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

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

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

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

seventeen septembers

since we first saw
toronto spreading out
like a flock of geese
     every morning's a wakeup
our campsite drying out
from last night's downpour

the west humber river trail
finding the cracks more pronounced now
the graffiti painted over
then tagged again in another language
then painted over again
authority can't ignore the resilience

scores of cultures from every neighborhood
     head dresses finding deep roots
     growing each tradition
like the geese find their flight path
in a spot of blue
     opening

--- e b bortz

an ax grinder's confession

there's not a damn thing new
about blunt force criticism

with everything coming down around us
forging & slashing steel
becomes a cottage industry

of course you know
a great leap forward
has been tried before

if the brush is wide enough
even the windows
can be covered in one stroke

what looks like a new day
might just be dusk

--- e b bortz

earth note 258

a carpet of thorns
from the rose bushes
creeping then weaving
a sharp wild fabric
over the terrace & concrete steps
     every one of them
     covered

as i cut it back
there comes a gnawing recognition
that the rose will always flourish
     it has no equal
and in this
     there is comfort

--- e b bortz

so

you said you were looking
for the next big idea
     well
maybe there aren't any right now
just a bunch of small ones that
could add up to something
someday

here's a small one: take down all the borders
abolish them all right now
we'll all live in that one big neighborhood
     planet earth
     every drone strike & cluster bomb
     will be a strike against us all

restore the rio grande to its original intent
     that
     of being the rio grande

stop poisoning life
all life
from the forests to the cities & oceans & lakes & rivers
& the air you share
     isn't for sale

redistribute all the wealth immediately
abolish all secrets right now
free all whistleblowers & resisters of conscience
shutdown kangaroo courts
     let the kangaroos free

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 26, 2013)

i might have just turned eighteen

when i first read my brother's copy of
a coney island of the mind by lawrence ferlinghetti

that summer
     restlessness became a verb

it was what i guess you could call my
coming of age time...my brother's east cleveland pad
the place where i became fully acclimated
to sex...my "spilled sperm seed" (ferlinghetti)
taking me as far as skinny-dipping-make-out
in lake erie at mentor headlands

even if it's all tame by today's standards
     i'm still somewhat mystified by it all

guess you could say i was pulled between
being radical
and being love torn/worn
     so i chose both

--- e b bortz

ap nam (shower)

a tin pot and water reservoir
in the bathroom
which i became enamored with
living in thailand
made a cool splash as you dumped it on your head
     streaming down
     your body waking up
          to celebrate

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 257

i'm ready to make the leap
to the withering away of the state

right now rules are made & broken
by an unelected homo sapien filter

who consulted the others?
what manifesto-bible gives a single untold story?

dreams are wet in the rainforest
from an out-of-body experience

pelicans fish past sunset
long after the nets go home

if it rains all day
the earth will breathe

from a desert
comes solitary decisions

let there be times
when the moon touches water

--- e b bortz

(published in shadowproof.com, Oct 30, 2013)

earth note 256

a pair of dog & cat coffee mugs
at the flea market
the $1 tag standing out
like a badge of courage
for the many times these cups
have endured
the curiosity of hands
always stroking for a bargain
     & a low ball
& a story behind the story
     who's table did they sit at
how many times
have they put out
from the top of these card tables
     buried behind outgrown
     kid's clothes
     & worn down socket sets

we gladly trade away a backpack
     yanking the $1 tags
          forever

--- e b bortz

the conscientious objector in us all

no one springs from the womb
with a gun in their hand

killing requires indoctrination

as the human heart
takes off on its own
brought into a living
breathing
interdependency
of species known & unknown
     rivers rushing
     every conceivable geography rising
responding to the unpredictable
     a planet ethos lives
     though still a mystery to most nation-states

but there's the greed
& the convenience of the status quo
& the social conditioning
of taking
and then holding on to
at all costs
a double-speak that every bureaucracy
understands
and defends to the death
your death

but who can argue
that this is all
preordained?

no one springs from the womb
with a gun in their hand

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 11, 2013)

return of the august torch

as in the weather
& the rumbling planks
from the bridges of madison county

the sun has that constant haze
never seeming to set
draping above tree tops
motionless against the corn rows

desperate as emotions
as when love goes searching
coming up with another
forever stained half-full coffee cup

tractors grunt like draft horses
decades before them
and for every silo full
     an empty heart plowed under

--- e b bortz

earth note 255

it's the kind of morning
that puts your traveling shoes
on for you

free of all hitherto conventions
when your thumb led you down
a whole lot of dead ends

wasn't any foot dragging
that you'd admit to
a young foot never looks back

everybody knows the highway's slipping off the mountain
toll gates around every bend
the new mad ones text on cruise control

the sage brush still leaves blood in its path
a cluster of cottonwoods
still a good place to hide

move on
if you can't put much credence
in what can't be touched

--- e b bortz
 

earth note 254

plankton
feeding ocean fish
     overwhelmed
by homo sapiens plastic
broken & shredded
just to size
to fool plankton eaters
man-made compounds
exotic chemical floats
just below the surface
gathering their own 'schools'
swarming every sea
embedding living tissue
     hungry consumers
     lining up
          keep the food chain
          unbroken

--- e b bortz

if there's any possibility

that the nsa is reading
my poetry blog
i guess it behooves me
to cloak every word
in a new & obscure language
& super subtlety
that most mfa graduates
     would throw out as gospel
poetry critics expound on
     highfalutin literary editors solicit
snoopers erotically pour over
     in visors & dark glasses
congress codes away in doublespeak
     every noun & action sandwiched
between double-layered metaphors
     (wtf are they?)
imploding like a thousand points of light
     traversing the planet
          babel-ing for notoriety
     forgetting all the rough & tumble
          heathen poets
          our heads still up
          ranting to the sky

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, Aug 3, 2013)
(published in firedoglake.com, Sept 30, 2013)

earth note 253

another early morning of words
     reaches the avenue pavement
     still cool
          waiting for a metaphor

in the interim
maybe it's better
to dig a few more holes
for the non-discounted hopefully red
     aster alma poetscheke (2004)

--- e b bortz

earth note 252

youghiogheny river valley
ohiopyle to confluence
feels like a rainforest
each day near the end of july
     wet and warm
sporadic rain burst intervals
suddenly on and off
like the monsoons of thailand
the forest canopy dripping
     continuously
down to the bicycle trail
whitewater rapids spitting up
circles of fog
drifting then sticking
to the riverbank

a roll of thunder at dusk
     echoes
like hollow distant prayer wheels
chasing a family of deer
up through the mountain laurel
up the embankment
to the arms
of mother oak     maple     poplar

by midnight
the rain finishes tapping
at our mountain tent
     our breath
          now the mist

--- e b bortz

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

recovering notes from the deep, part 5

there were a hundred reasons
to go live in northern minnesota in 1976
one of which was
it was long past time to evacuate pittsburgh
     the acid of the air truly damaging
young & not ready to be old       lungs
& walls that held us in     a good bit of it     our own doing
     you just had to leave to see it

my young family never believed in panaceas
though what we found in the great north woods
made the winter of hard knocks
a real wakeup
like the cold at the end of the night
     of 38 below
before restarting the wood furnace
or that first blast of cold air
coming out of the sauna

the mornings came especially early
for an electrician at a taconite plant
     unless you were shifting
     to nights or afternoons
     or you got a call to come in
          right now
     for an emergency
and then the foreman
rather calmly saying
     here are the new schematics
     we need to get this online
          right now
          and you did

when the creeks and lakes finally thawed
& the canada geese touched down near the pole barn
fluttering through the swamp grass
     the beginnings of green for a worked-out hay field
     created an aura
          like being freed
          or saved
          just in time

there should be no personal claims
within the commons
     the state forests
     near the continental divide
     & a thousand lakes just in the county
keeping the lakes open
& the wolves & all the species protected
brought out the worst of the human ones
     towing their snowmobiles & all-terrain-vehicles
     up from the cities
     and yeah     they had their bought-and-paid-for allies
     in the state legislature
though i have to admit
we made a few backcountry
cross-country ski trails
     that will always be secret
     lost between poplar and tamarack ridges
          beyond the reach of the engines
          the greasy hands called progress
               into the quiet
                    deep
                    forever living

--- e b bortz

trayvon lives

between the heartbeats
we touch
     that touch us
from hallowed spaces
     each new sunrise
          clear
          brave
          unbroken

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, July 18, 2013)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

science & the romantics

there were more than a few times
in high school
when we parked and made out
in riverview park

totally detached from the observatory
at the very top of the hill
like nothing in it
superseded the clarity
of adolescent instincts

and of course you never thought
that the world you were opening
with your body
was anything but
a moist summer night

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 15, 2014)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

earth note 251

often
the big picture
gets in the way
of seeing and feeling
the small things
like differentiating the wild flowers
from aggressive weeds

so what seemed
like an arrowhead
washed from the clay
and brought out from burial
by torrential rains
appeared as just another
blend of rock

certain to be overlooked
by urban folk tales
     in fact
most everything about
the lives of the original inhabitants
had been maligned
desecrated
expunged
on the way to conquest

yet it is in this realm
     in this small historic component
a drum will lead and be heard
     and great truths will surface

--- e b bortz

untitled blues

sometimes i imagine
a flooded burning planet
poisonous machinery and processes
choking
washed out greasy streets
dying
with the scientific evidence
still alarming in the queue
describing how it bled out
and dried up
     mostly without a whimper

and the established advocates
still shuffling       waving in their
pale earth-toned power suits
and self-congratulatory citations
riding a storm of toxic atmosphere
a whirlwind without direction
clinging to a raft made of petitions
and resolutions that passed
like some kind of life preserver
     which they weren't

and even after all the lobbying
of media brokers
congress members and presidents
corporate whores and nonprofit do-gooders
nothing moved decisively enough
to make a fundamental paradigm shift
     a new paradigm also a clique now

there's no intention here
to color the future
as bleak as it actually
     might be
     we all find our own coping mechanisms
with the numbness that surrounds us
needing context
from the endless assault
on all that's considered
alive and vibrant
the best
     of being human

before the great reckoning
can the witnesses and survivors
     expect a coming together?
echoing bells in every town square
riverfront and harbor
everyone speaking from singing bowls
sustained messages
from the inside depths
of a thousand frayed      naked forests
bending to their limits
just before their limbs shatter?

and from the ambivalent university
of apologetics
there might only be another
study-in-the-making
like an oily structure that breeds
fear      accommodation      conformity
     another betrayal of an entire generation
and for all the talk of responsibility
the decision-making structures are precise
meshing each gear
in sterility
insulated beyond
the slipping troubled masses
out of range
     of the mirrors and truth tellers
          purgatory lock-up incorporated

--- e b bortz

earth note 250

thunderstorms rocked the ridge
setting off some car alarms
as if disputing
the main hypothesis
of the president's speech
yesterday
on energy
     coddling up
     with the nukes
     and frackers
     and lyin' 'clean coal' hucksters

the skies opened a plethora
of white lightning
the new panorama took over
from tired models
of disease & greed
drowning out the droning
of the moneychangers
     turkeys regrouping in the brush
     as a fox crept up
     on the edge of the ridge
     rain spilling rivers
     toward the rivers
flushing out illusions of every brimstone gospel

--- e b bortz

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

quick review of gasland 2 from a former green party congressional candidate

stay in the democratic/republican frack pond
as little or as long as you want
when you finally come out and shower
you'll still smell like shit
your conscience having been surgically removed
your mind
     mush

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 24, 2013)

perfect summer day depression blues

the yachts and speedboats are piling up
tax write-offs at the marina
a kayak glides past free
     river cooperates
down by the casino
a self-help gambler's anonymous shingle
flutters in the breeze
     the phone number may be out-of-order
     might not pick you up
     unless you own bootstraps
     & a private economy to ride out
     the big waves
or
you can go barefoot
learn to tread water
like the rest of us

the geese know
how to work the system
even in a crowd & bicycles
     like the sky
          finds perfect blue

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, July 31, 2013)
(published in earth notes and other poems, Least Bittern Books, 2015)

cafe

1991

an escape as easy as
dark turkish coffee
grounds on my tongue
reminding me of a fleeting kiss
a jolt to the roof of my mouth
even on a saturday
yafa     yafo
palestine     israel
a taste
still fresh
as the brown voiced men
at the table in the corner
the proprietor inviting me
to bring my bicycle in
listen to the streets
     of the displaced

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 249

after a good rain
the loam opens
breathes new life
into its body

if there's a way
to capture this process
save it
make a path from the withering

the maples have turned
their hands over
dripping
tasting renewal

--- e b bortz