earth note 207

there's a young maple
out back
that may not survive
another year
though it's had
a good/bad
bumpy few years
already

see
the deer have browsed
nipping off some
of the sweetest new branches
and more recently
scraped their antlers
repeatedly up and down
a small mostly vertical trunk
naked now
maybe bleeding
even at such a young age

but the maple has plodded along
and reached eight feet
tall enough to dress
a good cluster of perfect leaves
and the actual beginnings
of a color burst
not to be ignored

clapping my hands
at the deer
scares them away for now
serves as an applause for the maple
     vents me as powerless

--- e b bortz

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

siphon this

after years of misinformation
among so-called
strategic voters
     so-called liberals & progressives who believe
     that staying in the coveted loop of pseudo influence
     somehow creates change
     or rectifies the historical record
          even while arguing for manifest destiny
          of all things
          an exceptional ism part
          of 'historical development'
          and seeing exploitation as
               so twentieth century
          or the raping of the earth
          as balanced accommodation
          to the corporate state

the ojibwe still bleed from the bounty hunters

i find myself uneasy but still resolute
     reaching out
     with my one inalienable vote
     not obliging
     power brokers
          and empty suits

--- e b bortz

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

september is renewal

not an oxymoron
the rivers come to life again
leaving the dog days of august
an empty heat-sink

new color drips into the hillsides
biasing my eyes
     for new directions
     are inevitable

winter stores
are being rebuilt
from the carelessness
of summer

there is motion
in my feet
     i know not
     from / to
     where

--- e b bortz

earth note 206

autumn rhythm
arrived today
on the back of white cloud clusters
background in committed blue
     solemn
cold air filling
     every formation / movement
     everybody transient
          northwest to southeast

--- e b bortz

earth note 205

those three wild turkeys
out behind the house
sitting on a low hanging tree branch
overlooking the ridge
their heads darting
left and right
     where are the rest
     having seen a group of six before
consider them the sentry
tuned in to gun shots
in the neighborhood
     (it happens often)
wondering where & when they'll get
turkey t-shirts
     don't shoot.....nonviolent
     love a vegan.....love my wings

--- e b bortz

earth note 204

i never felt the summer heat
of montreal
only the quiet snow banks
     a peace to itself
shoulders of frozen rivers
stoic evergreens
     i am
     numb

--- e b bortz

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

i know i've sacrificed subtlety

at times
mixing the metaphors
lazy and/or impatient      no doubt
& i don't make excuses
'cept to say
frustration is as much a verb
as a noun
     there
now you see it
relying on the dictionary again
     to fill the empty lines

--- e b bortz

recovering notes from the deep, part 4

the anxiety
of riding into late evening
with the next installment of my column
     bicycling notes
tucked under my windbreaker
     and nothing but
the forecast of another twenty-five dollar check
from a struggling rural newspaper
after detailing the facts of the
last county commissioners meeting
and the citizens who might speak up
     for transparency
     the most radical of ideas
          then
from the great north woods of minnesota

and yet
the anxiety of not writing at all
     was greater
than any other scenario
making the early blast
     of spring
an arousing wakeup
leaving no doubt
that a new road was consciously
being taken
and wherever it would lead
would by necessity
     not be
where i was
right then

my hands had bore
many thousands of days
     of grit
     never to be hidden
     a part of any reality to come
          a confessional of sorts
          as uncomfortable as the word might be
and there wasn't an illusion being fed
     that i       would admit to
     since the way those spring clouds converged
     was clear evidence
that the returning canada geese
     came just in time

--- e b bortz

earth note 203

what hangs in the balance
can't be measured
by gurus or pundits
     a cold rain dulls the green
     leaving the tree tops waving goodbye
     just before the crash and downpour
     so unexpected the results can be
and i know you've thrown in your lot
with the visible
forgetting what drives
the cosmos
but that's
     o.k.

--- e b bortz

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

no winners

1.

i'd be happy
to let go
     my straw men
     self-described
     all high minded
     pillars of the community
when & if something new
shows
the perpetual road
isn't just a continuation
of old clichés
empty atm machines
     living under a bridge
world war 3 survivalists
     likely only cockroaches

force fed progress
     grand finale fireworks
          raised to spectacle

2.

even a short time before my father died
it was apparent that he would never accept
a world of broken dreams
never
a be all end all
for a revolutionary
envisioning the possibilities
regardless of the immediate conditions

and i knew all this from the last twinkles
in his last good eye
me trying to sing goody goody
in the same spirit as he sang it
in the pain of his immediacy
     his soul
     still on the battlefields
     of the spanish people
     1937 and 38

　
3.

there's not much point
in drawing conclusions
facing what is here
is enough
if there's an inner candle
sing with it
while it's still hot

--- e b bortz

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

hurricane isaac wins republican & democratic presidential nominations by default

so finally the fossil hogs
have lost one
at least in the surreal sense
     fixating instead on an antidote for trichinosis
a desperate lot of characters
aimless convention minions
lining up legions
comatose or apologizing for
     and via surveillance incorporated
coal mountain-top removal pillagers
gas fracking water poisoning land men
on & offshore oil barons baronesses & bankers
all feigning competition with
     the uncontainable
     metastasized nuclear hucksters
and of course
you already know
about climate-change-denying
locked & loaded
fog-of-war storm troopers
coming home to roost
hiding temporarily underground
dodging drought starved wildfires
     offering spit
     looking to buy the next election
          or coup de tat
          on lay-a-way

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 31, 2012)

earth note 202

are we still curious enough
to be looking
for a unified field theory
for life on this fragile planet
that connects every being
plant and animal
with one another
regardless of station
influence
language or no language
conscious or unconscious
     an unbreakable bond
that's not negotiable
     doesn't require believing
          either
nonetheless
     is omnipresent
          and as simple or complex
as one cell
     in the sea?

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Sept 8, 2012)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

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)