Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It Happened

The isthmus of my mind
Trailing off to nowhere real
Thoughts of yesterday
The gone, gone look 
Of everyone else
It was a simple time
But nothing effective
Except when the pain settled in
I’d been bereft
But found that with you
There was a way
I trailed off somewhere
But came back
I never realized
Yes I did
I knew it all along
Those simple answers
Were perfectly suited to
Your complicated questions
And I drove myself to think
How easy it all was
Now I’m positively bursting
With all that happened then
I was so young
And old
All at once
But my mind had no age
It just had now
And then
And everything in between
So long ago was right now
Just like that

Monday, August 30, 2010

My Story

I created a story of sentences

Of glories both real and assumed
I conjured from my imagination
My madness was thus resumed
I made it all up from thin air
Though most of it really occurred
These images now so clear
Had once been fuzzy and blurred
I was the voice of a generation
I was the overnight sensation
I created a story of words
Of events entirely from my head
I made up men and women
Some lived on and some that were dead
It was all of a single purpose
No greater good did I actually seek
I wanted to pocket fame and riches
I wanted to live like a sheik
I was the voice of a generation
I was the overnight sensation
I created a story of chapters
Some too short and some too long
I then waited for you to praise me
Whether in word or in deed or in song
I yearned for life to be easy
No effort did I want to exert
I wanted it all so simple
Eschewing any sacrifice or hurt
I was the voice of a generation
I was the overnight sensation

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Macho Head Games

Macho head games
Are easy to play
Just be a jerk and you’ll be okay
Being tough is simple
No thinking need be done
Be the toughest man 
And presto you have won
Don’t take crap from anyone
Stand up for you big guy
If someone gets on your nerves
Poke em in the eye
Macho head games
Are a simple thing to do
Kick some ass 
Shove some people
Just be you
Love is for wusses 
And fairies and for queers
Real men are fighters 
Who drink a lot of beers
Be a man of action
Waste no time on thought
Any battle worth fighting
Is one that should be fought
Come on Mr. Macho
Step right up and brawl
See that punk over there?
Slam him against the wall
Macho head games
Are easy to play
Do it, do it, do it
Right now, right now
Today!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Listen!

Don’t
Don’t say a thing
Leave it be let them sing
You cannot hold them back
Those voices are too strong
To even try to do so
Simply would be wrong
Their melody is precious
It’s of a special kind
No truer voices will you hear
No bolder will you find
Yes they come from long ago
From humans long since dead
But pay attention to every word that’s said
Many would suppress them
Or ask you not take heed
But their eternal wisdom is something that we need
Do not stay their call for compassion
Their pleas for love and giving
Oh much kinder they are then those who are yet living
They are heroes from history
The likes of Gandhi, Lincoln and King
We should listen to their message
We should let their voices ring!
No it is the hateful we should shun
The bigots we should scorn
Let us hear the message of peace finally be re-born
Don’t
Don’t say a thing
Let them rise
Let them be
Let their voices out
Let them free

Friday, August 27, 2010

Smiling Faces

Nice people
Warm handshakes
Friendly greetings
Ready with a smile
Have a slice of pie
Hospitable
Give you the shirt of their back
God-fearing church goers
Praise be
Same folks who
Hate
The immigrants
The gays
The elite
Not crazy about the Jews
Or Blacks
(But they don’t say it out loud, you know)
Who needs their fat, smiling faces
If behind them is so much
Bigotry
Intolerance
Ignorance
???
I sure don’t 

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Addiction

Flying death to astound you
Leaping in rivers of moss
Understanding your addiction
But letting it ride
High on the everything
Taking whatever you can
Consequences are for later
Someone else’s problem anyway
Digging the lights of the city
Confused about what are the stars
Raising a ruckus over kismet
You need the break anyway
There’s little to be said for the others
What would you if even you could
There’s a mouthful of regret in the bushes
But none in you heart or your hand
She’s sitting right there next to you
So you reason it must be okay
But she’s a mirror to your soul
And your soul is another county now
The driving of bushels of candy
Into the beatings you took and you gave
You lie awake wondering
But there’s nothing left to think
You’ve used up all your lives
An you’re not even a cat

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Probing Tongues

(The following poem is rated PG-13)
Probing tongues are quite nice
To kissing they add much spice
To lovers getting quite cozy
Nothing else is quite so rosy
Hugs and smooches are to be lauded
But probing tongues loudly applauded
Limiting kissing to just the lips
Is like love making using only hips
Tongues cause quite the sensation
As a prelude to penetration
So remember to open wide
Let your tongues get out and glide
Let them exam and let them probe
And for Gods’ sakes you’ve got to disrobe!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

You

Though insipid and invasive
You could also be persuasive
You taught me how to appreciate
The joys of loving not to hate
Your moods were not reflective
Never thoughtful no perspective
But your talk of life was thrilling
As secrets you were spilling
I hastened always to your side
Though my true feelings I did hide
My respect was never forthcoming
Because your banality could be numbing
Twas your easy charm won my heart
And affection was your art
Yes you were absent originality
But you were always special to me
Perhaps I’ll miss you after all
Your mind is tiny but your heart quite tall

Monday, August 23, 2010

I Love You, Myrna Loy

Who’s that?
Who’s there?
Who’s trying to get in?
The black and white beginnings
Of films from classic eras
Are the reason not crucial
Just now that they are here
The stars fill the screen
Don’t weep
Rejoice and
And
So you settle into the story
The camera
How it draws our attention
To the ordinary
In a different way
How fun
Who’s there now?
Does it really matter?
Just go on with it
Don’t stop it now
The quips are flying fast
The delights are evident
And the characters sip their cocktails
And I my iced tea
Who’s there?
Is it anyone?
Perhaps everyone
Perhaps I’ll forget it and just watch
This wonderful film
I love you, Myrna Loy
How I wish you were here
Instead of just me
And that infernal confusion
About who’s there and why
I like it here with you
In this movie, Myrna
Don’t ever leave me

Sunday, August 22, 2010

My Walk

I walked among the tall concrete today
I strolled down streets with nothing to say
I looked at houses, looked at trees
I offered friendly greetings to lions and bees
To your house I walked just to say hello
You offered warm greetings but then had to go
I walked among the billowing asphalt today
I meandered down paths with nothing to say
I looked at people, dogs and cats
Some of these creatures tipped their hats
To your lovely abode I headed right quick
But you couldn’t chat having gotten quite sick
I walked among the wafting pavement today
I moseyed down streets with nothing to say
I looked at the sun and clouds up high
I emitted a chuckle, a yawn and a sigh
To your chalet I strode to pass the time
But you’d gone to the country seeking mountains to climb
I walked today in many directions
Though sad to say I made no connections

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Reminisce

Let me know when you get here
Give me a call and we’ll meet
Maybe we’ll have coffee or something to eat
Let me know when you’re next in town
It would be nice to see you and talk
We’ll have some coffee and go for a walk
It’ll be great to get together again
To catch up and re-live times gone by
Recall what we used to be like and the reasons why
So call by all means
I’ll be around some days and most nights
We’ll hook up and go see the sights
Let me know when you get here
Don’t forget
Call, you bet

Friday, August 20, 2010

My Posthumous Glory

My posthumous glory
Made for quite a story
It was told far and wide
With fondness and pride
These stories did regale
Enjoyed by all without fail
What a great source of pride
If only I’d not died
This would have provided such pleasure
That I would forever treasure
Bowing to one and all
None knowing of my fall
Only my glories remembered
All failures dismembered
My life they did celebrate
I guess I really was great

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Best of Times

Late afternoon on a wintery Wednesday
Gray and drizzly
Coming home
Fireplace is roaring
Tea kettle whistling
Cat curled up on a child’s lap
Once inside the rain starts heavily outside
Slippers
Light piano jazz 
My beloved in her robe
She’s just out of the shower
Tender hug
Long contented sigh

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

That Oughta Do It

Longer school years
Longer school days
Inspirational names for schools
Divide big schools into small ones
Give students rewards for doing what they’re supposed to
Put up pennants from various colleges
Teach according to State Standards
Scrutinize and evaluate teachers more carefully
Provide more culturally sensitive materials
Create teaching teams
Use a lot of inspirational slogans and quotes
Tinker with grading systems
Integrate technology into lessons
Create discipline steps
Post standards
Post learning targets
School uniforms!
Viola!
Achievement gap closed
Everyone smarter
Problems solved

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

That Face

Look at the face of oppression
America
Look it square in the eye
Don’t be afraid to face it
Come on and look, don’t be shy
Look at the face of oppression
America
Have you considered it’s awful greed
Have you ever seen its contorted rage
Do you see it grows like a weed
Look at the face of oppression 
America
How cloaked it is in good will
How proper seem its motives
How costly is its bill
Look at the face of oppression 
America
Your search needn’t be a mystery
It’s all written down for you
Just look at your own history
Look at the face of oppression
America
And this is the last that I’ll say
As awful as it has been
It’s still in the mirror today

Monday, August 16, 2010

Tis I

The donut quivered in the midnight sun
The burden of its dreams
Were twisting this sad and lonely one
And echoing all its screams
If only release could be found
If the journey to nowhere
Were not just round and round
Then it wouldn’t care
Oh how apathetic it’d been for oh so many years
Through so much pain and sorrow
It drank away its fears
For surely all that liquor
Had made these disappointments
Disappear so much quicker
And in this aching life of denial
With spirits oh so handy
A way of standing every trial
Could be found in so much brandy
The donut longed to live life over
Blessed with all the luck
Every charm every four leaf clover
Would rise it above the muck
The wanting of another life was the cause of so much pain
Was it any wonder
That it’d nearly gone insane
Quivered it did so beaten by it all
But the unrelenting midnight sun
Was not real, not at all
And it was not a donut 
Just a man like you and me
Check that, not like you, for truly it was me

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Big Buffoon

The big buffoon
Loves the sound
Of his own voice
No one else does
Pontificates pedantically
Talking in circles
No point but to do it
Makes enough sense
To sound important
Just pompous and posing
Idiot
Draws people in saying a lot
People listen
But it’s all like empty calories
The time waster

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Inventions

Re-inventing the wheel
Is something I happen to feel
Is best not done too often
Or one’s brain begins to soften
Better to make something brand new
Create a new thing or idea or two
Wheels we’ve got plenty of
Besides they’re nothing to love
How about something to cuddle
Something simple and oh so subtle
Create something we can celebrate
Something adorable would be just great
Wheels are functional it’s true
But I really expect more from you

Friday, August 13, 2010

When it Got Noisy -- The Possibility of Eden

There was noise in the streets in
The action time of the 1960’s
People wanted real change
Not the slogan kind
They wanted
They insisted upon
Better for all
Skin, gender, orientation
Shouldn’t matter
There was supposed to be peace
And we all said: Let’s have it
By God!
It was okay to be young
Cool was not just for movies
We stood up said
Count us
Listen man
We have stuff to say
So it was to the streets to say it
We mattered and new it
Generations changing in the blink of an eye
Liberation of all kind
Demands
Protests
Our ever-lovin’ best efforts to make it
And to make it
All better
Had to shout to be heard
We sang too
A new sound
Bold meaningful and yet so pretty too
Like us
We believed
We’d looked into our minds and seen
The possibility of Eden
Taking off the suit and tie
Letting down our hair
Just to be us
Who we wanted to be
And we wanted to be part of
The change that was a comin’
So to the streets
Shouting for what we wanted
That’s when it got noisy
Brother

Thursday, August 12, 2010

I’ve Seen

The purple side of Paris
I’ve seen it nights and days
The dancing of the spoons
I’ve enjoyed in different ways
The light of a crimson moon
Has made me like to swoon
The smell of brackish nouns
I’ve experienced in many towns
I’ve loved the look of lavender
The odor of I’ve not yet spent
And on my weekly calender
Has been many a lovely scent
You see my mind has many facets
Does tricks I like a lot
My brain uses all its gaskets
Without benefit of pot
Rhyming is too easy
Whether healthy or a bit sneezy
But warm water spelunking
Is nothing like jazzy dunking
So I tamper with green-eyed pockets
And listen to faith-based rockets
And when I sleep my dreams
Are of you wearing only lockets

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Dance of Delicacy

The dance of delicacy
The twirl of the rhombus
The backward swaying of 
Your heart and mine
The sublime
We live and laugh and love
And go
Through the motions of our emotions
To the big to and fro
We learn lessons best forgotten
We create and never hate
There’s something delicious about
Prancing in the plants 
Our movements have their own special appeal
I love being part of your exploration
Into the dances of delicacy
It sums up all that is mighty and right
So let it ride my friend
Let it ride

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

That One

Oh she had moves all right
That one
The way her ass swayed
She was cute
That one
Face of an angel
Legs from here to way way over there
A body that couldn’t have been sculpted
To be more perfect
And when she smiled...
At you?
Forget it
The hook was in even if
She didn’t want what she was catching
That one
A light, lilting laugh
A practiced innocence that
Alternated
With a come hither look
That...Oh I can’t say
But suffice to say
I say
That one
She could have what she wanted
No need for long talks
What’s to get to know?
You just wanted to be with her
Be seen, then later unseen
Alone
Question: At what point did it matter
That there was no there
There?
How long could you feel empty with
That one
Oh she had it all
As long as you didn’t want anything

Monday, August 9, 2010

All My Apocalypses are Broken

All my apocalypses are broken
Shattered and on the ground
The horrible endings of my world
Are nowhere to be found
The terrible devastation reigning from above
Has somehow disappeared
Replaced, it seems, by love
The wicked armageddon
Has died a quiet death
And with it simple joy
Comes with my every breath
I don’t know what stilled the destruction
Why peace reigns supreme
I hope this paradise I live in
Is more than just a dream
I long to share this joy with every soul I meet
I wish that they could understand
The blessings of catastrophe’s defeat
I call now to all of you, be you friend or be you foe
It’s time you told calamity
It’s time for it to go
But do not try to defeat the abyss with anger or with hate
Perdition’s defeat can only come
When violence does abate
All my apocalypses are broken
Shattered and on the ground
And now my exultation is unbound

Sunday, August 8, 2010

It Started on a Train

I caught the last train from Swansea
On my way to the big city
There was a tentativeness to the brunette
Sitting across from me
She was reading WH Auden but sneaking peaks
At me, by God
I offered a smile
She did likewise but went back to her poetry
I pretended to read the Times
Crossed her leg and grazed me
Excuse me
S’right
More smiles
Finally the conversation started
Flirting more like it
I liked her
Everything
The lipstick that matched her scarf
The scarf that matched her lipstick
Her shape
The purr of her voice
We exchanged contact information
Boldly I kissed her goodbye when
At last we parted
I fantasized about her for days
Finally we met again
Dinner, the theater, passion
But separate ways soon beckoned
We met others
I really liked her but that’s the way
It goes
And it all goes

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Who Are You?

Are you your job
A push button, a knob
Are you what you do for pay
Is life for you your working day
Are you a doctor, lawyer, engineer
Is just being you something you fear
Are you part of the machinery
Not awake to life’s scenery
Don’t you know what’s in your heart
Don’t you know what sets you apart
Don’t you want to explore your mind
Sample life, see what you find
Don’t you want to take a risk or two
Look at the everyday as something new
You can do it you know you can fly
You owe it to yourself at least to try
Don’t be just another spoke
Come on fella it’s time you woke

Friday, August 6, 2010

Hate the diet coke culture

Hate the diet coke culture
Fat guys in shorts and sandals
Watching American Idol
Tubs of pop corn bought during movies
Using the internet to spew racism
Gossiping about co workers
Agonizing over trivialities
(While)
Simplifying the complex
Gas guzzling cars driving two blocks
Public transportation cut some more
Plastic cups
Beer commercials (no one fat there)
Advertising
Loud music booming out of cars
Cars with patriotic bumper stickers
More and harsher punishment as the answer
Resentment over social services
Making taxes the ultimate evil
Blaming the victim
Sequels, sequels, sequels
How many calories can we stuff down our fat faces
Wretched excess
Overrated lists
Being told to get over it
Yuck!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Cynic’s Dance

Being a cynic is easy
Choose it and life is breezy
Deny, reject, just say no
Negativity is the way to go
It’s bunk! It’s lousy! It’s a sham!
Whatever it is you don’t give a damn!
Don’t bother believing or even trying
What’s the point, we’re all dying
Hope, faith, belief are too hard
Better be tough don’t let down your guard
Nothing will get better, but what’s it to you?
You’ve taken the easy way out -- yahoo!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Groovin’

Long naked Sundays
Wrestling with the floor
Finding I can’t replace
The girl who lived next door
Betting on the ponies
Is something I never did
I guess I was just too busy
Exploring my ego and id
The tapping on the window
Of a women most forlorn
Should have clued me in to realize
There were reasons I’d been born
Camping in the backyard
On stars and moon so bright
Caused a wonderful sensation of wonder
And a sense that all was right
The laughing from the pool hall
And the battering of the ram
Are clearly signs of bliss
And a confidence in who I am
So I return to my youthful visions
Of a world that must improve
I decide it’s high time
That I get into the groove