whatever it hears it attempts to repeat
with unerring determination it just keeps on
for it all leaves a record which swallows itself
as it’s always just over there where you just were
or where you think you will end up all too soon
lying down and turning around to go down
the next level and swimming in a couple inches of water
sliding on the slick fired earth surface
delightful belly of the laughing skin
the globe that turns and churns the waters
as fast as an otter on the clay
that takes it all in and absorbs it all
each event and every thing is a poem
just waiting to develop
the only restriction
in the dedication
not to forget any thing

 

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.