree line
nothing is broken in the earth belly
nothing is left unnoticed
     or unsaid
     in the earth soul

every red maple
waves a thousand goodbyes

--- e b bortz

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

beechview, pittsburgh, july 31, 1950

the pittsburgh press said the house
where the reds lived
got stoned with bricks & vegetables
     broken glass for the reds

     the american reds
          a father mother two toddlers


the sergeant had been home
for a few years now
from the 'great war'
dubuyu-dubuyu-two
     handsome thick black wavy hair
     uncompromisingly young-looking
     working
     as a refrigeration & washing machine mechanic
     developing his forearms into steel
     built for wrenches
built from the dark cio steelworker thirties
     & the anti-fascist trenches of the spanish civil war
built to withstand the sneers
     & silence & shouts
     of the company men
          their political henchmen
          & the racists who kept black kids
          out of the city swimming pools
built to withstand a certain
     matt cvetic
     the finger behind the assault
     on the red's house
          our house

moving on
became unplanned but not a retreat
     the journey far beyond shadycrest drive
     embodied the warmth
     of many outstretched hardened forearms
          clear eyes
          unbending postures
               shoes shared
                    walking straight ahead...not running

--- e b bortz

Saturday, October 26, 2013

there is no 'two-party' system

free advice from the annals of facebook users

[actually i still view it as
several factions
of a one-party corporate clearinghouse
each subset with a logo & smiley face
but that's beside the point]

on the liberal dem side
there will always be
'lesser-evil'
'take what we can get'
'capitulation forever'
'fracking is a bridge'
     (to the abyss)
'our corporations are progressive or health insurance related'
'sorry...we'll have to cut/gut the students & seniors
to satisfy the other side'
'drones = precision'
     (killing machines)
'a derivative of democracy is our name!'
'democracy is messy so let the president decide'

on the very pure left side
the bookshelves are perfectly labeled
every i must be dotted
in bold
left of center
the platform is made of concrete
     (some of it pre-cast)
if you can't fill both sides of your flyer with text
you're probably not analytical enough
if you have any doubts or fears
abstention is preferred
to messy
     (that word again)
participation

in every tea party coffee klatch
the pot's filled with
     phony messiah complexes
     1950s john wayne machismo
     assault weapons
          (real & virtual)
     grey flannel retro republican
     illusions & delusions
          open the lid
          exposure
          is better than intellectual deconstruction
          let them self-evaporate

leaving me
with the messy
& imaginative greens
roaring in from the margins
     singing within the noise
     tentatively stepping up
     just before sunrise
          beginnings are often
          unnoticed
          or purposely ignored

--- e b bortz

(published in firedoglake.com, Oct 26, 2013)
(published in opednews.com, Oct 27, 2013)

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

labor aristocracy

sometimes hearing
the worst ideas
are the best lesson
because you remember them
forever
& so it was
when i was about nineteen
working as a laborer
on a parking garage construction site
     downtown pittsburgh
that one of the carpenters
told me
we need jobs
     don't care what we build
     don't care if we build concentration camps
we need jobs right now

well
i'm pretty sure it wasn't an original idea
this carpenter had
after all
it wasn't long before
(or maybe just after)
that spiro agnew's
so-called hardhats
     thugs by any other name
ripped thru our anti-war march
of dick gregory for president buttons
coming out of a misappropriated
(and misnamed) golden triangle
just past the swagger of the hilton hotel
& just about the same time
that george (segregation forever) wallace
dumped his bile on the stage at the civic arena
where several hundred of us protestors
found some very effective disruptive chants
to frustrate the racists & their drivel
til we were forcibly removed by the police
and my picture ended up on the front-page
of the local newspaper
& not to my surprise
confronted with that picture
on the construction site
by the foreman who fired me
& the carpenter
and his shit-eatin grin
to boot
looking on
like he had just won an election
or a war
or something

but i've got to say
it was all worth it
negatives become positives
when inverted
     and
     for good reason

--- e b bortz


(published in opednews.com, Oct 22, 2013)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Monday, October 14, 2013

alienation redux

keeping a distance
separate from the noise
of the superstructure
& the whistling of worn-out bearings
leaky gaskets & caustic reservoirs
grease pits devour like quicksand
     from gears & broken sound barriers
     nothing survives

so you find thoughts beyond
though inadequate
that can burst on to flesh
make a body move
diving head-first
     away
without the aid
of exotic serums
& phony potions

toward the outer most edges
where beginnings
     become

--- e b bortz

Saturday, October 12, 2013

road notes pittsburgh/new york city

being first in line for the megabus
can only get you so far
the road still waits
     we're a jumble waiting in darkness
the driver does a last walk thru
cold spit marks the sidewalk
beaming from the street light
dried-up pop      soda if you like
leaves tracks
     like a poor man's jet stream

rolling off the highway crest
a hundred pairs of eyes
     blink
cramming lines of traffic
coming at us
heading to the city
visions of johanna
couldn't have made it
more surreal

rhythm from the pavement
uncovers shadows
of the alleghenies
the stacks and cooling towers
of power plants
and poisons
that confuse by daylight
but visible
in the glare
of a half-moon

descending into hollidaysburg
the fog unravels
then suddenly
morning breaks
wind turbines perched
on the ridge
roll like a steady river

the bus makes a stop in state college
picks up a few students
waiting near the walmart parking lot
not a penn state football booster
or sexual predator apologist
among them

my eyes finally crash
for the interval between
the delaware and passaic rivers
missing most of new jersey
     thank you
but just in time for a breeze thru
the lincoln tunnel
the commotion of the garment district
the hipsters of chelsea
the exhibitionists of broadway & 46th
a thousand dialect soup
mixes in a few pinches of fame
the biggest concentration of ego
or at least
     a good show of lights

--- e b bortz

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

october spoke today like i hadn't really been paying attention

1.  in high school
that would have meant
that the hallways
still had that cleaned up
pine-sol smell
i would have already
dug-in with my teachers
     our uncompromising positions
for better or worse

the band room still had
a shiny floor
i swear it was hardwood
even though the rest
of oliver high remained
scuffed-up tiles and peeling paint
especially in the basement
where the dislocated students
from a burned-down
elementary school
shuffled through
their dark hallways

2.  i've never bought in
to the idea
of a mid-life crisis
october decided to deal
a hand one card short
of a straight flush
     hearts no less

i guess i did leave
a forwarding address
when i left tel-aviv
then ignoring a letter
received months later
     memory tells me it was typed
but i could be wrong on that
 

3.  the physical world
of october
is more than leaves
nothing accounts for
what you can't see
other than the stir
of those random
embers or chills
     within
     yet beyond

--- e b bortz

Saturday, September 28, 2013

nothing is irrelevant

1.  my better judgment
says
slow down
don't rush this
the words need
to germinate on their own
after a while
they have a way
of regrouping
beyond
your immediate vision
finding a place
from memory
you never thought
would see the light of day
     again

2.  if you're over 60
& can stand
on one foot
for five minutes
you should probably
try out
for the senior olympics
they'll have to find
a place for you
even if it's
equipment manager

3.  breakfast
is way overrated
unless you religiously
abandon sugar
the secrets
of battle creek michigan
shouldn't be spread around
like the flu

4.  o.k.
this thing has dragged on
long enough
sun's been up for hours
fetch the paddles
point the kayaks north
leave the rubber ducks
in a splash
with the media whores
after all
     all art is inflatable

--- e b bortz

Thursday, September 26, 2013

earth note 260

the maples came through
across the avenue
making the transition
like changing hats
from green to rust
     disregarding the morning traffic

opening eyes
have but
     one
     chance
to see it all
     a perspective
that explains intuitively
     why every forest
     speaks

--- e b bortz

Thursday, September 19, 2013

i'm writing this for my own clarity

The cosmos has spoken.

The ideological storm coming will transpose everything we thought of previously as 'politics'. There will be no vindication or rescue: liberal, progressive, moderate, socialist, libertarian, tea partier, large or small d Democrat, large or small r Republican, independent this or that, revolutionary, 99%, a believer or non-believer, corporate monarchist or safe-haven follower, or any derivative of anything else...your analysis is obsolete.

The oceans and storms and floods and poisons and droughts and wildfires and poverty and violence is rising and your safe assumptions and coalitions are no longer valid.

Politics will boil down to hundreds of transformed Green Parties, standing alone worldwide, against all other political mish-mash: co-opters, framers, apologists, indentured leaders, obedient followers, no-label labelers, do-it-yourselfers...but don't fall for the line that this is somehow 'green sectarianism' or a utopian pipedream.

It's survival.

There has never been a middle ground or a table to be compromised on with mother nature. She laughs and cries for everyone deluded.

There's still time for a choice. Make yours count.

--- e b bortz

(published in firedoglake.com, Sept 19, 2013)
(published in opednews.com, Sept 20, 2013)

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

exposed

at the bottom
of an empty washtub
where the grit's left
bare against rippled steel
something leads you
to hear a beat
that only you can make
     detached from it
you thought
everything would fall
into place
     you miscued
a hollow sound rises
like a drum
tingles the hair
in your armpits
squeezes out confusing rhythms
always dropping a half-step
     you try to latch on
but fail to catch up
leaving
like a bead
sweating it out
     alone

--- e b bortz

Monday, September 16, 2013

the poetry reading

was on monterey street
a couple blocks up
from the y
a place where i honed
my bumper pool
& pin-setting skills
fifty years before
(when the streetcar still ran)
and though the neighborhood
is called 'gentrified' now
i'm still at a loss
to make a connection
with that
and words like
'gentle' or 'gentry'
none of that applies
from what i guess is
my historical vantage point
     there's animation
in the dissonance
that rings out
     scores of voices
     wash down
     but never whitewash
          soot-laced bricks

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Saturday, September 14, 2013

earth note 259

the marsh inhales
a strong deep breath
landing the kayak
on the edge of the weeds
beside a jellyfish
quivering near shore
translucent
green sandy bottom
takes in the sun

breaking from stillness
absolute
a blue heron
moves in protest

--- e b bortz


(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

Thursday, September 05, 2013

again

let me see
is there a new way to justify
going to war
     we'll protect civilians
even if we kill lots of them
and the more that flee
the easier it will be
     now go
find yourself a safe haven

     i know
it won't be american families carrying coffins
in their birkenstocks
through the streets
shouting grief
     they usually play taps & do it quietly
and don't worry about the money
there's plenty to feed war profiteers
hiding in the fine print
of every ledger
guns & butter keep the machine oiled

don't we all love wrapping ourselves
in the shroud of phony sacrifice
convincing ourselves that we're
riding the high road
     a gutter it's always been
for every official bureaucrat
there's an army of apologists
     & lonely dying soldiers
     too late
     for atonement

--- e b bortz


(published in opednews.com, Sept 5, 2013)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)