Sweet - Poetry by John Bauman

Sweet lifeblood flowing through me.
Sweet pulses.
Sweet…
      pulsations and sensations.
Sweet sounds in my ears.
Sweet sights.
Sweet indulgence.
Sweet imagination
      of words put together.
Sweet existence.
Sweet sandwich, sweet chocolate, sweet television show, sweet lies spewing forth, sweet
      selling of your soul, sweet bedtime.
Sweet dreams!


-John Bauman

The Sage of Stone Chime Path

In the morning

his soul beat like the wings of a thousand summer
geese taking the sky.

In the winter

his thoughts are clear and cold as snowflakes.

in the evening

a song dances from his fingertips.

In the firelight

he grazes on the passions of smoke.

Who is this wandering king,
                      the sage of Stone Chime path?
From whence does he receive his powers?

From the gathering wind and the green-sea foam
it is carried on tiny wings.
From the rolling clouds and the starlit sky
He feels the grace of heaven.

Do not harm him for in his wrath,
he breaks the mountainside.
but the greatest danger is that his touch
will strip you bare of sorrows.

He has loved you since the dawn of days.
And in dreams he dreams of you
                        Naked under the sun
                              your former dreams
                                      shattered
                                            like ice on the stones.


-Jeremiah Griswold

Is your shadow part of you?

Is your shadow part of you?
Is a scar part of you?
Is your hair part of you?

Is the air in your lungs part of you?
Is the water in your bowels part of you?
Is the living blood carried away by a mosquito part of you?

Are the photons emitted and absorbed by your skin part of you?
Are mitochondria part of you?
Are the bacterial colonies which inhabit your body part of you?

Is your child part of you?
Is your family part of you?

Are your memories part of you?
Are thoughts part of you?

Is the way you move part of you?
Is the sound of your voice part of you?

Are your fingernails part of you?

Is yesterday part of you?
Is what you might do part of you?


-Jim DuBois
Nov 4, 2013

From Return of the Slacker

The sub-culture of slacking

I live in the United States
and I am eating chips.
The United States!!!
The United States of “fuck it”.
The sub-culture of slacking.


-John Bauman

In the news today

In the news today:
People turned off their TV’s
and were seen walking down the street
feeling love in their hearts
and smiling.
And the love radiated outward to others
who then felt this love and turned their TV’s off.
But they didn’t see the news report
about the people walking down the street feeling love in their hearts.
But it didn’t matter
because they were experiencing
and not just hearing about it.


-John Bauman

Running

Running, running, running
Passing by people
Hearing pieces of conversations

“I used to wear heels like that”
“That’s how they do it, I guess”
No money, damn it! You're an anti-intellectual!
How much did you pay for that dress?

Running, running, running
Past people,
Along streets,
Too fast.

Cursing, gasping, spitting
Why am I always late?
Old man time is an asshole!

Gasping, huffing, spitting
I can’t, I hurt, it’s too much
Damn it

Gasping, aching panting,
Slowing, slowing, slowing
Stopping

Walk it off


-Dimitri

(I had the pleasure of having Dimitri composing this little gem while sitting around my apartment yesterday. -Jim)

The Thunder

The thunder spoke to me today.
It said
I will rumble across the sky unabated,
ecstatic.
Roll on
through eons of time
through your physical form
opening your heart
and I will show you love.


-John Bauman

illusion

Life is an illusion.
Man, I gotta pay the car bill!
Get that illusion off in the mail.


-John Bauman

For years I’ve had this fantasy

For years I’ve had this fantasy.
I’d like to say a bunch of nonsensical things
through a megaphone,
maybe downtown.
My dying wish…
get me a megaphone!


-John Bauman

Bad Hair Day

Bad hair day,
yet a good day.
Please accept my condolences,
for uh…
whatever it was that happened.
It’s good to be a spectacle,
I mean skeptical.
If I could just get your social security number, please.
We just need it for our scam, I mean our records.


-John Bauman

The Gift

I breached your borders
Broke your boundaries
Invaded your country
Burned your villages
Killed your people
Tortured your families
Destroyed your crops
Tortured you
Contaminated your water
Laughed at your resistance
Spoiled your lands
Lied and lied and lied
Even though you knew I was lying
And I knew I was lying
And I knew you knew I was lying
But now I’m tired so I am leaving
And I am leaving you The Power Of Now,
English language edition.


-Dimitri Oram

This One Pen

Art/poem

Return of the Slacker - The Book

I made a book of the poems on my other blog, Return of the Slacker, and now you can get a copy yourself. It has around 182 poems in it, and a bright modern painting of mine on the cover. Many people have enjoyed reading my poems, and I wanted to make them available in another way, so more people can.

Get one today!

Soft and Tender Love Stories

A thing I made a while ago, with scraps I found on the ground or on something I was throwing out. I don't have the original anymore, just the original photocopies of the arrangement.

-Jim DuBois

Quark Dreams

I had this dream
that I was explaining to Robby
that when electrons jump from state to state,
they sometimes emit photons.

I woke up
and thought about
that living beings
are made of the same stuff,
like electrons and protons,
as other matter,
and that
all those weird quantum things
apply to the underpinnings
of our own selves.

Do we emit photons
every once in an improbable while?
do our protons ever decay?
do we have junk DNA and multiple back up RNA
to compensate for quantum randomness
that might disturb our
cellular reproduction?

I pictured us
as glowing collections
of subatomic particles,
heat, trapped and controlled
by elaborate methods,
like neurons and DNA.



-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

A Handmade Life #5

This is a great art zine put out by my friend Robin Olson Mayberry, and it also features some art and poetry by me. There are a lot of collage journal pages, and articles about the simple life. Get a copy!

Or visit Robin's website to see more of her creativity: Alchemy Studios

I fell in love with a nobody

thinking that I wouldn’t
and never would
what if I become
a nobody too?

~ 30 Aug 06, written in 20 seconds. Partly inspired by the poetry of Zen monks like Ikkyu and Ryokan

Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

Light & Dark

[light]

Raindrops on
My room window
I think of
You
And to the night
I wonder
If you’re thinking
Of me
Too?

[dark]

Raindrops against
My room window
I think of
You
And wonder
If you think of me too
Or if
You’re spending the night
With
Your TV set.

-Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain

1000

A thousand kisses
A thousand apologies—
We aren’t meant to be.

~ 14 Feb 2004
Jess C Scott
from her book Porcelain