................... 

this month dedicated to John Lennon
and the music maestros who have visited mother bird

Lloyd Roger Lambert Grubaugh   T.H. Keyes   Paul Malécot 

To Be Not ~ by jake ion
 

do not be leaves on a 
creek
floating at the whim
of the currents
be instead the baby crying in the theater
be the bore at the coffee machine
do not be leaves lifted by the winds
the whirlwinds
be instead
the loudmouth at the coffee machine
the one who cannot shut up
it is better to be 
unwise 
than to be blown by
any unworthy wind
even if you are unwise
as I am
unwise
even if we cannot mend
the fences
the barbed wire of who
we think we should be
we should
at least
try

---

Growing Far Away ~ by Lwoh Opa
 

it was the distance in those eyes
so protective and sad
heartbreaking to see a once flower
nearly closed
no
electric blue
some living green
blessedly
the distance reachable
brown down to earth
anyone have an extra smile
for John?

---

Smile ~ by vera jacknson

when the world was play dough
and every puddle splash
childhappy then
if we remember
angry winds were tossed to the
breeze and giggles
easily found
every boy & girl a clown
every clown a friend
only friends were lovers
all the elements were play
snow, an angel in the making
snowball, an introduction
curiosity well alive
naturalmente

---

Rain Drop Transformation ~ by jake music

long is the trail of poets' tears
from the cave of Plato
to the suicide of Plath
the assignation of Lennon
to assignation of poetry
via academia nuts
"But a necktie is no
Substitute for a soul."*
the Poetry Temple of Beauty and Pain
is being deluged with money-changers
and we all remember
the one recorded anger of our gentle Jesus
wid money-changers
our tortured Jesus who did not die for our sins
he died because we did not want to stop sinning
we did not want to give up our Material God
best we learn to love our brother as ourselves
#1 above all commandments
from The Almighty God and Star Trek
cause honey honey
here we go 'round one more time

* from uncle river's new poem: How The Bad Guys Win 

---

And ~ by jake ion

and before I spend a hard night
of discontent
and before I spend my last dollar
in the turnstile
before
the rose
before the
cross
before the
psalms I found
you
in the
wilderness

---

Sand Dollars ~ by summer jackson

3 a.m. magictime and here's
a basket full of sand dollars
one for every dream
derailed
one for every cross
each filled with tiny angel wings
purely white may they enfold
our discontent 

a prayer then:

blessed be the homeless sleeping
on the outdoors grates of some
warm high-rise office building
housing no one
in some overgrown city

may we all be cradled
crustacean-like in this love
that finds us