The Coming of the Toads

A Notebook – Since 2007

Tag: photo poem

  • Just to Pass the Time Away

    din din the din again awakens within opossum’s impossible
    sleep who who who off course assume he’s just fakin’ it

    come rumbling down Mariposa Hill on steel skates nailed
    to two-by-four a narrow but elephantine wobbling thing

    a train carrying loads of images (more than Instagram) of pics
    not taken (bench flowers, wood windows, alleyway signs)

    books browsed but not bought (Merton and Bukowski,
    perfect bookends) clickety clack clickety clack the slides fall

    into the track and story lights illuminate the cars one night
    after another a passenger train book full of water filled pages

    the dappled light brushed gravel path below the tall umbrella
    flowering rhododendron grove somewhere the sounds

    of rumbling water tousled over rough rocks submerged tales
    rail cars dome car windows at night simply reflect your own story

    when what you want is to read the stars their ingredients in a wok
    galaxy spinning with caramelized onions

    peppers spinning whiffle balls the train now crossing and switch
    backs aside the can’t-make-its-mind-up river down river tracks

    and the railroad tracks a fretboard of rail strings wound tight
    miles uptrack put your ear to the rail you can hear chords

    clickety clack clickety clack don’t look back don’t look back
    train train coming down the track arpeggios

    but you “forgot to remember to forget” and the train
    brings it all back home in the kitchen with old tooth

    making french press coffee in a 10 gallon drum
    walking in circles circle of fourths and slide shows

    just to pass the time walking down the line offshore
    in the distance the library of parisian bold coffee cafe

    Train Cartoon
    Depot w Susan
    Train Snow
    Train Depot
    Tracks above Refugio
    Refugio Trestle
    Train Depot
    Tracks in Woods
    Train Adventures Harmonica


  • One Winter’s Rest

    Where in white flats over hills and dales
    live snowy creatures in snowy hills
    overcast the sky a white veil
    covers a frozen forest of fairies
    in fallen fate telling tawny tales
    and this winter’s rest one rare bird
    flew west into the sun passage
    over the ocean and caught waves
    and played with the dolphins
    improving her endorphins.

    “Over hill, over dale,
    Thorough bush, thorough brier,
    Over park, over pale,
    Thorough flood, thorough fire;
    I do wander everywhere,
    Swifter than the moon’s sphere.”

    Spoken by Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    Act 2, scene 1, lines 2-7

    Hang Glider off Torrance Cliffs late 1960s from 35mm Slide. Palos Verdes in background.

  • Think Again

    I thought once again
    and again and again
    and still the nagging
    thing rang an alarm
    clock in an assembly
    line repetitive factory
    too much time on my
    hands think again our
    Supervisor said again

    I thought twice thrice
    four to the bar again
    with my factory wife
    any number of numb
    clock ticking times X
    and after time was up
    the world no more in
    need of time clocks
    we laid off thought

    thought again and again
    of my time on the line
    spent thinking not off
    the pieces clicking by
    but on some other
    think I can’t now seem
    to remember again
    lost as I am to thoughts
    again and again and again

    Mad Tea Party
    San Francisco, 1968

  • Benches

    On benches in parks I’ve sat for a time
    to study under trees that filled the air
    space and clock count of season and reason
    circled by children dancing and being
    where we get away from Earth for awhile
    flying benches to the moon through branches.

    But kids don’t sit on benches for too long
    and after a snow the park is stone cold
    if you go out you’ll hear the benches groan
    see paint peel the wood cracking like branches
    the distant winter sun cool as heaven.

    Here is one a bench branch elephant’s trunk
    bent low for the girls to climb up and sit
    bouncing to tunes in the key of summer.

    I will find a bench to sit and pull out
    pen and notebook the devil to scribble
    in a park street sidewalk outside a pub
    wherever placed with angels of quiet grace
    and return to Earth in time for dinner.

  • Autumn Us

    In the evening the sun is placed
    over 60th and Belmont walking
    down the middle of the street
    into the powdery scene I snap
    a few pics with my phone cam:

    Autumn Equinox 2022 from SE Belmont and 68th

    Earlier in yard I cut feather grass
    as dry as a lint trap and the spent summer
    daisies cringed crinkled into dust as
    I yanked on the stiff stems like the barber
    at my gone to seed hair a mess she said.

    Looking west over downtown to West Hills from SE 68th and Stark

    End summer evenings still too hot
    to walk but coming of Fall equinox
    portable air conditioner quiet fan
    spins cooler nights tiny blue eyes
    charge to pay to keep cool to sleep.

    A day later, a bit cooler, orange to blue, Morrison and 68th

    So it goes Vonnegut said so it goes
    around and around on old vinyl the needle
    finishes its drive toward the center the turntable
    still spinning the needle clicking back
    and forth wanting to stop but caught in the groove.

    Caught in the groove walking around and around

    No one understands Universe least of all physicists
    who must talk a taught tongue while the rest of us
    find rhymes and rhythms as we dance around and around
    until the moon goes down as Chuck Berry said around and
    around until the sun goes down and the moon comes up.