Poems 2001
Table of Contents
Rolando Alphonso, January 12, 1931 - November 20, 1998,Chief Musician, tenor saxophone, co-founder of the Skatalites
I cannot do justice
to your light
your God
the first time I heard your sax
trying to distinguish
your light from the
other Skatalites
which of those playful
rude notes were yours
visions of Jamaica nights
when you played them first
drifting on the sky
the first time I saw you play
lifting up melodies
too fast to follow
like following a kitten
down a street
the first time I looked in your
face you had stopped to receive
the glow you helped create off stage
just joy there knowing no words
your eyes light sparking out of brown
warm and welcoming at peace
golden freckle constellations
sun lines radiating from your eyes
clasped forearms, then off from
bask to rest
the last time I saw you
in your black and white and
yellow fly clothes
bouncing, spinning notes to us
from your space ship
as Lloyd Brevitt said
unclouded by rain, wind
later cocking your head
with Lester, minor
complexities, intrigued
each man's voice
you both said
I brought you lemonade
offered you the only chair
Sit down, dahleen ...
watching you carefully
cleaning each piece of sax
Lester doesn't clean his, you said
and from the other room we
could hear echoes
gurgling in his random
flight
you dedicated your
own flight to God
which could be found
at any time
in your face
when I heard you had died
on a Saturday morning
the light was new
I imagined you floating
your bright love
to each loved face
moving on to settle
somewhere
in the breezes
of Kingston
somewhere among
those closer stars
© 1/14/01
Amy Jackson
his face has a dozen small scars
and his eyes are flitting
at ten or so
and one round, purple deep bruise
on his left cheek
big yellow bike bigger than him
at the creek
fell on the hearth, he says
not a round one, i think
i know this guy killed
turtles down here
the turtle was bitin' everybody
not all turtles bite, i say
they found a baby down here, he says
and it wasn't nice
an animal baby or a person baby, i ask
a person baby ...
i've been to the North Pole
you should write down your
stories, i say, as he follows us
through the woods by the creek
walking his bike
my ... step-Daddy says when
he gets out of jail he's going to...
my uncle says when he gets out of
jail he's going to ...
he didn't do it but the police say he
did ...
when he gets out, when he gets out ...
we agree that people shouldn't
leave their trash here
we should come back
with a big plastic bag
to pick up trash, i say
he nods, yeah, like those big ones
they bring when people die,
my grandmother died, he says quickly
and she had
we find a basketball and
reflecting green and silver
sun shade
for when he gets a car
made it all the way up the bank
with that bike and all that
new stuff
we shook hands and
hope to see him soon
© 1/14/01
Amy Jackson
put your lips out
'cause I looked at the
lilac of your skirt
and it made me smile
you mistook
and then another smile
that made you mad
and i'm thinking
I remember go-
go boots white vinyl with
zips up the inside
you don't wear 'em on a cold
gray Monday morning
when you gonna
wear 'em?
you go
girl
you go
none of which
i would say because
of course they
are not
go-go boots
to you
none of which
you were open to see
respectfully
risks of style
the coincidence
this morning
there were lilacs
again for Manet
it was the color
made me smile
© 2/5/01
Amy Jackson
just cross a block
and i am the minority
fences around the children
where i go
the story of Hope
alone
what it's gonna
take
turn her around
and she's just one
just another ...
just another ...
and then
what about her kids ...
and on the way back ...
the woman posed with
her purple visor
recording herself
the white crack house the
stairs askew, Louisiana flashes
ornaments ripped
see straight through
and where the fire licked the
white to black
it cries
and she's standing perfectly
still in profile
next door to that
the well-kept houses painted
warm colors and ferns
i nod to the two young men
and they nod back, and give
berth to the man washing his
burgundy car
what he's seen and
barbs in his eyes for me
no matter what i do
i cannot make it right
i forgive your hate
for my white
aware of my race
privilege of my skin
not like i forget
wherever i am
and that's a
good thing, Martha
with your white sale
remember what it’s
like no money for food
ticking
stomachs on the other
side of town
just hear them ...
white worlds
apart, just cross a
block
railroad
tracks
you have no idea
why i'm here
my urgency
to make it right
it doesn't matter
i'm white
i accept
some stray silver bullet
take me out ...
just another ...
you face it every
day and
night
i'll be back to help
Myrtle, right on
Grace
© 3/3/01
Amy Jackson
walking here the arches
of Union Station repeat and
overlay Salamanca Madrid
and then it’s all three blended
imbedded memory
white marble and pink roses
reflecting the last of the day's
light, ideal verses and every
state’s flag encircling us
Columbus' statue phallic and my
first Sunday there someone
christened him with fresh
pig's blood for the
500th anniversary
of his arrival
and 500 years and
ever since
for me it is not
clean
every morning
passing by there
greeting my friend the
homeless musician
finding hope in his eyes
on seeing me and giving
it back
and America is the name
of a restaurant and we
cringe but sit out in its
share of the sun
with white umbrellas
and the
tired wine toasts to another week
done and to Friday and time ...
the dome becomes surreal
its symbol spires off
from what we know
fighting and watching the deals
being made:
they'll give you a piece of
what you
want
shove something
you
despise down your throat
at the same time
and it's a compromise
as amended
find out what you
want and use it
against you
win-win if you bite
but what will get funded
in the end ...
and like ants the staffers
course in trails underneath the
streets with piles of papers
and serious faces
updating each other
as they go
numbers terms
acronyms unelected
colony unto
themselves
they brief
mouthpieces of
faces with
names that won ...
stay to brief
new faces, new
faces ...
prop up the
old ones ...
our favorite joke seeing
a group of toddlers in
quadruple strollers:
There goes the
Freshman Congress!
what's not on the news ...
not even CSPAN ...
pages and pages and
pages
of fine print
and who but the
few really know and
follow the
bills to the end ...
details, details ...
how can it be this way ...
the wine warms as
night shivers around us
even summer
how quickly it changes ...
we part to rest ...
to our own pursuits ...
the monuments are still ...
stone lips and hands are
helpless eternal flames
somewhere in Mt.
Pleasant a former
paramilitary
mops and mops
but can’t get the
floors clean from
what he sees ...
and all the boxes
and cans are
full of voices he has
silenced
haunting him ...
the light falls
but the marble glows
remembering
the chisel
the roses breathe ...
innocent of man
©3/3/01
Amy Jackson
(3/10/01--'kay, these last two venting -- sometimes i boil over -- laugh when Lao Tzu says something like melt into being, values the passive -- balance, rest, charge up to fight again -- do what i can --
and maybe they'll figure out this bipartisan thing, but campaign finance reform, gun control, voter education -- such a long list -- we gotta push -- ya think? and i also learned that i can agree with Republicans and disagree with Democrats on pieces of legislation, so it's not always so clear -- the tactics, tho, some will take away pieces of your proposal, find out what your core is, test the strength of your coalition in the process -- co-opt your issue and pass something that sounds good but does nothing -- so very far from an evolved democracy and yet blessed to have what we have, and then abject poverty, violence, cycles --
the roses not innocent of their tenders, hybridized, but innocent of the crimes --
the white and black of the crack house not meant as racial judgement personally but how they are often symbolized, dualized as purity and degradation -- and in terms of skin, neither accurately describing living tones of the spectrum --)
my Mother would love this room
the white unspoiled bedspread
she could keep anything spotless
make it so again her obsession
with white
with absolute clean
except me, except me
somehow she didn't see
what had happened
was happening
what i wanted to do to her
white room one Christmas
so i stayed away instead
this formality although it's
warmer than her she would
never choose peach and
teal
but the two prints she had two
just like them not for the
Latin names or the
common names or the flowers
themselves but the
collection, she didn't like to
talk about them but there they
were
glad these are framed warm in
peach so i can stay and sleep
and now i see the bedspread's
a little frayed she would
sniff i feel more at
home
why they can't figure
out the contour of the back of a
tub
i could have thrown the brass
pineapple on the front desk
when we checked in
through the window thank you
she loves the pineapple as a
motif
but chose hers
canned instead
frustrated with the fruit
itself
© 3/31/01
Amy Jackson
haven’t figured out
the brake
sea legs
no grace
terrifying fun
fast my heart
races
rolling
slows
my arms flip
up but not
on my butt
yet i’m thinkin’
here it comes
now i’m feeling
safe
sounds i make
giggling and
little Shabba
Ranks and
boop foop
foop boop
like every
thing else
practice a
new rhythm
to learn
i want to
race i needed
a break
© 4/2/01
Amy Jackson
pop and
peel then
lips around
la banane
soft its tang sweet
stay on the tongue
potassium melt down
© 4/21/01
Amy Jackson
I.
the drive straight in is blocked
off with wooden beams you
have to park in the glass
on the street
on the way in the toddlers
light up when i smile at them
one reaches out to take my
hand at the water fountain
my soul is brightened
i don't ever
want him to let go and
the adult leading me
leads me on to let go ...
the older children get
close to me
but don't always answer
when i speak
the adults and i are different
we're warm and shy, warm
and shy, working through
our new society
she hears the helicopter ...
says she wonders who
died, they're lookin' for
somebody on that bridge
you know it ...
he says did you hear about ...
i gotta go, she says,
but she stays ... and he says ...
... yeah, i heard ... at first
i didn't know who they were
talking about 'cause we all
knew him as Peter Rabbit ...
we can't make it to thirty ...
he says, that's what
they say ... and we're all
shaking our heads
when we talk politics
waiting for the others
she says remember us
and i say, we're
fighting for
you out there ...
we do remember you ...
do i do enough?
he touches my arm on the
way out and i know it's
good i came, good i'll be
back again, i know ...
II.
how green it is blocks
away, how quiet and
green, Romaine and
organic olive oil on sale
at Sunshine and
a "Freedom First" bumper
sticker on a white truck
means the freedom
to carry guns and that's
about it
and on the way home i see a
whole white family out
walking slow
with one in the stroller
one in white diapers and
that child's free hand is
just
as light as the others'
across town
but the adults so
calm
walking and talking
driving by in my car
and listening to US3
the white couple turns
and looks at me
"just another brother
on lock down" he
sings and they're
afraid of me
it's the beat
it's the beat
i do
remember you
sinking into this
green
into this pulse
do i do enough?
©5/17/01
Amy Jackson
barefoot time again
my lover the wind
loving the elements ...
gracklethroat out
a cubbyhole
featherspike blue-black
bright-eyed sound
the river was gray as slate
mudfish hidden
now green as jade
is summer
now they nibble
at the surface
bubbling
Neil Young can paint a field
(that's not all he can paint)
these cows grazing safe
some curled some stand
the way you said
Equuus
the horse on the hill
lane shift, rail
part of that
field already
the trees don't move
they whisper, rooted
a shadow bruises the light
golden hawk stretched
still in the air
underside white and
buff
shadows softer than
the mourning dove
lulls
and gone
but the soft
it left
©6/5/01
Amy Jackson
a blessing he passed in his sleep, not in pain
finally a fraction of the airplay
he deserved all this time
all this time
his burnt honey VOICE and HOT licks live ON
inspire generations to come, to come
precious, a national treasure
Memphis and all us cryin’
New Orleans dancin’ us out
for his sweet SOUL
©6/22/01
Amy Jackson
me meme
me meme
memiel the
same honey
chooga chooga
shuga
crialura
illudiel
honey qualtz
illumiel
beloved honey, honey
flame
honey illuminated
mansible
expiel, piel
amulet cielo
iciel nubiel
fire cleft
Persephone
spelunking
oisiel
souciel
sunciel
pleaschiel
fraischiel
cooshiel
touschiel
tropschiel
choisiemme
choisiellle
trouvelle
je trouve
je trouve
trouschiel
connuut
sousance
trouschait
niveles
Nivens just one
Myrna Loy
basal rosette
flourette
fleurrette
fire flow
breathe around it
oximize
anise
dischevel
clissemme
glissade
glissande
terpent, tserpent
paraleil
fragaz, fracaso
fragmentosa
vasts
truel
fire halo
shimmerous
chimerou
eschew
glomiel
musiel
unimaginable
pretty damn close
tres tres chaud, monsieur
tres gentil, vous etes tres gentil y chaud
chaud puppy
turbion, truelle
luscid, luschiele
within, within
nobe
danzanube
uhh ...
vousique
musique ...
lulluhl ... loulouhl ...
vivid is as
vivid does
sepals, opals, novia
diamonds in the raw
tauture
a whole flame
a fine flame
que mi fuego
como quema el fuego
un fuego cuidado
a fire safe and fed
Seychelles
souschiele
suschiele
skin is the shell
pleushielt
pleushielt
pluschielt
feelings wonder passes
through
seamless opposite
Molloon
Apelehy
Apleleche
bird mix
soul mix
play is bliss
sepaciel
cloche
clocks in the bed
pillow index finger
index pillow
pillow tip
fingerpainting slow
lovepaint
florever slow
the fingerslip fingertip
slip of the knot
clayslip
plays it slipping
slip of the clay
it's a fingertip
on a rose in the dark
love that slipknot
torque and pinion
temblant
seacrum
sacrum veilleux
veillum
lunaciel
moonsky
inscape
pleasure cell
Innisfree
blue hand the
mark i left had a
pocket of air
a perfect eye
middle of my
left hand
cambien
Tierraschiel
eggschiel
decibel
Glockenspiel
zither, ceviche
que ritmo lo era
unimaginable fathom
sucediel
transluciel
enlace
desenlace
cambiel
snorkel
vision quest
believable
love quest
soul quest
fire quest
chance quest
quest of you
quest of one, two
dream quest
tramble you
dormant fish, dormiel
blissin' the fish
gentles a fish, a mangle fish
mercy fish, merciful fish
a fish gentles a river bank
dream quish, joyfish
you quest
two, one
breathe, you
love you
too, two, one
soulmate
do you
how many fools
does that make me?
a lifetime of days
from now
find you
keep you
Quand meme
grita, grita
sound you
found you home
toca, resuel
rebuelo, rebuela
besiel, besabiel
kiss the bee with the
honey on it
shaman and the body
shamamine, shamamon
everything and one
fuel feld
where does the shaman go?
anywhere she
anywhere he
wants to go
ow, it's
zowee!
Mother musk, multitudinous
mellifluous
grace
graciela
Elyses
eclectic
Cuyahotl
chigual
lilique
clairvoyant phish
merfif
Sangre-la
Party-la
grita-la
mas alla
Almaville
Suryas, spirit
ground
heaven is Earth
and we know hell
too
dream travellers
thought revellers
Izeil
transiel
Thanks Purity Lover
to Open
half plus
thee brew
glissome
glimmerous
glimmeroux
glimmersauce
blissonne frutous
frutosa
Catoosa
Niehbuhr
fissome
froth umber
uehmbre
chevrons on my tongue
my body is coming
back in code
somme sonne ecstatica
ecstaticia
ecstacity electricity
murmurous
rainbow wash
fruta-la
flore-la
flota-la
lorne two lemone handes
ye olde ye
gentl
gentlerote
your face ripples in my
pillow hands
snuggloom
Amy Jackson
6/23/01
rains come again
territory, map no map
void dream of risks
eruptions
Novembers
wonder if it breaks me
or just renews the landscape
faults and lava
the mud and the clear
the clear and the mud
the river flows and makes
both, disrupts and flows
clear again over stones
smoothing me with new
tears, tasting those tears
all the way home
and i’m proud of them
how impossible it is
tendres
kriege
the German used a
Mickey Mouse doll
to make the prisoners smile
for the camera
i'm thinkin' some old
Police song in French
while you’re tellin’ me that
je veut de voit, il fait nuit
i’m hungry for you
i’m hungry for you
growl like Eartha Kitt for it
soie du nuit
(he doesn't listen to
lightning)
soul lightning
ScaldGuard
warmer
Rosa Lila
bar code on my arm
counting my breaths
ten down to one
ten to one again
wonder a shell water
passes through
makes it shine
above the ache
folds of time
folding open
unfolding
making glass
slowly
out of deserts’
shifting sands
glass petals
plasma sauvage
there's an angel card:
a blessing:
holding it together in the
middle where the
place is, the part about a
journey across winter’s icy lakes
invisible treacherous enemies
bookmark, random page 15
Almaz, her name means
diamonds
soul diamonds
she reminds me the
pain will come again
and again
making diamonds out of the
magma of my soul
she tells me now
it's not linear
what touches it
(you should’ve seen what
Sylvio got)
what it's gonna take
fracaso
mauveoleum
forgive me what
comes
go to your Mama
get behind her tongue
below ground level
"catch the sun"
do just that
purpose being
©6/24/01
Amy Jackson
blessed by a sunset too
sublime to paint too brief
though maybe i'll try
purple, pink, peach, violet and
gold fading above
see, there’s just no telling it
a cemetery full of white stones
flash to the left of the window of
the train
that sunset above the trees
above all this shit
blessed, brief
the word wire comes, garrotte
must be the contrast
to the right just then a mural of a
man crouching to plant a tree
God is some kind of random irony
like Cortazar says "when it's
chance and when it's poetry"
conscious unconscious mine
without religion’s mythology
i believe in beleaguered good
i'm not waiting for God
the surface of meaning
to love something under attack
is loving Nature
it is my greatest inspiration
do what i can
i cling to it
unknown seeking for whole
unknown seeking unknown
searching, with all my
questions, i look up at flowers
if God is the unknown
and love it's universal
the role of chance
there’s life at all
maybe that's too much
chance
for a man's mind
he needs a God to
help him sleep at night
comme j'ai besoin
du Soleil
gris, il pleut
La Sabrosita
y hoy
hay Sol
gracias a
gracias a ...
Sol
no quiero mitos
ni magico
basta ya
thank you for daylight
thank you unknown
©6/24/01
Amy Jackson
turbulence taking off
gales a sea of air soothing
only to me a boat
white knuckled pilots
rolling backwards
nervous laughter
turbulence landing
ambulances waiting for us
when we landed
Glen Burnie
Ocela
Liebhehr
Facchina
Linthican
Copan
Zurn
Shushei
Bir Zeit
Hmong
Shoshone
tugboats, four of 'em
gulls in the sun
as we run
none of it seems real
shakes my seat says
"generic turbulence"
eardrums
colocate
meteor
words come and make me
smile
family photos in the pilot's cap
resurface transit stream
rock of the pulling train
sky blue transom
tip a wing
block the sun
Pegasus
Bowie State
3 hours sleep
cranial veticun
a Robin runs
cheers me
Odenton
things well done
things well done
Santa Stops Here
Trenching
admired the lines
of the wing
the cradle
pylon girder
the woman with her
red Beta fish in a cup
keeping it warm with
her hands
calls it Scarlet
the man describing a
briefcase full of diamonds
admiring my opal
disgusting me
thinking of so many diamonds
by appointment only of course
hedgehog with a dog house by
the Metro and two dog bowls
scattered man
swampy
trees dead by the tracks
two geese struggling to fly
in a windless sky
Domtar
Tembec
84 Lumber
Gams
Rose Window
Filament
retaining wall
wall of sand, sound
a truck called "Prophet"
acid CIA
High Voltage
connecting wires i'm
tracing them
ceramics
buildings mushroomed
since then not so long?
foreign vowels
i'm eating them
9:19 a.m.
quadrant
wind howling around the
corner of the hotel room
i'm resting in
Vienna
subway flashes
"I like your cowboy hat"
cell phones will never be
the same
but i wanted to know
Franklin Square
nonpareil
Regus
spider map
Orange Line
Falls Church
Cherry Blossom time
fasten
this thread too thin to relate
makes her a paper tulip to
go with her daffodil
the child behind us screaming
now
now he says zhou-zhou, zhou-zhou
giggles infectiously, oh, child
we land, yes, he says
Pittsburgh
illionel, illusiel
shades of silver passing
through the clouds and light
still sea of clouds
deliver you
deliver me
(nothing is really solid)
Loleil
invisible war, love, garden
skymilk, skyfolds
tenfold
Ghana Botswana
Old Ezell
what it's gonna do
erupting, settles
a golden river snake
breaks through the clouds
Iguasu
thunderhead
muffled white again
©6/24/01
Amy Jackson
precluded viscous
a rainy mystery
the depths of your blue
are spilling through the floor
down through me
liebeling liebelung lying
rattling your denials
your pungent sadness
there is no name for your disease
there's no name for your pain
the pain i've caused you
in my dream i screamed at you
now that anger boils
i'm trying to remember how much i love you
reach you deep inside
where your dream is hiding from you
where you hide from it
touch your dream
bring you back to joy
seeds of love
love be fertile
let the rain break up your ground
well of fears
minefield
soundfield
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
they're still waiting for what comes standard these days
their cars drop out beneath them and that is that
for some of us it's easy
enough income in the family to help get that first car
that first job, the way there
the hood of the truck flipped up
his head on the back of the
vintage turquoise truck
for him it's not vintage
it's his way there
he's not moving, he's stuck
oh to lift him up to lift him up
from his despair
now he's not moving
some piece of him was free as air
now he's jailed by circumstance
he's sittin on that fender
avoiding my glance
staring up left into the sky
now he's not moving
it was the way there
it was his way there
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
it's pure blue
nothing's so clear and simple
as this air
you're breathing this same air
somewhere
my hands resonate
i feel you under my hands
and you're not here
you're sailing into this sky
there's no night left
stay in the clouds
they're unbeatable
what your laugh becomes
it floats
lighting the air to the stars
it becomes a star
brightening life
flying arrow
curves, pulls along the lines of the road
i'm glad it was your silver arrow
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
i dream in winter ...
in summer my hands will be yellow
with pollen ...
printemps verano
lime leaves
lemon leaves
camassia plum
sum la
Plum Valley
melodic gestalt
raw morning
deep moss
hazy mummer
crickets slowly resonating
singing up the green Spring ground
they will resound the sound of cells themselves
each a tiny star spark of life within
summer cum laude
summa cum summer
seventy something
eighty something
99 in the shade
coamatl
raspberry lillit
Raspberry Tire
Brisco creamberries
strawberry skinshell
fraischiel
beeskept
beesteps
bee feet
beebalm
beeberries
butterfly feet
ginger feet
barefeet
gingereves
reveries
the velvet bee
St. Francis of Assisi
that dove he lovingly
looking up at thee
bird songs bird feathers
dragonflies hovering
dragonfly runes
disappearing bees
honeybee spirals
honeybees dance
sugar ribbons
opalescent trails
at night when we don’t see
the way you said “summatime”
go ahead
take that shirt off, man
because you can
what i didn’t say
the heat underneath
clover boy
clover blossom
clover bottom
Buddha boy
wildflower honey
orange blossom honey
fresh biscuits and honey
fruttatta
the flavor tree
fresh on the table
freshest fresh it
gets some on the table
sharin some abundance bliss
the bliss it gets
tasting it fresh the
freshest fresh it gets
yumming it summon it the immanence yummon
it
yumming it yum yumming it
yumming up
dimpled lemons
summer fruits picnic
i’m saving my smile for dessert
saving my sun for the nighttime
i need my green syncopated
the green has gone to bloom Mimosa agosawa
russet fronds wave Aloha to the highway
summer cloudships blossom the sky
summer becomes this sundress
appleblom applesauage
strawberry hearts
persimmon corset
corset persimmon
haricots vertes et tomates
almendres abrigots
peches y l’oranges
que le bontemps roulee
qu’elle longtemps brulee
les oiseaux jaunes a commencent jouer
Amarillo Juillet
senses collage
colliding synapse
that’s her prayer you’re fingerin’
i love the way you taste me
i love the way you taste
you’re listening to my skin
you learn to love that burn
deep tissue gamma bliss
kundalini lingus Mingus bingus scarabouche braccio
maraschino langostino facile dificil
what my fingers are saying to your skin
fingerspoke dreamspoke timespoke wondering in
wheelspoke the wheel of the year time begins
rebegins the wheel of time we’re spinning in
quien me toca, pregunta el verano?
quien lo toca?
quien toca la luz profunda?
la profundidad de la luz?
whole Mother blooms
deep heart blossoms blooms blossomely
the room within the loving room
a bowl of summer blooms within a beez
buzzing zoomba zoom a
zoomba zoom
zhou zhou zuzhuime
zhouzheim frizhiet
somme summer
summer summeille
soumeille
summielle ete
oveolet
awosely
seisum chissoi
chisseum chissieme
sysemme
courelle
zhiberon ziberot
slalom jetsom
synchordia
the sun the clouds’ consort
solar
solanum crispum
apogee
Taleggio
Olla Lacchino
brogatinero
ajuga
gumii
datura
yucca
lilium
aquifer
phlox
catalpa
mimosa
griseum
pyramidalis
phoenicium
persifola
Houttynia
byzantina
chiffonade
astrantia
angel trumpets
baby's breath
Lady's Eardrops
Black-eyed Susans
cowslip daisy heads blackberries thistle
fireflies rest in Queen Anne’s Lace
wild pink roses embroider undergrowth
shimmering corn stalk silks thrive
drowsy green limbs trace rivers’ edges
field grasses whispering “lovely”, whispers
shell ginger
goldenseal
passion vine
lemon grass
fountain grass
mondo grass
needle grass
miscanthus
windmill palm
parasol tree
japonica
gazania
acacia
agave
aloe radiata
cordala
nicotania
echeverria
velfa
sylph
cynara
cinerea
gypsophilia
alpinia zerumbet
phormium
euphorbia dulcis
eucalyptus
helianthus
crinum
rosemary
rosa
broom
cestrum
stoechas
woodwinds
musa basjoo
busa masjoo
iris
verbascum
sempervirens
Actnistis
agapanthus
Phyllostachys
Pteracantha
Phytolacca
Aspidistra
Oleander
fuschia
yew
cypressus
Styrax
spiranthus cernura
cordyline
corydalis
pagus sylvatica
pippen
Tyee
Ananalai
Anjou
lemon verbena
Bergamot
Vetiver
Lavande
lavandieu
your lavender god
Puritan among the poppies
Papaver
poivre
piquante voquante
verbascum chiaxi
each firefly
a flickering mystery
alba
caladium
colocasia
columbine
cousa
Uyekawa
Vachter
Cahalsa
Oxydendrum
Amelanchier
aloysia triphylla
tufted
buddleia
Hygrochilus parishii
Chionanthus
Chyisi Liminghi
chrysanthemum
mossiae
ziziphus jujuba
cocoa jojoba
oenothera caespitosa
zaluzianskya ovata
angraecum sesquipedale
ipomoea alba
epiphyllum oxypetalum
petaluma
Orchid #44
loebneri
crataegus
curcuma elata
frittilaria
Valerian
teucrium
polyanthes tuberosa
brugmansia suaveolens
daphne laureola
lilique
crystal lily
moon lilies
Peruvian lilies
lilerot
roses in my ears
Polly Thicket
animoges
arabesque
imaginot
fortaleza
Taliesen
Ebenezer
enfolded
in summer’s light
Sunshine Hotel
Lady's Mantle
forsythia
Fiat Lux
kerosene burning it burns it FuelMan
Jerome, Idaho
a sweet name for perhaps
a sweeter place than we know
bruised and bleeding blood clots it closed
a bird flies across it to a
deep green underworld
a field sealed in green
a deep green word a vibrant word
the word of LIFE
escapes the flame with juice
that will not burn
green vines coiling
climbing home to sun
back and forth warm in
warming in a loom
each year’s warp and weft
from Earth to Sun
life and death to
life again
sourreill
souereille
chrosmosis
suba andeli
suba andelier
carambe
cimtefuge
choisisse
cloistiemme
cosmet
some like it hot
qu’elque chaud
transistence seared
a pocket of rain
slow rain fizz
rain leopard
a steady diet of lightning, of rain
a tropical rain
subtropical jades
Ela
ulu
alatamaha
160 degrees
rhythm of days
porphyry
psoisaed
soie de vivre
joie de vivre
joie du livres
pensante vivres
enjoie enjoie
gaiture
the silk of living
the cricket tree
thicket
the heart marked on the tree
the tree grew thick around it
we can hear the stars in the crickets
the crickets in the stars
I’m floating on waves of summer
it’s still summer here
Nature’s beauty doesn’t sleep
deep night womb
the star loom
nightweaving dreams of seeded fruit
honey clouded with pollen
some lost gazebo at night
where no one sees
we walk through the clearing
a circle of silver barked trees
a circle of willows sings
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
he shouts at her when she slams the door
he opens the door and shouts at her
all the way down the stairs
when she reaches the street
he goes back inside
opens the window
screams at her from there
she touches each car on her way
setting off each car alarm
waking up the neighbors
but she can no longer hear
him scream
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
it goes without saying
oh i’m not saying but you know
you know what i’m saying
it goes without saying
but i’m sayin it anyway
it had to be said
it had to be done
i see your dream and raise you four
you’re not listening to me
did i say something?
were you saying something
were you listening to me just then?
you’re not listening to me
not listening to me again
was i saying
something?
what was that sound?
scraping the skyline
death knell rhapsody it was an elegy
breathed out the sky
elapsed out the street
sleepin at the bus stop
no shelter shelter house
it’s freezing out here waiting
you got to walk it walk it across
the blade cuts the street circular
saw diamond saws
shaving rocks smooth as butter marble
jackhammer shakes it up
i want me a chainsaw instead of a baby
although your babies couldn’t be any sweeter
sleep babies sleep
dream feet
cut me up some concrete
concrete smash it up
withstand waterside
lockside gunshop
doorstop truckstop
lock-knee lock-step
projects boxes
you make us all live in boxes
right angle vision lack of vision
your response to gravity is control
sparity
i’m itchin the scratch i’m scratchin it off
what do i win?
i don’t need nothin
i’ve got what i need
i’m one of the lucky ones for now
i like those magic numbers
magic numbers underneath
spinning em spinning dusting silver circles
mysteries underneath
mignonette shambles
all he’s got he’s carrying in his overalls
on his back
in two exploding garbage bags
his sorrow dog follows
loyal droop-eared shadow
where did they sleep last night?
where did they used to live alone?
Bubba Chernobyl
Bechtel ghosts
what your Daddy’s not sayin
what won’t be known won’t stick
White Bluff District
it was the mob that killed her
now that mob’s gone and we’ve new others
kill you in a heartbeat and Godfather’s made millions
millions Sopranos
you are what you glorify wild west mantras
picture the overpass rusting slow underneath you
here come those kids we better run
i’m done
some of those kids gone crazy on us now
and the money goes to lock em up
not to save them not to save them
i’ve been to despair
i have a summer home there
but i can’t afford to go
cumplea danos
ghetto stiletto
Blood Assurance
he sells some plasma for the cash
it’s shock
i can’t talk
TV Babelon
jump start this evolution
with a nightmare with a seed
go deep go long evolve already
lose the myth play with myth
litter tribe
Patchwork Amazon
Oregon apportioned
Apportioned Illinois
Trees Real Estate School
Liberty School
we just got the one civics course
did that teach us what we need to know?
be a nurse
write your congressman
tell em what for
what you think
do you think about it?
how the questions rise
tell em what you think
tell em why
Malcolm on one side and Martin on the other
portraits i gaze at
their eyes in the church
gone not gone gone not gone not gone
people like that don’t die
i won’t let them take them from me
you can’t kill fires that bright
it would be Jefferson Street
it would be Charlotte
it would be MLK, Jr. Boulevard
irony seems to have no end
irony becomes surreal
when the facts become irrelevant
my facts against your facts
you’re spinnin it, man
it’s a game to you right?
White Bluff District
White Bluff District
if you don’t like the game
get out of the box
hit ‘em on the head
with the facts again
does it ever sink in?
it goes without saying
oh i’m not saying but you know
you know what i’m saying
it goes without saying
but i’m sayin it anyway
it had to be said
it had to be done
i see your fire and raise you one
you’re not listening to me
did i say something?
were you saying something?
were you listening to me just then?
you’re not listening to me
not listening to me again
was i saying
something?
tomorrow is now
you’re sitting in it
i see your hunger and raise you three
what was that sound?
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
I slept so well i’m still there
dream rifts
dream twister
rift reves
jittering up
drumming up
vicarious sleep
voluminous sleep
time slipping, dripping
Volusia
shipless telegraph masts
wires without sails
i want to see those old ships
rocking against the dock
ghost ships i’ll never see
except in movies
mysteries missing
paintings of the great ships in flight
silver stll photographs
those sharks are mad as hell
and they’re goin further in
they’re out of their regular food
what is the code?
peace to the walrus
unlock the dream
i gave the lemon to the alligator
but he passed me right by
we filled the room with water
and the dogs played with me in there
my Jack Russell jumped up to the telephone wire
laughing at what he could do
til the schnauser came and he jumped down
the fish and ships in the bay
each reflected in the sky
swirling star patterns traces
it was a dream you said
now we can see all the fish up there
so many left so many
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
watch out baby here i come
this lil bit gonna sing you some
i can’t do much but i sure have fun
i’m on a slow track
but i’d rather take my time
i need to get over baby
gimme sum room
my signal’s on
i’m looking for thirty-first at Orleans and
Murphy
Okahumpke, FL
Tishomingo
Sweet Lips 32 miles
Cuba 1378 miles
Saltillo
speeding past Shiloh
Lemonade for the Lord
Dainty Flour
the blind man promises ice cream
mixing up the stars in a crucible
crushing the stars in a crucible
the helium man crushing them up
the good humor man
“31 flavors”, he said
“31 sounds”
sheriff westphalia
the sucking rush
whatcha lookin at Bobo
sweet cakes
you see my surface that’s all
Loxcreen Extrusions
Brother Pig Meat Company
that pig’s in a tuxedo!
Luther Kimbro
Georgia goes Adobe
Adobe Lillian
antecarlo
erratica
voluth
Eden Avenue
Tioga
Norandex
DUE 050
Momma Stew
Guayaki
Stammer Place
Manitex
ABC Mobile Brake
Wehby
Leggett Platt
textile
circle delivery inc
Sitex
Historic French Lick
Avery Trace
laughing so hard it shakes the car
kissing the roof of all the yellow lights
Sewanee
CCC009
Obelisk
signage
husky
Mexicos
Sienna
Kumar
Seoul Shik Poom
Daifuku
G Din
Clinard
Caution children
Nitrogen blanket
Galindo
Little Sugar Creek
Fruitland
Newt Blackwell
Papineau
Escambia
Dub Herring
Diamond
Goshen
Ground Chuck
Miracle Whip
felts
gale
you got a smile on your face this morning
she sure does
made my day made my day
filling those hot buffet pans
i put a smile on his face
Moon Winks three step
George Stevens
Tiger Rose aseat
Dyola
from the engine’s moans
the man at the throttle was Casey Jones
Casey Jones Adventure Golf
smokehouse laughter
Roehl Roehl
New Ulsu
screeching past the cat
the cat said moderochre
El Paso parasol
line of sight
ELF 939
this could be St. Louis could be Kentucky
Missouri
South Carolina could be France rolling the same latitudes
could be the same green fields curving
Devon curves green
volatile astronaut
Zorah Terre Haute
AAH 5877
tismet
trism
houseboat
passing shadows
mercy plains
dolmas
an RV named Integrity
seule oblique
oublie oubliet
we’re diggin the V-6
Memphis twice in a week
she used to make road trips
from Georgia on Tuesdays
she needed that fix of blues so bad
sleepin in his Chevy by the side of some road
sleepin it off
she’s gone now
ditto
sleepy streets of Memphis
they’re walkin smooth and slow
got us a smoothie
walkin it slow
that’s Mary J. on the radio
Art Blakey on the wall
Stevie Ray and
Albert King on the stereo
that Memphis blue light just got him another
another black man’s day just got worse
the birth of the blues is every day
some kinda soul libation
i found my sun, i’m blazing out
now it’s time to rest, i’m trying to breathe it down
put the car in the shed for now
let that engine cool
©9/8/01
Amy Jackson
deslumbraje
esquivel (glaring cover-up)
dice que es un nombre un lugar
dicen muy amable muy amable
lo menos que puedo hacer
es nada y es mucho
en este nuevo mundo
somos estranjeros aqui
extranos de nuestros arboles
colores de nacimiento
aqui los colores son lejos
una sonrisa una infleccion de amistad
es todo es todo aqui
como fluyes en tu idioma
como fluyo en mio
reimos en los otros, las palabras nuevas
como ninos reimos esta bien
toca la sangre de mi vida
tambien el resuelto de mis manos
mis manos soplando la tierra por razones
con mentiras en el aire por cuantos anos
no importa entre nosotros
sabemos que la vida renace renace
la sangre no es una mentira
habla de angeles en el aire tambien
pulso en el ritmo de toda la tierra
tatua el aire
pruebalo
no pueden matar no pueden matar
they say that it's a name, a place
they say "very sweet" "very sweet"
the least that i can do
is nothing and it's a lot
in this new world
we're foreigners here
we are missing our trees
colors from birth
here the colors are far away
a smile, an inflection of friendliness
is everything it's everything here
how you flow in your language
the way i flow in mine
we each laugh in the other, the new words
we laugh like children, it's good
touch the blood of my life
and the resolve of my hands
my hands swelling the Earth for reasons
with lies in the air for how many years
it doesn't matter between us
we know that life is reborn reborn
blood isn't a lie
it speaks of angels in the air
it pulses in the rhythm of all of the Earth
it tattoos the air
taste it
they cannot kill they cannot kill (it)
©9/10/01
Amy Jackson
how can it be that so many were lost in so many
seconds?
i expect all the buildings to fall down now
it no longer makes sense that they are standing
how incomprehensible the loss ...
how immovable our mutual shock ...
how many fell to death before our eyes?
it’s as if all of us were bombed at the same time
we have all become the walking wounded
all i could think to do was to email our leaders
ones who officially represent me
and ones i thought might listen
i appealed for them to reach deep
down within themselves
encourage others to do the same
to reach for a greater strength
a strength greater than death and terror
for violence begets violence begets violence
i encouraged them to call all faiths together now
for an unprecedented sharing of the belief in good
the ultimate multi-faith, the ultimate one God
yesterday i found out in Islam suicide is a sin
all faiths have an aspect of God which is peace and love
our country is not only Christian
i encouraged them to speak out against
treating any of Arabic descent or Islamic faith
or anyone who appears to be either
any differently from anyone else
for the perpetrators were few
and the good are many
many of us now together
as we have never been before
i encouraged them to seek to resolve the roots of
terror
for what causes the disconnect from love and peace
in the face of economic and social injustice
to seek the longer term solution
the strength of peace and love
of calm and measured, focused reason
to question what strength truly is
as they struggle to respond
and all those words became fragile birds
fragile buildings, fragile bones
fragile as the hope i held on to
sending them through fragile wires
i have seen the sequences over and over
even when my eyes are closed trying to sleep
and i never expect the billowing black
smoke from the first tower
or one of the five sides of the Pentagon to collapse
or the names and ages and faces and occupations ...
that perfect plane keeps exploding
and before it hits somehow it stays perfect in my mind
i am aware of all those people alive inside
they are still alive every time
they are not dead
they are still struggling to get out
to help each other out
when the towers collapse
first one, then the other
they keep running
it keeps falling, they keep falling
all those firemen and policemen
keep running in to save them
over and over
right before it falls on top of them
over and over in my mind
no matter how many times it flashes before me
i am never prepared, i am still surprised
every time the same deep and horrible wounds
inside me, inside my eyes
all of it is real to me, not a movie, not surreal
yet for the first time in my life it is an experience
that i can see is real
yet will never
fully comprehend
i don't believe it is possible
to fully comprehend
every morning i wake up and it is real
and still
it cannot
have happened
i no longer understand why other buildings still
stand
how it is possible that i am still breathing
how it is still a beautiful summer full of green trees
how there are still flowers
why these birds know nothing of war
why is it not frigid cold winter and night still?
why does the sun still shine its creamy light?
filling my eyes with a new day
why today’s clouds were perfect art in the sky ...
there are no answers
in anyone’s eyes
we do all we can for each other right now
we will never be the same
we are not broken
there are still many blessings in the world
i remind myself
but do not yet again
feel them
all we have for sure
is to fulfill our concept
of the best of humanity
with every fibre of our beings
with every moment of our lives
we are not broken
we now have each other
as we never have before
don't forget to hold on
to a greater strength
through love and peace
do not let it slip
back
into a separate apathy
into walls of fear
we are not broken
if we remain together
as we are now
9/13/01
Amy Jackson
click here to see a photo of the World Trade Center by Kathy Hearne