BAY AREA POETS SEASONAL REVIEW
Poems 3
Kensho
by Deborah Dallinger (Lafayette)
To breath the breath of every species
I can't improve on silence. A view
so wide, I can't contain.
Fire on the lake, white light
streaming from my eyes;
there was never another destination.
When I saw the monk's eyes turn silver
from sitting and chanting for years,
I knew I wanted to become
a passageway of light,
no dream to follow.
A broom of reeds in both hands,
I sweep the floor and smell
leaves burning in Mexican fields below,
relieved to arrive in my life.
What you give up is everything,
what you become is everyone.
Stock Market
by Jannie Dresser (Crockett)
That one has a limp; this one bolts
in cold weather; others are only skin, bone,
skeletally unsound, at a loss when sold.
For quite a few, banks struck a kind of loan,
making creditors regret before the ink
had dried, before borrowers returned back home.
Just as it all crashed down, the bitter stink
alerted us to tarnished chrome
under chariots of gold. Yet, no rebuke,
our system made complicit every one
who crowded in the stands around the track,
and some fell short, could not see the fun.
Looking overhead, they saw the ceiling crack.
Could sniff the frighted horses, hear the gun.
fall
by lori m. rillera (San Francisco)
the wind shivers the pine needles
from the tree outside my window
inside
i root around my filing cabinets
gleefully tossing
meaningless documents
in the air
old statements
newspaper clippings
sheet music
rough drafts
float for a moment
before drifting down
all around me
i scuff my feet
enjoying the rustle
of the scripts
souvenirs
scraps
i scoop up
my harvest
take it out
to the recycling bin
i see my tree
we wink at each other
Toll Free
by Dale Jensen (Berkeley)
please call toll free
he is waiting for your call
inside a toll booth
that he is locked into
inside his own telephone
where he has to answer
all the time
and he hopes one of these times
you'll sing to him
and he'll be free
