earth note 670

many words have crossed my desk

only to be forgotten

when the dark fades out like a holy light

not light at the end of the tunnel

but light where you never expect it

past the dark canopy of spring buds

past the eventual sunrise always promised

long past childhood memories

leaving only prickly empty shells

     like walnuts after the winter

--- e b bortz

earth note 669

key west

circle k busy as usual at 7am

a hot one to look forward to

sandy concocts her own crazy mocha mix

too sweet for me

give it to me raw

but don't get rough

be like the ibis gleaning

picking around

the parking spaces

we pitch in a few bucks

for three young travelers & a dog

needing gas

trying to keep it low key

out of sight

from the police & managers

so far

the beaches are still something

of a free zone

mark your spot

put your line in the sand

--- e b bortz

recovering notes from the deep, part 20

1963

when you're fifteen you remember

the feeling

not necessarily the substance

of a quarter-million people

     a rolling sea of justice

in the middle of the heat

of washington d c august 28 1963

in a crowd of black and white

showing the world

how to walk straight

interlock arms and shoulders

     sing

"woke up this morning with my mind

     set on freedom"

my dad and his comrade jim

vanguard proud

jim emoting spirit and voice

of paul robeson

lorraine hansberry

claudia jones

way way beyond

my adolescent consciousness

for me it was

just dylan and joan baez

dylan singing

only a pawn in their game

like seeing way into the future

where every voice

might move

a mountain

--- e b bortz

earth note 668

inching toward spring

cold and dry

ferns beginning to poke up

they know when to open their eyes

the trail below the ridge top

worn by deer      wild turkeys

to trace every path

long before humans

the buds aren't quite ready

they line the river

quiet anticipation

the sky begins
to dodge thru shadows

where sparrows dance

--- e b bortz

apolitical is not the opposite of overtly political

but of course there are those that say

apolitical is a misnomer to begin with

since there is an objective reality

     somewhere

     (a place for us)

where everything

has a political connotation

     even (especially)

     a blank piece of paper

          a true manifesto without limits

nothing is broken

     but everything is broken

stop playing with yourself

     jingling bitcoins in your pocket

there's no such thing as apathy

put your money where your mouth is

     or at least

where the sun doesn't shine

--- e b bortz

earth note 667

let this one start

before the forest fires

of indonesia

swallow the great ocean

words are more than language

every character a line in the sand

every sunrise

a new alignment

we are only as strong

as sounds

rolling quietly

off the tongue

there are no moments

to sacrifice

fill your rucksack

carry water for your neighbor

--- e b bortz

headphones

on the internet

and a damn good cover band & fiddle

& come home bob tee-shirt

from minnesota

playing absolutely sweet marie

just as it gets

"to live outside the law you must be honest"

my unsmart phone goes off "unavailable"

as the junk mail flies thru the slot

& the dog starts barking

at the road crew out the window

and i'm not sure

but the dog might need to pee

so we'll head out

to the well trodden frozen path

on a road most traveled

with a song

--- e b bortz

earth note 666

it's been something

of a convoluted journey

that got me to

earth note 666

'cross most every state

and a few continents

from the heat of the equator

to the wild deep cold of the north woods

so there's no apprehension here

i'll stand on it for a moment

take in a full 360 degree inhale

from the horizon

and then move on

but there is an odd backstory here

since some bureaucrats

decided in 2003 to change

the u.s. highway number 666

to 491 for reasons as murky

as the colorado river in moab

and wouldn't you know

totally unbeknownst to us

the camping trip that took us

to a monticello utah aspen forest

rolled right up 491 (old 666)

but we totally missed that

     revelation

though maybe the wind turbines on the hills

     never tilting

was enough of a sign that

a number is just a number

though self-censorship might end up

getting you lost

in more ways than one

--- e b bortz

earth note 665

smathers beach, key west

an open cabana

has a way of drawing you in

to a struggling colony of fire ants

manic about their own survival

you learn quickly

how to dodge and run

we escape with an umbrella

for the wide open sands

cloudless sky

beneath blue heaven

on the far side

a natural coral breakwater

let the world be at peace

     oh-mmm

--- e b bortz

earth note 664

a hot afternoon

finding a reprieve

& laptop charging station

at the key west library

a wing under renovation

     crowded everywhere else

though still functional

     friendly

insights from a local poet

explaining the details

of the monthly poetry reading

maybe a little cliquish

but who cares

a poet should

have enough confidence

to barge thru any door

take down any symbol

or conventional assumption

'cause the world doesn't turn

on the whims

of safe discourse

there will always be danger

when you live in the margins

where there are no notes

where the blank space

sets you free

--- e b bortz

earth note 663

on this non-leap-year last day in february

disregarding grammatical appearance

there's construction across the avenue

in backup horns and backhoe horns

and at least one police suv

speeding down toward the river

like everyone seems to be

behind in schedule

like it was suppose to be

some kind of milestone

by the end of the month

but confusion must have reigned

and someone forgot to check the calendar

this non-leap-year

there's still a lot of plastic visqueen

flapping 'round the steel frame

cold electricians and pipe fitters

crawling all over iron workers

and heavy equipment operators

a typical management coordination

     fuckup

the extra day wouldn't have helped

--- e b bortz

earth note 662

bicycle trail overcast

on a damp winter day

new castle pennsylvania

to struthers ohio

the weeds are dormant

but nonetheless encroaching

from the last warm days

of the last autumn

bituminous coal mines of eastern ohio

western pennsylvania

from the armpit of the ohio river valley

leaving its mark

even if no one

is carrying coal to new castle

anymore

the bike trail shows itself

being a little ragged

on the edges

awaiting spring & summer

cattails and thistle

still to make their claims

many years

since first rolling past

the pavilion at lowellville

--- e b bortz

earth note 661

the roads back to pennsylvania

from the florida keys

might be called the long letdown

they forget the sun and just

roll up mile after mile

from disappointment highway

finally

a cold wind will just grab you

and not let go

if there's a shortcut

to spring

it must be lost like bare appalachian hills

morning freeze

has the ground turning up

contorted in awkward positions

only the sheep understand

through their deep wool

huddling together

--- e b bortz

earth note 660

1

from pine key bight

it's about equidistant

to the bridge at no name key

on the northeastern end of doctors arm

or the highway one bridge crossing

a little south at spanish harbor

but on a windy day in a kayak

when the whitecaps start to show

and you get your no-compass bearings turned sideways

it's easy to be fooled into thinking

you might be at a mouth

of a great ocean

when in fact you might only be disoriented

on the blind side

of big mangrove key

or refuge key

so keep those bridges in sight

2

with the last hurricane

the water rose all the way

into the no name bar

and up the walls

covering half the dollar bills

tacked up by regulars & travelers

     after everything dried out

the money remembered

where it had left off

     depreciated of course for insurance purposes

while the beer bottles had cleared out

before the power went

3

just before the storm

some key deer migrated

to the highest mangroves

scrambling for cover

avoiding the traffic jam panic north

resourceful swimmers all

--- e b bortz

earth note 659

a heavy snow

is like the weight of the world

yevtushenko might have

pointed this out

from his vantage

at the bratsk hydroelectric station

or in the clumps piling up

on the evergreens

it's a cumulative process

this weight gathering

bearing

treading forward

--- e b bortz

earth note 658

something about a sunday morning

when the ground is frozen

the leaves and twigs stall

in their last movement

unlike an extended family of deer

leaping     running across the ridge

half a dozen looking for cover

bareness is a cold brown winter

maples look into the valley

downriver

for a thaw

--- e b bortz

earth note 657

the thaw might be imaginary

uneven the way the fog covers it

there are dead leaves frozen in time

still unaccounted for

the canine doesn't miss anything

when the hillside is slipping

new directions will be chosen

where there's brush     there are hopeful roots

beneath the topsoil

lies the sound of past hooves

colored in the mud

of past migrations

origins are yet to be recognized

footprints are more

than first impressions

when the fog lifts     rivers break free

--- e b bortz

he looks like a scruffy but we named him pax

always hoping for peace

even when losing it

looks more likely

a few long nights or long days into nights

yes we have another canine

occupying the spaces

with all the confidence

of a black wolf hound mix or something

he's pretty tall when he takes command

and gets up

on his hind legs

and he doesn't like crates

but loves riding in the car

hoping for a good camping season

--- e b bortz

cold borscht

was the way my father ate it

like the workers and peasants

beaten down in the black earth fields

and coal mines and steel mills

where the red beets were your life blood

and you learned what suffering was for

no mccarthy or america first committee

could sugar-coat or betray

that kind of suffering

once committed

to the taste

all that was left

was to raise

your fist

--- e b bortz

lost poems or recovering notes from the deep, part 19

circa 1977-1978

so i'm kinda resigned to the fact

that all those raw words

got left behind

strewn across dried up frozen hay fields

bitter down to the root

leaving northern minnesota passion

( 3 miles north of nashwauk 
across from nurka's corner store)

to fend for itself

stripping everything to bare essentials

locking away everything not claimed already

there were some beautiful words in the fall

as the words grew and took form

memory doesn't serve me well at this point

but i get the deep down guttural feeling

that everything written

on that old underwood typewriter

could only have been written once

and at that exact moment

the wind swept in out of the northwest

somewhat confused

like it was going to a dance

without a partner

waking you to what only could be described

as stumbling forward on strike benefits

and borrowed pencils

and then from time to time

reverting back a decade

to muster all the courage from a family

of shoemakers and tinsmiths

draft resisters and tormented writers

when the strike finally ended

there was a small pile of papers left

stowed away in the attic eave

of a brown loose-leaf notebook

left to gather the maturity or abandonment

of another season

which came and went

and then went again

left leaning into every episode

retrospect vexed or otherwise

for alternative explanations

ultimately recovering what's possible

finding solace

and space
between the words

--- e b bortz