CHAOSPOETRY Jeff unglued Jeff unglued

I have just created something
totally illogical...
Am I completely nuts?


Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams











Poets

Poets are nuts
Their shells
broken
scattered
Hard to crack
They beg to be peeled

Jeff Hartzer
1982




FLAMINGOS

There come moments in flight
when you simply forget
when you feel the shifting
a tilt up
a silent slipping
engines throbbing
cotton clouds of cumulous silk
flamingos

There come moments in flight
tray tables locked in their
upright position
when all around you
is silence within yourself
And the fuselage rushing
blasting through thin air
and simple things are a touch away
reading lights beamed on
conditioned air
breathing down
flamingos

There come moments in flight
when you sense how alone you are
amidst Happy Campers
on their way to somewhere
far far away
flamingos

There come moments in flight
when the flaps drop down
and all the world is tilting
tilting steep-edged
toward new realities
and landscapes unknown
flamingos
known too well



Jeff Hartzer
1992


flamingos




FLOORS

In early grades,
especially first and second,
I liked lying on the floor and napping.
The floor was water-heated
and crayons would melt
if you left them there.

There was a contour to the floor,
a flattened shape one could breathe into.
It was a comfort to nap with other children
and a genuinely safe time to rest
with a person, the teacher,
awakening you at a regular time
. There was no idea of intrusion.

There was safety in floors,
water-heated, with blankets,
and we all melted like crayons
into that dusty, pinkish floor;
not unlike the floors of heaven
on a good day.



Jeff Hartzer
1991




JEKYLL ISLAND

Jekyll Island
is a place
on the coast of Georgia
The Atlantic Ocean rolls blue there

Jekyll Island
is the place
where I first saw the boy
The boy who broke through glass


The boy I see run through glass
has screams silenced by distance
He wears bright red blood for a face
That boy is in a hurry to see mother ocean

The boy I see run through glass
knows the pain of breaking through
that mad rush of joy
the distance of mothers

The boy I see run through glass
shatters my sense of peace
That boy teaches me the separation of paths
That boy will never be held back again

The boy I see run through glass
breaks the thin-skinned wall
That boy reaches through to his feelings
That boy breathes the ocean in his blood

The boy I see run through glass
makes a premature leap
That boy is scarred for life
That boy
is stronger than hell



Jeff Hartzer
1982







Jeff Hartzer with Lawrence Ferlingetti
Atlantic Center for the Arts
1984








In a private place of trees

I am alive
for me
and for you
I am alive that I may breathe
and eat sweet cookies
And though
I am not a bird
I am alive that I may fly
to love the art of flying
And love the way
the earth breathes
and is alive
in this private place of trees

I am alive and today
I leave you behind
in all of your private places
while I begin my climb walking right up
through these trees on this rope ladder to the sky
I walk right up
from the arms of this earth
bare tree limbs calling to Spring
I walk right up
from the earth that moves beneath you
like a giant sleeping bear
about to awaken from sleep

I am alive
and I climb right up
from your opened arms
into the breath of this perfect sky

Jeff Hartzer
for Dorothy C. Hartzer
(1925-1995)




Tornadoes

He says
A tornado is coming
I don't see it?
Do you see it?
Let's have a drink

He is crying
He is always crying

A tornado is coming
he says
Do you see it?
Let's have a drink
Get under the stairs
he says
I think he's crazy

A tornado is coming
he says
Let's have a BIG drink
He's crying again
He's always crying

A tornado is coming
and I am the only one who sees it
Why me ?
Always me
I always see it
It is coming across the trees
It is coming across the water
I see it
Can you see it?

A tornado is coming
It is swirling like vinegar in a bottle
It is swirling like water down the drain
It is swirling like a snake under my bed

A tornado is coming
I see it
Why can't you see it?

Look Mom !
Look Dad !
A tornado is coming
Get under the stairs
I'll save you
Can't you see it?
LOOK !
A tornado...

Jeff Hartzer
1982

 

 




October first

brought
the sound
of geese
fifty four
in flying vee

Jeff Hartzer
1981





en route

the sky is dark
over the golden cities
and all is calm
as friends gather
before things
come to an end

in the long run of life
one does not know
the dark side of night
without a tender touch
thrown silently away

far out in the night
a city passes
an ocean awaits

Jeff Hartzer
1998





Halfway up the hill

A giant hawk screams warning
I whistle back
then the dog barks
then the Volkswagen
lies dead in the woods
right there
It happens that way
on Sundays
out walking with God
Then the Volkswagen
lies smashed and dead
papers scattered across the straw
windshields blasted away
and I sit
where it sits
still as death
while my dog walks close
and sniffs and barks
and the sun warms my back
on an October Sunday
when leaves are crimson
more bright than the dead

My life is filled with symbols
and signs
like the dream of thumbs and fingers
Mimi says I need to be touched
Yes I say
Touch me
all you people
Touch me
and my heart will shatter open
like this broken windshield
so very still
so right with the world

And how in the hell did this
stolen heart of a Volkswagen
get up this hill halfway
to this place here
to be dumped lifeless
in the woods
And what's in it for me
where is the sign
what does it all mean
and where'd that hawk go?

Jeff Hartzer
1984







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