H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

ELIOT KATZ

To the Northern Winds July 4, 2002

Sitting in cabin kitchen with Vivian

meditating with eyes open

following breath out nostrils

the day clear and beautiful

but cold, and windy as hell

it's heaven up here in Canada's north country

no inkling of industrial air pollution

not another human being within 50 miles

just Vivian and I reenergizing our love

and daily nightly mercurial wanderings

forest dust blows from here through the hemisphere

it slips through the eyelid & the screen door

nests between the molars & under the tongue

it can make a nation crazy

or cause a dog to sit up and take notice

It's been a crazy fucking year

full of death and the fear that creates more death

full of heightened alerts & habitual nightmares

full of bedroom intruders dressed in terrorist beards

& talking busted syntax on the Pentagon's porch

O Northern Winds can you blow some uncommon sense

into our nation down below?

Can you wine & dine us this year with a cleansing tempest?

Can you whistle and make our giant egos disappear?

Can you help us elect a new president?

The terrorists have murdered innocent lives

and given America's insane right an unnatural gift

From up here where the winds howl

it's obvious nature abhors a fundamentalist judge

and the whole pyramid scheme of corporate theft

The Northern Winds blow the leaves hard

but take time off so the trunks can rest

We remember the World Wars and the inhuman slaughters

we recall the old famines and the new disease

yet have begun to build another dangerous century

Last night ravens flew figure 8's near the cabin, playing

in yr gusts. O Winds, we have learned to cross large continents

to embrace our love. Can you shake us out of our future-destroying

weaponry for a new start? Tell the children:

another new century can begin whenever we choose.

(written in Alberta, Canada)

[Originally published in NHS 2003, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs03/katz.html.]