Sleepless Night In Stockton

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  • Devotion

    Sleepless Night In Stockton


    1.

    After work in America

    in traffic

    the rush

    the noise

    the smog

    the elements of urbanization

    digested as a I drive

    and sullen I arrive

    slip into my apartment

    precision an about-face

    and bolt in place

    number-Twelve door shut

    out the world

    a world of worlds

    weaving in wrangled

    star-spangled waste

    whirlin’ and churnin’ in

    a self-destructive celebrated way

    out the quagmire of

    civil-I-zation

    rush hour

    road-rage

    flip-me-off

    bullshit

    intoxicated and nauseated

    by the animated

    absurdities of it.



    No child smiles flutter lovingly

    arms racing ahead of them

    to affectionately embrace me home.

    Only the split-second entry

    vacuum of variable musty

    silence’s say: HELLO.

    Then all of a sudden

    as if by a push of an invisible button

    resonates it’s fate once more:

    This sorry sigh of resignation,

    truly I abhor.



    2.

    And now

    I filter into unwinding

    easing these insensitive

    ribbon strands

    of twitchin’ glands

    varieties of mind-blowin’

    soul-suckin’

    spirit-chompin’

    anxieties

    plopped out on a couch

    in this sublime rhyme

    of coagulated time

    de-polorized in a hapless

    humorless

    hermitic pose,

    self-imposed by whimsical desire

    I suppose.



    3.

    And now

    in the heat of night I articulate

    a winding road of prose

    paved with deep fried

    figments of imagination

    drawn from a cauldron

    bubblin’ in my stupored sanity

    where scattered embers of reality

    melodramatically

    gyrate

    irate

    in the echoing forest

    of my inquisitiveness .



    4.

    For now

    for the tick-tock being

    I whirl

    unfurl

    in this empirical space

    hollowed in grace

    for this Is

    the way of existencia

    the truth my friend

    as is should be

    as is meant to be

    this place

    this center

    of my world

    a spot

    a dot

    like nowhere else

    for the tick-tock being

    in this whole vast

    unchained universe

    my world is here.

    So I

    unwinding

    cherish my soul

    so as not to perish from

    these incandescent

    meticulous

    melancholy moments

    soothing this bronze mechanism

    of my cosmic conscious being

    as my translucent thoughts

    unravel

    travel

    across borders of imagination

    and journey into thorny

    thickets of perennial poetic hours

    bloomin’ brilliant

    like shades of wild flowers

    silences irrevocably

    lonely

    yet lovely

    lovely to their very cores

    lovely as waves splash

    a lonely islands shores

    regions rich and ripe to explore

    but only yours-truly there may soar.

    5.

    And I transfix

    void of tricks

    and soar-----wing

    soar-----wing,

    and nobody talks trash

    and no phone rings

    shing-a-ling

    shing-a-ling

    and no amor sings:

    Love love me do.



    6.

    Unamused

    but not confused

    dedicated I transfuse

    into fuses of San Joaquin

    cool Delta breezes

    bleeding profusely

    through kitchen screen

    gently on me

    and pitter-patter poignantly

    plastic blinds

    like chimes

    and sequestered here

    most definitely

    but not vividly I see

    the years

    Fifty:

    bounced

    cruised

    crashed

    and in this solitude

    with gratitude and fortitude

    I remember

    my grandparents

    father

    mother

    relations

    homies

    alive in photos

    thumb-tacked

    taped

    packed-on

    DON’T FORGET US walls

    Who congregate

    celebrate

    in heavens hallowed halls

    who joyfully converse

    in golden silent verse

    who dance tiptoe

    on rose petal plains

    Yaqui angels

    swarm like cranes,

    Who knew

    Them?

    Their struggles

    their insanities

    their dreams

    their sorrows?

    their lifetime-agos

    dreamed-for

    labored-for

    prayed-for

    better-tomorrows

    never in their

    dimensions fulfilled?

    Them

    their hopes and phantasms

    Them

    indigenous rightful

    landlords of this soil

    Them

    exploited

    thwarted,

    who struggled

    celebrated

    prisms of tradition

    and cried tears of dignity

    and died

    warriors

    revolutionaries

    railroad

    dishwasher

    field

    cannery hands

    barbers

    butchers

    artists

    musicians

    carpenters

    tune-up kings

    chicken pluckers

    agriculture queens

    herb runners

    locos and locas

    juicers and outlaws

    farmers

    charmers

    nickel and dimers?



    7.

    And now

    One- two- three

    Yes

    I am perplexed

    And yes

    still I wrestle

    a desperate battle

    with the spirits to inquire

    to inspire

    to address this nonsense

    and the rest

    and my simple thoughts

    find themselves

    in travail and

    pow-wow in circles

    in the wombs of their thunder

    and meander

    twigs down

    sacred crimson rivers

    flowing with age

    searchin’

    searchin’

    searchin’

    always searchin’

    and the spirits responses

    wade in glitters of shimmerin’

    reflections of splendor

    and wonder:

    Not yet for you to know.



    8.

    And now

    I explore above the heights

    a hawk and circle

    fields of the variety

    the make-up

    the essences

    Of who I AM

    Of what I AM

    Of where I AM

    Of why I AM



    A Yaqui/Tarascan

    maneuvering in this

    reservation of modern-I-zation

    everyday a battle

    everyday a struggle

    everyday a warrior.

    For who I am

    has not

    can not

    shall never

    by the world be conquered

    for this is inherently

    in me

    a cosmic impossibility

    a dreamer

    descendent of a dream

    from long windin’

    ancestral stream

    of all but forgotten

    ancient crossings .



    9.

    In retrospect

    I detect

    a wee-bit

    isolated conflict:

    Oh! What a crazy life!

    Rollin-rollin-rollin’

    keep them fires burnin’ AHO!



    10.



    And now

    the sun rises

    bright bold

    above a naked flagpole

    it’s glow melts the sky

    a pretty shade of flame

    fingers through

    the window pane

    caresses my face

    swallows the moon

    and glittering robe of stars

    and the Delta breezes

    cease to bleed

    and although dawn

    spawns tranquil

    sweet

    invigorating

    alive

    my eyes

    care less

    weigh a ton and flutter

    like hummingbird wings

    and my hued

    cosmic conscious being

    implores

    requires

    repose

    and this beautiful morning

    I’ll nap away

    ride a spotted winged pony

    across dream world plains.



    And now I do

    what I do

    hold back that

    no storm

    ravages or savages

    introspective

    reflective

    twin mirrors

    of my soul

    but in the hollows

    of my battered

    bruised

    betrayed

    bronzed heart

    RAINS FIRE!



    11.

    Quiet

    subdued

    but not unglued

    humbly I say

    these words to THEE:

    I sing

    I pray

    my pen shall bring

    to wing

    simple understanding

    that the world may know

    we may remember

    we passed these roads

    these codes

    these loads

    we lived Aho!





    12.

    So now

    I shut the blinds

    cozy-up on the couch

    turn the FM on low

    catch some z’s.

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    NayInLove commented on Sleepless Night In Stockton

    02-16-2009

    Too many cliches..

    manny

    10/10/2010

    Thank you for your comment, but I am not looking here for anyone's input just sharing for I have my books reviewed here and abroad. My mentor is a translator for a polish poet who won the Nobel Prize back in the 1980's, so I am pleased that their are people who appreciate my work. Have a good day.

    dahlusion commented on Sleepless Night In Stockton

    02-15-2009

    Nice idea, but "way too long" and cram'd with over-worked cliches. Reads like a dictionary, or a confused Bob Dylan on espresso.

    Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.

    T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-English poet and playwright.

    manny’s Poems (6)

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