Category: Poem

le claire [street] in june

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Chicago, Gnosis, june, Narrative, Poem, poeme, poetry, summer, TreesLeave a comment

originally published june 17, 2016, revised june 11, 2023

* please visit the website/app Falling Fruit to add a fruiting tree that is located and accessible in the public way to the foraging database for others.

the author’s mulberry-stained fingers

A clear glimpse
A clear thought
on this clear June night

Of age,
and Alzheimer’s
the old-timer’s disease

A clear memory recorded and archived tonight
An acute awareness of myself
tonight, in time and place
a new track to play on loop for a listener in my future life

a husband, friend, or son
a caregiver, a kind one
a visitor, volunteer, or nurse,
a grandson, or maybe — no one

A reddish dog, eating mulberries
from the sidewalk in shadows
Mottled concrete in the dim light of a city street lamp
obscured by the canopy of that beautiful, June, fruit tree

Woody Guthrie, the mulberry forager

A woman, middle aged, seems so young, even a tad pretty, in her mind’s eye now
Stretching her still strong body upward for plump, dark berries
Reaching for branches trimmed too high by the urban foresters
or arborists or surgeons, I forget what they’re called

On her tippy toes
grabbing, pulling, picking
squeezing the dog’s leash between her thighs
don’t let him get loose in the dark, don’t let him get skunked in the dark

a contorted mulberry tree at night, located in a private front yard, but sidewalk spillage is fair game
the same contorted mulberry in Sun’s light: wowowow

Some of the best ones are lost in the awkward tussle
before she can palm them, save them, taste them
She triggers a reverberative rain from boughs on high
That precise, delicate sweetness of the bounty in her mouth

The dog’s belly full of the ripe windfall
sustained by both gravity and this woman
His name was Woody, or Digby, I think
He used to climb into our sleep

Smashed and whole
The street, sidewalk and cars stained
by the impressive purple mess
the dark grass hiding perfect treasures for doves tomorrow morn

She and that dog,
They were urban foragers and gleaners in June.

All month long, her fingertips, feet and lips
tinted with their fuchsia dye, it didn’t even once occur to her to check his paws

A clear, recollection of acute melancholy:
this day — that day was also her son’s birthday //
The first birthday he ever spent away from home, away from her — in Nebraska, or was it Alaska?

That glorious tree, that good dog, that golden boy

an impressive purple mess-feast
i pressed a twig and berries from the Le Claire street mulberry, before I moved to the otherside of the Lake; i used my Chicago Botanic Garden gift shop flower press.
i pressed a twig and berries from the Le Claire street mulberry, before I moved to the otherside of the Lake; i used my Chicago Botanic Garden gift shop flower press.

2023 addendum:

Continue reading “le claire [street] in june” →

for Christi:

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Poem, poet, poetryLeave a comment

inspired, in part, by a poem from Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin :

how can i “calm down” when all i feel is love and rage, when all i experience is beauty and pain/ no in-between / pass the cab and the kettle corn / and if you didn’t want me to opine on fresh-cut flowers and this film — then why, why, why – did you insist that my eyes see them – yes, i know there are flower farms —— but have you heard that pollinators aren’t allowed indoors around vases? it’s none of anyone’s business how many time i’ve seen “Almost Famous!”

yes, i am a mother, and i drink too much wine, sometimes — but he’s in Albuquerque not in a crib in the next room — i wish time travel were true // and other times, wine is not enough to squelch the pangs – of 18 years gone in a flash but thousands of hours wasted on PTA — and fucking homework ! /// i took my kid road-tripping and camping, sent him to the SCA and The Tetons to keep him out of these systems — how many huckleberry milkshakes at the Pioneer Grill does it take to finally see mountains and bears and rivers and trees as real living persons? well, i can actually tell you!

we had our deep talks, but not enough, never — how can time spent philosophizing be measured? in life choices and paths — that’s how. and i’m proud.

can you make a pact with me and promise i’ll never have to eat these words – especially the rants — and when, not if, i say something really wrong — you’ll push bowls of fresh figs and olives in my face to shut me up as a signal? salsa and chips will work too

can i tell you i’m broken without you trying to fix me? can you tell i’m broken — or do i wear it well? do these big feelings make my brain look small?

never stop showing me the radiance of you just because i’m dark — someone has to be the shadow, the mourning veil, the contrarian — and i know i volunteered — a long time ago — but “at some point” i really would appreciate a different assignment?

— by the way, your auras do wonders for this room

you’ll both never not be in cascade canyon with me,

[ever]

it was

fated,

serendipity.

unseen

On By ©️K.T. 2026In PoemLeave a comment

i woke to the voices of unseen crows at 3:03 ante meridiem

crying out, cawing out

i know the voices of my dear familiars,

and this is unnatural and unsettling

unsettling an already-unsettled human woman

these crows see me unsettled on my feet

the gods see me unsettled in my dreams

crying out, calling out in my wilderness

i sit here in this dark room in my white chair by this open window looking south into the black night

Continue reading “unseen” →

stop praying for what you want

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Death, exposition, Life, Life and Death, limineen, Poem, poetryLeave a comment

the birds’ choir
is a mockery outside my window, eight different species on the sill — eight — for gods’ sake!


these days when the
Sun’s arc is long
and the soil is warming for the season — and permanently

i am in my bed with lead bones
annoyed that i woke up again, and guilty with an ungratefulness about it


my steady lament is sung out loud — but still unheard
i counted my mistakes like sheep, to sleep again
they didn’t wander away though
they stay close to their shepherd, always


they say Death comes in threes and that’s true
but it still hasn’t chosen me
instead, conscripting two complacent men, known to me, thirty-six, fifty three, in one week’s time — why?
while i’m out here volunteering for the cause
it cruelly searches elsewhere to complete their trio


of course i’m still fucking here!
the gods won’t give you what you pray for!

courage, love, fidelity, life, death

they’re full of motherfuckery
they know exactly what i — and what you, want most — of all

so they sent these birds here to taunt me


so they keep me here to taunt you

Continue reading “stop praying for what you want” →

soul mate

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Poem, poemo, poetryLeave a comment

sit with me, straddle me
don’t say a word
hear my heart with your heart
let mine hear yours

look at me, into me
like a Magic Eye
until the real me comes into your focus
our definitions no longer concealed

listen to me, read me
my words are my knowable mind
come, know what i know
and be known by me

lay on top of me
our mouths open
breathe me in slowly and deeply
let my pneuma impregnate you

i want to make you the father of my art

i want to be the mother of yours

Her

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Lajuana Lampkins, PoemLeave a comment

for

Lajuana Lampkins

Portrait of The Artist in her pink chair.
“I 👁️♥️U”

the volume of love, tenderness, peace, comfort, safety, and security

that she so profoundly deserves

might never be offered in the sustained abundance

requisite

for her to heal

from our

sins against her and hers,

our sins, once or twice removed, from us — or so we proudly imagine//

we failed her and hers — over and over again

in our refusal to just stop

in our refusal to just start

in our refusal to just not

so her and hers’ trauma untreated became epigenetic, chronic, lethal

her sorrow and rage manifest in righteous and rightful litanies against our society, our systems, and the falseness of our lives //

because of us, because of the world we’ve built, maintain or co-sign for privilege

her and hers’ lives remain

unfair
unstable
unsafe

un “forfilled”

she has not for one single moment stopped working and fighting to live and thrive for her and hers

ease, rest and respite are not her companions

her pursuit for her and hers truth and justice — and for universal justice and truth is unrelenting and well-beyond humbling //

let none of us proclaim her “strong” or “survivor” — those titles are unwanted blood medals forced around her neck standing atop a podium made of her ancestors’ and son’s bones and of her own

she is more,

so very much more,

more

than her 66 year-long sentence of struggle, more than this 404 year-long American genocide and apartheid

she is an activist, a mother-warrior, a revolutionary

but

all she ever wanted was to be

a baby, a child, a daughter, a sister, a woman, a mother, a lover, a friend, an aunt, a grandmother, an artist, a poet, a writer, a philosopher, a scientist, an historian, a teacher, an advocate, a protector, a provider,

and

to be human

to be human

to be human

the same,

no less, no more

just human

like you

like me

like Her.

Continue reading “Her” →

Dream Gerund: being

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Derivate Works, exposition, Poem, Poem for Poet, poemo, poet, poetryLeave a comment

Arte Digitora derived from the poems: “On Doing” & “Dream Gerund”

On Doing

I have a compulsion to do.

But sometimes/often just want recline.

And the softness [and] of being. Pulled tight into a cocoon & the doing hushed out of me and filled with prairie definitions.

My untold untyped Great/lake fantasies.

Fallen grass tufts and waterproof boot slosh and plant names and hours of dendrochronology with fantas/tical idealized notions of rubbing and human collision, of being.

July nothingness would be a dream come true I close my eyes to it and do and do and do.  

~ juggernaut

On July 19, 2022, upon noting the correspondence between the words “doing”, “being” and “dream” in the above poem and the published poem “Dream Gerund” both written by the same poet — I created a digital derivative work – works which I now refer to by the neologism that I conceived:

Arte Digitora.

a digital derivative work (Arte Digitora) created on July 19, 2022 from shared media of the poem “On Doing” and photoshopped with digital photos of printed text from two poems by the same author published in memotoallemployees, 1995)
Continue reading “Dream Gerund: being” →

the May plow

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, Hospice, Poem, poetry, spring, telepathy, wildlifeLeave a comment
the beautiful spring day that the fields are first plowed for the season is heartrending
the privacy, peace and space that non-human animals had on the barren 80 acres for the last six months is gone within minutes and hours

on the day they plow
the fields clear of last year’s stover
i stay quiet and invisible, indoors

there is a seen and unseen frantic attempt at evacuation, an exodus of

snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, rabbits, moles, voles, possums, weasels, marmots, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, mice, rats,

evicted without notice, again

geese and sandhill crane nests destroyed

over-wintered graves defiled

and newly-born deer crushed, plowed over and under

/this destruction, all,

for corn to fatten-up confined and tortured

pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, salmon, catfish, tilapia

for human appetite, gluttony/

death eaters!

if i just stay quiet,
quieter than the snake and mole i saw yesterday,
if i just stay inside, unseen, all day ‘til Sun’s set, like the possum i saw last night,
then kin may seek refuge, find sanctuary here

to catch their breath

some of us have forgotten that they too breathe

and feel fear,

and scream, wail, and mourn

run!!! come, run here!!!
stay right here, please, the roads to west and south also bring death!

i put all my faith into telepathy today

the gulls arrive
chasing and taunting the tractor driver,

he’s no farmer
his hands literally never touch soil or seed

a machine operating a machine guided by satellite

if only the gulls or crows would pluck out his eyes when he dismounts

if only, i would.

Continue reading “the May plow” →

vow

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Poem, poetryLeave a comment

and one way to manage

to preserve Their urbane marriage

was to vow to make me vanish

from Him – my face, my voice, my poems, banished

“fo-cus!!!

We’re off to Berlin — and Paris!”

but here i Am—- still

full of wild

&

full of warning:

that no matter how far They may travel

She knows He dreamt me in Her stead

so, i live inside Her head,

beyond Her dark, raccoon and vacant eyes

inside Their stale and fresh, new lies

shadowing Their past and future skies

Continue reading “vow” →

the falls

On By ©️K.T. 2026In exposition, Poem, poemo, poetry, waterLeave a comment

in the rearview mirror
i see it was a gift
an impromptu roadside picnic
a rendezvous along a fast-flowing river

we slip into a raft, built for two, gently floating,
taking turns describing what we see, feel/who we are/
entering rapids, our hearts racing, ceaseless throbbing/
then paddling furiously, having to steer/
and suddenly, the fear

nearsighted, you caught a life ring, rescuing yourself on a familiar and safe shore/
i stayed aboard and roared toward the falls
alone,
extending the ride, the adventure, the hope of it, all/
forcefully plummeting and suddenly submerged into dark and powerful waters

because,

Continue reading “the falls” →

un/rest

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Poem, poetryLeave a comment

am i seeded
or buried

forest floor or headstone above me?

the distant daffodils,
stoic sentries, craning for Sun

at the edge

offer no answer/s to my dark, muffled query

germination and decomposition

indistinguishable,

in the beginning

indistinguishable,

at the ending

in Spring’s cold soil

shaded,

unrelentingly,

by clouds or canopy.

palm sunday : hosanna in the highest

On By ©️K.T. 2026In Lent, Poem, poet, poetry, SundaysLeave a comment

sometimes i touch my own face
with my palm
to remember
that i am also soft

& Holy

Hosanna in the highest, truest Light of Self.

"The triumph of the Light before its obscuration is an expression of the divine, royal Selfhood within each one of us, that is so powerfully obscured by mundane and conventional reality. There are times when we want so badly for that light to shine out of us, for it to be recognized by the world. When the only vehicle for expression is the ego-personality our strivings to be seen are usually in vain. Personality actually comes from the Greek “persona” meaning “mask.” While in this terrestrial incarnation, we are like the Count of Monte Cristo in The Man in the Iron Mask; our behavioral gyrations and efforts to have others recognize our light only serve to convince them that we are egotists, madmen or charlatans. Often we create a false glamour that is not our true Self; we put on an entertaining song and dance act; we live a lie and shine forth a false light: or we simply forget about our light and live our lives as if it had never been.
When we are not anxiously attempting to show forth our light, we are often acting in fear of the consequences of letting our light shine. We either turn down our light or turn it off completely, so that we might pass unseen through this world. Yet, “Within a man of light, there is light, and he lighteth up the whole word. If he does not shine, he is darkness.” This is the sham, the cover up, that we are either parading a false light or hiding our light beneath a bushel. The issues are not safety or creative self-expression, the core issues are authenticity and consciousness. We must be conscious of who we really are as spiritual beings and not let either fear or love of the world pervert or hide the authenticity of our own true Self.”

- excerpted from the Homily for Palm Sunday
by Reverend Steven Marshall, 
Ecclesia Gnostica, Gnosis.org

and regarding charity, saviorism, law, justice and martyrs:

Continue reading “palm sunday : hosanna in the highest” →