Cascando

simple to touch

simpler

        if not knowing

or caring not caring

but this cascando tonight

is no answer

there are white stars

& beyond them

a dawn

a brightness

there are black stars

& beyond them

an absence

an emptiness

        if we knew again

again we can't

there is only this

a nakedness

a nakedness words won't clothe

if we grow thin grow gaunt

they'll tell us we are in love

we grow thin grow gaunt

we have no love

Dick Russell
First published in Littack, 1974, edited by William Oxley

Pendants

Long ago   

I gave her earrings    silver pendants

she has not worn them

does she keep those earrings

will she wear them?

perhaps she'll wear them to a party
perhaps she'll look a little arty

or will she wear them
and nothing else?

if she wears them

she may keep them handy
 in her drawer
with several scarves

only put back     never selected

has she worn them?

if she wears them
would I notice?

Dick Russell
copyright (C) 2017

In Memoriam: Basil Bunting

            1

some images claw to light

from dark   climbing hand over hand

up from a cave to appear near a spring

surrounded by willows

while others grow like sycamore seeds

sown by trees

in an aerie eaglets shudder

while images claw

wingbeats shatter cold air

sunlight slanting through willows

shading horses standing in water

chestnuts and bays   Anglo Arabians

with a colt watching a stallion

mares standing deepest

conscious of a colt

that will toughen with time

an eagle circling the sun

up in the vega   eagles soar

where troubadours wandered

solitary men   that many might have helped

had had less pride

           2

And whose horses are these?

a stallion spurred away

by a black booted Spaniard in Andalusia

spooked by a muse swimming naked

in a pool under the falls

where sun boiled pebbles

make potatoes for a poet

    

and poetry wants to be naked with you...

bold words if spoken boldly

else pathetic   whispered by that sensitive

youth we grow tired of

grooming mares in imaginary fields

there are ways of working

like turning words on a wheel

in a spiral towards meaning

and there are ways of laying down tools

signifying    completion

                    

            3

  

Then owlet flew with slow wingbeats

from fence post to barn roof

rust dusted her talons

moon rose over Stonehaugh

yellow bloom in purple leaves

above black edge

                      (written near Ronda, Spain 1985

                      and at Roughside near Tarset

                     part 3 published in The Hexham Courant about 1971)

Jim McDermott on Justice 2008     

Well it’s been interesting

 It’s been a long time since I went to Baghdad and Basra.

Hey look at that eagle!

I often see eagles from this window.

Baghdad Jim I am, and will forever be, since then.

The media has stopped calling

I’ve been blacked out  

No more TV

No interviews.  You would have thought…

Why’s that?

What did I say to cause such offence?

I said there’d be no WMD, well they didn’t find any, and

I said Bush would make up a story to justify Iraq, and

I was right, going into Iraq was based on, oh well, let’s no go there.

It doesn’t pay to be right it seems.

That picture is out of true.

Lopsided. I’ll straighten it.

See that bamboo picture over there.

Bamboo bends: “the Buddhist ideal of a public servant”

Someone with strong ideals who can compromise without

Betrayal

Of course if the media would accept that our trip to Iraq was legit

There would be consequences, maybe, just maybe!?

Over 4,000 dead in the military shows there

Have been consequences, right?

I was born and raised in Chicago.

Some say I’m an Irish politician with the gift of the gab.

I think I’m a typical American with American values.

In politics I’m flexible, up to a point. 

I’ve always spoken up for freedom, ironic isn’t it?

Now it comes out that my trip was paid for by Saddam.

This Al-Hanooti guy they indicted, why now?

Seems like he spread his money around, gave some to

Bush, was photographed with Hillary.

What’s going on?

 This comes out now?

Could it be to hang around Hillary’s neck if she’s the Candidate?

But I don’t regret going. 

As the majority now agree, that war

Was a mistake and if I could have done more to stop it

I would have.

Then there’s the $1.1M I’ve had to pay off Congressman Boehner to wrap

Up that ten-year vendetta.  One point one

Million dollars in judgment

Boehner’s legal fees!

They were twice what I paid.  Was

I short changed by my legal team?!

Makes you think?

A million is a cheap price to pay for a

principle: freedom of speech.

I didn’t bend like bamboo that time. 

So Newt and Boehner were morally wrong; but

I pay a fine.  That’s interesting isn’t it?

If I’d had that tape read into the Congressional Record, all would have been fine.

But giving it to the press, who would have thought?

So what’s next for Baghdad Jim.

I want to get Healthcare sorted out next year.

Obama? Hillary? How will I vote?

I’ll do what I think’s best for the country.

Dick Russell, based on a fund-raising event at Rick Steve's Europe Through The Back Door in Edmonds, WA and an earlier meeting in Seattle.

Avoiding Saint Peter

and when I arrive at Saint Peter's gate

will I have to recite

            wevver the weather be fine

or whether the weather be not

            we'll weather the wevver

whatever the wevver

            whether we like it or not

to assess my social class and subsequent disposition

full fledged and flying free

from thicket to thicket

like a finch

I'll skirt Saint Peter's gate and fly

straight to the rafters of Heaven

where my feathers will gleam in the radiance

of fires far below

© Dick Russell