perpetual jam!!!!!!!!!

[WIREMAN]

What was I thinking"
Robots read
Wondering
Just how many rounds do they make
Laffin n jammin
Jammin n laffin
Puff lived by the sea
Oh say can you?
Haven't seen a seagull in weeks
Months
Infested my Baltimore life
But that was long ago
Where next
What else
Movement
Always an adventure
Museums just about done
Falls in the air
Poetry is about all there is here
Jammin is just about dead
Stick a fork in it
See what I mean?

[the mingo]

mind seems dull
or spirit is
no traffic at this hour
another anonymous driver
hit the bridge railing
again last night
WHAM !
more noise than i'm getting
out of myself lately
i'd jam but nothing
i mean nothing
is cooperating
nothing flowing except
the river

[WIREMAN]

Just can't force words
They just come from
A place where the
Darkness meets the light
On the fringe
In the shadows
Where wild things roam
O say can you see?
Here a flash
There an inspired flow
Sometimes sizzling
Oozing like when you
Tear your guts out
Could be inspired
Or from some deep
Down ire
Come on light my fire
Wanna take it higher
Yeah that's what I desire

[the mingo]

rain on the plateau
all day -
all last night too
the river carries
many leaves seaward
on its current today -
my jeans uncomfortable
i need expandable pants
just saw some bubbles
break the river's surface
i need bubbles too -
hunting first thoughts
is netting me some strange quarry today
if i were in paris
i fear it wouldn't
go any better for me -
i just imagined nikola tesla
as a poet -

[WIREMAN]

River run smooth
River run deep
Run you river....run
Read....read...and more read
It's amazing, I didn't for years
Except poetry and eastern studies
Deep into Dogen
A soto monk like Ryokan
But way before in 1200's
A great contradictor
Like Henry Miller
Really dug your Ryokan poem
Read it on AT too
You got em in you
Basho too
And Ikkyu for sure
How could I forget Han Shan
The man that showed me the plan
Red pines translation amazing
Stonehouse a wonder, probably
Gonna breathe him in again soon
Dada
Surreal
Beat
Shelley....Keats.....Byron....Coleridge....
It goes on and on
Lew Welch....Gary Snyder .....Ferlinghetti....
Emily....Mina Loy ....Arthur Cravan
Now there's one for the ages
He even fought jack Johnson
Take me to the river
Wash me down
By that river I shot her down
Shot her down

[the mingo]

threatening rain up here
that time of year
my first ever Tug Hill autumn
subtle difference than down by the lake
Lew Welch comes to mind
this @ quarter to five in the morning
sunday - neighbors be going to church
younger couple
- by younger i mean
in their late thirties -
involved in the church
they will be gone all day
i got my own church
here by the river
Spirit got me moving
out on the water
or up on the road
Lew Welch - people that up
and walk off either to disappear
or reinvent themselves
catching my attention lately
Basho walking all over Japan
him not the only one
looking for inspiration
looking for haiku
to be that dedicated to the art
shit - here i am sitting here
if my health continues good
who knows what will happen
sometimes i see myself
just taking off and biking across
the Adirondacks
all the way to Burlington Vermont
Hell yeah, Burlington !
Hell yeah, Lew Welch !

[WIREMAN]

Yeah, just take off
Read about Arthur Cravan
Another who just disappeared
Some think he became B. Traven
Author of the treasure of Sierra madre
Burlington, looks so cool by that lake
A college town too
It's a place I've thought of retiring to......

[WIREMAN]

Floating off
Fluffing floss
Futile
Furtive
Forestry pavilion
Paloma Picasso
Purchasing agent
It goes on and on
Darkness comes too soon
Irradiated
Appropriate assumption
Function at the junction
Psychedelic shack
Bombers
Buttressed butt heads
These things that come to mind
A jam mix
She got her toe nails done
laughter in the hall

[judih]

when there's nothing to say
dreams do the talking
building refuge out of canvas
getting the swing for oncoming earthquake
all neighbours show their faces
some mute, some smug
some ignore the point

[saw]

today is the day
I'm a gumby bendable
a rubber snake, off
in the prevailing wind,
i'm the little lebowski
abiding like a dude
why make something
out of nothing, life
is a snapped finger
vamoosed ...
a startled woodchuck
in the firewood pile, gone
like the breeze from a tail fin
on an old caddy,
so love yourself baby
it's okay to relax, you
deserve a day without an agenda
or two or three or four more
kiss that exquisite face in the mirror
today is the day

[WIREMAN]

My day is Sunday
No rodbustin patch
To play in
How the hell I do this shit
After 43 years....I dunno
I do abide
Dudes and Dudettes
How do ya doodlie do?
Grandpa used to say
Its one of the few things
I remember bout him
He died in 1956
I remember the smell of old books
The man was a reader
So was my dad
He was a writer too
Like all us here
He'd a loved having a putter
The man lived in libraries
He died in '88 though
Steak salad night
Screwdriver too
Maybe three
Cool evening
Lovin it

[saw]

no carpentry work
boss wants us to tie some steel
me and bobby in february
there is ice on the corrugated deck
we're supposed to punch holes
run the tie wire in and out
twist the spool, fasten the rebar
never liked commercial work much
prefer building homes
but what ya gonna do, at least
the foreman has us making some
do-re-me, but our hands are frozen
our gloves are torn, we twist that wire
we dream of a wood fire, a stiff drink
a hot woman, twisting that wire
zen slaves making a buck, it's so
fucking cold, my friends, my family
don't understand how they can ask a man
to work outside, so I tell them it's up to me
I can quit any time I want, but I like to eat
too much, so we twist the wire, grab the steel
duck into bobby's VW bus at lunch
grab the thermos, let the camper run
for 30 minutes, the heater ain't for shit
but it's something, my toes sting
my fingers ain't ready, but lunch is over

[WIREMAN]

So right
So right
Ya have a choice
But you man up
And stay
200 dollar boots
And hand warmers
Enable me to survive
Maybe it's the Viking in me
I survive
It's hard
But so's the heat
In fact it's inescapable
Right now is perfect
Even in the morn
Damn bees are the problem
Especially near a trash box
Another long winter ahead of us
I'm a hangin

[the mingo]

guy i work with,
the landlord's nephew,
had the day off today
to go down to the VA prosthetic chop shop
to pick up his leg that's been in for repairs
so i have a slack day
which is ok by me
i'm retired
still have to work
but not long
and not hard
so on slack days
it's coffee & words & paint & music
some jazz now with
shafts of sunlight thru overcast sky
the river's water rising
made dark from last night's rain

[judih]

one man's leg
dry cleaned and ready
another's joy