Dolphinating
For Albert Goldbarth & Margarita Robles
Are you going to steal lines collect
manual typewriters 8 miles high the serotonin Albert
Goldbarth mentions the sugary night the howling
speeding most of all are you going to hobble here—
time travel?
a possible future burns your dolphin karma
forking out 500 lives from now
Whitman in piyamas spotted leopard-like piercing
the unavoidable Void the obsessed B-B-Q where we swoop
Ersatz
Mojo
Bruja Hoodoo scribble
it is popping Hendrix in your head it is Joplin &
Flor Silvestre & Rosetta Tharpe & Itzpapalotl do you know
how awake you are
Noble
8 Fold Path
too dark
too lightning
the visualization is next
the Ukrainian purge the intercontinental money money
O Tsunami where is my crystal realized selfie
O my love my next Warhol dream in
revolution rouge & where is
my electric emerald wand rain Vajra
roll the ink & fire stones unfold the third eyes
the ten million arms of Tara & Einstein
of compassion of mercy of nebula rails come alive
jellyfish flags i bow to you
jellyfish world wheel of
swish & suffering
Copyright © 2014 by Juan Felipe Herrera. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on March 11, 2014. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
“While listening to Albert Goldbarth read his line, ‘manual typewriters 8 miles high,’ in rocket speed, I wrote in similar manner. Later, I chipped and chopped words. Spiced it up a little with Ishmael Reed, His Holiness—the Dalai Lama and Einstein—they help me think about the big picture, about kindness and the unknown.”
—Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, on December 27, 1948. The son of migrant farmers, Herrera moved often, living in trailers or tents along the roads of the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California. As a child, he attended school in a variety of small towns from San Francisco to San Diego. He began drawing cartoons while in middle school, and by high school was playing folk music by Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.