The Flea Tree with Its Reed Leaves
and
Gain or Lose?

POETRY

FICTION

ART

HOME

Poems  by Sea and Moonlight

A Smile
I have a SEED
Somewhere within I am
Hugo
Letter to My Brother Frank
Dictation for a Dictator
An Open Door; Heed It
Toast to You
Gleaming Eyes
Said Ken to Me
Count to Satan
Loneliness
Reflective Voyage
Pick up the Pail
Death Today
Quick Life
Old Man's Whistle
God Is:
Each Season
As If Infinity
One Hears the Tune
Have I forgotten Jesus?
Signed to my Sister
Brain Damage
Church Description
Den
Death in a Jungle
Ten Lines
Nature's Law
It's Still Sad
The Flea Tree
Gain or Lose
Going Away from Here
Nightmare
Talking about People
Towns and their People
Dear, Dear, Dearest
Population
Top Line
Mountains Reach
Upon these Grounds
A Ship?
Let the Timbers Shake
Wladyshaw
Winds of Fate
Sweet Young Girl
Fingers of Nature
The Lord Spoke
The Celtic Told Me
Mary
Poem to Pat
A Free Man
Poem


Nowhere but in this garden can one find a flea tree.
Nowhere but on a flea tree can one find a reed leave.
Or leaf, if you like.

Never but on a reed leave can one smell oriential haze.
Never but in a smell of haze will one vision a cantering cars.
Or car, if you desire.

Nowhere but on a cantering cars can one find a garden.
And only in this garden do flea trees ripen and become harden.
Or hard, if you hate grammar.

Gain or Lose?

What does it rofit a man when he gains the world?
Soundful seas with waves which curl.
Bright golden sunsets on beaches and sands.
Towering mountains and green farming lands.

Gold of the upmost and silver galore.
Streamed restaurants and all chains of stores.
Miracle medicines, chemicals, women and all double chins.
All the film festivals and museums and Disneylands.
Glasses, dishes, pots and pans.

People of wisdom and people of hate.
Sore throats, stomach pains and headaches
Lust to no ends and rapes every night.
Claiming excitement and terrifying fright.
Death at many doorsteps and corpses in slum streets.
Leopard fingers and forstbitten feet.