August Poetry Reading

August 5^th, 2008

This afternoon there is a poetry reading at a park in west Boynton – unusual for a Tuesday afternoon! Anyway, I went to a reading yesterday evening and I was told about it. The only thing is that they ask that they be poems about nature.

I’m more of a social activist than a nature poet, but I’ll see what I have…

**************************************

This isn’t exactly that, but it is a condemnation of our technology dependent civilization –

You There With Your Toys!

WE are protected from the world,
Yes, YOU too! You there with your toys!
Your games, cell phones and computers,
You, who've never seen the stark, gnarled
Fingers a hard life leaves with no joy,
No Hope, no love and no future!

Karl Stuart Kline

Perhaps this is more like what they might be looking for?

Mountain Stream

Flickering in rainbow haste,

It comes to our chance meeting.

Following its’ pebbled path,

It laughs in liquid greeting.

Sunshine bright and full of life,

It may stop, but not for long.

Merrily leaping on its’ way,

It leaves us with a happy song..

Now it’s only a memory

Of an Autumn afternoon,

Someplace I’ve been before

And hope to return to soon.

Karl Stuart Kline

‘70’s or even earlier

Here’s another, written much more recently – “The Searcher”

the searcher...
by Karl Stuart Kline

I

have a job

where

i can stand,

hands

in pockets,

relaxed,

as a

tropical

breeze                           g me
                                   n             and the eagle
stirs                        i                                         that i watch
                             t
my hair             f                                              to hover
                         i
in January, l                                                   above

                                                                       the horizon,

                                                                       together,

                                                                       merging,

                                                                      in my mind's eye,

                                                                       to watch

                                                                       the landscape

                                                                       below

                                                                       for rabbits

                                                                       and poets

Unfortunately, some of our tree hugging friends might be horrified to learn that I once worked as a lumberjack. Worse yet, that I learned to use dynamite because we had to blast beaver dams and drain the swampland that we were working through.

What we were actually doing was clearing the right of way for an oil pipeline through the Big Sandy Swamp near Tuscaloosa in Northern Alabama. The soft ground made it impossible for us to use heavy equipment, so for the lead crew our tools were strictly chainsaws, log hooks and double bitted axes. I lost thirty pounds that summer!

I also became known as “Snake Man” after I had found a small green snake and tucked him into my shirt pocket to keep him out of harm’s way as we worked. Nobody had seen me do it and I hadn’t said anything. The snake was comfortable and made himself at home in the dark warmth of my pocket. Later on, I had stopped to talk with the foreman and some of the members of the crew, not even thinking about the snake in my pocket. However he must have felt the vibrations from our voices and poked his head out of my pocket to see what was going on – And scared the Hell out of them!

As it turned out, I was the only one who could approach and handle snakes without fear.

Otherwise there were a large number of uneducated, highly superstitious blacks on our crew who wouldn’t work anywhere near a snake. One little snake was all it took to stop an entire crew of big strong lumberjacks!

When that happened, work was halted and the call would come back for “Snake Man” to get the snake so that they could resume work.

A few poems and an anecdote. I don’t have much to bring for this theme, but I’ll print out some copies and hand them out. Anybody who is intrigued by my poetry or my life can find more at www.scaredsafe.com , www.scaredsafe.org or www.poeticat.com.

Enjoy!

>^.\/.^<
Karl Stuart Kline

April 22nd, 2009

An extra special "Hello!" for our planet and the life forms that we share it with...

Happy Earth Day!

>^.Karl!~

A day at the park;