R.I.P. Swami Bua

R.I.P. Swami Bua
(12/25/1889 – 7/22/2010)

When you need education
When you need enlightenment
Who you gonna call?
Swami Bua
Swami Bua
The funny little man
All dressed in white
With the great big
Sad saucer eyes
As gentle as a lamb
And tough as nails
The best Hatha yoga teacher
It the whole wide world
Swami Bua
Swami Bua
When I first met him
Some thirty years ago
I was a broken vessel
Shattered by divorce
In so many different ways
Burned out
At the age of thirty
I was referred to him
By mutual friends
(Juliet and Charles Seaver)
And welcomed
Into his ashram
As a welcome guest
And I sat at his feet
For four joyous years
Where I learned how to be
Truly healthy
Where my heart was repaired
And my life was turned around
Begin the day in love
Spend the day in love
End the day in love
That is the way to God
He would always say
After he would greet you
By asking if you were happy
Am I happy? Not sure. I don’t really know
Well if you do not know
Who should know?
He would answer
And of course he was right
When I found the asanas too difficult
He would always be there to encourage
And when we complained
The poses were too hard to do
He would say
I will cripple you
And he was right
The day after some sessions
I could hardly walk
The most gentle and stern
Taskmaster I have ever known
And just to prove he could do as he preached
He would spring into the pose
As if he were made of rubber
When I began to drift away
To pursue the rest of my life
I took his life lessons with me
And when I would call him
To say how much I missed him
He would say that I should come home
He would say that his eyes were aching to see me
And this week I learned that he had died
That he had given up his body
At the age of 120 years
Because death is a habit of the body
And no one can escape death
As he would always say
And he even gave me advice
About how to die
When the grim reaper
Comes inevitably to pay his call
Life is but a bubble in the ocean
So just let it go
he would always say
So just let it go

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

Harmonic Convergence or Let’s Do Lunch

It was to be a Super Perigee Moon
Which occurs very rarely
Maybe once every twenty years or so
Or so I am told
And so I began to realize
That the sun, stars and moon
Were all in alignment
For special things
To happen
I had not seen my friends
Douglas and Prue
In almost a decade
Such long absences
Are not good
Where friendship
Is concerned
Like a plant
Friendships need
Husbandry and loving care
If they are to survive and thrive
Neglected too long
They tend wither on the vine

But not this time!
Douglas e-mailed me
Out of the blue
A week or so
Before the Perigee Moon
Was to make her appearance
To say
“Let’s do lunch!”

Yes, I said
Great idea
But how to make it happen?
Doug and his wife Prue
Were going to be sailing
Into Philadelphia
Like the Comet Haley Bop
Depending on whether or not
They get out of jail
After demonstrating
Against the war
At a rally in D.C.
To take place
That same weekend
(Which war
Were they going
To protest?
Well, suppose
You just take your pick).
That same day
The USA, France and England
Started bombing
The country of Libya
I guess that was Prez Obama’s reply
To all the protesters
Who only wanted to get themselves
A little peace
(Talk about
Your harmonic convergences)
How ironic

So trying to hook up with
Doug and Prue
Would be like trying to lasso
A bucking steer by the horns
While at full gallop
No easy trick
Even for a trained
Rodeo cowboy
Needless to say
I am not a trained
Rodeo cowboy
I am more like
An untrained
Rodeo clown
But their visit was timed
To coincide
With the Super Perigee Moon
A harmonic convergence
Of cosmic proportions
And all of the augurs and signs
Were all most auspicious
So I was feeling optimistic
To say the least
A rarity for me
The worlds’ biggest believer
In the sanctity of Murphy’s Law
Nuff said

A mutual friend
Betsy Robertson
Was to be the mid wife
Of this cosmic
Rendez-vous
Even though
She said that she had to be in Jenkintown
Precisely at a quarter
To three

Good thing Betsy had her daughter
Lilly
To keep her on her toes
When the planned meeting day
Finally arrived
Everything went off
Without a hitch
So to speak
Thanks to the Super Perigee Moon
And Betsy’s mid wifery
And Lilly’s steadyfastedness
And my suggestion
To meet downtown
At First UU church


Though Lilly is only eleven years old
And a star student in the fifth grade
She was nonetheless forced
To eat a slice of rich
Delicious chocolate cake
Whilst a beautiful Macau parrot
From Costa Rico
Named Lulu
Put on a wonderful impromptu show
Of multi-colored feathers
In every color of the rainbow

I proceeded to meet Douglas
At First Unitarian Church
In the very heart of the city
And we shared the last
Half of the service
And also heard
The spanking new minister’s sermon
Regarding the Apocalypse
And coming End Times
A fitting fun topic fit
For Earth Day
As it also turned out to be

The girls had been waiting
At the coffee shop
Just down the street
When the two of us
Barged in on their
Special reverie

Soon we all retreated
Like ducks in a row
To the pizza joint
Across the way
On the sunnier side
Of the street
Where we quickly found
A cheery little table
Complete with an umbrella
To shade us from the sun
Should the sun
Become too hot
And inhospitable

We ordered lunch
From our waitress
Who was very blond
And very thin
As all waitresses
Are required to be
If they want
To keep their jobs
In this pitifully weak
Economy

And we watched
The passing strollers
Whose faces seemed
To be a bit less strained today
This Sunday
This Earth Day
As we sat under
The Perigee Moon
And bathed in
The Harmonic Convergence
while enjoying the people parade
That floated past us
Like players in a carnival
Side show
All shapes and sizes
Some in their Sunday best
And others looking like they had
Just fallen out of bed

We watched and ogled the passersby
As we sipped our drinks
(Pure Philadelphia Schuylkill Punch)
And ate our brunch
All of us feeling
Quite at home
And at peace
When suddenly
Some total strangers
Tourists no doubt
Suddenly began to dance
An impromptu tarantella
I would have like to have joined them
And I would have too
Were I of less girth
And less clumsy
And more of a jolly good fella

And so it went
As we ate good food
And talked good talk
For endless hours
Or so it seemed
Renewing all of our friendships
And promising to keep
In touch
As friends almost
Always do
But then most often
Do not

By the time
We parted ways
We had renewed
Our bonds of love
And good cheer
And I felt refreshed
In spirit
And renewed in hope

So we parted
Each other’s company
In love’s rosy embrace
Promising to once again
“Do lunch”
Another time soon or
Whenever the cosmic forces
Again align
In such cosmic harmony
As to allow
Such festivity

“So let’s do lunch again some time!”
Said my friend Doug
As he and Prue
Once more
Saddled up
On Comet Haley Bop

Yes I agreed
“Let’s do!”
And let’s promise to do it
Whether there happens to be
A Super Perigee Moon
Or not

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

Have You Ever Noticed?

Have you ever noticed
How you can
Always tell
Who has a job
From those that do not?
The ones who do have steady work
Are fat and sleek
And their skin is polished
And shiny
No doubt from all
The pig fat that they consume
They have nice clothes
And are usually dressed
Appropriately for the season
The ones with solid jobs
Also have nice teeth
Paid for with dental insurance
And the ones with good jobs
Get to take vacations
And go on holidays
And take pictures
Of their exciting experiences
With their spanking new digital cameras
That one of them may have received
As a gift
For Christmas or Chanukah
Or some such other gift giving event

And the working ones
Have good shoes
And some of them
Even have walking shoes
And running shoes
And shoes for evening wear
To go with their basic black
Dresses and pearls
For when they go out
In the evenings
All primped up
To paint the town red
All dressed up
In all their fancy finery
While grandma and grampa
Stay home and watch the grand kids

But the ones without work
Only have some dirty old clothes
That have been passed down
And around so many times
That you can hardly tell
The colors apart
And the ones without work
Do not go gallivanting
Around the town
To show off their finery
For all to gawk at and see
Instead they hunker down
In shanty towns
And up the side alleys
And behind the store fronts
And in between the dumpster bins
Where they try to stay invisible
Especially at night
While trying to snatch
A few hours of fitful sleep
On some old dirty pee stained
Mattress
If they are lucky enough
To even have a mattress
And their idea of a night on the town
Is hoping to escape the ever watchful
Eyes of the police
Who otherwise find it necessary
To keep the peace
By chasing all the neighborhood bums
Who may very well
Have once been their next door
Neighbors in better times
But these are not better times
So the bums get chased
From park bench
To park bench
While being told
To keep on moving along,
To keep on shuffling along
Because there are laws
Against vagrancy
And loitering
Don’t you know

And if the bums
Become bull headed or
Are just too drunk
Or too sick
Or just too bone weary tired to obey
They risk finding out
For themselves
What those long night sticks
That the cops carry around
On their hips
Can do
And trust me
That mace bomb
That they also wear?
Well, I’m here to tell you
It ain’t just for show

I have been rich
And I have been poor
And you can take it from me
That when other folks say
That being rich is better
much, much better
Than being poor
You can believe it
And you should take their words to heart

So, if anyone ever offers you the choice
Between having a job
And being unemployed
You go ahead and grab that job with both hands
And do not let go

That is unless you like being poor
And want the chance to go on living
The life of riley
While your pockets are as empty
As your stomach
In that case just tell the boss man
No thanks
You’ll be passing on the kind offer of paid work
Because you like the vagrant life
And the accommodations on skid row
Suit you just fine

For hadn’t the boss man heard
The good news that’s written down
In the Good Book
Where it clearly says
That a man does not live
By bread alone
But by every word
That procedeth
Out of the mouth of God?
Amen…

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

Cherry Blossom Time

Every April
About this time
I get very excited
About the prospect
Of cherry blossoms
Bursting suddenly
Madly
Insanely
Into full bloom
Before our very eyes
Like facing a firing squad
A cannonade
Of pink petals
Sending shock waves
Of pink
Through every corner
Of the ether

Let a thousand cherry blossoms bloom
Let ten thousand cherry blossoms bloom
Let millions and millions of cherry blossoms bloom
And still there will not be enough of them
To satisfy the heart’s yearning
Or need
Or desire
After such a dreary winter
Of dirty snow
And charcoal grey skies
Another winter without you

And now, today
Whenever I happen to think of us
As we used to be
Just the two of us
I can still see the cherry blossoms
Of years past
Dancing in your eyes

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

A Nation Is Drowning

On CNN
I am watching
An entire nation drown
An entire people drown
On live TV
I am watching
A nuclear disaster
Ravage an entire nation
Japan is no more
Japan is radioactive
Once again
Sixty years after
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
And now we can add
The name of
Fukushima
To the list
Of nuclear horrors

First the world’s worst earthquake
The Haitian earthquake all over again
With her 200,000 dead
Followed by world’s worst tsunami
Banda Ache Indonesia
All over again
Only this time
One thousand times worse

And on top of all this
Nuclear catastrophe
Chernobyl all over again
Only a hundred times worse
In the world’s
Most densely populated nation

Tsunami
Even the very word
Is enough to freeze
The human heart
With paralyzing fear
Tsunami
Entire villages washed away
Cars, trucks, houses, people
Erasing everything alive in its path

On MSNBC
In living color
Commentators
And talking heads
Experts of every kind
Explaining, explaining, explaining
Drowning in their own ignorance
Drowning in their own ineptitude
Pointing to charts
Showing the pictures
Of so much suffering
And devastation
Over and over again
Until numbness sets in
And the mind refuses
To accept such massive misery
Until the emotions
Shut down
Because the heart can only
Bear so much grief
Before it too breaks apart
Who will suffer the most?
The children, the elderly
Rich and poor
The halt and the lame?

On BBC I am watching
An entire nation drown
I see
But I cannot believe

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

I Need My REM

I can hardly
Keep my eyes open
I can barely
Stay awake
I am so bored
At my job
Sunday they changed
All the clocks again
Spring one hour forward
Lose one hour of sleep
One hour of REM sleep
The kind of deep sleep
That knits up
The raveled sleeve of care
If you miss out
On REM sleep
You feel like a dog
You feel like your ass
Is dragging
All day long
All you want to do
Is to find a place
To sleep
To curl up for
Just fifteen minutes
Or else drink another
Cup of black coffee
Or try to take a hit of
Red Bull
Or a chocolate candy bar
They think that we are
Machines
They think they can
Manipulate us
Any way they want
But we are not machines
I am not a machine
And I will roll over
And take another hour of sleep
If I want to
Screw the timesheet
Screw the alarm clock
Punch in
Punch out
Punch drunk
Kiss my ass

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011

Doctor Visit

So I go to see my MD
Recently
For a scheduled
Visit and checkup
Every time
I see this pill pusher
He puts me
One step
Closer
To the grave
This time
I was complaining
About how
My varicose veins
Were acting up
And causing me
Some swelling
And pain
Did you ever have
Phlebitis before?
He asks
Like he’s surprised
I haven’t already
Kicked the bucket
By now
No, I said,
Is that what I have?
That’s what that is.
The swelling is caused
By an edema.
You don’t say
I say.
He asks me
If it is okay
To bring in his nurse trainee
To show her what an edema
Looks and feels like
On a man of my age
I don’t mind
I say
What the heck
In comes this very
Sexy nurse
Who proceeds
To put her hot little hand
On my inner right thigh
To feel my edema
That in truth
Is hot and painful
To the touch
“Notice that it feels swollen
And hot to the touch”
Says the MD to the Nurse
“Yes Doctor I see”
Says the nurse to the MD
As she playfully
Pats my inner thigh
As my emotions begin
To stir
I kept thinking of an old
Vaudeville routine:
A woman puts her hand
Down the trousers
Of the straight man
Searching for loose change
I feel foolish she says
I feel silly she says
A little more to the left
Says the straight man
And you’ll be feeling nuts
Thank you nurse
Thank you doctor
Then the nurse
Turns to me
With a smile and says
Thank you Mr. Markowitz
And I reply
You’re very welcome
My dear
Throwing her a little wink
Come back anytime.
She winks back at me
Smiles and gently closes the door

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011