Force of Nature

[Lightning Rod]

I make nature out of my mind
the forces are all at my command
earthquake and hurricane and tornado
and warmth and gentle breeze
but I don't care about the weather
or Mount St. Helens or fractured rhapsodies
nature graces my shoulders
I am just as I should be, enamored
crazed with wind and hailstones
the scratch of crickets, the buzz of malaria
nature my servant and adversary
seeds sprout and forests burn
but nature is my lover serene
a stream flowing or the texture of moss.
She steals and remembers
I imagine her to be feminine
because she can't make up her mind.

MY
Type
writer
I
S
A
Force
of Nature

I don't fall
f
o
r
alphabet tricks

An IBM selectric
is not poetry

and nature
doesn't care
about all the Zen bullshit
in the world within or without

I can play
intricate
intricks

A
N
D

S
O
L
V
E

all your problems

with nature and

my typeriter zen suspicion

who knows if I'm

a leper or a leprechaun

but I'll match my Remmington

against your IBM any day

I
T's
A
F
O
R
C
E

of nature


illegibility is a condition of nature
it's hard to read the thickness of a locust's wing
the crow of morning and the chirp of dusk
let the letters fly amok
let the crabgrass grow
and the rain come down
I'll cover your lilly with my perspiration
and pant into the deepest part of your flower
it's in my nature, dear.

[Les S. Amore]

Forces

There are forces, I'm
not talking powers and principalities
here, no. But there are forces larger than instinct.

Loyalty or resolve doesn't matter
in the face of these forces.
They are larger than the weather
or corporations or political parties.

These forces are vague as sunspots
and engulf entire planets
in storms of mood or madness
desire or conquest, peace or repose.

These forces are so large we breath them like the air.
They cross all categories, are vast and distinct.
They are the tears, the sweat, the farts of gods
the jealousy and the ambition of gods.

If I were omniscient I would still have to take out the trash.
It's in the order of things, too large to understand,
like the breath of the universe or the blueness of the sky.

we cannot master these forces, they prevail like gravity intact.
Physics that we fail to understand. Mighty and miniscule.
Ravens in rapture gliding into their native blackness,
These powers like pawns queened and gilded.

The forces rule us,
the forces beyond our control
larger than the economy or the price of oil
larger than generations, epochs or eras.
not panic nor plague nor earthquake compare
with these forces
these forces.