today

as in everyday
the weight of the world
is measured
by the cumulative
silence
breaking away
lifting off
broken streets
finding
voice

--- e b bortz

(published in firedoglake.com, July 29, 2014)
 

water is running out in iraq

blood will be the replacement
thousands more refugees
keep their heads down
& scatter
coming to the conclusion
that oil is the
caliphate
messiah
the tic in the uptick
of the dow
the plague
on being borne
our ethos
     being written

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 16, 2014)
 

there are no sand sculptures

on a desert
unless scorpions
are having an opening

no beach parties

unless the ukes are perfectly tuned
and the wind has passed

once the sun goes under

all you can do is wait

the highway is deceitful

in time it will disappear

your shoes are finally broken in

& you can search again tomorrow

--- e b bortz

earth note 283

morning fog
the mask
that leaves
the imagination
intact

concrete truck

starts its day
up the avenue
can't stop
moaning

sky mixes

like gray soup
dripping heavy
with maples
barely passing for canopy

river is silk
rolls like a cloud

--- e b bortz

burning fossil fuels...subtlety at its minimum

even without the additives
even the most submissive
will wake up
smelling the gas

but there is no shortcut

or endless scenario
or grand bargain
on the pathway
where extinction looms
yet the valley remains
still
cold
lonely

when did geoengineering

become anything other
than dark holes from snake oil hucksters
& when will universities become unapologetic
     when will middle ground
     be seen for what it is
          death
          nonetheless

methane shifts & finds the fractures

the casing & tank & human failures
leaving a burned-off poison
on our collective tongue
garbling our speech in so many words
the money follows the accomplices
     we'd be fools to think otherwise

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, June 7, 2014)

there were times

when i kissed
the pacific ocean
that i imagined
the gulf of thailand
answered

maybe camus

could explain this
or maybe
no explanation
is needed

the water is

seldom gentle

--- e b bortz

earth note 282

during the drunken frat party
the bankers changed suits
grabbing their insiders
& raising the extractive industries
up to the highest altar
forcing
grotesque contours
to the land
from its dark bowels
to the sun of its mountain tops

a hangman's noose

a fait accompli
outlives the judge
posing now
as a lariat
changing colors regularly
to match the new panache
threading the new hipsters
     in
for another go around

the growling heard

is the same old machinery
chewing & spitting
covering the tracks
like any addiction

--- e b bortz

talkin earth note blues, rev zero

so the united states and russia
have carved up the fracking planet
for their similar yet disparate ends

and those of us who scream on the coasts

on the river fronts
in the lakes & forests
on the deserts
at the wellheads
are deemed alarm makers
and worse

so we won't be entering

that McPeter
gated-cloud-eden
without the do-ra-me
as woody might say
staying right here instead
passing on the song
in climate refugee purgatory
clockin time
diggin sod
gathering raindrops

--- e b bortz

earth note 281

love is a hot
westerly breeze
strong enough
to raise waves
downwind ohio river geese
respond
with a row of goslings

--- e b bortz

 

red-blue-red, part 4

a cardinal flies in with a message
lands near the top of a small white pine
leaves a calling card
with a website
disconnected phone number
a press release announcing
a presidential run
looks left and right
     panics
by the sound
of wings flapping

a blue jay follows

singing's not his strong suit
     exit
stage left

the geese on the ohio river

have post-traumatic-stress
     bloodshot eyes

i'm not colorblind

--- e b bortz

recovering notes from the deep, part 6

it can take decades
to write it down
gestate
maybe even irony has a place in this

the greyhound bus lines began

in hibbing minnesota in 1914
i took a one-way greyhound
leaving the iron range
from hibbing in 1991
with a backpack
and a boxed-up bicycle

scores of towns & stops

before nyc
and then jfk airport
and then israel

but this isn't about that

but about the act of leaving

the beginning of summer
coming on strong
drying up the low lands a bit
the first real heat 
bicycling itasca county 8
     the boys bravely keeping up
     with the 'club' ride
the new sprouts
on both sides of the road
though my eyes looked
straight and immediate

separating from my sons

the twins graduating from high school
the two older ones off to college
our futures were destined
for many directions

the hundred pine seedlings dying

in the front field
a few weeks late
in the planting
still glad we tried

on the way out

a last go around
at nashwauk high school & track
where frozen spring begins
with a pounding on your feet

and then on to hibbing

past the library and high school
it'll always be zimmerman's high school

in the distance
the mines & stacks
of the taconite plant
brothers & sisters
keeping on
it'll always be north country blues

with every blue lake

the thaw is only temporary
gouged out red rock piles
     transitory
every white birch       bark peeling
deep green tamarack    
aiming straight for the northern lights
remembering when my eyes
first crossed sight
with a gray wolf
a fly over of geese
letting us all know
     there comes a path
     and a time

--- e b bortz

earth note 280

heat & rain
rush in
clouds parting way
to awaken a japanese lemon thread
     wild yellow
through the night
up the hillside
     a radical renewal
     from the dormant
every border has been scaled
worms tunnel      topsoil breathes
leaves turn over
their veins swelling
green & sweating
     an anonymous catalyst
          handing off       an embryo

--- e b bortz

breakout is like spring

a red maple grows a thicker skin
worn without apology
the new day shocks every status seeker
     old ways die first
     by not being listened to
washed out political honchos
spill like cliches
emit what can't be acknowledged

     most everyone is moving on

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, May 16, 2014)
 

beliefs in a backpack

still waiting for the paper
to spit the words onto
itself

saying it won't happen

is defeatist

doesn't matter what the

weather's like
or where a daydream
comes from
or what the crows
keep squawking about

the paper is its own voice

considers itself
still a cousin to the forest
simple and complex
impulsive
in a hurry
when the water's high & fast
     slow when the decay
     sets in

--- e b bortz

earth note 279

ohio river marina
bobbing in the current
early in the season
they're still mostly vacant
     wealthy cabin cruisers
     dry docked or sold
     to the highest bidder

the bicycle trail

runs with the valley
making its land claim
empty docks sway and sing
     metal to metal
     the wind
     a tuning fork

--- e b bortz

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

what comes around

thinking that lone turkey
pecking around at the end of the yard
     wobbly
paying attention to the hillside drop-off
lost from a half-dozen others
     a roost of one
just might be
my mother incarnate

a true rosie-the-riveter

worker-like
scarfing up loose food
providing for the community
     if she ever reconnects
stepping through resurrected
green buds
new grass
a trail of her own

running away

if i approach

--- e b bortz

poetry critic conundrum

first
don't ever try to finish a poet's thought

many think only

in code

seldom speak in sentences

never give up much

by expression

hand gestures

might be a distraction

a voice is still

only one voice
on one day

the paper is always a draft

everything that exists today

is considered temporary

locations are all in transit

spontaneity is a beginning

and end in itself

and most important

the poet always
gets the last word

--- e b bortz

internet walls

grow
in a closet
not unlike provincialism
creating its own rationale
friendship propaganda
notwithstanding

multitudes navigate

gated panaceas
exclusive interlocking webs
words & images pass
back & forth with quips
     & minutiae dangling
          for loose change

--- e b bortz

mother earth knows

you can't harangue
the children
into behaving
     growing up is painful
and liberating
all at the same time

watch out for the chest thumping

super heroes
they just might be hollow
     inside
& some stories just don't have heroes

holier than thou

isn't tried and true

but if you'll dance

with her
     your life will change

--- e b bortz

this cycle is coming to an end

after the headache is gone
every word thereafter
begins a new poem
unfinished     irreverent     without cares
like throwing seeds
upon a blank canvas
waiting for the sun
to surface

--- e b bortz

 

a stake tears through pennsylvania

it comes in vertically
then makes a ninety degree turn
heart and lungs collapse
rigs      pipes      toxic fluids
compressors cough
bring up blood
cover the carcass
old scar tissue
cut again
methane oozes from the pores

the emergency room was torn down

     years ago
the land
an industrial colony
lost its way
when the creeks
dried up
and the politicians
     swallowed the silver

--- e b bortz

(published in opednews.com, April 17, 2014)

whatever it takes

will be less
than what exists
that broken down cityscape
might last a few generations
so get used to it

making the rivers run like sewer runoff

is like a thousand taste-dead
empty mouths
with nothing but salt
on their tongues

the fiber optic cable

offers very little light
so keep groping       imagining
when rubber hits the road
& skid marks go missing

what's the point

of disassembling every keyword
& losing random bits
there is no technocrat
with a new codeword

for happiness

--- e b bortz

protest in the street

picks itself up
& bounces thru the stop light
the newspapers
are but scraps
a gray courtroom
grows padded walls
deafening to all
but the powerful
     tuning out
     all but
     the secret codes

a voice escapes
justice waits

--- e b bortz

earth note 278

unnoticed
in the rush
where leaves
find their final
resting
not because of any
higher consciousness
or new awareness
but because the hillside
is just steep enough
to keep leaf blowers
and their gassy assholes
off balance
confined to manicure
the cushy few
in the suburbs

a couple of squirrels
shift and chase their tails
through the maple leaf beds
     their playful softness in the brush
     is an illusion

--- e b bortz

we were probably the only family

washing the kids' jeans in the bathtub
one day shy of payday in simi valley california
two thirds of a salary going to rent & utilities
but close enough to bike to work
     and a damn good thing

we loaded a fiberglass canoe     bicycles

     the kids' beds and no furniture
     into a supercab pickup
made the trip from northern minnesota
to the san fernando valley and then over the mountain
     into ventura county
          just to find other families living in cars
               and picking through trash bins
but those beautiful tan bodies on the beach
     sure could fool ya

my oldest boy spent hours

     in an empty bedroom with a guitar
     making sun baked middle class blues licks
          immersed  
alone but juxtaposed
with the television generation millions

the next son read almost all the ray bradberry books

     all the science and chemistry he could take in
     creating a room full of maps & procedures
          a labyrinth of logical fantasy

the twins sean and neil ended up being
     the most social among us
     bringing over the neighbor kids
     to build a fort in the rocks      cactus
     ledges with black widows behind the house
     telling them that our furniture was
          coming soon
     when they peeked in
     at empty walls

those california freeways weren't free at all

     we packed it all in after a year
retraced the road back to the minnesota woods
just in time to smell the last hay cuttings of august
          and a lake superior thunderstorm

--- e b bortz

earth note 277

there's an assumption
that the virtual world
is smaller now

corporate banners drape

the walls
just beyond the buddha gaze

it's over twenty-five years

since i worked in southern thailand
the heat persists
everything else has changed

i stopped eating prawns
decades ago
mango rambutan and little bananas
are still sweet

the tapi river

may not be fished out
but the teak forests
need to be hidden away

in every dark alley

a lone welder strikes an arc
a hundred baht
less than yesterday's exchange

--- e b bortz

earth note 276

two wild turkeys
feathered angst
in a strip mall
parking lot
anxious to leave
the roar
of the highway
penned in between
another sprawl
developing
with vengeance
like looking for safety
in steel awnings
dark corners to hide in
a pile of loose
auto parts & asphalt
everything feeds
an unspoken chaos
politicos offer their personal
dialing for dollars
that special touch
     warm as concrete

--- e b bortz

earth note 275

where are the seeds
or maybe you're already
a seedling

a barren hill

is only temporary

an open hand

kneads the soil

make no mistake

simple digressing
will happen on its own

sometimes the sun leaves

without being noticed

there's already

another one coming

when the crow finds

gray clouds
new roots are taking

--- e b bortz

Readings from the Edge of the Earth, April 5th

from nature

your innermost thoughts
on who you think you are
your physical health
is a precise instrument
     even love
finds its parallels
in a storm or a sunrise
it's the omnipresent source
that's never fully understood
the mystery keeps unraveling
without needing an introduction
or a footnote
small bits come to our vision
like a new universe
is noticed
though it's been around for eons

from nature comes
all religion
all spirits
not vice versa
a belief system
is only as good
as the soil
across your torso

when's the last time
you tasted
the river

have you heard
the forest

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 274

desecration
followed by delusional
a droning repetition
paints a blood mark
on the first born
followed to the pit
a million-fold more
     another sacrificial forest
     commodified
a hundred chainsaws signal
a clearing of the way
the frack moneychangers
belly up to the bar
licking the boots
that brought them

--- e b bortz

earth note 273

brown leaves have been lying
building a decay
since the fall
even as the traffic
passes for concern
what's gray above
is really the afterlife
there's no sadness
in any of this
what is
is
existence ain't necessarily
existential
in fact it's all way beyond
my comprehension
but when the wind speaks
     i listen

--- e b bortz

enigma

what's buried in the sand
collapses at high noon
as you dig deeper

and so the answers to all questions

will have that iridescent covering
just out of reach

even as you've committed

to the dig
the tide will shift

and you'll start again

--- e b bortz

(published by Green Panda Press, Mar 7, 2014)

heading north

road dust
lays down
a re-entry path
     procrastination
is the best i can muster
the cold will come & break
     your bones
     will answer
if there's a sun
to be had
    train your eyes
    for the arc

--- e b bortz

earth note 272

big torch key

when big torch goes down
a pattern left in the foreground
leaves the mangrove
to shift for itself
explaining in detail
every coral fragment
shadowing every striped grunt
where even a secret gesture
     will be noted
          & acknowledged

--- e b bortz

beaks & seagrass polemic

we can learn from the beaks
     no hierarchy
     no billboards
(don't tell me about pecking order
     there are no armies involved)
sharing a tide
is what's obvious

--- e b bortz

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

earth note 271

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

finally

the clouds shift
giving the sun
stardom
& a grand entrance
bouncing off the water
getting the attention of the cormorants
looking skyward
like a choir

--- e b bortz