Body and Soul

 

Throw caution to the wind in the house of blue lights

The minstrel show of the mind

Cut loose the white body of the Jew

Loose as a goose and all that jazz

No burlesque dancer strips

Sharpening focus

Look at her tits!

When I take off my glasses to see

Kaleidoscopically me

Teasing tea trees

To don their leaves

Brew and mellow without ceremony

Or cacophony of emotions in angst

Stepping out of line along the river banks

Rafting the Han’s jagged waters

Over dams and falls needing portage

To reach the strait in one piece

When there are so many parts of me

That can float independently

Where I am the audience, not the performer

Not the audience either

As we meld into one

Unwritten massage in cityscape noir

Body and soul

August 28, 2020

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Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved 

Don't Get Fooled Again

 

See live first rendition here

There is violence in the streets

With the children on their feet

The idols that were worshiped all are gone

The party on the left

Is startling the right

There is no use in talking in this fight

Like birds and fish, we have no resolution

We lost our homes to the new prostitution

Can’t swim or fly in the rain going down

Hiding for another day

Won’t make it go away

Better fight back now and stay

Don’t get fooled again! *

August 25, 2020

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(Sung to the tune of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who)

waiting on you-all

Live rendition of first reading

divvy up time and life will accrue

the days will march past

weeks and months

all march past

each in its own time

each at its own pace

redeeming itself when it is due

there is a swim in the pool

a nap on the cot

lunch with the wife

whether it is healthy or not

a walk to this spot under the rainbow bridge

as the Han River passes within my reach

i have a pen

i have a book

and i have a stool

i take in the sights

leaving some slack

for when surprises arise

to get off the track

when windless clouds motionlessly wait for a painter

anybody with an easel and brush

and unwaving tall grass

unbent by birds

On the edge of the frame

staying the same

around the landscape

the river remains

running, running, running, running

the river remains running

my parched mouth gets

wetted, wetted, wetted

oh so

stunning, stunning, stunning.

August 24, 2020

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Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved 

Don't Take The Shooting Stars

See Live Rendition Here

I sit in a slight drizzle of passing clouds

Being dragged along on the tail of a typhoon

That is passing through the Taiwan Strait

Starting from the north-western tip of the Philippines

Heading over the Penghu archipelago

And eventually to China.

Above the clouds lie meteorite debris

Through which the Earth will pass.

Somewhere above is bright starlight

So don't take the shooting stars at night.

When perfect conditions arise,

Like stars did in the heart you left behind,

Abandoned on a moving train.

On the empty seat of a ticketed traveler,

A space that time will fill,

As sure as the river flows and

Heats into clouds that cover Perseid showers.  

The next time we spin its way.

One universe,

One water,

On bi-cycles of the planet

Not made to order

For my or anyone’s pleasure,

But true to itself with or without witness,

The tropical depression from beyond the broad horizon

Infinitely timed,

Precisely or not.

when rain drops fall, 

Am I unconcerned? 

Not at all,

But full of joy

Despite what I missed;

Perhaps next year another chance at bliss. 

August 11, 2020

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Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved 

Look Up

Live Rendition of "Look Up"

The universe ★ expanding forever

Collapsing ten thousand ❂million years ago

Re-collapsing ✵ten thousand million years✹ from now

So let us not be ✬worried

If we have not colonized ۞beyond the sun

We will have died out✷

Extinguished ⭐along with it

Let us get together  ✰ 

Right down **✧*here

And extinguish our colonial past

Take the first step★

Look up⍣

To the best* meteor *shower * around

On a mountain top  ✰            

Above pollution

In the pre-dawn hours✦☆ of an August dog day     

As the Earth passes through comet debris

Lay on an outspread blanket☪

🌠
Watching the universe expand

Why?☆

Because mathematics cannot handle infinite numbers

And we can travel beyond the stars.

Once we hijack the starship🌠

It will be ours

As it was and it shall be🌠

We can roll with it

Breathe in🌠 and breathe out

Until we meet again ✯in another land

No longer strangers on the road we are on

No longer🌠 being two, but being one*

Think of stars 🌠tonight

No more moon shadows

In the ethereal starlight

August 4, 2020

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A Separate Peace

There is no one around but me

To hear the Han flow downstream

Over rocks it slips and falls

With nobody here at all

To see the tall grass sway southerly

In a counterclockwise breeze 

From an eastern typhoon out at sea

It is not worth mentioning

Those bulky clouds under gossamer skies

Through azure patches reflecting my eyes

The astral realm where consciousness resides

When books of summer are left home

With muted volume on the phone

Must be my lot in life

Nature and a wife

Alone to see the way it feels

When thoughts remain still

And fulfillment is fulfilled

August 2, 2020

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Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved