#Poetry for a #NewYearsEve- “To Kiss You At Midnight”

midnight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TO KISS YOU AT MIDNIGHT

 

In the old wooden box beneath my bed, rumpled bills,

scattered coins look almost enough to come to you

but alas, I know, they are too few.

I would give them all and more if only I could kiss you.

 

Playing all the sad songs from 1982,

re-recorded cassettes, precious, far from new,

I would burn them, crush them, hurl them into watery hell

if I could see your face to kiss you.

 

The single photo of the mother I barely knew,

sepia pale, curled and ragged edged:

wide brow, lips slim, like mine the eyes so blue,

but even this precious memory I would sacrifice to kiss you.”

 

And I say from “A” New Years Eve because people from different cultures and countries celebrate/recognize it at different times. The poem is from my first collected book of poetry titled, “CORE” (2014), available at Amazon, Smashwords and other online retailers. Post about its release here on-site.

The poem was written with the knowledge and from the perspective of the young deaf gay man whose biography I helped write and prepare for publishing. It is entitled, “Silence Is Multi-Colored In My World”, and an award in category, best GLBT memoir/biography in the 2012 Rainbow Awards.

 

Editorial reviews: Continue reading “#Poetry for a #NewYearsEve- “To Kiss You At Midnight””

“NGO’s, Accomplices & Why ‘Ally’ Is the Wrong Term” #IndigenousRising

Allies. Supporters. Friends. When all the aforementioned, by whatever description, bring additional issues too many don’t want to address, let alone admit. So what can be done, especially from an indigenous perspective? It is a critical time of critical need, of native revitalization and resurgence, when internal or external forces must not hold entire movements […]

The Historical & Modern Dangers of Non-Native Interpretation of #StandingRock & #Indigenous Movements

I’m currently finishing Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath by Barbara Alice Mann, which was published in 2016 by Oxford University Press. While it has many, many, many truths the majority of the non-native world, academicians, scholars, so-called experts and others have overlooked, ignored or missed, there is some which  some natives don’t or only […]

My Short Clip On AlJazeera “The Listening Post” #NoDAPL & Media’s “Scant” Attention

Last week I was contacted by a representative from AlJazeera English, to give my response to a few questions about mainstream media’s minimal coverage of the largest “protest” in modern American history, and what kind of issue it was: Native only? Environmental? The resulting report was published on Dec. 10, 2016 at the Al Jazeera […]

Last Night I Dreamed #WaterIsLife

Water Is Life
                     Photo by Cempoalli Twenny, by general permission. Added graphics by me.

THE DREAM

Last night I dreamed of a great wave. Of having been in the front yard of house with about a dozen other people aware of possible bad weather coming, a storm of some kind, but the air was calm rather. The sky rather watery looking pink pearl, orangish, bluish with a hint of green in the southeast but not unusual. The day is unusual in its clarity, as if water glistens on every surface: skin, grass, clothing. Despite the weather watch, I decided to go walk west along the great pier front, beyond where these houses shelter in the safety of a cliff overhang.

The pier front is a series of mostly iron fastened wood, stretching across a bay. It is closely packed with businesses, balconies and shops built close to the shore. Farther, the piers curve back to the left were ladders, scaffolding-like with steps built up to yet another high pier where if you climbed up you could see much farther out. It all seemed safe and okay to do so, and feel on top of the world, cool though untouched by a breeze.

One person I knew from the gathering in front of the house had wandered out there too, following me maybe. Probably. As calm and peaceful as it still looked, a sherbet sky of peach, raspberry and lime, just in the next moment, a call went out as if over a broadcasting system: there was an incoming wave, a tsunami. And then I could feel it, and I paused in that eternal second you know if you’ve ever been in a tornado or something. Just before it strikes, before you can see it sometimes, particularly with a tornado: there is a dead calm, but you can almost feel yourself lifting. It is terrifying, and if you’ve ever felt it once, you never forget it because it’s no joke. Continue reading “Last Night I Dreamed #WaterIsLife”