Old Folks City

Dear  Readers,

For the last two years I have taken care of my 90+ year old father but we finally placed him in a very nice assisted living facility, hardly a cruel fate compared to billions of others on this planet but comparisons aren't everything, and he is another human with another life and it is ending as I go off to live out the rest of mine...I am sad:

old folks city

don't wanna go down but i do wanna go
they got syrup on the pancakes served with love dontcha know
hang my pictures--we don't have to paint the walls
i really don't plan to be here very long at all

don't wanna go--but please take me down
i need to sleep in that last place i call home
and hold my hand--i'll sit my bones right here
hang on the corner and watch the walkers roam

and i'm goin down
yeah i'm goin down
i'm goin down to old folks city
don't wanna go but
please take me down
i wanna see the last place i call home
i'm goin down
i'm goin down
i'm goin down to old folks city
i'm goin down
please take me down
say goodbye and soon I'll be gone

love,

- john o.

New Moon New Year—Come Bring Your Love to Diotima!

No moon is new but twenty-seven faces are a dream

twelve and thensome times in the cycle of the sun

when darkness is a hole in the sky among the stars

but one time is love when love is pregnant darkness

and the female year turns—o diotima!

when i gaze on your ladder the sky burns up!

going up or down—this ladder is diotima’s

everybody look! look at the ladder of my love!

this year let us take our love to diotima

diotima’s ladder is love itself

san francisco you ask me do i love you?

you whose breasts nursed me through a thousand childhoods?

because i love you i have to leave you

i have to take my love to diotima

everybody come with me

we must all love something

i want to take you with me

come with me to diotima’s ladder

san francisco come with me

gay boys in the castro come with me

richmond russians n sunset chinese come with me

mission irish filipina mexican el salvadorean nicaraguan babes come with me

pier 39 chinatown tourist n stockton pig butchers come with me

montgomery businessmen come with me

cocky soma ceo techies n bored drones come with me

park n haight street shroom n pot dealers come with me

sfpd rollers n pretentious artists come with me

tenderloin junkies n bernal lesbians come with me

bayview n potrero gangbangers come with me
marina n cow hollow yuppies come with me

dishers n diners at saint anthony’s come with me

we must all love something

come with me to diotima’s ladder

john o why should we bring our love to diotima?

john o why do you bring your love to diotima?

diotima’s wisdom links the love for all things high and low

the love for chewing gum and God

you may have great insight 

but you'd still better bring your love to diotima
you may know all things as empty

but you'd still better bring your love to diotima

diotima let me die on your burning ladder

going up or down—this ladder is diotima’s

everybody look! look at the ladder of my love!

i wish you all twelve beautiful moons with diotima!

love,

- john o.

My Teacher’s Invitation to the Spiritual Teachers

My Teacher said—John, go get the Spiritual Teachers
take em to the place where we did retreat
down in the 'Loin where some boys and girls
likely get fucked fore they get to eat
down with the junkies shootin in the alleys
down where the tweakers get too thin
take them Teachers down to the city
where the cold wind stops at the dumpster bin
John, be kind but get em freakin
let em sit and get hella upset
then—do your job and get em thinkin
they haven't finished their training yet
take each to an empty room and leave em
say a few words as you shut the door:
thoughts are ok but don’t believe em
that’s about it—oh one thing more
out there is the whatever it is tradition
in here is just whatever it is
out there is recognerudition
in here sentient blood and jizz
here no Teacher says what’s right
sit here a year or two—good luck!
remember in your meditation
out there nobody gives a fuck


Love to All,


- John O.