Breathe

I am learning to breathe.
Two panic attacks and a change in medication
Have brought me to this place
Of floating inside outside myself
Mind flux
Wondering what will happen
When my mind short circuits my ability to work
And I am left leaving
Downshift to upshift?

I am learning to breathe.
Chest cold body temperature three degrees below normal
Subnormal yet hyper aware
Body seismic earthquake
Reverse flu habitat
Mind shifting from sand to sea
Drifting spaces panic to calm
Two hours to normal
Wandering seize.

I am learning to breathe.
Some rhythmic flow
Do not circle my mind
Pace my feet
Hour after hour
Robbing my sleep
Reach beyond
For-Next loop
Outside connection
Teach me to breathe.

I am learning to breathe.
God of the obvious
Guide my awareness
Even though I don't quite believe
I know I can do
More than myself
Love breathe connect
Beyond this place
You are
More I can be
Breathe

Denis Streeter 1/19/14

Epiphanies

I'd like a bowl of epiphanies
That dry cereal cold milk awareness
Swirling down my throat, prickling chest
Heart mind awareness light tingling
Body illuminated bulb growing
Fresh shoots tingling spine
Flowing central stream
Connecting all one source
Pinpoint light prickle through
Me to you
Some odd shared stream
Epiphanies me open
Cold milk my senses
Rehydrate me with
Substance of spirit.

Denis Streeter 1/5/14

December 23

"Doug it's Carolyn!"
"Doug it's Carolyn!"
Awake 9:30 AM Monday the 23rd on my day off
10 AM I hear a door panel pop
as the neighbor's front door beneath me
is wedged open...hear a gasped cry
I finish my exercises, shower, and breakfast
Open my front door and head downstairs
There's a police officer guarding the busted in door
Woody mustiness seeps out
A police investigator talks to a relative of Doug named Carolyn
I talk to her
My neighbor beneath me has passed away...
He was 66 years old, never married, increasingly reclusive
Condo neighbors had been trying to get in touch with him for over a week
He never answered phone calls or knocks on his door
His relatives didn't seem too concerned at first
He'd always been pretty ornery and reclusive
He'd had five heart attacks in the last couple years
The last anyone had heard from him was about a week and a half before
He called the condo board treasurer to say he was too weak to deliver his condo check
And taped it to his door
He had no friends
Perhaps he had some form of aspergers...for he had a brilliant mind...
But no people skills...
In years past he would call me and cuss me out for having the washer/dryer on too late
The garbage disposal piping leaking through his ceiling...that I fixed
His complaints were always right...just not kind
I tried to stay out of his way
The condo board was increasingly worried about him and wondered
If I heard anything immediately beneath me
I hadn't for the last couple weeks, but
I can be pretty oblivious...
"Doug it's Carolyn!"
"Doug it's Carolyn!"
I talked to Carolyn...
Doug was found on the floor beside his chair with a book near his hand
We guessed it was a heart attack, but at least he passed quickly
I talked to Carolyn about my love of books and how helpful Doug had been in the past
As the fix-it man of the condo
When did he begin his decline?
When will I begin my decline?
Has it already happened?
Who will come knocking at my door?
"Denis it's ...!"
"Denis it's ...!"
Will I be present or passed?
All I know is
I make a difference in this life I am living
How will I connect
In the time I have left?

Denis Streeter 12/30/13

Unknown

All the new that fell behind
Left in shelters of my mind
Camped in my house of many rooms
Open and close
Hibernation...
I am asleep through this waking life
Dull with what I have done and undone
Memory fails and then receives
Too late for what I must do
And what must I do?
The new has become old and more new coming in
Change and risk is what I must do
Not the risk that endangers my life...but yes...maybe that too
More the risk of connection and relationship
That makes my life and their life richer for our presence
And the learning...expansion...
Shall never cease.

Denis Streeter 12/23/13

Yes

Don't know how I came across this again. Don't think this has anything to do with the Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Terence Stamp movie Yes Man...

Over the analogs
The posters bloom
Blue hives of fairy tales
Breathing dogs of shame
In the cats meow
When kibbles bit storms
Sore halitosis
The mercury rings forgot
Samples in the maze
Toast in the molecules
Hiding in the night
Forethought forgotten
Sleeves in mores
That time forgot
Left in not out
And the frequencies bent
All the best from the worst
Leaving behind a malaise of A's
The constitutional suite
Well lived in rug
Dusted not cleaned
While toilets scrubbed
You sat
On analogs and poster blooms
I did not understand
You nodded your head and said
Yes.

Denis Streeter 10/21/13 & 2/14/14

Sleep wake sleep

Three pieces I wrote this morning after waking for an hour,then went back to sleep...slightly edited at library.

Beneath a feather

Trappist monks
Taking teabodies
Out to sea
In a scrunk
An open door
Remains shut
And the winter air
Hungers
Feeding shelter
Through finger tips
Opening chores
Feeding clothes
Other loomings
Live in shelters
Unreleased
And in the rubberbands
The wastelands live
Prufrock galivants
Pavlov salivates
Rorschach leaves
Results under tea
Where the norm bipolars
Under the busted grins
Everyone knows your name
Leaving lashes
Under the steeplechase
And the understudy understands
At half past nine
Feeling the weather
Icing decline
And the temperature rose
Toward afternoon
Knees blistered nose bled
Thoughts sinister
And my head said
In the afternoon
The seahorse shaped question
Marks the time
And the question is the answer
Laughing moonshine
Leaving me and
My guests behind
Funny steeples
Shot windows
Caressing doors
Where the new you know
Keeps laughing
Falling
Seeping
Sleeping
Under the hyde of night
Where none come out
Degrade
Digress
Degrammer
Falls and hides
Shipwrecked
Beneath a feather.

Denis Streeter 10/7/13


My door

Where did you feel
My corners snow
Over rocks
Into stone
Where did you find
Isotope
In my mind
Covered leaves
Mixing trees
Watching all
Of my time
Slicing dumb
Bending mine
Casper sieves
Under leaves
Watering holes
Left behind
Oceans weep
Shadows bend
Mime asleep
Under stores
Wanders
That sharp edge
Caves to walk
Ocean floors
Fishing smelt
Prayers distraught
Caspers
Thraught
Lacerates
Lazurus
Waking
The spring
Shadows beneath
Laugh
Isotope
Leaking out
My door.

Denis Streeter 10/7/13


Sun blocked

Lead fountains bleed
Shed and wine
All she said
In the corner
Left the snake
In the cabinet
Sunny stove
Hatching eggs
Finger nose
Frigging away
All the clothes
Begin to fray
First a start
Then an end
Filling space
Sinisters
Under floor
Board the moon
Looney tune
All the nouns
Verbal
In the gass
As they watch
The turning
On off away
Setting time
Variable play
Out the door
The cupboard
Feed the weasel
Pop the horn
Settle down
All forlorn
Off the horse
Out away
Boardwalked
Shadowed
Fertile wise
Under sinks that pray
Lead whine
Sun blocked.

Denis Streeter 10/7/13

The Contrite Contradictory Roll

It's been a long hard week of Fall Rush at the University Book Store and computer troubles. My mind is shot...or at least that's my excuse for writing this piece. I came up with it while walking back to my car from the bookstore and craving my slices of pepperoni from Grocery Outlet.

An hor d'oeuvre for the perfect bipolar culinary experience...

1) 1 slice Pepperoni
2) 1/2 leaf Romaine
[Be sure they are equal amounts]
3) Roll together and hold in center with a toothpick.

It's easy to make.
Try out your own version...

Denis Streeter 9/27/13