Paul Cameron Brown

“ LAVENDER A mind is a ray of light running to the sea; an arch of wood upon which birds rest. Minds roam the ocean's crest, sit as antlers upon a beach, watch eddies of water trap themselves in the sand. And minds are in anything but a state of rest--they violate physics, make mockery of other bodies not in ready motion. ”

“ Sights which gallop against the senses, act as brigands to mature reason. Faraway in the mountain fastness of the mind, alpine meadows look out upon further marvels, exchange cocoa for quinine, adjust the mind as a stirrup before a long, night ride. ”

“ I have seen a mind enclosed above fresh air and sunshine, frolicking on its own strength, the elasticity of its thought lassoing all the stars assembled. Golden points of light caught in this sand with an oval sun marching blue legions across the sky bring more harmony than all the stars assembled. ”

“ Then, alpine ranges carrying the plight of the Andes in their mouth; a dull, white sail propped against ship's bow with a noise like an anvil coming loose in the brain. More frightening, sailors mutiny on a diet of bread as sallow maggots march in a quarter horse sized trot across the floorboards. Such men in the bellows of one's mind break out rubber dinghies in quickening escape thru the maw of an Arctic sea. Expiry. Dry rot. Sunken astrolobe and an armada of feelings drifting alone.
[21]
THE POETRY POND Everyone is a poet, or so the philosopher said. ”

“ A strength through joy movement of the Hitler camp with society's many institutions set up along the spit and polish order of the Reich. Indeed, if we think of it, we all have a deep knowledge of madness; days when the centre is about to break alongside the pit. Days when wars on the periphery take hold, colours appear different. ”

“ DESIRE Sleep is a striking woman accosted by various men while in a dance; the warring desires thus present themselves as on a battlefield-- hunger comes arrayed with red plumes to befit his appetites, sensuality somewhat decked out as a dandy in a mauve waistcoat and, of course, there is Fear, the most thwarted of the suitors, bejewelled with a flashing sabre, rattling it from the tail of his skinny stick horse, the pale charger riding to intercept the beautiful courtesan Sleep bestowing her favours illicitly wherein she would but choose. ”

“ As trembling shale collapses into thin hills, light fuels to cross the Pale. A little exploratory weeding droops this lava rain. A long, dove fence comprised of stones & rattled by ancient slaves winds its distance along the gully borne in fire, percussion caps, cretin growth lobbed under creeping wire. Shafts of pioneer light delight in coral baskets, empty twilight darts the agave swords' mauve pitcher plants. The 1692 Tremens decimated Port Royal [1] --moved a ravine from florid to mossy shadow where antler shoots today announce temperate plants, eclipse by-gone tropic flowers. ”

“ Smoke cold as blue fungus over outside buildings follows horses with hooves to split cobblestones stuck in the city's eye, more than mountains around the stone filled ravines of the rich man's heart.
[15]
VERTIGO We're travelling down a carnival road, are met at intersections by varying faces: poets as eyes in collapsed black holes, even the universe as extension of the stellar poet. Then, they are transformed, become worm-pickers, masons, longshoremen who subsidize their poetry with the real task at hand: making waste, laying trestles instead of women to prove a point. ”

“ For behind boulders of tenement walls and vines creeping to match the red brick of sumac and the parrot bill of fire escape stairs, I watch the building cylindrical in the darkness crouching thin air as if an awkward child were about to make strange for the dozenth time. There are few things to duplicate plaster held by the bite of wind, open poverty like lesions refusing to move. ”

“ Dunces that compose form letters made to live out the threadbare future promises. Each human roadblock making decisions out of ignorance would have his statement dutifully recorded before entering a world of his own design. ”

“ I want to brush palms as lightly as two sparks. take the wand of your waist in two plush hands with the pitiless gesture of a sparrow We part the leaves in breath, arouse trees in envy. I sense colours more vivid than your tongue after wine, explosions to cap the wind. ”

“ Football made a crime punishable by fate. Shyster store owners too cheap to bag my newspaper made to launder all the soiled white pants across a lifetime. Tailors that mistakenly think they are being shortchanged and become vocal made to attend Sartre courses where "hell is other people," doctrines predominate. The huckster, the con-man, those who prey on the multitude transposed from whatever city of origin then made to tramp the streets of Toronto where every wrong syllable or misbegotten accent costs them a dollar of their savings. ”

“ All is beautiful. Laid back. Beads. The sixties were a jukebox that came of age. Ponderosa shirts were destined to outlive their owners. Thirty-three is perilously close to being afraid. Elvis Presley, a blimp at forty, missed the sixties or rather failed to live them down. The hullabaloo of freedom was taken for granted, then shelved. Amid a crescendo of killing only a year and one half of the present decade duplicates the assassinations of the "violent sixties." ”

“ The amber breath of growing leaves is rich dark coffee stolen as in a smile. Almond drink is refreshing as the tips of cloven hooves to the dried earth. One might hesitate to watch firm nipples being given as broaches to a king but the sandpiper is a river barge commanding slow access to the next water. ”

“ There's ivy of the thickest English sort not commonly found in America; sprigs growing across open ground mantling it. Shiny to the eye, soft encircling the touch, I am reminded of blue waters, green grass Blake's Ancient of Days: an old man's beard stepping from the trees, Spanish Moss so unearthly it covers a southern forest. ”

“ Stone stars are flattened by the glare of sun and shell encrusted beaches bear a passing resemblance to chalices strung around an avuncular stretch of land. Perhaps in the hunted meadow near red spined caterpillars feeding near the larvae of the elephant hawkmoth, a cistern will open the earth and drink as a thirsty spoon. ”

“ It's hard to keep the legitimate heroes straight from the villains. I expect Houdini to make this Niagara Falls and appear at midnight Halloween. With so many real and picturesque notables in abundance, I plan the idea of creating my own arch criminal wax museum assembled from the hallways and stairwells of my own life. I imagine employment counsellors from across the years with sardonic laughs and strings tripping off records to make them authentic. ”

“ POETS ARE MAGIC BEINGS She sits within the Magic Lantern --that facsimile for pleasure, decor of wineskins where at $2.50 a garment extravagance comes extra; skin like rosy flames the whisk of smoke at hearthside sunlight about her face. ”

“ The stars are a jangle of planets in a world where wood became noise; each ceiling beam, incidentally, is the wrenched out spine of a Longhorn steer, doorknobs pig knuckles bound for Octoberfest fear. Even the kindly attendant is an ogre spying out porkers' throats ”

“ Think the occasional gesture at remembering a swine or two from freeway driving might not be entirely out of place or that mindless clerks administering my life from afar and costing a future deserve an enshrining. ”

“ At war with himself but trying to reassure that same self the plodding sound of approaching hooves was only dried, bullrush stems hitting against his head. Madness is more than Van Gogh offering an ear ”

“ Sixties idols were built to last. A 70's idol is shoddy and throwaway by comparison. Whatever became of Carnaby Street or bell bottoms? The mentality is alive and well (another dreadful anachronism) in smart up-town boutiques. The proprietors, though, don't sell little bells to freaks anymore. Luxurious Persian rugs, instead, are all the vogue. And bail money for vendors hawking copies of Guerrilla on the streets of Toronto or Black Panther leaflets in US cities isn't needed anymore. ”

“ Hearing if you go on like that you'll end up on the Lakeshore. Another pretty euphemism. A dangerous truth left like an upturned rock for someone to trip on in another garden. The farthest away anyone can be. ”

“ One armed forklift drivers, for instance, with realistic Captain Hook hands jab instructions to lifeless walls where underlings the colour of grey slate form a human paste. Sound is the monetary exchange, rabbit dung the troll's own currency-- each scrawl of the pen confirmed by the work order upends living things bent over in pain. ”

“ Belligerent restaurant owners telling kids they can't use the washroom then made to mop up the waste they helped create. The world, a stand-up comic throwing away his happy face then coming to sit in disgust at the unchronicled petty evil of our times. ”

“ The Grand Lunar is watching. Her pallor commands true poets to roll over, gaze at silver buttocks make a commitment to the art beyond spray painting, ghost watching, navel gazing. The sky is the final home of the soul, the Sage himself a wanderer announced. It was a warm spring evening. Lilac bounded from antler brown twigs only recently inert. Everything dissolved at once into crying. The world itself became a tear.
[16]
BEDROOM GLASS Counted three white pigeons on a roof, near a gable silhouetting a barn ”

“ I can tell it's a sixties bar by the spiffy waiter recycling sheets for tablecloths. The sixties was "into," environment. It's the eighties now as Heineken was unobtainable in 1969. Someone reminds me in order to run a tab a credit card is needed. This seems logical but very out of sorts with the people power complex I'm nurturing. Even the jokes above the bar are old hat. This confirms with certainty that Madcaps is Nostalgia. It's too built up for Sha-Na-Na, fintails or Nancy Sinatra's, These Boots Are Made For Walking. In my sensible decade that tune is considered sadistic. ”

“ When Is A Poem (companion issue, League of Canadian Poets) Konkrete Wot Jimson Weed (USA) The Camrose Review Interior Voice The Atlanta Creative Alliance (USA) Yellow Silk (USA) Earthwise Poetry Journal (USA) Authors The Pegasus Review (USA) Toute est dangereuse, tout est necéssaire.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
KING AND JOHN STREETS (FOR ISABELLA VACANCY CRAWFORD) When the shadows are hungry animals on walls and theatre goers are parliamentarians engaged in a repast or feast of words. the lone house stands as a stone shard or sliver about to disengage itself from the eye. ”

“ It probably stands behind half the men on skid row, beckons like a welcome friend before turning fiend and consuming impulse to a bag lady. The close relation between the creative impulse and "letting go." ”