Today’s poems are by Basho, Kobayashi and Gary Snyder
email: p3podcast@mac.com
Episode 13c: 5 Haiku
5 Haiku:
stem to stem and cell
to cell able only to
replicate itself
scorching like the sun
the day I’ve lived to love you
rotund and yellow
her long coming cries
like a stem against the wind
a soft bent body
fast asleep as weeds
wilted in the dawning dark
cold before the sun
left unwittingly
on the altar of my life
carving out my eyes
–
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phone: 70 425 Poems
Episode 13b: Poetfade, Podfade and the Dangers of the Trade
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phone: 70 425 Poems
Episode 13a: Nothing Twice
Today’s poem is “Nothing Twice” by Wislawa Szymborska
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phone: 70 425 Poems
Episode 12c: Prologue
With a prick, it begins.
A needle struck in the neocortex
or misfiring neuron, which sees
at first the disk of the sun,
the lunar surface,
water roiling down hills,
the shape of a well-worn pebble
slid easily off on its own.
And so bangs one thought against another.
Wood to stump, stone on stone,
all day in the sweet pearl of the sun
setting about to make things loop and roll.
It begins with a prick.
A spark in the neocortex
or misstruck neuron, firing, what
could be called a birth defect
that sets us off, on this path.
Fire was a gift.
A strike picked from the embers
of a spent forest. Not a leap
to keep that branch alive,
pass it down through generations,
heirloom, song, olympic birthright.
It was right to keep the cave warm,
nothing needed be reshaped.
But to so bang one against another.
To shape the sun, stone to stone,
all day catching quick sparks
on the hairs of heavy arms.
In the end, the prick wins.
While others drug family about
on long hides, grunting and sweating,
the one with the rough round thoughts
rolled easily over the flat plain,
and at night, in the face of the saved fire
had gas left to paint the trek in ink,
in mud easily on the walls.
–
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phone: 70 425 Poems
Episode 12a: Beauty for Beauty’s Sake
Today’s Poem is In a Jon Boat During a Florida Dawn by David Bottoms
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phone: 70 425 Poems
