earth note 479

animas river, colorado

aspen forest speaks every language

songs of the original people
if you cup your ears
you may hear voices

preempting college student hikers

sun worshippers along the banks
train crew & passengers
     passing through
transitioning leaves to yellow
     not fool's gold
by september

original trails

find the ridges
a black bear
goes into hiding

--- e b bortz

the sidewalk has been broken for fifty years

when the sun comes up
there's always a blue tinge to it
coming off the mural
making a stronger statement
than the nonprofit
down the street

if basquiat walked these alleys

he might say
the fractures will become
too great to bear
sweat and tears will make
their own path

---e b bortz

earth note 478

sculls      kayaks      coal barges
squeeze between concrete shoulders
there's an empty blue houseboat
     upriver
          for a homeless sailor
buildings coming down
to make parking spaces
a few tulips weave like yarn
in and out through a stone courtyard
     trying not to blush

--- e b bortz

earth note 477

butler county, pennsylvania

far down a jagged stretch

of human made lake
the carp have mutinied
schooling together
like it was their last stand
with the lily pads
and green algae
a blue heron takes up nesting in disguise
away from every possible fishing boat

calm water is a wednesday morning

just before school lets out
for the summer
all the news of the day
     goes unnoticed
the sun here
     is small
cloaked in faded cloud
     the only drama

--- e b bortz

earth note 476

sherman alexie and camus
appeared together
as brothers
on the used book table
of the friendship flower & folk festival

a cool morning might have been the spark

as they sent out
a subliminal message
reaching through the dampness
of several generations
some noticing and some not

even retired elegant greyhounds

& great danes
were listening for the magic
in the maples
now green
now finally full body

--- e b bortz

third clarinet in the all-city band, 1966

or maybe it was all-city orchestra
i'd have to check my yearbook
     lost
to be sure
a way of wrapping themes of west side story
around the bus stop i got off at
for taylor allderdice high school
where the best acoustics
and passion blossomed
in the short blond hair
of the piccolo player
a far cry from my northside walk-up
& urging high school music teacher

somewhere

--- e b bortz

the beatles brought her

pittsburgh 1964

just as she landed on the northside

at a church work camp
an aqua paint brush
over rough plaster
just down the hall
if you followed the music
and the spirit surreal
of the slow dance
that brought me to
a sweat

on her arrival from across the river

i wondered how
things might go
if we ever had a chance
to go
beyond the reach
of her boilermaker father
and his penchant
for racist rants

escape at sixteen

wasn't an easy option
so we learned the trails
of schenley park
and steamed up the windows
at skibo hall parking lot

--- e b bortz

earth note 475

two miles downstream
the ohio river coughs again
with its chronic hoarseness
even though the morning is clear
leaving nothing but blue sky

it's all an illusion

remnant shadows of a penitentiary

still focusing
like a workhouse
where money and authority
is exchanged for blood

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 474

mesa verde national park

morning visit from the mule deer

rubbing the side of the tent
shadows of ears pointing up
twitching slightly like a light breeze
as the rain let up
we hear the hooves leaving
peeking out from the rainfly
where eyes meet
dancing brown

--- e b bortz

there's organic soup

in poems
it may jump out
from a tongue
but eventually
if it's going anywhere
it moves
without notice
into body and soul
until words
intrude
no ownership implied

--- e b bortz

earth note 473

everything went from dark to gray
at sunrise
coming across the horizon
the beginning of light
translucent shift is the new paradigm
the clouds just a filter
overcast in subtle comfort
a convergence of the silent

the grass will stay wet today

throw a few words to feed the roots

--- e b bortz

earth note 472

high winds out of the west
don't seem to bother
late afternoon flight
of the crows
north to south
they're completely at ease
in their lack of form
voices free
know where to fly

--- e b bortz

earth note 471...history in short form

it's too late
to wave a protest sign
in front of george washington
but not too late
to plant three cherry trees
that won't be cut down
     damn-it
in the back on the ridge
before the cliff drops off
to the neighborhood
josh gibson struggled to live in
locked out of the big leagues
because he was black
and george washington
made up a thousand excuses
for slavery

a couple miles from here

george washington camped
near the river
claiming the water as his own
wanting an outpost
with dreams of an empire
the original people
shot down
or driven out of the valley
believe it      it happened
and it's still going on

so what about the cherry trees

they've been dwarfed from a hybrid
small but strong
in body and spirit
     where there's fruit
there's hope

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 470

the shadow from the utility pole
cuts through the avenue
before high noon

someday there's going to be a faceoff

between the yellow lines
and the rumors of a speed trap

that's simply propaganda

from the mayor's office
or the district attorney posing

--- e b bortz

earth note 469

a grey morning
has more than one meaning
what looks like gathering mist
could be sweat
from the hills
tears
of a forest

--- e b bortz

earth note 468

the maple i've been watching for years
sprung the brightest green leaves today

that's the only news that counts

--- e b bortz

recovering notes from the deep, part 9

i should say their surnames
before i forget them
more than fifty years have passed
     but i'll say them to myself
since i'd like to stay away
from phone calls in the middle of the night
and lawsuits

before there were murals in the neighborhood

there were empty walls and vacant lots
and we'd chalk a rectangle on the wall
for a strike zone
for a hard pitched
tennis ball
and a batter
for a pickup game
and the mystique
of a ted kluszewski at bat
in the bottom of the ninth
the pirates with bases loaded
and mostly no hope
of winning

columbia place was an alley

     row houses
and soot on the window sills
and your voice carried
even when there was
no harmony

about the time

someone became sixteen
and got their hands
on the family car
the drive-ins just weren't
     enough
of an escape
from the smoke stacks
war dead 
& nightly news

there was always ripple wine

or thunderbird
to get you sick
i'm a lucky one with a low tolerance
learning my lessons
     early
in the shadows
of the west view park roller coaster
(long gone)

for an under-achiever

high school was more like
putting in time
occasionally finding a book
that moved you
     & a couple of english teachers
who refused to force feed you
     the script

when i started taking the streetcar

from the northside to the leafy east end
more than one
would ask me
why
why are you deserting
     us
     aren't we good enough

--- e b bortz

 

it would seem

that a rising jesus
was the catcher in the sky
of a medium range ballistic missile
off the coast of the
democratic people's republic of korea
this easter morning

--- e b bortz

earth note 467

the dirt road
into the national forest
out of durango
hangs in the air
suspended by sheer
updrafts from the valley

mountains can't shake

the haze or purple veneer
from the west
balancing along the ridge
unspoken
but not unheard

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 466

a squirrel and a robin
decided to perch themselves
on the same bare mulberry tree
     no this is not a riddle
strong spring sun
brings their bodies
into focus
branches silhouette
the finest of detail
small buds shaking gently
as each traverse
and then move on

--- e b bortz

earth note 465

where the rivers meet

patch blue sky

air currents
finally warm enough
to keep a couple hawks
aloft & soaring above parking lots

traffic growl rising

like static notes
trying to bring you down

--- e b bortz

earth note 464

chimney rock, colorado

when the jewelry maker

told her story
her voice quivered slightly
the air was dry and acoustic
her notes crossed the landscape
in brown shadows
opening up
a squash blossom

--- e b bortz

i know i've used color orange like a drumbeat

as in sunsets
ocean horizons
summer mountains
autumn leaves

it writes itself

like a muse

spilling out pain

as necessary

it jumps in

without making excuses

speaks and listens

at the same time

it's a couple of tints more yellow

than blood red

though i'm certainly

no painter

--- e b bortz

 

vengeance

is scorched memory
uniquely calculated
codified
for longevity
human
like no other
being

as one scrapes

thru burning gun sights
the confusion of the shovels
with the tapping of survivors
is impossible to distinguish

speak their names

the sky fills once again

blind smoke
crematoria
to hide every flag

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 463

temperature inversion
pollution alert coming
if they're being honest
more carbon-petro-chemical
in the offing
the river valley
being the conduit
your sacrificial lungs
turning gray
then malignant
then a death spiral rising
called an uptick
in the markets

--- e b bortz

earth note 462

si surat stupa, surat thani province, thailand

on a bicycle in 1988

the hill was always a challenge
a magical view across the valley
rolling out into the gulf of thailand
refocusing your perspective
every turn of the crank

sunday was a day

to open every pore
lovers finding
cool shadows from the stone
where a whisper echoes
like a singing bowl

--- e b bortz

the words will know where to go

let them go
out the backdoor
down the ravine
toward the highway

touch a grassy berm

still wet from last night

there's no propriety in any of this

if you think your words
are sacred
look for obscure translations

planting seeds you may be surprised

sometimes they stay hidden

the rain will cleanse

the text
you've spilled it all out
no apologies

go easy on the critics

     grow the garden

--- e b bortz

earth note 461

an overcast is easy
on your mind and eyes
without expectation
snow melts when mountains
and hollowed out bodies
     decide
every runoff is a tear
on swollen rivers
trees rub shoulder to shoulder
with rust
     an i beam has no ego

--- e b bortz

the wind storm has passed for now

in pittsburgh
waking up to the dutch election results
rolling in on their classic wind mills
or more recent wind turbines
keeping all the internet chatter
from going dark
or maybe it'll go dark
anyway

groenlinks (the greenleft) seems to be growing

like a new forest
emerging in a strong voice
democracy without corporate logos
solidarity with immigrants
diversity
ecology
the social safety-net
to stop austerity
or however it's described over there
     putting your body on the line
the xenophobes will go the way
of the false prophets

listen to the young

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 460

northside pittsburgh

a string of row houses

on mccullough way
& along california avenue
have gone to dirt lots
broken red brick
grass poking its head
out of the leftovers
blue bell diner long gone
blue moon coming back
only by special request  

and then there's the exact

location of the house
a teenager walks away from
at 1713 buena vista street
     now it's on record
where radical leaflets might still
be milling around in the rafters
waiting for the barricades
to go up
never one
to bowing down

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 459

northside pittsburgh

it took the whole winter

to finally get a forecast of
six inches of snow
on the marshall trail
if i want to ski again i've got to be ready

the ground

still has some give to it
the deer never seem surprised
their bodies in motion
in full contrast

forty-eight years ago

it rained
as i walked down
to the draft board
to say
hell-no

every story has a moral

even this one
but don't ask 
the weatherman
to find the right map
it's time to go by instinct

forty-eight years ago

i refused army induction
passed out anti-war flyers & buttons
as the sergeant started his pep talk
and a couple of ready soldiers
grabbed me by the elbows
and moved me out

i tried eye contact

with the whole room
blurting out
a few words
like
you don't hafta cross that line

and that became my mantra

a muster of moral persuasion
in simple terms
but mainly
instinct
as if killing & dying
can be reduced
to a common denominator

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 458

late afternoon crows return
their primal screams
speak freely
without hesitation
echoing
through bare branches
they teach us to breathe deep
into a full moon

--- e b bortz

earth note 457

shattered blue sky
makes up
for the snow covered
green
leave your excuses
for celebrating st patrick's day
a week ahead of time
and maybe just dwell
on the ides of march

--- e b bortz

 

earth note 456

kin khao
let's eat rice
share what we have
find the quiet
of the palm fronds
the secret contours
of the shore
shaped through the body
of every woman

--- e b bortz

 

a name-dropper by any other name

putin is no yevtushenko
chernobyl is no bratsk hydroelectric station
but trump
is the insatiable roy cohn
even out on the studio 54 dance floor
grabbing everything unclaimed
in a sloppy rendition
of infamous manhattan fame
giving mort sahl
a reason to take the fifth
in his own monologue

like the strangest of bedfellows

--- e b bortz

earth note 455

march 3rd
& waking to a dusting of snow
getting back in one piece
was enough
where there's a highway & fog
up against west virginia hills
and every coal seam
seems worked out
like a short legged steer
on mountain shrub grass

eighteen wheelers bear down

to beat the tornado
dodging shredded tires
and swollen creeks

--- e b bortz