Paul Portuges

The House That Love Built

I’m happy in the house that love built. our palace of dirt
where roses bloom.
We rise early to chores, admire the sky floating on the bay,
listen to dogs bark at bragging boys drunk with freedom. I
do the dishes, you garden wondering why we get old.
We worry for the hungry, the violated air, the senseless
wars.  Friends called today, gossiped and joked about
closet loves and veiled sorrows. Sparrows hatched in the singing
eaves.
Not sad I can now lay down and go easy into the eternal
dark because this morning In this house of bread and stories
I, suddenly, clear as water, knew the leaky roof, the gift of
sunflowers on the kitchen table, and the breathing music of
our shared lips and hushed tears and cheerful dreams is all
is is.

© Paul Portuges 2014

 Paul Lobo Portugés–reared in Merkel, West Texas, until saved by UCLA, the American Film Institute, and UC Berkeley.  Teaches creative writing at UCSB. Taught creative writing at UC Berkeley, USC, SBCC, and the University of Provence.  Proud father of two sons.  Books include The Visionary Poetics of Allen Ginsberg, Saving Grace, Hands Across the Earth, The Flower Vendor, Paper Song, Aztec Birth, The Body Electric Journal, The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson,Ginsberg:  On Tibetan Buddhism, Mantras, and Drugs (Word Palace Press, 2013), Breaking Bread (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and Mao–1,000 Poems for Revolution (forthcoming).  Poems are scattered in small magazines across the Americas, Europe, and Asia .  Wrote a few films including Jack and Marilyn. Behind the Veil, Shakespeare’s Last Bed, Fire From the Mountain, et al. Poetry videos include To My Beloved, Kiss, The Lonely Wind, Lovers, Of Her I Sing, Fathermine, Stones from Heaven, The Killing Fields of Darfur, Who on Earth, et al. Received awards from the National Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Commission,  The Rockefeller/Bellagio Foundation, et al.