Monday, November 29, 2010

Jordan - a poem about a river

Here is an old poem:

Jordan

Sorted through the locks

social ships float

on the sludge’s displacement

and are moved by the eddies

recycling flagella and movement

to an upstream altitude

of red bolted cranes

and the tobacco leafed trees

swaying underneath a group

of popular photons

and the waterline embeds

only dipping with new loads.


-Robert L. Jackson III


Previously published in The Parnassus Literary Journal, 1998


and in the book Shedding Layers of Ocean.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Poems Published

Good news...five poems (Aethereal Gap, Arbor on Arc, Roman Glass Necklace, Eclipse, and Blinding Blizzard) have been published online at Carcinogenic Poetry:

http://carcinogenicpoetry.blogspot.com/

Another one, 'Psycho-monetary' is going to published in the November issue of the Houston Literary Review:

http://thehoustonliteraryreview.com/

Later y'all,

RLJ

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Aethereal Gap

Aethereal Gap

I draw the ghosts from the earth
and the brittle bricks still holding
lodged projectiles from distant cannon.
Their swords become solid only at night,
when the cemetery gates are closed.
Only when the light no longer reflects
have they frozen and revealed geometric perfection.
Only water that has frozen
can bear any shape.
Although I had opened the iron latch
their metaphysical beauty
caused eyes to evolve to a fertile green
and brought my flesh to flatten
against the hard ground
of a gaped wood floor,
assembled by buried bones and dust,
yet aethereally more complete
than the modern tile filled with polymer sealant.
I am swimming in the aether
without armor, and without a shield
but with no gap
between what is untouchable
in the broad daylight.

-Robert L. Jackson III
From http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/image/37346403

Monday, September 20, 2010

a little ole' one

a while ago,
my pages would fill
without time
for creases
or wear to appear,
but my mind
has become less prolific
and now
the creases on the pages
match the wrinkles
in the mirror.

-Robert L. Jackson, 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010

Family Tree

My family visited the Angel Oak near Charleston, SC this past week and this poem was a product.

Family Tree
(at the Angel Oak)

A stable trunk grows like the ground,
expanding its roots
through new soil and territories,
but still unable to provide
a solid foundation for every limb
and every leaf.
So the branches grow;
some high into the air,
toward the perfect light of the sun,
only to crack and fall
and decay
from a winter weight
or a summer swirl of a tornado
or a steady hurricane force.
Other appendages return to the earth
to stabilize
and provide anchor
for the heady ones.

-Robert L. Jackson

http://www.angeloaktree.org/01_DSC3519-raw2.jpg

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Diameter and Distance

I've been meaning to post this for a long while...

Diameter and Time

The dark thick earth
supports the stalks
of living things,
but sometimes they fall
and scrape the bark
or pull with them
the roots of close neighbors.
Horizontal they begin to decay,
but only slowly with time
and it takes longer
then the lives of the others
to be completely consumed
and returned
to the source.
The larger ones
hollow out and leave a useful shell,
and those in a rich mud
fossilize forever.

-Robert L. Jackson III, 2010

Rotten Log Picture
From http://grandpacliff.com/Trees/Img-Trees/rotten-log.jpg

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Top 25 Most Poetic Songs part 2

Top 25 Most Poetic Songs...Continued from Previous Post

Sorry it has taken so long for me to add more to the list:

23. Great song and the video is synchronized to one of a great movie:

22. Jim Croce was sadly taken well before his time.


21. "Kids" by MGMT: Newer Band and song...I feel for the poor kid in the video being tormented




More to come...eventually.