My Promise

It's the sun rising in the morning
dew
gathering on anything that's ripe for it

It's that where there is ocean there is gathering of the shore
and when there is wind there is gathering of waves

Bare feet on dark soil
gathering
gravity

People
with the King
gathering tools
making things up

It is my promise to you
gathering me
for everything

Another Day of Loving You

You look so good in those glasses,
sitting next to me, I'm gonna play it cool for you.

Can't you see yourself? You might be mistaking
that empty chair for you. Look closer and there you are,
my arm around you, you with such an excited smile, like
a girl on her first date.

It is always like that with you.

If you could see behind these glasses of mine you would see
me holding back tears. They well up inside me as my love
for you overflows, until they start finding their way out, first through
my eyes, then my runny nose and bent brow. The pressure of love in my body
cannot be contained though I sometimes try to hold myself together.

That is me in the chair next to you and you are so clear. That is me
in the chair next to you holding it together for another day of loving you.

Next To You

you are sleeping now...i know
...miss me not for I am there...next to you...

everywhere/nowhere all at once...
create being with me in this place we are...the world

...I love you.

Rest In All Love Is

I love you like this...
dark, i can barely see your eyes...
so dark my eyes are useless. My
heart opens wide its light on you
and your face brightens like the
static on a TV screen, or like the moment
we die and things begin to go all white
and
then
you're an angel laying before me...
the same one that has been there all along,
the one my eyes turned into something else and I
am ashamed I was deceived.
Then,
I see you, I see you like the energy that flows through my limbs,
now, like the breath that takes the universe and
gently creates another, now, like my feet walking
on glass, now, like I was never there.

I love you like I was never there. So gently, never there. In the dark
where I can barely see, and, rest in all that love is.

With Some Confidence

Find a nook in the sofa.
Bring tea, crackers, the latest NetFlix surprise.
Be with you.

We'll watch the movie and I want no conversation.
Just sit, look out at something, side by side.

"Shhhh...not during the movie, please"!

But I love your little interruptions like I love
your little toes, each one grasping like an
inchworm searching for a spot of land with
some confidence.

I love your little interruptions like I love your little breasts,
each one calling to her husband, and, to an unborn child
searching to make way into this world with some
confidence.

The Star Ferry

The Star Ferry blows its horn, "Brraaahhhhhh"!
We are here! We are here!

It is a short journey from Wan Chai to Kowloon...
only minutes, seconds. And it isn't stable on her,
even less so on departure and arrival.

The middle points you get used to as you learn to balance
and watch the mammoth ships and miniscule fishing boats go
by.

"I want to be on that ship...no, the little one would be better."

This is the argument...which is best?

Every wave is felt from that little one. the smell of the bay,
the grime on her from years of abuse and accumulation. So subject to
the whim of the moon, nature herself, the rains and harsh sunlight.

From the ship I am subject to nothing, "was that a wave that just
went by"?
Others move from my path with haste and there is nothing to fear. I
gather
no barnacles and it is rare the moon demands much of me.

From the Star Ferry it is simple. We are here! We are here!

Then the ride is over, the landing inches its way down and we
walk off to dry land as quickly as we left it. It is all over so quickly
and always so nice to visit.

Stir

Where else can a Palestinian sit with a Jew, break ekmek together and laugh and cry and as the Imam wails holy words even Mohammed would be proud of?

Where the heart begs like the child of a Chinese whore running after a dollar from each man passer-by calling them "daddy", a chase he will never win, until perhaps one day he understands...under a tuft of gray hair, that we all are.

American, dragging on second-hand smoke. Nearby the Turk and Chinaman traders. Am I Abi to all? Oh, how I long to jump into the pit of humanity to be seen as mere clay, soil to water, river to riverbed. Why has Khalil left me with such consequences when I can relate it all and could be killed for it. What trick love of man that tests all strength and story.

I stir my chai...rest my spoon. What is sweet always settles at the bottom. Bitter or sweet god is in every sip.

Move to Raki with me or I will share kebab with you...who cares as long as we do things simply, together. I want only to be here with you, to meet god in your eyes, no matter the face or color or smell or clothes. I can barely understand a word you say in any language, even my own tongue so let's use them as a past-time if we must. Make laughter until we burst at the ribs, drunk with it, spinning like the Dervish on your wall, the center of chaos, the center.

Guangzhou, I have found such an unlikely home in your smog, but now it is a cloud and my heaven of humanity.

Ding, ding ding! The chef slaps the bell barking, "Doner"!

A suited Chinese girl rushes up and darts away as fast as she came with the hot plate to the next hungry table.

The clanking of my teaspoon in my Turkish tea rises above the soothing static of 20 languages trying to understand each other. Rises above them all to meet with clanking teaspoons from every corner of the restaurant. A high pitched reminder of the bitter and sweet we are all about to share...an unnoticed heart begging to connect.

So stir. Stir your tea loudly any time of day and without hesitation or fear. It is the call for everyone to meet for the great feast.

[From the Istanbul Turkish Restaurant & BBQ House 2F No. 318 Huanshi Donglu, Guangzhou, China tel: 8359 6767]

*abi - brother

*ekmek - bread

*Khalil - Gibran

*raki - licorice alcohol

Across 12 Zones

skiml5p:  deep breaths

dmbaumgarten: love festers

skiml5p:  hot mouth

dmbaumgarten: this trimester

skiml5p:  heart beats

dmbaumgarten: in the South

skiml5p:  and in the East

dmbaumgarten: across 12 times zones lovers meet

skiml5p:  no distance with one heart

dmbaumgarten: how sweet our poem life imparts

skiml5p:  to create love presence

dmbaumgarten: a flower yields its scent

skiml5p:  surrendering to the essence of itself

dmbaumgarten: in splendor

skiml5p:  and in ecstacy it blooms

dmbaumgarten: its life color to womb

Morning Glory

...more yoga?

dmbaumgarten: yes

dmbaumgarten: every moring so far

skiml5p:  lover...i'm finding that i want to sit and binge

dmbaumgarten: baby

dmbaumgarten: ssshhhhh

skiml5p:  ok.....

dmbaumgarten: i

dmbaumgarten: want

dmbaumgarten: you

dmbaumgarten: i want the dream

dmbaumgarten: that always was with us

dmbaumgarten: to unfold like a morning

dmbaumgarten: glory

dmbaumgarten: we step out of the way

dmbaumgarten: so the light can shine on her

dmbaumgarten: small tight bud

dmbaumgarten: our shadow aside 

dmbaumgarten: the morning light can have its way with us.

dmbaumgarten: there will be nothing to do 

dmbaumgarten: but unfold

dmbaumgarten: slowly

dmbaumgarten: surely

dmbaumgarten: exposed as we allways were

skiml5p:  moved...

skiml5p:  we are so amazing...a miracle every day, every moment

dmbaumgarten: we are

Pukka Girl

She is a pukka girl.

Her dance a swirl,
spinning us all while
inside she'd pule.

What is this ancient pull
drawing him ever nearer?

Pullulate with all of it
for she to him grows dearer.

Ah, but what pulp he
pronounces on the pulsating
page, each word pulverizing
the pumpkin pie of her.

Alas, he puns, punch-drunk
in his paper punching bag.

What promised goes unpunctured?