Poetry by Duane Locke

Five poems
by Duane Locke

Thus spake Zarathrusta
Never on the voice of America.

Tea leaves read in Thebes,
Cargo ships sparkled
Brighter than the snowflakes
That fell on the dark, winter,

Blake-chartered dock waters.
Their curio cabinets
Filled with videotapes
Of Western Fronts
And oil derricks.

What was I called
When I lived among the living dead.
Was I called:

The Hunger Artist,
Stephen Dedalus,
Underground Boy,
Steppenwolf,
Philip Carey,
Or Sam Spade

Or was I given the name
Of the Wall Street clerk
Who repeated,
I would prefer not to.

Once upon a time
By the wind-shook-lake salmon
And their tangles, their silver leaps,
We, she with
Celery-green, unbleached, painted
Fingernails turned
The arks of conversations
Toward the geese sounds
Of doves perched on hubcaps.
In the little time left

--------------------

Before the car wreck,
Sandpipers and snails,
Dogwoods and spinning hills
As I strolled
Through the tunnels
Of the midnights
Of day-lit blackberries.

Drunk on uplifted roads
Wrong side,
Arose,
Headlights shattered highlights.

Words, languages
Disappeared.

--------------------

When a Minute Passes
If We Do Not Become the Minute
We are Dead


I desired to be Andrew Marvell
Cloistered by Appleton solitude,

Or Vermeer
Painting an ear-ring in an ear,

With my back
Turned to the audience.

--------------------

Anyone who can gaze
At what

Is called in popular parlance
The same object

For a century,
Or for a decade,

And never see
The same thing,

Never have the
Same perception,

Never become bored
Or succumb

As fashionable
In 19th Century

To ennui
Or dead-end-street nostalgia

Then this gazing person
Can be said

To be alive
And a human being.

-------------------

Among the ignorant
And selfish

A daily repeated remark
Is that one should

Help humanity.
But an impossibility,

For there is no
Humanity.

The living dead
Have murdered

Their humanity
Long ago,

An thus there is
No humanity to help.

Being alive
Was vague.

I remember a moment
That was


Author bio:

Duane Locke, PH. D. (English Renaissance Poetry), has had (as of May 2007) 5,859 poems published in print magazines and e- zines. He has published 17 print and e-books of poetry. Duane is also a painter, and has exhibited widely. A discussion of his work appears in Gary Monroe’s Extraordinary Interpretations (University of Florida Press). In addition, Duane is a photographer, publishing some 289 photos. In his photography, Duane prefers to do close-ups of trash tossed in alleys, as well as of vacant lots, mystic vegetation, visual music, and nature. For more information, Duane advises readers to click on Google, as he has quasi-half million entries. Duane Locke is also listed in Who’s Who In America (Marquis).