Selections From Etymologicon, by Robert Fuller

Infused Waters

Bee-honey-bathed rivers of luxuriant rose balm

Anointing, soaking, mixing, pouring into alluvia,

Lemony flows of liquid tongue, fully aromatic,

Melting crowds or clouds into aromas of sage.

Down streams the golden nectar, sweetened with

Insects flourishing exuberantly in aromatic abode,

Like houses of hex, smeared with the oily spices, or

Lying in liquid blended into a confusion, a cobweb.

Matter sifting out, purified against a sweetheart lover,

Issuing overflows of rinses and washes, part of a menu

Neither gaseous nor solid: moist fluid swells of voice,

Their sweet seasonings a running flow of consonants,

Softening, yet mildly fire-consumed, digested, burnt up,

As if crushed and oppressed, made into a heap of cumuli,

Given over to crushing fragrances of onion, leek, garlic,

Exuding hard vowels of skillful tastes of well-kept spice.

The Mirrors of Inertia

The mirrors of inertia, surrounded by the bashful fable hidden

Under the sands, echo resoundingly in dark chambers, as the

Reluctant voice of the one who will assemble all the shards

Of the tome together again, as if the vase had never broken.

But it was never whole in the first place, and all the

Meanderings, creaks, and groans had yet to coalesce

Into a container worthy of holding anything dear, since

Mirrors only reflect illusions that appear before them.

No one can make the threadbare suit into anything but

Rags, its frayed cloth having long since been spent, hours

Whiled away cloaked on someone’s back, obscuring the

Transparent naked path along which the bearer trudged.

Sound after sound, the phonemes gather around sacrificial

Fires, heady with blackest smoke, striving to forge themselves

Into whatever might transcend the incoherent babbles and

Grunts now swirling through the flames of humanity’s torment.

The Kiss of the Muse

The embrace, with little sweets of lips touching freshened breaths,

Lovers crossed in light touches of cheek, holding off the impending;

Pondering, wondering, dreaming, loitering—and holding each other,

Muzzle to muzzle—terpsichore dancing in flutes of erato and calliope.

Encircled in a clasp of arms, as unimportant sensual pleasures, one of

Two sides hanging loosely, mouth-edges of saucy talk coming to rest,

Topped off by scented vapors, aloof soulmates passed over by trifling

Tests of jawbones, fleshy chins: watching, delaying the coming storm.

Considering, doubting, channeling inner joy-music, wagging around,

Idling—while containing mutual ideas and embodiments, fulfilling

Mouths entwined with noses but with nowhere to bite—sirens dancing

In delight, musing about the fifth act (or tome), with powers of chaos

Trembling, quivering, in a Greek chorus of weariness, perplexity,

Disappointment, the whole business a succession of movements,

Steps toward flageolet lutes blowing into goblets consisting of

Nothing: golden arrow’s lovely desire; epic eloquence’s ecstasy.

The Murray Haiku

Bad boy of piano,

One thousand nights and a night:

Liberty or death?

Beaten tarred and feathered,

Chocolate covered dried grapes day:

Hot tin roof’s meow?

Everything since was

Large and startling figures:

An anticlimax?

Hair often falls out

On this side of paradise:

Do the teeth decay?

Morocco’s sultan’s

Thimble patent was granted:

Timbuktu captured?

Guillotine first used,

Rio Grande boundaries:

Circus on TV?

Lemon’s meadowlark,

Double helix structure found:

A seeing eye dog?

First odd fellows hall,

Cavalry’s killing of Booth:

Guernica attacked?

Great gate of Kiev,

A Chernobyl disaster:

Off the Richter scale?

In other red square,

Martial law declared by reds:

Forbidden City?

Day primed for ribbing,

King Zog married Geraldine:

Queenie for a day?

Plant a tree today,

On hairball awareness day:

Largest sandcastle?

Put out a well fire—

Devil’s cigarette lighter:

Ali stripped of title?

Blueberry pie day,

Biological clock day:

Monroe’s last cocked hat?

Broadway’s cartoon,

The Kon Tiki balsa craft:

Mussolini dead?

Main Street to Broadway,

Three wise fools on borrowed time:

Mission accomplished?

Spend it all, lose it,

Chocolate parfait loyalty:

A catch-22?

Play your uke today,

Osama bin Laden killed:

Poem on your pillow?

Brothers and sisters,

Jet airliner’s maiden flight:

Red Baron’s truffles?

Full solar eclipse,

Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV:

Paranormal sun?

Lumpy rug wordsmith,

Great American grump-out:

Different colored shoes?

Black Caesar, screening

Anxiety disorders:

All gone with the wind?

James Brown’s sex machine,

Niccolò Machiavelli:

Get it on uppa?

Kent State massacre,

Intergalactic star wars:

Mideast peace accord?

Bird day, day of prayer,

May the fourth be with you, bird:

Respect for chickens?

Stetson’s cowboy hat,

Pravda paper first published:

Stoker’s “Dracula?”

Cartoonists’ tuba,

Baseball’s third perfect game pitched:

Broadway’s “Damn Yankees?”

Space day, Jamaica,

Eisenstein’s “Potemkin” shown:

Cinco de Mayo?

A magic toyshop,

Welles’ war of the worlds broadcast:

Nights at a circus?

Microchip prophet,

Stalker’s passion of new eve:

Oedipus complex?

Coconut cream pie,

Free trade iris furry dance:

No socks, white lotus?

Sacred moscato,

Buffalo Bill’s wild west show:

Butterscotch brownies?

Hurray for buttons,

Lost sock memorial day:

Vertigo’s premiere?

Salvador Dalí,

Hostess cupcake twilight zone:

Mem’ry’s persistence?

Eat what you want day,

Trusting your intuitions:

Nutty fudge lim’rick?

Giving sharks a voice,

Deep Blue defeats Kasparov:

Fintastic Friday?

Day the music died,

Buddy Holly, Big Bopper:

Songs from a tin can?

Lord Tennyson’s Poems,

Duke Ellington’s Caravan:

Sinatra’s last song?

On this day for moms,

Salem’s last witchcraft trial:

Progress for pilgrims?

Straw hat dinosaur,

Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy:

Mercuralia?

Wear purple for peace,

Andrew Johnson acquitted:

Chocolate chip day?

First kindergarten,

Cultural revolution:

Nickel not half disme?

Liberace’s birth,

Joan of Arc sainted by Pope:

Drinking mimosa?

Eat cherry cobbler,

You mushroom hunting pack rat:

Blue velvet colors?

Dodge got in first gear,

Nauru’s constitution day:

An easy rider?

And out of the blue,

Watergate hearings began:

Rebel with no cause?

Jane in Tarzan flicks,

Wall Street born under a tree:

Stoker’s “The Un-dead?”

Drink apéritifs,

Don Martin forges ahead:

Palin’s “stunt double?”

Brown bag it Thursday,

Eating hummus and cheese soufflé:

No dirty dishes?

Democracy dead,

Arabia’s Lawrence crashed:

Fingerprints were proof?

Frog-jumping contest,

Tyrannosaurus Rex bones:

Who drives in Nascar?

In Madison Square,

JFK’s sultry Monroe:

Good pizza party?

Little Malcolm X,

Lehrer’s news hour began:

Anne was beheaded?

Human comedy,

Nobody’s business is mine:

Eve and the serpent?

Portrait of woman,

“Dark Lady” sonnets published:

Dream landscape with bridge?

The merry jesters,

Horse attacked by jaguar:

Carnival evening?

The novel’s Shakespeare,

A door no one else enters:

Balzac’s invention?

First atlas published,

Burr indicted for treason:

Tintin’s adventures?

Kyoto protocol,

Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed:

Did Moog synthesize?

Accordion patent,

Day for taffy and turtles:

Lucky penny day?

Cheech’s Chong Tommy;

Poet laureate of song:

Baseball’s first night game?

Temps in Fahrenheit,

Escargot in Bermuda:

Mash’s own Radar?

Skillfully lain low,

They skilleted Lay and Skilling:

Stung by scorpions?

Frank Oz’s Yoda,

Emerson went cross country:

Mars Phoenix landing?

She of a saint’s name,

Monarch’s swine in paradise:

And animal dreams?

Nerd or geek pride day,

Eat more fruits and vegetables:

National tap dance?

Fly paper airplanes,

Blueberry cheesecake wigout:

Chardonnay today?

A moviegoer,

Iconograph folded flag:

Love in the ruins?

Under the sea-wind,

Stochastic composer’s birth:

To see around us?

Thanatos syndrome,

Crosby’s “White Christmas” in June:

Snow came by mourning?

Everest conquered;

A stolen ferris wheel:

Silent spring’s snowmelt?

Coq au vin biscuits,

Sacre du printemps riots:

Pillow on your fridge?

“If this be treason,”

Coke’s first ad in Atlanta:

Make most of it real?

Water a flower,

Bucket’s got a hole in it:

Step in and fetch it?

A stranger arrived,

Peasant’s revolt in England:

Insurgency’s end?

Joan of Arc’s stake-burn,

Romans’ Jerusalem siege:

They’re in the last throes?

Johnny’s first paycheck,

Speak in complete sentences:

You think and it grows?

First copyright act,

Madison Square Garden named:

Big Ben starts ticking?

Don’t give up the ship,

Eat hazelnut cake today:

Anne crowned England’s queen?

Wear a dress barefoot,

Flowers of evil published:

So say something nice?

Pomp and circumstance,

Diamond spades lonely hearts club:

Circus spectacle?

Hug your cat, bubba,

Eat rotisserie chicken:

Rocky road doughnuts?

Queen Elizabeth crowned,

Slackers leave office early:

Marquis geeks’ revenge?

Paterson NJ,

William Carlos Williams:

The last picture show?

It occurs to me

That I am America:

Flower power’s howl?

Ford’s quadricycle,

Reality sandwiches:

Pulitzer prizes?

Beat generation,

Lonesome dove horseman, pass by:

America’s fall?

Hot air balloon day,

Popular delusions fest:

Scandalous pelvis?

Six-day war started,

Tiananmen Square massacre:

Elvis’s “Hound Dog?”

Reagan’s L.A. death,

Orwell’s 1984:

Name your own poison?

George Price’s cartoons;

Hipster’s wife opened Graceland:

Best friends forever?

Weeding your garden,

American kitchen klutzes:

Long and winding road?

A finishing school,

Dancing elephant’s polka:

Woodstock of Paris?

Garfield’s first comic,

Three stooges’ leader emerged:

No Moe pets in film?

Bunker’s Eng and Chang;

Samuel Morse’s telegraph:

J. Edgar Hoovered?

Wedlock eroding,

China’s DNA testing:

Basic five-year itch?

Small hands; deep pockets.

Very very tremendous.

Too bad I can't reach.

Covid-19 Haiku and other poems

Ghosts

How something so small

Invisible ghost story

Could bring us all down

San Felipe Park

My backyard lanai

Courtyard to mockingbird songs

Without any trace

Lanai

Short walk up D Street

Going to find inner peace

Short walk with no trace

Robins

Robin melismas

Ecstatic observations

In a ring of trees

Sit in Peace

Here I sit in peace

And what does the robin say

All sung in plainchant

Swan Songs

They said the swan sung

But whose swan, was it, singing

Need to spread the love

Only the Birds

Only the bird is pure;

The size of its song,

The spread of its wings,

The point of its beak.