By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
We board planes
flying against dawn
climbing to cruising altitudes
looking down
into the macrocosmic mirror
of ourselves:
The Buddha’s hand meditating desert
arteries exposed
the spinal columns of continents
bending into capillaries
feeding the fascia of farmland
[Read more…]
For men and women who work for love and not financial gain
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
It takes a man
to do what my parent’s generation
deferred as “woman’s work.”
No minimum wage
cause and effect rewards
just salivating dogs
and pooper scoopers
the prolific
propagation of dirty laundry
the monotonous
mopping up of sweat [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Hope is half-timbered
across the Neckar River
Minds float into eyes
before the miracle
named Esslingen
A 500 year old story
preserved as a city
talking out on
a limb [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Sun beak of fire
pecking black murmurations
clawing night’s feathers [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
A refugee from Franco’s Spain
planted a garden
in the square
where Einstein lived
before the chaos theory of war atomized his house
Theoretical physics and poetry
collide in trees here
particles of matter
fly into birds
light bending wings into song … [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
When freeways flood
mind’s embankments
follow the scent of sagebrush
to higher ground
Up here sound is sight
shadows of clouds
thundering … [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Have you heard
echoes of waves
breaking in rocks?
Have you dipped your feet
into the shallow water
before it surged back to sea?
Touched foam
flying from stone? [Read more…]
For the global victims of poverty and greed…
By Ishmael Von Heidrick-Barnes
Holding up pens
won’t stop the human race
from running into fountains of blood
We must put down swords
before picking up quills
read
between lines
drawn in sand
Expose
the invisible ink … [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
If your car windows
didn’t automatically
roll up
Sorrento Valley’s rounded off hillsides
onto tinted glass
You might glimpse another city
through my windshield …
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
To bring
the two faces of January
together with honey and pears
To accept
the chirality of human brain chemistry
To humbly honor the distance … [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Half a dozen nights
before Christmas
bank robbers
breaking into sound sleep
repossessing
cars
On the fourth eve
the owner:
A full-time single mother
working three part-time jobs
blocks a gargoyle truck
with baby dangling arms
pleads to headlights on high beam [Read more…]
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
I won’t stop talking to myself
while: Money has the last
word
torture is up for debate
I’ll keep shooting propaganda
with poetry
until people kill guns … [Read more…]
