memorial day 1966, pittsburgh

for allen leroy butler, first clarinet, 1963

across the streetcar tracks
& cobblestones
came the ill-fitted
heavy felted
orange & brown band uniforms
of the oliver high school bears
plastic brimmed hats shading a little of the sun
sweat pouring off my hands
making the clarinet keys
wet & greasy
striking up another
john sousa march
without the jingo commitment
just a few months before
band member graduate
     allen leroy butler
     died in vietnam
     his long brown
     benny goodman fingers
     forever leading the woodwind section
     from strauss to leonard bernstein
     his first chair
     my mentor
     his happy eyes
     my last image

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 187

frack fluid river
drinks the acid
like a sacrifice
a lover's potion
with the abuser

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, May 25, 2012)

earth note 186

itasca county, minnesota

it may not be easy
finding a calm enough day
on spider lake
the kind where the dragon flies
are relaxed enough
to meander
with the sunlight
in bright blue bodies
along the kayak's nose
dancing ever so gently
     a quiet song
     made of wings

--- e b bortz

earth note 185

green versus asphalt
endless growth
     subject to interpretation
     until the water runs out

--- e b bortz

there's no need to make an exact prediction

on when
the planet will stop us
in our tracks
the messages are abundant
& ignored
elites are cashing in hedge funds
they manufactured
just last night
for inflatable dinghies & patch kits
earth-tone & camouflage parachutes
     (without gps)
subterranean armored hovels
     (in endless fossil veins)
none of which have a future
in the coming
new world disorder

the rest of us
will caress our shovels
& sunlight

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, May 16, 2012)

earth note 184

maple leaf thicket
mind blowing clusters
life altering
those hips are indeed
swaying free

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 183

white birch bark
a sacred scroll
rolling up your dreams
leaving the body bare

--- e b bortz

 

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

earth note 182

when the humidity
drips off the body politic
leaving nothing
but the heat
& salty aftertaste
it'll be time again
to seek out
every wild rice cove
clear backchannel
forgotten survival skill
crooked canopy trail
lacing thru the arms
of tamarack & aspen
a thousand miles apart
outcrops pushing up
like new births
from an old womb

--- e b bortz

not sure about mystics

& there certainly
is no magic
of how
the economy
will rescue
another lost generation
maybe the future
will point to
fifty million more
poets & musicians
     their minds will not be wasted
they are the force
out of reach
of the exploiters
used car salesmen
cannon fodder
suburban waste landers
     looking to those
     revolutionary librarian cadres
     for guidance

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, May 2, 2012)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

earth note 181

birds on the wires
like quarter & eighth notes
      more wind than song
      bars filled with rests

--- e b bortz

our darkness at noon

isn't just a passing overcast anomaly
but an all-seasonal presence
unexpected staying power
(yes...we've all been had)
every clouded day
finds a life of its own
interconnected
a most advanced technical confusion
rationalization from top to bottom
lesser evil / worst evil
from the lips of every wizard
a trader
in the dialogue
of fear

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 25, 2012)

first steps

i need to credit my cousin
for the original clash
wakeup
& hearing dylan
talkin' world war 3 blues
creeping up on the age
of fourteen
and seeing that there was
a whole lot of the world
i was opening my mind
to thinking
& all of that was before
really learning how to read
     camus or catcher in the rye
     or an arthur miller play

and then another time
in the coldest of a nyc freeze
going up to a no-heat
walkup on the lower east side
and hearing lots of buzz
'bout the state of every     thing
from the bitterest of the streets
to the most dreamlike
caribbean sunset

and of course once
you start down that path
there are no limits
to the thinking
feeling there are some marks
you need to make
since the possibilities
are all there
and there's no need to sort
any of it out before
just shouting it out

and if your search leaves you restless
or lost
near the dead zone
of a pinsetter's pit
you could always draw
a few words
onto every figurative
blank sheet of paper
just to keep the thoughts
expanding
toward the ultimate
who knows what

and yet you are afire
in every image
with or without words
that can only be described
as a kind of blend of colors & sounds
     unmapped portals
from the darkness
     a canvas in ambiguity
& whatever has hitherto
been explained
you must reject
as neither true
nor real

--- e b bortz

(published in Embryonic Gurney, Green Panda Press, May 2012)
(published in opednews.com, April 18, 2012)

earth note 180

broke in my new sneakers today
walking home from downtown
about three and a half miles uphill
a sunny 60 degrees
even past the cemetery
markers gathering moss from the civil war
and it all probably happened
just about the same
fifty years ago
past my old high school
     i'd walk
and though i didn't run in
to anyone i knew
looking for the old blue bell diner
     couldn't place the spot exactly
with all the vacant lots now
but i still heard the bass man
from the marcels
'cause he used to
     loaf there

& city steps going down
to charles street
or up to buena vista
could use some patchwork
though they probably don't get
the traffic like before
when the streets were crammed
with houses & stores
and a drumbeat from the living
had a way of nudging the restless
into leaving with their dreams
intact

& now i just do my best
pinching myself
in the beauty
of every step
     every mile
     before
     & yet to come

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 11, 2012)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

earth note 179

the antithesis
fell in my lap
like a hot antidote
as the sun threw
its best pitch
directly at my head
distracting the dull throb
like a hoarseness
in the throat
for a moment
leaving only the monotony
of another political season
of bankers & real estate moguls
calmly dressed
reassuring
claim denying insurance manipulators
none of whom
have seen
that the suits will wrinkle
& then burn
off the plastic mannequins
motionless in the window
when the sun
finds clarity
      of purpose

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 5, 2012)

i found a new vein

today
never noticed before
this one sucks up
all the impurities never recognized
before
the ego inhibited ones
usually associated with
attributes i'd rather leave alone
     cut out the bullshit already

in the darkness of each dream
sometimes the uncomfortable
truth
finds a way into
the active body

instead of welcoming
a new direction
i find new fears
that will hopefully
not lead to new excuses

so let the day
go forward from here
let's see where
the blood leads

--- e b bortz

earth note 178

for every passing car
up the avenue
early memory
raises itself

a stripped-down pickup football game
     my unexpected speed

a hot summer day in the middle of the ohio river
     swimming back from brunot island
     desperately floating
     not fighting
     the current

the steady rumble
     of a pinsetter's disrespect
     for a ninth grade social studies teacher

an eighth grade history teacher who asks
"are there any jews here"

a half-dozen bee-bee holes in the windows
of franklin ice cream (lee & meadowbrook)

learning how to take a punch
before
learning how to swing back

but it's alright ma
i'll go with
endless love illusions

still

more shark than jet

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 29, 2012)

earth note 177

with the rain this morning
the only brightness
coming thru the trees
were radio tower beacon lights
steady intervals
as if each flash
could predict the future
or monday morning
stock market openings

a continuous fog
bears down on the valley
the beacon is not a lighthouse
the sea is beyond our sight

--- e b bortz

taconite conveyor

north of hibbing minnesota 1977

poured into the
pellet storage bins
which led down
to the railroad cars
pointing toward
the superior wisconsin
iron ore depot
to be loaded
onto the iron ore boats
for buffalo cleveland
hamilton ontario
and more

but the end of the conveyor
was also a beginning
of the wilderness
if you were looking north
poplar tamarack white birch
as far as you could see
some far flung lakes
also
and if your eyes
stayed steady at sunrise
you might see
grey wolf
blue heron for sure
black bear if you were lucky

the pellets flowed continuously
kicking up dust outside
the conveyor shields
a 66% iron composition
like a fixed recipe
for the steel mills
to the south
displacing
natural ore deposits
and thousands
of hungry
underground miners

yet the conveyor spoke
like a shill
the natural world
did its best to cover
its ears
& if there was a bottom line
you always knew
you
were the eternal witness
& thus accountable

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 26, 2012)

earth note 176

the open road
is no longer open
even if our imaginations
insist on it

being prepared for disappointment
is not the same
as folding up
your tent & resigning
to the uniformed paths
dished out to you

don't tell my dog
the grass isn't greener
down the highway
he knows & leaves
bullshit when he hears it

driving west on u.s. 2
to avoid sunrise
in your eyes
seems like a good enough
goal at this point

for every strip mall
forced upon you
there are still
scraps of poems
& wild woods
that demand
attention

move on
when ready

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 24, 2012)

i have a bicycle

that looks for
spiritual fulfillment
usually on
an early spring day
& somehow convinces
me to drop everything
& head down the hill
to where the river trail
still cluttered with some
concrete walls
asking messages
even of forgiveness
for the cruel way
we left
the remains
will haunt us until
written history ceases
or it's outlawed

and unlike twenty years ago
streets & bike lanes & trails
we cried for
are now the domain
of something
further than ourselves

proselytizing animals that we are

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 16, 2012)

earth note 175

a thick fog at four
in the afternoon
seems unusual

it leaves behind
an enigma
an origin of confusion

all of these hills
are old
& obtuse

the end is not near
the beginning
all but forgotten

all events mesh
drift
in their own disorder

in the veil
earth
has no lift

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 14, 2012)

if the naive

would leave their comfort
& go out
& meet the hollow
there is time
still
to breathe taste smell
search the landscape
let the muse bring you
courage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Mar 11, 2012)

corporate-oc-racy

the debate is safely
within the magic box
a consensus imagined
but not real
for every issue
there are predetermined
firewalls
outer bounds never to be scaled
never to be explored

if you happen to be vying
for a space in a shelter
you don't count

if you take the bus
you don't count

if you refuse the phony
hand of hypocrisy
you will be shunned

if you are aboriginal
you know what to expect

if war is not an answer
there are always lies

if you expose the lies
you'll go to prison

if your water is poisoned
or your dog barks at fracking trucks
you don't count

if you've built a trojan horse
and called it an ark
some will call you a visionary

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews, Mar 6, 2012)

earth note 174

still life frost
on the japanese lemon thread
always yellow lime
deep-rooted enough to flourish
through wind
ice & drought
bamboo encroachment
inalienable resistance
to the abusers
like a conifer
.....like a lifelong love

--- e b bortz

earth note 173

half-dozen crows are bold enough
to take over the turning lane
carefully inside the yellow lines
pecking at what looks like
a heel from a rye bread loaf
.....maybe some loose caraway seeds
sensing cars coming fast
peeking from a hillside half-blind
a dozen wings flap collectively
sprint twenty yards into the trees
then return focused
persistent
dodging again
finally
a sentry calls off the raid
squawks new coordinates
to the north

the wind leads
ice into darkness

--- e b bortz

no dogma prisoners

even if every argument
has genuine logic
there comes a time
when the walls need
to be demolished
the same way
a forest fire
renews growth
floods replenish
& fertilize a field

creating & dissecting hyperbole
is a full-time job
every poet
both prisoner & jailer

--- e b bortz

(published in Embryonic Gurney, Green Panda Press, May 2012)
(published in opednews.com, Feb 23, 2012)

apologies to my ron paul, bolshevik & menshevik friends

a few weeks ago
a guy came over
from a craigs list posting
interested in buying
my old van

before we finished
he opened up
the tailgate of his even older van
& gave me several cds
and other ron paul propaganda
.....some of it close to the mark
before he drove off
with my former van
& his older van
now a small convoy
filled with political tirades
.....some of it close to the mark
bringing back images of those
old eisenstein films
with petrograd revolutionaries
flinging thousands of leaflets
from the back of their trucks
in 1905 and 1917

again
many apologies to my bolshevik friends
but i must admit that i fully defended yinz
in this whole drama
when i responded to the van buyer
who claimed obama was nothing
but a bolshevik
i retorted
no way...obama is a menshevik
all the way

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Feb 20, 2012)

earth note 172

near sunrise
the moon is a perfect thumbnail
a light mix of red & gray clouds
form an arrowhead
to the north
maybe not coincidentally
the crows fly north

songbirds fully awake next door
hide in a barren grape arbor
tune in
their music
skip the morning rush

--- e b bortz

rendezvous

bahia honda

for two days in a row
the dusk
with a red tinge
near the horizon
ocean / gulf bottom
in pale turquoise
near the disconnected foot-bridge
calm
clear and shallow
a dark throbbing trail
out from the shadows
moves
manta ray

--- e b bortz

santa fe train

pulling into
santa fe new mexico
a sunny november noon
a few snapping pictures
passengers stepping down
a banjo & fiddle
playing an unfamiliar
bluegrass tune
puffy white clouds
moving to the rhythm
sandra joyfully transposed
by the marketplace teeming chatter
recycled stalls & organic shoppers

a black dog pushes
his head to my leg
lifts his nose
as if inhaling
a new day

--- e b bortz

earth note 171

a snow drift
finally made
an effort
to form
near the perimeter
of the tree line
short on wind
somewhat haphazard
lazy flakes

who am i to complain

an arctic blast without commitment
might just be
indicative
.....(you pick the metaphor)
to change direction...maybe get lost
waiting for a storm
to break the impasse
.....then find courage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Feb 15, 2012)

my meter

is giving me a headache
or putting me to sleep
sometimes both

i need a snow drift
to dive into
if i could find one

throw the beats
& bums out
there's a new rhythm

with an irregular stride
run past
every footnote

resisting the obvious
is not
an impromptu exercise

--- e b bortz

vent / piss off everyone

take every big party politician
& evict them for corruption

stick your tongue out
at every blogger
right and left
most are drunk with delusion
you don't need a windbag
to know which way
the wind is blowing

morally exorcise
all police and military
then reduce by 75%

outlaw money & television
& fossil energy
forget the 'debt crisis'

try not to grit your teeth
with your tongue out

--- e b bortz

earth note 170

wind & pines deep breathing
feed on each other
the plane overhead
gets short circuited
in the short arc
of the sun
even clouds lose their way

choices have limits
promises are in-season
money has no exchange

the river inhales
on its own
pushes whitecaps
upstream

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 30, 2012)

earth note 169

dreary & warm
a winter message
like a cry for help

--- e b bortz

earth note 168

frozen hills tasting a thaw
can sometimes fool the songbirds
perched in the remnants
of a rusty gondola car
stranded on the siding

their singing seems random
to an ear still burdened
by the pinging
of a lean & narrow
railroad spike hammer

steel chirping
becomes the acoustic blend
a barge echoes
waiting at the channel
the river will ultimately
decide all propriety

--- e b bortz

the corps

have found a way
to shake inside their iron boots
& still let everyone think
that their benevolence
is in fact
matter-of-fact
with everyone eating
at the trough
diving into a new bag of monsanto hash
spread evenly
egalitarian in fact they say
unless of course your food stamps
have already run out
or you don't have bus fare
or your bones are too cold
to get up from under the covers
since they turned off the heat

and for every iron boot pair
with or without the make-believe
there are 99 barefoot pairs
.....waiting for spring

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 25, 2012)

close your eyes & let me frack you

you'll get paid
piecemeal tax
for the clever milk-no-honey-toastmasters
serving up
in grand jargon illusion
a carbon under-crust
& cloak
for the status seeker nonprofit
eddie bauer backwoods-man-ship
in earth tones

drillers
just mechanical technocrats
even the apologists
in ready daggers
vertical then horizontal
into your bowels
you'll bleed-out
before
you know it

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 21, 2012)

angel baby

1960

rosie & the originals
connected every wavering chord
loose in the body & mind
of a twelve-year-old
just climbing out
from under a school desk
from an air raid drill
     so out of touch

and as the story goes
rosie hamlin was cheated
     for a time
out of her songwriter rights
'cause she wrote the original
as a poem instead of a song

yet still
the poem sings
     like a single voice
          a heart
               endless

--- e b bortz

earth note 167

koh samui, thailand, 1989

the undertow was almost secretive
giving you instant revelation
that it was best to dive in quickly
get beyond it
past the green surf
churning up sand
right before the crash
on high ground
.....a lesson
.....in respect
.....from a stern mother

the fishing boats
came buzzing in for dinner
the beach deserted
the sun screaming for a finish
like there might be some doubt
about tomorrow

even the coconut palms
were picked clean
& when i thought
about their emptiness
i realized that the last ferry was full
& had already left for the mainland

still
tides do melt away
what is left
is the substance
of time
every thought
buried within
.....not fleeting

--- e b bortz

multitudes waiting for facebook's class war

consider this your market research
things are so in the toilet
there'll be hell
fire
& brimstone
awash this election year
all within the safe confines
of your subterranean cyber closet

act now
apps are standing by
that traffic snarl
is not a mirage

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 16, 2012)

first arrest

summer 1964

when i was sixteen
reggie & i crashed
a party over on
howe street
the bohemian part of pittsburgh
then

the four tops
weren't there
but their music was
& a special spirit
you could call it

the police gave no warning
before they barged in
arrested a bunch of us
asking everybody
why
blacks & whites were at
the same party

the paddy wagon ride
stopped at juvenile hall
(was on forbes avenue then in oakland)
and after i was processed in
they pointed to a narrow wooden bench
for me to sleep on until morning
when they'd call my father
i didn't sleep
just laid there wondering
where they took reggie
who was a year older
but still juvenile
& later found out
they jailed him downtown
til morning

after all
we were caught
black
white
& at a 'disorderly' house

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 17, 2012)

earth note 166

on the bus the other day
i heard a hunched over
man
in a very heavy coat
say
he wasn't sure what the future
looked like
today
wasn't what he thought
it would be
yesterday
or a few years ago
he never believed in
an arrival
or deliverance
though the bus driver
did nod
as the front door
lowered
for him to exit

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 11, 2012)

bread crumbs

that haven't yet
fallen to the floor
are well hidden
or scattered
over the table
to the point
of dispersing
the mass
to starvation

on another table
in the outer-burbs
the feast never ends
or even pays
its own freight
bread crumbs
trickle upward
like a steady
bleed

some believe
this is novel

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Jan 8, 2012)