A FULLY REALIZED NATURAL TECHNOLOGY

whether the meaning of the thing
is this way whether or not the design
or the method of the thing is known
those for whom it was owned are
the net and for the sake of the net
which is the net there is a nervous
irreversible life which really is not
avoided and the delicate pattern of
which is thought of so for whom it
was concerning is not because it is
known so in regard to the center of
it because it itself existed for that
being in order to make technical the
silk of the extreme edge which is
a fully realized natural technology
that evolved over millions of years
and to understand it simply and
exactly just examine the interlock for
which is made and inferred in the
system and you will learn that what
ever good you encounter will be in
and of itself and the device actually
does work it does work whether or
not it is actualized with the hand

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 08.24.11)

IF I HAD BETTER KNOWN THAT ONE MOMENT

if I like you did this many times
it was with the best intentions out the
door one time therefore many years ago
I had already moved out here
when you spoke so before you go
escaping by any means you need to
speak with me desiring the fact that who
is your friend today might not
be tomorrow and who is feared to
be found for the second time if you
yourself and driving through the old
neighborhood inhaling yesterdays
hearing the old sounds something o-
vertakes the senses if I had better
known that one moment the letter I
should have written the call should
have made the detectives should have
put on the case but nothing was
delivered and when I am old and still
possessed so still I wish I had met
you coming down the old road then I
could tell you everything myself

- satnrose

(added 08.24.11)

ASKING HEAVEN FOR A TRANSFER TO THE IN-BETWEEN PLACE

so I have to wonder if this condition
is abnormal if some person puts
labor in place of love in the same way
a sexless worker bee puts buzz
ahead of lust the flood of the rose
walking down my center takes over
my medulla rushes in past all my
defenses and shakes me to the spine
I forget that my where am I is right
here and I cannot believe the only
thing which remains is pure necessity
and I collect the scattered pieces
of my shattered blessings all the while
asking heaven for a transfer to
the in-between place so’s I can have
some time to catch my breath

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 07.12.11)

IN THE ABSENCE OF FACT FAITH IS A RATIONAL RESPONSE

in the absence of fact faith is a rational
response so I touch my fingers
against the glass the snow is falling I tell
myself that if the facts are in
question then faith is still a rational
response the ice spears are forming
someday they’ll break no one can
come alone to the realization if the
facts contradict you will be marooned
no man is an island I only made
one mistake Galileo’s accusers
were rational but they were wrong hard
diamond black looking back on a
kaleidoscopic night if you can’t trust
your heart then what is there to hold
on to right or wrong the choices
are few waiting for a summer that
never comes so I tell myself I’m just
numb from the bitter cold and that
seems to make some kind of sense

- satnrose

(added 07.12.11)

THE RANSOM LETTER

in the old digs you hear yourself speaking in the yesterdays and by one
o’clock am you are ready for fried crullers so you go out in the street
but by having said everything you had always meant you have to stand
at the end of the line and you can’t get the jellyfilleds cause they’re all
out so with better intentions you go to the cheesesteak place next store
and a lot of years go by before it’s your turn again so they spray cheese
right into the bun but who is your friend today was not your tomorrow
and those who were afraid had to come back a second time and even if
you yourself inhaled the smoke you are owned by nothing nothing that
was offered so when the detective puts the ransom letter in your hand
and runs away as fast as he can leaving you with remnants of your old
appetite and you’ve no way to pay and are unable to simply walk away

- satnrose

(added 12.02.10)

THE HOUR OF THE WOLF

one person can lose only so much blood before before falling salt
tears salt in blood salt in the brain salt in rain so the spark spins
around in my heart a start in my ears I can hear blood the dogs
can smell fear a foot in the snow and a foot in the doorway I am
such a fool I really don't know the sun comes up tomorrow is not
a given with the hickory our sycamore has a war lasting decades
touch ice don't feel it fine line between cold and numb but cross
it unawares almost broke my knee flying down the slippery steps
lying on black ice wife came running out saw me groaning on the
ground and said "Does it hurt?" felt stupid too there was nothing
I could do except lie there and "ooooooooooo......" then an old
photograph that looks just like an old friend in another life when
it gets too cold it's like a secret fire that skin only knows dreamed
of a dog on my chest woke up there he was laughing at me boy
down in the gutter a shard of glass beneath the ice reflect the sun
sometimes the false dawn is called the hour of the wolf but there's
no wolf either dust in a dead room is the only thing moving except
for my heart a bowl of fish soup a loaf of multigrain bread a tub of
butter the finches are back looking for sunflower seeds they were
here before stuck between the dream and the awakening I forgot
who I was again spring again celebrate it while you can know so
what tomorrow? who knows what I found? a lost treasure? even
I don't know cardinal on his branch blooming redder than cherry
he is so happy! guess it was a bug that ran under the drawer but
I can't be sure the house finch is an invasive species that has no
where else to go last turn not a pecker this time it was a sparrow
maybe blue next time I was feeding the squirrels one nut at a time
when one bit me on the thumb I guess he was bored or was simply
impatient but it hurt like hell but if squirrels don't think then what's
going through his mind when we see eye-to-eye?

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 12.02.10)

A MILLION OTHER SEMI-VIRGINS

at the fatal tree the condemned man spoke to all before he was hung
the future is dumb the past a foreign language the present too long or
changes everything it touches the sleet going down traffic a nightmare
the shed door was broken the locking latch frozen nothing fell out a
different blue at the horizon the color went straight up she reached up
and took a bite outta the moon get up get out get going go go make it
through another day I know I can do this when does a morning end I
know that sunset is over when everything goes black the radio blasts
jumping on the porch dancing till the whole house shakes she opened
the mail hoping to find a letter that didn't say what the face put in the
eyes a last coffee is good bacon even better is there is only one moon
or else an infinite aspect of endless variation a bad dog is a matter of
perspective a good dog is not perfect there is a fine line the death of
children can't be borne without belief in something greater she sings
pretty good but a million other semi-virgins can sing just as well their
voices repressed in obsessed sexuality insane teenagers who have lost
the trail petered out amongst the rocks and led straight over the edge
not the bitter end but it might as well be the shortest distance between
two points is downhill pain leads even so to knowledge which leads to
understanding or the big hurt is for nothing I have two cold feet but I
try to walk barefoot every chance I get you can drive at top speed for
hours and hours standing still with the earth turning under you across
the flat Texas plain it rained so damn hard I could barely see past the
windshield but we couldn't stop and so what are you doing if you try
to take hold of too much control you will never never never be free

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 10.07.10)

SHE WAS LIKE A FIRESTORM

On the night I met her
she was like a firestorm
burning down the factories
in the cities of her memory.

I was from the ice age,
glaciers moving in my veins,
icicles punching through my skin,
passion a forgotten myth.

But need is need,
the body is a grail ready to be filled with heat.

She lit up a candle
and looked down into my eyes.
I thought I saw a desert land
where she was lost and thirsty.

And she was thirsty,
dying of thirst,
and when she sucked me
it turned me inside out.

When she kissed my neck
she tried to inhale me.
When she scratched my back
she tried to open me up.

When she let me in
she tried to take all of me into her.
Lost at sea I almost drowned,
the whole world was water and salt.

She screamed in my ear and shattered my nerves.
I burst a heart inside of her.
I couldn't get loose, I couldn't react.
She flipped me over and melted me down.

Sometime after midnight
when the wind was humming deep,
she started crying
said are you asleep?

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 05.15.10)

THANK GOD FOR THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

kid goes off to school as a matter of habit not knowing his luck
the sum is greater than the parts and one kid in the heart sure is
greater than the hole that is left without one the nuthatch is not a
woodpecker ah so much to learn! it is only a mirror and not the
real thing but it might as well be after the hurricane the air was a
hard blue and the sky is brand new everything changes nothing is
ever always forever and so it is the end of the world every single
goddam day bluegrass in the park "I washed my hands in muddy
water but they didn't come clean" living in Turkey abandoned by
her husband she still has her kids but still lucky to be strong aura
of American has a fighting chance someday long slow mountains
move under the sheets as she whispers my heart is a bubble sun
came up again so thank God for big favors and small favors too
love is knot but love is surely the last instinct a direct connection
hummingbird and hawk both together in my back yard I'm surely
blessed neat perfect deliberate in hunger a dividing line between
land and sky can be not so clear no a hard lesson learned don't
you take your back for granted if Joshua Chamberlain had gone
to the Point we'd've lost the War Jeb Stuart was too fast for his
own good he outran them all but too late high tide at Gettysburg
which when taken at the flood led on to cert doom it wasn't right
or wrong it wasn't about justice it was just business a five string
banjo and an old Gibson guitar is a time machine I saw her again
last night and she was a dream so what did I see are those pearls
or tears which is worth more but I just can’t see clearly anymore

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 01.30.10)

TWO MOONS HAIKU

two moons one water
slap the sea the ripples die
not a single sound

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 12.19.09)

GENESIS/NEOGENESIS

in the beginning there was no beginning heaven created the earth and
the earth made heaven and darkness drew tight in the void and with a
turn all turned to light and there was light and in its release it divided
the night and spun day out of day and thus was the first moment and
the waters rolled back the earth the earth separated the waters and
the waters separated the sky and the seas rushed up on the land and
the land held back the seas and where the land mixed with the sea
mixed with sky mixed with light something was born and of the thing
born there turned a strand strand around strand all movement reflects
in the double helix and all things orbit each other and themselves the
double helix takes the shape of all movement within wheels all moving
together along the line of time layers built up on layers shine reaching
up for the light one step at a time for billions of years darkness never
free of the light light not unlined by night to this all waters flow from
one shall be many and from many shall be more from more shall be a
multitude but the infinite is out of reach now branching up and rooting
down all from the body of singularity first the heart and then the hands
all things turn around the eye lifting green from the sea spreading out
over and under the sun branching out from death to an ever greater
complexity the hand follows the seed each seed contains the whole
of the universe each drop of water reflects the same the infinite is
outside in but persists in inside out the single moment lasts forever
time is all in one and what life when if life how there is no memory
beyond the now and the space between the planets is not as far as
the space between each atom even in the densest core a moment is
longer than forever forever is compressed into a moment the spread
of time is a comfortable illusion where a day is as long as a night
when counted in millennia each piece is its own puzzle the whole
of is is remembered in time the first hand was a snake and we have
never forgotten or forgiven the first eye was a light this was success
light is not light unless seen the smallest triumph leads to victory of
the soul the first step is to know itself the first day is the longest day
from dark nothing to light and everything to dark and light something
takes less than forever but is so long it might as well be forever the
second day of life feel life on life doubling the cycle and revealing the
helix yet again run down the lines all things must come in twine life
that feeds on life is gray life that feeds on life that feeds on life is
brown life that feeds on life that feeds on life that feeds on life is
red each step is a step up each branch is a branch out each root
is a root in each morning is a day further on sex before flowers but
flowers perfected sex from one flower come many flowers from many
flowers come many species from many species a world of difference
movement begets movement all things made flesh light becomes the
eye reveals light each step an undertaking awakening a little bit more
each eon understanding a little more each millenium with no end in
sight but there is an end to every thing only no end to everything a
cycle is too simple only the double helix can explain the allegory as
all things pass so all things must go a day is a year an era an eon a
day is as long as night shall rise and light shall fall the life raised up
has fallen before and will again what shall last is the double helix
there is darkness on the face of the waters and then there is let there
be light for a baby there are seven days to reach the top rest the speed
of light is an illusion light is everywhere the passage of time is but an
illusion there is only the moment existence is an illusion there is only
is the tides stir the waters ceaselessly there is no rest no peace a constant
change creates levels of change always reaching for the sun the first day
of life was sun green turning light into food food into air air into green
in the morning a waking light that finally understands it is light each step
in the awakening is a day and this is the rest and the seventh these are
the days of our first a baby awakes to one in seven days and so does the
earth a day is as long as the night surrenders a night can be millions of
years long never is never forever remember no memory the earth holds
all secrets but all is revealed in a grain of sand the whole history of the
earth is implicit in a single flower the interweaving interwoven life
moving around the sun the sun the earth the moon in helixes within
helixes and life is the beneficiary of an infinite number of perfectly
balanced engines a clockwork universe that winds itself self correcting
the body of the universe is the body existence exists in both the whole
and the part to know itself there is a most precarious balance between
the earth and moon which creates a balance of wind and water unique
to see so far is there such a thing as another tightrope walker can any
other place be this place how rare is the air this is unique a billion years
in one day and each day grows shorter than an minute to a day where
everything happens at once and time is a lie to stretch the truth an era
has a definitive beginning and end and the only thing that compares is
the day tonight so each stage is a new day whether it takes 24 hours or
24 million years the dinosaurs are just another step and mankind is not
the last and cannot last why is there this there is a beauty in creation
beyond our needs beyond what we want and beyond what we can know
but still feel creation comes in six of seven days and on the last we rest
there is no end to days but there is a limit to remember the universe is
infinite but we are not infinite space is infinite but matter is not infinite
there are more choices that can be made but not infinite chosen each
separate branch leads to the root and the roots branch out and fist the
earth the earth a fist the moon a fist a fight never struck or won each
life leads back along its branch from self to species to type the multitude
is one but one is one plus one it is around and around in the moving
spiral dance all things move in double helix time all born returns to
death all forward turns around all up goes back down moving forward
looking back dark beginnings light a lack in order to know itself we are
here to respond what we call beauty is the night shining in reflected light
step away from the truth and step away from the senses step away from
conception only a guess and a guess of a guess the separation of species
was a dangerous act and dangerously has it been lived all the processes
front to back all the taken has been gived the end result being this is too
good the formulae have all been set but to know the knowable one must
recognize the unknowable for what it is the unknown is mostly knowable
perhaps all maybe into and into the spinning vacuum the matter cannot
break fee forever something has to go somewhere time does everything
but stand still where there is no right moment only a moment to right and
of course no end

- satnrose

(featured in the poetry forum 11.08.09)