In the Grip

Photo by Riordan Galluccio
I am in the Grip....
The soft lips of silence
Parting
To receive me
The deep longing of reMemberence
Grieves
And delivers the Seething
Wet tip of the daimons
Embrace
Inside this rushing
River
Of Time and Space
As the trip
Within
Begins
Peeling the Skin away
Cracks in the blackened
Facade
Tremble in ecstasy
The Nigredo of
Alchemy
Opening
As two trapped Currents
Seek amnesty
In the Only
Way
That I~s can conceive
Of Uniting
In this Bleeding Dream...
Penetration
Intensity of Consecration...
the Heart
Of the Diamond
Body
Built from the Souls
Transmutation....

Charleen Johnston
10-11-21

Frantic

Frantic. These Antics have got to stop. 
The mirror is clearer when viewed
from the top.
Away I go, only this and
this I know:
the Flowers have the power
that we are looking for!
Count the hours as they
sour until the midnight
moon has bore.....the dream
that seems the same
but in another name, in
another Game....she smiles
still
she smiles
real
she is
Calm Now
by the illusion of Sunset
Clean
by the act of surrender.
Where does the Shadow run to
and where can it hide
when the forces of Mind
have locked it inside?

Mothers hands have been Cleansed
she claims no piece
she wants to be released.

Heathens! We have come from the far corners
of this inevitable world
we have come bearing Gifts
we have come wearing Risks
like the promises
that sink beneath our skin
neglected skin.....lethal doses
of illusionary Sin.

Why have you forsaken me
Master
what have I failed you?
Sweat and tears are only fears
if you can waken
to your Whys.

Peace has come
To this lonely Heart
Shaken from the Waking
but she Always plays her part.
Quietly she has come to you
asking for your hand in Truth
openly she has asked of you
to bury her prayers beneath
your wings
and to be held by the heartstrings
of your wonderings.

Wake up, to your Dreams
and know that they
are more than Seams
…..a place to find your freedom
find your Lore
find and seed them
from your Core
without the separation
without the preparation
without the desperation
we seem to find. Everywhere.

Charleen Johnston
December 2002

Tell me Sweet Love

Photo by Wilfred Hernandez 2011
Tell me, Sweet Love
Where does the Mourning go
when the New Sun ushers in?

These mists fade before my eyes
I am steadied by the cries
of the wild, the untamed
where lie the bones of other days
and other ways.

Fragment by fragment
I put the puzzle together, to gather
the trust and the truth of the
Mother; to feel the looseness
of the spirit when free.

My beautiful one,
where will we lay our heads
when night stalks
the landscape with dreams
and escapades and whisperings?
Where will our feet find rest
beyond the nest
of our own great solitude,
beyond the realm of the
Maddening Moon?

Tender kisses sent like rain
to stain your lips and to flame
your heart,
twas you that broke
the bread, that cried in pain,
that wandered wounded Time
and Again....
sit down. Lay your
weary bones to sleep
and wonder silently of the
beckoning Deep.

Just hold the mirror close to
your Face, every line
and every crease
and every scar have written You
like poetry, played you
harmoniously; See the light
reflecting from your eyes,
penetrating any disguise...
This is where we dwell.
This is where we dwell.

December 5, 2002
Charleen Johnston

The Vestement





The Vestement

I make my way inside, the tomb
and rise
again
from feelings that flew too close
to you,

torn from the womb, tethered hands
sworn to illumine weathered lands

and i crash again
back into
seed

full thrust while blossoms
bleed
life into the few
of the
new breed

that makes its way thru density
seizing sight, thru intensity
of light
that makes it all grow

up and away from the roots that
know...

breaking tearing swearing making
moods that fade too soon
foods that make new moon

out of fragments that form too loose
sometimes

to hold the rhyme inside,
tucked beneath the rising tide
of things we share
and things we hide

waiting for the revelation
to seep up from our pores
into our mind
tending the sores that
stifle the times which await birth
here
in the name of earth
in the name of the mother
in the name of the bearing
and the burdens of Other
ways

to see here, to know here, to feel
hear and peel clear
of stagnant flesh

saturation

the sudden dawning
e v o l u t i o n
and
i n v o l u t i o n

POISED

between worlds in balance
minds of latency
bending and twisting

and T
U
R
N
I
N
G
back
upon
itself

remembering the white shroud which once it wore
swore to remain unstained
but the blackened charred robe of the stars
of the wisdom of moments
tore thru that fantasy
to create a dream
so real
it s e e m s to feel
its own thrust
in the darkness
of the blinding light
beckoning sight
into
existence.

Resistance repeats
cyclic defeats
and victorys

mysterys mana urging us on
toward the breathing pull
of the sun
as it
rocks
a n d
cradles
its child
gently beneath the vestment
of LIFE.

Charleen Johnston 2004

precipice of power

I am perched upon a precipice of power
Am peering patiently into this passing hour
The tocking time that tics up my spine
Staff of sovereignty claiming Heart and mind
Of the fluid and fluctuating seams I was born
Hermes psychopomp between the worlds
I straddle horizons between wake and dream
Am flowing in glowing neural streams
The initiation of Jestation in Times domain
Quicksilver deliverer who delves into Pain
Flow inTense Knowing inSense Saturation
I humbly accept growing adept in Saturns Fixation
Am making my Vow to die in Battle, reborn
The oath of Thoth, from the womb Torn
Messenger who travels thru Linguistic threads
Of synaptic rapture as bliss of bodies embed
Mind and Time and Space and Rhyme
I spin the serpent staffs in waves of Sine
Am oozing thru this glowing glue of fluid truth
The ether twists of Knowing age and youth
Trickster Playing games with pure perception
Who pries open I~s asleep to deception
Sews and grows the stitches and seams
The flowing roads to the richest of dreams
Patterns the passions and purpose and pain
Into Mattered Moments moving thru Veins
Faces and games and containers for rain
And mysteries magic sacred and profane
Names and numbers for all but the One
I am the messenger who delivers the Sun
Am the swift footed father of playful Pan
The temptation of sensation of magic Man
Initiate to mind as it moves thru Ether
Who loosens the noose of Io~s tight tether
Twists the fists with his serpent staves
Matter in patterns of particle and wave
Into lifetimes and light rhymes and bold
Spaces for grace and beauty to unfold
To honor the throne as Jester to the king
Play is the way and light is the plaything
The maze is a stage for unraveling dazed
Neural pathways entwined in minds haze
Codes imploding from outmoded games
Awakening hearts shaken from shame
Within this shared cocreative dance
As the quake of the year breaks the trance
Lunar reflection, the Mage in the mirror
Nodes of infection engage the terror
Square and circle , point and line
The marriage of heaven and hell in time
Spin the wheel and find the center
Of Beings great Beauty, now Enter
Plural passions are all just passing
Roads of fashioned masks of Essence
That make you forget your Eternal Flame
Begin This Moment and ReMember your name
And even the Time of unveiling will Be
End and Beginning, infinitely Free
In joyful prelude to a new swim in the See
Twisting Tendrils of trickster Hermes
Synods of souls Alive in the Flesh
Again and again our minds enmeshed
And I am the psychopomp of pain and play
Again I Am, Jester Gestating the New Day.

Charleen Johnston
12-31-20

First word in each line makes a fractal of my rhyme

MindSight is 2020, Farewell Waker of Beauty

Pssst…..

Pssssst.......you're falling right into the trap

Your tears of. J o y
Dancing. In S t r e e t s

Your perceived high. In tell i gence
You. Are. Clamoring. Inside the ploy
You are Meat for the feast
You dangle

From the Chain of a stopwatch

Toc tic tocking down

The Game. Has just begun
You failed the test
With every attack and fact
Checked

The beast grows larger and swallows you

There are no winners
InDigNations fate is spinning

And you are trapped in the vortex
Of Assimilation at astounding rate

The rage will bleed From
Self proclaimed Victims

And the Agitaters
Will do what they have always done

Incite the Masses
Who cry. Tears. Of. Joy. Now


Tears of terror and hatred later

As the beast they feed within themselves
Turns its ugly head
As the red hand rises
And the fist attempts to strangle

What's left

Of an Organic. Human. heartbeat

And You

Danced in the streets
Believing you defeated the beast

But the Mirror
Of th I
Is terrifying

When you finally look inside

Charleen Johnston 11-8-20

The El & the Mag

Old Art by me

🦂At This Very Moment In Time Space … we are on a Precipice…. The fusion of… distorted versions of Organic/Inorganic ways of Being in this Wor(L)d..

…in the Beginning was the Word…

And the word was With God

……………………………………………………………………(El)

And the Word Was God

And the Spell(inG) was Cast

Over the Mass and Crowds in Vast

PrisMs as the EL⚡️Mag Waters Rise Fast

Within the DeoxyRib.E Oh Defrag the hard.drive

And Fasten your Seatbelts

The Dark Man Dwells

In the Space

We

Circle

Time

(&Time Again)

If you can see the Puer and Senex in the Language of these Dreamings

You are walking the road of deCoding the Anguished tangles of the Seaming Seeds

The El and the Mag(dalene)(netic)(ician)(

Dance dance dance

Break the trance

Wake the snake

That shakes and quakes

Within Matter &

CircumStance

CLJ 11-4-21

Ode to Self Righteousness

everywhere I look, everywhere I see
the darkest of darkness peeking out
from a cracked vessel trying to Be

woman turns on man, sister on brother
pointing fingers gnarled snarls
condemning one another

the great Web, tangled souls, human mess
terrified Minds , shouting mouths
convinced of their own righteousness

lost in the labyrinth of mental tricks
blaming each other for tocs and tics
forgetting that flesh and heart and blood
mean more than media falsehoods

Ideologies and Isms created as schisms
which one do you belong to?
hate your brother your father your mother
unless they agree with you ?

We are all the same here, we are all in the Tear
that falls further each day
from the Eye that seems to look the other way

so close your Screen, stop tapping keys
open your heart, try to see
youve been tricked into hating
your Human Family

As long as the Hatred blinds the Fearer
You are the same as your Neighbor
Staring in the Mirror

“Spy vs. Spy, baby’s a freak show
Lines form just to the right of your keyhole
Eyes from the paintings seem to follow
Mirrors cap both ends of your telescope.”

Charleen Johnston 1/25/17

The Crazies Manifesto

The Crazies Manifesto by Andrea Balt

  1. I will remember what it was like to be born, and all the beautiful things I used to point at before I could speak them. I’ll reinvent curiosity and memorize delight.
  2. I will forgive, because no one survives. I’ll keep the bruises but get rid of the blue. I’ll kiss my Judas back. (I have my own crosses to carry).
  3. I will believe in ghosts and fairy tales. And elves and science fiction. I won’t declare a world impossible until I’ve tried to build it with my hands and when my pulse shakes like a leaf, I’ll say sure, let’s, why not.
  4. I will fight with the sword of my tongue, not my fists. I’ll also fight with my silence and lips. And turn all my blood into metaphor and blossom my way into fierce cherry trees.
  5. I will love like it’s the end of the world and the house is on fire. And if it’s not, I’ll bring the matches. I’ll love even when I don’t, or when I lose, or when love’s fleeting like sunsets or thick like bone or long or heavy or boring like the book I’m never done reading and writing.
  6. I will live every day like it never happened before or like a tune to a song still unwritten. And I’ll record every hour on my face, and in this short-lived human dilemma, I’ll try to be in all my pictures, heartbeats, adventures and wrinkles.
  7. I will dream up my reality. I will not be reasonable or realistic. I’ll write sideways on lined paper and I’ll always put heart over matter and imagination over knowledge.
  8. I will create a thousand planets from scratch and then I’ll add them to the Milky Way so I can help expand the universe. I’ll make up a new language out of dust and come up with a hundred different ways to say your name.
  9. I will be honest rather than loyal. Because to get through the dark forests of life you need a lamp, not a shadow, and trust is not a blind soldier but the soul’s one and only chief of staff.
  10. I will be wild and untamed. I will believe in wolves. I’ll be insane, uncivilized, emotional and personal. And I will take the ring to Mordor even if I don’t know where Mordor is. I’ll be the child I left behind. I’ll be the door and key to me.
  11. And when I come to die, the only thing I will regret is leaving all my stories, unfinished, on your chest. But I should hope to live in such a way, that time would breathe me out and back into your lungs, until there’s no more me or you or words or why.