Our Ancestors Were Chinese Cranes

8/19/2019 Our Ancestors Were Chinese Cranes

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Our Ancestors

Were Chinese Cranes

Lyrical Poems

by John Freed

Phoenix and Son PressPortland, OR

2016


2/61

dedicated to my wife,

Stacy Alexander


3/61

In order to arrange for poetry readings or

on-site, creative writing workshops

contact the author

John Freed

Portland, OR

[email protected]

© Copyright (2002-20!" #y John Freed

all right$ re$er%ed


4/61

Proloue

!i"in in a #a$anese %ouse

Your shadow plays

across the paper screen

collapsing eyes on moth wings.


5/61

&rom San 'ieo(s )lac* )each

Cactus grows leeward.

Naked bodies lie

random and sexless as birds

while the ocean's yeasty arms rush my shoes.

Five pelicans ascend with

the cliff's quick lift

into the boy's idea of a squadron.

pair of Navy !ets erupts like steam

from a cappuccino machine

heading out low over the "acific.#ingtips nearly touch like sprinting lovers.


6/61

A Re"iew of &reud(s Anti+uities

Freud's antiquities were on display recently

at the $laffer %allery

on the campus

of the &niversity of ouston.

shirt pocket(si)ed* cookie cutter cut* clay female figure

of +yrian attribution

caught my fancy.

er wide hips* bird face* ambiguous breasts

and much more practically placed pubis

seemed the simplest answer to all the old man's questions.


7/61

Asia #ournal

yoto $orcelain

,yoto porcelain

whirling dervish of coffee cream

shawls of mountain rain.

yoto(s %eian Shrine

-s it an antique paintingof eian +hrine at

cherry blossoming

-n a gray mountain frame

/hree sharp +hinto

claps make it so.


8/61

A Post-Card from yoto at Rush %our

perverse quiet even at rush hour

even from battalions of uniformed teens

afraid of awakening warlord emperors

t the "ink $unny Cafe a pastel blue elephant styli)ed into a ball

wrapped around a raspberry bear

0ld women squashed

into the shape of a 1

crossing the streets gla)ed with rain

0ne thousand and one gold lacquered

radiantly female images of ,annon

manifested upright for 233 years

nother wooden temple so vast

that only rope braided from women's hair

could have dragged its enormous beams


9/61

glass geometrical monolith

vaster than $lade 4unner's

imagined future contains

/he panther train eager to carry me

back to 0saka leaving maybe

a moved pebble at 4engeo(in 1en garden.


10/61

.o*yo /rand au*i

/he kabuki drum

draws our onnagata

towards her certain death.

ara .em$le 'eer

5uick(eyed deer at Nara /emple

extort their mealsfrom stricken pilgrims.


11/61

.ai$ei O$era School

Charming children

!uggle 6'ing bowls with their feet

for the delight of strangers.

/uilin arsts

#e are drunk

from snake wine.

Caravans of camel karsts

float past our tourist boat.


12/61

On the /reat Wall South of Chende

0n guard now only against

the sounds of bees

and mountain winds

- still long for your voice

like a desolate soldier.


13/61

&irst m$eror(s /ra"e 3ound at 4ian

-t will take much more than 7*888 clay warriors

and rivers of mercury

/o protect the dead emperor

from his slaughtered people's wrath.

/heir heirs won't be bought off by the

pomegranates and bright orange flowers.


14/61

m$eror 3ao in .ienanmen S+uare

Far from that wooden hall

in polyglot Canton

where he was lean and hard

as a lightning rod

6ao lies forever a most imperial saint

sepulchered in his giant9s flesh.


15/61

Wei 3in in Wuhan

/hree small leaves

lay in her ivory hand.

+he was the girl again sent down

some twenty(five years ago

to work in the North

on a tea commune.

/en kilos a day of these

feather light leaves ((

the smaller the better.

+he talked about her three years of pain

and the life(long burden of the peasants.

/wo girls passed us on the dusty road

arms over shoulders in the Chinese way:

their legs tied together

with a red bandanna.


16/61

&rom the Canadian &alls

/he Niagara is a human river.

;apanese man in double(breasted suit

bends down and slaps a rock.

"urple spiked flowers seem to hold back

the skeleton of an ore freighter crossways

not


17/61

/aking that last snapshot of me forty years ago

swinging out over the edge* my mother melodramatically grabbing at my !acket.

#hat wasn9t shown was her tossing me

to the rocks hundreds of feet below.

Can you believe that - didn9t pop up among

the debris in the whirlpool at the bendin the gorge until !ust this moment


18/61

5mer Woman

/he umber woman9s words

caress me like a sponge

From a tongue

that flicks out for all those

black bodies so packed in sweatthere wasn9t air

enough to speak.

Freed from speech

their spirits shot up

to eclipse the sun.

er words caress me

like a sponge but

her tongue flicks out

between flashing teeth.


19/61

She dreamed at lon last lo"e

$rought upright

by the sound of glass

she kicked the covers and ran

down the hall toward the light

the love(seat in her office had forced him

into a fetal position

his glasses off his feet barehe looked too young to be with her

suddenly she was the deer torn

by curiosity and bolting

instead she turned off the desk lamp

took down her mother's afghan

from the top of the bookcase

his face was too closeto her now for her

not to touch it

softer than her own

but with a stubble

she forced herself

to breathe

the afghan snagged

on the settee9s carving

she did nothing to free it


20/61

she had not caught him that night in her arms

in the morning he would be the one to leave

and she already knewhow much she would hate him for leaving.


21/61

%e thouht of her urency

e thought of her urgency

the trace of sand on her lips

the kiss9s force pushed

back his neck

her caressing hand

interceptedand properly placed

pitched her forward

onto his chest

he assessed the damage to the beach

an elderly woman wading in the water

with a naked child caught his glance but would not return it.


22/61

/ift of an Anlo A$$le

Bet me apologi)e in advance for the nglish.

-t is improper to say* ="lease bite apple.>

-t must be my apple or this apple.

s if it were our strictest obligation to inventory all creation for a final reckoning.

Not to mention

Can an nglishman's apple ever be free from

pesticides* dye* symbol or motive

ow much more suspect then

should be the language of his love


23/61

Safe for slee$

+afe for sleep

the mockingbirds scratch

their way back under the eaves.

#here is your sweet smell

strand of hair keeps me awake.

A utterfly wal*s

butterfly walks

in the monochrome

of early spring.

ours are winter nights

when a lover waits.


24/61

%er 3other and &ather

4emember the time when you two

acted !ust like school(girls

hanging onto each other's necks*

wearing each other's clothes

0r that day when you were so smallthat you could ride on her hip*

your father walking across the park

blackening out the sun

e would not look you in the eye

as if the taboo against looking

could somehow save his sweet urydice:it only left you shadowed by his peasant's back.

$ut when she dies

all the air will be squee)ed out

to blow the perfect trumpeter's long

almost breathless sigh.


25/61

our Pen %as Penetrated my %eart

Your pen has penetrated my heart.

ach time that you send a poem*

- feel myself stripped naked.

ow then can your eyes be such mirrors as - look for in a friend* when

your pen has penetrated my heart

7translated from the &rench8


26/61

Scarecrow for !ylvia Plath

?ad wasn't the %estapo: he was a "0#.

e couldn't eat potato skins

because that was prison camp food.

-'ve only recently begun to eat them myself

but never without an apologetic tic.

e will receive a check from the D

for E


27/61

You will always be taller than - am*

but when - was young* more bones than skin

like my fifteen year old today*

- would suck in my gut and act your starving

man of war.

You will always be my scarecrow.

G6issing in action presumed deadGwas all my mother's Christmas in HI.

- still grieve for our loss.


28/61

Waterfowl

- have never made love

to you the way husbands do*

more or less on time like an airline.

#e have been migrating waterfowl

feeding along the shore of our northern(most lake.


29/61

&rom #efferson9s 3onticello

You can actually buy seeds from the gardens

of 6onticello from plants planted by that

farmer of religious freedom* that inventor of

universities* that multiplier of nations.

oudin9s bust from life watches over the visitors shuffling through the large entrance hall*

people he would have invited in*

had he had the time.

6uch of his time was spent bankrupting himself

paying off his dead wife9s dead father9s debts

manufacturing home(grown nailsfrom imported iron.

e brought a slave to "aris !ust to learn the

cooking then the ungrateful man parlayed

his freedom* one of only seven slaves

freed during his lifetime.


30/61

"roud that the sun never caught him

in that narrow bed nestled in an alcovecarved directly under the original wall

of his dead love's house*

e spent his life on the painful side of paradise

believing in an unrisen Christ who left us

the !ob of cultivating people

and asparagus in Dirginia.


31/61

!o"e )ade 3e Welcome in Six %ai*ai

re you that wild

russet rose

shy and shameless as a child

2

+unset red wildflowers

guarded by cobwebs

long to be touched.

&

Dariegated carnations

red and white

lipstick on the envelope.


32/61

'

#ater spilling from your hands

fills the vase

flustered by his violets.

Crystal can more lovingly

hold a stem

than you hold me in this life.

!

/he night wind rises

soft and strong

hushing words* lifting trees.


33/61

%unry Owl

#hat kind father

leaves his children

wandering in the woods

and flies off

a hungry owl


34/61

3en9s 3o"ement

%eorge +egal papier(mJchK man staredat the ivory and maroon ripstop

nylon splayed on the ground.

/hen an B. B. $ean man with bandanna kerchief

tied below his dam's apple and carrying a

huge ceramic mug offered to help.

e was a part(time carpenter from ustin.

+oon two other men stopped by ( a former

engineer now psycho(therapist from 0klahoma*

and a !ournalist from ,ansas who - later learned

had lost two small children.

/he geodesic tent which usually took me about

ten minutes to set up alone took the four of us

almost an hour.

0ver the bush(si)ed trees* a deep(throated

sound beckoned to the gathering.

nd like a herd at dusk to the barn* we silently

moved toward that sound*

a drum under each man's arm.


35/61

:shmael

/he abandoned son* -shmael*

hair flaming out like a dragster9s*

roared and propagated

to no special purpose

somewhere in the desert.


36/61

3aritte9s !e "iol

"erfectly polished nails

violin shaped hair

down to her waist

#hiter scars across a white throat

are her silent witnesses.


37/61

St; #oan and the 'au$hin

/ired of playing the witch*

you held your hands over the fire.

-t burned the rope and freed them

then tresses of orange flame

streamed down your face

to garland your hair.

You looked for me somewhere

in dark corners where - was* out of sight.

Your pain was meant to be enough

for the three of us.

+hameless

the fire betrayed your nakedness*

skin and blackened bone.

Finally calm*

you found that gravity

had been in love with you all along.

Finally blessed*

you became lover* mother* son.


38/61

Cold Stream

-ndifferent to your lovers

the cold stream smooths

the black shale

$roken into ra)ors

by your hiking boots.


39/61

&rom !a*e rie State Par*

Bake rie is that tricolor it gets on windy days

brown near the shore then a band of aqua and

turquoise of the '


40/61

6y wife may be back at eart's Content in the

llegheny Forest where she and her lover

had a matchless time.

-f - asked her* she would tell me.

$ut dreading 0thello's too small cage*

- am sufficiently satisfied not knowing.

+atisfied making out your sky blue eyes

in the sky's 0ctober blue.


41/61

%urricanoes

Cats seek shelter under

broken asbestos tiles

speakers blown in their ears

by sheets of lightning.

+itting naked on the lawn*- neither hear nor feel

the side(swiping hurricane.

-t appears as /D background noise

for more domestic violence.


42/61

3y arms across your shoulders

6y arms across your shoulders

holding your hands apart

the shard of glass from your wrist

+culpted by $ernini

into a world of our own.


43/61

&rom &eruson Point .eahouse

-9m actually saying the words out

loud like a cra)y person.

single carnation* pale yellow piped with

raspberry* brushes the window with its face. -

flirt with the +teak and ,idney "ie but choose

the 0riental Chicken +alad as if foreordained.


44/61

Catching the end of a conversation at the next

table between a man and a woman whose dress

matches her lipstick* - think - hear him say* =-love you more than - don9t dislike my wife.>

0utside again along the water(walk in the

painfully bright cold - pass two older astern

uropean sounding men.

=-9m not going to spoil you by giving youH8*888*> the older* older protests.

=/hen when are you going to buy me a trip to

urope or awaii>

Canada seems no longer willing or able to offerasylum* either sexual or political* at least not

!ust across the border.


45/61

Shi"a9s :mminence

+melling of burnt grass

your hair hides dark water eyes.

- worship nothing so much

as the liquid in those eyes.

Faces are metaphors too.

- love her because of you.


46/61

Wyatt(s 'eer

/wo deer woke me

stalking my open tent.

/hey were small* young or female*

a little reckless* alert.

brown wood thrush hopped.

/he deer started* then fro)e*

like perfect breasts in that photograph of you.

- should have raced with you out of grace

your hair gone wildcaught by the fairy wind

the accelerating instant before the crash.


47/61

&rom the Pia==a da 3ill


48/61

a police officer concerned that the real street

person remains awake and gets his free largeorange !uice*

high body images legs skin(tight* tip(toeing on

cleated shoes* bicycles costing more than my old

+aab laid on their sides to sun like seals*

in the mini version of a Catholic school girl9spleated plaid skirt a photographer silently firing

her Beica at the hippie lovers making out

ambiguously sexual only in their dress*

a native skinned merican* looking as if he

should be in school* dressed in dark blue sweats !uggling a soccer ball in slow motion with his

feet.

nergy emanates from a small child careening

over the brick work* a black and gold /inkerbell

with green aluminum wand*

and from a petite business woman carrying a

huge manila envelope clicking onto the street

to wave down the town's only cab.


49/61

+he reminds me of Carla who once turned

translucent for me.

-9m sure she is a grown up business woman

now who wears rmani on the last day of

0ctober in 6ill Dalley* California.


50/61

!i*e a cowoy lo"er

Bike a cowboy lover*

more prick than sense*

the black metal dog

springs toward a brown metal barrel

through a wire capital 0

dropping his coinsomewhere short of the mark.


51/61

.he truth is

Confidently we undress.

$ut the truth is

we more often act like ;ews

in a pogrom

fleeing from each otherthan we act like lovers.

6ore terrified of our power together

than of our separate deaths.


52/61

On the Oreon Coast

"ushing through the damp sand

head low past the sign*

=Bab on the loose* ?rive +low*>

+he doesn9t see the rock shaped head

bobbing as if exhaustedtoo far out to sea.


53/61

An Ode to #ames 3errill>

" #egret

-'ve never been gay but late in

life - regret not

being sucked by one of themost important poets

in merica.

#e met one night in

the apartment of his

acolyte M my lover.

e* more boyish the

older he became.

-* more regretful

of worm holes -'d

never explore.


54/61

- can hear his reedy

voice still in

=/he owlet umlaut peeps and hoots

above the open vowel.>

6ine* -'m certain evaporated

like the

the bu))ing of a bee.

Jame$ )errill li$tening to me.

Photo courtesy of #udith 3offett


55/61

:n your s*in

for Judith $offett

- can imagine what it's like to live

in your skin* my loving friend.

$rilliant words protruding from your belly

like poems sent from a +alem witch.

smooth* wooden phallus carved in his shape

pumps your heart.

fetus rolls safely* closely

in your darkness M still smelling of us.

0ur breasts* shrunken by losses*

leak milk and blood.

nd - expel my breath

out through your mouth.

nd we are whole and young again*

your kidneys resting in my cupped hands.


56/61

#udas( /os$el

;udas scaled the cedar fence last night

to ruminate among

my pea green pecans.


57/61

Selfless

is last mortal thought

was the starburst green

a bottle of eineken makes

hitting black asphalt.

#hy would a nineteen year old !ump off a cliff in ustin* /exas

Nothing human would find him

for eighty(one more days.


58/61

Ars ratia sanuis

/he small palette knife

slashes his painted

head into halves.

+angria splatters the walls.


59/61

!ast Christmas in /al"eston

6y last Christmas covered by a scrim of fog

distant houses forming chalky cliffs.

/he %ulf's shaming surf punctuated

by qui))ical bursts of gull shrieks.

bleached snake skull crunched

under foot like a glass ornament.

ow warm the water still was

with what a shrimp(boil taste.

Nobody's dog ran up the beach

barking at me like a lifeguard.

ven the waves pushed me back

insisting - was earth and meant for dust.


60/61

Amer

6y heart* it turns out*

is not so much stone as amber*

/hat honey golden resin

preserving nettlesome insects

in such a semi(precious way.


61/61

$iloue

Pittsurh9s orthside

/he old carpenter

planing window sash

was not there.

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Our Ancestors Were Chinese Cranes