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Saturday, 21 June 2008 20:00
Last Updated on Saturday, 21 June 2008 19:43
The Starpoet Newsletter
Volume IX, No. XXV
Volume IX, No. XXV
I saw you dancing naked
Beneath the full solstice moon
Long after the festival
Was drunk full of celebration.
Hot summer moisture
Beaded off your dark skin,
Reflecting the bright starlight
In the moment's passion.
Beneath the full solstice moon
Long after the festival
Was drunk full of celebration.
Hot summer moisture
Beaded off your dark skin,
Reflecting the bright starlight
In the moment's passion.
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2008 C. E.
Wherever you go, there you are.
-- Thomas à Kempis
-- Buckaroo Bonzai
(in order)
-- Buckaroo Bonzai
(in order)
this is the summer of thunderstorms
Air to Ground
Air to ground
Air to ground
Air to ground
Air to ground
Air to ground
Hiss crackle
All around
Lights flicker
Air to ground
Explosion overhead
Cloud to cloud to cloud
Next block away
Air to ground to ground
Rain Rumble
Torrent of sound and water
Cymbals
Bass drum clashing
Crashing
One after another
Detonation after detonation
Sky flashing jagged daylight
Blue white blue white then off
Air ground
Air ground
Air ground
Until the heavens surrender
And the storm passes on
For the moment
A distant deep growl
And the storm passes on
For the moment
A distant deep growl
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
misplaced vision
The Dry Spots
Caught out in the rain,
I wonder what the stars must think
Of all this cloud covered planet
And its small unfurry bipeds
Who scurry for the dry spots in a storm.
I wonder what the stars must think
Of all this cloud covered planet
And its small unfurry bipeds
Who scurry for the dry spots in a storm.
Watching a candle burning,
I hold a piece of the sun
Within the water glass, a taste of ancient
Distant memories when first
We learned to tame heaven’s fire.
I hold a piece of the sun
Within the water glass, a taste of ancient
Distant memories when first
We learned to tame heaven’s fire.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Of two evils we must always choose the least.
-- Thomas à Kempis
mid-America
The
Inland Sea
The inland sea grows restless
In ancient, forgotten ways,
Stirring the earth to memory
As the rain continues to fall
And the Mississippi
Leaves its banks once more.
In ancient, forgotten ways,
Stirring the earth to memory
As the rain continues to fall
And the Mississippi
Leaves its banks once more.
All this was ocean once,
All this will again
When mountains crumble
Where mountains rose,
As planet shifts and quakes
And waters rush in
Where great saurians lie
Among the ancestral shoreline.
All this will again
When mountains crumble
Where mountains rose,
As planet shifts and quakes
And waters rush in
Where great saurians lie
Among the ancestral shoreline.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
working for control
Curses
Coffee,
Smell and taste,
Wake-up,
Do your poet thing.
Smell and taste,
Wake-up,
Do your poet thing.
Paint some marvelous line
That no one expects,
Some unanticipated brilliant rhyme
That brings a smile to your face
As the poet escapes from still another
Lyrical redundancy.
That no one expects,
Some unanticipated brilliant rhyme
That brings a smile to your face
As the poet escapes from still another
Lyrical redundancy.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Did you know that ER is still on television?
That The Phantom of the Opera is still on Broadway?
That Hugh Hefner is still dating?
That George W. Bush is still president?
That George W. Bush is still president?
Phillip K. Dick
The Poet as Alien
Perhaps I am a spy
Sent here by some alien species
Native to a planet
Several thousand light years
From The Earth.
Sent here by some alien species
Native to a planet
Several thousand light years
From The Earth.
That would explain
This constant need to record my thoughts
-- They’ll all go into my final report
When I return at last
To the red hills of my birth,
This constant need to record my thoughts
-- They’ll all go into my final report
When I return at last
To the red hills of my birth,
Assuming they remember I’m here
And I’m not a forgotten fragment
Of some scientific project
That has since lost all
Its government funding.
And I’m not a forgotten fragment
Of some scientific project
That has since lost all
Its government funding.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
working on my consciousness
Being or Not
Focus, unfocus,
Focus is drifting,
Chasing the shifting minutes
Into the night.
Time floats by
Unnoticed, unanchored,
My mind, unsettled,
Closely follows.
Unnoticed, unanchored,
My mind, unsettled,
Closely follows.
The clockless hours
Are meaningless,
Consciousness, a figment
Of my discontinuous inspiration.
Are meaningless,
Consciousness, a figment
Of my discontinuous inspiration.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Weingarten on Guys
One day Pinocchio came to Gepetto with a problem.
"Every time I have sex with my girlfriend, she gets splinters. What can I do about this?"
"Have you tried sandpaper?" Pinocchio hadn't, so he went to try it.
"Pinnochio," said Gepetto a few weeks later. "How is the problem work out with your girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend?" said Pinnochio. "Who needs a girlfriend when you have sandpaper?"
<rimshot>
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be,
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
-- Thomas à Kempis
what then?
Escaping the Sea
Can I do what Houdini can’t
-- Speak these words trippingly
When my lungs no longer breathe?
-- Speak these words trippingly
When my lungs no longer breathe?
Can my mind will my thoughts to being
When lips lie shriveled in earthen grave?
When lips lie shriveled in earthen grave?
My thoughts will not my silence
‘though my bones vanish into Sappho’s sea,
I would be no less quiet than Shakespeare
Should these volumes become unbound.
‘though my bones vanish into Sappho’s sea,
I would be no less quiet than Shakespeare
Should these volumes become unbound.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Whenever you do a thing,
act as if all the world were watching.
-- Thomas à Kempis
starpoet along the edge
The World Beyond Words
What's the cutting edge here?
Certainly not the poet.
She would rather be wife
And well made mother
Than any rebel without cause,
Certainly not the poet.
She would rather be wife
And well made mother
Than any rebel without cause,
Although a poet starfarer,
Set free among the galaxies
To visit strange worlds and peoples,
Would be a tempting alternative
If I could bring my family with me.
Set free among the galaxies
To visit strange worlds and peoples,
Would be a tempting alternative
If I could bring my family with me.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all.
-- Thomas à Kempis
starpoet
Sonnet for Robert
Halfway out in the Galactic disk
Beneath the massive dark matter halo,
Both sun and planet circle unnoticed
Around the bright core of the center.
Beneath the massive dark matter halo,
Both sun and planet circle unnoticed
Around the bright core of the center.
From Andromeda or distant cluster,
We orbit unobserved in quiet starlight,
With evidence of our existence
Undetected and invisible.
We orbit unobserved in quiet starlight,
With evidence of our existence
Undetected and invisible.
Time has launched ten billion worlds,
Filling the heavens with life and opportunity
That scatter starward, moon by planet,
Until distance suns are reached
Filling the heavens with life and opportunity
That scatter starward, moon by planet,
Until distance suns are reached
And we greet them, opened handed,
Fellow travelers among the starways.
Fellow travelers among the starways.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2008
June 2008
There is no such thing as a shirtless woman,
just like there's no such thing as a topless man.
just like there's no such thing as a topless man.
© Lisa Jain Thompson 1995-2008.
Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized.
Email your letters and postcards or visit her contact page at the Starpoet website
Further distribution of this newsletter in its entirety is authorized.
Email your letters and postcards or visit her contact page at the Starpoet website
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Starpoetby Lisa Jain Thompson.
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