The way is backward

October 31, 2013  (I was 68)

The way is backward

along a mobius pass

What was walked outward

forward is now the inner path 

I was seen now I see 

I was heard now I listen

what was smell is now aroma

I was touched now I feel 

I had tasted now have taste

no where is the tunnel there to here

When the way is icy

sharpen skates

When the way is hot sand on bare feet

walk at night

When the way is uncertain

sit and breathe

When the way is billowed fog

welcome home

When the way is lit by stars

admire the kingdom

When the way seems overwhelming

be inattentive

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

from Harangutan

October 30, 1994  (I was 49) 

      from Harangutan

Young paleontologists spend four

months in the southern Sahara recovering

dinosaur bones of previously unknown species;

stories of predators and victims’ cases reopened

eons beyond the statutes of limitation.

Young historians working hard to become history,

elated to be a footnote, potentially a chapter.

The energy of adrenaline dims memory

of double fortnight jeep caravans

across treacherous sands more vast than

a capitalist nation and with threats as real.

Persistence brings home the bones;

the clever young scientists vow

this is only the beginning.

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

even more slogans from the 8th grade bulletin board

even more slogans from the 8th grade bulletin board

–posted over my teaching years

I refuse to have a battle of wits

   with an unarmed person.

If it don’t make sense

   it’ll never make dollars

Children should be beaten once a day

   If you don’t know why, they do.

Hug your kids at home

   belt them in the car

The hand is quicker than the eye

   but only the nose runs

The first human to hurl a curse instead of a weapon

   founded civilization

Never fall for a tennis player

   to them love means nothing

Keep an open mind

   and people will fill it with garbage.

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

Because I was never stuck in the woods

10/28/17   (I was 72)

Because I was never stuck in the woods

I never thought I was lost nor found

Because I didn’t know what to do next

I thought I hadn’t paid attention to directions

Because I had some physical competence

I thought my brain would catch up

Because I wanted to please someone

I thought someone would eventually be pleased

Because I thought the game wasn’t over ‘til the end

I thought I’d make a helluva comeback

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

Billy The Kid (chapter 117)

from this week in 1969  (I was 24)

   Billy The Kid (chapter 117)

Hey, Billy the Kid,

you’ve got dust on your shirt.

Dust on boots is understandable

and you’ve plenty of that,

but on your shirt?

If you stopped just outside of town

to blotch it on,

I’m disappointed.

It doesn’t look blotched,

but maybe you’ve done it before

and know how to get it on just right.

At any rate, I’d rather believe your are real

standing there without a hat

at the water trough.

I guess your nickname had never before

stuck in my mind;

it will from now on.

You are a kid,

or maybe I’ve grown old.

In how many other places like this

have you stopped at a trough

to soak your neck cloth,

and how many times have you mounted

and ridden on with a quick nod to a man

who may have grown old?

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

Can you get up? How many fingers?

from this week in October, 2006  (I was 61)

Can you get up?  How many fingers?

You got your bell rung.  Can you stay in?

It’s true.  It happens.  I saw stars.

Not stars exactly, sparklers.

Shit ya I can stay in

What the hell kinda langwidge is zat?

Cool dark night of my senior year

Took it on the chin, mighta been kicked

Part of the game, happen zall a time

Back in the huddle call signals for the play

really nice night someone carries the ball

Threw a block in there like I was suppose ta

Kept on goin’ and things took me with ‘em

Sometimes seems it was most real

Combined waking with reality of dreams

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

 

There are times the microcosm gets kicked in

from this week in October, 2006  (I was 61)

There are times the microcosm gets kicked in

and all is awash in blood light

Anxious dread that it’s too late

to correct a mistake of exposed weakness

Futility looms in the rapid patchwork attempt

to construct a temporary defense

that may not work at all

but may make time to think of something better

Then the persistent fury abates

as if the resolve of the invading force weakens

The dams hold with seams leaking

and we take our breaths in relative calm

to consider major repair to our small craft

knowing it will never be enough for all that’s out there

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

more slogans from the 8th Grade bulletin board

October 24

more slogans from the 8th Grade bulletin board

–posted over my teaching years

Give me ambiguity, or give me something else

Time wounds all heels

Truth is the first casualty in any conflict

We are united by our doubts, divided by our convictions

When it comes to helping you some people stop at nothing

A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on

I used to be lost in the shuffle until

   I started shuffling along with the lost

Consistency requires you to be

   as ignorant today as you were yesterday

I’ve done so much with so little for so long

   I can now do anything with nothing.

In communism man feeds upon man

   in capitalism it’s the other way around.

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

When did the first identity I might recognize

from this week in October, 2010  (I was 65)

When did the first identity I might recognize

patch from an ancestor unknown

even a single generation ago

part of its soul into me

If they knew no one talked

If they wrote no one kept the script

If they sang no song was ever heard

I have not any art from them

HALLOWEEN TRICK OR TREAT? 

johnkallio.com Go to AUDIO page,

Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

All the knowledge known and expressed

October 22, 2010  (I was 65)

All the knowledge known and expressed

cannot equal the known but unexpressed

So much written but never read

pictured or sculpted and never seen

composed arranged and unheard

fabrics woven never felt

fragrant esters inhaled but once

tastes of numbers and notions

found and forgotten a thousand times

images thought by disembodied mind

thoughts imaged by unmindful hand

Master work in the bottom drawer

of a cabinet in grandfather’s basement

If we find but one piece

we search forever for another

Been waitin’ there’s a delay

October 21, 2006  (I was 61)

Been waitin’ there’s a delay

Expected arrival before yesterday

Expected very little and not exactly what

I suppose it’s supposed to be

I’ll take what I can get

but ain’t lookin’ for naught

Have always known nothing’s free

Try to stay out of debt

Hope to receive what it is I bought

Get somethin’ and it gets you

Own it’s what you got to do

Find a place to keep it and put it where

you can get used to using it

Let it grow to be a help

on a shelf beneath the stair

Ownership no excusing it

whimper a guilt repent a whelp

Give what you can and buy what you dare

What we have we have to give

from this week in October, 2006  (I was 61)

What we have we have to give

Greed is a seed that will not digest

No platitude can survive

the cynical appetite of gluttony

We eat each other out of fear

that we will be eaten

What value resides in the currency of the past

A few collectors pay quaint dollars

for essays on morality

written a hundred fifty years ago

when the land on which we stand

knew no one like us

The dream the adult tries to realize

is out of date before the attempted fact

before the bewildered eyes of his child

to whom the symbolism is obscure

The context inaccessible

as stilted dialogue from an old movie

Better to offer the silence

hidden beneath all our progress

in the depths of a cave or mineshaft

or under the weight of water

or within the darkness of space

unoccupied and un-interpreted

She may run

October 19, 2015

She may run

when I can’t walk

She has fun

when she can talk

Though I may not be erected

she may be elected

I don’t know to what office

I’m leaking from an orifice

Asking why, I’d implore her

then probably vote for her