POET OF THE STREETS
By Jack Micheline
I walk east of Bleecker
the sky is blue
on this Sunday evening
there is something deeper than the earth
there is something deeper than the stone cities
there is something deeper than our existence
than all the robes of power
power and the night bleeding gutters with crutches
power and the night and the neon vibrating
the night and thirty moons and sharpies
the night and the railroad yards gleaming
the night and the sky
the night and billboards and darkness
across a nation skeletons and machinery
jaundice, joints and lips of connivers
burnt Christmass trees
jazz horns and drummers
above concrete
above whimpering voices
above calculators
riders with tokens in their hands
riders to the sea
a nation of cowards
cowards wrapped in academic cloth
over all in darkness
over all who live in deserts
over all shells covering
over all that are wasted
burying all in nothingness
burying all that is soul
burying all with layers of armour
burying herds with still voices
burying all in the nowhere of silence
herring and fish in cans
turkey and chicken in cans
humans in cells of unknowing
there is more to life than the lights of savage civilizations
there is more to life than all the words spoken
there is more to life than the eye can see
I see the sun of angels
hemp and sugar and wheat
blood and sinew within the flesh
ticker tapes, grey hair, jowls on faces
dollars and gods and people sold and traded
people dying for nothing
people selling their minds and bodies
people without courage
people with no teeth in drug stores
death loaded with goods
givers of death and more death
cranes and deep hookers
cutting shears for the young
newspapers stunting the mind
dollars the spoiler of ships of bananas
I see your faces as I stroll through the cities
the wind touching the faces of whores
the vision of poets encompassing all
song of children outside the brick houses
there is nothing deeper than life and the livers of life
mankind raped in the bank vaults of steel
dead soldiers, battlefields surrounded by iron and ironies
a million lost sunsets
a poet unconquered with the legacy of Whitman and Lorca
a poet unconquered by stone, by glass, by greed, by madness
the lights blaze on in the night
lights and the cold wind
visions above all death
cows milked dry, golden crosses
the sky blazing with miracles
a poet walks in the cold wind
his head raised humble and unafraid
death around him filled with waste and banners
death all around him
walking alone with birds above the canoe shaped moons
sounds are heard and the sky glows in darkness.
January 31, 1960, East Bleecker
This poem turned the tide of my death,
written on First Avenue off the Bowery
In an alley of great souls.
POEM FOR THE CHILDREN
By Jack Micheline
A child walks in a dream
her eyes dance in the night of stars
someday when the moon is full
the gypsies come home and they will dance forever
and all the ships that never sailed will sail forever
and all the flowers that have not bloomed will bloom forever
A child walks in a dream
and all the stars that have not shown will shine forever
and all the children that could not dance will dance forever
A child walks in a dream
(Amsterdam, Nov. 19, 1982)