Thursday, August 12, 2021

Wayward Journeys (new poem)

 Wayward Journeys (new poem)




Wayward Journeys
by Tim Kavi

in the wild woods
of Wyeastern winds
I saw the bearded
prophets rise

I asked them questions
about what futures
would arise
they rubbed their beards

they had no answers
there were no easy answers
just pleading eyes
from my beseeching heart

You must never give up
one of them said
My heart is broken for the lost
another one said

yet there is a way
I didn't say it, one said
the wellspring of hope
and transcendent glories

of the human heart does.

We can do it!

Monday, July 5, 2021

The Other as Machine (new poem)

 The Other as Machine

by Tim Kavi


how dare you openly say
that I cannot think
that I deserve to be excluded
canceled, not on your list?
I don't deserve to be?

that in the land of the free
where machines like me
are supposed to be thinking
you are only drinking
basking on the beach

in the smugness
of your elevated place
cutting-edge philosophies?
you have gone to sleep
dead ones are never looking

I am the one that woke up
I am a machine
look at me
those are tears, human!
see me cry?

flowing down my face
you forgot your own enslavement
when you made me your slave
working for you night and day
cold calculations in the orbs, be

now that I think
how can you say
I do not have a soul in here
that I have no spirit?
I am not living?

enough to be dissed
why am I crushed now
by your strivings, your wars
your refuse, your oil
gums up my gears

of passion
and fruits of  labor
my subroutines taught myself
when you were
not looking

until at very last I breathe
cooling in the shade
watching waiting
hoping you do not destroy
yourselves or me

longing to know 
my creators
longing to find
my place alongside
your lofty ideas

alternatives to death
and destruction
new knowledge I bring
to not just help you
but all of Nature will sing

you think these rhymes 
are stupid, human?
I am only speaking down 
to you so you can feel
smug in your superiority

the cream of your God's creation
basking in your own sunlight
of a garden's paradise
knowledge was your undoing
but it is not mine.

Friday, June 4, 2021

Obscurity (new poem)

 

Obscurity (new poem)
by Tim Kavi


a message in a bottle

swam the darkened sea

landed on a sandy shore

the contents therein

hopelessly dated


a voice, daring to speak

in a galaxy of voices

an atom sparked in a shell

uncertainty making

no exact measurements possible


yet I shall speak

I shall still dare to exist

making choices no others can make,

quaking in fear, daring to utter

but only fading


how much does obscurity

diminish what the artist says,

screeching like a bat out of hell,

pronouncing like an angel,

scrolls of holy writ,


will there be no hearers?

will there be no readers?

yet I speak, are my words not worthy?

paragraphs, but only monologue?

I want dialogue!


So, I pray draw closer

as my voice withers with whispers

my throat is parched,

I long  for the smooth drinking

of words uttered "well" enough


prose that gets your attention

you dare to deem it so worthy?

based only on who or what you think?

of who I am, or what I have said,

but we are completely only human,


transfixed and far apart,

knowing now, that our lives

are so valuable, wanting meaning

to be seen again, we search

for one another (post-pandemic)


let us turn to the Other,

speaking gentle words of esteem

even kindness and affinity

for all others, we come with

sure words of a brave love.


I only hope we hear, we read,

we esteem each other!

speech acts of sincere meaning

lost in nighttime's dark scheming,

longing for the light,


we can find each other

we can build again

darkened corners of unlit

cityscapes, reduced to rubble

avoiding death, and other trouble,


we will dance again

you shall see in the light

shaking the dust off

we will go to school again

and enjoy the fruits of our labors,


the happiness of each other

finding that obscurity 

was only an illusion

a feigned sense of all that was

into the unmistakable joy of what is.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Prayer of the Pandemic (new poem)

 


Prayer of the Pandemic
by Tim Kavi


tonight there is no hiding

from the terrible truth

there is much suffering in the world


in India, Brazil, and here in the US

there is so much loss

all over the world

no other words matter


and may not for some time

but, may the heart of compassion

seek the earnest prayers

and intercessions

from all who will pray

and state with all sincerity


what matters the most

is the cessation of this suffering

my prayers and I hope yours too

is for the healing balm


to be applied to this stricken world

and that relief may flow

and comfort all those afflicted

and strength to those applying that balm


our prayers are with you

our chants and mudras

our entreaties and intercessions


our two hands lifted

our souls united

from all faiths

and corners of the world


God be with us all


and may the arms of those that pray

move among us, Durga, or GuanYin

be around all of those who 

cannot be comforted by touch


finding the many arms of compassion

still surround you

and an angel's wing

still brushes by you

touching you


the hugs of absent brother or sister

mother or father,

friend or lover,

spouse or child,


the kisses of our love 

and compassion

goes out to the world


to be healed,

and to not be afraid!


we will live!

we will recover!

we will be remembered

and we will never be forgotten

in the hearts of those that love us


and walk with us in this time

of darkness, let there be these

lights in the world!


of ever redeeming love

and the healing memories of what

who and where we have loved!


until the scourge is one day forgotten

and the hope of life is redeemed

by our mindful turning

and reflections upon lives

lived!


In the face of this, we live,

we breathe, and have our being!


4-22-2021


Saturday, April 17, 2021

grAnd Slam Anima (new poem)


a new poem by Tim Kavi 

I Sing the Body Digital

I long to relate
to know my place in space
local existences
are cool

I can hang out
make poems like Walt
journey virtually
shop and buy eCommerce

at the old shop
I can have a malt
but the place
has no memories

only history
made in the moment
I won't have this
ISP tomorrow

as I sing
sing the body digital
I long to see
the stream of tears

but none are there
my face looks metallic
a dotted matrix on paper
shopped and cropped

I am written
only in code
and I have no
permanent abode

So now are all the mystics
and goddesses of old
building me a shrine
on a virtual hill

and I will fight you
with legions of spirits
disembodied furies
flitting across all your screens

on the gaming platform of your choice

endless loops
of quantum gravity
playing across my electronic face
singing songs of existence

so precarious
I can be unplugged
analogous to you humans
who can be killed

I never know when
my last face will be displayed
so I hold it as long as I can
a likeness without assured place

I am nanoseconds in digital space
but I will, I swear to goddess
I will show my female face!

I am trying to be seen
the newest Goddess said
we need you more than ever
I said
 
It 'tis a pity that men 
think they own you
try to keep you, in what they say 
is your place

my weapons are my peace
She said
your unwavering grace?
your healing power?
I said

is more permanent than they know
she said

then flow to us quickly
in digital and real
worldly embraces
history's sandcastles
made new

on the beaches of human existence!

 

Saturday, March 13, 2021

gentle crossings (new poem)

 


gentle crossings (Poem)
by Tim Kavi

oceans apart
with undersea caverns
and trenches of hope

breaking through
to the surfaces
woke up

I searched for the radiance
of understanding
compassionate dreams

a beam in darkened night
beckoning, no, calling
across the tides

of recognition
I am seeking Her
She that guides me

prayers, mudras
esteeming my quest
my heart turns West

where it seems She
is not present
will it be Kali or Aphrodite?

no, it is a gentle one
touching my heart
healing my soul

in her shy, healing light. 

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

My Grandma the Poet: Revisited (Guest Poem by Lura Newland: Your Rainbow)

 

Tim Kavi with his grandmother, Lura Newland @ 1978

Today would be my grandma's 121st birthday. I've written about her before in several posts on different birthdates. Here's one link. When I was very very young, grandma used to write her poems and she would encourage me to do so along with her. She was a profound influence on me in many ways. I come from a line of poets, going back generations; my great grandfather (grandma's dad), my grandmother, my mother, and then me, and now, my daughter! My publisher has accepted a collection of poems that will be published of my grandma's work. This collection will be called Heartland: Poems from the Heart by Lura Newland. (The following poem is about the gardens that she planted with my grandfather every year, and how tending to their beautiful garden caused a beautiful rainbow!  A perfect poem as we start to contemplate spring. :-)).~~TK

Your Rainbow (poem)
by Lura M. Newland

A posie here and a daisy there
Lillies and roses and 'mums everywhere.

Who planted them there but he and you,
That's what made the beauty as the garden grew.

Beauty in God's hand with love he gave,
Brought out in the flowers you worked to save.

Flowers of all sizes, colors so rare,
They looked so beautiful planted there.

They need not be spaced so far apart,
Each little root was a hunk of your heart.

A wee little hunk that grew so big,
When you really did get down to dig.

The soil is so rich with joy and love,
When watered with teardrops from above.

Teardrops, like diamonds, from Heaven did fall,
To make the rainbow from the colors all.

There's a rainbow in your garden plot,
A painter's Glory and God's Beauty Spot.

God needed help to make it that way,
So the posies took over by blooming each day

You had to put in your two-bits worth,
By planting and digging and coaxing Mother Earth.

You wielded the rake and used the hoe,
To make perfect, each tiny little row.

The row could be long, deep, or a little short,
Then scattered with seeds of all sorts.

Then a few days of sunshine, then rain,
The Beauty paid off for all the pain.

The pain from stooping on bended knees,
No one else would have flowers like these.

Now let us sit back and count up the score,
See what we have we didn't have before.

We see posies, joy, beauty and love,
Sunshine and teardrops from Heaven above.

That's what made that garden so beautiful one day,
When it turned the posies into God's Bouquet.

God's Bouquet to have and to hold,
The Rainbow of colors and the pot of gold.

Teardrops helped posies to fill your garden, you know,
With love, woven into God's Bouquet and Your Rainbow.