The Web Poetry Corner
The Web Poetry Corner
Howard Gipstein
of
Sunnyvale, CA, US
If you have comments or suggestions for Howard Gipstein, you can contact him or her at:
HCGPOET@aol.com (Howard Gipstein )
Find a book store near you, no matter where you are located in the U.S.A.!
...the best independent ISP in the Twin Cities
Early Morning Vibrations
by
Howard Gipstein
- generals of war
- in senseless silver lining,
- point to the ocean
- while vacuum cleaners fall from
- their eyes.
- beings from space pour grammatical errors
- into their glasses
- and drink to a pointless reality
- as an alarm clock goes off
- in a general's pocket.
- a telephone wire fades from view
- and goes off to join rimbaud and william blake
- in a poker game.
- it all changes.
- trains going east and west
- surge on into average disorder
- the movie slows down.
- a lamp shade rolls from a reflected room
- out in space.
Eleven O'clock Desert
by
Howard Gipstein
sunrise mystic lips of cave-in
sanity unyielding
changes i fly into mercy
streaming from naturally
zippers in my moon
close off sundays
i will catch your
mentioning favorite cash
subordination climbing on
zero ice
lips turn to powder
of freeway i look
into calmness rockets
factory
boiling.
Marching to Perfection
by
Howard Gipstein
look past parking
lots time zones
morality see your
i hope not
salad continue zipper
locked dreamless night birds
below horizontal
magnifying summer
laughing mechanical balance
why not thank you
meet me lately
very tired
easy flames continue journey.
End
by
Howard Gipstein
- in the middle
- of
- yesterday
- pine needles
- rushing
to the
- sides of Thursday
- horizon of clocks
- FLASHING
-
- in tomorrow's sky
- and calendar rockets
- fade into icicles
- in the zippers
- of memory
- casual
- SILENCE
- backing away
- and then
- filling the void
- cracks
- in the concrete
- the ground
- ON FIRE
- The ocean moves
- yes i agree
- but it can't go anywhere
- SO
- IT can't go anywhere
- it CAN'T go anywhere
- it can't GO anywhere
- it can't go ANYWHERE
- erehwynaogt'nacti
- so.
Glued Wires
by
Howard Gipstein
You're a series of ribbons.
You're a static electricity statue
deep within,
far away.
There are glued wires
screaming from you skull
like bees.
You call them angels.
There are glued wires
screaming from your brain,
pointing at the moon,
crashing into the sea.
Your eyes
reflect short circuits.
You're a series of ribbons.
Abstraction
by
Howard Gipstein
You're an ethereal abstraction
floating above city streets,
haunting me in alleys.
You erase time.
I am a chain reaction
of illusions.
I am stranded in the mountains.
We have created a chance
and now
we must take it.
We have created a chance.
We have created
a change.
You erase time.
I am stranded.
We create changes.
Changes create us.
I erase time.
You're an ethereal abstraction.
We erase time.
We are abstractions.
Unable to Touch
by
Howard Gipstein
We're unable to touch.
You can't get past my door.
You stand outside my window.
I see you looking in.
I'm a constant explosion, baby.
This room is shattering.
I walk around and around,
conscious of everything.
I try to call you
but I can't make a sound.
You look past me and mouth words
at the walls.
I try to call you.
Nothing happens.
I keep walking.
I still see you looking
at the walls
but I just keep walking.
You turn away
and move towards the street.
I'm a constant explosion.
The walls crumble.
I crawl to your door,
bleeding to death.
We're unable to touch.
Cartoon Warfare Ecstasy
by
Howard Gipstein
juggle of cloud my riffle
circus mystery playing cards
again storms of recreation
splinters heaven
sweeping children
cry again
no
one
resemblance
blank
time no more
gulping hello hello
holes in kitchen
cemetery wildness.
The Death of Pop Culture
by
Howard Gipstein
i was walking
it was midafternoon and the sky
was almost green
a car came by
and immediately crashed
there were large buildings everywhere
three paramedics came running
from across the street
people were coming from all directions
laughing and screaming
an old lady came by on a horse
she was holding a box
containing all the elements
of pop culture
she handed it to me
i looked inside
and saw several pieces of metal
twisting in many directions
i gave her back the box and
she rode on
i watched her disappear
into the glare of the sun
the paramedics pried open the car door
and looked inside
there was no one there
everybody left at once
i walked down a side street
and went into a store
i looked around for a minute
and decided to buy an ice cream sandwich
i didn't have any fun that day
Reunion
by
Howard Gipstein
in your bones i am a foreign country
you travel at night
with no destination
in you eyes i am a statue
in your womb
a shadow
in your veins
a desert
in your voice i am crying
in your mind i am forgotten
thru your windows
you see me on a quiet street
in your face
i am the lava
of your dissolving beauty
in your hands
i am aging
in your sleep
we are embracing
in your sleep
we are walls closing in
when you awaken
we are embracing
we are merging light.
Hal & Midge Get a Tan
by
Howard Gipstein
- hal & midge were going on vacation
- they were going to gilligans island
- they got in their car & started to drive
- they drove for miles & miles
- when we get there
- well go to church
- said midge
- when we get there
- well go to safeway
- said hal
- after a while they could see the ocean
- it was right next to a fosters freeze
- hal suddenly remembered that hed left his comb in the garage
- we also have a cat
- said midge
- so they turned around as blankets fell from the sky
- & returned to their house
- only to find that it needed paint.
- on top of the roof they could see the skipper
- who had since become a french existentialist
- complaining about hals haircut
- they went inside & closed the door
- i think ill make some toast
- said hal
- taking off his eyepatch & beret
- we already made some
- said the professor & mary ann in unison.
Underwater Marriage
by
Howard Gipstein
- i was attending the wedding
- of myth & reality
- it was being held in a submarine
- that was headed for russia
- there were so many people there
- that i never got to see the bride or the groom
- everyone was dressed in black or bright red
- except for carl jung
- who was acting as minister
- carl jung was dressed in a white flannel nightgown
- & was surrounded by a lot of brand new products
- of the unconscious mind
- when everyone was seated he picked up a garage door opener
- & declared it a universal symbol
- he did the same with a tv remote control device
- a set of water skis
- some nail clippers and a hairdryer
- then he auctioned everything off
- the reception was held at a boarded up mcdonalds
- on a deserted island
- by that time however i had gotten distracted
- & wandered off to another part of the world.
Structural Changes
by
Howard Gipstein
- the walls come down
- with a roar of fear
- that echoes throughout the world
- in the tunnels of the future
- the walls come down
- between the shifting fields
- where hope and despair toss the coins of peace
- and harmony falls like a bullet on the debris
- that gives way to the shifting of terror
- in the eyes of a beholder
- the walls come down again and again
- on tv and in the collective mind
- where history stands guard
- and east and west finally meet
- on the burial grounds of the void
- the walls come down forever
- on the tile floors of unity
- where politicians dance
- between the wealth and the glory
- the walls are disappearing
- but the pieces remain
- like an ancient myth waiting to be retold
giving up her halo
by
Howard Gipstein
she walks upon reflections she
holds
possibility i try to make
connections
she steals my memory she walks
around her virtue undecided undiscerned
shes giving up her halo to regain her
symmetry
& pain from the world while
her
chains all unfurl upon my ice of
whispers
upon her golden deck where
she
holds her lack of purpose
&
her constant restlessness i
see all
windows open just before all goes
black
she turns & draws the curtains
saying that she wont be back & she
turns
away from my eyes from the world
shatters her reflections of the
images i create i have no
recollections of what i used
to
contemplate she flies from
every
object just before her final form
wont
be held in misconception total
being
left unworn as she turns
away
from my eyes from the
world she locks all
doors
behind me she hides in her
weariness
i cannot pretend to see
her
she cannot emerge from this
her
fingers touch the substance
she
once dreamed we both contain
its
the lack that keeps her going
its
the past that keeps me sane
as
she turns away from my eyes
towards
the world
Keeping the Windows Clean
by
Howard Gipstein
Explosion of lite,
signals from fallen molecular secrets
become involved in consciousness exercises.
The ocean takes pity on the sand.
City streets flow in and out
of our minds like candy
on days when serenity
is like a candle
and reality is like a flame.
Galactic jello sends letters
to aimless people
who are involved with
keeping their windows clean.
Sometimes the universe
is like a thermometer rain storm.
Sometimes it's like an empty beer can
that's been frozen in the
present tense.
Sometimes it's like another way
of escaping breakfast.
Dryness
by
Howard Gipstein
First
we're given an infinite thirst,
then
we're set down
in an infinite
desert.
s WALL low wwwd
by
Howard Gipstein
the goddesses wurR iNtru b b ball so they came to the city to
disappear& after living in the streets for awhile they came to
live with me & we drank wine every night & we spoke little at
first but gradually they told me of their lives in the city of
their drunkenness & their hunger of their unseen holiness & their
vacillations btWn spinoza & nietzsche & they wuDd sometimes say
that divinity is the feigning of death that we cant exist as
living beings & at the same time as appendages of an external
living being for a living being must be its own caUSE &in the
MOuuornings they would sit quietly by thWIndow &when the sky grew
light they wouldd leave for the day setting off in every direction
in sRCHof the superhuman ideal but they would return each night
discouraged & eventually we all went into the mountains together
to celebrate free wilL & we found a meadow there divided by
3streams & the streams cross D& re cRoss d EACH other & each
stddream was a melody evokNG what the goddesses could no longer
remember but what they longed for just the same & they realized
that these were the forces that were carrying them thru this life
& I noticed the way the sunlight shattered across the treetops on
the highest peaks & I followed the path of eights that thwattTeAR
made around the slopes & rocks while the goddesses waded into the
coy me lo dies & then allowed thMSLvs tobe swallowed whole but
then they emerged dripping & mesmerized & they floated on the
surface saying that they were overcoming themselves & when they
came out of the water we drank some wine & passed a pipe around &
then the afternoon was gONe so we headed back but on our way to
the city their voices became frgmnts of rock glass & steel &
their words crashed against each other & shattered & soon after
our return they all went down to the harbor & caught a boat going
down thecoast to the mouth of th3streEE am s& I never heard from
them again but one night I was on a road that circled a lake &
the water was black & the sky was a mouth that had closed over
the stars & I thought I saw the gddsses approaching in a white
car but the car went by too fast for me to be certain & then the
sky ignited as lightning reached into the middle of the water &
some time later I met a woman who said she had come to the city
with the goddesses & they had traveled together for many years
but she spoke little about that or about anything else & she
stayed with me for 3days each day sitting by the window & reading
from her bible & I left each morning to go deep into the citys
splintering belly &at night I traveled back thru the debris of
rock glass & steel to find her asleep in a chair her bible open
to the book of jonah & after she left I remained alone trying not
to think too much about her or the goddesses as the city
continued to grow & fall apart around mE
thefrUItofMYth
by
Howard Gipstein
while walking along thtracks btwn thboarded up houses & the metal
& the rocks we shared the fruit of myth & tho we didnt say much
we walked side by side & then arrived in town just in time to see
two panhandlers a man & a woman standing on a stone & forming a
word one word between them that had never existed before & a
crowd stood watching trying to read the almost imperceptible
movements of their lips & listening for the slightest sound but
nothing could be discerned so we left them some money & walked to
a cafe & it was all dark wood rough walls & cracked ceiling & I
wanted to know how she moved so easily in such a solid world & I
wanted her to see how wild I was because of her & all she
illuminated & it was all about to explode but it was a stone
growing over my voice pressing out from my voice & I was at the
point of shattering so I pretended it wasnt there & we invented a
way of keeping a distance & then we ordered some burgundy & rum
altho we never drank any & we spoke constantly & I would have
unravelled then & left only a flame but I knew she would never
look so we remained half hidden & spoke less & less until finally
we walked away from each other into the stones & now she looked
past me from across the table & I looked at the walls & at
paintings & at words & I could not recall any of their textures &
I watched as a musician set up a spiral horn & I watched a man
toasting absurdity falling back in his chair & earlier hed been
dreaming & failing to laugh & the word that was forming was in
everyones hands & eyes & between the fragments of conversation
that were causing us all to fail & in the window I saw the
ancient hiRISEs ready to fall & the sun was setting so wE stepped
outside & crossed the street & then walked past a pawn shop
boarded up & falling down & then we crossed to a park where we
lay down on the grass for the stars were coming out & wed never
seen them so bright & we watched the orbits of all the celestial
bodies & we could see ourselves disappearing in all this & as the
lights came on across the street the panhandlers walked by still
forming the word & then they entered a hotel w/a broken sign over
an opaque window & then more lights came on down the street &
after awhile we stood up & walked back the other way towards the
darkness & as the lights became scarce we began to kiss but it
was starting to rain & she wanted to go inside again so we found
another cafe where the lights were always out & the panhandlers
arrived soon after & sat down & I wanted to approach them but she
held me back & the word was still forming in the total darkness
but no one would approach its source & the stone burst out from
me then & seemed to sparkle but only I could see it & then it
rose above our heads & vanished & I fell down into a chair into
myseLf for she was no longer there
The Web Poetry Corner is a Dream Machine Site