Apostasy

This is the condition
of the Universe at this time:

Still mostly unknown
to humans.


Patrick Darnell (Jan 2000)

Aftermath

What was it Peter did
... in aftermath?

What we all do, in our own
... way and path.

... Spindle, stoop, sleep,
... eat, bend, and crystallise,

But shedding no light on
how does one eat aftermath?



Patrick Darnell (2000)

Funny Pages

A sociologist
once predicted
that probably
any 200 of
opposite sexes
or same sex
would be appropriate
for any one
candidate,
partner, mate.

So happens
only 1 in 200
ever finds any
given point in time
necessary in life
to sew the thread
of mate-hood sublime.

Then said sociologist:
'Could infer as
from Soap Operator's digression,
for one partner is
possible 200 marriages
in succession...

Welcome partner to
the funny pages as
someone else's
obsession.



Patrick Darnell (1974)

You said you are a Witch

Did they burn you
once too often?

You deserve a reward.

I wish to protect others,
yet, I shall know you
from your spells
How do you do it?

You told me you are a witch
... do you still believe that?

Were you contacted
in your travels
by the pious and practical
Mothers of Virginia?





Patrick Darnell (1974)

Effect

Praying delivers
Justice accuses
unjust abuses

Set-backs,
little secondary
infections;

Meanings not clear,
but for the first time
I give them names,
and give them away.

So, instead you
regarded forever
Impulse and wrappings,
and sent, returned,
weaknesses
in congruence
made punishment
priority.



Patrick Darnell (1974)

Beggin' your Pardon M'am

I talked and talked
all night,
not keeping to
any subject,

I talked you down
talked you all around
around .... around ... around
till you uttered: Yes.

Because I caught you
in your own game.




Patrick Darnell (1974)

Designing deluding
Creating eluding,
Though I knew
what I wanted;

To define it
I acted like a child.

It was big hopes for myself,
revertible, I worried
about survival

Careful today
for what I say;

Whether to struggle
for ends secure?

Believing
in the long run?



Patrick Darnell (1974)

What is created,
with mastery,
to wake up a fool,
besides mankind?

When a good thing
comes around
some faction steps up
and says: No.

A very complicated
wet blanket
sort of existence
I prescribe.



Patrick Darnell (2000)

Down Forget Me Not Lane: for Hillary

Probably a bit gone
If I could be more receptive
'n not always so worried
about what others
are so worried about

Can I get some relief?
Will I be totally washed out?

Spirit uplift ... I need
short trip ...
Sunday chapel ...

God hears me ..
my sincerest plea
all that I have done
and ever will
He sees.

I wonder ...
truth is in people,
... truth is in people ...
after all.



Patrick Darnell (July 13, 1973)

AOL Sex

Just an AOL two-timer ...
... [an AOL two-timer]

With AOL one-liners ...
... [AOL one-liners]

You say yo' member so long ...
... [member so long]

Your BS is too strong ...
... [too strong...]

Your appetite
is bigger'n your eyes ...
Don't ya' fill me
... with no AOL lies!
... [no AOL Lies]

Tellin' me your personal data specs ...
Well, then, that's your AOL sex?!
... [That's your AOL sex ...]

Jus' another po'boy AOL lying ...
Poor son uv'a bitch, ain't even a' tryin'
... [ain't even a' tryin']




Patrick Darnell (2000)

Blame God

Blame God
... for knowing
all eventualities,

Blame God
... for putting ban
on human contact,

Blame God
... for planting
seed of Choice,

Blame God
... for putting His
face upon you,

Blame God
... for leavening
produce of man,

Blame God
... for the understatement
that is Christ,

Blame God
... for faith, hope
and charity,

Go ahead
... Blame God
but if you must ...
do it with all you are.



Patrick Darnell

Ancient Words

Without wisdom
in those who teach,
... would this create poverty?

Those who exhort
... without pause
render either parody, or jest?

Empowering others
without comedy, without employ
works to confuse Plebes?

Phoebe has no message to forward;

Browse, I am the poet, browse
because I do not need to explain
... not now,

Beings in my poems, Sir,
I do not have to name.
Though they are you.

As the words can be few.
To the end read through
between the lines, read through.



Patrick Darnell (2000)

Noah

As he got older
His hearing sharpened
His hair did not thin
He didn't need much sleep ...

Instructions received
by Noah and his family:

Two of each animal
Two of each living thing
Two of each living thing in Earth
and Seven of each clean animal.



Patrick Darnell

Is Clinton Autistic?

Hampered with self-stimulatory
deficiency?
He seems to have tunnel vision.

Is his life, or lack of,
a series of short stories?

Can I diagnose broadly:
according to social interaction ...
communication, or lack of,

Stereo-typical patterns of bad behavior
a marked impairment in
use of non-verbal behavior.


Patrick Darnell (2000)

I am, You are

You care not if
I am totally yours,
or totally not yours?

That is your love?

Be careful
that you not spoil me

For you see
I am experiencing
some things here
for the very first time

Maybe you have it mastered,
is it in your suffering?

In askance
of all who respond
to you,

Now must respond to us.

Responding as if
for the first time again,

With this
unnerving desire
to express it
... is a fester.


Patrick Darnell (Aug 23, 1993)

Was it fair
I gave to her first
all that was
in me?

She filled me up.

A quenching.

Yet we should
get one matter straight

Competition
for the floor
is cute...
... but not resolvable.



Patrick Darnell

I Drive a Truck

by Pat Darnell

I drive a truck
that's got something written
...on the side

I drive a truck
it's got something written
...on the side

It says Micro Mickey's
Double D-D's
Carpet Cleaning
Specialties and Supplies
Honk if you like.. it says...
if you like the way I drive

I drive a truck
wid' that written
on the side

I got no where
to go that
I can really hide

Mickey thinks its funny
I don't see it all that way
he don't have to drive it
like I drive it around all day...

I might drive to Alabama
I might drive to Oceanside
I might drive to Odessa
Or Columbus, Ohi'
Or maybe Argentina;
People allus' honkin' at me
...nowhere can I hide, in'a
truck with them things...
...written on the side

if you see me out a truckin'
remember how I...
...remember how I ride
please don't...
please don't honk at me
when you read...
...when you read what's
written on the side.

Lot's of trucks goin' by
...going by all day and night
"You the only one I can trust
with all those supplies..."
Says Mickey D D to my cries.

Blue, silver-tan; green and white
lot's of trucks going by
I'm feelin' so uptight....

Some of them got something...
something written on their side...
I drive D-D's truck...
...cannot shuck ya and jive...
cannot lay down dirty and die--
You know Mickey: I cannot tell you lies

I sure am wishin' that I was not denied...
'sure wish I could,
...could a' instead a' drive --
Could a' instead a' drive
a Harley Davidson Electra Glide

Lawd a'mercy... Lawd alive--
please deliver me, Lawd
...deliver me from this
...this delivery truck I drive
wi' all that mess
...all that mess,
written up on its side.

[Endorsed by The P Darnell and Arthur T Reading Rainbow Write at least one Poem a Week Coalition 1986 - 2009]

Patrick Darnell (2009)

Addled Ambulations

Resource notes taken,
goes directly into paper,
re-write up to three drafts,
handled and edited later

FedEx waits at my door
depending on paper cuts
mind, body, and soul sore
this rhyme sucks more 'n more

Sometimes I get so tired
and bloody, I just let it go,
regardless of the stage it is in,
walk away, slip away pliered

Sometimes I hang in
for harmony obfuscated
Sometimes focus abated
from beginning to end,

which makes sensual
harmonious voice,
brilliant content and style
as if a palette choice
with plan visual
and a foot in the eternal

Often focus fraught,
and my humor is not --
really start to stooper
sounding like a Hoover.

Addled ambulates
damaging briefs
in long winded tides
pressure sucking out insides

Much befuddlement
esoteric rudiments
languages, logarithms
algorithms, audacity
condensation equality
balanced formulations,

postulated reason,
simple formula
in judicial sensing
canceled bail out
thought opinion in
faulty grammar cleansing

Is that more eloquent,
more efficient stuff
more concise intention
than declaration suffocation


In conjured systems
and time lagged creations
due to counselors
and others whose
eyes do not want to face
myths of truth's roots

Yet, they that are just file clerks,
inefficient at that...
that anyone places trust in
Postulate that crap

Because I am older enciting
have been creative 42 years
drafting, designing, certifying
just to be nullified by peers

printing, painting, presenting
trading at shows,
I jam as much
into assignment
as possible;

TEXT me tomorrow ..
OK?


pat. pend. / Pat Darnell


Patrick Darnell (2009)

Pre-Rumble

I am born
a perfecting man
a sound
low rumbling
philosophy, yes.

Tried in established
patterns, with substance,
with improvements.

Corrections are made
and lessons learned
through mimicry

Yet while I live
rustle me up
some boulders'
and build me
a pyramid
to land on
when I'm dead.

And tape up my ducts
carve a sarcophagus
for my bed
surround me with
jewels from toe to head.

Going from unborn
to beyond dead,
As I want to
rumble the future
when they take out
my sutures.



Patrick Darnell

Tadpole

I evaluated myself
I analyzed my biology
Traced behavior
with half a brain
and that half
with the other half.

The process
was a comfort...
I was comforted though
confronted with failings
well, first, such anger ...
then fatigue
... a real cry baby;

Not a man; not a fool;
just weakling
... a tadpole, eeling
in a pond pool.

Tackling changes
and obstacle full
to and fro
with the whole school

Where leads
a life in the pond
but to a stranger life
upon the land?


Patrick Darnell (2000)

Lamentations

It should have been so different ...
I've cattle in my notebook;

To auction, to auction they go ...

With pigs in their stomachs
and nowhere to go ...

... but to auction, to auction they go.


Patrick Darnell (MooPig)

Is Love

As rubber once;
challenged love
rebounds,
in life again

Yet to submit
is to be wise,
go to depths
and, heights it flies

Harbor hopes
in its constant tide
in patience and kindness
love cannot be denied.


Patrick Darnell

Building Blocks of Young Adults

Structure like any structure
is only time, space, and dates ...
also place ... but

Time causes all the fussing;

Time draws the constant linear
that society needs when it is aware;

Many in the present society
have drawn lines in the sand
for sake of benevolence
altruism, and philanthropy...

Time must not advance
till these histrionic mileposts
are set... some would say --

[ ... ]

A helping hand
you can bet
will not come from
your fellow man!

Consider who you are
dealing with;
highly technological
illogical, detoured
data-packed
screw worm...

Theory tacks
and thumbnail hacks
sketches of guilt sacks!

Party to
many initiates
and apprenticeships
until met
the class of worker
who does nothing
until once free
to produce and bloom
then be compensated.

However, relate to
dilemmas
they shall plan
more months
in advance
weeks at a time
till things come to pass

Convert, invert,
challenge and confuse,
react.

Do things get better?
Easier than the climate --
that by the way,
makes one sick;
reminds them of mornings
inspires odd behaviors --
'n mixtures of water
times guilt
up built
upon heaps of complex blotters

Actions therefore deny
state of society
and blur the reason for existence
because numbers of
tasks remain unfinished.

And they are left
with the guilt-phobias
that never get extinguished
even in truth of personality
or diminished return on investments
while the push of time
leaves them bereft structures --
the building blocks of young adults.


Patrick Darnell

Patina

Personal thoughts
certain distillates
of character
precipitates
becoming
third person

Not a whip
nor a will
rather
a Bobolink
on a sill
by newsprint
crumpled
ink stained
moldy
songs of old

Protecting
images on glass
where paper marbles
and tears
and sand disintegrates
'n rubs off ancient silver
from photographs, not permanent

Memories of
lives and
substance
energies would
be lost otherwise
no physical evidence
left behind
save patina
protecting time
Things forever held
and felt in the mind.


Patrick Darnell (1.7.2001)

When I stare
up in the atmosphere
Pressing my eyes
I see the
geode eyes of an eagle,
and face of a man,
I see the
legs of an ox,
and heart of a bear;

God placed there
long ago
in my stamping
the blocks for a coinage
like a geode rare.



Patrick Darnell

A Speech

Who will take the authority position, most oftener determined by experience, or, senior position?

In rich experiences, the ambition of authority comes with performance. Then authority leads the day, setting examples.

Should authority one day become vague, distant, and vacillating, the old defining rules are lost, no longer good enough.

Thus, most authority stems from check and balance ... status good, human affairs move forward ... status quo.

Reaching for the goal established by authority means one has accepted fear of traveling, even if saddled by a gauntlet of human error ...

Equal authorities would imply the same rationale of fear of playing roles.

The body of work is the journey, with evidences.


Patrick Darnell

Conquest

Like a hockey puck
to the gut
... Realization

Like a large dimensional
foot print on Mars
... Disclosure

Like severance of
a tether
... Deliverance

Like honey
on a brick
... Sticky

Like snow
on a mountain
... Unstable

Like Jesus
in a tomb
... Temporary.



Patrick Darnell

Yellow Butterfly

Went to a funeral today
not for a man or a woman
... for a child.

She was four
... when last she breathed

She was four
... when last we breathed.



Patrick Darnell

Kites over Tents

Slept they there
all night, under woven
canvas wall tents;

Gulf wind wove over
cloud steam and vapor
streaming all night;

Through bull rush salt grasses
drove mosquitoes
inland with clouds

Clouds pushing past
stationery moon
faced with foggy
eyed tears

Tents grommets
held fast
till wind relents
and is paced out;

Orion pops out
with its string of stars
tethered to dippers

And diamonds of clippers
set sail afar
kites over tents,
kites over tents.



Patrick Darnell (March 2001)

Spindles and Oil

Remorse
destructive course
And, many animals perish
while forests evaporate
with water dissipates
for what...?
Spindles and oil,
just, spindles and oil.





Patrick Darnell (2000)

Seeing You

If I could not see
Well, then I could not see you

Nor, see the Hibiscus bloom
this morning with
Morning Glories

I could not have seen
those birds playin'
leaping frogs
and chirping stories

Or, the Mockingbird
splashing in puddles
from yesterday's rain

When you played
with your umbrella
on sidewalks and drains
with little fellas

If I could not see you
as you sway reaching
for your keys
on the window sill

I would still say
'This is the day
For which I pray.'




Patrick Darnell (9.21.1999)

Children Sculpt with Water

I watch my
children sculpt with water
rather than hard clay
putting their world in order
emboldened hard play

Children sculpt with water
... water ever moving
catching light in lightning spray,
matches their shyness,
children sculptors who win this day.

Every drop a prism
casting colors all around
making a shroud for earth
mixing dust from the ground.



Patrick Darnell (10.16.1999)

The Story of Carol Hoofen-nagle

Carol Hoofen-nagle
lived at 16th First Place
on Shastina's shadow

She is victim zero
of a dastard plague
that they call
Hoof in Navel

They have put
Wal-mart legal team
on it ... and ...
from Bentonville, Arkansas
they have solved it;
so they think...

By putting it in lay-away
three months to pay
on a no interest bearing
account, that way
they may have
saved the day!

Mr Harold Horseford
drove his Dodge truck
to the next mountainside
because he must decide
if Carol Hoofen-nagle
might become his bride
but Carol him denied

So Harold met and married
Randi Tapir, healthy, less harried
beauty from Shastina's mountainside
fresh as mountain countryside

Sorrow visited poor Harold
as Carol H died after four months
so sorrowful he, he left his wife,
left life as he knew it
... to sadly abide
on Shastina's mountainside.


Carol Hoofen-nagle was survived
by Lori Arkwright, who eyed
Ibid Deuteronomy ready and alive
to give her a ride atop Shastina
where they might study astronomy
Until she told Ibid of what
her dear sister, Carol had died

Ibid, he excused himself
ran down the mountainside
and into town to hide.

Along came Mr Harold Horseford
seeing Lori as she cried
reminding him much of Carol
he offered her too a ride
and ride she did
until in deep slumber
they both lied.

This story should
by now unravel
but it is an endless
mountain travel
up and down North California
Where strong men in Dodges
Keep two stables, they trade,
regardless of love-centric adages
and dread Hoof in Navel plague


Patrick Darnell (2000)

When I wasn't Looking

I saw you poised
... subject in a painting
... in a gallery

Then I met you,
... in a room
... when I wasn't looking

Felt like something more
... chance of meeting
... should've left it there

'Rebelled against
... better judgment
... got to know you more:

As you wanted the elder life
while retreated in your youth.



Patrick Darnell (1978)

You Decided to Live in a Fish Tank

To the fish tank to live
until a future day
you may emerge
possibly sterile.

For the day
was for you
... like yesterday
when peril
day in, day out
same as last year
the days...
... no one could reach you,
for your haste in climbing in.

A fish tank
of seawater
to be amongst
they who swim
eat, dodge,
and dart.

After they've gotten
used to you
and you to them
watching one another
... well, it's a start.

Patrick Darnell (1993)

Cathedral

Moby is swimming the staircase
to the cathedral

It is a long staircase
almost unreachable
long to the landing

The unreachable cathedral
For now!

Spanning miles
holds them apart
but for a Moby
... a mile
is one single down-thrust.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (3.19.1991)

Troubles

Troubles, snares
too numerous
the world
used to be
pedestrian

Troubles, aware
too numerous
Earth cares
it once was
a garden

Troubles, compares
come to us
Earth in layers
once we were all
children in pairs





Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Anna Logg

Christians lead lives
of quiet simplicity
from a softly spoke
prophecy.

For their lives in
flesh and bone
are traded
for going home.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Hide, Hide, Hideaway

An awaited storm came
I escaped to my fantasy castle
pieces of environment
blew all over in the wind
... like tassels

Elderly people
got scattered, some
... drowned
overwhelmed in vacuum
of thunderheads

And dust swirled
in Autumn sky
raised inordinate reactions
to fabulous stimuli

Play today inside
hide, hide, hideaway,
here in the puppet palace
moan and whine all day
sit in my center of calm
amid swirling gale tide
Play today, but,
... hide, hide hideaway.





Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (3.20.2000)

Sustain

These are my family
those who accept me
for who I am
Not those who scorn me
for who I am not

Those who witness my path
know my origin
share earliest memories

From moments of hand holding
to moments of future
bearing down ...

Who will sustain forgiveness
seek harmony, focus consistency,
gather pain in empathy
and heal me
and haul me in.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (9.26.1991)

Flight Song

Trippin' on the plane
atmos rushes by
in layers upon my eye

Stillness swells
like mist in desire
that heart-beat tells

consummate, though
because telltale
closure awaits

In tortured flight
anticipation
for flight's end
my Bubbalin'

At flight's end
you await
quiet against
wind-full window
one solid tear
falls to cloud white
anticipation
... awaits

So my desire
will speak to you
though transient
I fill my thoughts
with you, in tension,
in song of flight.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (3.3.1996)

Dixie crowded barges
floating carnivale
tight-rope trail rider
gets on with his smoke

White trash from Texas
lantern loaded wagons
sleepy dog-faced patrons
get to the heart of Dallas

A deadly mixture
a mutt from Texas
... arms go left
...feet go right
body don't look quite right

Volunteer from Tennessee
... out of the north
... out of work
... out of the night
Poor boy gonna
lose his life.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (2005)

Awakened

Time nigh
draws when
One would
wish to die ...

When baby
wanting screams
no time for dreams ...

Lack of drive spark
... due in part
to lack of inspire
in work and life

Thoughts reduced
low self esteem
where is sleep mine
under lunar shine

Raki, Turkish brew,
while body is at work
no one ever knew
imbibe whole night through

Spark of the tilt
of one's fez
rustling one's feet
on pavement there

Silly how, in past,
ghost minds wandered
passing nights
and gruesome morns.

Awakened after travel
out of flesh's bounds,
antagonized and blithering
in noisy, unforgiving towns.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (1985)

Lover's Time: the Ninth Sea

Life, complicated mosaic,
many little pieces,
each confusing episodes
with, after-all, pattern.

Illusion vision quest
impressed, a jest,
for the rest, to figure out

Many times
a written message
written to one
who is long gone ...

Eight seas traveled
before the ninth,
returned one home;
returned one home.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (1995)

Taco Tar-Truk

Information is anti-grav'ty
Exists as unknown entity
if anti-grav'ty exists
then how big is he?

Bubbles of universes
bent like taco shells
undiscovered intersects
where symmetry might dwell

Weightless in space
even while schwartzing the Greek
while making educated guess
button pusher on a streak

There, that explosion
sabotage, one may say,
Divine intervention ...
... it's the sauce ...
of the machine of the day.

It's a taco tar-truk
and a blemish on scale
of ten to the twenty tens
... power of snails


Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Seven-legged Spider

She was swinging
waiting for the web to shake
... I shook it
she came a' callin'

On my meaty parts
she started hauling
pullin' me in, no stallin'

Spinnin' me a silken berth
wrapped around my girth
semi-awake, I'm recallin'

She is seven-legged spider
who can't keep up the beat
of the different drummer's hand
... burdened with one game leg
... that draws in the sand

I see now in this glimpse,
error of infinite speculation,
conjecture of insects who climb in
never-to-be-seen-again retrospection

Little parts of us she eats
hereafter, a little each year, entreats
by aging the rest of us
in our silken cabin retreats.


Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (9/26/1991)

He Wrote (1955 -- 2045)

He wrote.
From his age
of reason
to his dying day

a huge book
of free verse

that no one
could make
heads nor tails of,

tho' waiver not,
he continued
right through
storms and calm
squalls and breezes,

determined
when undermined,

secretive
when incarcerate,

introspect
when surrounded,

dogmatic
when challenged,

helpful
when asked.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Purloined

Bits and pieces
were missing
from his body
a missing kidney,
a leg shortened ...

Blood terror
to have parts
of yourself purloined;

As if under a cloak
that covers dimensions,
of one's space and time
leavened in humankind;

To choose very
differently from fathers'
... consider other lifestyles
... other than path's trodden;

Humanist purloiner ...
... appropriate wrongfully
... sabotage trust
to put aside time
and postpone questions;

Fortunes spent
could not support this stint
leaving no trace,
trust funds are pilfered;

As he saw himself disappear
in to himself
his parts were cleared
for transport;

He thought he might
return whole again
one day in some way
spinning faster this time;

In his third escape
with his third hair
and third teeth
and wanton despair

From his third watch
with pain in third vertebra
... third fortune spent
... third family raised.

Blood terror
to have parts
of yourself purloined.



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell (circa 2003)

Hey, Big Brother

Hey, big brother
You're the needle
I'm the thread.

Hey, big brother
You're the hat
on my head

You're the nose
... on my face
You're the shirt
... on my chest

Hey, big brother
you're the joy
of my day.

Hey, big brother
you and me
are here to stay

because ...

You're the mood
... I'm the swing

You're the lyrics
... when I sing

Heyyyy,
 Big Brother!!



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Code Fix

Then there was the time I bludgeoned
a client's wall
pretending to know
how to mend it.

An ancient stucco wall
real lovely to see installed
see lattice below
layers of stucco
as transverse I rip into it
oldness in vapors drifting
out of the cavity I'm ripping

'Repairs will be unseen,'
I encourage the unredeem'ed
new boards ... a little paint
Another situation abused
This Code Fix will be reviewed

Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell