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(This is the last section of a three-part poem, Lokapala)
Excerpted from Lokapala: A Note
When you have exhausted your power, your conquer-the-world-is-at-your-call mentality and hit ground, you meet Lokapala who always resides there. She is what we’d strive for, or he as the case may be, or both to confront and subsume. Absorb. It’s what the great religions attempt all the time & often Lokapala eludes them. . . . Loka is place or realm. Pala, the protector of that spot. Trees are lokapalas, as are rocks.
. . .
Mind of spectral places
Mind overcast like day
It begins
Channels move out of my house
like rays of mad dogs
to find their place
Your mind. Is it your mind?
The mind that woos & speaks
is located in the animal this moment
in Molly’s cry the next
Mind gives up on a magazine
Mind motions back to the beginning
Mother mind, are you there?
How it starts, is triggered
by a glance
starts up, kicks in
to acknowledge
place in body eyeball
goads on & sports with the notice
it has a body
with limbs
dances inside this form
is encapsulated by it
Romance to make it solid
& be in love
or in hate (dented)
then breaks apart
& is of many minds
Goes mad
splitting & branching off
Notice the sweat on the brow
of her mind
She’s been observed
in concentration on a minute thing
How the edges of her moisture
light up
She sweeps her hand
across her forehead
like a soldier is hot
in battle
in desert
in jungle
Mind in place – can that be said?
How can you say that?
Is it upon us?
The flood? a great melting?
Is it coming, the great drying up?
Desert?
Have the armies crossed the
imagined line yet?
Is it to be thought of?
Will they make it?
Has she marched in yet
with her many wide battalions?
Will she stomp her feet there?
Can we rescue this place from
scorch & burn?
Will we swim in blood and fire?
Can you speak of it or are
you just thinking
How can you say “is mind in place?”
Does it have a chance?
She (the night, the news) is formidable
I piped my mind
into the pipe in the range
of old time & talk
Mind in spectral places
Mind overcast like the day began
The channels move out like rays
You say this again because
it describes the action
the little tunnels witness
as mind travels through
The yardmen approach
with a plan
To lay more pipe & channel
water through
Looking over the distance
get up close to the board
“This is the spot”
they say
“This is it, this
is the spot”
“But how wide?
“How wide is it?”
Try a plan
Put your mind to it
& birds & humming too
Try it
Get a mind focused on the
spark of weapon’s point
on knife that cuts night
(Is she arrived yet?)
Get a mind hooked to
a syllable resembling
a picture of standing awe
that stands awake
electrifying blue
Syllable that echoes
your response
& turns a pulse
Light beats down
on the definitive town
on the definitive brick
recognized by itself as
a kind of torch
beacon of what could occur
what could be built
what could light a way
To be home to
be a layer
over the spot you selected
when you last looked
(Lokapala was waiting)
So many explosions inside a cone
inside the calling inside
concept “town”
budding in a kind of
trance preparation
because mind is golden
like the Aztec city
mind lifts the wind like
a sacrifice
mind is heart exploded
O believe it
a particular blush or blurt
It’s semi-arisen
It cropped up because
it can’t help exuberance
& leads the way toward
slam or dunk
through hoop of mind
O believe it
My spot spoke loudly to me
as soldier or good sport
Lost its quick attire
long expanse to go a
billion light years
waiting for any dream
to poke you out
sighting her/my past
to clinch it
Where does mind come from?
It’s all mental now
traces of wounds disappear
at twilight
(she’s coming, she’s
coming soon, now)
Healed, yet aging
The mind knows more now
that it’s collected
other points of view
& politics were soundly dressed
over in a current mood
As fuel got spent, got
spent, got spent
& mind won’t take too much
to go on
It goes on
So is she here yet?
May I call her back if
I have to?
Will she come?
She is revelatory
in her posture
in her look of animal intensity
to guard her spot
Is she the lost animal
in my desire?
What is mind’s desire?
Do the parts add up
Is the picture well-rounded
Do the women meet their bodies
first inside the belly of
their own minds
Questions are thoughts too
The coiled syllable stretches
As you watch it it weaves
vibrating through
the channels of life & death
Could I say more?
That the place is forbidden
That that is why you go there
That you were located
in the curiosity
that jumped first
that leaped to
seize on that spot
or thought
That you spoke cruel things
all around
That speech lead you to war
That mind could never
fully be spoken
Mind was coiled
& waiting
Outer, inner
& secret latitudes
could map
the touch of mind
It is a torch to
the deity
who lies coiled
& waiting
that asks are you
here yet
that stole your mind
one day
that tripped your wire
& you fell back
into concept
It was a ruse to
shed a tear
on this very ground
on which you began
to grow
Here’s earth
Stake it out
∞