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E MAIL TO DAMNISO LOPEZ
(ENCOUNTER) By Duane Locke
 
Every encounter with a purple gallinule leads
Into realms of existence hitherto unknown,
An unfolding of the consciousness inhibited
And folded by the lies, the lies the most beloved
And cherished beliefs of the populace. So
The first person pronoun becomes a stranger
Freed from being a slave to alien ideologies,
Freed from the schizophrenic school
Sanctioned syntax, a new language is born,
 
A language that is not understood by those
Educated,  graduate-school educated
To be insane,  those who adjust to the insanity
Of ordered society and evaluate as
An insane Transcendental Signifier
The insanities that satisfy as being
Worthwhile and true. After the encounter
With the hitherto unknown, the new body
Can never return to the world as it is,
But must live parallel to the popular
Values and popular beliefs
And drink Armagnac alone.

E MAIL TO DAMNISO LOPEZ
(SONGS) By Duane Locke
 
Songs bring us objects without dimensions,
Objects
That are not objects, but objects
That are songs,
So the sung arms that caress us
Do not touch us,
For the caressing arms are songs.
When the sung arms caress,
The song turns us into a song;
 
We are a song without a body,
Without flesh,
Without skin.

Bio: Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy, English Renaissance literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet in Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. He has had over 5,000 published poems in print magazines as well as in E-zines and is the author of 14 books of poetry. Duane Locke is also a painter and photographer.