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Oblique

Strategies

Charles Baldwin
Copyright Notice
__________________________

© 1989-1999
Charles H. Baldwin III
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Lao Tsu
Contents
TRADITIONS

chimes & bells ........................................................................................................................... 7


touching dreams ........................................................................................................................... 8
samsara ........................................................................................................................... 9
........................................................................................................................... 10
smiles ........................................................................................................................... 11

DECLARATIONS

free verse ........................................................................................................................... 14


oases of lost connections ........................................................................................................................... 15
dark ages ........................................................................................................................... 16
nightmare ........................................................................................................................... 17
zerø time ........................................................................................................................... 18

CONFRONTATIONS

ideogram ........................................................................................................................... 20
loco • motion ........................................................................................................................... 21

OBLIQUE STRATEGIES

if . . . ........................................................................................................................... 23
pale fire ........................................................................................................................... 24
rainbows ........................................................................................................................... 25
the sound of one hand? ........................................................................................................................... 26
transmogrifications ........................................................................................................................... 27
........................................................................................................................... 28
('fant ə sē, zē) n. [Gk phantasia, ME fantasie]
hallucination. creative imagination. product of the imagination; illusion.
delusion. capricious or whimsical notion or idea; conceit. daydream. fantasia.

[fan 'daŋ ¾gō] n. [Sp]


lively Spanish dance usually performed by a man and a woman to the
accompaniment of guitar and castanets. activity performed which serves no
meaningful purpose. tomfoolery.
TRADITIONS
chimes & bells

a music that moves


toward emotion:
to the tempo of the moon.

tuned in and
turned on.
resonant with
the waves . . .
a sorcery arcane of the earth.

checking the night’s


light’s twinkle —
an eternity changed:
in the twitch of a
twitching hand
hangs.

wind’s hoary timbre enchants


tangling tinkling chimes:
hickory-dickory-dock • black oak cuckoo clock.
(time’s tick) tells.

heavy metal polished iron —


casting thunder roars.
tones clapping pendulum death knells.
exorcising priests entowered swing
(sombre solstice) bells.

voices waver droning


of bells’ timestopping toll
reverberates,
blanketing the misty plain.

silence.
a frostbitten hush.
ending.

Oblique Strategies 7
touching dreams

Now and then,


where time is never
planned,
I steer a course
up and through the heavens —
into the glitter:
behind the stars.

And when,
from a haze
of dreams . . . .
I awake!
Only to know
Shadows of shades.

Déjà Vu.

Fingers on glass:
oily reminders —
then smear.

Phantoms of pains . . .
screaming that they’re
there.

Deep, waking emptiness . . .


that shouldn’t be
here.

The fragile brown leaf


of a gold season:
years’ past.

A fine line:
the crack in thin ice.

Oblique Strategies 8
samsara

something close to nothing;


maybe more than yesterday

doing what I do
like

waiting . . .

play
ing my p
art

Oblique Strategies 9
tree stretching — embraces
tracing heaven, rooted in
earth bends to the wind.

Oblique Strategies 10
smiles

When
I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child;

sprite-like and free


fly
bubblecheeked
cherubs,
careless of their footing in rocky terrain.

bathed in the rays of a world so new;


playing games of leaves, love, and joy.
tender hearts that haven’t need to be coy,
enchanted visions in skies of dusty blue.

When
I became a man,
I gave up
childish ways.

roses wither in the sometimes too-bright sun.


frigid winds harden mother earth against new birth.
life is long in realms of divine mirth;
games darken into shadows, losing their fun.
dead oaks cast skeleton spectres
on the cold glass of the window pane.

For now we see


in a mirror darkly,
but then face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall understand fully,
even as I have been fully understood.

red balloons climb forever higher — only to fall.


flush-faced, weary imps collapse after the game.
still playing?
waiting to discover all the rules!?
babbling heads spout syllables building walls.

Oblique Strategies 11
So faith, hope, love abide,
these three;
but the greatest of these
is love.
DECLARATIONS
free verse

these words and


emotions,
gutwrenching
pains,
are now, finally,
set free.

. . . . let loose upon the world!

against the wind raging;


shouting
out
stars and timeless voids — dark:
aimed howitzer-like firing up
at the heavens.

being.

Oblique Strategies 14
oases of lost connections

an image flashes,
by inspiration touch:
on the surface-blue lake,
for the quick to capture.

a shout of being, barely heard:


lost . . .
like so many tears in the rain.

figures on a reel:
a solitary theatre
where time dances
on the head of a pin.

a brilliant, blinding hum


penetrates swimming:
teeming black of our dreams.

stand dazed staring


into the light white
at the heart of the sun.

Oblique Strategies 15
dark ages

out of their heads


(while all about keep theirs?),
they fly screaming
into a night of lost children:
on an eve of destruction.

. . . but
struggle night&day,
survive.

a human race, run to the outposts:


just a freefall from the edge.
enough anger, fear, promises,
hopes to fill every hungry vein.

free lancing
through cold silent streets;
suckled in the anonymous
screams of the junkies’ nightmare
domain. only to slip over the brink . . . .

under the azure sky,


an obsidian sunrise knifes deep
a ragged wound of steel pain,
and exquisitely lays open the heart
for all to see, and gawk.

so, tired the brain


(nailed to the back of the skull)
slowly atrophies in the light.

[:]

i saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness . . . .

Oblique Strategies 16
nightmare

in an abyss
black as hell
where silence hangs
heavy in the air,
blowing rain
whistles in my ear . . .

approach
cautiously to the edge —
fear from
.
.
.
.

f
a
l
l
i
n
g

Oblique Strategies 17
zerø time

hiroshima mushroom death . . . .

shudder;
little boy out of the blue.
appalled,
people flash to black
shadows burned onto fired brick.
screams drowned in broad daylight,
obscured by the bloodless boiling tar:

once man, woman, and child.


coming and going, house and home.

silence roared in that firestorm of


a life frozen photograph . . .

at zero time.

Oblique Strategies 18
CONFRONTATIONS
ideogram

{:}

a conflict
brings
danger
&
opport-
-unity.

Oblique Strategies 20
loco • motion

a locomotive
rattles, clanks,
& rumbles th
rough

in the hollow,
moonlit night

knocks;

death(.)

waits . . . at
the door.

private demons
of the night to
catalog : fears

take their toll.

none but
the lonely
(and the brave)

are foolish
enough
to stay

until the dawn.

(hop)ing by then
death is gone . . .

whistling
through the
grave yard.

Oblique Strategies 21
OBLIQUE STRATEGIES
if . . .

i see
a dew-laden : breathless
sigh,
crystallize
as icy winter frost;

i (stand)
under
a broken glass holds
nothing, but
empty dreams.

Oblique Strategies 23
pale fire

even in the quietest moments,


filling the warm spaces left
to wild thoughts and
a wondering imagination;
there lies the shadow of a light
between the darkness and the dark:
oases of lost connections,
bubbles of time full of stars.

Oblique Strategies 24
rainbows

a colourful chord
echoes —
building to crescendo,
wave on wave:
velvet peaks of prismatic light.

easy recollections.

soft reflections: the mind’s mirrors


of the present and the past.
or merely myths woven
with the carelessness and delight
of an infant’s twinkling eyes.

knowing a home beyond remembering:


of memories fragile haunt.

a stranger in a stranger world,


wayward wends, at last,
to a familiar hearth:
to a land beyond

rainbow’s

e
n
d
.

Oblique Strategies 25
the sound of one hand?

silent sighs.

a quiet articulation
of breath
sings buzzing,
of whispers.

thin as air.

static charged space:


the humdrum of existence?

blinks.

listen —

the sea shell


tells
the tale . . . .

Oblique Strategies 26
transmogrifications

still
hoping it’s
all just a dream.

____________

all ways more there


than meets
the
i
.

Oblique Strategies 27
everywhere,
so much love
is empty words
crashing against
craggy sheer cliffs
of the wide ocean.
so let it be said;
so let it be written;
so let it be done
anywhere,
everywhere ........................................

Oblique Strategies 28

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