Gull on a Spar

I’m a gull on a spar —so much sea
but much less far

this perch is so unsteady
I wonder what my bearings are

the roll and sway and pitch,
the other gull-calls I am hearing

the yaw as ship slides into ditch of trough,
this captain must be drunk the way he’s steering

or the helmsman is asleep, his compass eye is off,
the sluggish rudder’s answer is as drawn-out as a stutter

and I’m clinging to this spar like a baby to its mother
as the sun is going down wind whistles or is singing

the moon is coming up —but the image in that mirror,
is that me or is that other?

Jim Culleny
6/24/20

 

Not Listening

—on a presidential innauguration 2017
.
I am not buying
a speech sure to smother much with nothing
I am not buying
proceedings that ooze mendacity
I am not buying
sure and certain doublespeak
I am not buying
the oral gymnastics of a chameleon
I am not buying
the patchwork concoction of a chimera
I am not buying
the vacant promise of a narcissist
I am not watching
an actor’s forked tongue dance as if his past had not been taped
I am not watching
the installation of a wretch who’s speech reeks “fake”
I am not watching
when what should raise hope says. nope
I am not watching
Law being choked in the deals of a user
I am not watching
a flag being placed in the mitts of an abuser
I am not swallowing
the pitch of this prince of shades
I am not slurping
inaugural brews of a deadhearted renegade
I am not marching
in that parade
.
Jim Culleny
1/20/17

April’s Fools

.
April, you’re coming down the rails
like a runaway train this year
whose driver had a coronary at throttle

or is this God’s koan:
a surprise dump from the farm up the road
where in the dark of day or light of night
animals take care of business regardless,

or is this God’s reminder we’re all fools
who live upon the brink of
His … Hers … Its
mystic whim where divine will or not
is irrelevant in the thick of it

practical effect rules on April 1st
and throughout this spring month
as it does under every moon

—we live
by it …. upon it …. under it ….through it
with it …. in spite of it …. in, and beyond it
and, at least as far as history tells (so far)
no matter what, we skate  past it
in spite of ourselves, so April,
and the rest of you renegade months,

have mercy
and may we take heed in that event
of close calls

Jim
4/1/20

Social Distance

 

When
….. we’ll ever be able to pick up where we left off
….. doing the things we took for granted
….. simple, exquisite things such as to hug
….. or simply to be together in space
….. instead of scattered throughout it
….. over miles or kilometers constrained
….. to express our love in bits and bytes
….. by means of a starker sort of electricity
….. of wire, circuit, wave
….. not as warm as that which sparks in rooms,
….. one to one to one, caroming mind to mind
….. in close quarters, in conversation
….. amicable, intense, generous, true
.
….. when we’ll be able
….. to breathe the same air
….. without fear of viral interlopers
….. which by some universal whim
….. have chosen us as their means
….. of sustenance and propagation,
….. is the natural question leading to
….. the other never-answered question

why?

Jim Culleny
3/30/20

 

Cup

.

.
this is how I most
remember her I’d have been
maybe nine I walk to her house
we have tea at her table
I ask for grandpa’s cup
which she brings from her pantry shelf
and sets it on the table
pours hot water into its metal
beige enameled bowl
with light green steam-blessed rim
adds a teabag a little sugar
I stir and sip as she
in Slovak-embellished English
asks about my day and life
to the background atmosphere
of chicken boiling in the soup
she made so well
and calls me
Jeemy
………… I have that cup

—when the house was sold long
after they’d gone we were gifted
with a last-chance tour
and there’s my grandfather’s cup
on the shelf where it had ever been
and
as was anciently told
I asked and it was given

Jim Culleny
© 6/7/19

Tools

1. The Adze

I’ve never been a mathematician
physicist or statistician
but, as a carpenter who aspires
to be a word magician,
I can fill you in on certain facz
such as the irrational condition
in which, at least from Mesolithic times,
the framer’s friend, the adze, subtracz

2. The Hammer

A hammer’s not a thing of glamor
unless you feel its weight
.
when you grip an Estwing’s shank
and swing it up to bring it down
to drive a nail into a plank
you realize its simple grace:
its elegant utility as whammer
.
and if your nail’s a driven flaw
you always have its graceful claw
to  dis-articulate your curse and stammer

3. The Spirit Level

A spirit level’s used to set things straight
with the plane of the horizon as in a beam
or plumb as with a stud to make sure
structure’s right by spirit
.
you breathe deep and easy and hold the level
so the spirit bubble floats in the small arc of a glass flask
dead center which if placed upon a joist would say,
this floor is level
.………………..
being on the level
good way to be
.
Jim Culleny
3/13/19

Old Music

.
homes
were filled with the gusts of it

floor boards
were rife with the dust of it

stuffed couches
cradled the lust of it

mom’s bread
was baked to the must of it

King Cole crooned through
the crust of it

time will never manage
the bust of it

A Quantum Angel Spinning-off Particles

Drawing: Jim Culleny 1997

Frog!…

 

“Optimism is so difficult to keep, yet, after all this, it persists.”
………………………………………………………………….. — Vytrvalý Nádej

---

Abstract in nature, yet so very important to it. He is the warning sign, 
the innervision to peace or self-destruction. Calmly and confidently in 
eyes wide open he watches and protects the inner being of innocence 
and the beauty of nature inspires him to love and give. He is not ugly! 
And the prince is not a prince. But he can be crazy like a poet 
clinging to the words of Gods and Demons and the drama of your 
sneers and snickers of him. This is love for all of you stuck in 
boredom and the intense madness of our darkside. In the danger of 
the Forest he does not seperate his emotions. He struggles mightily to 
control his mind is open to suggestions if you really want to be 
human. Lean on me, he expresses sincerely, lean on me. The water 
has stopped breathing. The air is bleeding confusion. The Earth is 
beginning to swallow up the young. The threats of mass murder and 
extinction are all around him. But yet, he sits there as constant as 
ever, on that log, on that water, in that Forest, hoping, dreaming, and 
manifesting the reality that humility is a blessing and evil… cannot win!

by Umar Bin Hassan
from Poetry International Web

---

 

Nobody

Musical adaptation of a poem by Emily Dickinson

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell.
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one’s name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Emily Dickinson

Adaptation and Tune: Jim Culleny
Vocal and rhythm guitar: Jim Culleny
Lead Guitar: Joe Podlesny
Bass: Joe Podlesny
Engineering and drum track: Joe Podlesny
Production: Joe Podlesny and Jim Culleny