Sunday, November 15, 2009

November 15, 2009








Remember last night, the air stale from car exhaust and
stumbling drunks too high to stand in line, riding the
same ride over and over, uncertain if you're awake
or dreaming, a goose making time with wrens?  Nothing's
as it seems, or maybe people clone themselves; hoping
to win the Nobel Peace Prize for stretching a dream into
five thirty minute sequels. And every time I look at Salvador
Dali's Hallucinogenic Toreador, I think of you, totally naked,
walking through a rainbow into the mouth of a catfish ready to
swim below teutonic plates in the south china sea, your hair
woven with colored strips of foil a few notice; your breasts,
the main attraction for fat men with camcorders posing as hot
studs in the Filipino Heart, unaware that those without pictures
are rarely contacted, the Monster Mash, an old song from the
early sixties competing against Big Bad John. 


bay lights . . .
a fish farmer
watching lights


excited,
feeling guilt, she
sleeps with
strangers, hoping
for a miracle


lovely,
the full moon blushing
behind clouds . . .


thick clouds . . .
we want to make love
before a
mirror existing in the
abyss of our minds


white heron . . .
you fly out of my
chest into dawn


fly with me
into a world that makes
its own stars . . .
after the movie and
lime margaritas


without street
lights and the moon . . .
falling stars


friday the
13th, i trip
and fall in
front of diners
watching cartoons


a proud man,
ignores his wounds . . .
watching stars


watching you
blossom, flower . . .
petals
falling like leaves
in a gentle breeze


your stamen,
orchid, unravel a
thousand dreams


watching an
action movie with
you beside me,
waiting for the
the final credits


the breath of
blossoms, a lung
full of dreams


breathless,
a dream that won't
end when dawn
nudges you to wake up . . .
the lightness of being


a dream,
watching you dance?
falling leaves


the echo
of a thousand dreams
sewn into
a tapestry painting . . .
the tops of mountains


sing, river . . .
caressing sea
bound desire


they hated
filipinos during
World War II . . .
the thick stench of
bayonetted babies


summer dawn . . .
walking over dead bodies
to Bulacan


what was buddha
doing when filipinas
were forced into
prostitution and soldiers
bayonetted babies?


a smell
one can't forget . . .
bataan

*ba ta an


tilapia,
teach me how to cast
lightness
into shadows
shaping tomorrow


christmas lights . . .
young girls caroling
to fat men . . .


robert d. wilson

©2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

November 13, 2009





I woke up my wife before dawn with more than a desire to clean my office on the roof of our
home, facing Mount Makiling in the Philippines; the rumble of earth, shudder of limbs pushing
clumps of cloud into mason jars my grandmother left behind in her apartment before she was
shipped off to a nursing home posing as the Club Med.

We celebrated the new year one and a half month's early, planning for something no one gets to know about, in case you're a peeping Tom.  I've been sitting on my ass all day composing poetry and the above haiga, haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, and it's almost dinner time, and . . . oh dear, I forgot to take my PTSD meds! What's the world going to think, that Beanie and Cecil have risen from the dead? Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger were closet gays?  George Bush's heart bled for the needy and poor?

The Wonderland Amusement Park: illusion or real? Made-up or hallucinatory? Myth, legend, or a sick man's need for attention?  Enter at your own risk. And don't buy the popcorn.  They're leftovers used to pack the chocolate Chip Cookies my mother used to send me in care packages when I was in South Vietnam watching the rocket's red glare, the thud thud thud of incoming mortars, and feeling bullets speed past me less than a half inch away like gnats on a mission.


motorists . . .
a blossom smiles
sipping sunlight


a runaway
girl washes her master's
clothing                                                                                                          
in the warm tears of
maria makiling


lusty moon . . .
tonight i'm closing
the curtains!


i can
only be the breath
of what's sensed
when elephant grass
whispers through stars


christmas lights . . .
a wallet waiting for
a young girl


alice, if
only there isn't an
end to the
hole we jump into . . .
heaven's river


above the
chow king, dark gray clouds
without smiles


late again . . .
baklas at the beauty
salon
pull customers into
a world without end


unpainted
buildings smile at an
awkward moon


in ten years,
give or take, i'll
be a leaf
decomposing in
a sleepy urn


give me a
child to brighten winter . . .
long nights


to fly past
the stars into
darkness
swept clean daily
with prayer


chasten me
for what, a weathered
tree limb?


i smell the
scent of bulalo
and know . . .
the sea will bring us
together again


music and
the chatter of
daffodils


like stars
we sip this month's
latte in
designer mugs
made in china


nara tree . . .
teach me what it's like
to be barren


plaster me
on post office
walls . . .
a fat egret
moored in deep mud


blinking lights . . .
aurora, the name of
a bar girl


will my poems
do more than satisfy
the dreams of
an old man wanting
to be remembered?


eating lunch . . .
the scent of orchids
kissing dawn . . .



we float like
balloons without
direction
into the sum of
another's equation

sundown,
a young girl washing
melons


i'm not a
cloud floating at the
whim of an
overweight egret
flapping her wings



robert d. wilson
©2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

November 12, 2009



































Some days are darker than others, the moon on leave from his senses, the sun screwing the neighbor's husband, the world around me, a mirror I wish others would smash into a thousands pieces, using each piece to compose something better than the last. I wander like a drunk in and out of sanity or at least another's version of it, as we are all insane in some way or another, but conditioned to keep our laundry in the laundry room and cover the stink with the new and improved Tide with this year's designer scent. Some more poems: tanka, haiku, and senryu, mixed in with a haiga Norman Rockwell would run from in terror. Or at least claim he did. The Wonderland Amusement Park, where life is frank, Tide isn't used, and the self righteous and politically motivated avoid. Enter at your own risk.


this morning,
the sun couldn't rise
high enough . . .
she'd enter the room
with a fertile smile


the shadows
of bamboo trees . . .
tattoed


time spent
together this morning,
blossomed . . .
the chinese new year,
3 months away


ant, what's
it like to be
celibate?


brown on brown . . .
men tilling the dirt with
carabao


how can i
put into words
the flight of
an egret tilling
rice paddy shadows?

tonight's
haiku: fill in
the blanks


every day
without a break,
our worker
allows us to eat
the world for pesos


hazy dusk . . .
her smile this morning,
reigned in


i though of
contacting her again
but couldn't . . .
i'm teaching a good friend
to look in the mirror


old ninja,
why do you eat
buttered clams?


sometimes i
wonder why she doesn't
text me, the
air around me thick
with burning leaves


orchids . . .
tree climbing in
our back yard


what will i do
when balance trips
on an echo
and the chasm below
me speaks in tongues?


lonely dog . . .
the residents here
aren't stars


will the snake
bite me again?
the walls,
a drive-in movie
without popcorn?


this mind
traveling between stars . . .
sanity?


the sun lies
low, as if to remind
me of my
daughter's anger for
cinderella's step mom


morning yawn . . .
winter affirms life
with yoga


am i the
serpent, the creature
that conned eve
into eating the
forbidden fruit?


stair at me
dog, i am the melon
that killed you


swallow me
catfish, digest me
me in the
plates wrestling the
under world


she brings me
red orchid blossoms . . .
sans dark dreams


fuck you, mirror
the jokes on me, i
fail myself
and everyone else, a
rotting winter melon


sick dog, teach
me to persevere
the whispers


i live in
a wonderland even
alice wouldn't
fall into, the stench of
rotting corpses


wonderland?
your ticket to
hell and back


in the pail
your reflection's
a serpent
waiting to pull you
into it's spell


still the wind . . .
i become a brown
cracking leaf


the clouds on
makiling, a spell
she can't shake
off, wonderland's
newly built ride


the clacking,
bamboo, and your . . .
stillness


in the rice
field of my mind
i swim through
reflections dali
had issues with


still water . . .
only karma
to look at


robert d. wilson
©2009

Sunday, November 8, 2009

November 10, 2009























Another day, another part of the Wonderland Amusement Park:
a park unlike any other park, without an end, always expanding . . .
my thoughts and dreams dancing with yours on a stage made
of fireflies, shooting stars. We have fears, taboos, guilt, and ghosts
we don't like to share, wanting always to look good in front of others . . .
wearing masks that some mistake as real. Am I in the throes
of madness, an inventor of myths, a poet who thinks he's good but
isn't . . . Is this the song others sitting on dusty thrones too long
want you to think? It's time again to enter the Park's turnstiles, perusing
your mind and spirit through a different perspective. I only write the
poems and design the haiga, it's your job to interpret them. Happy
landing!



still windy,
inside and out . . .
whirlybirds


before dusk,
the rotors of a
dragon grow
louder and louder . . .
shivering trees


the fireflies
on your pupils . . .
towing clouds


this morning's
song flies between
a heron's
bamboo-like legs . . .
brushing water


un-calloused,
your hands haven't
felt summer


a nipa hut
without a hair
dryer ?
this dance under
bridges made of skin


light rain . . .
the muffled feet
of children


our child
will glue together
our souls . . .
crossing the river of
stars with without waders



forget time,
your love swims through me . . .
heaven's river


like a
carabao, the
man carrying
wares over his shoulders
with a bamboo pole


how can i
understand the rain,
breathing you?


a lightless
house, staring into
your heart . . .
a childhood pond
too long ago


how quickly
the bamboo grows . . .
gecko song


yesterday
we argued about
something
stupid like children
jumping in craters


sleepy wife!
up all night until
the sun crowed


want to
run in circles
with the wind?
on the street, a toad
covered with ants


how can the
bra seller sleep?
heavy rain


waiting for
the wind to change
its course . . .
we eat sushi made of
seaweed wrapped no's


waving grass . . .
she prefers foul air to
a night of stars?


tonight, inside
the cafe, we fed our
tiredness . . .
at home, reality
on a pogo stick


full moon . . .
she embraces darkness
like a mistress


i get an
e-mail from a woman
who forgot
she has a mirror . . .
scattered showers


winter moon . . .
a bar girl stares at
christmas lights


a good friend
paints stars on my
my stomach . . .
cereal boxes and
rooms by the hour


she listens
to a lewd ringtone . . .
chance of rain


the same girl
with the sad look
extends her
hand like an organ
grinder's monkey


morning glare . . .
we discuss her plans to
get pregnant


a tree full
of eyes waits for me
to drift like
a cloud into the
mouth of a catfish


the bamboo
planted weeks ago . . .
winter's child


i avoided
you last night, knowing our
photos would
be folded into
paper airplanes


no lettuce
in the palengke . . .
sing to me


a day here
is meaningless . . .
small black birds
circle a dead man
pretend he's alive


the coffee
was too weak today . . .
orchid buds


robert d. wilson

©2009

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

November 5, 2009
























Welcome to the Wonderland Amusement Park.  Santa took the day off, the concessionaire's out of cold beer, and no one sells giant plastic sunglasses in overcrowded shops smelling like sea salt.  The typhoon's come and gone, I'm waiting for the internet to switch back on, watched John Woo's movie, Red Cliff, at a local theater,and sipped two frozen margaritas watching the last half of a Steven Segal movie that'd stopped due to a brown-out. A normal day for most, but when you're haunted by dragons and ghosts, live inside of a Salvadore Dali painting, dance with Frida Kahlo, and suffer from PTSD, nothing's what it seems.






the night's last
showing of red cliff . . .
and the two
next to us don't stand for
the national anthem




that smile . . . 
your understanding
of the wind




you love to
look at yourself and
know you still 
have what it takes to
make the fog roll in




pregnant, you 
fall through a dream
into spring




to the full 
moon on halloween
we raise
our spirits, the tide
in a hurry to leave




humid winter . . .  
he eats a bowl of rice 
before a mirror




miles davis'
flamenco sketches . . .
i sail through
the narrow straits of
a heart painted red




moon watching . . . 
stirring a bowlful 
of stars




bear with me
a minute,  while i
undress 
and prepare the 
moon's bath water




day lillies . . . 
a path covered with
moth wings




in a few
minutes we'll enter
the other's
breath, carrying
purple orchids




your shower . . .
an interim between
blossoms




like bamboo, 
your transformation
into a
nerve ending, hollow,
sheathing sunlight




deep water . . .
a tilapia bites
the moon




what is it
i want? a carp to
jump through hoops?
a monkey to
collect pennies?




basho falls
from heaven's river
. . . soundlessly




massaging your 
back, you drifted through clouds
into a deep 
pond swimming with koi
like a rainbow




winter, yes . . .
but spring inside
the heart




this morning
you thought of me as
an angel . . .
my wings wrapped softly
around your heart




unfold for
me again, the petals
of ... can be




an addict?
a dog in need
of a leash?
he plunges deeper
into madness




swaying grass . . .
a eulogy for
mute dogs




anxious to
journey into the 
farthest
reaches of the park
without a map




a kigo in
a land that's always
summer?




what to do
when wind and rain
force you to
swing from a limb
singing, Jesus loves me




a long winter . . .
and the absence
of worms




if i let
you go, albatross, 
bring to me
a children's story
without an end




robert d. wilson
©2009

November 4, 2009






















Furthering explaining what my dear friend Sanford Goldstein suggested I do at the beginning of each diary page, giving an explanation of the who, what, when, where, and why of my poetry and haiga; nothing that it will unravel the puzzle but at least clue you into it's WHAT, I share the following:

Unafraid like most to reveal my true self, including the dark secrets that'll secure my place on the wings of whisper, I share with you here what goes through my mind this day.  Born on Friday the 13th, type A, genius IQ, more sensitive than the average female, unable to be like others, no matter how hard I try, talkative as hell, uncomfortable with crowds, and angry, I can be nothing else.  Nobody calls me on the phone, writes, e-mails, or texts me except for my sister, my daughter Krissy and my brother Jim, unless they want something.  I'm far from being on anyone's class anything list, and am not invited to parties.  I was told by my dad, a perfectionist, whenever he got mad, that I was a sorry son of a bitch who couldn't do anything right, was whipped with the metal end of a belt on my back until welts appeared, made the target of jokes when I would step out of myself to be accepted . . . I became the rebel . . . the outcaste who defied the norm, made the impossible happen, a caped crusader who could save anyone but myself.

I was our conservative high school's first hippie. I commandeered the high school turntable communications system and played Suzie Cream Cheese by Frank Zappa and the Mother's of Invention during the morning break to a shocked campus. I stood up to teachers, bullshitted my way out of almost situation, and organized our region's first love-in.  And, because I had good looks and was the high school body building champion, I won the hearts of several girls from more than one campus at once, using them to gratify my need for acceptance, carrying little about their feelings. But as karmic justice often has it,  at the same time, I fell in love with a few, was blindsided by naivity, and given my just due.  To make things more complicated, I helped the underdog and helped anyone in need, especially those who went without.  I enlisted in the Navy because I was afraid of getting a girlfriend pregnant, who later dumped me, signed up to go to Vietnam and fight commies, and while there, discovered drugs, fucked bargirls, helped a Catholic orphanage, changed my mind about why America went to war, fought the system, and was booted out of the Navy with a with a General Discharge for Unadaptability under honorable conditions. My fiance dumped me when i returned stateside a minute after she answered my knock on her door, I got in a motorbike wreck high on hashish the first week of my return, organized all of the anti-war demonstrations in President Richard M. Nixon's hometown of Whittier, California (USA), followed Alice into a wonderland of LSD and Mescaline, laid in my own vomit, fought off madness, discovered Jesus, organized and preached at concerts and Christian rallies, enrolled in a baptist college, affected the norm there too, and that, dear reader, is the tip of the iceberg . . .  doing this and that, my mind warped, angry, compassionate, helpful, a conglomerate of the good and the bad. I have five children, a stepson who's a son to me, 4 wives, went on a wild toad ride traveling between hell and heaven more than once, an unwillingly poster boy for those who preach against child abuse, drugs, the effects of war; taught the unwanted for 16 years in the public school system, and became the founder of the Wonderland Amusement Park, a place I'd never take one of my children to....  Read my poetry, view my haiga, discover a world only William Blake or Allen Ginsberg could relate to.  Read on, ride on the wings of whisper to me what it was you dreamt the other night after downing several glasses of brandy. Good luck crossing the bridge between taurus and gemini during the year of the Ox:



the wind, the
rain, the typhoon between
canyon walls!


imagine
feeling something you've
never felt
before, mount pinatubo
between the thighs

*Pinatubo, an extinct volcano that exploded like an atom bomb


brown-out;
like we could give a damn . . .
pinatubo!


let yourself
just once, feel what
scares you,
going over the edge
without panic


taal . . .
the caldera in the
lake, climaxes

*Taal, pronounced ta al, the most active volcano in the world


don't push me
away at the moment
you feel like
you're going crazy . . .
the sky shooting stars


a sea
turtle's shell holding
my ashes


if you knew
me better, you'd see
madness pulse
through every nerve
ending and thought


breathe in
the elixir of spring . . .
remembering


the river
behind our house . . .
on a hot
day, the cool water
whispering, "more?"


winter's breath . . .
don't follow me into
the squid's mouth


i'm too far
gone to pull myself
out of hell . . .
i dance the dance
taught to me at birth


this mind, the
curse given to me . . .
weaving webs


i've failed
everyone i've loved . . .
a whisper
gathering dust in
my sister's garage


last winter . . .
only crows and flies
will mourn


before i
die, i want to give you
something to
remember me by . . .
lightening flashes!


peach blossoms . . .
ferdinand fooled himself
with dreams


i can't
remember the last
time someone
called
to say, hello . . .
friday the 13th


surprised? why?
when was the last time
you called?


the end,
morrison sang slowly
as if
he alone held the key
to eternity


deep breathing . . .
having sex with the air
of winter


at the dock,
a magic swirling ship
that may or
may not taken us to
the dragon's heart


mud springs . . .
waiting for you to
open up

Once again
i plunge into the
carp's mouth
hoping to find the
fish's temple


through my
window a snail looking
through his


go on,
enter my world, fill
my sandals  . . .
fell the void that has
no intention of ending


under my
plate, a tiny ant
waits for dinner


fly your heart
on a paper kite,
its tail
festooned with a
thousand wordless prayers


tonight for
the reunion, pants
made of stars


your song when
i kissed your back
and neck
pulled me into a dream
i'd forgotten til now


this bright sun . . .
dreams of you laying in
a pool of blood


tease with me
the water wriggling
downstream in
a dark line at night
while milk fish spawn


vomit
people telling me
to come back


late evening . . .
i watch a thousand
stars sewn
together into
a moist full moon


dark, quiet . . .
hormones and hand
grenades


the dance of
your fingers at dawn
when light
fills your mind with
sampaguita blossoms

* Philippine national flower


grasshoppers . . .
singing empty
requiems


without the
other, we are halves
fastened
together with tape
on paper thin limbs


without you,
i'm a mango seed
sans water


robert d. wilson

©2009


Friday, October 30, 2009

October 28, 2009





                                          October 30, 2009





This afternoon a close friend of mine. Sanford Goldstein, asked me the following question:

Dear Robert--

"I READ OCTOBER 28--SOME VERY GOOD HAIKU AND TANKU, BUT WHAT IS MAKING YOU DO THIS?  YOU WILL HAVE TO LET US KNOW EACH DAY."

Sanford made good sense, being that what I am doing online is different, personal, revealing, and different from any English Language Japanese short form poetry blog or journal.  So Sanford, here it goes, as you suggested:











Says reknown Japanese poet and translator, Eiko Yachimoto about her visit to the Wonderland Amusement Park:

"I felt as if you were fishing with the line going down into your mind and heart. thank you for sharing." 








I just feel like doing it.  More people will read this than my book, I won't live forever, and I want my poetic voice validated and appreciated.  I have a style that is completely different than others and who knows, maybe more will be inspired to write and reveal real life, (from the inside out) just as you, I, and a few others do.  I'm not the average bear, don't fit into a mold, people think I'm eccentric, and I am. but then again, true artists (which includes poets) are thought of as strange ducks anyways because we more often than not march to different drummers, couldn't be macho if our lives depended on it, and hell, what can I say, I've yet to hang out or be part of a group of poets who are not sensitive, emotional, could never be a model Fuller Brush Salesperson, have egos.  Most people, at least in America, like to hang out with like types, people who mirror what they want to see and here, and when one deviates from the accepted norm, there is a price to pay.  AND if you deviate from the poets you associate with, you run the risk of considered an enigma, anathema, avoided and talked about behind your back.  I've tried a good part of my life to fit in and I never could.  Whatever I've done, wherever I've gone, I manage to stand out.  And NO, I don't intentionally cultivate this image. " I am."  "Who are you?" "I am." "You are what?" "I AM."


This blog is my daily diary.  Common to what some have asserted, none of what I write is made up.  Each day or so, I publish poetry that shares with readers my feelings, memories, emotions, the highs and lows, questions and emanating from the conscious and subconscious "Am."  Want to know me; the AM?  Read and try to understand my poetry from the state of mind you sense in each blog and not from your own state of mind.  Visit the Wonderland Amusement Park: a place where anything is possible.  I have been to hell and back more than once, seeing and experiencing what I hope few have.  Not all of the rides are fun.  Some are complicated, Some are wild toad rides speeding through a universe made of paper and tin. Others will scare the hell out of you.  I wouldn't let my child enter the Wonderland Amusement Park.  Enter and listen . . .













i allow
myself to be fooled
by pretty
young girls selling phones
to confused kanos


you acted
differently today,
wore make-up,
acted as if i were
the only rooster


i thought of
you today as i
always do . . .
an enigma
without a past


i can't pretend
you don't exist, a
bubble I'm
supposed to pop
when you enter the room



hurry, close
the closet door, explore
with me the
songs darkness sings
between the lines


nightfall . . .
the blossom i took
for granted


some day
you'll wake up from
the cartoon
you drew when reality
dealt you a bad hand


my mentor
the stars; the breath
of ma


let us
swallow the AM of
who we are . ..
side show barkers
with too many pockets


cooler nights . . .
the dance of a
thousand thoughts


it's when you
close your eyes like
blossoms
after dusk, that i feel
your words in my bowels


to be a
haiku painting's thoughts . . .
new rice


you said you
couldn't draw, made
excuses
you laugh at now . . .
a thicket of briars


keep painting
your brush has much
to tell you!



questions
as if i were on
trial
a name tag saying:
yes, i did it

   

the drone of
fans on a crowded
jeepney
                                                       

it turns me
on to watch you at
the mall dressed
like a bar girl with
a christmas light smile


the moon's arms
dangled on the edge
of the pier


your make-up
calls to mind chagall
the stretched girl
reaching for something
she has to have


the nervous
dance of trees waiting . . .
the typhoon!


if only i
could give you the
baby you want . . .
no long winter nights
waiting up for you


nearby stream . . .
the ova of my dreams
sleep in sand


yesterday
at the chinese herb
store, a girl
said:  i like your cologne . . .
my naivete


a young girl
spreads rice by the road . . .
christmas lights?


at night you
send messages only
a scholar
could decipher, with
more than one meaning



robert d. wilson

©2009