Burnt Retina

I created this broadside of my poem "Burnt Retina" for the Ninth Annual Celebration of the Male Form at Angst Gallery in Vancouver, WA January 3-31, 2020. The poem also appears in my book Message from the Vessel in a Dream, published by Flowstone Press in 2018.

APPROACHING TOTALITY For John Furniss

APPROACHING TOTALITY

For John Furniss

a ghostly veil is draped

over the entirety

blankets the house,

grass, & trees

stellar jays

aieennh! aiennh!

in warning

as the world goes dark

everything quiets down

& a million anxieties

suddenly recede as

a thousand gleaming crescents

fan across the patio and lawn

Christopher Luna

August 21, 2017

Written at the request of my dear friend Anni Becker Furniss: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1809045995789948/ 

 

Photos by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

Here is an article from the Columbian about Anni's request:

http://www.columbian.com/news/2017/aug/26/washougal-blind-man-sees-eclipse-through-others-words/

Four Poems Written During The Cosmic Dust Fusion Band's Memorial Day 2016 Show

The Cosmic Dust Fusion Band

Unitarian Church

4505 E 18th St., Vancouver, WA

Memorial Day 2016

The Cosmic Dust Fusion Band performs at the Unitarian Church in Vancouver, WA on May 30, 2016

 Rosario

That was his name. Draw the brush slowly, deliberately, across the landscape. Thought gives form to color. Memory gives form to emotion. The sanctity of true friendship. The ease of it. The quick laughter. The unforced smile. Remember the times we sat together. No one can erase these moments from the mind’s eye.  

 

Jim Templeton and Mike Doolin

 New York Taxicab

Pay you extra to take me to the tunnel. Fear beyond language. Top speed. No signal. No frame. Not where I expected to be. The street fragments and streaks. Where do you get off? What’re you thinkin’?

Who told you that? No way.

Charles Neal

 Blues #7

“What happened to the first six, I can’t tell ya.”

Talk so often ‘bout myself, people wish I’d just shut my mouth

Talk so often ‘bout myself, people wish I’d just shut my mouth

“Gonna call myself on the telephone one day, and tell myself to shut up”

(Miles Davis)

They say a poet is a person in love with the sound of his own voice

A poet is a person in love with the sound of his own voice

But when this scribe begins to speak,             don’t it sound so nice?

If you don’t have nothin’ to say, why open your mouth at all?

If you got nothin’ new to say, why open your mouth at all?

If your heart’s not in it, why say anything at all?

Hope they never take this mic away

Been writin’ all my life

If they should take this mic away

Could mean the end of my life

I promise

not to

say

another

word

‘less

that shit is

true

profound

precise

The Cosmic Dust Fusion Band performs at the Unitarian Church in Vancouver, WA on May 30, 2016

 The Roots Of The Forest

This afternoon I renew my vow of devotion to you. Allow me to be the protector of your heart. Put your tiny hand in mind and we’ll walk slowly into the beautiful darkness of our future. Not imaginative enough to have thought it could ever be this good. A true partner by my side. A stalwart friend, willing to corkscrew my bones to breaking when the time comes. To bruise my ribs when the time is right. Like a couple of kids. Who cares if we come away with a little bark in our hair?   

 

The Cosmic Dust Fusion band is Jim Templeton (keyboards), Mike Doolin (guitar), Pete Petersen (winds), Sam Hallam (bass), and Charles Neal (drums). For more information, visit The Cosmic Dust Fusion Band