NEW YEARS POEMS

LARRY GOODELL

a duende spur of the moment presentation

selection of poems written end of one year
beginning of next

1
NEW YEAR’S EVE 1971

What brought me down

was having to leave her alone
while I went out & sat in the basement of the Thunderbird
without her

I DID NOT: PORTRAIT OF JUDGE THOMAS

I uncategorically deny that I did nothing,

said nothing, or pretended to do anything
that would cause anyone any harm anywhere,
whether they were connected or not connected
to any organization under my thumb
or having caused sexuality among any of my
employees, or did I ever produce indecent sperm
in public or pretend I was top jock or bottom
jock, and I absolutely do not recall any
amoral, certainly no immoral flaw in my superfluous
character which shall remain a shining example
as it always has to our youth, our office girls,
who have the immaturity to scream every time I
flash. /New Year's Eve, 1991

2
SUCH AS IT IS
for Steve and Jane Sprague
Everything is exquisite
as the Ponce de Leon find,
the fountain of youth flows
in the passing moment.
Eternity is always youthful
as it begins always from the beginning
as I do, no matter
what age I am.
No past no future
not even a now. jalapeños relish
Just is-ness, such is such and flour tortillas
a gift giving away. pistachios
A moment being momentous. apple juice
What now. tea, coffee, local bing cherry wine
Cool to bed brownies baked
to warm up. on sour cherries,
Tired from olive bread friends brought,
the first day of a New Year. homegrown almonds,
a tap dance on the kitchen floor
Posole all after a late morning hike
biscochitos to the spring
anasazi beans and up across arroyos
homegrown poblano chile to snow patched hills
overlooking the houses, the village
and down here home,
warm with
the closest of friends
blends into never-never land
reality plus reflection.
January first
bursting
with pleasure. /2002

3
IN GRATITUDE
for Phil Stewart
The Avenue of the altar
the altar to motorbikes & domes
the altar to fine old things
the altar to little porno devices
or funny little curios
the altar to making a living off of
what has passed
our past, their past
anybody’s past
bargaining, bartering, giving,
gaining
speeding to the height of speed
and down again
getting off the shit and into
the 12 avenues of recovery
the 12 doors of the spirit
the gaining a life of one’s own in the now
now present forever past
now future forever now,
all those things of yours up in smoke
as the shit from the past turns into
the garden of present flight
flight into reality,
Reality with a big R becomes
the joy of living.

Thank you for your part in

my part, great
embraces after dancing all evening
New Year’s Eve Thunderbird,
the bird of our escaping into
our own lives
as the wings disappeared and
we walked on our own two feet.

4
 Thank you for your part in
the merry wisdom of right
earthy living,
on the avenue of the altar to
motorbikes & domes
the altar to fine old things
this new avenue goeth toward
goeth toward fine things of the spirit
going toward, going to
gone, to
going to you. Going with us.
Thanking you. /for Phil in memory, love 30Oct 1999

MONO COLOR

It’s as if the plants have all taken on one color

the color of dehydration.
Desiccation has set in on our morning walk
in the wide arroyo.
If brown is desiccation it’s supplanting the green.
The persistent green junipers are dusty and pale.
Sparse juniper berries attracting no birds.

The brownish loss of life from the wintry drought

seems more urgent as dehydration comes comes with
the unseasonable warmth.
Climate change stalks the Earth with its manmade curse
of death
as the megalomaniacs in their high chairs fight change
and lead humankind towards cyclical extremes
of morbid weather.

Sing snow in spite of all, sing water, sing collapse of

the oligarches of oil
bankers and realtors of stagnation and self-absorbed idiocy.
Sing snow, sing water, to ring from the impossible some healing
as massive numbers of people take on their own strength
forcing change to Earth, self sufficiency and renewables prosper

5
as the voting booth is the turning point of the Earth
as it turns out as we turn out in defense of our Mother planet.

Sing snow in spite of all, sing water, sing sanity and science
sing for the return of natural order, shared wealth, compassion
for plants as well as animals, sing snow, sing water sing for
the sanity of truth, as I walk back to the car and return,
the dryness and crazy warmth hounding me. /1Jan 2018

LESS ROTTEN? HAPPY NEW YEAR

May this year be less rotten than last year

may it actually progress in solving problems and helping people
helping the surviving species, helping the Earth reachieve its natural
stability
may supposed friends among humans discover a true friendship
or two
may technology not suppress what’s left of the human spirit
as we learn the values of companionship and helping others
work together for the benefit of all.
May greed not progress in its control but regress actually turning
into service and humility.
May the tendency to think big, buy big and be big dissolve into
creative reality where less is more and small is at last big.
May new leaders suffuse government with new ears that listen and have the
courage to transform a decay of will into action.
May truth which has been here all the time reassert itself as the sublime, the
continual eye-opener where progress is possible.
May humans open their minds and give up trying to control others,
learn to love without taking.
May liars cheaters and thieves who made the last few years so rotten
face consequences of their criminality.
We accept with joy the grace of new day, a new year, a daily new
beginning.
/must be 30th of dec 2018

6
PURPOSE OF RELIGION
The purpose of religion is to confer Godhead
on lowly humans, make them feel special and blessed.
A religion will do anything to perpetuate itself
and to hell with anything that stands in its way
including Nature.
A religion is extremely selfish and doesn’t like
other religions. It wants to grow and be more powerful
and blesses man and woman marriages
so they can produce children to grow up and support the religion.
A religion likes beautiful houses for itself
and will not pay any taxes.
A religion uses God as its Commander in Chief
to control its subjects and make them slaves to its commands. /2021

BEAUTIFUL NATURE
What is prominent
in the annoyed aftermath
of the future?
Well, gullible whales thinking plastics are
krill.
Bees adjusting to pesticide-ridden flowers
and dying of as we know.
Humans, all except the rich,
turning into migrants.
Polar bears too warm to live calling out
to the past
layer on layer of life forms succumbing
to the results of human greed.
Mother Earth forced to act up to evacuate
the culprit sending disease and drought
out to the self-righteous self serving
resource-destroying baby worshiping
self-preening homo sapiens
their post future in Nature, dominant Nature
in the new healing era of beautiful Earth. /2021

7
8
 (impromptu paper mask used as a hanging
or poem backing)

NEW YEARS POEMS

love to all

larry goodell