Breeding Poetry

I love poetry that breeds poetry. That's what happened with Kory's butt shaking piece from October 18th. Julie another Sparrows fan has given us her version you can see here. Also there has been a discussion on a poetry circle that I subscribe to that is asking basically, "How do we help change the languagethat has us and our land and our people in thrall?" My response is a poem that I'll also post here. Keep the poetry coming. Love it!

Scattering Seeds
-after Kory by Julie

I don't want to butt shake in the kitchen
I want a good old fashioned butt shaking to happen in the street
near the neighbors xeriscaped garden
she waters it every other day
and when I confront her
with the meaning of
xeriscape
she bends over
butt in the air
pulls out thistle and bindweed
from in between the sandstone walkway

one day I hit the metal edge separating my grass from her mulch
broke my lawnmower
created a sharp edge

my dog tends to prefer pissing on one plant near the sharpness
I stuck an old sign there to protect his feet
my other neighbor
the man
points to the sign says
she lost you know
and I say
Haven't we all?

Haven't we all
don't we all lose the battle with weeds is what I mean
Rain or water comes every other day and
I can almost hear the seeds popping
like snap rockets in the street
on the fourth of july or Mexican independence day
that's what's happening this week in
living rooms across the country
seeds being scattered
some sprout in to gardens and others in to weeds
I want to do what my neighbor does
I want to bend over in the garden
butt shake
and pull

How to Change the World in Word
by Jude

perhaps a let it rip session
in loud voice now and then
but all praise as in Sherman
Alexie's most beautiful poem
about the saving of his child
or perhaps a loud open lunged
singing in the woods with no
human to hear a halleluiah chorus
of trees, bugs, land and me

how about listening to the language
of children and learning how to speak
simply again or silence how is tares
away the pretense of the well spoken

passionate words as in the search we
make for endearments for lovers whose breath
makes us too grateful for words
or the music of sirens the invention
of new meanings reclaiming the language
of war as in wage peace or poetry or love

made up word sounds that carry meaning just
in the curl of the tongue and the lips around them
singing everything for a day as children do when
they're riding in cars and alone with the godfilled
fantasy that says they really are the center
of the universe, not i'm the only one, but there
is no place or person that is not that center

maybe cultivate words for each person on
earth as in a name with meaning that might
change at any time or the adam action a reaction of
letting eve name animals this time and take
away some scientific, wasteland thought and
replace it with something dark, gooey with
scent and color take away the keys for a week
and see what a beautiful tree free piece of paper
asks of the perfect pen and in usage
a new word everyday to place on the
earth as a love offering something to
pass on to our children's children that
says more, not less and why not two by two
or ten by ten why should scientists be the ones
to invent new words and not poets rise
up with me and sing meaning into this
vast land and don't say waste or want say
ravish me, say fecund, say mudlefrucker
say amen.