Free Fish

No forced rhyme this time.

Some rules remain as others

Break.

Though not "Free" or open verse,

The closing is not shut and worse,

The middle is vacant as a hole.

So leaving all this space caught,

The thrill of filling in the blanks

Remains to be claimed repeatedly.

JM

New Rule

Don't mention GOD.
Belief or not,
Faith or skepticism.
For the vast majority god is a pill
Taken on holy days
Or when feeling ill.

But really, don't mention any gods.

JM

Purpose

God is not dead.
Soldiers who defend,
Infidels who offend,
These and more have
Found their ending
Keeping God alive.

Is that not proof?

If God were dead
Nobody would kill for him
Or save a baby bird.
For him.
Good and evil deeds
Would need another force
To make them real,

To give them life with
Mystery.
Because, because
That's why
And God said so.

JM

Special Reserve Light

After even stars were black
The night I don't want back
So sunny in the morning that
I cracked the window wide

Something I would never do
Except
Today the right thing is clear
Wide open to the sky
I want this sunlight near

In wordless incantation
Bright spots blast to edges
Clearing up my nightmares
A daylight dream emerges

JM

Hollow Tree

This confinement I achieve is
A useful split from others
When reaching out is decayed
From lack of use and
From a driven purpose
This not really alone stays
Where I hear, see and feel
Plenty of people around me
Then extraordinary talk
Sublime and accidental
Catches my ear, lights blinking
A horn outside reminds-
This surrounded self keeps
Searching for connections and memory
Clouded by sparks of word rain

JM

Sometimes True

Embarrassing poetry happens again
Un- pre- pondered, full of dread
Will it fit once all is spilled
Into the cracks of another head?
Some message, sure
That might clarify the blur
Or a copout excuse- the freedom to see
The message could spring from anybody
But next year for certain, Love.
Some kind of incantation
A spell for peace...

JM

Arty Facts

If I stop making pictures
They seem more precious or valuable
Which can"t be true.
The worth of making is not moved
To the value of what is made.
"A lot of time went into this"
But it won't come out.
The value of made things remains
Inside the one who sees
A beholder because holding can
Only lead to release

JM

What To Do

My presence
Heavy on this birthday cake
My wind noise
Unknowing annoys, escapes
My word silence
Still heard on old tapes
My leaving
Heavy at this funeral wake

JM

Mist Taken

I see what I'm looking for
Most generally
Plus a little of what I see
The rest I miss, it must be true
It goes by magically
Unless that's what I'm hunting
Some conjured hidden view
Which I can do quite easily
Even when looking at you

JM

Insane Noodle Pie

(with jalapeno)

Piled chicken heads
Slumping in sunlight
Crazy bloody beaks
And eyes without sight

Black crow snake
Has wings and a beak
It can swim across a river
And digest rancid meat

Spoon pike perch
Carries water ashore
An easy fish to catch
That tastes like parrot spoor

Toad skin trees
Weep you-know-what
Off bending branches
Of blooming toad gut

JM

Participant

In time for one more joke
I thought it was later
Don't get me incorrect
I appreciate humor
So I sat to listen
Opened my eyes and
The stage was underneath me
Long windows cast a glow
"Election year!" I shouted
The shadows croaked with laughter
The podium on fire said
The stage is soon to go

JM

Old Episodes

Don't listen too sharply
I'm hearing you back
From further here today
Where you ought to be
Not so far that I only see
Your ghost from memory
And don't watch if I can't
see you, where my prattle goes
Chasing a former life

JM

Who Do

A name I wrote became myself
I wanted someone new
The time to leave my shell behind
Was getting overdue
The name I took from hearing
Sounded like the past
A mountain climb I left behind
Sticking to me fast
The name I made no different
People like to talk
I'll keep myself the way I am
A piece of the old block

JM

Two Faced

I smile at people
Sometimes they wonder why
Either by frowning askance
A question of my normalcy
Or a shield of "How ya doin'"
Goes up supporting distance
I smile at people and you
Smiling back
Lock eyes with me in confidence
Sharing joy does not deplete
Still we break our glance
Discreetly chancing a second look

JM

Roadside

Maybe snowdirt is a good name
People call it whatever comes to mind
Seeing snowpiles left behind
slowest to melt and heaving up
pieces of lost and discarded stuff
dropped by shovels and plows
who made the heaps
that turned into sooty bumps
The melting snowdirt of March
running into April streets

JM

What Use Religion?

One possible function
In the crumbling of states
While transportation and communication
Scatter tribes
Herds of hatred and seperation
Can test and assure allegiance
To one or another religion
While freedom remains
Difficult to express and scary
For the authorities

JM

Off The Top

In the cold, sweat still rolls
Under the warm coat to shoes
Colder yet and sweat will freeze
Rolling in chunks around the eyes
Not falling, stopped in nose and throat
Until a small bird froze, there was safety
This was a warning
Bird said "I did not starve, ate no poison
just left the nest for a drink"
Dead now, no bird sweat, no cheep.
Soon this finish will find me.
Where I fly now cannot frost my feathers
Ahh dreams in bed. A covered head.

JM

Yarn Circle

Sometimes I take a walk
unprepared with where to go
And it's fine
Other times the way is distorted,
made pointless by unpointed wandering
The empty purpose gathers weight
Pecking in rhythm with my steps
Drawing thoughts like excercise,
traffic/building/sky...views
Breathing different air
Then the ultimate destination
Rambling right back here

JM

Accumulation

Today the wind drove
Snow through my screen
Rising on the window
Finding the space between

Today the wind broke
Branches from cold trees
Tossed to the ground
on last year's leaves

Today the snow fell
the long way down
Swirling and slanting into
Corners all over town

JM

Next Day

Waking to music from next door
A lit candle from last night
Wax on the floor and tablecloth
Grey light in the windows
Softening the view of this disarray
Tunes bleed from the wall
Flickering like the candle
Our runny dreams rest on pillows
Uncollected while sleep fades
A party mess undressed by dawn
Dark covers are gone again
The music goes on for a while

JM