Monday, January 31, 2011

I Remember


I hated that your hair would sometimes
Fall across your eyes
Getting over it was easy
Because of your smile
You used to laugh at all my jokes
And cry at my sad stories
And tell me at odd times
That you loved me
I’d get sentimental
It would put you off
A little, I think
Sadness reigned when there’d been a quarrel
An oppressing feeling of doom
But it would end so quickly
With those steamy wet kisses
And of course the other
So nice
We were the same people then
We were very different
Look back now and smile
Traipse down memory lane with me
We’ll stumble a bit
Being less nimble these days
But what fun we’ll have
Come here
Look at this picture
See how happy we were
Are
Young lovers
Looking at forever
And seeing only each other
In the next moment to come
Bound to be happy
Filled with each other
Cute names for
Each other
Stories to tell
Fascination with our bodies
My oh my
How time flew

Friday, January 28, 2011

Damn That Sunset


I lost her in the sunset
It was bright red and gold
The death of that love I still feel 
I’ve aged now and can’t get
Her back
She blended with the clouds
That I thought so puffy and nice
Can’t trust
Even the clouds
Where goes the romances
Of yesterday
How does that burning passion
Become a cold cinder
(Little cinder!)
Why did she traipse off somewhere unknown
Never to appear again
When is there ever a chance
To bring back those naked clutching sweaty moments
That see tangled bodies calling out
To each other
How does that all end
Because of the mysteries of 
The dusty
Or muddy
Road to the awful sunset
That took it all away
Damn it!
Not fair
I beg you to let me feel it again
Only this time
No promises
No sunsets
Just forever

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Yes, We Did


I defied the naked moment to trust me again
I tried the limpid fragment to talk of pain
I cried the shining ferment to play in rain
I played the running faucet to gush on same
You laughed the smiling spirt of happy in night
You trampled the grimacing rictus of dawn in flight
You called the dancing clowns of every other sight
You bothered the happy laughter of long lusty might
We married the other to make sure that all was ever right

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Play With Us


Clusters of colors
Rhyming with rainbows
Bombastic fantastic singers and lovers
Warm bodies playing under the covers
The long easy road of happy dances
Everyone boldly taking some chances
The loud and the silly 
So pretty so frilly
We wander the mazes of our minds
Discovering some incredible finds
Sunny foggy rainy we don’t care
Indoors or outdoors we’ve got plenty to spare
The rumbling
The tumbling
The outrageous honking
Illustrative
Creative
Native spelunking
On it goes day after day
Come with us come with us come out and play

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Little Girl Lost


She wears cynicism like a large cape
It swings from her freely
But hugs tight around her neck
She festoons her life with emptiness and doom
Never believing in possibilities
Her cups aren’t merely half full, they are brimming
Brimming with the fullness of losses
The surety of nothing ever (so stark an image, I know)
No cuddliness for her
Nothing soft or warm
A reptilian existence of scaly slimy conceit
She is still but a teenager
How did her wiring make her so resilient to love?
What took away her soft innocence in toto?
Replacing it with all hard edges
Sex will only ever be a physical release
Dependent on detaching mind and emotion from the act
Pleasures are not to be savored
They will suffer later from harsh critiques
Ultimately mocked and abused
Memories will endure the same fate
Save those of loss, hurt and loneliness
Those will be her treasures
Go ahead, try to save her
She’ll not have it
Welcome to her angst

Monday, January 24, 2011

That’s Me


That’s me over there
The fellow dipping chips into salsa
The salsa is in the little blue bowl
It’s not as spicy as I like it so I’ve added tabasco sauce
Sure tastes good
I enjoy a snack at the computer sometimes
Am careful not to get any food on the keyboard
I’m doing my usual web searches (having already read my email)
There are sport stories about angry men complaining
There are news stories about angry men complaining
There are message boards where angry men post complaints
There are also games one can wile away precious minutes playing
There are pictures of pretty girls (some behaving quite naughtily)
I think that a lot of angry men look at them to feel better after all the complaining they do
You can also watch movies on the internet
Fun!
You can also buy things
So easy
The internet makes life so much easier
Reduces how much time we have to interact with each other
It’s so much easier than it used to be to find out what people are angry about
Plus you can get real values on books
Of course if you have a locally owned bookstore its better to patronize it
I try to
It would also be nice if we didn’t avoid interacting with each other quite so much
You’ll notice I’m gobbling up the chips
There’s no one else home so my manners aren’t what they should be
I don’t eat a lot of junk
Besides I go to the gym and work out every other day
I read a lot 
I don’t eat meat
I rarely vent my anger on the internet or anywhere else
No, I don’t keep it bottled up inside
I try to write about it or discuss it dispassionately
Helps
I’m as far from perfect as you can get
But I’m okay
That’s been me at the computer enjoying some chips and salsa

Friday, January 21, 2011

Fantasy


Garbo
Harlow
Maybe even Clara Bow
On the Spanish main
With the lovely Miss Joan Fontaine
Dietrich
Stanwyck
Fast forward to Grace Slick
Kicking up some sand
With Miss Olivia DeHavilland
Garbo
Harlow
Oh what joy
There’s Myrna Loy
I see that mover and shaker
Named Josephine Baker
Now trying to get nearer
To Norma Shearer
Want to have some fun
With Ms. Irene Dunne
Garbo
Harlow
I’m under the spell
Of Joan Blondell
Then on to Jeanne Moreau
Now moving faster
In pursuit of Mary Astor
Please cut me some slack
I’ve fallen for Ann Dvorak
Moving heaven and earth
For Rita Hayworth
Garbo
Harlow
Oh oh oh

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Kids Today


Ill mannered louts
Rude and crude
Loudly profane
Some barely sane
Respecting nothing
Least of all themselves
Throwing, chewing
Angrily spewing
No ambition or hope
On a downward slope
Lazily cussing
Over minutiae they’re fussing
Readily fighting
Scratching and biting
Destined for defeat
Sad fates they will meet
Mourn them in advance
They’ve nary a chance
So weep for these young
At the bottom of the rung
If you can hear yourself
Over the din of their crying rage

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tim

Bye old friend
You were taken too soon
Sad that I never really expressed
How much I liked you
Will miss you pal
We had lots of good chats
You were smart and funny
Friendly to all
Seemed to know everyone
And care about them
You had passion and humor
Most admirable qualities
You'll have many mourners
Because you touched so many lives
Thanks for your time here
You made the most of it

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Hungry Man

The hungry man has not time for questions
Other than perhaps:
Spare change
Got any jobs
May I have some
The hungry man cannot ask why
Or how come
The hungry man has no time for philosophy
Not when the stomach grumbles
The hungry man seeks food 
Not truths
How lucky to have the luxury
To ask the existential
How fortunate to find the time to ponder
The imponderables
Such as why are others hungry
The hungry man cannot idle away time wondering
No debates
No parleys
No discussions
He must feed himself and perhaps a family
So it is that we are lucky
Not to be the hungry man
Luckier still if we can feed him

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Way It Has To Be

Take it off the grandstand
Put it on the floor
Leave the melancholy meanderings for another day
Let them file away the night
Please don’t cause a stir
There’s enough nonsense to keep up with
You can’t be everything to everyone
Be satisfied with what you have, where you are
Don’t go there, just don’t
I’ll take the esoteric for you and boil it down
No troubling distressed minds with left hooks of wonder
We’ve all got time enough now for the nonsense
Don’t displace the rotting boards
We’ll collapse just fine, thank you
There’s so much yet to be undone
Who can bother
If ever there was a time
It’s not now

Friday, January 14, 2011

It’s Not East Being Here

Can you come down off your high horse
Elevated as you are
Come watch us toiling in the fields
See how we struggle each day
To put food on your table
And scraps on ours
Oh wont you listen to our cares
No need to act
Just consider what we go through
It’s not easy being down here
You have it all up there
Odd that you should complain about responsibilities
Strange that you find so much to complain of
When it is we down here who are so poor
We worry about survival
We are hand to mouth
You are bank to bank
You on your high horse surveying us
Is there some reason you feel superior
Besides your wealth
And what of it anyway
You did not come by it through your own labors
Born to it, you were
Do we resent you
Are we angry
No, we only ask a small share
Enough to keep us happy and free from cares
Go, go on your trips
Drive, drive your many cars
Live, live in your mansion
That’s okay
We don’t want to take that away from you
We just want enough
If you got down off that horse maybe you’d see what we mean
Come on, we won’t bite

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Question Man

For what is a man if not his will?
What is a woman if not the change she seeks?
These questions agonize us
Yet we go on oblivious to the pain of unanswered questions
There is hope in this
As there is in the lazy afternoons spent with tea and company
Perhaps a favorite author
A director
A musician
Or better yet, far ranging conversation with a true friend
Best of all a lover and the delights thereto
We may satisfy ourselves on certain points
Dwell not on the unknown my young friends
But ignore them at your peril
The unexamined life is not worth ignoring
To turn a phrase
Play with words
They are adroit, quite flexible
The perimeters we put up for them are false
Truth is in our usage
Gain is there
Questions lead to more questions
And this is good
There is no end
Only more beginnings
Live life anew
Breath heartily
Think constantly but not always (?)
Lead a life worth talking about
Lead a life worth hearing about
Challenge yourself and others
To be the better angel residing within us all
Sage advice, me thinks

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Trickle For Us?

Hello rich people
How are your tax breaks?
Is too much money enough for you?
Is there nothing else we can do for you?
Perhaps less regulating
Then you’ll enjoy true freedom
We’ll just have to trust you to do the right thing
The important is that you get what you need
Please, if you can, we just ask one thing:
Trickle down a little bit to us
We’d really appreciate it
In any case we’ll continue to smooth the way for you
Provide for you
Look after you
Make sure that the luxurious is luxurious enough
You deserve the very best
We prostrate ourselves before you
Least we can do
Please enjoy your money
In any way that you want
If we can figure out how to relieve even more of your tax burden
We will
Better yet, if you come up with something
We’ll rubber stamp it
We cool?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Holy Night

O holy nights of laughing joy
Dancing crying spinning glee
The rapid rises of tremulous cries
Let’s embrace as if forever
We know one another and thus do care
These wondrous gatherings in fields of snow
Ever parading stars glimmering the lust of our youth
Never letting go of the truth within our interminable kiss
We can find no better expression of pristine innocence
Then to be together in this speak lively place
The deathly dust will be no more
The new dynasty will be one of hope
And the gliding moon will circle our hearts
So that no one can doubt
The eternity
Of
Our
Desire
(Now onwards

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Amazing and Awful

I’ve been battered and beaten and left for dead
You’ve stomped on my grave and screamed my name
I have withstood this and risen, grabbing the shovel from your hand
You’ve gaped in awe at my resurrection
Only to swing a bloody axe at my poor head
Never will I suffer worse
But always will I rise again 
I have a soul that can withstand all your vile putrid hate
You may slay the body all you like and I know you like to slay the body
I return in full form
The amazing and awful
The truly spiritual
Bring your simmering boiling rage
Reign it upon me
I will spit in the eye of all the manifest destruction of your wasted anger
And be here smiling
Promise

Friday, January 7, 2011

Lead us to Forever Places

Ghastly
The comings and goings of the little feet
Propelled by motors of whimsy
Flying past the dust motes and defying the logic of ages
All encompassing rock formations of pink hearts
The enduring sadness of the old man on the corner
Offsetting some of the cacophonous debates in my inner mind
Roaring, poking, lunging fires of the belly
Beasts of care not stopping for anything
Not even the sound of Eden can interrupt the flow of brain traffic
The saplings reach out to us as we busily careen around
Towns and villages are places to stop as muddy country roads
Lead us to forever places
There’s no getting around the laughter of huckleberry bushes in full bloom
So we dive headlong into the mirth
Not stopping for cadences or the rapture
Too busy to notice the blooms of the hydrangea bushes
Or the up-shooting of the limbs of destiny
We are what we always wanted to be
The children of calamity making Sisyphus turn back
O! We’re such a caution
Let’s celebrate, shall we?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Same Again, Please

I’ve written this poem before
I scribbled these words previously
And this ain’t no deja vu
I’m repeating myself
Going in circles
Chasing my tail
I’ve penned these lines in the past
They came out just the same
I’ve nothing new to add to them
My inspiration dried up
It’s with the tumbleweeds now
Gone
So repetitive, so true to the long ago
You want the new
The fresh
Creativity springs forth creating the unseen
The unheard the unknown
Not the tired and true
I’ve written this poem before
And I’ll write it again
Maybe tomorrow
Maybe next week
You’ll read it and like it
I know I will
This is a well trodden path
The familiar, the easy
Catch me if you can -- it’s easy

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Don’t Look Now

Watch the dancer leap
Look at the man drive the stake into the muddy ground
See the squirrel carry the nut away
Explore the visions in your mind
Wonder at what each is about
Contemplate the true meaning of the colors
Think about it
You’ll go
Insane
Utterly mad
Wrestling with demons
The temerity of the anguished thinker
The pure crystalline lunacy of thought
Don’t you dare
Don’t look at the notes of the trumpet
Don’t debate the falling leafs
Don’t eat the rain
You’ve got work to do
Places to go
Appointments to keep
There’s nothing to be gained by the arcane
Knowledge is death
You’ve only got to be
Keep breathing
Leave that brain alone
It’s purely functional
(Or did I really mean fictional)
Pray tell
The smells of the poems will get to you
Just as perfect prose will elude you
So just stop
You’re not alone in this
Hey! See the cloud formation?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Kathryn

You shocked me woman
Like gossamer
Desperately lost in your brown eyes
Swallowed whole and loving every minute
Developing a passion for your swaying hips 
Kindly caressing moments of rapture
Knowing that nothing
-- not even a porcelain sky --
is as stunning as you
Trying for modes of expression created out of the sands
Settling for grunts and groans of wolfish love
Insensible to your tidal waves
Trying to find the long lingering moments when smiles reign
Easing my way past golden horizons
They simply pale before you
I’m smitten by the tender clouds of grace
Teeming with sufferable strains of love’s intent
I cry out for you
Blessed be me that you are here
What a miracle that I may be worthy

Monday, January 3, 2011

Woman on the Subway

Stood next to a woman on a subway train
She was every girl I had a bad relationship
(When I was young(er))
Pretty in a way that would grown on you
An “interesting” look that quickly evolved into beauty
Gorgeous green eyes
Self-assured, smart, but oddly pensive
Casually attired
Of medium height with short hair and tight jeans
Wearing a practical knit green hat
Something missing, a little off
She’d been visited by a some ill fortune
Left scarred and searching for answers
Settled for lovers who could hurt her
Not time for sweet guys like me
Once we proved ourselves gentle we were of no use
Makes quick decisions yet not impulsive
Back in my single days I’d have said something cute to her
Would have arranged to meet for coffee
Quick clutching grabbing romance rich in passion
Ending quickly, my heart torn asunder
She’d say she was sorry
Would sense she only half was
I’d get over her quickly only because
I’d meet her doppelganger a month later
Who are these mystery women
What do they search for
Do they find it
I know why we are taken in by them
Enticing, alluring, and we’re sure we can fix them
Life is rich