381

i

Many kiss the hand
they wish cut off

ii

we despise the pleasure of pleasing people
whom we despise

iii

The lips are smiling,
but is the heart?

iv

A hypocrite is the kind of politician
who would cut down a redwood tree,
then mount the stump

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poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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To The Hypocrite

i

Many kiss the hand
they wish cut off

ii

we despise the pleasure of pleasing people
whom we despise

iii

The lips are smiling,
but is the heart?

iv

A hypocrite is the kind of politician
who would cut down a redwood tree,
then mount the stump

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poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Out of the Hard Blue

Out of the hard blue it comes
throbbing, powerful, flinging dust and small stones,
as it clears the swaying tops of neighboring redwoods,
and gives the empty, clear, and calm air
substance, color, and turbulence.
We shield our eyes and turn away
from the spinning propellers as the
helicopter floats slowly down
closer and closer to the playground:
ten feet, six, five, one, done;
and lightly resting on gray pavement,
on the hopscotch lines and painted stars and planets,
the roar of its motor drops from banshee scream
to diminished moan, and finally to whisper
as blurred blades slow, and the flight finishes,
and all motion stops.

Then the school children take over, shouting
as they rush, straining against teachers’ restraint,
to see this amazing machine come to visit.

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poem by Steven Federle
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Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

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poem by Wendell Berry
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Bixby's Landing

They burned lime on the hill and dropped it down
here in an iron car
On a long cable; here the ships warped in
And took their loads from the engine, the water
is deep to the cliff. The car
Hangs half way over in the gape of the gorge,
Stationed like a north star above the peaks of
the redwoods, iron perch
For the little red hawks when they cease from
hovering
When they've struck prey; the spider's fling of a
cable rust-glued to the pulleys.
The laborers are gone, but what a good multitude
Is here in return: the rich-lichened rock, the
rose-tipped stone-crop, the constant
Ocean's voices, the cloud-lighted space.
The kilns are cold on the hill but here in the
rust of the broken boiler
Quick lizards lighten, and a rattle-snake flows
Down the cracked masonry, over the crumbled

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poem by Robinson Jeffers
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Bells Of The Evening

Bells of the evening, o sing to my love
Tell her I miss her, my own turtledove
The streets of the old town are covered with rain
I think I might never know true love again
Im lost with no road signs to guide me
A slave to my whiskey and dreams
Bells of the evening, o bells that I love
Ive got some feelings I long to be rid of
Im not one to ramble; Im not one to boast
Though I had one lover more lovely than most
She was a country girl born to be free
Who took to the city by chance there to find me
Bells of the evening go pealin
Im down here listenin to you
Bells of the evening, o bells of the sea
Tell her that I love her, that Im lost and so lonely
Bells of the evening, your sweet sunday sound
Reminds me of the redwoods and moss covered ground
So if I should wander on back to the coast
Tell her to remember its her I need the most

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song performed by Gordon Lightfoot
Added by Lucian Velea
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Thoughts~

It's just a golden oldie afternoon
A time to remember and review
The starlings and sparrows are playing hide and seek
Next to the In and Out bird bath 'neath the Mulberry
Footsteps from my past tip-toe in
As i revel in remembrance of the California Redwoods
Santa Monica Pier, and Muscle Beach
Just a childs snapshot of pure paradise
Where vacations usually always meant California;
Fast forwarding to this day
Wrapped in it's new September hues
Russet, copper, orange, and gold, soon to emerge
Bidding August a fond but much needed adieu
Saying good-bye to the sizzle that turned our land
Into burned layers of dried hay;
I have become infatuated with the new fragrances
My spirit lifts with a gentle abandon
Awake in the new progression of circumstances;
Pain visits me this day as she did yesterday
And serves as a reminder of my not so solid home;

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poem by Theodora Onken
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The Tree Will Be Reminded

The crystal clear skin

That exudes a peeling moon

To a half-crescent smile

Drowned when your waters

Emanated underneath the tree

Where you petrify with every

Abrupt departure, without notes,

Without gifts of flesh nor syrup-kisses,

The tree stood, chaste and pure, though

Decrepit for in the time of your furlough,

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poem by Windsor Guadalupe Jr
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I Rember The Day Before I Was Born

BEFORE:

(September 16,1982)

I remember the day before I was born...

The sand castles and azure skies,
I watched with wide impatient eyes.
I yearned to lie in seaside grass,
Blue-green days where lovers pass.
Envying waves that touched the shore,
I wanted all the LIFE in store...
Palmettos swayed and seagulls praised the morn.
I remember the day before I was born!
I was one with rain and waterfall,
With canyon echoes and redwoods tall,
The moon and sun in celebration...
September birds in V formation.
Gazing upon the Earth below...
So much to feel, so much to know.

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poem by ToddMichael St. Pierre
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My Castle In A Tree

As the sweet rain smears the watercolor world
And the beams of sunshine are stirred into it
As the trees ripple and splash around me
And my knees melt into the ground
The enormous trunk looms before me
My castle in a tree

Roots run in muscular veins down the mammoth redwood
They are the perfect staircase for me to ascend
As my swollen tears float off to space
The castle doors open to greet me
And my face is bathed in lamplight from within
My castle in a tree

The walls breathe a sigh of welcome
Flames leap onto every white wax candle
I take off my sandals so that my ancient feet
Warm the polished wooden floor
The world, it shivers before me in
My castle in a tree

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poem by Christopher R. Kennedy
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Starting Over

There was an infinite stillness as I slowly walked away
The door closed behind me flashing thoughts of a replay
Did I forget something that I had not noticed before
On this long road of rebirth I had to settle an old score
Fighting to sleep without haunting memories in the night
I will admit that nothing seemed familiar or quite right

Behind frosted glass I saw silhouettes that had been hiding
Stepping into the sunlight I was in need of help and guiding
It was like listening to a speech in a crowded illuminated room
But I just longed to bathe in the rain alone on this afternoon
Where tall redwood trees cast shadows all comforting and dark
There I realized that I had repeatedly missed a very clear mark

On tomorrows yesterday I formed important words in my head
But they were held captive in silence sleeping on a rusty iron bed
Running without moving all time stood still in a puddle of mud
Feelings I had to sort out broke free like a powerful storm flood
I am determined not to give in to the comfort of doom and grey
Slowly dancing I am happy because I know everything will be o.k.

poem by Kristina Louisa Carr
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Sudden Things

    A storm was coming, that was why it was dark. The wind was blowing the fronds of the palm trees off. They were maples. I looked out the window across the big lawn. The house was huge, full of children and old people. The lion was loose. Either because of the wind, or by malevolent human energy, which is the same thing, the cage had come open. Suppose a child walked outside!

    A child walked outside. I knew that I must protect him from the lion. I threw myself on top of the child. The lion roared over me. In the branches and the bushes there was suddenly a loud crackling. The lion cringed. I looked up and saw that the elephant was loose!

    The elephant was taller than the redwoods. He was hairy like a mammoth. His tusks trailed vines. Parrots screeched around his head. His eyes rolled crazily. He trumpeted. The ice-cap was breaking up!

    The lion backed off, whining. The boy ran for the house. I covered his retreat, locked all the doors and pulled the bars across them. An old lady tried to open a door to get a better look. I spoke sharply to her, she sat down grumbling and pulled a blanket over her knees.

    Out of the window I saw zebras and rattlesnakes and wildebeests and cougars and woodchucks on the lawns and in the tennis courts. I worried how, after the storm, we would put the animals back in their cages, and get to the mainland.

poem by Donald Hall
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I Remember California

I remember redwood trees, bumper cars and wolverines
The oceans trident submarines
Lemons, limes and tangerines
I remember this
I remember traffic jams
Motor boys and girls with tans
Nearly was and almost rans
I remember this
History is made
History is made to seem unfair
I recall that you were there
Golden smile and shining hair
I recall it wasnt fair
Recollect it wasnt fair
Remembering it wasnt fair outside
Low ebb, high tide
The lowest ebb and highest tide
A symbol wave I must confide
I guess we took us for a ride
I guess its just a gesture

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song performed by REM
Added by Lucian Velea
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Night Without Sleep

The world's as the world is; the nations rearm and prepare to
change; the age of tyrants returns;
The greatest civilization that has ever existed builds itself higher
towers on breaking foundations.
Recurrent episodes; they were determined when the ape's children
first ran in packs, chipped flint to an edge.
I lie and hear dark rain beat the roof, and the blind wind.

In the morning perhaps
I shall find strength again
To value the immense beauty of this time of the world, the flowers
of decay their pitiful loveliness, the fever-dream
Tapestries that back the drama and are called the future. This
ebb of vitality feels the ignoble and cruel
Incidents, not the vast abstract order.

I lie and hear dark rain beat
the roof, and the night-blind wind.
In the Ventana country darkness and rain and the roar of waters
fill the deep mountain-throats.

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poem by Robinson Jeffers
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Think-tank! Sink-sank! A LONELY PINK ROSE Shrinks in the Only Garden!

Drifting in the lonely redwoods, I met a monstrous leviathan
By switching his homes and names - hermit and egotist heinous
Loner, sequester and seclusionist are his names - atrocious!
Lonely dybbuk visits every home gifting a rocket to you and me,
Think-tank! Sink-sank! A lonely pink rose shrinks in only garden!

I'm taking blows of west wind in barren land, cries a lone hand;
I'm sitting with empty ache; I'm a fruitcake in the lonely land!
I'm a blue star in the night sky; lonely car in the lonely street.
In darkness, I'm in rivers of blood and fears; is it solo treat?
Think-tank! Sink-sank! A lonely pink rose shrinks in only garden!

Lonely I am, I sit and stare; stand and care, yet a lonely stick!
Lonely I am, I feel pain; I cry my eyes out with lonely lipstick!
Lonely I am, like it or hate it, I feel and deal in lonely date;
I don't want to be lonely, I'm with me yet I'm alone, is it fate?
Think-tank! Sink-sank! A lonely pink rose shrinks in only garden!

Today I'm in sorrow, I don't know tomorrow, sings a lone sparrow;
Lonely in the morning I wake in the life of fake for lonely sake;

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poem by Harindhar Reddy
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My Father's Eulogy

Ladies and Gentlemen,
You are all gathered here today
To pay your respects to someone you knew.
However,
I come today not to bury my father
But set him free.
You see
The man who was my father died
Along with his dreams
Many years back.
He was slowly crushed by disappointments
Until he no longer wished to fight
This shell was not the father of my childhood
Who stood straight as the redwoods
He is not the man who knew how to laugh and play.
My father bartered his pride for too small a price
And became a pauper.
His self esteem slipped away long before his last breath.
He had been trying to suffocate himself
Under his own weight.

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poem by Rabia Minhas
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Ghost Rider

Pack up all those phantoms
shoulder that invisible laod
keep on riding north and west
haunting that wilderness raod
Like a ghost rider
carry all those phantoms
through bitter winds and stormy skies
from the desert to the mountain
from the lowest low to the highest high
Like a ghost rider
Keep on riding north and west
circle south and east
show me beauty, but there is no peace
for the ghost rider
shadows on the road behind
shadows on the road ahead
nothing can stop you now
there's a shadow on the road behind
there's a shadow on the road ahead
nothing can stop you now

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song performed by Rush
Added by Lucian Velea
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Franks 2000 Tv

Risin above the city, blocking out the noonday sun
It dwarfs the mighty redwoods and it towers over everyone
I still remember when that delivery truck came down our block
What a lucky guy, I hear he got the last one in stock
And the neighbors are just green
They say, thats the biggest screen weve ever seen!
Its franks 2000 tv (franks 2000 tv)
Everbody come and see(franks 2000 tv)
Franks 2000 tv (franks 2000 tv)
Thats franks remote control, you can look, but dont touch it, please
cause franks the one in charge and he decides what everybody sees
The pictures crystal clear and everything is magnified
Robert deniros mole has got to be ten feet wide
Everybody in the town
Can hear those 90,000 watts of dolby sound
And Im mighty proud to say
Now I can watch the simpsons from thirty blocks away
On franks 2000 tv (franks 2000 tv)
Everybody come and see (franks 2000 tv)
Franks 2000 tv (franks 2000 tv)

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song performed by Weird Al Yankovic
Added by Lucian Velea
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Sightseeing

Words and music by bob seger
It was a curious sight to me
A castle older than a redwood tree
Once lived in by royalty
Who taxed and raped the land
Mostly now it was stone and dust
Long damp halls and smells of must
Faded walls and ancient rust
Built on shifting sand
And I wanted I wanted I wanted
To smash that sucker down
It was a marvelous sight to see
A redhead workin in a brasserie
Five foot nine built to a tee
Eyes so blue and bright
All the drunks were just circling round
I drank water and held my ground
Later on we did the town
And we caught every sight
Cause I wanted I wanted I wanted

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song performed by Bob Seger
Added by Lucian Velea
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Big Sur

Do do do do do do do do do
Cashmere hills filled with evergreens
Flowin from the clouds down to meet the sea
With the granite cliff
(big sur mount)
As a referee
Crimson sunsets and golden dawns
A mother deer with their newborn fawns
All under big sur skies
(big sur mount)
Thats where I belong.
Big sur Ive got plans for you
Me and mine are going to
Add ourselves to your lengthy list of lovers
(big sur mount)
And live in canyons covered in springtime green
Wild birds and flowers to be heard and seen
And with my old guitar
Ill make up songs to sing.
Where bubbling springs from the mountainside

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song performed by Beach Boys
Added by Lucian Velea
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