and other poems
Yin, Yang
Infinite layers of time,
lost then found,
of noumenon pure, sustained.
Sinners sanctified,
all acts become just,
heartfelt indifference reigns.
One man is mankind,
drinks from all waters,
seasoned by every stream –
all pleasure complex,
senses, all thoughts,
heightened, buoyed by pain.
Each life colors, hues,
pigments, affects,
engenders the next.
In endless ensemble
all words are spoken,
voids determine, abstract.
He Made a Living
He knew early on there would be no mentors.
His father knew and tried to beat his way
through the web of childhood anarchy
with a riding crop – to instill responsibility.
Education was years of standup comedy,
with a few plucks of philosophical humor –
moments of interest in mostly what was not known,
none, in memorizing and reciting the for sure.
He was bored with nothing to do, so it wasn’t
the task or the time, it was the buffoonery
that someone would know better,
and have the audacity to tell him so.
Night shifts alone, self-employed,
on the road, always when possible
knowing that the slavery was his to manage,
his ideas, not barked at by some pompous ass.
He worked hard all his life, never for the money,
or to have both feet on the ground –
he worked hard at not having a job,
at making a living that seemed like his life.
Craig Kirchner
Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems in a folder on a laptop. These words tend to keep him straight. After a writing hiatus he was recently published in Poetry Quarterly, Decadent Review, New World Writing, WordSwell, Vine Leaf Press, 7th Circle Pyrite, Ariel Chart, Blotter, Bombfire, Borderless Crossings, Cape Magazine, Carolina Muse, Chiron Review, Coneflower Café, Dark Winter, Edge of Humanity, Fairfield Scribe, Fixator, Flora Fiction, Floyd County, Gas, Ginosko, Globe Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Impspired, Ink in Thirds, Journal of Expressive Writing, Kleksograph, Last Leaves, Last Stanza, Light Ekphrastic, Lit Shark, Literary Heist, Literary Yard, Loud Coffee, Medusa’s Kitchen, Moria, Muse India, Neologism, Poetry Super Highway, Punk Monk, Quail Bell, Same Faces, Scab, Skinny, Spillwords, Scars. Sybil, The Argyle, The Lake, Timada’s Diary, Unbroken, Unlikely Stories, Valiant Scribe, Variety Pack, Versification, Wild Violet, Wise Owl, Witcraft, Lothlorien, Yellow Mama, Young Ravens, Arlington Literary, Glacial Hills Review, Your Impossible Voice, Writers Resist, Rushing thru the Dark, Sparks of Calliope, Stereo Stories, The Good Men, Gargoyle Magazine, Abstract, and The Main Street Rag.