Long Crossings Poems

The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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Unquotable Quotes VIIIL : SEXUAL HARASSMENT* - the feminist kind

(*”aggressive pressure or intimidation”: Is it really “any different” in most cases in the act, judging by Hollywood standards?)

STOP: ARREST ALL GIRLS
 - standing with legs...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY: LXXIX -  Bang! Bang! Who Shot Me Down like an Un-licensed Dog !

IF ever I had a country, a country certainly 
not subject to the whistle of a...

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Oceans and Winds

I have an obsequious unnatural inclination
To sustain my external compulsions 
And convert them to a pre-text of a sub-text
Of instantaneous conclusions
Bi-Partisan confusions, melted humans and rheuminations
We seem to be caught up in the...

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PREAMBLE
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What I witnessed on October 7 was indefensible. Just to be clear, Hamas are not militants or freedom fighters as many in the mainstream media would have you believe - they are terrorists. Israel is...

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   "I have seen and heard the vibrancy of dreams, 
and the way 
of the crossings-through the ills 
and through the barriered things."

A fleeting spark that perceives, 
I, have seen...

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Me cars down at the doctors ‘cause there’s trouble with the coil,
and somewhere I’m losing water so once or twice I’ve had it boil.
It needs another set of spark plugs and me mufflers had the...

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The North Beach....

Strolling down the bustling sidewalks, along the embarcadero; tourist and visitors, from 
everywhere

A break from the recent rains; as the sun sheds down its warmth, to kiss our brows 

Just ahead Pier 39,...

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CHAPTER 3 The River
 
While they paused to rest a moment 
Han gazed suddenly behind them
To the south a long way distant
Faintly rose a hazy ribbon
 
From the grassland; Han spoke quietly,
"Loved ones, we are...

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To the Invisible Friend 

The dredging decades have floated by like drifting clouds in the beckoning western sky.
Hello dead friend of my distant youthful days under these erotic jacaranda blooms.
It is my firm hope that...

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Walking through the corridores at Atascaderos State Hospital

Here to speak to a certain confined patient....

Within the walls of the criminally insanes, incarcerated

Thinking to myself a moment ago as I checked in my arms

How thin are...

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The time has come to end this life of mine,
The time has come to leave everything unimportant permanently behind. 
All of my rescues will be cared for and comfortable, as promised to me,
by a true...

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You are my beacon in the darkness
the bulwark and seawall which protect my shore
the lamp which pierces the stormy waters
that surround me
I navigate the deep with the course you set for me
your spirit moves the...

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An Outrageous Case of Illegal Immigration

By Elton Camp

We hear much about invasion from Mexico
But the U.S. northern border is the way to go
Aliens can, and do, cross with greatest ease
For proof, here’s an example of...

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After the Occupational Therapist told me I’d never walk again (see my poem “What She Said”); I was in shock, but my being turned to my ballet days to recall when my legs were strong...

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Through midnight of thoughts, where silences dance,
Confessing love is like the whisper of a lost comet,
In the web of my fate, only a stray star could rise,
You are that star which turns every moment in...

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TRAIN – 1958

On a warm summer evening
at North Philadelphia Station
the 6:19 on track three, the "Spirit
of Saint Louis-Limited" from Penn Station
New York, Newark and Trenton bound for
Thirtieth Street, Paoli, Lancaster, Harrisburg
Altoona, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati
Indianapolis and...

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Echoes of our lost love


Train crossings have a lot more meaning...
to me now!
Two years...and I still can't believe that 
you are gone...
Flashbacks of that tragic night in that
long forsaken town...
I still regret driving all night,...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY : LXII - LXIII

			LXII

If ever I had a country with streets under graffiti
And if ever I were the Minister of Transport who travels about for free
I'd give a free...

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He fell to earth like a meteor
wielding his fiery sword 
but unlike seraphim
he was not here to cleanse the wicked
Soulless & motherless 
he would unleash 
his wrath upon the world
A wall of flame spread out...

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LONESOME
SOUND 
			
Old man said he could hear that whistle blow a hundred miles 
and they could write a song about that. 
Said he could tell how many cars a train freighted 
just by how sad...

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Woe betide humankind as it marches on technology.

We had the evil machinations of war,
Of death unleashed from mouths of guns,
And man-made thunder from above,
Laying waste to home and life and limb.

I've heard of evil spawned
From...

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The Van-Boy got out to open the gate still in his head last night’s date
He did not notice the green signal light a train was coming though not in sight
This crossing was notorious and set...

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The genie is on the loose
                    The genie is on the run
    ...

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Stupid damn cat   


Attempting sleep on the balcony, a railing at my back,
twisted iron creating stripes on my flesh.
Crisscrossing as I slide atop a Craigslist mattress
collecting in folds of faded striped fabric.

slightly used...

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