EMBRYO FROM A DISTANCE

(written in second Asclepiadean meter)

Embryo, you are distantly
seen from space just a dot
some little dot with soul.

From high clouds you are just a speck,
from the moon so are we.
NOS SOMOS NADA, too.

Even dots can aspire to live,
later, some kind of life,
and I am still a dot.

SNIPPETS IN SECOND ASCLEPIADEAN METER

(see below for how this meter works)

She brings bread from a far-off land,
She brings bread from the sky,
Bread from the sky she bears.

I am one of her goats that graze,
under moonlight I wait
for her to come again.

I've one wild turkey in the yard,
One big wild turkey
takes off like a jumbo jet.

In the dog-house a crazy cat
runs out when I approach.
She stops then looks behind.

She saw that I was watching her.
She has no fickle ways.
I've been the restless one.

Look, says she, I'm alone and you
keep your distance from me,
untrusting crocodile.

---

You surmise that the dreams, they come
from the unconscious place.
You might as well have said
that they come from the Land of Nod.
Dreams come, and who knows why,
then slip away and decay.

---

RECOMPENSATION

(in iambic pentameter)

Once blacks sold blacks to whites for jars of rum,
so every one’s to blame for what was done.
They’re proud to feel so guilty of the past,
their doleful looks don't mean they feel a thing.

MY OWN PRIMEVAL NON-EXISTENCE

(written in iambic pentameter)

If space
Were made alonely but no things were placed
like crows in trees in "ex" and "wy" and "zee"
or wolves for whom crows watch and stand on guard
or dolphins none broke non-existent seas,
no changes cut the thread of fluid time,
my own eye watching not in that cold dark,
I would not mind, it would not bother me.

THE BEGINNING

(Written in 2nd Asclepiadean meter, which is represented like this:
— — | — ˘ ˘ | — ˘ | —
— — | — ˘ ˘ | — // — ˘ ˘ | — ˘ | —
A meter often used by Horace).

Way back in the beginning all
Emptiness, O so Empty, nothing at all to see.

Sky came first but the sky was dark.
It came out of the deep. There was no up or down.

Look as hard as you can for light.
Floating, you cannot see. Vision is useless here.

Now you hear just a hint of wind.
Feel it touch on your skin. Someone is here, and there.

Deep above, yes and deep below,
Up and down, all is deep. Deepness awaits the word.

Such a wonderful world we’re in.
Such a wonderful world, wonderful, beautiful.