Guest Poet Gallery:
12 Poems by David Gitin
MUSIC FOR ZEN MEDITATION
eucalyptus outside my window
sunlight plays on the floor
yesterday’s papers
motes of dust
sudden green
of Betty’s blouse
THE CRABPICKER
the crabpicker
cracks the shell spines
breaking bonds to savor
the pass of energy
up our straight spines
full circle
into meat
for some future form
DREAMTRACK
two horses
chew the sun
bleached grass
and lope
volumes of air away
ANGEL POEM EXCERPT
leaves
animal traces
ground
on which we step
light
as thieves
WHITE ON BLUE
birds
in
formation
one
straggling
tail
empty
sky
WINTER NIGHT
the TV shines
a tooth
in the house dark
beyond the streetlight
THE DOOR
the door
slopes of light
your body
a delay
in glass
PASSING THROUGH
a feather
or a knife
at the crossroads
of memory and desire
this skin of earth
and fire
water and air
layer after layer
in touch
with the world
FINGERS
fingers extend
white blossoms
KYOTO
in the company
all night
of a horsefly
CHUCKLE
chuckle down fear
year after year
smile like a porpoise
LAKE LADOGA
vapor
rises
milky
white
birches
white
nights

Author's Note:
I've just returned from East Africa. Lions pant in my dreams. The continuous dance of life/time, Masai jumps, newborn wildebeest running within two hours of birth, awesome abstraction of dating human remains in Olduvai Gorge, render me (nearly) speechless. Upon receiving Michael's phonecall and generous invitation, I pored over my own finite gulps of air (in/spiration) to collect these twelve poems, 1967-1999. They begin in San Francisco where I co-founded Poets Theater in the Haight-Ashbury with Jim Wilson, moving into the rural town of Cotati, CA and the "Athens of the Midwest," Madison, WI, before I settled in Monterey, CA, working as a jazz disc jockey as well as teaching English at Monterey Peninsula College. One poem is from the time I lived in Japan and another from a visit to Russia. Two books remain in print: THIS ONCE (1979) and FIRE DANCE (1989), both from Blue Wind Press. Recent online publications include Big Bridge, Comprepoetica, and Frank's Home. Performances of the poems are often in collaboration with musicians, including Leonard Paschini (electric guitar), Preston Houser (shakuhachi), John Tchicai (saxophone), Laszlo Gardony (piano), and John Cortes (saxophone).
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