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My body knows the lullaby of eight hours.

Less or more shows in the waking,

the tone and tenor of the day,

the accord or discord.

Which brings me to how does the body

know what the mind can’t seem

to grasp?  This quickly replacing 

any other koans I know.  

Which draws out the question 

of spirit.  That place of other 

sense, of where logic lies 

gasping for breath.  Where words

dissolve into laughter.

I don’t even know the words 

to the lullaby.  My mind asks, 

“What are you doing?”

I reply. “What are you doing?”

No reply.  And that tells me something.

 

Hootism:  you can’t deny where you’re from and still be who you are.

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Pity The Fool by Will Found

"Pity the champions of the idiot-antichrist for lifting greed's puppet to power once again, pulled by lies that hook their hate-disposed hearts, their reason put to sleep, the harm to the world inflicted by their ignorance inflicted by their ignorance  

inflicted by their ignorance “

*Rap generated using a poem and AI @

https://suno.com/song/be6d4b23-c073-45b0-84c9-8431fa8d50b2?sh=mhfSTqiUfisq6kPq

A Sacred Promise

I listen to the blues as though I’m

in church.  Something sacred about

broken hearts seeking what 

has been lost, the promise of music

to guide the soul like Virgil guiding 

Dante.  I am not musically inclined

but I’m inclined to hear the hybrid

harmony of the human and divine, 

each knowing the despair of the other,

the unspoken promise grief holds.

The fact that music can be made

from stories of our broken hearts.

The fact the river of love never runs dry.

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Art/Music by Will Found

 Art/Music by Will Found @ https://blundervan.bandcamp.com/

Refraction

As I am dying, day by day, always 

a subtraction of living added to memory,

the dreams of my youth, the same dreams

nightly still given to me, as I approach 

the uncertainty with certain steps and breath,

I greet the day with that cry that feels more

like prayer – “It is a good day to die!” 

in the holy language of what is true needing

no divine inspiration for its holiness.

My heart and soul open, my eyes, too, trying

to catch by sight the seen and the unseen

complete in the prism of sunlight, rainbow

of delight after storms have passed.

It is nearly spring, so easy to believe

in resurrections without being dead 

forever, three nights will do and hearing

angels sing, “He’s not here” in perfect 

harmony in some hybrid of hymns 

and blues as I dance just on the other

side of the graveyard just out of view

forever, forever, and forever whispering,

“You come, too.”

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Right Turns

It is almost overwhelming,

especially at the end of winter,

the beginning of the mud season

when endings and beginnings are

not far apart and the roads and

streets hold memories as if

they are waiting for me to drive

on them, look and see what time

has done.  I drive on them now

and again, take in a deep breath,

let out a deeper sigh. Remember what

turns to make so I don’t get lost.

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Inherent Danger

Looking out, it could be any other dawn

but for the frozeness I see and feel.

I am seeing spring grass beneath

the snow, recalling the rains of March.

There is a sense of what is missing 

is what I want though without

the blasphemy of not being where I am

in the only time I have.  Such sacrilege

is dangerous, as if I'm omnipotent

when I have only here and now -- that phrase

a koan of eternity, like the blood and breath

of the divine flowing through you and me.

It is a dawn like any other . . . almost

but for the deep cold, the urgent desire

it creates to hear and see the thunderstorms

of spring, birds landing in trees, their songs

mixing memories and dreams, how one

season longs for another before it's over.

How dangerous it is to be human.

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Winter Sequence

Winter Sequence

                1

I saw nine deer on a hillside,

as if in a still-life painting,

move as if a murmuration

of starlings.

                2

One bird the day before,

two yesterday on roads

 I drive regularly.

A change is coming.

             3

I drive on tire tracks 

in the snow on the road

that takes me home

as if the snowplow can do nothing.

             4

The tracks in the snow

before my porch. . . 

deer, coyote, feral cat

nighttime visits.

             5

I am in the dark waiting

for sunrise.  A daily ritual.

It’s taken the place of prayer –

an answer always comes.

            6

I wish I could read the tracks

across my heart as easily

as the tracks in the snow –

winter’s gift.

             7

I am seeing ghosts almost

as easily as I see shadows.

One often blending into 

the other – dreams, memories, desires.

               8

I consider the best way

to keep warm in winter.

My heart scoffs, says,

“Don’t forget me."

-Byron Hoot

https://www.facebook.com/hootnhowlpoetry/

Photograph by Greg Clary

Photograph by Greg Clary 2020

Roses in a Vase

Fresh red roses gifted crisp in a shiny crystal vase,

Deflated balloon danced gaily on its bobbing string,

Yet, spent no time or change for late night dates

Or other stale, male-female things.

Dry- bent stems flatter-chattered their small talk cheap.

Eyes saddened dull cried their cruel half-truth lies.

Stare-glare glances pierced hearts drowned in trance-deep sleep

As tender petals withered brittle, tumbled pity-parched to dry .

Gripping death shriveled crippled, dripping its unfelt cold,

Against a strain-wrinkled,  pain-crinkled face, 

As pink waned to brown, bitter romance  waxed old,

Mere dead rose tokens in a broken, ring stained vase.

~P.S. Colley

April 1989

Rev. Dec. 2024

Lies

Love

isn't

energy

  spent carelessly

Living 

ignorant

effortless

shallow fantasies.

Love 

is   

                encouragement and

                         security.

 

Isn't it ?

~P.S. Colley

April 1989

Revised: Nov. 2024

Cries of the Unheard