Long Textbooks Poems

This is the third time
I've read Beyond Religion:
Ethics
[non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-violent]
for A (not "The") Whole World
[ZeroZenZone Universe, psychological and politically eco-logical].

In the second, of two, sections,
the Dalai Lama discusses,
in most excruciating therapeutic detail,
emotional positive v negative...

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Ours was daily mysterious,
sometimes near mystical, 
rapture;
a sensual yet platonic
dorm-mate love affair,
within the only male grad student corridor
at SFSU.

He was the presumably straight Vietnam veteran
southern white good ol' boy,
athletically studying Japanese,
with a gentle passion for...

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The day was fine and sunlit,
Decorated by several clouds 
drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky.
Chorused by gentle puffs of the morning breeze,
Sending leaves on the streets twirling like
ballerinas in a dazzling and mesmerising dance.
and...

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The day was fine and sunlit, Decorated by several clouds drifting 
     aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky. Chorused by gentle 
         ...

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Amidst the chaos of chalk and dreams deferred,
We ask ourselves, where can we find the spark
In this labyrinth of rote and rigid words?
The burden we bear, a future stark

We've trudged through dusty classrooms, yearning
For wisdom...

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Letter to a novice poet:

(What modern poetry is for me)

Welcome to the family of budding poets, who pen passion and
meaning or anything life holds for them. Enjoy. Buds will sprout
and blossom over time. No buts...

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The morning sun filters through dust-laden windows of the district education office like an unwelcome truth trying to penetrate wilful ignorance. Shelves buckle under the weight of untouched research journals like abandoned promises, their spines...

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The writer in me wants you to know that, 
I was an avid reader before I was a writer... 
As early as six, I became obsessed with reading…
any book - from aunt’s classic literature to mom’s favourite...

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I have questions...
questions I seem to have stored in a jar
a collection seen as emptiness from afar
to these arcane corridors of secrets life has assured
My voice may be murmurous at best
lacking the presence of someone...

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I Babies Had IT
Before the tomb, we must understand the WOMB
Where as babies we are ONE with our environment
It took time to assert, "Me and mine," creating "others"
Sadly, babies had no power, or voice, to...

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The day was fine and sunlit,
Decorated by several clouds 
drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky.
Chorused by merciless gales of the morning breeze,
Sending leaves on the streets attacking like
Vikings in a brutal and violent dance.
and...

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The healthier we become the more ways we find to make ourselves sick
Hypochondriac fits of politics 
Diet pills McDonalds Happy Meals
Hypnagogic images make up the news
Cumulus clouds full of debris from the local avenues 
Deeper...

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As I sit during the aftermath of my physics test, another failure, no doubt
I begin to reconsider my existence, my place on this earth
Was I meant to be an obedient slave? Indentured to the restrains...

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From time to time, people ask me
About my education.
Only then, I remember
I have no degrees or diplomas.
I attended no university either.
I hated textbooks and exams.
I still do.
That's bad education, they say.

But they don't know
I was...

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Thrill knowledge with the desire to spread 
Ideals across heads like grains of sand
Sprinkle little rays of brightness
Into cups full of vanilla ice-cream
If the sun doesn’t sparkle
Then there is no one to blame
But one’s own...

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No form, no organization, no verse.
A crescendo followed by silence and screams.
A wooden home locked inside of a concrete tome,
With a world collapsing while we keep relapsing
And again the past resurges; what we bury tends...

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"momma he told me he loved me," the little 9 year old girl cried. "he told me he loved me but I said no."

"why did you say no?" the mother questioned. "isn't love good?"

"momma he...

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I’m back like jack in the box
Is it still called religion
When it is the truth
No, I am not using contractions
These fools offend me when 
They come up with this s*** that we
Evolved from apes.
Happy Ape...

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A stripped continent
N a input a dominance
Tried to feed a them a civilized consciousness
By rapin our history til the condem spilts
Held in bondages
Wonder where is the lord we suppose to be so fond of is
Black...

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At the breakdown of ages man disappears and reappears
In the form of an easy-to-use scheme
Over the last half-century, man has been replaced
By technocratic ideas of what a man is
But the real man can no longer...

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If a book has footnotes, though it is fiction,

How do you classify it?

Historical fiction has made some inroads

To this chimera crossroads

But science fiction

Ironically, is behind the times

I’ve kept writing vigils like Virgil.

I muse ‘neath the...

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Window Teacher
                      by Odin Roark

As teacher
She was petite
Unassuming
Framed in layered paint
No make-up on her
Save...

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In the greenhouse of young minds, we plant the seeds of tomorrow,
Where knowledge blooms and awareness grows, we must not borrow
But cultivate a future, green and bright,
For the climate crisis looms a formidable sight.

Let us...

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I see you hipsters in rustic coffee shops with pictures of Marlyn Monroe and contemporary art, 
the girl in all black with a black beret to make her look more avant-garde and red colored hair...

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Who decides what historical events adorn
textbooks students read,
     hence a starry notion born
grew up while

     this lumpenproletariat day dreaming,
     Asian aw shucks husky
...

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