Wednesday, September 22, 2010

the moment counts now--

our whole life we knew this is so

but only at this time of life

can we attend to its actuality

beyond what we believe

or want to believe--

the light is bright and dull--

hazy sky in the afternoon heat

this moment counts and we count on it--

we've all seen our best days--

and only in the moment

is it of no concern







Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
how it came to pass

and how quickly

and how long ago now




cannot even be trusted

to memory

let alone understanding






Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
why sing out

if no one hears

or wants to hear?

for the sake of who has ears?

they already know

and need no word

it is the singer who must hear silence

the better to sing the music of the spheres






Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the ultimate end of things

so far beyond our imagining

we can only do our usual mischief

in the mistaken notion we are progressing

along the path of our purposes

is waiting for us nonetheless

it is and always has been and now our continued stumbling

on the way to that ultimate apotheosis




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the perfection we imagine we possess

holds up to nothing

except our illusions--



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
what ruthless mendacity

marking the beginning of history's new phase--

stronger spiritual vibes for the new age perhaps

but the binds of earth matter stronger yet




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
all I love is under glass--

or forgotten--

so when I look at it

it is as if I'd passed on and am looking back

with all the detachment

I wish I'd achieved while spinning

this biography of this sojourn





Content (c) 2008-2010 Phiulip Milito.
only so many haircuts left...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I am put upon by the new human

coming of age in this technological Anti-Christ's kingdom

but I could care less--

I'm as happy to go as they are to see me go




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

old ghosts have gone

they've faded before the change of ages

to welcome those they once haunted

to the afterward of their earthly time





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

the fatal banana peel has yet to fall

across my path

until then my step is firm and my eyes are

fixed on a fuzzy shape in the distance

as I stride forward head awash in recollection

and self-congratulation trying to imagine what I'll do

next when that fall will finally happen and my mind

will empty at the first feel of the slide...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
nice to know I have company

down here in the orchestra seats of pure hell

listening to voices booing the devil on stage

because they'll turn up the heat after the show...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
enslaved to our limited imaginations

we take the injunction that we are God

as yet another illusion driving the pure

forgotten soul into its own flesh tomb

of hubris and hunger

oh yes we are God

joined to God in our essence

but our worldly consciousness destroys

that truth in its vanity and its ambition



and that is why humanity kills itself

in search of a Light it would not recognize

except in each soul's end of earthly term

when the whole misguided throb of souls in action

is stilled in war and a flicker of awareness see Light

subsuming the world and leaving it in its place

in the ecology of the infinite

the perfection of which we despair of achieving

the perfection that is required



all in one's own time

do these things awaken alert and keenly keyed

the entity most alive in matter when all the force of creation

pivots on that one's ultimate act of forgiveness



I address no one

because each in his heart knows his time

when he must relinquish his ego

and drop his mistaken sense of godliness



when he remembers who he truly is

then will he be one with the One

and of that I speak I sing I emanate

imaginations freed to the custodianship of acquiescence






Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

sunset over the autumn hills

pale olive dusk poking through the grove

green and orange western sky

totality of being

being a part of the time and place

the eye and the eye that sees itself

the consciousness that knows it knows

sunset over the autumn hills




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
at the end

we all go north

screw that

I'm going south

I prefer the low morning

sun shining on the lowland

before me from the left

that is how I'll go back

the stony land to my right

and the sea its ultimate contrast

on the edge of a heartbeat

that is how I'll go

as far as I can go...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Friday, September 3, 2010

at no loss to explain

but stuck to convince

of the equivocal fact

talk all we will

about fact

it is of itself

so inscrutable

as to be open

to interpretation

and that's the

fact





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
were miracle to be had

it would only soften the callous

on the hand of use

and the craft instilled in it forgotten



that you live long enough

to accomplish anything worth

the remembering is surely

miracle enough and nothing more



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
visions haunt the disappointed

the mind's eye blinks in stunned failure

to see beyond its own absorption

excluding all fact from its consideration



oh will it be realized at all

glory fades in familiar ruin

the vision voided as in wakening dream

with no achievement to mark it




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


the dull sun soothes today--

a season in hell has passed us again

and we have only to embellish the tale

as if we really thought no one else would know

what we're talking about--

the high clouds dissipate--

everybody knows the score

under today's dull sun of acquiescence




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I cannot be where I want to go

so I pull back sharp and move on slow

as ice breaking on the stream in the spring

and float down to where the waterfall sings

and I'm in luck if that is where I'll go

I relinquish control and join the flow

down the channel of riverbanks in Autumn

pulling upward to the surface as I plunge to the bottom




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I don't know where or how I'll end up--

but I feel like I'm already there--

how brief the time of flesh and sensation

and how long the remembrance the yearning


the utter stilling of desire





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
lights in the distance under threatening skies

the future comes to us in lightening flashes

that fill the eye with wonder

and the heart with its pure dread





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

I no longer need the daily circus

to know my own bounds--

I look forward to more calamity

and grief as I do to more

peacefulness and joy--

and within that awareness--

whatever powers marshall in me

will give our solitudes their defence





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I lived to tell the tale

but whether it is

worth the telling

depends on who knows

he needs to hear it...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
boy am I glad he's gone--

I've spent the better part of my life

under his thumb--

now I can like what I like

without concern or defensiveness

now I can bark pray fart and pontificate

without a judgment hanging over me--gone

this tyrant--this self-image--




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
not I

the model

I used

to formulate

my own work--

those yelps

isolated and

concentrated

emanate as if

from the mouth

spotlit moving lips

relating memories

of someone




not I

(and Mary Barnard's

Sappho fragments)

shaped the

poems and the

commentaries

of this unnameable

entity

an egolessness

corseted by

the circumstances

one makes for one's self

constricting to say Sam

I too am weak

in this dull skin

that is a protection

against not I

and anything else

unreal



that is the theme

consciousness aware

of unconsciousness

and the tug of our skin

and meat vehicles

and the stillness

that comes

when the mouth

ceases its motion

like now...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
all lost all found

and we do what we can--

the unspeaking wisdom

of the elements

is the force flowing

through the material

in its active being




all lost all found

and we do what we can--

trust how you intuit

fair from foul

read entrails and tea leaves

cross yourself and then

open the door--




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
our foreheads are glowing again

we see pure vision

then degrade it to our accounts

extinguishing the glow



when our foreheads shine

that's the most dangerous time

with our misunderstandings

we're guaranteed to ruin any applications



best of all is to see nothing

not in denial or exclusion

but because nothing is there

evident to the street throngs



thank the One this illusion of our time

will die out in its time at least for those

of that time...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the void that set forth is

the void that will gather back in--

will you gather or

will you be gathered?





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I hide from the shadow

by staying in the shadow

its freedom the signature

of all action



Thus I abide




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
no one got it

not even me

who was the perpetrator

of these disconnected

yelps and bleats

to address the universe

in the privacy

of my own mind

as each of us does

and so no

got it



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I see the end in the beginning

hence the paralysis





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

there will not be much more to tell--

no one hears or cares

who coughs outside or rumbles 'neath stairs

or sees and forgets where the clipped bystander fell



no need to talk or stalk

the outside world's outlandish affairs

whatever the imagination bears

can be reached in a 5 minute walk



elsewhere they will hear what they should have heard

before they left evidence even they couldn't explain

who would go first though none shall remain

as they turn and scurry without a word



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


a long day of inspiration

squandered in vainglory--



if I learned my own secret

would I be smart enough

to keep quiet about it?

my vanity would know


so would my guesses

swaddled in shame




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


I am not welcomed--

I guess they

haven't forgotten--

nor did I and still

let myself in for

the discomfort

of our presences

some kangaroo court

to make themselves feel better

when they thank me for leaving

I will tell how welcome they are...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


dull hot night

air too thick to breathe

you would need

to push yourself

through air

like walking through

plaster

and still find no cool

spot

the priests used to joke

that Hell would be hotter

that this

I'm sure they know

under this sky

like crushed velvet

with lusterless pearls

in poor imitations

of stars



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I'm pushing

my way ahead

because here

I am in the way


somewhere gravity

will be kind to me

a soft landing or mercifully

unconsciousness


but I must

keep going forward

because from here

I'm on my way




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
hungry for nothing but peace

no wonder I'm starved in stamina

and no wonder people think I'm 'lunatick...

and sore vexed'

I am awake and dreading death

in the throes of someone's nightmare or

at the hands of the accustomed mob

whose need for peace is laid aside

to exercise the ignored substrata

our lusts cannot subsume

peace quite off the table

and I get the nothing that is peace


Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito


I gave stones to the hungry in one lifetime

and I break my teeth on hardtack in this one

sorry for the stones and grateful for the 'alleged' bread

but still it is hardtack and still God's mercy takes a hard tack



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I will see you again in the light of the next moon--

I will know you by the pearl gleam on your skin

under invisible branches overhead

veining the vasts of stars with our perspective--

the pearl gleam--

the moonlight of your skin

as it lights our eyes in the soft glow

of our last and only eternal love...



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


a trickle remains

dribbling out down the ramps of rock ridge--

earthbound this is how

we approach the Living Water--

big thirst for the thin liquid thread

flowing out onto the ground

of intractable reality and we parched

and dry as supplication



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


heat baking the neighborhood--

beers evaporate before you're done swallowing--

the little beauties in their brief shorts

cannot get a rise out of a johnny-pump

nor care--late heatwave

in a summer that started early

and refuses to end--

it is September 1--none cannot imagine

what season will come next...



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the memory and the present are one

when you come to me

in the peace of our household

joys and sorrows mute in the essence

of our unconscious automatic union...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
how much happier could one be?

your past hasn't killed you

and your future has yet to oppose you

how much happier could one be

outside the moment

in the place between happenings?




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.


now you are ready to let go

now is the time to dispose

of old notions of identity

and find out which is yours





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the saffron twilight

the pale olive cast of the air

beneath the trees

and no hint of creation and destruction

anywhere





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I am a mouth

for some oracle

even if only

my own counsel

and persuasion

and what I say

is not for me

but for you and you and you



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
never knew

my limits

until now

and now

I can

accept them

they're farther-reaching

than I knew



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I've leapt high walls and vaulted over moats

just to watch your breasts heave in the moonlight

--last thing remembered as I fell out of bed

and landed on my keester




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.

I feel invisible as if my outline were lost in the sunlight--

invisible man tangling with the madness of omnipresence

mistaking himself for the very air he breaths

or the sunlight by which he sees

and he's not wrong--just unprepared--



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I am going where no words can be heard

no hand can help or hinder

I am facing the eternal swirling through

this instant as its substance

and we are nowhere else but here...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I am pulled forward through a rend in space

no visible portal but still an awareness

that ahead of me a changed landscape lies

beneath the apparent surface of this moment







Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
memories called forth

as if they were happening

right in front of me now

as if the passage of time made a difference




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
you've lost count of pi

--foolish ambition
of human vanity

you're countless digits
from anywhere but the center

put away your fingers and your calculator
and move forward on your way

leaving another to tally...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
all I could never have in this world

I possessed in my yearning

I have no compliant

I have all I wanted--






Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I would love to see

the Lost Spider Pit sequence

from King Kong

somewhere in eternity if not here

no longer extant in the world?

who but the King would know?




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
you want imagery go to a movie

you want resonance listen to classical music

you want insight stare at the setting sun on the late horizon

you want you want why

you want nothing you need

dismissing all you've got



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
memory of goofs pulling stunts

late at night

pulling pranks on the patsy

whom we one day will be

for this...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
oh to see who I once adored

as she is now

with her own mileage

and her own sorrows and joys

and her own leathery beauty

sun baked from hours in a lounge chair

all these years



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
what recall of ridicule

my soul must've endured

entering my time and place

in this world

and keeping me low

and keeping me humble

what did this lion do to be so tamed

who once howled what he now murmurs...



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
the chain is broken yet again

again we repair the breach

this is earthly endeavor

(much like Sisyphus's Hell, no?

pushing up ever or rolling back the stone

like the tomb of Jesus it's hard for either...)

the chain is broken yet again

again we repair the breach




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
...all to fill a page--

a blankness in being

I must seize and make mine

to body forth what?...a message? a lesson?




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I feel the future opening up to me...

were I drunk to appreciate this...





Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I don't know what these scribbles'll profit...

I am down with us all

staring up in the shadow of a huge dog

it devours the sky while we cower...




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
...am receiving intergalactic transmissions...

almost sure this is an aural hallucination

even if it were true what could I do--

I who'll go down with everyone else




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
I woke up 45 years too late

to have advantage in the hunt

but my meat is poisoned

and my killers will eat death




Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
...how many poems

and observations

lost in getting back

to this infernal machine

to attempt recording them--

to the automata of the coming generations--

know that a pen and a notebook

will never be superceded ...(even if I forgot

to use mine this morning...



Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.