Paranormal Libido: Selected Poetry from 2001-2002

By Jack Bowman

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• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 19, 2003
• ISBN: 9781469709611

Jack Bowman

Jack Bowman was born in 1962 to a working class family in southwestern Ohio, but soon moved to southern California where he lives today. The changes in subculture as well as the 'spirit of the times' affected his writing and philosophy. Jack graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in behavioral science, and from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena with a Master of Arts degree in marriage, family and child counseling in 1997. His work in the mental health field since 1984, as well as his own admittedly bizarre life experiences, figure prominently in his poetry and prose. Jack is an intern/therapist with at-risk youth and their families in the Los Angeles area. He has been a published poet since 1991.

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Contents

Foreword

C H A P T E R 1

HAWKS

PROGRESSIVE

ALTERED TRANSMISSION

GOSSAMER

NECK LEVEL DEEP

THE HOUSE IS EMPTY

DROWNED IN BLUE VELVET

MONSTERS UNDER THE BED

THE MARSHALL PLAN FOR INSECTS

BEHIND THE SCENES

BACK LIGHTING

SOUTHERN PACIFIC

PAGAN EQUINOX

MAMMOTH

AUGUST HANGMAN

TALE OF THE TEMPEST

RADIO CARBON DATING

RETURN TO THE NARROWS

THE BEAST UNDER THE STAIRS

TURNS

ACROSS PURPOSES

SITE

IN THE WILD

CREATION

SEPTEMBER

FOSSIL MEMORY

THE TIMBUKTU LIMITED

MOLDING THE CLAY

THROUGH STONE AND VAST DISTANCES

FISSURE

OLD TREES

THE LAST MOONFALL

C H A P T E R 2

TRAVELS WITH ROSHI

HOME MOVIES

SENSE OF KNOWING

CLOUD SPIRITS

SILENT WANTING

FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE

CRAWLING TO PASADENA

DREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?

HOLLOW VICTORIES

IN TOUCH

SIMPLEST PARADOX

FROM BENEATH THIN ICE

ARE THERE DINOSAURS IN HEAVEN?

ABIT FLEXIBLE

SEASONAL RAIN

SLEEP STATES

SEVERE QUARTET IN CRISIS MAJOR

WISHES BY MOONLIGHT

HARNESS

THE BONDAGE POEM

PLAYTIME

PLAYING GAMES

GAMES

HAVING DINNER OUT

WITHERS’SUNSHINE

ALIENATED HEART

C H A P T E R 3

MS.ROSETTA STONE

PORTRAIT

ENDING YOUTH

PURPOSES

MANIFEST

DON’T WANT NO METAPHORS

COMMENCEMENT

LESSONS STILL TO BE LEARNED

GIRL WITH CHRIST’S EYES

REINCARNATION OF PINKERTON

MAKING THINGS GROW

THE MUSE WALKS SLOWLY

CHARLEY ON CARONDELET STREET

TWIN CITY VESTIBULE

STRAND-ED

THE QUESTION

CHANT OF SUBURBIA

DYNASTIES

FOR GEORGE. (1943-2001)

FOR K.

THE LADY OF NEW YORK HARBOR

ATLAS TAKES ANAP

FRANK’S BODHI

SAM BUTTERFIELD

DREAM GIRL

HE WISHES

NARCISSUS RETURNS TO LIFE

PERFORMER

SUSAN

SIDDHARTHA ON VACATION

TOO SERIOUS

NORTH HOLLYWOOD JEWEL

CARMEN

C H A P T E R 4

JANUARY 2ND 2002

TORN BETWEEN

DOUBLE SHIFT DISCO

MID SENTENCE

MARSHMALLOW PIES ON CAMERON AVENUE

RAKSHA DRAGONS

NO MATTER

THE PIERCING

FRIDAY NIGHTMARE

POLARITY

TONGUE LASHED

SOME OPPRESSIVE FORCE

KEEP IT COMING

VACATION

LANCASTER ROAD MUSIC

FRENCH ENDING

C H A P T E R 5

ORWELL’S THOUGHT POLICE

CONFESSIONS OF ATHOUGHT CRIMINAL

AT THE READINGS

WHAT IS SEEN

ELECTROMAGNETIC PHANTOMS

THE FALL OF SPRING

SURVIVING KOSOVO

MIND BLIND

OUT LIKE ALION,MARCH 30, 2001

TRUTH MEDICINE

MINDSET

UNDERWATER

EAVESDROPPING

TRANSLUCENT

TAKE 5

SAMSARA BLUE

THREE SEPULVEDA DANCERS

MIGRATION

AGOOD READ

HOW TO DRIVE IN THE RAIN

TALK RADIO

FREE WHEELERS

SOUTHBOUND FLAMES

LIFE IN VETERANS HOSPITAL

ZONE

JUST DOWN THE STREET

TOURIST TRAP

COMING OF THE DRAGON

LOST TO HISTORY

HEADLINE

SMALL BOXES

REVELATION CH. 9.11 VERSUS 20-01

BEFORE THE TEMBLOR

FRANK AND JOE VISIT THE WORLD STAGE

SANTA ANA CURRENT

FRONT PAGE

THIRD STRIKE

SHOCK JOCK

BY THE FOUNTAIN

OLD TOWN SUMMER NIGHTS

KARNAK RITUALS

BUY BONDS

EYE EXAM

ELUSIVE CREATURES

RIDDLES

THE LAKE IS LARGER

I-WITNESS

INCESSANT

VAMPIRES RETURN TO BOURBON STREET

CLAREMONT, 1989

THE INEVITABILITY OF CHAOS

QUEST

THE BEAST ON SUNSET STRIP

BROKEN CANES

THREE QUESTIONS (THE PREPPIE MURDER)

TALE OF THE WEATHERMAN

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

CHALLENGE OF THE UNKNOWN

SITE OF LIFE

BEAUTY’S PIECE

THREE FORWARD,TWO BACK

About the Author

Notes

This book is dedicated

to

The Muses,

Mark Dixon,

Jeff Russell, Singing Hoarse,

that North Carolina refugee Stephen Shepherd,

Circe, Sean, James, Bruce Arnold, Don C., Larry J., Susan A., Andy,

Mike H., Hiro,

The Amazing Shafran,

The Notorious Hanley Page

and forever my mentor

Michael Stephans

with Love, Peace and Knowledge

Jack.

Foreword

Jack Bowman’s poetry resides in the unmapped spaces between the

sudden silence that wakes you up in the night and the primal fear of a

foreign airport when your passport is returned unstamped and you are

denied permission to board. His work creates a smoke-filled cinema of

the mind, where anything is possible and nothing is for free.

To open a volume of Jack’s poetry is to pass through the airlock

from your comfortable world into his. Jack careens through his own

existential landscape with the gas pedal to the floor and one wheel over

the double yellow line between psychosis and genius. His verses pull us

from moonlight to candlelight to the harsh glare of cheap fluorescent

tubes, in that galvanizing split-second of premonition just before every

lamp goes dark, and every circuit breaker trips.

Mark Dixon

Los Angeles, California

February 2003

C H A P T E R 1

ALLEGORIES AND CROCODILES

HAWKS

Wings, wide, thick ominous glide over the landscape deserts, mountains, circle towers : scrapers of the sky eyes sharp, nature adapts to foolishness that surrounds fills the valleys with constructs nests, rival even the insects the cool shadow passes over on a high perch, waiting waiting for the next comet to strike

PROGRESSIVE

The great white writer on safari through the dense jungles of phrases search for the great beast, thesaurus near the lost city of language he wears out his journals, while batting away trite and cliché insects that hover constantly above after weeks of futility, rations nearly gone he rages out of camp down a road not traveled ;recently through dense masses of over grown undergrowth and comes upon a village, tall temple, halls and bordellos all in ruins He enters, wanders crumbling stairways, from the highest point, looks out, sees torches of others coming his way he turns, trips over the bones of Socrates, returns to his feet Plato’s scrawling becomes evident on the walls, he moves slowly room to room and finds each covered, a thousand forgotten tongues, a million words Alexandria’s library reborn in his excitement, he rushes back to the tower shouts to the world outside, the torch bearers ever closer this the crowning moment, share the discovery, famous,

admired figure brave soul on the edge of great truth, when they arrive, bobbing torches, absent emotion he is taken away arrested for trespassing

ALTERED TRANSMISSION

A chameleon waits on his new pile of rocks sun worn on black asphalt aluminum fences by train tracks shine at 12:07 pm themes form in new glances around the room direct, sideways, angles, anticipate, avoid numerous smiles day after Easter ham fountains still yet clouds move over seem to watch