Gogyohka 12.20.09

These accumulated over the past week like the snow piled up on the sidewalks in Brooklyn:

Already know I'm back
Go down the stairs
to the train platform
and hear steel drums
playing "White Christmas"

Driving to the airport
we see the border signs
from South to North Carolina
Once in the air
the only lines left are highways

the city street's mood
the moment between two songs
playing on a jukebox
the trash cans are wearing
tall white fur hats

Sneaking out late
Buttoning my coat
and zipping my boots
to wrap myself
in nature's blanket

blowing snow
turns a city night amber
the only sounds
a set of wind chimes
and the old school's industrial heater

This snow!
Fluffing up the spiny branches
and weaving a blanket
to rest in the temporary death
of Winter's sleep

Gogyohka 12.12.09

On the train platform
50 whiskey-breathed Santas
chanting "Ho. HO. HO!"
On the train a prophet--
"When the Word came, it was like a sword..."

the husband stands
in the winter sun
scrooging his face
his wife coos at an infant
down the sidewalk

Collected Gogyohka 12.7.09-12.11.09

Nationalism

New flag
just out of plastic
run straight up the pole
and waving alone
in the winter wind

"He's the kind of guy
who looks at his shoes
when he trips
over his feet."
"Oh yeah?"

Getting
older--
practice
for the moment
ready?

The fracture line
between thinking
and believing
Don't need no flowers
to feel the Spring wind

Climb a tree
when young
to paint the tree
in perspective
then become the tree

In this cold
the sidewalk
looks like
a future chipped tooth
an icicle falling

Another Guest Gogyohka Poet

This one is Peter Fiore, author of the first published collection of American Gogyohka Poetry, Text Messages. Peter has been a wonderful companion on the journey of promoting Gogyohka in this country, and since meeting in October his advice and energy has meant a great deal to me.

[Peter and his granddaughter Linda Fiore, who also writes Gogyohka]

in misty rain
I see my children
looking out the window
waiting
for me to come home

our first time together
I last 3 minutes, you get pregnant
40 years later
we have 7 grandchildren
and live 3000 miles apart

in the morning
we ate apples and cheese
by the river
my children and me
voices rattling like kites

You can read more poems and thoughts by both Peter and Aidu at Gogyohka Junction.

Guest Gogyohka Poet, Aidu Taro

Hi everyone,

If you follow my blog regularly, you remember I posted a poem by Mont. Well, you can call him Aidu now, and here's another Gogyohka I especially like from his English body of work.

after picking white roses
in our small garden
I set them secretly
in my wife’s pillowcase
an evening of May

[a photo Aidu took of a white rose growing in his garden that didn't make it into his bedroom]

You can visit Aidu's blog by clicking from the list on the left. His is called "The Lovely Earth".