hymn to stinging nettles

One Law one agenda one task one goal
untune nobody as we make ourselves Whole
feel full fill mint in the gentlest stroll

mints, nettles, alliums, what other critters won't eat
fed us over millenia treat after treat after treat
chenapodia, vleeta, horta, amaranth our meat

28 insects rely on stinging nettle -- whew!
another 18 very dependent too
yet there is plenty left over for me and you
Gaia help us find our proper place in Nature's free zoo

classless society in a moss glossary

Radicles Rootlets growing from the stem.

Radiculose With radicles.

Retuse Obtuse and slightly indented.

Revolute Rolled backwards, as of the leaf margin.

a found poem from the Manual of Hawaiian Mosses, by Edwin B. Bartram,

Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii (1933:267)

radiculose revolute

normal font of love & joy

easy to forget the retuse obtuse indented part

think of imperfections mutations

as the rootlets of all art

as of the leaf margin

talking leaves, rolled backward

classless society was a good start

created human being

we were sane before the mart

how about 24 hour week

a compromise, all pols say it's their art, their calling
so instead of half the 40 hour grind, we go to 24
one day's worth of "work" per week & APAP
As Playfully As Possible -- the whole "work" thing way overdone

"APAP ASAP!!" As Soon As Possible will cut down stress
reduce the need for comprehensive health care
release our humo ludens collaboratus species being
let everyone turn it over all-at-once or one by one

enuf lafter?

let's spell it "enuf" because 4 letters cut it, don't need 6
& be sure to spell "radicle" as the botanists do for rootlets

it's radicle to say 20 hours of work a week is enuf
because we don't want more stuff stuff stuffed w. stuf

"we remained self-deceived, and so incapable
of receiving enuf grace to restore us to sanity."
((near bottom of pg. 32 in the 12 and 12))

enuf grace does it, that means no less and no more
sloth and wrath bracket more, more, more and more

20 hour week could cut everything in halfs
including gluttony, lust, greed, envy -- but not big lafs

let's get the ugly english "ugh" out of american
as we seek the balance of many 12/8 paths

thot i heard david suzuki say

political apathy biggest obstacle in our way
bigger problem than species extinctions
bigger problem than warming and storming
bigger problem than greedy corporations
bigger problem than technococooning our kids
bigger than any other problem you can name
because if no one can crack the apathy open
just long enough to elect representatives sane

no pressure, no leaders, no policy will change
we'll get used to more pain and more acid rain
we'll adjust, thicken skins, shrug off disasters
replace bandaids with bigger pills and plasters
swallow bigger lies build bigger resentments
drown in a swamp of cheap consumerist contentments

another message another bottle

picked up 4 fine handled glasses and 1 sweet bottle for glads
leftovers at june parsons' estate sale, naugahide chairs in drive
it's true no naugas died and rains cannot corrupt their skins

good words from uchang kim on web in re politics and literature
read hemmingway's version of the great fight with wallace stevens
26 kinds of sharks and over 15 species of rays and skates in UK waters

listened to my piri playing willow weep for me behind jack's poetree
seemed so long ago and far away but really just beyond yesterday
LP records are still playable in archives, so they say

in praise of the elasmobranch Torpedo marmorata

"in brain development
'neurons that fire together wire together.'
A variation on this statement might be
'neurons that fire together conspire together'
or
'timeness is consciousness.'"
(p.120)

"Synchronous activation of neurons
that are spatially disparate
is a likely mechanism
to increase the efficiency of the brain.
We have known for some time
about such simultaneity for motricity
and for motor-derived brain activity.
Examples include the electrical shock
produced by fish such as the electric eel
or by the
elasmobranch Torpedo marmorata."
(p. 121-22)

from Rodolfo R. Llinas (2002) i of the vortex

we're no. 2 for brains

we're number one for planes
we're no. 2 for brains
i think i heard paul hipp say
we're no. 37 in healthcare
here in the u.s.a

we're no. 32 in acceptance of evolution
hey, we're no. 32! scope's trial was yesterday
thank Gaia we're not 79 or 127
no wonder we don't let our kids out to play
here in the u.s.a.

real compared to what?

less and less a part of the new yorker world
intellectuals assemble to talk with each other
personalities caricaturing & conversing
peace, ecological balance, children's joy
7th generation not the main agenda

"the president has got his war
folks don't know just what it's for"
multiple inconvenient truths
wash up unseen on a foreign shore
we mind the stinking store

Constitution day and no parade

booth led boldly with his big badass bass drum
are you washed in the blood of gettysburg
warfare state has trashed our Constitution
floundering fathers tried to spare us this pain

9th amendment key to sustainable future
key to having a US conscience to keep clean
time to parade for a war free world
once & for all we must remove this stain

discrepant nastiness & imperfection politics

greatest discrepancies exist cuz traditionalists will them into existence

redhat mishaps make 2 conchs beat 2 shinbone trmpts collide

2 dungchens blend whale farts fiercely

2 vertical cymbals clittclattter 2 horizontal cymbals loll & groll

2 shawms flip slip & slide

2 skullcap whackerdrum rattles in 1 hand & little 2 sided bell ringledingles in t'other

prhps using bones & skulls of monks

most antagonistic to each other when they were alive

batttling post mortem tubaspargens scatter tattterseed sheed schweed sczwedddd

from daily practices over 6 or 8 centuries you get times square traffic jam

cuz that is their intent: miss takes, accidentals, overtones, incidentals

these cats wd grind their teethes find sharpest chalks to rub on rougher black boards

same for andean dudes & their panpipes flutes tooting in unregistered registers

piping down the vallies wild piping songs of childish glee

same for gorale string quartets making mockery of buddha pest

or hungky gypsies laying on the schmaltz in hungky restaurants

anywhere in the mountains anywhere gypsy fiddles cry there's mud in your eye

a grating on the nerves a certain discrepant nastiness

peace is the way

no way to peace

peace is the way

this is not work

this is just play

joy comes from justice

justice comes from joy

say with howlin' wolf

hoy hoy i'm the boy

look at a sovereign darfur

no problem we can't solve

create no fly zone

refugees return home

tell every victim

"you are not alone"

and mean it

increasing grace

"war is wrong war is waste war is such a national disgrace & that's why . . . "

from the big hit of late 2008 "We Love Peace Merengue" by New York Path to Peace

lack of grace

leads to endless waste of Earth lunatic lunaforming capitalism

w's wars as weird obsession preemptive unilateral perpetually

increasing grace

leads to very profitable day care franchise

angeleek's uneek next door lets everyone eat well for nearly free

minimalist barter art all over walls replaces currency

reliable source of supply

grace nutrition true education

eco not ego

peace & poetree

hot evil of war cold evil of media

there's the hot evil of war, waste and devastation
there's the cold evil of media and technococooning
giving us what we want to see and not what we need
now we are permitted to see a dead American soldier
for many years the censorship was so complete
such photos could be counted on the fingers of one hand
today school superintendents school principals
don't dare show the president speaking to children

for fear he might say something subversive of state=us quo
have to prescreen first, teachers checking to see
if what the black president says is acceptable
what if he says something like hope you grow up healthy
hope you can afford access to a hospital
hope you learn how to think for yourself

adding to the wishlist

why aren't all the poets who admire gary and allen crawling
why did rebecca reider run away to free style poetree on golden bay

where did this "DICTEE" book by theresa hak kyung cha cum frum
her testimony a mix of gypsy fullstop dicta and gertrude stein

poetree forces condensation, flow, expansion all at once
poetree on the page pushes back to basics one way
poetree on the hoof pushes back to basics another

build a ppp wishlist

people who could be crawling or strolling with dignity but don't care
wes jackson and wendell berry triple pianissimo are loud and the best
naomi wolf and starhawk could give the ppp a huge boost east and west
randy e. barnett and 9th amendment lovers everywhere

wonderfully qualified quakers and buddhists in each of the 435
every district full of people from the neck up still alive
yeah, better put more rhyme and rhythym into this call
because our empire is crumbling so fast it's almost free fall

if those with eyes to see and ears that still hear
stay quiet tend to boxed business give in to fear
then slow politics for 7th generation dear
won't even start or will start only to swiftly disappear

transition to sustainable

relationship between participatory musicking
& studio-audio-arting for dancers
that's where action is for transition to sustainable
where there is a now to focus our intent.

reinvention of danceable grooves for today
we keep doing it until there is no other way
for lake waunanskapamonk & houseatonic headwaters

faith: in any given era there is a median hemline
a tempting tempo & a quality of soulclap
if we don't find it someone else will

starting today there is only local
expanding what is permitted locally
as in RE --- location, location & location

sounding sangha collectivizes meditation soundly
drum circle cycle collectivizes Gross National Happiness
GNH here & now
berkshire stompers social club glues grooves together
it's a we program

plus the felini passolini tortelini spaghatini fetucini parades
processions of peoples/species tunes drum interlocks
proliferociously

wars unwinable

wars unwinable since troy

wars unwinable since pyrhhus

wars unwinnable but we go on

uberfolks this is really serious

two or more inconvenient truths

[we're too entombed in tech to care]

unwinable wars heat up the planet

start where you are -- unaware

korea more than divided

vietnam was decided

iraq in deadlock quagmire afghanistan

our "power" shrinks, derided

we'll be waving "no. 1"

as we sink beneath the sea

insane waste of life

(just between you & me)

every day a play day

let's make post-labor-days play days
we've had our day of labor
honest labor is good but who can find it
for too many work has lost its savor

humo ludens collaboratus is us
takes a playful mind to crawl for congress
peace is next when we play all day
no time to listen to war mongers

addictions, fixations, comfort zones

wouldn't do it over and over again
if it didn't feel good, a quik fix, at the start
it's that first anything that takes away my heart

i'm stuck in my habits and looking for new ones
all in the name of creativity, pleasure, art
in Congress horse meets cart, whole meets part

the entire House of Representatives needs replacing
give the fixtures and comfortables 2 year vacations
fresh lookers, asking questions, some of them smart

so many successes

the geezer in the mirror doesn't text doesn't twitter
no more dither in his slither as he laughs the laughing song

entering labor day weekend a day late, he accepts his fate
need not learn the stewpit dog tricks from teens and tweens

but what of infants and toddlers with iphoning moms & dads
& the superficial facebook friendships they will wish they never hads

inventory of failures {n=17}

each flop a get moving shout

no hooks, no rippling tunes, i end up on the prong
afto eneh to paluki! in Greek

follow kc's tiv example of putting out what's coming thru
conscience of the lineage, here's what i dugh

peace echo-balance sounding-grooving what-we-knew
gainst text interpretation thru & thru

o when the saints in every key
shu fly don't bother me

we become pure music when we die
so stay on the path
musicdance replaces politics&religion-as-usual
artists-off-the-reservation
becoming plain 's pokin people
our only goal
avoid the wrath

the point of on the page is to pack more meanings in
punish more different sighs type faces
more 'confusion to the french!'
more mr. re
more m.c. k9 hornblower

&
put today's words into sad trad songs

answering pablo's questions

steady state economics would give time back to us
in more equal shares
time for peace
time for children

time for scooters, vacation, fall
time to discover the balance
between Nature's call and Human Nature's response
in an infinite variety of configurations