Pledge I pledge allegiance to no flag. I pledge allegiance to no nation, no government, no border. True patriotism is rebellion. True rebellion is joy. Cast down the mighty, the masters of war. I pledge allegiance to the poor. I pledge allegiance to weeds and sod. I pledge allegiance to the moon and tide. I pledge allegiance to sun and wind. I pledge allegiance to … [Read more...]
Negative Capability: Keats and Buddha
The relationship of Buddhism and the poetic process is a sublime yet unexplored topic among Western scholars. It’s about the silent space between the words, not just the word itself. The poet John Keats writes: At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative … [Read more...]
Six poems by Alfred K. LaMotte
ELECTION I voted. I voted for the rainbow. I voted for the cry of a loon. I voted for my grandfather's bones that feed beetles now. I voted for a singing brook that sparkles under a North Dakota bean field. I voted for salty air through which the whimbrel flies South along the shores of two continents. I voted for melting snow that returns to the … [Read more...]
Into Jazz: Five Poems
1. FALLUJAH Training in the woods at Fort Lewis, Washington, on patrol and for a moment quite alone, you happen upon a trillium, moon-silver secret revelation piercing fern green gloom. You bow down whispering, "Thank you for showing me what’s inside." Six months later on patrol in the shimmering rubble of Fallujah, you happen upon a girl three days … [Read more...]
Four Poems by Alfred K. LaMotte
PULVERIZED I pulverized your jaw with a knuckle sandwich but you fought back blossoming your hyacinth. Then I shattered a quart of Colt 45 on the ivory lingam of your skull but you exfoliated flecks of lapis lazula therefor I tied off your red ribbon and swung you around my head a plastic garbage bag of last night's pork chop bones then granulated your skeleton … [Read more...]
At the Carnival of Drunken Poets
I ran into Kerouac at the carnival where those just dead meet those about to be reborn. He and I have wandered through the zodiac again and again, like prodigal suns. Both of us enter this carnival under the 13th sign, which is the sign of Drunkenness, in the house of Lilith, with Coyote rising, the Moon single and pregnant again. When the carnival master sees us, … [Read more...]
