Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Horizontal Bopping



image borrowed from bing


Horizontal Bopping

“Each of us can manifest the properties of a
field of consciousness that transcends space,
time, and linear causality.”--Stanislav Grof

Life is linear,
with inception as crowned vanguard,
& deterioration as

destination, creating a
vibrant colorful mosaic, a throbbing
kaleidoscope, a series 

of devious gilded
dust bunnies, kenneled in brass
pots, tucked under

beds, stacked in 
teetering tall piles in the
corner, hidden in

closets, sequestered in
broken shoe boxes, saved in
forgotten family albums,

treasured within folds
of red velvet, gift-wrapped tightly
in tissue paper.

***********************

Death is the
impudent speck of counterpoint, egress
as extinguishment, our

imminent arrival at
Critical Mass, having traveled inexorably
from birth of

a planet to
the death of a star;
the magical transition

another face, a
different roof, a parallel dimensional
 and domicidal shift 

with different doorways 
for each of us, windowless,
wiped of numerals.

*****************************

Death as lover
lies with mold on bread crust,
with the fish

on dirty ice,
with bloody steaks piled up
neatly in shrink--

wrapped pinkish lines,
with the flowers cut and
ready to wither,

with the polished
color-injected fruit placed perfectly
in supermarket bins;

everything waiting for
the passionate embrace of many
mouths, mighty molars

reducing it to
grist, paste, & slivers before
rot robs its

beauty, rendering it
sustenance for carrion, for pets,
whose alimentary components

are impervious to
the several varieties of carcinogens
deep within it;

harbored, hidden, but
obviously still a beast at
bay, restrained, tethered,

muzzled, yet never
eradicated, excommunicated, banished, forsaken, broken
beyond its voracity. 


Glenn Buttkus

February 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets OLN

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?




17 comments:

Susan Daniels said...

Glen--this is incredible. Love especially part 3, so gritty, grainy, and real.

Anonymous said...

What a journey this collection of lunes takes us on! Enjoyed this rich feast for eyes, mouth, ears and mind.

Unknown said...

This is amazing work Glen, vivid imagery and rhythm, this really popped out at me:

destination, creating a
vibrant colorful mosaic, a throbbing
kaleidoscope

A great write!

Brian Miller said...

nice man...great intensity to the last one of this series...the textures...mold with lover in the same line...dang....death will always be....until it is not...

alan1704 said...

Great mixture of feeling and emotions in a journey of images. I like this a lot

Unknown said...

Death. The final frontier.

Tashtoo said...

Your finish is delivered as a killing blow! It is the third that sweetens it most for me...not that all aren't fantastic...but we all have our ways ;)

Grace said...

Lovely lune poems ~ I specially like the take on death as a magical transition and as a lover ~ Superb lines here Glenn ~

Stan Ski said...

Oi! Spot on...!

Unknown said...

"From the birth of a planet to the death of a star" - favorite line in this. It makes me think of what each of those would look like and what it would mean on a personal level (I'm an astronomy fan) You write some of the most beautiful poetry - I don't always quite understand the meaning every single time but I always appreciate the incredible depth of your words

S.E.Ingraham said...

Had the time so listened to this one and confess, your words sound wonderful rolling off your tongue - you have a quality to your voice very suited to the mic...that being said, the poem itself is very good -- so many strong images, all of them vivid; I think I may be coming back to re-read this but that's not unusual with your poems ... they tend to stick in my mind ... nice.

http://aleapingelephant.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-trees-stand-watch_26.html

Truedessa said...

Hi, this is really a great piece woven with lines of darkness. A lot to digest some great imagery and word selection.

mrs mediocrity said...

This has fabulous tension building up all the way to the finish... Powerful, visceral imagery that delivers truth. A great poem.

Claudia said...

heck.. powerful images glenn..and oh how i wished that life was linear...mine never seems to be ya know...smiles

Marina Sofia said...

What a contrast between the abstract ideas and the dust bunnies, the philosophical concepts and bread mould, the beauty of the universe and the broken shoe boxes. The sublime and the mundane. Great bopping indeed!

lucychili said...

fierce story of life and death.
gilded dust bunnies made me laugh, but the impudent speck of counterpoint made me think of lady macbeth's "out damn spot".
windowless, wiped of numerals is strong.
death as lover is a brutal kind of grace as we return our gift to source . for integrated life beyond the self

Tess Kincaid said...

This might be your finest work, Glenn.