Circulating Poems

Dying Innocence

A young crow carries them-
selves meticulously, screening 
their surroundings. Too wary 
to engage with others, but 
always so observant. 

A golden jewel shines in a
parking lot corner. Tempting 
the young crow’s eyes. Their 
bill clutches on, fragile by
nature, it breaks. 

Glass shards pierces their 
tongue, blood cascades on-
to the concrete as the jewel
dismantles. Remnants of a
once pretty rock remain. 

Lackluster caws transcends to
inconspicuous woes through
menacing thunder circulating 
the floaters, ignoring their 
cries.

Drizzles of rain deafening 
continuous yelp, a dash of
salt soaking their insides,  
their shadow scatters
far away.

My Confession and Ask

My Confession and Request

to Someone

A sin is circulating over me, hanging our life, gallows
Someone needed love, only some dust of and from love
A touch from you is just a hoped kindness from your heart

… where is that? Mine is single and can’t recognize your heart
I am walking on a snowfield without your arms, no embrace
that’s why I am a walker, looking, looking, and searching for love

I needed to drop my bloody heart in front of your legs to love life
Dig a hole for… and put in the deep this stone heart, and forget that
This unmarked grave is the seal on our non-existent infinite love

Surfacing

December eats whatever fat
the wind carries with it.

You imagine the windows, the drapes,
all rounded and curved,
no sharp corners in this ocean of you.

Short-lived circulating thoughts
glimmer and fade,
minnows darting from nowhere
to nowhere.

Your body-heat, fish-tails over
dark waves.
The cold is still too deep,
a dim dawning shore
still too far above you,

and so, you rise slowly
in the hollow shell
of a diving bell
you have yet to call your own.

HOLIDAY THOUGHT

A little Tot so excited
Couldn’t sleep
Tried to even count sheep
The thought of Reindeers circulating deep
The anticipation of Santa’s arrival
Santa’s motto, “You better not cry nor pout”
The Tot’s reality check, he better go to sleep
Otherwise, Santa will bypass his house and skip
Santa’s tip
As the night went on, the little tot finally gave in and went into deep sleep
The Holiday night and the stars, sleep tight
Christmas morning arrived, and the little tot rushed downstairs and looked under the Christmas Tree of the presents that were left by Santa
The little Tot was so excited, he had to open the gifts right away
He saw all kinds of gifts such as a passenger plane, a small Remote Robot, a toy Greyhound bus and more
Full of joy
Playing with toy after toy
A Christmas uplifted for the little tot to enjoy

Whimsy

Whimsy catches the wind
Like a fall leaf, orangered and guileless 
And enters the house
Like a cat, confident but cautiously curious
To whatever it is that has made the wind.

As she catches sight of herself in the mirror, 
Her colorful hues glimmering,
She smiles knowing how numbered her days 
While lingering still in the present, ‘till 
With a gentle purr and flick of her tail she is gone.

Once a door is opened
The wind will oblige for as long as it may
Circulating in with the new, and out with the old
As whimsy rides on leaving her subtle scent
Musty as old leaves, musky as a Puss in Boots.

Cats are unique in having their own minds
A quality of solitary life
Even as they put on their royal airs,
Leaves on the other hand have no minds
Nor life once they have fallen.

Seasons after all flow like clockwork
To the rhythm of an unknown Maker 
Mysterious only in the little things
How long a leaf or cat might linger
On a wind felt but never seen.

(11/9/24)

FAST STEP come on JAZZY-Dedicated Verse to Shasta Simms

I am circulating my anticipating
Foot ached fever broke bout' ta step out
Not out of my vessel, yet my voice is in session
My lungs, frontal lobe, feet and legs wanna dance

FOOT LOOSE
CUTING UP, SHIFTING FROM SLIDE TO SIDE
Faster
Faster
Faster
Fast step come on jazzy
Step fast come on jazzy 
Step up, step in, step out, come to come through
Faster
Faster
Faster
Fast step come on jazzy

Happen stance, I gotta dance
Step on, step off
I carry the thought
Of what's up
To the form of getting down
How long can I be found singing
just, just, just jazz
Fast step
What a trip
Must insist you enlist come bro, come on sis

when I sing, you gonna dance
When I move ya wanna dance
Faster
Faster
Faster
Fast step come on jazzy
Fast step come on jazzy
Fast step come on jazzy
FAST STEP come on JAZZY

8/24/24
written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024

for SHASTA JAZZ DEDICATED VERSE FOR SHASTA SIMMS ANTHOLOGY #1

Poison

Poison 

Poison runs through my veins
 Circulating throughout my entire body
I can feel it deep in my bones
Darken every aspect of my soul
I use to have the antidote 
I use to have the will to heal 
But the poison is strong
Suffocating any ounce of hope 
Taking the flame and putting it out
Poison runs through my veins 
Circulating through my entire body
I can feel it deep in my bones
Robing me of everything 
Joy, hope, love, connection 
Feeling like I can’t breath
Suffocating within my own skin
Can’t voice what’s wrong 
How do you explain the poison
That flows within.

EarthTribe Ministrations

A green chaplain to trees
nurtures Her root systems
and dancing
prancing branches

Preaching
reaching deeply
into shared 0-soul trunks,
circling spinal enthusiastic core

Breathing 
circulating annual rings
of growing communion

Potential win/win performance
musing resonance
amusing musical engagement,
brilliant resilience.

Terse Verse

weather - cold
I - old
trees - to bed
nose - red
head - aches
pumpkin - bakes
weather - worse
autumn verse

NB: this is my loose translation of the following German poem circulating online.

Wetter: kalt
Ich: alt
Laub: bunt
Nase: wund
Kopf: Schmerzen
Abends: kerzen
Winter: in sicht
Herbstgedicht

Virtues of Empathy

Who would have unconditionally warm eyes
to see and appreciate this sacred grace
you have to offer
Beauty?

What Tribes
not yet extinct
have boundless warm inviting ears
to hear
and invite
this wisdom you have recovered?

While binding Trust discovered
with Others
to compassion's Left
and Right-sided
Truths,
waxing communal therapeutic thoughts
and waning isolated trauma feelings

Communal cultured experience
usually in-between ecstatic and entropic
virtuous rounds of resonant
resilient Indigenous Wisdom

Feeling while touching
win/win work that reconnects play
in sacred EarthTribe minds

Unitarian Yin temporal flow
absorbing
secular AnthroPrivileged bodies
born of EarthMother wombs
forming universal Yang places.

Who has not touched
and felt
circulating blood
and revolving Earth
and warm tidal waters?

MonoTheistic enlightenment
from FatherSun above
and PolyTheistic empowerment
from MotherEarth within,
reconnecting bipartisan
LeftBrain dominant 
spirited resonant minds
with RightBrain prominent
naturally resilient bodies

Reconnecting 
one EarthEmpowering
enlightened 
multi-regenerational Body.

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye Summer

Warm blood circulating through the labyrinth of veins,
Fuels contemplation of time, space, and being;
And rushes the mind with a reflection of freshness,
Encouraging procrastination on leaving.

Put away finger counting days for seasonal change,
And see the frailty of spirit compared to water.
Feel the breeze sweep across the sea and breathe deep the air
And wish not the panorama to remain dormant.

But say, “Goodbye summer! I enjoy your season,
And am thankful to be alive in your presence.”
Tomorrow’s labours will sustain earthly existence,
And summer reminiscence will ease worldly tensions.

Intrinsic Meaning

Circulating fear, 
          spiritual retreat, 
           sepulchral silence, 
      manifestations of the soul

Test of Hidden Love, Mr

The trap of hidden love, 
Smile face in front of the future light of her life,
Feeling like flying to the moon 
Whenever she meets him at  noon 

Heart beating  so fast , oh ! Love mood
Good hearted,  love circulating in her blood
Looking in his  eyes,
Fake faint to test  love 
Fainting to see his  reaction to prove 
A good move, 
If he is her future sunshine. 

The sign of hidden love,  
He rushes quick lifting her,
Calling ambulance 
While she is smiling  to find her soulmate 
Before the ambulance reaching, 
She is comfortable 
With the  attention given by a person
Who meant to be with, 
She said silently,  " He is the rose inside my heart." 

Feeling over the moon, 
Flying  obove the ocean at after noon,  
While  spreading her wings like a white dove.
Good mood all over, after finding the soap of love.
Using the  trap of hidden love well  and 
Ended up  cupturing a husband to be. 

March 21/2023
Written for poetry contest sponsored by Mystic Rose Rose

Valleys

In the valley, one has been moaning considerably, extensive
       
                 for an amount of time, these constraints have possession of

                 one's emotions, affairs, and partnerships from all walks of

                  life, there will be chronicles of ups and downs, profits, and losses.

                  Ya'll it's been immeasurably a refutable volume of time, it's

                   becoming apparently, one is emerging, circulating fully of

                   fervor, hyperventilating, brims over, sobs echoes, screamingly

                   outcries, one's coming out of these days of low frequencies

                   treading the valleys.

Seigniorage

Could platinum coin deposit
In the U.S. Treasury's closet
Our debts enjoin? 
A trillion-dollar coin
Might yield a government profit


Author's Note: Section 31 U.S.C. § 5112 of the United States Code authorizes the Treasury Department to "mint and issue platinum bullion coins" in any denominations the Secretary of the Treasury may choose. This privilege only extends to platinum coins. Thus, if the Treasury were to mint a few one-trillion dollar platinum coins, it could deposit such coins in the general fund instead of issuing debt (lol). 

Seigniorage is the difference between the receipts from the Federal Reserve System from the sale of circulating coins at face value and the costs of minting and distributing the coins. Seigniorage is deposited periodically to the General Fund where it reduces the government's need to borrow.

Of course, this might create a wave of inflation. But we should all realize that the value of paper currency eventually tends to zero. In any event, the inflation we've experienced in 2022 is just a taste of what's to come since the politicians don't want to explain a depression to their voters. We're entering strange times.

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