Long Diaspora Poems

Dear Siblings Three,

I was reading a story
in which some siblings became estranged
after their parents died,
while others moved toward greater solidarity.

This is a variation on a diaspora story.
But, here growing physical distance
is seen more as a...

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On the need to avoid being envious: Canto XVII, K161, K162 of the THIRUK-KURAL, Translation with Commentary

[ ENVY, of course, knows no racial nor ethnic boundaries, but I wouldn't be wrong, I dare say, ...

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Diaspora Dwellings

On my way into our sanctuary
this past Sunday morning
a woman I had met in choir
was strangely inclined
to share her family history.

Her dad came over from Ireland
because he wanted better business opportunities
for his healthy future.

Here...

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My “popcorn town”, Oak Bluffs
on Martha’s Vineyard,
always will be home to me
‘though I now live far away.
We were young when
we bought the old Victorian
with the wide wrap-around
porch. It needed a lot of work
but we fell...

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A rising sun in the east does appear
  from St. Augustine to St. Clair,
to loose me from sleep’s tranquil hold
  and dreams of serendipities of old -
to rise again the boy I was...

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Papa Noël was afraid to pass through on Christmas Day
In the streets of Port-au-Prince. Bullets were being fired in droves
Sporadically, haphazardly. Many people were hiding under beds
Naughty terrorists are like dogs, hyenas in vile forests...

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The Parrot and the Woodpecker may turn...
    [Sung by TEnicayccal Cellappa]        Translated by T.Wignesan
 
mAnkiliyum marankottiyum         ...

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We will be the trustees of life's passions...
The villas of villainous Rome are burning behind me
from Capua to the Cisalpine Alps the skyline is smoldering from her savage sins,
monuments of luxury built, furnished,  and...

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Born in the Goshen ghetto,
bound by an Ashkenaz forged umbilical chain
Beloved mother was Jim Crow lynch poor,
adored father was the Uncle Sam same
Third-generation slaves,
pauper freed allegedly
But royal blood their ancestors  
sweaty tears did bleed
From...

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The year ends on saddest notes
of crying, dying babies in Palestine 
and obstructed efforts 
to throw them a lifeline 

They ought to have long halted
this ethnic cleansing 
of the indigenous inhabitants
Stop the cruel bombardment
of their...

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index finger of left hand
     (likened to Michelangelo
meticulously chiseling away
     at marble block), this poe
whit attempts to coax (zealously
     tap into his latent...

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Their philosophers dehumanized our ancestors.
 Their missionaries demonized their humanity.
 Their merchants made them chattel.
 Whippings, rapes, amputations,
 For the training of wild negroes who can be forced to work at will.
 The expression of...

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Once upon time's center
grows two permaculturing farmers,
multicultural mediators
of Earth's healthy polypathic remainder,

And, surrounding them,
seven elders
and their cheer leading mascot
of disabling foolery

Arriving each spring
in his wheeled chair
to witness
and sometimes loudly prophecy,
to entertain with his win/win intentions,
studying...

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Israel Beckoned...In A Dream

This secular skeptic beheld,
eyes hallucinated, harried, felled
and haunted by
holographic images gelled
that didst silently scream herald
ding exhaustively

roaming, schlepping, meld
ding and trudging across
elapsed, nor quelled
blinkered, bloodied dead souls
across fractured wartorn veld,
where bludgeoned ghastly

eons of...

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It was a woodcut in our high school history text, Unit 4 Beginnings of the
      Modern World, that so disturbed,
from the Nuremburg Chronicles depicting the burning of the Jews, flat
...

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Most folks I loved
died when I was in my thirties.
Not just people,
but our San Francisco bohemian mecca lifestyle,
our 365 days and nights celebration
turned into an epidemic of waiting
and watching
and mourning our losses,
wondering about possibilities of...

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ANCESTORS

Lady Liberty

And the Lady cries:
"Bring me your lame, maime,
Your poor, your Refugees."

Came by the Mayflower
And others like her,
The first Settlers came
from near and far;
Men, women, children,
old and young.

Bellowing sails flapping 
in tempestuous winds,
People courageously sailed,
Getting...

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When You Really Discern… 
‘Why The Drama?’ Pattern
and Pending-Adoration,
 Pertains-Peroration
When You Perceive… 
Who Demands and Why?...  Proceed… 
… to Ply and Pry to Ascertain…
’ He Deserves This Portion-Acclaim’
  and Drumming-Heart, Soulful-Desire…
and Defer-Strength to...

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Aye, Spanish Needles, far from native shore
We the Diaspora exult to meet
Though our station, not what we dreamt of yore
Is battered by grimy dust and slimed sleet
Aye, Spanish Needles, still unbowed you stand
A dazzling prince...

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ON THE LEVEES OF TIME…
   (APROPOS WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE)

When the levees broke…when the levees broke…
     When the levees broke…
When the levees broke the world awoke
   ...

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What happens to all the brown-skinned girls?
Sitting on the stoop waiting for the ice cream man to come
20 plats in their hair
Turning the double dutch rope
Sitting in the middle of the classroom

You know, that one...

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HERO DAY
 
From the depths of history, their stories unfold,
Of black men and women with spirits untold,
In defiance of chains, they rose above,
Their hearts relentless, fueled by love.

African kings and queens, proud and revered,
Adorned with...

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(My Persian rug, 2024)

A Painful Journey

I live a quiet and isolated life
But it’s been one of great adventure
That leaves me now a bit worn out
Although satisfied and fulfilled
Is probably how I should describe it,
For I’m...

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Poway, California~Passover Heartbreak
              4/27/2019

I spent most yesterday in agony.
Thinking of the hideous attack in Poway.
A wonderful spring morning, Jews quietly
intent to complete this last day of
Passover at their synagogue
How...

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Amidst the binge of the champagne, and the glitter on the faces, she heard the 
distant lullaby. Glistening repertoire of appreciation elated her, but her soul had been 
far forlorn. She smiled her way through...

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