Greg Heimer

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Pastime  trenz pruca

Hometown  seattle, washington

job  photographer

interests  landscape, portrait, travel

NOMADS


There will come a time

For rich and poor alike,

When all we can keep

Will be what we can carry.

Money will be no good.

Laws will mean nothing.

Things will have no value.

Rough gangs will rule the streets.

We will follow the animal's trails

And learn again how to make a fire.

We will live close to the ground,

Dig for food,

Drink from streams.

Life will be raw and bitter.

We may hope to begin again

But there will be no starting over.

________________________________


THE RAGA OF THE LATE AFTERNOON!


Even after our rest

We still wear heat

Like a heavy garment.

In the center of the seared plain,

On the imaginary landscape,

The trees around us

Are pierced by low, golden light,

And the morning glory fades

From blue to pale magenta.

Subtly the wind starts

And the raga begins:

The droning of the tamboura

And the rattle of the tabia

Intertwine with

The shimmering whine of the sitar.

The long-haired young man laughs,

The old man smiles.

The music rises, runs,

Falls and repeats its fixed scale.

Then the wind shifts,

Carrying a whiff of the monsoon,

And, as in a dream,

Abruptly, the raga ends.

________________________________


SUBTERRESTRIALS    


He wrote his poems standing up.

"Keeps me grounded," he liked to say.

So he wrote about:

Truffles and grubs,

Ants and worms,

Voles and centipedes.

He always had dirt under his nails,

And he had about him a musty smell

Of wet leaves.

He said that when he died

He wanted to be buried

Without a coffin.

Now he lies in the soil:

Supine, serene,

Wrapped in roots,

Among his earthly friends.


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Poem Titles

> Nomads

> The Raga of the Late Afternoon

> SUBTERRESTRIALS