Above Ground Testing
                           Issue Number 1
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Greetings Gentle Reader.  Thank you for your request for AGT #1, the poetry
zine of Paul.  As I am typing this issue, I'm listening to "Sophisticated
Boom Boom", the third disc from RALPH.  If you're not familiar with him,
the group or the zine "Ralph", set your browser for http://www.bongobeat.com,
you won't regret it.  He's a very cool guy from the city of Vancouver, which
is in my estimation, the coolest city in Canada.  
  I should point out, I plan to include a few reviews with this zine, of
web pages and other things which I have seen and either enjoyed or hated.
You can take the reviews or leave them.

However, this is a poetry zine, and you want poetry.  So do I:

"Rage Against the Polemic"

I have seen the 'paradigm shift'
of opinion in all matters;
the propaganda machine of the rich
masquarading as the media.
mind candy for the masses
telling me how to think,
or better yet, to accept their message
portraying the world a dangerous place
with villians and victors
and how much better we are,
because we are not them.
  I have seen my opinion
changing as I change the channel
from anger to indifference
blaming and viewing the same information source.
  could it be,
my anger is contrived
manipulated by others?
 Am I blaming the media
because that's what they want?
 Is ther a way
to step beyond the box
of netly packaged infotainment
and discover for myself
what really is the truth?


"Times"
  There are times,
I have a lot to say
but the words
fail me.
  then there times,
I have nothing to say,
but I'm very articulate.
  then it happens,
when the wondrous happens
and the message is shared
with words that express my
feeling perfectly.


"Going Beyond"
Let me go beyond
the boundaries of my self
to the land
that lies past my image
to travel
  the road not travelled
   but dreamt in many dreams
stretching beyond the current
to the place of future longings
  beyond the limits of now
to the new discoveries
    to experience rebirth
in the same body
  to have true freedom
and not be locked
  by convention and protocol
let me go to the place
  where I shatter self
and renewal becomes the reality.


"Soaring"

Soaring above
  the landscape of my mind
I peer down
  at the relentless bland of reality
  real life trapped
shackled by convention
restrained by the demands of 
    daily existence
I dream of you
     flying with me
in the place where
dreams are formed
in tandem
  with the grace of dancers
in total sympathy.


"Moving Day"
    another box is moved
filled with memories
  memories in the form of 
notes and pictures,
vignetters of my life,
   put away for another day and place.
I read what I have written
  wondering why I put that down on paper
then I sit down for a moment
 and remember that time.


"the cat"
   my cat sleeps
because
  in sleeping
he finds
   his true
meaning for existing.

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Six poems for you to read.
I'm looking for new authors.  If you have anything you want to appear in the
next issue of "Above Ground Testing", send it along.  Iinclude your work 
plus your information.  Let's share our words with others.

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The last poem is dedicated to my cat, Cauliflower.  A black medium length 
cat that has been the companion in my home for the past six years.  He was
freed from the SPCA in Vancouver- a great place to get a pet if you live in
the area.  He personifies what is perfect about life.  He has it down pat.
His greatest search is finding a quiet comfortable place to sleep.  Once he
has found it, he sleeps, and sleeps and sleeps.  There are many days I 
look at that clump of fur and envy him.  You know its a bad day when you
envy your cat.  

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My address is:
pabear_7@yahoo.com

web page 
http://www.angelfire.com/on/abovegroundtesting/index.html