tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88207968783824354212023-11-16T11:39:30.681-05:00Difficult RiverThank you for visiting. Difficult River is a collection of original poetry created by Martin A. Bartels. Constructive critique and comments are welcome. All work is copyrighted. Thanks to the great folks at 'Verse Wisconsin,' 'Poetry24,' the 'Found Poetry Review,' and 'The Rumpus' for publishing my work, and to everyone who has offered support and encouragement.Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-50013873683661009852021-03-13T00:02:00.002-05:002021-03-13T00:05:32.593-05:00Corners<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">There is a darkness </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">every corner leaves</span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">When I am without you</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">And a kind of light that </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">blinded windows </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">sometimes filter through</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">So when I wake up</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Time is more limited than love</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">We suffer so many</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Deaths because of shoulds </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-29542900417578965262021-01-12T19:11:00.005-05:002021-01-12T19:12:45.966-05:00Watching the sunlit dust through the shadows of the blinds on the morning after I should have said<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">How much I love</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Your words that walk</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Around the path of my heart</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And let the true spins web</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The spider veins of your</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Fingers, splayed across your </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Face, your eyes a tiny hidden</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Smile behind the forefinger</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Or the middle finger that both</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Offends and invites me</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">To an admittedly imagined </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Space that allows me to say</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I love you, with a specific</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Punctuation on the love</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">We might have been </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">When we woke up this morning</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And dreamed hello.</span></p><p><br /></p>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-69485738444841850342021-01-11T00:47:00.001-05:002021-01-11T00:47:30.519-05:00Even As I Am<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">There was an accident in my heart somewhere tonight,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The phased-out evergreen of promise<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Lit up like firelight <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And somehow or another died on the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">This could freak you out,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">But there are only two letters that differentiate<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Purified from putrefied,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And somehow I’m left with this <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Substance of grief <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">That allows me to explain the thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">So, that’s there, between us,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And now I’m left <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Capturing the wine of embarrassment,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">As if the fruit of your lips <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Might allow me to contain forgiveness,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And suddenly allow me to say<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I’m not worthy of your love,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Even as <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I am,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I am.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-56288678593858166412021-01-11T00:05:00.004-05:002022-01-10T20:01:29.747-05:00But for the light they hold onto<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">We share breath<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">As we swallow<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Our Sunday exhalations<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And the comic book news we<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Spill over coffee </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">viewing the </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Sunrise under clouds </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">that you insist</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Are pelicans, when I almost<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Certainly would have named them<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Jim or Gord <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">After certain poets I have known,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Not for the shapes we observe<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">But for the light they hold onto,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The reflection of your eyes in <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The wine stem glass<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Between thumb and forefinger,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Eyes interlocked as our</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">little fingers twist<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">the shape of promise. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-92067715027427856812020-11-25T20:35:00.002-05:002020-11-25T20:35:36.212-05:00I’d Like an Empty Inbox<p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px;">To start my day, I’d prefer nothing</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px;"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">To grab my attention.</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">The lack of alarms.</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">An empty inbox.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">To end this year</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">I’d prefer everything</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">To be emptied.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">To awaken,</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">I’d love a hello from you,</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">Face to face,</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">The euro-kiss substantively inappropriate now,</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">And yet I yearn your lips</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><span style="font-family: times;">In whatever form they take shape.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-77501544912358827582020-08-27T22:36:00.000-04:002020-08-27T22:36:15.853-04:00Totem (revised)<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">The beasts within us are much worse than </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">those we invent.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">Reason and </span>even prayer fail us,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">results from each</span> </span></p><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">imperceptible or absent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">In the face of the incomprehensible </span><span face="">we </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">crumble and rebuild;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Camus’ irreverent stone made real.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">Results themselves are our </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">comfortable fiction.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">We finally confront the bitter fruit of </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">our </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">first and only selves.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">Contrary to popular belief,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">perceptions are not reality but </span>are more often presumptions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">The bartender </span>wears her myths in ink,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face=""><span> (</span>a canvas I admit I</span> long to touch and to taste).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">How is it I find ephemeral redemption</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">in the stray glance of a woman's eye</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">and certainly her smile?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span> <span> </span></span>Make me a fool then, this is my shame,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span> <span> </span></span>I wasted a lifetime and then some</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span> <span> </span></span>failing beauty. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">We may all die for </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">lack of an </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">appropriate yardstick</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">to measure our better selves. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">In the </span>Bay of Fundy, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> streams reverse their flows in the great tidal bores,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> not without some pain. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face=""> Even </span>the slow breath of the earth must gasp.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">There are shadows and scars on our souls.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; text-indent: 0.5in;">There is no compelling evidence that</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">we are born with them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">Sin is merely t</span>he first excuse. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">We cultivate our children, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">only to discover we have little influence </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">and less control</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">over the eventual outcomes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">Left to these fearful conclusions </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">we </span>can only rely on fragile love.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Things must be precisely as they are,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">a view profoundly imponderable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">Sound does not travel in a vacuum</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">so the conundrum remains:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">If the sun roars in its fire and there is </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">no atmosphere to carry it,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">no soul to listen, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">no soul to </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">burn in its fires,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">does it make a sound? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">We can spin on such questions </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">endlessly,</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">then dinner must be prepared and the </span>dogs let out to run.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">***</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">Gravity requires a certain weight to be felt,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; text-indent: 0.5in;">even more to master its substance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">The Greeks cast gods as fickle beings, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">then </span>killed them in starlight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">The myths we persist in maintaining are </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">no less surreal, but perhaps lack the poetry.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">We all die in starlight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span face="">Dreams contain the stray calculi </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">of our experience,</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;">the sum of which add up to something:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span> </span>Our first and only selves.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><i>c. 2012, (revised 08.27.2020c) by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="" style="font-family: trebuchet;"><i>Part of my collection, "Unlanguage"</i></span></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-30255357743124479392019-12-07T01:03:00.000-05:002019-12-07T01:23:57.901-05:00Sighs Matter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Take note of the number </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">of your sighs each day;</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">those in sadness,</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">in frustration, in </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">anger, </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and dismantlement.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Compare them to </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sighs </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">of </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sunrises witnessed,</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sunset prayers,</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the size of hearts met </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">gathered </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">as life’s wheat. </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Witness your sighs </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">because they are breath.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The breath revealed in late fall,</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">traced on car windows as a heart,</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the opposite of inhaling the </span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">scent of spring,</span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">your first love,</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">those later to come.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The opposite of startlement, </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">counter </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">your last breath.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-27568132327664499832018-03-27T21:56:00.003-04:002018-05-11T14:32:06.077-04:00Buddha’s Error<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">I am a fiction</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">And you are, too, </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">And in between</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">We make reality.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">I am nothing,</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">And you are nothing.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">And in between </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">We are everything.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Stop crying out in pain.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">This is the pain of life. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Everything hurts. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Even being well.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Everything hurts.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">But it’s not all suffering.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Buddha fucked it all up </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">When he said everything is suffering.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Everything is healing.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;">Martin A. Bartels, c. March 27, 2018</span></span></div>
</div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-33000455577872191412014-06-16T20:29:00.001-04:002014-09-24T16:14:25.822-04:00Music<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
Every time</div>
<div>
Someone predicts</div>
<div>
The world is coming to an end</div>
<div>
It does</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In some small infinite</div>
<div>
And ponderable way</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We are all breathless </div>
<div>
And changed</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Fathom the unthinkable </div>
<div>
For a moment</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And stop</div>
<div>
As if you are the stops</div>
<div>
Of an organ</div>
<div>
That performs </div>
<div>
Extraordinary music</div>
</div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-65500207155564584872013-12-07T03:09:00.001-05:002013-12-07T23:34:26.053-05:00Defend<div>Stab me with a sharp knife</div><div>It will only hurt as much as I allow</div><div>Goldfish understand</div><div>Because they swallow infinitely</div><div><br></div><div>c. Martin A. Bartels</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-81381591323538838302012-09-21T14:13:00.002-04:002013-04-11T09:06:56.829-04:00Kentucky Sketches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The borders between us are largely</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">an invention, though one can cross</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from one state to the next and in </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">some way know the world has changed.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is a particularly perplexing moment</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">when I realize that no roads end, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">though one can be surprised by</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sudden turns and the misplaced hayfield.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Rolling westward into Kentucky,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">somewhere off of I-64, there is a </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sudden vacancy in the road as a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">valley, a sharp and verdant V </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">anchored by what might be called a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">river or an errant thought that drifts </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">across the blue hills and blue smoke</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of this land. I turn off in favor of the</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">black post-and-board fences and </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">low-slung drystone walls, late-summer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">flowers and tired tobacco barns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">These are farm and pasture lands,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not entirely devoid of surprise but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">largely unaccustomed to it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even the trill of a warbler, slightly</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">out of season, tips the delicate balance </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of slow time, as if it were embarrassed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">by the momentary silence that follows;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">an inappropriate laugh during a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">serious lecture, the awkward applause </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in the pause before a concerto is complete,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so that we are made to be aware</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for an instant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of our presence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>c. 2012, Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage."</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-87310461552822319052012-08-28T12:57:00.001-04:002020-08-27T22:29:56.936-04:00Totem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">The beasts within us are much worse than </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">those we invent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Reason and </span>even prayer fails us,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">results from each</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal">imperceptible or absent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">In the face of the incomprehensible </span><span face="">we </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">crumble and rebuild;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Camus’ irreverent stone made real.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Results themselves are our </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">comfortable fiction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We finally confront the bitter fruit of </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">our </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">first and only selves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">***</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Contrary to popular belief,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">perceptions are not reality but </span>are more often presumptions. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">The bartender </span>wears
her myths in ink,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""><span> (</span>a canvas I admit </span>I sometimes long to
touch and to taste).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">How is it I find ephemeral redemption</div><div class="MsoNormal">in the stray glance of a woman's eye</div><div class="MsoNormal">and certainly her smile?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> <span> </span></span>Make me a fool then, this is my shame,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> <span> </span></span>I wasted a lifetime and then some</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> <span> </span></span>failing beauty. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">We may all die for </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">lack of an </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">appropriate yardstick</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">to measure our better selves. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">I
still persist in the attempt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">In the </span>Bay of Fundy, </div><div class="MsoNormal"> streams reverse their flows in the great tidal bores,</div><div class="MsoNormal"> not without some pain. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""> Even </span>the slow breath of the earth must gasp.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">There are shadows and scars on our souls.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">There is no compelling evidence
that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">we are born with them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">Sin is merely t</span>he
first excuse. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We cultivate our children, only to discover we have little
influence </div><div class="MsoNormal">and less control</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">over the eventual outcomes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Left to these fearful conclusions </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">we </span>can
only rely on fragile love.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Things must be precisely as they are,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a
view profoundly imponderable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Sound does not travel in a vacuum</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">so
the conundrum remains:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">If the sun roars in its fire and there is </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">no
atmosphere to carry it,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">no soul to listen, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">no soul to </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">burn
in its fires,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">does it make a sound? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">We can spin on such questions </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">endlessly,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">then dinner must be prepared and the </span>dogs
let out to run.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Gravity requires a certain weight to be felt,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">even more to master its substance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">The Greeks cast gods as fickle beings, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face="">then </span>killed
them in starlight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">The myths we persist in maintaining are </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">no
less surreal, but perhaps lack the poetry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">We all die in starlight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">Dreams contain the stray calculi </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">of our experience,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="">the sum of which add up to something:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Our
first and only selves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span face=""><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""><i>c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""><i>Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage"</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-81864642285826401102012-07-16T13:21:00.000-04:002012-08-31T12:51:47.601-04:00Grey Chambered Moon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I entered your dream as you clambered onto the dappled grey,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">leapt out past the thicket of oaks arranged as a forest
chamber,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">bare shoulders brushed by light sprung from the full
withering moon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I may not have been welcome. My distraction nearly made you
fall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“I can’t… I can’t.” This is what you said in wisdom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My needs would have driven you off course. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is possible I should have known this, of course. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are too many moments written in shades of grey </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and in the heat of time we sometimes lack wisdom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">These are poor excuses drafted from an old man’s chamber,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not so old, maybe, but this summer is too quickly turning to
fall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You can tell by the waning slant of the yellowed moon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I will remind you of the things I remember: The crescent
moon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of your left breast loosely exposed by a blue V-neck. The
course</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of our random and unexpected language of attraction. My fall</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from grace, wishing you would join me. The staggering grey</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">smoke of fireworks, us cast below as residents of a gas
chamber.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“I love this moment,” we said, wondering at our mutual lack of wisdom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One day, you told me, you will visit Argentina’s City of
Wisdom,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the park full of gods where you will pull down your pants
and moon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">them. You mentioned then you weren’t wearing underwear, your
chamber</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of secrets momentarily exposed in my imagination, a crash
course</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in erotic resistance, your voice the brushstrokes of Payne’s
grey</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that captured and condemned Eve moments before the Fall. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is no fall from grace or perhaps we always fall,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that terrifying dream in which we have no wings, no wisdom</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to fly. We float anyway, and in this dream each of our hairs
turn grey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Before this I had never noticed the similarity between age
and the moon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The shades of the moon laugh at youth’s chambered</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">innocence, for all that, its light may still keep us on
course. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the end, I apologize. There is a peculiar chamber</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of the heart reserved for remorse, the place from which
blood falls</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">when pierced by love or lust, the place of abandon or
recourse,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the place from which we choose to ignore wisdom</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and rely instead upon hope—that impossible, scathing moon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that drenches us in a constant monochromatic palette of
grey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Love must be a chambered bullet, not silver but grey</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and dark so that to fall in such is not like moonlight,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but an urgent trajectory whose course denies all wisdom. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Please see author's note under "comments."</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-18355538123870633172012-06-29T14:09:00.000-04:002012-06-29T19:31:57.542-04:00Northwoods<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is late spring and too warm by far for the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">season, so that blue vapors settle in the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">mystic Northwoods pines, bring to mind </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ancient gods and those who invented them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The waters of the timeless lake unfold</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from your skin, so that the fracture of </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sudden sunlight as you emerge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">drapes you in furious diamonds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Water sculpts us and absorbs us,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">christens and absolves us, but that may </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not be enough; it is only water after all. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Vast clouds approach and the thunder </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rolls out in a way that I have never heard: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As the storm nears there is a constant </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">insistent rumble. It goes on so for 30 minutes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">without pause. The worst of the rain skirts us, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we learn later, still soaked in the memory of a </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">drenching downpour, its sound the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">enlightened ohm that empties all thoughts. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At night, the loons defy language in their </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">absurd haunting calls, intone wood-deep </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">chants from which certain spells might be </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">cast when mixed with native ingredients.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I am an old witch, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">haggard in her tumbled ways,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">soaking sumac and drying herbs </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">against the backdrop of barking wolves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are more elements than we can count.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Earth, air, fire, and water are all</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">one and the same. This is the only secret.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage"</span></i></div>
</div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-7485206234723900912012-06-01T11:27:00.000-04:002012-09-28T16:07:07.605-04:00The Au Pairs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The three young women
gathered<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the green park bench,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">each lovely in her own way,
in the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ways that women are
beautiful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Seated at the bench beside
them I</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">couldn’t help but overhear
their</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">European accents, that
they’d never<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">met before. <i>You are German, too?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the newcomer asked of one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>No, French,</i> said the taller of the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">three. <i>From Montendre.
And you?</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>—I am from Italy but I speak German, too.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And then the blonde, the
German,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">said something in her
native tongue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They all laughed at this
delightful</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">little secret. I smiled in
happy envy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the fleeting instance of
being a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">foreigner in my own
country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Their charges, the
children, I mean,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">careened across the
playground,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">oblivious to this moment
and its</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">import, if any might be
ascribed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As practiced as mothers,
perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">more patiently, even, the <i>au pairs</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">corralled the children with</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">gentle calls and
admonitions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In this small park that
held the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">world, the women shared at
least<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">two languages, their youth,
the<br />
responsibility of caring for</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">wealthy people’s
children, and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the mixed joy of a new
country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Maybe a certain
worldliness, too,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that I—a well-traveled
stranger—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">can only resurrect from
memory,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sitting instead now on a</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">park bench as my daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">climbs the playground set,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">imagining herself a great
explorer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in distant, undiscovered
lands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Part of my new collection, “Unlanguage.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-35304425946683167012012-05-29T22:49:00.001-04:002012-05-29T22:49:07.107-04:00A Week in Blessings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Apologies to author Ashley Ream, from whom I stole the title for this entry and may again. I hope she will forgive me if I list her first among the many people I've met (blogospherically speaking), and been inspired by since committing to my writing. You can read <a href="http://ahream.com/" target="_blank">her blog</a>, follow her on Twitter, and for goodness' sake, buy her book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Clementine-Novel-Ashley-Ream/dp/0062093630" target="_blank">Losing Clementine</a>." I loved it!<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When I hit a dead-end with some poem or another earlier this week, I randomly reached out to a regular reader of my work who happens to live "across the pond." Thanks to my new friend <a href="http://hypercryptical.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">HyperCRYPTICal</a>. I am thrilled and humbled to have (many) readers in the UK, as well as Brazil, India, Germany, France, and Russia. I refuse to believe any of these are spiders, spammers or other nefarious Internet thingies.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I met a fellow poet (Marshall), an amazing artist (Jenn), a great young photographer (Thomas), and a well-connected journalist (Joe) this week -- in each case the conversation was refreshing and the mutual affirmation inspiring. I gotta get out more. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I tinkered with the design of my blog page, just because I can. Let me know whatcha think.</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>--MAB</i></div>
</div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-13855815055870336702012-05-25T18:06:00.000-04:002012-06-04T23:41:04.296-04:00Sunlight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How long does it take to learn the nuances of your love,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the DNA of her breath and the way clouds cast shadows </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">over her eyes, so that in the grey light of day she is still
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">something of night, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">something of dreams </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that you recall for many years, but only in fragments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It must take decades, perhaps, to learn such nuances and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so few of us, it seems, have the patience to endure, to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">tolerate our own surprise at the smallest of discoveries
and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">accept such tiny moments </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as the progress of our love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A simple half-step and there you are. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It takes a lifetime to grasp the simple, longer still to
know yourself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Artists still flock to the Amalfi Coast to capture the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">incomprehensible Mediterranean light. Perched on the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">fragmented, chaotic cliffs one constantly hedges against</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the persistent lure of </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">tumbling downward, seaward,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ending in the transcendental need to climb back up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One feels the downward pull, too, of the falls at</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Niagara, the existential suction of so much water that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you are left breathless in the perpetual vacuum. Even </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">there one might observe the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rebellious mist that lifts upward,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">miniscule tears of preposterous hope.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Drop your baggage here and you will rise up, too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Language will eventually fail to provide the words necessary
to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">describe everything. Left to our silences we will
momentarily </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">accept the world for everything it is and fails to be. Some
might</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">confuse such insight with </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">enlightenment, forgetting that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at least part of bliss is walking on coals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On storm-laden days you might see a ray of sunlight that
pierces </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">dark clouds, or filters through spring’s pale leaves at
sunset or dawn. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Such rays make even the dying chaff and dirt of forest
floors </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">something to worship. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Something on which to kneel, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">bury your fingers, look skyward, cleansed by that singular
light.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let the one who reminds you of sunlight be sunlight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, by Martin A.
Bartels (working draft)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Part of my new
collection, “Unlanguage.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-41702887873043944712012-05-22T11:01:00.001-04:002012-05-22T11:01:11.540-04:00Shelf Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I'm changing up a bit--I'll continue to publish poems-in-progress on a more or less weekly basis, but will also post regular essays on whatever comes to mind. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to share and comment.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>--MAB</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It seems terribly self-conscious when a writer writes about
writing. Self-indulgent, too, maybe. But the craft and process demand a kind of
discipline that fills pages with words, so that even when you’re not working on
the novel or short story or poem, you’re writing. Something has to fill the
page. Your fingers keep typing even when you’re not at a computer.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I recently purged a vast quantity of books, first at a big
yard sale, then through donations. Over the years I had collected perhaps 1,500
books, not all great, but most of them quite good and memorable. For a long
time I had thought of them as friends, but then I came to realize they—along
with my even more vast collection of music CDs—represented my graduate studies.
I earned my masters degree with Jim Harrison and Tim Robbins, then my PhD from
Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Richard Brautigan. Bach, Gorecki, Gershwin, Monk,
and hundreds of more contemporary names were more than the soundtrack; they
were integral to my studies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Getting rid of the books and CDs—an act that people (with
little understanding of who I am or what a writer does) often recommended—came
with a certain amount of pain and melancholy. Unexpectedly, it also came with a
sense of liberation, like without so many words filling my library I was free
to write my own. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Of course there were quite a few that I kept, will always
keep no matter how many times I have to pack them in boxes, move them, then
re-organize them on shelves in some contrived life order like John Cusack’s
character in “Hi-Fidelity.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What did I keep? All of the above writers, of course, and my
meager but important collection of poets. Any Nobel or Pulitzer winners I’d
collected (Gao Xingjian’s “One Man’s Bible” is brilliant). A few oddities:
seminal works of science fiction, Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of
Being,” Carson McCullers’ “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Oh, and of course the
five remaining copies of my own out-of-print book, published in the ‘90s. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There’s some space on my shelves and it’s been a while since
I visited a bookstore.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>--MAB</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-31093702172219002872012-04-20T15:18:00.000-04:002012-04-20T15:18:16.777-04:00Photo Album<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the end it may be that others</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">perceive us only as snapshots,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">points in time stilled by the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">blink of an eye, the frame of
memory. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even close friends and family are </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">vulnerable to singular
interpretations,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">no fault of their own; we reveal who we are </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in the light by which we prefer to
be seen. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The personality test (I wonder how I might</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">fail at it) insists I select from </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">myriad adjectives to describe myself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Gregarious, introverted, insecure,
confident, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ambitious. There was no checkbox for </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“all of the above at different
times; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">occasionally, all at once,” because we must be </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">absolute and definable to be
swallowed. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is possible I am simply advocating for nuance, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a relatively unspectacular proposition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In Saint Lucia, the travel writer whose</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> name
I don’t recall, boarded the yellow bus</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">bound for the top of Soufriere. The sad and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> reticent
volcano spews the stench of sulfur and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">boiling springs. The stones around them ashen,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> white as prehistoric bones. One is forced to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ponder then when history began. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We retreated to the dilapidated </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">row of shops where local women sold </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">colorful batik, then ditched the
island’s PR </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lieutenants to opt for bottomless plates of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">conch and callaloo (made from the
dense green leaf</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">called elephant ear), supplemented by thoughtful </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">doses of rum. Looking for a story, we might</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">write ourselves. Our glasses never emptied. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I chased a shy lizard from her bed
before</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">kissing her quietly and without need. We </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">smiled and I left her room. There
is something </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">gratifying about loving a woman without desire,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as if we have momentarily conquered
the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">inevitable appetite of our species. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To carry
a barracuda from boat to pot <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you must pierce thumb and
forefinger through <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">each eye
socket. Natives of the island of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ambergris Caye, Belize make a
starchy soup from <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">vegetables,
onions, herbs and the bony fish, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">satisfying paired with a Beliken
or Guinness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lazy, we
paid $200 US to fish the shallow waters <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">inside the reef, where sea life
boasts improbable colors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the
nature of our world living things defy the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
best intentions of artists and photographers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Indigo
bunting, queen angelfish, yellowtail damselfish, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">tulips in spring; Monet came
closest, perhaps, in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Water Lilies</i> but was
tormented by color, a sad tradeoff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Snorkeling at night the water condenses the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">diving light
to a perfect cone. Underwater, the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">speed of light is reduced to a
fraction of itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In front
of you is nothing but the dark sea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beside you, barracuda flash in
silver-lit streaks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so close
you can feel the current of their <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">passage. This is as close as I
will ever be to the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lead
goose in a V-formation. The water is silent <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">except for breath through this
hollow tube. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Separated
from the normal corridors of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">human existence I am untethered
and yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">profoundly
centered, adrift but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">self-propelled knowing only that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">destiny
must surely be contained in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">darkness. It would be years before
the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">scent of
coconut oil failed to remind me of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lynn, a smell so erotic – the oil
itself so sensual – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that my
skin long remembered the buttery <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">contact with hers that followed
weekend afternoons <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the
pool and one particularly decadent <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">vacation in the Keys. Visiting her
ex-boyfriend, we <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">smoked
from a bail of pot he had discovered <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">floating off the beach; I learned
how to clean <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lobster and
to keep to myself when personal <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">histories are relived. Fortunately
such errors in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">judgment
are rarely fatal. I left her only weeks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">after I had come home to find her
sitting in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">kitchen
dropping steak knives from<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">table height onto her foot in a
sadistic game of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">mumblety-peg.
The fresh bottle of frozen Stoli’s was <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">two-thirds gone, her eyes cast in
the glaze of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">someone
who is ultimately lost. There is no way <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to count the population of people <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">who are repulsed
by their lovers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Keep passing the open windows,</i> she
said,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the
tragedy lost on me until she explained: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>When you want to kill yourself
you have to <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>keep
passing the open windows.</i> I left because I <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">like open windows, the attraction
being not height but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">distance
and the cool breeze of foreign moments.<br /><br /><br /><i>c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)<br />Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage."</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-57983975597797088692012-04-06T15:07:00.000-04:002012-04-06T15:07:22.278-04:00The Unbearable Weight of Nothing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I thought I had many years to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">prepare for your major questions: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Where do babies come from? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What is the meaning of life? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dad, may I use the car tonight?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But at four years old you asked this: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Are adults scared of anything? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I had no answer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At the middle school talent show, the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">young girl stood on stage,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">quiet and shyly poised. When the <br />
emcee announced her song, we gasped. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>“If I Die Young,”</i> she said, <i>by </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>The Band Perry</i>, the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">poignant ache of lyrics we all knew</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sung by a girl too young to appreciate</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">our fears. We applauded loudly when </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she finished, raised up by her a cappella</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rendition, relieved to think, finally,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">it was only a song. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Are adults scared of anything? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The house stood empty as the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">day we first moved in, sunlight </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pouring through bare windows, the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">scattered dust of boxes and memories</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">tangible as our shared fear. With nothing but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">our possessions in hand, the future was </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">exposed as truly unknowable as it is;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">our greatest vulnerability revealed as the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">chance merely to influence probabilities,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">weak at that. Stripped down,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">bare as the empty house, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>this is all we are</i>,
we thought,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and it was an unexpected relief. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Adults are scared of almost anything, I thought. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Our childhood fears evolve from imagined </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">beasts and abandonment anxieties </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to the usual cast of unbearable realities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At first fear is imagined, then </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">learned; the deaths of loved ones, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sordid acts of violence, ultimately</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">reducible to simply loss, plain loss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Buddha intoned that life is suffering,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that we might overcome such pain by</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">enlightened detachment, but for all his</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">later incarnations we remain </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">simple peasants of peculiar glory.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Are adults scared of anything? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yes, string bean, we are. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But we endure because of love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, by Martin A.
Bartels (working draft)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">part of my new
collection, “Unlanguage”</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-345714064120215292012-04-02T17:25:00.000-04:002012-04-02T17:25:28.968-04:00The Unbearable Weight of Nothing, Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I thought I had many years to<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">prepare for your major questions:</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Where do babies come from?</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What is the meaning of life?</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dad, may I use the car tonight?</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But at four years old you asked this:</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Are adults scared of anything?</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I had no answer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels</i><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>part of my new collection, "Unlanguage"</i></span></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-12257623058470261472012-03-21T13:32:00.004-04:002012-03-21T13:32:57.204-04:00First Dance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are one hundred and twelve seams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">along the sidewalk on our block, plus</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">twenty eight cracks of varying length and width</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that you tiptoe around, careful not to let loose </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">your spiderweb grasp of my hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Music plays in my mind sometimes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">random and unbidden,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Charlie Parker or Coltrane,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mendelssohn or a rare acoustic set by the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yeah Yeah Yeahs. On a bicycle these</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">same seams bump out the rhythm to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“Maps,” or “Bessie’s Blues.” Then I imagine</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">your wedding reception, our first dance,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you are twirling in our spiderweb grasp, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and I will be careful not to let go again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Part of my new collection, "Unlanguage" </i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-66352606145688591082012-03-13T13:55:00.001-04:002012-05-24T12:33:56.620-04:00At the End of the Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>(Author's note: This poem was first published at</i> <a href="http://ninaalvarez.net/">ninaalvarez.net</a>, <i>as winner of her 5th anniversary poetry contest.</i> <i>Thanks, Nina! And congratulations on 5 great years supporting poetry and poets. —MAB)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A simple place to write with a friendly pub nearby.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Land to grow vegetables and herbs for our evening stew.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A landscape of pasture lands, a river nearby for fish,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the cheap cuts of steer or pig, a plucked chicken</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(save the parts for stock). A cast iron pan. Good wine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A quiet place to read where the land stretches its legs,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">reminds us that we are humbled eternally by grace and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">beauty. To know these moments is our only ambition. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At the end of the day you come home to what you are.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The corporate ladder is climbed primarily to patch walls and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">change light bulbs. The serene young blonde at the corner
bar </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">has aspirations. She will either live them or not, both
results</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">equally poignant. The herons defend their twilight, blue-grey
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">mystics in a perpetual stance of expectation, until their
wings </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">explode in the urgent energy of exploration. Mythic dances </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">unfold unobserved. These are our first angels. The moon in </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">daylight pretends to be a cloud. Nimbus or cumulus, I’m
unsure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In daylight the moon is a won ton, cloud-swallowing
minister,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
the monk who chops wood before and after enlightenment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wood chips on the grill smoke white cloud riffs against the
sky.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The clouds themselves are thin fish bones; sky soup. The
breeze </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">moves through us at the same pace as clouds. The moon </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">remains still. The moon is a skull in this light, not
threatening but </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ponderous. Strange dreams flow out of it that remind you of
the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">long poem by Harrison. The moon in daylight said this to me:
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You are the changing
line in the I Ching symbol that suggests <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>you will be a great
man one day.</i> I am buckled by the notion, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">having no such pretensions. The old man who told me we are </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">born with nothing has it wrong. We come into this world </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">with everything. We leave with everything.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>c. 2012, by Martin A. Bartels. <br />Part of my new collection, Unlanguage</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-72180098319017671602012-03-02T16:10:00.003-05:002012-03-02T16:10:57.825-05:00French Onion Soup<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Light a candle and sip French</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">wine so as not to draw tears</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Slice onions, shallots and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">leeks </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">thin, patient</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so as not to cut fingers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Salt and pepper to balance the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sweet times of life,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugar for the heavy times</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dark broth</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Crusty bread for your soul and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cheese for the pleasure, let it</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">melt inside you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Serve warm in bowls with love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">—from <i>Imagined Recipes
from my Grandmother’s Cookbook</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">c. 2012, Martin A.
Bartels, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">part of my new
collection, ‘Unlanguage’</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820796878382435421.post-58662956320649945422012-02-17T16:51:00.000-05:002012-02-17T16:51:00.431-05:00watch rain turn to snow<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">watch rain turn to snow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as flakes fall they struggle for their</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ephemeral dominance</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as the temperature turns just so</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">they emerge in a slow fall of self-creation</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">quiet seeps from the ground</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">settles within our own cold
atmospheres</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">clouds pause</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>c. 2012, Martin A. Bartels (working draft)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>part of my new collection, "Unlanguage."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martin A. Bartelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11916293996057633175noreply@blogger.com2