Haikus 7: On Water

through watery light
and bubbles floating away
horizon peers down

evaporation
watering can to dry soil
last sips on your lips

empty sleeve hanging
don't let him see me searching
for what is missing

purpose diluted
by words that spread thin feeling
digging for the still

my eyes dig the sky
where beneath the blue is gray
and where is the rain

the clouds grow bigger
while within warm container
I evaporate

quickly plug the holes
all my hands are full you see
while I pour out into space

Haikus 6: Shadows Ground

so much of these steps
I've already forgotten
when I can look back


their lives warm chaos
sifting into my two ears
finally frozen


walk below storm clouds
thunder rolls over my skin
lighting forgotten


changing ground shadows
the higher sun in the sky
every day I'm growing


the need to make lists
beneath the naming panic
air filled with algae


walking sand filled shoes
so far from the horizon
wind blowing through cloak


the walls closing in
whats not working is me
when will roof topple


every word cuts through
every stone falls where I stand
every distance gone


why shake fist at cloud
it has stopped raining they say
but we are all wet

Neptune

In a far away country
as foreign as Neptune
there is a trailer
left to rest on a cliff above the ocean

Some days it is a green hill
some days gold and dry
with laundry blowing in the sun's breeze. 

A black and white lady 
snores luxuriously in the sun
even as her eyes are clouding over
She won't notice what she loses in time
only what she has. 

Somewhere nearby
Iron & Wine is playing and 
two people are falling in love. 

The country is long gone
as is the trailer
and the black and white lady
They have swam back out into the sea. 

Here on the coast
two people are falling in love

Yep, More Haikus

take a long look out
squint your eye at the horizon
eyelash fuzziness

madness trickeld down
but he stayed dry under a rock
and then down it fell

birth a cymbal crash
that echoes then it fades
echoes hear nothing

sand in fingernails
blow through the grooves of my brain
mind is a sandstorm

the pain and the cure
two different sides of the coin
blurring the air

pinhole of feeling
spin out through the galaxy
we are all star stuff

please please stop talking
your words don't mean anything
can we please just move

oh shit that's my life
concreting the mountains
story is the same

fathers and sons alway
why do I keep looking through leaves
crouched in the same tree

through the windows glass
sun, wind and viruses dance
sick boy now sick man

music and laughter
bouncing ball the floor the wall
smile in dappled leaves

castles made of sand
fall away like a close shave
feel air when no wind

Haikus 4 and Beyond

sunshine the burn shine

bright new shoes for the jingle

barefoot still you stare

leaf shiver raindrop

threatened by the fall to dirt

taken by the sun

the tables with food

turned away from the wanting

mirrors divide spoils

desert throat looking

for moist air from mountain trees

fed by rotting soul

the spirit of the times

floating over our faces

masks upon the mask

(this next little poem was written without normal grammar.  It was during a training or something and I tried to just let the words g to me, brought by the previous word and my mood but not by literal meaning.  It was fun!)

when the breaking is for leaving

containing the fall

stand still in blown

sad slice epidermal

squirrel instantly beneath

Dan Updates:

MUSIC:

We (Beat Salad ) have got 5 songs now!

Performing in Sebastopol on June 8 at the Hopmonk!

SCHOOL:

No summer break!  Aaaaa.  Full throttle til about a month off in August, then back for my final semester!

Writing:

I am working on a story.  Been trying to write every day in 2013, but hasn't always happened.  I am getting back into it.  I have a story up over 30 pages right now and is going well.  Not really ready to post yet, but includes some old  and new(to me) themes:  Parents, memory, talking cats, death, dementia, immigration, therapy, anxiety.  Working title: The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Haikus 3

the pain of the mask

the echo beneath the smile

the eye of the storm

you are just so cute

you remind me of grandma

countertransference!

a quake of the mind

the family becomes ripples

love becomes sirens

sand stuck wet eyelid

the air far away blowing

the weight pressing down

brains connects through breath
invisible wind blows leaves
far apart we blink


I am caregiver

I watch the water run low

memory dried out

acceptance me, you

the problem is the echo

because I listen

sentences eclipsed

end with raindrop ellipses

breadcrumbs in the woods

always forgetting

stream rushes over the bank

hands full of wet earth

modeling the sky

your double here from the past

lets laugh for awhile

raindrop never forms

never hits the forest floor

it's always falling


lost under the sea
swimming toward the next bubble
here in the moment


construct deconstruct
the pendulum swings here there 
then deconstruction


wow they are so smart
those white men those white men now dead
where did they get off

birth a dream a myth

a mountain shadow reaching

death late afternoon

body holds the scream

long after the sound fades away

the ears keep ringing

3 year-old alone

except for little brother

wandering streets small

becoming even then

archaic as the icebox

holding back the change

Haikus 2

flashing water light
flame within the dark ceiling
it's always midnight

waterfall of wine
sidewalk footfalls alleyway
echoing my name

the word cigarette
summertime and letting go
hungry before the bell

looking up the ground
just let me follow you down
deeper to the sound

houses upon houses
laid out dead logs after
the fire has burned out

away the river
always seems to run away
try to turn around

sand paper beat heart
drum within the ear
ring clear as a bell

wind puppet green grass
shivering shades together
remembering loss

my fecal matters
interest no one but myself
and the mirror man

stop the thought trigger
let the stream flow all around
eyes open when dry

raindrop never forms
never hits the forest floor
its always falling

birth, a dream, a myth
a mountain shadow reaching
death, late afternoon

body holds the scream
long after the sound fades away
the ears keep ringing

Haikus

I haven't been able to do much writing lately, but I did get inspired by a writing class to do a bunch of haikus.  Most of them are an attempt to distill my entire day into a few lines, using a nature metaphor.


the sky is falling
I am nowhere to be seen
looking up through glass


the monkey boys climbs
his thoughts rain never captured
by nurturing leaf


falling until death
whistling through wind and light
never to be grasped


sleep avoids my eyes
world turning below my feet
the clown stirs again


back in the hot room
words scratch like the sabertooth
finally freedom


my time with children
teaches child therapy
better than the class


day one of many
grains of sand make a desert
digging I'm thirsty


wind blows healing
inhale deeply my stomach
filling my pain


sand upon more sand
buried by fear without air
there can be no scream


my tightened center
why oh why am I hurting
water seeps over


the lovely billows
rising out above my head
begin to let go


quitting is easy
as holding my breath inside
stay quit or exhale


to another place
birds flying above the beat
my heart fills again


and like a cliche
the train pulls away from you
I only have me