Underworld characters who live so way
down deep under the global root ball the
home beneath all the sedentary homes
where those long fungal tendrils speak
To each and every other forest creature
denizens of the earthy night long songs
sung by insects and screech amphibians
frogs and toads erupting in their true joy
Pure ecstasy of breath and the great tune
antidote to all we collectively have done so
wrong we follow hollow windbags against
all that desperately needs to be who we be-
Come true to our selves & those who follow
deep in the earth right there behind all us
poor souls still blinking in that bright light
where the process of life begins once again.
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.