Arte Soy

Late again, still dark
So, so early in the morning late
Zooming, seventy-five, eighty, the empty freeways
Ninety Five

Folding time with the edges of fleeting dreams

A few cars here and there, moving ghostly
Slippery fast in the slickness of incipient dawn dew

We’re all racing, until
Up ahead a bright red flash
An urgent calling moment
Two cars want over
In a nasty scary split second of merging blind side panic

A second later
as I pass that same spot
something…a rock?
kicks loud up and around the wheel well

At the same ninety-plus
hearing the sound
I too slow a moment
release the slight pressure of my foot,
tapping the break to my hot face throb
as these palpable chunks of fear rumble through me.

(Erik Thompson-Green contributed this poem.)

No Comments » Posted by admin / Erik Thompson-Green and Poetry and Uncategorized

Who are they, these men who murder flowers?
I often see their tracks upon the crushed white flowers of spring’s sweet promise.
The fertile earth compacted into ruts and grooves – nothing can grow there.

Who are they, these men who murder flowers?
I see them speeding down the road, hell bent.
Neither seeing, nor smelling the paradise surrounding them.

Who are they, these men?
They hurry to find a thrill for their souls, thinking it’s at the end of a speedometer,
Never knowing it exists already, contained within their beating hearts.

Who are they, these men who murder flowers?
And when can we enjoy the protection they can give us?
It’s the big disconnect that sends them rushing and crushing.
Perhaps we need to send out a search and rescue for their souls.

(Sara Melnicoff contributed this poem.)

No Comments » Posted by admin / Poetry and Sara Melnicoff and Uncategorized

That chap?
I heard he’s fulla crap
Give him a slap
Silly hill billy
Like his Uncle Willy

Naw, jus playin
He’s my brotha from anotha
Naw’m sayin?
We go back, jack

lox+o-sxl+o+mxa+o-ixu+o-lxg+o-exh+o-xve

Lost in stare
I’m unaware as to where
Somewhere between here and there
What remains is his name in the middle
And my instincts and instruments
To solve the riddle
Where’s my fiddle?!
I’ll say, I’m on my way
Some day, perhaps today
We’ll say “hey!”
Break bread
And play
Let us pray
Add some color
To this gray

No Comments » Posted by admin / Joshua Mapp Weiss and Poetry and Uncategorized

Dear Josh Weiss,
This is dedicated to you
And all our namesakes
Throughout time and space.
Greetings and good graces
We are one with many faces
Emblazoned as it were
With a name, swift and pure
Like snow
But what lies below?
The will to grow
Like the lotus
Out of the muck
We truck
Called to the light
From the dark night
We shall not fright
Our future bright
Let us take flight
Be thou knight
No need for bark and bite
When we have heArt and write

No Comments » Posted by admin / Joshua Mapp Weiss and Poetry and Uncategorized

3 Comments » Posted by admin / Analyze and Poetry

How would you feel if I all of a sudden burst out into a song?
Would you think I was kinda crazy or maybe even lazy
Or something with me was wrong?

I want to know
I want to know

Would it be unkind if I were of the mind to be myself and just let go?
Do you think we could get along and should we be that strong
Oh, the places we could go

I want to know
I want to know

Who, who
Who am I?

Staring at the ground, feeling unsound like I wish I could fly away
Now I am circling back around, was lost but now I’m found
Would you like to come out and play?

I want to know
I want to know

© Joshua Mapp Weiss 2009

No Comments » Posted by admin / Joshua Mapp Weiss and Music and Poetry

Today everyone has asked about you,
How you’ve been, and where you were…
I didn’t know.
I remember faces, smiling and laughing.
I remember your eyes…
Oh those lovely eyes of yours.
I was a fool.
Beautiful women have lay down with my books.
Over my poems they would let down their hair.
But they were hardly aware of me.
Where have they all gone to?
The country road is nice and inviting, but it is not for me, not anymore…
Constantly, I think of you, you who left behind your guitar and your beautiful self
Engraved in my mind.
But the evil men have now set their eyes on you, all of you.
The evil men are after you, and this is beyond my control.
Without effort, I realize that a man constantly suffers
That his heart is as fragile as the feelings of a baby
That when involved with a woman he loves
His mind gets confused, he feels insecure
And he becomes more of a man
When he conquers the heart of a different lady.
Considering the fact that a man, in confrontation with another
Like an animal, he shows his teeth, brings out his nails, bites, screams
And combs his hair.
Realizing also that a man can get extremely sad
That he can become quiet, as if about to cry
Especially when he discovers that the women he loves
Are no longer mine.

(Oscar Fuentes contributed this.)

No Comments » Posted by admin / Contributors and Oscar Fuentes and Poetry and Uncategorized

A poem, simple yet grand
Like seeing a world in a grain of sand
The reading of which invokes a master plan
The awakening of man – mankind, that is
Discovering and recovering its primordial biz
To know thyself and All That Is

No Comments » Posted by admin / Poetry

I’ll pen you a song and it won’t take long
(it could take all night if you’d sing along)
It’s a little ditty and it goes like this
just scoot on over and I’ll give you a kiss

My time flies as the day’s demise
is the night’s opening eyes
See me and you, you and I
go bye bye, baby, bye bye

The train rolls on and on we go
another stage and another show
Reaching high from down below
revealing truth as best we know

When the curtain’s closed and the self unveiled
let us take a deep inhale
And lay together and together wail
and together sail for distant shores
Though we know not what’s in store
and the waters may at times be rough
like rhyming off one’s very cuff…

My mind stalled, my bluff called
I do not wish to bore
So with these words I bid ado
and to you I do implore
Let us be, do, and have, dear one,
for and from the core
Love, harmony, and bliss
GALORE!!!

No Comments » Posted by admin / Joshua Mapp Weiss and Poetry

The morning’s cool praise
I sing to thee
as I look through windows at frost in the grass
Lizards basking in the sunlight,
spread like shirts on a line,
a beautiful woman walks by
and a message from a friend comes unwrapped

You are by far the most glorious of highnesses
a beatific morning,
oh parting fog
how I sing with my socks on
and stretch in the light
humming the prayers so innately
stitched to the insides of my mouth

Mint water and honey roll down my throat
cooling my heart,
decreasing its pressure,
lightening its weight
so that it may float up in my chest
A soft white thing,
a moth in my ribcage,
fixed yet floating,
seeking fragile light

I stretch outside my window
and hear drums within my joints.
the beat beneath my feet,
the tide’s incessant beckoning,

reeling me back in

(Sergio Mora contributed this poem.)

1 Comment » Posted by admin / Poetry and Sergio Mora