bagworm

john martone

samuddo / ocean 2014

bagworm copyright 2014 by john martone ISBN 978-1-312-11912-3 samuddo / ocean johnmartone@gmail.com

bagworm

swept drifters emplastrum no-mark electric erseuparamecium a circle in sanskrit iuncus mitre box deadbolt minomushi pitudaruh

swept

forest

a front door unlocked all winter

10

a bead of light around that door

north wind opens the front door & you go

11

headlights & planets a winter night

in a sealed car warmer than those houses

12

wood smoke straight up that cold

icicles fringe a mountain house on stilts

13

a wood-burning stove an electric bulb

their bare wood floor swept

14

family clothes all smelling the same woodsmoke

shell be this age the rest of her life

15

5-gallon

pvc water-bucket walk

a moments
confusion this trail

16

the animal
the molecule

17

a crow yells thru the snow flurrys glitter

18

sky-blue
ice-blue cedar seed

19

drifters

waking up one morning retina having torn eyes full of circlets & other creatures swirling in waves of light

21

lying in bed eyes full of plankton

22

plankton all along thats you drifter

even now yr body a dense plankton cloud

23

plankton
any ones just a stage

24

coccolithophore
8-spoked wheels in you measure less time

copepod
bodys center light receptor

25

copepods
diapause people lie down

anabaena
each syl la ble an al gal cell

26

navicula

(youre too big for this see-thru boat)

plankton
raise cliffs people small houses

27

lonely

night his microscope

28

his nick-nack shelf

a microscope

when theres nothing else his microscope

29

both hands full

a microscope

30

microscope

the weight of a plaster statue

this microscope shouldve taken you places

31

facetotectan
no one knows what youll become

32

blindness
that flash the micro scope mirror

33

a lunar

depression microscope slide

34

Phaeocystis globosa
the jelly of his eyes planktonic jelly

35

a glass flask plankton

36

micro scope
barrel lenses vernier stage for thee waterdrop

cosmosphaera
waterdrop full of broken globes

37

a long ladders broken in this waterdrop

blue

after two billion years

38

clear sky
planktons waste

study

diatoms this lifes folly

39

microscope

didnt see his house get dark

40

6 syllables
velella velella

41

velella
velella my little blue boat my trans parent sail my colony of one fingerprint in the wind

42

carotenids

amidas pure land

43

emplastrum

ghee and honey mixed to a paste with wheat flower the sutra on visualization

45

his winter
despair a plaster wall

46

van-goghyellow
but no sun flower plaster wall

47

plaster walls older than yr father around you

horse-hair diatoms sawdust water another age plaster

plaster wall a man-made abyss

48

riven

plaster river

49

plaster wall

here-&-there deer tracks

pictures

of boats over broken plaster

50

night

my plaster walls mare tranquilitatis

51

plaster wall

all these years youve never washed it

plaster wall

a lotus from the rubbish heap

52

shizumis
hand written nem butsu my plaster wall

53

6 syllables
plaster wall plaster wall

close yr eyes

see whats under a plaster wall

54

darkness
lath 2x 4s

55

geese fly north

tonight above a plaster wall

plaster wall

letting me swim an ancient ocean

56

bare

plaster then lascaux

57

you wake from dreams to a plaster wall

squirrel

on a power line window in a plaster wall

58

plaster
plasma the sun!

59

plaster wall my eye salve

60

they take in light & luminesce

61

no-mark

a statement about images is a statement about no images the lankavatara sutra

63

here is my sand paper

64

my

photo micro graph sand paper

sandpaper

a grieving mans lifeline

65

200-grit sandpaper sheet my mandala

6 syllables
sand paper sand paper

66

sins & promises one after another sandpaper

sandpaper

wanting to leave no mark

67

up late sandpaper under the milky way

this

yr one chance sandpaper

68

sand
paper the far shore

69

sandpaper

whispering you know what

sandpaper turning me into a pendulum

70

sandpaper

that churchbell

sandpaper

follow the woodgrain migrating geese

71

a used sandpaper some nobodys testament

72

electric

sparrows
think of mother

76

sailors home
every vessels empty

drags his trash thru the snow a comets tail

77

80-year-old
copper wire still copper

twist then tape & hide it all

78

ball of light

in a dark hall you put it there

79

snow coming down he caulks a tub

breaking
a sweat that bead of caulk

80

unlike
snail try building right angles

last piece fits & everythings crooked

81

6penny finish nails to be sure

gone over it all w/ a rubber mallet

82

sawdust

that was you

83

er-

the root
er to row er to rest

86

sleeping bag

in a rowboat his dream world

hospital

window the harbor

87

rowing out
mothers gift

88

raining

uncaps his fountain pen

rain

& mourning dove keeping time

89

2-handed things
rowboat fountain pen

bilateral symmetry
rowboat & you

90

rowing out

compass between yr feet

rowing out

morning rain his passengers

91

morning

rowing out its bottomless

rowboat
rocking in rain

92

paramecium
anabaena rowboat

raining

both oars dripping

93

harder rain bowing his head in the rowboat

rain stops
he rows thru stars

94

his fountain pens lever & rowboats oars

rain means
no ones rowing

95

all that algae rowboats tied up in rain

rowboat

but have you got a lantern

96

rowboat

splinters are smaller ones

giving you splinters rowboats a mystic thornbush

97

never

robot rowboat

grateful
rain to row thru

98

extra

fine-point rowboat

99

empty rowboats
all you need to know about those spirits

6 syllables
rowboat rowboat rowboat

100

rowboats turned ci cada molt translucent loose fitting

101

lake
his waterfilled footprint

102

flotsam
keep saying that

103

seu-

napkin tucked-in lowers his eyes to soup

106

bowl of soup

everything he has forgotten

soup spoon
sometimes overhand

107

soup

there should be bread

mother
soaking her bread in soup now you know why

108

soup

but no companion

109

soup bowl
you see the depths

clear
day his soup

110

soup
at sun set

111

sacramental
lifting a soup bowl to his lips

his napkin
a drop of soup

112

soup
salt of life

113

soup

light from his lamp globe

his soup
nothing in it

114

soup

this ancient cottage isnt yours

soup

a level surface

115

beginning

& end of his madness soup

116

paramecium

willows sedge & a plastic bottle for algae

120

living sedge crinoid stone

teeter totter as you cross fossil stones

121

tussock sedge
stepping stone

122

how old
you are algae

geese know youre no one

123

lakes offspring vernal ponds wont stay put

124

rain louder in trees than on the lake

silence

field guide to a water-drop

125

study
chlamyolomonas till youre dizzy

126

water drop

you lose count of the souls

transparent lives under a microscope people are clumsy

127

never growing up at his microscope

a stranger to himself fixing microscope slides

128

microscope

you take off yr glasses

paramecium volvox rotifer so much for angels

protists
people are nebulae

129

paramecium

turning me inside-out

130

following a paramecium he feels himself change

night falls

all that time in a water drop

131

paramecium
when you think youre a fool

132

microscope
model ship & mandala when o when

paramecium
with no idea

133

water drop

a buddha field

134

just-as-you-are
paramecium john martone

135

a circle in sanskrit

yr face mirrored in picture glass in the mandala

138

mandala

pollen sets sail in a continents wind

mandala

this white-capped lake perfectly still

139

mandala

hes floating above his body

mandala
a spider dazzles

140

mandala

my wide-open hand

mandala

on their living room wall an intricate village in pen & ink

141

mandala
joys in ex plicable tears

radial symmetry

you close yr eyes in the light

142

seashells on a book shelf the mandala

a single-concave microscope slide held to the light

143

losing touch
as well in this mandala

144

iuncus

mourning dove
the door

148

folly

washing his face

149

mouth

full of night

150

bedsheets

nothing stays put

151

a storm approaches
window-blinds rattle

152

a light touch

bare feet in the morning

153

trillium

after a 6-month winter

154

sweeping

nobody visits

155

wind

blowing his doormat away

156

his place

all the paths thru a junkyard

157

3 months now

hasnt turned his calendar

158

iuncus
redwing blackbirds in junkyard reeds

159

junkyard

antennas pointing nowhere

160

sweeping compound
barrels empty

done with past & future a junkyard

161

step ladders
the pity

162

ancient
paint brushes in coffee can spirits

workbench

sawdust & all other kinds

163

electric
motor windings worth something

tour de force
a junk yard

164

glass jar

2 hex-bolts keeping faith

toilet parts

in a clutter of handtools

165

digging bar & shovel lean back at rest

166

junkyard spider cocoons go on

167

mitre-box

a common mortal with inferior mental capacity Shinran

169

amid the new bird nests he cuts pine molding

quarter-round pine molding his portion

170

quarter-round wood-trim
edging his day

a fool

cutting wood trim again

171

pistils

& stamens & wood trim

172

mourning dove

a carpenter pencils soft lead

wood trim
shack still a shack

173

learning detachment mitre box

detail work

popping his knuckles

174

cuts left-over molding to frame his mandala

175

deadbolt

nights even his run-down place a deadbolt

178

premonition

his model ship under the stars

179

living in filth & no idea

180

feeling the deadbolt snap tight he turns to the stars

181

night

outside the back door outside

stars

never get them right

182

planets headlights everything twinkles

stars

those magnolia petals

183

sea-journey

night old shoes beanpatch mud

star gazers cranium al ready void

184

night

a space suits no help

185

minomushi

a sleeping bag among the sparrows

188

a sleeping bag
under the pines

189

wideopen world around his sleeping bag

empty

plastic bag for sleeping

190

the pineal gland

a sleeping bag

sleeping bag
stuff-sack size of his toolbox

191

sleeping bag
zipped up contrails disperse

sleeping bag
sleeping thru a lunar eclipse

192

having lost his fur he sleeps in a bag

193

his

sleeping bag lascaux!

194

never

more exposed than in his sleeping bag

sleeping bag
a lantern too

195

next day

washed-up in a sleeping bag

daybreak gets right out of his sleeping bag

fingers

a bagworm the pine trees candle

196

sleeping bag
lost amid the attic webs

197

pitudaruh

pine cone

too big for his microscope

200

pine cone

a good place to live

pine cone

knowing the equation by heart

201

pine cone snail shell

one site that molecule

those eyelids

a pine cones scales

202

pine cone

a spinning top his mothers dance

203

pine cone

a whole grove released

a pine cone so no one has to remember

204

ships

at sea once pine cones

pine cones all

that sun light

205

come all that way from the big bang pine cone

pine cone

no idea youre a space ship

206

a pine cone
his island

207

pine cone

where all canoes tie up

208

pine cone

doesnt weigh down its branch

209

just

a pine cone on that table

pine cone

spiderlings too

210

pine cone

now need only smell his hands

pine cone

what youre like inside

211

pine cone

stripped naked

212

spiderling climbs floor to floor in a pine cone

pine cone

floor after floor silent

213

pine cone

shakyas bumpy head

a spiderling sails from pine cone to me

214

pine cone

cockle shells one home

red birds single note a pine cones scales

215

a pine
cone keats nightin gale

216

pine cone

yr spiderlings all over me

simpler & simpler pine cone

217

a pine cone on his birthday

218