So, tired of drawing the Riverside Church Labyrinth
to celebrate Martin Luther King’s anti-Vietnam War
speech given at that church after the national holiday
I suddenly realize I can make a new design from it by
extending out long spokes to create a new labyrinth
and then while I’m at it I add four sided hands on the
arms and realize immediately that I can do the same
with each circular labyrinth design so simultaneous
I realize I can do this from each radiating concentric
circle and all these variations will be a long sequence
each actually different elaboration of this basic form
and they all say “for Peace” and “End War here” with
                            be (here) now

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.