W.R. Baker Reads "Lazarus Wigley" (2011)

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Bus Riding

The Daumier-like faces
Clinging to logs
being tossed about
on the bus
me hovering
like a dragon fly
Seeing
Can I help?
Stones hide in each one
if not hope
at least a flickering
of a soul.

Cement headed drivers
(they have to be)
mourn the human condition
All seek shelter in a world
other than their own.

Niches form to isolate.
If you don't find a niche
you are what I call a breakaway,
or at least you ride the range.

As soon as the faces are spoken
to, ah a light exchanges,
warms the atmosphere,
and everyone even the driver
lurches with a purpose.

---

Robin's Nest

When the little bird
in the cuckoo clock
found the switch
in the back
the energy released
was beyond belief – the only child
found a mate:
A wild puppet master
who would not rest.
Always the outsider
he looked into you
pulling on your strings
peering into you
who couldn’t stop laughing.

---
Unknown

I say red is blue not red.
Big money backs me.
Red becomes blue. The money,
the creator of the shift,
means everything.
It would take a lot
of money to change
it back again.
Maintaining the status quo,
upholding tradition
is what the vast majority
of people do or wish they could.
The majority of Americans 
who run things like public
schools, the House of Representatives,
a Kiwanis Club have so
much power
that quite often they are able
to prevent themselves
from learning something
that might be very good for them.
This power is caused
by a false pride.
If the people cannot see
what's good for them
they will often
choose what is bad.
The bad will have long term
consequences and further
complicate the people’s search
for the good.

---

In the Beginning

One becomes two.
Two became the many.
Looking at each other
making faces furrowing,
smiling, pointing, laughing.
In time they approached
other members of their society
and entertainment began – 
In the Beginning.
Entertainment as an activity
grew slowly; there were more
important things to do.
By 3000 B.C. (at least) all forms
of entertainment
from religious ritual
to epic poetry
were finally in place.

---

The Antidote

A naked human
the feeling their skin creates
the light gleaming off
the chrome bicycle handle
salty, foaming ocean water
the song living inside
the face containing all
faces all the vaccines
all the dogs we have created
Hammer, Wood and nail
the touching of the horns
the deepening breath
of humility
early Antonioni.
In general people define themselves
more by their hates
than their loves. Hate sticks
to their ribs. Love is all
around like the sky.
O, How the mighty human multiplies
while the poetic traits
in man are torn asunder. 
Submerged
Inundated
By lies-a tapestry
devoted to Mammon
Has eroded our belief
in an effective communication
transmogrifying the so important
effects of our democracy.
Satisfied by cheap gods
and mind numbing
cultural repetitions
we have lost 
our knowledge of The Good.
Now we will have to
start all over again.

---

In This Time

Our first dream
is of course the womb.
The second is the expulsion 
and third is our struggle,
our work, to create
a womb-like existence
in the waking world.
We walkabout 
in all forms
strutting, barely balancing,
crawling, sliding, flying,
keeping the thought
and the memory of that thought
from wrinkling.
Every now and then
we play small parts
in peoples’ lives.
To transcend loneliness
we live our episodic lives
as if we were expanding
through the eyes
of a distant narrator
or even better still
we hide in the weightless
world of dreams.
For me it’s all about
the feeling. What happened,
what’s happening? 
I define it simply.
I ask do I want to see
that person, do that thing,
go here, stay there?
I feel it out and decide
and try not to put
a label on it.
To define why I feel
a certain way
would be a blasphemy.

---
At This Moment

The fat people seem to be
hustling me
into indolence. 
Though they move swiftly
when necessary
leaving me to wonder
will I be able to mirror
their grace?
I eat like a horse
elongating my jaw
cracking each morsel.
Before destruction there is misuse,
then abuse and finally
the never ending pain.

---
Beauty

Handprints discovered
in a cave near Pendejo, 
New Mexico are carbon-14
dated to around 40,000 B.C.
The magic being unearthed
in Troy
seat of the Mycenaean Age;
the regal profundity 
of all hidden tombs
the astounding myths
of The Aegean Sea.