ONE CLOZAPINE CLINIC AFTER ‘NOTHA TWISTED SLIPSTREAM ROAD TO DISASTER? // Gerard Sarnat

Ease The Need To Feed From Weed

Not taking a road with the loves of my life

for granted, I call her Sweetie and act thusly

each gentle moment much as Icarus can.

And she initiates and reciprocates

at least more than equally.

One of these days, perhaps as early as

current septuagenarians, maybe a bit later,

we will be forced to trade in our drivers

licenses and moi will be left with his

full-fledged poetic licentiousness.

In pursuit of remaining truly alive,

my good wife of nearly a half-century

plus each of our children’ve come

along joining those ex/ internal

heart mind and soul journeys

to various degrees depending on

their personal situations plus druthers.

On the whole once becoming

mothers, a switch turns off

to defer adventure travel.

But my son and I continue to push

all the boundaries of blissful intimacy

seeking out remote waterfalls,

mountain streams, Burning

Man’s grand Ecstasy tents.

For the moment hung up on pit

stops of an orthopedic rehab nature,

I minimize altered states to focus

on reality of getting an old body

better able to hold sacred space.

In training to prepare for higher

ascents again, I contract leptospirosis

from my loyal dog but come out

stronger using FDA leptins to

suppress unwieldy appetite.

Acupuncture Needles Serve As Brain Solar Antennae

Lumbago Blues Haiku

Now I’m some half man

trying best one can to grasp

a non-addict life.

Sadhu Haiku

Last deep dive from waves

toward sea bed -- I’m drawn home to

our vast mother ship.

Recycle Me Christmas Holiday?

Each summer & winter, hither & yon block after block

I spy white plastic bags

you know the kind which emits toxic fumes when burning,

choking swimming animals, or around forever in landfills

with four hundred million spoiling the Atlantic alone for mammals

(porpoises etc.) to mistake as yummy sea nettles or jellyfish

before they just suffocate. Which isn’t the only obscenity getting us going:

inside every waste dump sits thick as a brick decrepit Yellow Pages

no one’s opened since my unlovable Harvard housemate Al Gore I played 8-ball with

invented the Internet --- we’d be better off if the directory still were a huggable tree.

Wash A Ton

A simple man, I chose my orthopod on the basis of his nice name which was Dearborn

and his unknown hospital which was Washington so I assumed everything in the OR would be sterile compared to world-renowned Stanford where I’ve worked plus close

to home but which is nicknamed The Farm suggesting perhaps that it’s barnyard dirty

thus lately has been all over the newspapers and TV for far too many unwashed residents

and students who seemed to just stand around in the various operating rooms which led

to the headline, Report: Stanford's infection rate worst among 7 Bay Area hospitals.*

*http://abc7news.com/health/report-stanfords-infection-rate-worst-among-7-bay-area-hospitals/2206057/

Soon Stiff Said Somewhat Strangely

"I want all to know

that we'll always truly

be there for you our kids.

Which is what I hope

you'all'd feel about me

after this sick old cuss passes."

//

Gerard Sarnat has won the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize and been nominated for Pushcarts. Gerry’s authored four collections: HOMELESS CHRONICLES (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014) and Melting The Ice King (2016) which included work published in magazines and anthologies including Gargoyle, American Journal of Poetry (Margie), Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, OCHO,Brooklyn Review, Lowestoft, Tishman Review plus was featured in New Verse News, Edify, Poetica, Songs of Eretz, Avocet, LEVELER, tNY, StepAway, Bywords and Floor Plan. Deronda Review, San Francisco Magazine, Radius, Foliate Oak, Dark Run, Scarlet Leaf, Good Men Project, Anti-Heroin Chic, Winamop, Aois, Poetry Circle, Tipton Review, Creative Truth, Harbor Village, KYSO, Flagler Review, Rumblefish, Poets and War, and Ordinary Madness’ debut feature sets of new poems. Mount Analogue selected Sarnat’s sequence, KADDISH FOR THE COUNTRY, for distribution as a pamphlet in Seattle on Inauguration Day 2017 as well as the next morning as part of the Washington DC and nationwide Women’s Marches. In May “Amber Of Memory” was the single poem chosen for Gerry s 50th college reunion symposium on Bob Dylan; the Harvard Advocate accepted a second plus Oberlin, Brown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, etc. in and outside the US accepted concurrent pieces. In August Failed Haiku presented his work first among over a hundred contributors. Later in 2017 Beautiful Loser’s main spread will be Sarnat’s poetry accompanied by an interview. For Huffington Post/other reviews, readings, publications, interviews; visit GerardSarnat.com. Harvard/Stanford educated, Gerry’s worked in jails, built/staffed clinics for the marginalized, been a CEO of healthcare organizations and Stanford Medical School professor. Married since 1969, he has three children, four grandkids.

Gerard Sarnat also has a symbol--Ed.: