35

at last the turning
the familiar facade
hurry hurry home

34

sleepy eyes regard wonder
with diffidence, rheum, yawning

33

sojourner on
the prowl, unchecked, searching
vacated hemispheres

32

brushes the swaggered tail
of a tiger who passes

31

pock-marked sandstone face
the ancient lion goddess
sees nothing, knows all

30

after fifth light, dawn tears in
pink, cobalt, orangery

29

after the first light,
visages of the divine
engraved in ruins

28

pray whispers to saints, angels
holy feet blistered, torpid

27

recall them to life
on Día de los Muertos
with tears, songs, sweet bread

26

Shuffle the papers, declare
to the uniform your reason.

25

rhythmic thump of feet
on wood slats, death's head puppets
wobble crazily

24

steel gateways arching above,
memory fibers sculpting

23

why did we leave, wanderers
trailing dust, sand, rocks
clinging haphazardly to

22

Motion, stillness, illusion--
Which is it? Are we here? There?

21

looking in plain view
passenger aisles row
after row, no exit

20

breath steams window art, daisies
jut yellow, white, exhausted

19

down stairs to platform
electric oil smell
noses pressed to glass

18

with phrases on displays
we crane our necks to read

17

dun rock, sparkly white
quartz spiderwebs, no diamonds.
true gold flakes entwined

16

Lift the lantern: in glinting
shards the light shows diamonds.

15

caves below the crust
salted with light, pepper pitched
coal scattered, shovels

14

uprooted, train tracks speed through
narrow tunnels: go go go

13

Telescope focus,
Microscopic visionary--
Earth promise, ants, trees...

12

no, there is one who sees, her
eye enlarged, watching land pass

11

gyros and lemon
cacophony of taxis
leaves fall, unnoticed

10

Unfamiliar tastes roll out
spicy language on the tongue.

9

lost: wildlife camping,
tallgrass prairies viewed up close,
highway refuges

8

zippers pulled tight, campfire coal
gathered, eradiating

7

to pack climaxes in bags full
of openings and these
departures, fumes and noise

6

night breeze wafting, citrine moon,
campfire tales... we leave too soon

5

So far, so far, and
yet still here, still in the midst
of the sky.

Travel Kasen: When to Post

Thanks to Luba for starting our new Travel kasen. Weekly post days:

Janet: Tuesday
Sneza: Thursday
Mark: Friday
Luba: Saturday
HAT: Sunday

Just a few reminders: Can you add the label "Travel" to your posts for our Travel kasen? That way, we'll be able to easily find each of the verses for the whole thread. Also, we've sort of unofficially been titling each verse by number so that we'll know where we are going... toward 36!

4

Distances carved in minutes,
counted in latitudes, degrees

3

Draw up equations that fraction
the possibility of moving along
curved dimensions among

2

Mud clings drags sucks backward but
the path-- there is one-- forward.

Traveling

Maps seeded with hope;
small, stray ink marks press paper
like feet on soft soil

Rules for Travel Kasen

We've already established that our new Kasen will focus on Travel. Here are other possible ideas:

1) No mention of actual modes of transportation (no cars, buses, planes, rollerblades, etc.)
2) Every 3rd verse should reference/allude to/name some point of origin or destination (whether physical, geographical, psychological, imaginary, emotional, or other)

Any other rules that we should consider?

Completed Kasen: Idolatrous Art

A sketch from your window
six syllables, page to screen--
let's be each other's guest

Strands of that elegiac grace
we never possessed

A whole rain of signs
falls and by morning--sunshine
avoid such places

The man had been hanging
friends thought he was doing an art piece
and other poems

Reimagined, the world expands
language is not something static

Just waiting for
my power to be recognized--
lighten our darkness

One word, whose word, could be said
perhaps blend of "fray" and "fazzle"

One comes to language
from afar, the ear ponders,
swishes into town

Try it, or better, try a ladder--
rise in the present

Those rungs are unsafe
that tongue that was used
altered at an end

You will have no companion
but the heap of your words

Warm hands at never
extinguished fires of scholar-
ship, blazing

Feast on the leaves
of trampled sentences

Finally I have succeeded
in telling the truth. Whatever...
better than the past

What good does it do to bombard
chaos? The loss of certainty!

The orphan limb, a felt
recovery--its tenuous kinship
making the music social as well

As she gave birth, she screamed out
that all who heard that scream would suffer...

These were all the crimes --
even citing the poetry
it sounds absurd

A tedious argument,
an overwhelming question


Like a green girl
in a nutshell
count myself a king

:painted upon the walls: a man,
a dog was a dog, and a circle was sun

The rust freckled barbed
wire, keeping out no one,
thick as thirst

To grow famous, and his family rich...
all the world turns when he spins

Try to account to know
express to know
to account to try

The self as given is in-
adequate and will not do

Look: he has not turned,
has tears in his eyes; no more
let them be well used

Asia on the one side
Africa on the other

This specular structure
this is my letter
a form of contact

A large bird who was trying
to regain some sense of beauty

He begins with the chase of--
the deer or the wild goat?
Out of whose horns was the bow made?

Realize every minute--
no, saints and poets maybe

Havana in hurricane
iron, bongoseros
green dream in rhythm

The names of flowers
pot-holed streets, sluggish gutters--
they cleared a space and

Give it new names: breasts of God
left out to catch the dew

Then the self is lost
in Nebraska
flashflood storms

She walks in beauty, like night,
at peace with all below


(Completed Aug. 2008 by JS, HT, SZ)

36

She walks in beauty, like night,
at peace with all below

35

Then the self is lost
in Nebraska
flashflood storms