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Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2014

acrophobia (on a painting by Pat Orban)



Painting by Pat Orban



acrophobia


rain bites skin
chills bones

among warm speckled rays
thunder hems & haws    clears its throat of sky

lilac whiffs with languid wind    and that smell
when rain first tames the dust brings me

to who I am (in this cage of dying skin)
the old man rambled    can’t work in the lightening

I had to agree    it was a yellow afternoon
and there is no place better to stand

than where your feet meet the ground
I wouldn’t go up there either

not if I had a say
not now        probably never

Sunday, July 20, 2014

I Shot the Serif (on a painting by Pat Orban)


Painting by Pat Orban



I Shot the Serif

these bricks
I labor to layer
like sturdy scars
imprison me

as certainly as
the runaway train
roaring through my brain
jumps the track of reason

sharp barb lurks in the dark
the point is silence

I move between the taste
of rust and blood

hook slides from jaw
with the simplicity of gravity
I swish free smoothly slipping
beneath the quivered surface

burnt dusk oozes from the eye of night
cloistered with pain and wormy delusion
the dangling trap drifts beyond
I forage shimmering in the infinite dawn

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

universal


seed lit grass

nod in
eager waves
 
bend in
wind
now and again
 
same breath
pulses through
each of us
 
no matter
how old
or alone

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

everyday

everyday we risk
being more fully alive

another flower blooms


Monday, April 29, 2013

wings of haiku


lonely wasted heart
seek your ancient home inside
uncover your joy
 
marble-fisted doubt
open to the shards of glass
diamonds in the light


Monday, February 4, 2013

Love Poem


Think those thoughts not encased in
language even angry dogs understand.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Never Too Old to Slam




Never Too Old to Slam

I'm not too old to slam,
Because I need
Now more than ever
To spill this truth:
The older I am,
The more alive I feel.
I am a tattered
Paradox of passion,
A dying ember
Eager to explode
Into flame.
The anger that has
Raged inside me
For so long now
Holds up a giant,
Final fuck you finger
To the flaccid face of fate,
Raises up its hissing head,
And spits its cobra venom
Into the great sucking
Eye of death.

It's time for me to slam it
Down. I'm finally old enough
To really say what I mean,
And not give a shit what people think.
Look into the mirror of my words.
If you think I'm less than I am,
Because I look older than I feel,
I'm talking to you. There is
Nothing left but the truth.
I tell you this because
I'm done with blame.

Look at me,
And if you see yourself,
It's because we are the same.
I may finish before you start,
But we all run the same race.
For how long or at what pace
Doesn't really matter.
It's the human race,
And we have no choice
But to run and run we do,
And no one running
With their heart open
Ever loses, and no one
Reaching for more
Leaves empty handed,
And not a single stride
Goes to waste.

It's time to get down to it,
Our forever is now and
Forever changing into then.
Nothing you can say
Makes it easier to die.
The truth is simple.
We're lost without love.

As long as I'm alive,
I'll never forgive the greed
That rots our world,
That nips our heels
And turns our Eden
To wasteland,
Nor will ever I abide
The hate that
Rips apart our souls,
If we don't take a stand.

We are a bursting
Supernova of love,
Silhouetted by
The lightening
Of our desire.
When we smile,
We shine more brightly
Than a billion stars.
When we grieve,
It is a hurricane of pain,
A deluge of hurt without end.

My brothers and sisters
Are of all ages.
Together we are more
Colorful than the fish
that glide among the coral,
More tenacious than wild thistle.
Together we wield the power
Of the human heart,
There's nothing more potent,
Nothing we cannot overcome.

I'm not too old or too white to slam,
Because I'm half African,
Half Asian, half Jew, half Arab,
Half indigenous, half developed,
Half wild, half dead, half human,
Half animal, half budding green,
Half dark night,
I am the dawning
Half bright half-light,
My live is more
Than half off over,
But my half-life is infinite,
And I've half a mind
To leave this half assed
Country if there was
Somewhere else I could find
That was half way decent.

No, I'm not too old, too white
or even too straight to slam,
Because I'm half man,
Half woman, half gay,
Half lesbian, half trans,
Half willing, half-witted and halfcocked.

I'm always halfway between
Myself and somebody else,
And always some when
Between now and again
I'm on my way to being me.

Being alive
Is all about connection.
Nothing else matters.
There's nothing evil, nothing
Wrong, nothing about you,
Nothing inside of me,
Nothing human I cannot love.

My brothers and sisters are misters
And misses, and men who love men,
And women who love women, and men
Who were born women and women
Who were born men, and men and women
Who are both or neither a man or a woman,
It makes no difference.
How much I love you
Has nothing to do with your color,
Your gender, your dress,
Who you fuck or how old
You aren't,
But with who you are.
It's all about the joy
Of you becoming you.

I know now I'm not too old
To slam because I still can
See the beauty inside everyone.

I know no matter
What we think we want,
Or how hard we try
To be someone else,
We can only ever be
Who we really are.

I'm not too old
To slam because
I'm not too old to love.

I sit on the ragged
Edge of death's bed.
I blink and gulp the light
Like a goldfish gulps for air,
And decide each morning
To get up and live,
To love and become,
And choose not to
Sleep beyond the darkness.
If my heart is still beating,
I open it.

The longer I live,
The more I have
A need to give.
The more I give,
The more I have
to live for.

I'll never be
Too old to care,
Never too old to slam.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Surfer Girl

Here's the song I wrote in Paul Riesler's Song School class. It was based on the story of another student. We all traded stories and then wrote songs about them. I wanted to try something new and break out of my 12 bar box. Please let me know what you think.

 

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_14337406




Here's the lyrics: 


Surfer Girl

Stay away
Please stay away,
Poison love
kills more each day.
The sea inside
red with pain,
bites her skin,
cuts
through
again.

Stay away.
Please stay away.
Needs your love,
she pulls away.
Dressed in black,
black fingernails,
smeared black lips,
down
she
slips.

Catch the wave
that comes to save.
Learn to ride
that place inside.
Hold the gold,
make it stay.
The surfer Girl
is born today.

On her board
she caught her wave,
matters not
what the ocean gave.
She can fly,
turn herself around,
land like a kiss,
feet
on
ground.

Blackened shell
shed that night,
colors bleed
from broken light,
digs her hand
into the sand,
her aqua eyes,
dance
with
light.

Catch the wave
that comes to save.
Learn to ride
that place inside.
Hold the gold,
make it stay.
The surfer Girl
is born today.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

A Good Frame of Mind: Featured Artist Mark Friedman

A Good Frame of Mind: Featured Artist Mark Friedman

Order any on my work custom printed and framed at American Frame!
http://americanframe.blogspot.com/2012/05/featured-artist-mark-friedman_02.html
Btween now & May 15th get 10% off any prints by using the code "E5A5OFF". Please let me know if you order so I can send you a persoanl thank you!