a note to the republican convention

there's a swelter
moving in today
that will pull
the curtain down
leaving a room full
of the disbelieving
looking at an empty stage
waiting for the stars to arrive
     or maybe align
but the result will be the same
they'll all break out
in a collective sweat
     and like from sartre
          no exit

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 201

the ohio river had a buzz yesterday
as i rode the riverfront trail
it looked like a traffic jam
down at the casino
many gray hairs getting off
     a riverboat full
     being shuffled in for lunch
     and gambling losses

--- e b bortz

earth note 200

i find it easy
to revert
to the dream again

what exists this
very minute
leaves the muse abandoned

misty hills
in southern thailand
make no promises

but the illusion
is just too real
to let go

a thousand years
may separate us
from enlightenment

so let the magic
guide
you

--- e b bortz

we all breathe within this morality play

no hiding off-stage
     & it has nothing in common
with how society
interrupts it
& then kisses its own ass

or how religion
self-inflates
through words & symbols
instead of deeds
     hiding the poverty
          of the sophists

no one gives anyone
any rights
which are
inherent
inalienable
     not for an authority
     to grant

there are no answers here
     either
make your own covenant
     alive
          beneath your breast

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 19, 2012)

earth note 199

i don't know why
one of the white pines
in the backyard
has brown needles
at the very top
even with a full green apron
surrounding them
     too high for the deer to reach
     maybe blight or drought
left its dead mark
but i won't clip the appendage
     the contrast has a purpose
          life and death
          need to coexist

--- e b bortz

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

an honest dialogue

with an aluminum can
blowing     clanging
     down the avenue
that's what this political season
has come to

a bit of truth
spills out here & there
thanks to the greens
     certainly not the apologists
for the big money six-packs

they all want to find 'common ground'
for austerity
for 'take backs'
for 'pulling your ass up by your own bootstraps'

keep listening
     where there's a loose aluminum can
there just might be
     hope

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 198

so for now
even with the journey
     over
the light refuses
to be categorized
in some predefined
magazine format
there's a mist
that pierces the skin
     never leaves it
          becomes your body
round pebbles
     smoothed by millennia
a fractured butte
     still standing straight
a thousand mysteries
     of the rivers' wombs

--- e b bortz

earth note 197

somewhere between chinook & glasgow montana
along highway 2
two 60ish cross-country bicycle riders
heading east
stopped in this little town
(the name escapes me)
to clean & repair their machines
wheel skewers and bearings disassembled
a neighbor's water hose made available
to cleanup the mud
from a previous day's travel & campsite
and yet they talked
most calmly about the route they were doing
by way of the adventure cycling maps from missoula
which made me remember
one of my first published stories
about bicycle touring in southern thailand
     published in the adventure cycling magazine
     twenty years ago but who's counting
     which made this whole episode
     somewhat familiar
          with strangers
               no more

--- e b bortz

drums

at gros ventre
near the spine of the tetons
i fell asleep
to the courage
of shoshone drumbeats and songs
a message for all to hear

our own thanksgiving of sorts
taken by force
the machinery of so-called
'new world' empire

what makes the shoshone
reunion here now?
how have we become witnesses?

between dances
the shoshone elder
says
this was our hunting land
our sacred ground
our spirits
have lived within these mountains
with the origin of time

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 196

so
the new tires
(not the retreads we nearly collided with)
kept us
& the van from becoming
a foggy mountain breakdown
     like in the old days
unless you're considering
everything else you witnessed
including the crazy-ass drivers
with too much texting
under their
     too fat thumbs
     called goal or success
     oriented tools
even as the roadside grew
into a hangman's knot
     there will always be enough rope
     to wrap every present
     in time for christmas

and the big & small rigs
& roadways
hell bent
are nothing
if not the doorway
of the empire
keeping every eye & nose
tied like a ring
for the unfathomable energy shortage
tomorrow
or the next day
     & all the armies (not of god but of profit)
     standing ready
     to pounce any inkling
     suggesting
          another way

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 10, 2012)

earth note 195

large brown feathers
     white specs underneath
cross i80 eastbound
touching down in the median
     for a moment
then darting back
in time for me to notice
that it looked like a hawk
     leaving empty-handed
back to nebraska tree-line
     masking dried-up corn fields
          front man for drying up planet
masking entrenched denials
     masking what goes for political discourse
          right now

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 6, 2012)

love & wind turbines for sandy

above idaho falls
rolling steady
like a quiet wave
predictable
     unlike blood
     & chemistry
at the valley hospital
refusing logic
more variables
still to be defined
it's hard to see beyond the falls

odd metaphors
override the olympic games
     even with the brits
     timely touting
     their national health system
     in the opening ceremonies
and marina silva lending
her open amazon hands
to carry the olympic flag

wind and sun
will bring us home
     eventually
beyond the reaches
of this atomic desert
scattered forests
indomitable snake river
     we find wet green brush
          our compass

--- e b bortz

earth note 194

three eagle encounter near jackson hole, wyoming

1 p.m.
snow caps on the teton range
are being dispersed
though they struggle to stay intact
     feeding the snake river
     white water
     still a deep blue
     sometimes green
     down under
a dogged fly fisher casts & recasts
kids play in cold gushers

a lone eagle circles
too quick for the camera

8 p.m.
we wait in the roadside dusk
near the gros ventre river
for a glimpse of a moose
wanting to stay hidden
     a sudden uncanny convergence again
     with the eagle
     this time a couple soaring
     then perching on a barren tree
     together
     a warning?
as the snow fades with the haze
into night
the grand teton's
fate is uncertain

colors blend then die on the peaks
indifferent to our wanting
they are what they are
     their gift aplenty

--- e b bortz

note: unusual about this encounter with the eagles
is that this was originally written with only the first
eagle (on the snake river) included...then revised for
the later encounter that same day with the eagles
on the gros ventre.

(published in opednews.com, July 23, 2012)

earth note 193

it's tough trying
to zone out
in a backwoods oregon internet bar
     truck racing     roaring away
     on the nascar channel
          all five televisions

surrounding it all
     jagged half-logged national piney forest
shaking up every angry mosquito
from a hiding place
left to pick at humans     even canines
when given half a chance

the sisters peek
from snow capped peaks
the chill at crescent lake
meets a thick-skinned kayak
     & volcanic scratches
     like a signature incognito

and still
each sunrise and sunset
in the old coastal towns
of astoria and florence
and a score in between
     are all unique compositions
          reflections
ragged rocks & surf
shadows
& seals
that throw the unpredictable
     into the abstract

only a great painter
can give the images
     life
with color and texture
     we're all in the spectrum
and with great reverence
     i leave it at that

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, July 18, 2012)

requiem for a seal

oregon coast

at port orford
     a misnomer for aboriginal land
     stolen by congress and so-called settlers
     in the 1850s

a seal has beached
at the far end
of an empty lonely port
     claiming
     to still be working

straight up majestic rocky shoulders
old growth forested mountains
     within eyesight

are as good a resting place as any

the large smooth body
lay lifeless on shore
in a strange windswept position
beached by old age?
injured by man?

we fail again
to stay up late enough
for the sunset
a bit to our north
behind the sharp dark rock
that throws a shadow
     a tomb

--- e b bortz

earth note 192

two kayaks...
lake mcdonald glacier national park
montana
     to
curlew lake state park
washington

a sudden hail storm
wild thunder     lightning     downpour
repeating showers & sun in ten-minute
     rainforest-like intervals
filling in the gap
between idyllic
     & fear
the unexpected stamina
     of your hands & tent
shaking through your insides at times
'cept for the young & aware    
escaping to missoula
     hopeful
we're all passing thru this
     sea change of consciousness
     together

from a common origin 
     colors are distinct
     yet the clarity & chill
     wakes you
     like holy water 
     
--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, July 4, 2012)

earth note 191

fracking rigs that have turned
western north dakota
into an industrial wasteland
must somehow
some     way
be reversed & restored
never forgotten

every last politician
with filthy hands
needs to be run out of office
exposed as the executioners
that they are
defiling what used to be
sacred grasslands

how the landscape has changed
with the blessings of
the fracking president

but this is no time
for despair
there are rugged mountains
     humans & other forms
in montana
that refuse the devil's fire
     reject suicide & a fools' gold rush

with the ferocity
and grace
of the rivers
two medicine    cut bank    rose    avalanche
let the apostles go forth
shaking every plain and valley
turning a betrayed people toward the light

--- e b bortz

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

cass lake

millions of dollars from casinos
that aboriginal people of minnesota
     wait to recover
from the deluded
     get rich quick dreamers
will never compare to what was lost
from so-called new world ism
     conquest
     plunder
     genocide
     an official government sanctioned policy

the ojibwe still bleed from the bounty hunters

the land & lakes & wild rice
now stifled and commodified
for the twenty-first century
while a mother waits
for a minimum wage job
at a traffic signal on so-called u.s. 2

the many hues of the indigenous
is a continuum of the forest
     with historical wisdom
          spirit that can't be translated
immersed in color
     from the strongest
     straightest
     tallest jack pine
     with bark that's rough
     resilient
     receptive
to the cries of tradition
tribes and nations
     to be whole

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 23, 2012)

headwind on itasca county 8, minnesota

evidently the horse flies had no interest
in a slow moving bicycle
i didn't notice them much
rolling west
just relentless wind
like a wall

but on the return
the extra fifteen miles per hour
must have been more to their liking
they buzzed at the head and legs
landed at will
finally found someone to bite
who was more their speed

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 190

muskallonge lake, upper peninsula, michigan

south shore of kitchegumi (lake superior)
just a pebble's throw from here
through pine maple poplar
thick green line
intimidated
but hanging in there
standing
against the logging trucks
though it seems like everything else
and everyone else
in the past forty-three years
has moved on
that being the first time
i passed these parts
leaving the empty roadside pasty shops
to fade and close with the seasons
all on their own
while the great lake
so cold and steady
as it's always been
passes on its blue life
     gift
     unconditionally

--- e b bortz

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

homage to spontaneity

is a fragile commitment
the road looks one way
fools you
until you are
upon it

and what is truly unplanned
might just be
an illusion
built upon subconscious
decisions in your dna

and then you begin
to question
why you're alone
in this impromptu lapse
as day & darkness collide

the dog lifts his nose
instinctively
in an effort
to find new bearings
you refuse to acknowledge

yet there's beauty
in every forest
     every desert

--- e b bortz

stop looking back and stop looking forward

every revolution starts within
you
by a decision to create
from love
create right now
words
images
sounds
where no recipe
knows
where every consequence
is unforeseen
where dogma
never gets recycled
where earth
germinates its own
where structures collapse
in their own irrelevance

when hay goes to seed
the field will grow
anew
unpredictable
every field
every seed
     a revolution

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 189

the fennel
is windswept today
like a brush through the sun
angles of bright and shadow
diffuse within green
lacelike leaves
     the herb of sight
a simple ritual
puts vision
before expediency

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 188

a sheet of rain
is music
each note melting
into itself
surging shallow banks
of the little colorado
brown & grainy forms
collapse into the rage
where the songs are written
unrehearsed
where the water tower
stands
rusting
where the boys speak
of the mad ones
mad to be saved
one of them adds

where no one highway
speaks like the river

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 4, 2012)

for now

i'm leaving
blank
          lines
in reserve
for a day
          when
an empty juxtaposition
needs new characters

--- e b bortz

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)