Sample poem from "The Tin Men"

A collaboration with Kendall Evans.


DYSON SPHERES


Detailed maps of heat signatures
showed millions of them
Dyson spheres radiating at
no more than 30° kelvin
shells of stabilized neutronium
skeined force fields
Möbius fabrics
things whose composition
eluded our analysis

At first the only one we could enter
was broken, long abandoned
a cinder at its core
nothing we recognized as habitations
on the inner surface
save, possibly, a field of geometric figures
covering three orders of magnitude in size
and a few trillion acres

Abandoned structure/ lost civilizations
Where had they gone?

Then, when we did figure out
how to open them
it was like cracking geodes

Dead stars in their Dyson shells
All-In-A-Row

Each Dyson interior the equivalent
In surface area
Of thousands of planets
All structures empty
No evidence of corpses
A mystery of scope beyond
That of the Anasasi
The Marie Celeste
The Flying Dutchman
Mad-tea-party-service
Inexplicably abandoned

Radiometric dating indicated
they were at least
10 billion years old
which meant the builders had achieved
this kind of technology
in the amount of time we'd
evolved and learned enough
to open their front doors

When their suns died
was there anybody left inside the spheres
did they move on to something new
did devolved descendents freeze to death
or starve?
(If so, what happened to the corpses?)

Perhaps they have moved on
or no longer exist
except as a myriad scattered atoms--
yet they may await our arrival

somewhere beyond Time and Thought


the end


Another example, and how to order http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/10/poem-from-tin-men_06.html

A poem from _The Tin Men_

A collaboration with Kendall Evans, published in a new chapbook from Sam's Dot.

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/divergent-quanta-poem-from-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/umbral-valleys-poem-from-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-to-order-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/tin-men-cover.html


The Grand Experiment


The alchemist leaned back and smiled
The elixir was complete;
It was time for his initial trial.
If his calculations were correct,
He would soon be able to witness the Sphinx being built
The early indo-european migrations
The razing of the great library in Alexandria

As he brought the cup to his lips
An intense peppermint flavor burst upon his tongue.
He looked out the window
Just as a shadow passed across it
He picked up the phone
"Did it work?"
He slammed down the phone;
It rang.

He hurried out of the room
And down to the front door
He reached for the knob, hesitated,
Then stepped back:
He waited.
Just as he finally reached for the knob once again,
The door was flung open.
Nursing his jammed fingers he stared at Carson:
"It's only getting worse!" he said,
With a groan or maybe a whine in his voice.

He ran outside, fell,
And climbed back to his feet.
The earth rolled unsteadily
And he heard the sound of breaking glass
From inside the house;
A new explosion in his upstairs lab?
Or the one four months ago?

* * * * *

A biplane and a pterodactyl
Loop-de-loop in the sky above
An intricate parody of WWI aerial combat;
Would the others in the street,
Looking up, see both, or one?
Or neither?

Encountering a sudden forest
Dense with undergrowth and trees
He pushes through to an overgrown ruin
And shoves back shrubs from cuneiform words
Carved into weathered stone

An ancient Sumerian engraving
Which he methodically translates:
"If a piece of felt cloth
Is abandoned in the forest
With no one to touch or feel it,
Can it really be felt at all?
Or is it something else entirely?"

Surely he has erred; this can't be right
Ancient Sumerican is tricky.
He retranslates more cautiously,
A text telling of shell-necklaces,
Tax levy increases, due and payable
To the local chieftain--

Or maybe not; the ambiguity of it all
Makes him want to weep.
He's stuck with an image from his departure,
His friend Carson talking to the empty space
In the doorway he had occupied moments before.

One other miscalculation,
He cannot argue with himself:
Better if he had brought along
At least one someone else
As a traveling compantion.
Too disorienting, the way the dimension of time
Seems to be slowly unraveling

Beyond the forest a tall fence looms
Barbed-wire capped, posted with signs
Reading "RESTRICTED AREA"
At this rate, he reflects, it will take me forever
Or at least far too long
To reach Egypt or old Alexandria
The Sphinx will be completed,
The library will be burned.

If only there were a trans-time hotel
Or a genuine signpost
Somewhere along the way

Poem from _The Tin Men_

Latest collaborative poetry chapbook from me & Kendall Evans, copies signed by both of us available from either of us.


EL DORADO ASTEROID


I've heard you are out there
Way out
Exploring the far reaches
Out past the orbit of Mars
Searching
For El Dorado Asteroid

Shuttling thru the belt
Sifting through the void
On a star crossed mission
Seeking El Dorado Asteroid

They say El Dorado
Is radioactive, the old
You-can't-have-it-
If-I-can't-have-it
Gambit
Nuked to prevent a glut
In our solar system's gold market

But those beta particles
Don't last forever
I hear you packed a cold-sleep coffin
I know your game
You’re really something,
If it's hot when you find it
You'll wait that sucker out
Or persuade an android
To mine it; somehow
You’ll win the El Dorado Asteroid

But what will you do
If someone finds it first
Sends it through a time warp
Runs down that radioactivity
With tricky entropy
So the gold of El Dorado Asteroid
Can be sold
Can be exploited

Or, you know
Somebody might already
Have a connection with
Space aliens
Who don't mind a little
Spice with their gold
For whom jewelry
Made from El Dorado asteroid
Is just like eating pickled
Jalapeno peppers

Or maybe, say, it's
More like coriander
For the aliens
Concentrated in
Pomme-granite juice
Plus a few
Randomly fortuitous
Mutations

A glut of gold for your gluttony
El Dorado Asteroid is
And speaking of all that fallout
Long thin straggling strands
All the hair you have left
Have you vomited up any blood
That lonely deadly asteroid
Is your only lover

We could have shared a fortune
When we discovered
El Dorado Asteroid
But you couldn't wait
You wanted me out of the contract
You know
The one I entered into
After the alien contact;
After you left the orbiting crèche
And made such a splash
In Indonesia

But that's not really
What I wanted to tell you
Oh no―
You'll be out there
On life support (if you are lucky)
And I'll be earning credit
In this new growth industry

When information crashed
Metals came back in
They're stable and that's good
When times are hard
But now metals
Are out the airlock
And alien technology is hot
I've got a beautiful contact
And I do mean beautiful
Despite the spines
And we respect each other
We’ve signed a long-term contract
I am really going places
Even without
That damned El Dorado Asteroid
 
She's really something
And the doctors say
With a little manipulation
They can make my sperm
Her eggs merge/align―
Genetically compatible  
 
P.S.  Maybe you could spare
A few ounces of the yellow stuff
Yg-tg-ki-ki has decided to adopt
Our cultural traditions
Says she wants a diamond
14 karat golden ring--
Shall I dream
Of mutated offspring? 

--

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/divergent-quanta-poem-from-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/umbral-valleys-poem-from-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-to-order-tin-men.html

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/09/tin-men-cover.html

Spirit Writing

Kendall Evans and I both have copies of our new book, The Tin Men, which we have both signed. But we've never met. We used spirit writing. I would tell you that we used telekinesis, but then I would have to kill you. Whoops. You didn't hear me say that. Anyway, it is some of our best collaborative poetry. You can get it from Kendall in southern California or from me in Alabama. Or I could mail it to you. Call me. Or use telepathy. it is eight dollars postpaid from me or six dollars in person.

http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/08/tin-men.html

The Tin Men

I got my copies of this new collection of poetry by me and Kendall Evans. The cover, by Mitchell Davidson Bentley, is beautiful. I am looking for reviewers. Anyone interested? The collection contains two Rhysling nominees, one of which won.

The Tin Men

My newest book, SF & fantasy poetry with Kendall Evans http://sdpbookstore.com/poetrybooks.htm#tinmen