The Common Man by Klaus J. Gerken 2005 The Common Man ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You wouldn't know Hitler if you spoke to him without that damned moustache and stupid haircut Yet he wanted to be Charlie Chaplin like any other male he thought more virile than himself give a man that much power you'd follow him to the grave no matter how absurd the vision is ignorance and greed rules everything the common man agrees by seeing nothing but his own disagreeable survival 15 June 2005 6:58/29 June 2005 751pm/ 18 Aug 2005 7:14pm Evil ~~~~ is a myth a concoction of those who cannot claim themselves as a spreading virus on a planet no one cares about or even knows exists on another planet in another galaxy a million years away evil is knowing we can do better and not doing it evil is a myth because we use it to ignore our guilt... 15 June 2005 7:14pm Hate ~~~~ is how you hate yourself in others... 15 June 2005 7:15 Love ~~~~ promise hope there is no other 17 Jun 6:16 champion ~~~~~~~~ spot chased a groundhog the length of Parliament Hill until groundhog was exhausted spot and groundhog sat eye to eye agreed the game was over groundhog ambled off spot thrust out his chest and wandered to the compound proud as hell what a champion 18 Jun 05 Cat ~~~ My cat's a cat-genius he has hallucinations he composes strange meows worth mountains of attention he finds the strangest places to hide like a guru and throws up in my unpolished shoe when I don't bow to his willing my cat's a mad monk who composes strange solutions to my periodic flights of weary substitutions and without a murmur or a purr respectfully declines to be human the mountain bows. 22/25 Jun 5 Universe ~~~~~~~~ yesterday I was a possibility now I am a monument... show me sky I ask for water show me water I ask for sky... 25 Jun 2005 - 1109 What is a poet? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ask Moshe Benarroch Ask Doug Tanoury Ask Nessa O'Mahoney Ask Karen Akaley-Gut Ask Maria Jacketti Ask Heather Ferguson Ask Del Corey Ask Janet Buck Just don't ask me I don't know. 1116pm 25 Jun 05 Someone asked me ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Who is the greatest poet of all?" The one who wasn't born. 1123 25 Jun 2005 The Wall ~~~~~~~~ Why this heavy burden, why be stalled? --Because these 15 years I have spoken to a wall. And now this Hell appears like bloody vomit upon my welcome mat confessing everything... 1144pm 25 june 05 Vladimir Holan spoke She asks ~~~~~~~~ What's poetry she asks? I want to say: poetry is you, in wonder and in fear.. a miracle... jealous of your beauty I sleep with you each night and kiss the distance on your tongue we can never meet... quiet in your ears I sing, I sing this song. 0016 26 June 2005 Vladimir Holan speaks 3 whores at 5am ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the blond wasn't bad the brunette spoke too much the 3rd stumbled down Bank Street hitting on a janitor picking garbage off the street. 1238am 26 Jun 05 Privileged ~~~~~~~~~~~ Where is the vomit in your life? 26 Jun 05 Marathon ~~~~~~~~ They ask me why don't you write long poems anymore? I ask them when have you last read a short poem? 703pm 29 Jun 05 To the Enemy ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have had enough your stupidity and if I haven't committed suicide it's because you own my life and I still love others because I love myself even more. Laugh, but only an eagle attacks another eagle and Achilles is the only one who pities wounded Hector. Being's hard ... Being a poet and a man is to be a treeless wood and to actually see ... Scientists observe. But science can only fumble for the truth: by inches, where I wouldn't commit myself! For what!? No brainer, been said before: science is conjecture, poetry a parable, the great intellectual mindset rejects a major poem by wanting sugar .. The cock shrivels in the rain but that's another story, it's evening, you say: sexually mature, and the whore has breasts so firm you could break a pair of brandy glasses on them...a different story. And imagine a ship's beacon, a floating beacon: but that is also a very different story. And your whole evolution from man's beginning to a lichen's growth: another story. The cloud vomits, you can't even burp, you're not capable, the scales of the snake strangle you, what God made, He wants to feel, children know it, drunkards know it, but they are not insensitive enough to ask why a mirror steams up when it reflects a woman in heat, and a poet through his love for life refuses to question why wine sours in its cask when she walks by .. And you know something, I have had enough your impudence that destroys everything it wants, and still is ignorant of what a kiss provides. But heed this, disaster's on the way. There are some things you could never even dream of because you do not dream, and what God created, He wants to feel, calamity is near, children know it, drunkards too, love retains delight, love that is not a passion, love is born from happiness, happiness that's not just passion, children know it, drunkards know it .. To be, you have to be alive, but you can't because you aren't alive, and you aren't alive because you do not love, you do not even love yourselves, alone your neighbour. So, I have had enough your ignorance, and if I haven't committed suicide it's only because you own my life and I love myself more than I love you .. Laugh, but only the eagle kills another eagle and only Brises' daughter the wounded Achilles. Living's not as easy as you think ... Shitting is. .. 28 September 1949 Jun 05 Vladimir Holan Speaks Sunday Rain ~~~~~~~~~~~ Sunday rain alone world vision not even a thief breaks the silence not even a drunkard howls or an enemy kicks in your door and on this Sunday raining still alone you refuse the body you refuse to believe what you have refused and the Sunday rain breaks no silence dead alone you live alone by yourself alone speak to yourself alone and an angel haunts you and a devil taunts you what's above and what's below and a poem breaks water in the womb if only you could feel the pain... 740pm 29 June 2005 Vladimir Holan Speaks Tammy Blushing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a minutiae where the Universe will collide with a sub-atomic particle giving birth to something we can never know think about or even hope to understand The spatial entity and time will converse recalling past and present future as a moment visiting eternity like we halve a penny eternally differentiating truth from loss and somehow we accept the loss of broken moments as sanctioned violence but hope remains in a compost labeled government So Tammy blushes where the truth reveals a simple moment faltering into a promise leading to a truth beyond our expectations. 827pm 1 July 2005 Sleeping with a Cat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My little purr ball sleeps with me Wags the tip of his tail as he dreams And purrs like a monument intractably Moving as a source across a universe I can't conceive... 342am 9 July 05 Resurrection ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The softness of a woman's breast Is the pillow I would die upon. 227pm 10 Jul 2005 Policy ~~~~~~ Pupil said: You have written so much no one will remember it... Master sauntered: I advance, Your toe is in the water. 246pm 19 Jul 2005 Song I sang while on a walk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There's a shadow where the wheels are turning There's a glacier where the trees are burning There's a moment when the groom is yearning There's a moment when the bride complains Hot fever Let me know when the winter comes hot fever Let me know the winter numbs There's an alter where the blood is real There's a victor where a judge made deals There's a shadow where the truth reveals What you are and you haven't sealed Hot fever Let me know when the winter comes hot fever Let me know when the winter numbs There's a moment when you feel ideal There's a moment when you wax the seal There's a purpose that you cannot know There's a burning where you twist your toe Hot fever Let me know when the winter comes hot fever Let me know when the winter numbs 10 July 05 Hot ~~~ Days and days and days of this heat no shadow promises retreat 609pm 23 July 05 DREAMS I The Maria dream ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maria and Laurel meet me at an airport which is more like a vast shopping center We embrace and I embark on the grand tour First we walk through the vast expansive Shopping Centre al enclosed in a dome of glass Laurel runs to shops displaying children's clothes And we look at children's books about cats We leave by a wide glass door and by steps leading down to a grand street and there are more steps on the other side of the street ascending to the steps to Vatican There we walk up with a multitude of tourists under a bright clear blue cerulean sky wisps of stratus clouds blow angel hairs We enter a Grand chamber to the cathedral proper the grandeur amazes us and we follow the crowds into the Sistine chapel where we found two monks arraigned in white robes sitting cross-legged in a corner not praying or meditating but laughing about all the money they will make But we also noticed that the Chapel had no painting the walls were bare crumbing plaster so I played a game with Laurel showing her imaginary painting's and she amazed kept saying Yes I see them Yes I see them There and there and there I have never seen a happier child I kept looking back at the laughing monks wondering whether they were enlightened or just fools telling dirty jokes Next we were hustled to a table selling crass souvenirs cheap reproductions of Michelangelo and Raphael which Maria to her credit didn't buy but the tourists gobbled up Laurel though was interested in a certain ceramic pot of flowers There was no resisting that then we left the exhibit and passed through a corridor into a bookshop with large expensive volumes on art We browsed a bit but didn't stay long left bookshop and suddenly appeared on Parliament Hill walking from the cat sanctuary towards the statue of Diefenbaker where the white tourist tent is And Laurel seemed so happy she had seen the cats skipping along and turning back several times We were just on our way to visit the Parliament buildings when ominous dark purple clouds began to drape the sky and in the middle of darkness of the storm a bright blue eye opened and everyone amazed and someone shouts It's God and then it closes just as fast as it opened like the eye of a hurricane Then tornadoes hit hard and rain beat down splinter-speared on the pavement People scattered Yet it didn't touch us yet and I say to Maria it's time To get back to the Chateau Laurier hotel and I walk them there where Maria says We will wait here for Wayne to come and drive us home I say goodbye and walk home in the violent thunderstorm alone In the morning after waking and wiping the cobwebs out of my eyes Shaved and dressed I walk to work singing softly in my mind: When I find myself in trouble mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom let it be... 24 July 2005 Morning II I can't remember I only see the tunnel and someone caressing a beautiful woman and everyone punk and hiding and somehow it was a wonderful place and the rest I don't remember just how great it was I hope this is what Alzheimer's like missing moments you can't recall but know you experienced 727pm 25 Jul 2005 III I met her on a beach at night white sand and volleyball we walked down a bright street and I wanted to make a phone call there was a lady in front of me playing slot machine saying I can't win with this I can't win with this And we walked home arm in arm And on my bed we lay When my mother entered (long deceased) and said are you two comfortable why not use the living room and I'll prepare some food all we wanted was to be alone but a commotion woke me up I tried to get back to sleep but the dream dissipated like a groggy fog upon a groggy night. 25 July 05 who's to blame? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ as a prostitute she's a thing a label not a human being desensitized the police just scoop a giant lawn mower and let the courts decide and the courts pronounce order and after sentencing back on the streets losing everything forced to compromise prostitute notice the law does not forgive your sacrifice Jesus 913pm 27 July 05 Source ~~~~~~ I have forgotten poems like dreams I never had 907pm 27 July 05 Sacrament ~~~~~~~~~ I drank 3 brilliant wines today Blason de Bourgogne Cuve 2003 and Kiri-Yianni Yianakorori 2001 and myself knowing poetry is God's way of making wine giving life to everyone not just on this planet but every entity in every corner of the universe. 920pm 27 July 2005 The master said: It will give you no pleasure polishing better shoes... 929pm 27 Jul 2005 Pupil asked: Why do you eat meat? Master said: Sometimes we just gotta kill. 348pm 29 Jul 2005 Pupil asked: What? Master answered: That! 610pm 1 Aug 2005 what I write ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I don't care if the poem is an UPPER CASE lower case upside down misspelled broken up convoluted mess as long as the drill gets through their fossilized skulls and one microscopic spark of electrical activity responds most poetry is a pretty yellow blossoming summer meadow I write cow dung (sweet smelling maybe but) readers hate to step upon 721pm 3 Aug 2005 revised 617pm Aug 2005 shit ~~~~ Madame le pomme pompous vain and shiny said to the cowslip I am special the cowslip smelling sweet full of wisdom smiled at Madame le pomme and said let's just wait and see one fall morning Madame le pomme fell to the ground thick and ripe and juicy just then a moocow came along and ate her up the cowslip said to Madame le pomme see you in a while. 627pm Aug 2005 515pm 19 Aug 2005 Light bulb please ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What amazes me the most is that men don't crush their balls when they sit down and cross their legs. 109pm 6 Aug 05 Reality ~~~~~~~ ok let me look around this is still your study books scatted everywhere TV cd computer for 15 years chaos has enveloped and 15 years ago unknown you stepped into the world first as a host of poetry conferences graciously provided by (I'm getting old face face I forget the name...) Inez Harrison and we were successful because we fucked it up beyond compare we showed them poetry and they declined our invitation to turn compromise they banned us quoting Plato and democracy Jefferson would have laughed McDonald wd have howled with a flask of sherry on his desk and Paine would have lived no more in the tavern of his dreams we all wd have had a free society no one ever dreamt of today tomorrow anytime and yet I sit here in my study contemplating a shallow youth pretending to be a poet criticizing one great work and being slam-dunked for his effort "let there be some silence between us" lasting 35 years and where do I place this issue where do I place this path having made no effort to even last this long I have difficulty accepting having come this far knowing there is a star that gathers our light as well as the blackness of a dark nebula I am 56 these days 26 is what I feel and 16 is what I long for but at 16 I had a dream and 40 years later those I admired most present me with place mat you are good enough to join us they say you are one of us so I look around this room it hasn't changed since I started ygdrasil still books and chaos everywhere and still the hope of doing something that might help others accommodate a hope... 745pm 8 Aug 2005 as an editor you faltered maybe not... Doubts ~~~~~~ I'm trying to find an ego... how does one do that? what's an ego anyway? we shouldn't get so fat. 9 Aug 05 Promise ~~~~~~~ Who are you to plant a kiss on my cheek? 9:30pm 16 Aug 2005 How to lose your drivers license and gain points for stupidity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 315pm Collision between two cars at an intersection 1st car, silver 4-door sedan, comes out of a church parking lot going east on street going one-way west. Turning south into the crossing street on a green is hit by red car driving through red light (how appropriate) going south Crash Bang Boom Both get out and scream at each other You were going wrong way on a one-way street You drove through a red light At least I had the right of way...etc etc As if it really mattered Cars in rush hour beep horn try to avoid further accidents Chaos all around 330pm Both frantic on their cell phones one taking a series of photos bystanders taking video silver driver gets girlfriend out of car tells her to leave go home she leaves red driver get wife and child out of back seat they stand by side of the road man hugs child 345pm Lawyers in suits arrive shake hands with clients discuss with each other the merits of the case consult with clients frantic pacing waving of hands lots of cell phone activity 4pm tow truck and CAA truck arrive arguments overheard We don't want the cops involved just tow the cars away we'll solve it between ourselves refusal call cops we'll lose our license tow trucks leave more frantic talking on cell phones another tow truck arrives talks to CAA driver talks on cell phone CAA person comforts silver driver as if to say sorry we have to call police more talking to lawyers silver driver bangs on car hood no no no 415pm Police arrives get car out of the way lawyers drives car to side street wrong way west mechanic drives red car to south out of sight police talk with lawyers then drivers lots of activity police parks in front of silver car 445pm Police serves papers to red car driver explains procedure red car driver shakes head and walks away with wife and child south past disabled car 5pm And then the final indignity I guess City traffic by-law officer drives by stops and tickets silver car for illegal parking 510pm Police serves papers to silver driver lawyer seems angry talking to police finally agrees and police officer gets back in car Then lawyer has silver driver get in back of silver car and drives him away west on the offending street police follows two cars back Traffic returns to normal I go back in play with my cat watch rest of Star Trek Next Generation drink a glass of wine and write this strange reality poem like a dream. 533-620pm 18 Aug 2005 So I Should Be Teaching...I think Not ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bruno on the sofa licking is depolarized paws Apollo 11 landing and subsequent other stumblings on the moon on TV and David Olney's tomorrow we enter Jerusalem on a modern SoundBlaster (scratchy records were my muse Unfortunately never more...) polarizes what pleasure I derive from the Hattemheimer Schuetzenhaus Rheingau Riesling 2003 exploding in my mouth like a fresh spring meadow in autumn like a lost solution and a tenderness I should not resolve in the spring of where I never was take the key it is a common must there is no bright module teaches everything closed solution is no wonder I have no philosophy to compromise and who can teach another but is not his own I smile at terminology I smile at scholarly attack one subject above others one discipline one knowledge and the vast discipline of knowledge disappears in what we have not studied what we have studied what must be rejected I will never compromise I study everything discipline will never take me and you will never trump my hand I am life and never know other than how to live survival is my fittest moment study is my underhand If I prove an annoyance I prove every ounce of genius gave us what we didn't want an ounce of kindness just a simple smile would have killed a million atom bombs and here we are refusing to believe in anything believable it's like there isn't a single soul who respects life on this unknown planet circling an unknown star in an unknown galaxy in an unknown universe somewhere we must think we are but really is only in our dreams realizing nothing more than individual solutions to dream in a grand illusion. 821pm 23 Aug 2005 There is no greater gift Than to teach by example. 140am 24 Aug 2005 Slaves 101 ~~~~~~~~~~ What is humanity us we desperately struggling to kill each other on a planet that has a mortal life who are we to suggest that ants don't feel as much a we do or live as much a rich and satisfying life or bees or termites who build hills that wd dwarf the twin towers and we pull theirs down indiscriminately citing pestilence not murder terrorism or any other group of jurisprudence ************* which might make us responsible for genocide to an entity that replenishes our soil and provides us with the fodder for our lives' indescribable genocide we place our death upon those we harbour less than we who have such wealth to gain the power presidents and prime ministers withhold from those who understand the true nature of democracy...you see we live today right now in a world where the common folk you and me have no say...we juts appeal and justice rules on the side of government... don't be frightened, "niggars' went through the same thing when craving equal rights...so how many have them and how many who have this "right" drag you up with it...I don't think none does.. and Jefferson was a rapist whether he cared for you or not don't define community by a neighbour's lot I wouldn't fall into that slot... 8:44pm 24 Aug 2005 Some rebuild without the fuss... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I repair my portion of the hill while others stand their guard These giant monsters keep tearing our shelters down because they relish wood they treat us to Having noticed that we just rebuild what else can we do they have a strange advantage they're bigger fools than we have ever claimed to be thank my termite god for saliva. 913pm 24 Aug 2005 the beauty and the grim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ you have been my monstrous beauty beneath the sheets of smelly ecstasy a dream I could not sanction unless it's held within a dream-decay you have murdered just to see the score where death is not a drama you should not be your own quaint desire as if the mountain never budged twice the plunging eagle screeches the pray within its claws of fate and the murderous hounds set meat upon the table set for kings and queens not white but red the table gushes and the beauty turns into the grim 26 Aug 05 plunder me no more I am bottomless 742pm 26 Aug 05 Battling a bad gene ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My maternal grandfather was an alcoholic My mother urged me to drink as young as I can remember "Everyone must have something," she said She smoked, but not in public So I drink alone Ordering ginger ale at functions But that was long ago I don't go to functions anymore I can't stand crowds Even though I entertain And even seem to be at ease when no one knows I'm drunk with two three bottles of wine in me I go to work and do my job but lately have been taking Way too many days off -- this year especially Friday and Monday and I know they know So the struggle continues Each weekend I swear this will be the last And I will finally conquer this thing (I almost said disease -- it's not -- If it were a disease I would not be responsible But I am --- it's a behaviour --- and as dark as behaviours are I should be able to conquer them) I can't And if I allow it to be a "disease" I never will Damn my mother's voice Damn the feelings I can't recapture Damn that I have to drink to write this poem Damn the rationality of things Without it I would never have been a poet And with it I would never have been a drunk Sweet dichotomy Harmony between all borders A fellow poet said, after I invoked the ghost of Berryman, To have a drink and meet at the "Royal Joke". "Let's leave Berryman out of this, There are two bridges between us and the pub..." And that's enough to kill as both...I wd surmise The trail wd lead...Where we have been And where we go depends on us... In this there is no disease and only fallibility And only what we have become through youthful indiscretion And as our bodies wear with age we age And the wine thins our arteries And maybe even thins our minds And it's only commented on if come too early And the advantages are never commented on Swept beneath a psychiatrist's couch And maybe even left in a doctor's waiting room Refusing to be served And at last left upon the street to rot like a walking corpse A failure in society A useless individual No compassion but for bedbug shelters Across from high profile condominiums Is that what's in store for me? Once my doctor thought so Now he changed his mind And now I change mine Drunk in this heat Stale pizza and Marquis de Riscal White I offer nothing but the best A poet's soul can offer Do I need help yes Do I want help no Will I ask for help not on your life The rule I learnt growing up is Write until you drop And you will forever be the Mozart Of a cause unrealized Except of course in History's ignorance And future generations' fantasy About Berryman and me dancing on a bridge together Reciting poetry and spilling good red burgundy In libation to Li Po who died while trying to touch The shadow of the moon in a lily pond. 4:24pm 29 Aug 2005 When they come for you ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cops drag you down Won't let you explain Everything's a felony Won't accept the truth 22 year olds with nothing in their brain but brut acceptance of their creed Not really brainwashing you see...it's influencing the youth we need to influence to be the Robocop we want to be your fractal enemy guilty before we even care don't talk back cause if you dare the cuffs are on you in a sec whether guilty or inspect an empty cage nothing goes nowhere violated and I fear Hitler's goon squad's everywhere My mother warned me this would be but never thought Canadian history would ever take that course Hitler set up a neighbourhood spies and the neighbours went down to the mat accusing every fantasy their silly heads prevailed and how many great minds were lost in the concentration camps protecting your neighbour is one thing hallucinating and being believed is another. 11:19 Aug 2005 The Kiss ~~~~~~~~ dick me in the oven dick me underground i have been the flavour flesh upon the pound have me in an alley have me in the pool once i find september justice cannot rule one police too many one angel broken down another with full purpose I suppose I heave a yawn You see I was a prophet Until they did me harm. 1137 Aug 2005 moving on to the next best thing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i yawn... 1206am 31 Aug 2005 Bad Cops* ~~~~~~~~ Abusive Belligerent Fuckin robocops Never listen Twist the truth The less they find The more abusive they become Stare them down you're dead Say Yessir yessir to any question Give the assholes what they want They haven't got a grain of salt for you My mother always told me When a gun points at your head You better know yourself Better than the one who has the gun I stared and I backed down Said yessir to a twenty two year old Barely old enough to shit his pants And they give these guys a gun And they give these guys power To abuse...and no one gives a damn... And they say thank you when they slam the door In your flattened face Battered to the ground not even knowing What you supposedly have done I pray they get old soon And get some wisdom with that age Somehow I doubt that thought Fidget as they are. *Seasoned officers are good I have to admit. Rookies are another matter. 726pm-800pm 31 Aug 2005 Respectable ~~~~~~~~~~~ When they come for you say yes sir When they leave: fuck off. 822pm Sep 1 05 What you do ~~~~~~~~~~~ Your methods are intractable Your attitude: diseased... 827 Sep 1 05 Investigation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You desecrated my Buddha you tore the pearls from his heart and you tore the cover off my father's camera can your soul be any more corrupt? 830pm Sep 1 05 Respect Authority ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My mother always told me watch neigbours watching you They twist your life into Unimaginable fantasies And the cops grab that To a forced interrogation Where their methods are What the world court said Citing NAZI tactics "an abomination" and yet We randomly let our cops escape the slaughter of the innocent in the name of justice law and order where they get away with verbal murder abusing their coveted authority. 843pm 1 Sep 05 "JUDE" ~~~~~~ Do I have to write it again? I guess I do... At the start of WW2 the Gestapo rounded up men women and children with partial Jewish heritage in Cuxhaven Germany One fat Colonel took Offence to my mother's maiden name...and put a luger to her head...she calmly looked him in the eye and said "Shoot Butcher Burger" "Do you still pray at the Synagogue?" The Colonel cocked his gun Said "You are lucky this one time" And walked away. My mother spat Into his boot-step in the mud. 851pm 1 Sep 05 Compromise ~~~~~~~~~~ My parents were living together in a loft in Stickenbuettel when Hitler came to power That would no longer be allowed Under the new world order My father was drafted And they married soon after My father a barber by trade Set up a shack in the trenches And was a favorite of a certain General who was fled to England Before the war was over After that he was shipped to the Russian front and wounded assaulting Leningrad...After the war we moved to Canada and in Ottawa on a hot muggy Summer day when my mother placed wet Sheets on all the windows the owner Of the building confronted my father As a war criminal because the building owner Came from Leningrad and as a Jew decided Hate was better than a compromise My father moved his family down the street A year later they happened to meet and talk They found a common interaction through my Grandmother's maiden name...and so we moved Back in...one more year..a year of peace A year I first saw the Aurora Borealis Raining colours to the earth... That was also the year Polly came to us The greatest cat on earth..and the great Beast knew it...harbouring no insecurities And knowing all beasts are equal whether Sumptuous food or not...We have our place... A lot of times we just refuse to accept it. 456pm 3 Sep 2005 Those who watch each other* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the Nazis took power in pre-war Germany One of the first things the police did Was to set up Neighbourhood watches Which resulted in everyone spying on each other The guy who looked out the window too much Was a peeping Tom and had to be arrested The woman who dressed funny was a whore The student who wrote poetry but did not Write state supported anthems was a creep And should be put away in a labour camp And of course all photographers were spies You were guilty just because someone Reported you anonymously and without retribution A good neigbour always follows party policy. *This is not a poem against Neigbourhood Watches when they do good (and most do very good work indeed), but a poem about when they go desperately wrong. kjg 304am 2 Sep 2005 One Fine Morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They came for him in the morning They hid their mugs in the dark The sheltered him in an enclosure Made of bars and concrete mud They tortured incremental Starve cold hot and hate They said they would be friendly If he accepted his "mistake" He said I cannot tell you What you want to know I have no information You've taken my soul They strung him up by fingers And they kicked him when he winced How wonderful is justice When justice is absent 4:48 Sept 4 2005 New Orleans ~~~~~~~~~~~ It doesn't mean much does it Our manuscripts Our correspondence Our personal History Our possessions It doesn't mean much does it When disaster strikes And takes it all away 521pm Sep 4/5 2005 NO ~~ I wish my tears could cleanse the waters in New Orleans and make it safe but my tears are salt and salty water can't be drunk Here in my apartment I do not suffer Watching CNN it's just a TV show I cannot smell the disease and dead bodies I cannot feel the hunger and the loss I can only shed tears Knowing you are lost like Hiroshima or Nagasaki in the heart of rejoicing no more there. 124pm 5 Sep 2005 Poverty ~~~~~~~ The chill grabbed my fingers Like an ice cube cracks a glass The needle like a wasp's sting Swelled my vein and stole my past On the garbage street one morning I awoke and no one noticed I was refuse they were darlings Of the have-it-all-who cares And a whore will never matter To a cop who has no soul Brains may be required But thinking's on the dole So where's the poor to mingle With the rich I have no doubt Where the shelters have no sanction Lest the sanction dirties clout And the foolish trust the mighty And the mighty lights a glow And no one lives the better Where justice cannot grow. 534pm 8 Sep 05 Lesson learned ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have learned and believed these things: you talk intelligently to another intelligent human being you arrive at an equitable solution you talk to a less intelligent person you advance the cause above the means and dictate a solution which does not detract from the less respect is everything and if you talk to a cop you're fucked if you try to explain anything... 706pm 8 Sep 05 NO death ~~~~~~~~ As the waters rise death is buoyant as the waters recede death is in the lungs 712pm 9 Sep 05 Presentiment ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I fell asleep just now I dreamt I was awake Some future had me swallowed And the present had me regurgitate 721pm 9 Sep 05 Bush - New Orleans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The well is in the water 651pm 9 Sep 2005 The End Copyright (c) 2005 Klaus J. Gerken Published by Ygdrasil Press 2005