October 21, 2008

this just doesn't have
the same feel as a typewriter,
soft keys
that earl wild (or, (insert
another pianist to your liking here)
if you got 'nother loud one
like rubenstein or
ashkenazy or
horowitz or
eschenbach or
barenboim,
please keep 'em going)
can drown out.
i used to ash all over
my old '54 underwood
after high school while
a cigarette dangled 
by my dry lips
and listen to something classical
that was new to me
and pretend i were at the piano,
but with mad sentences
and a disregard for syntax.
there's not enough
intellectual noise in america
(well, the world as well,
but i am here (and also there)),
not enough passion.
i miss the bang of the keys
on the underwood
and the fresh paper
like writing it first hand,
but with that hard print
of energy and satisfaction -
watching the smoke just
drift
over the words
(like having a heavy conversation
in winter
and steadily watching
the heaviness of breath
lingering with righteousness
and a continuity)
and non linear connections
into that
satisfyingly depressing
room; it was all there
with an answer
and it didn't matter at the same time.

October 16, 2008

what the peach was . . .

sketches of insects
sweating off the wallpaper -
there is a scratch on my face
that, in a mirror,
looks as absurd as a cartoon cloud
drowning in the waters.
under the floor boards
the sketches sit,
unreleased,
(unvisualized)
with all the stories
been sweating through the cracks
and missed
by the uncaring observer;
just over the church steeple
and the rooster before light,
reality kept moving
without consequence
and the momentum of a child
with stairs on a dream.
when in the middle,
the dream and reality were clear
(as were the nonsense and
imperfection).

October 13, 2008

10/10/08 7:28pm

staccato beat
drum line bass,
surrender arms down
in time.
find it now,
mo reasoning,
no consultation -
stick it to the lottery,
chances are a stone;
chances are
you never found the chime
in existence,
the right beat
or pitch to sell
what it was worth ~
an ambient tribal escape.

the hot dog is $3,
the gas is $50,
your rent is demanded
in hundred dollar portions
by a woman grinning
at the teeth.
make it up,
"i got off at the wrong
train stop
and some motherfucker
with a monkey on his arm
got my wallet."
sweaty lips
gnarling at the birds,
lose time in a tunnel
and find the basics -
fundamental offbeat
originality
that'll pay the bills;
tell the bitch
you found god
and that all will come
in clear time.
back to the beginning,
steady,
louder,
repetition broken
and done up
out of the sunday dress -
find it,
find the excitement
out of the trouble,
slide it closer
and do something new

a woodblock in the door
keeping solitude,
keeping the foot
slid ahead the other
as you lean back
still awaiting, consciously,
to have to stand
and give your defense
when god didn't
come and give you the answer.

October 10, 2008

art and scientology

face smudged behind
lines,
no continuity -
no start or process,
just somewhere behind
the obscure clouds
a chalk board
and a god
with a thousand eyes
as omniscient as
a
theomorphic 3 year old
with a crayon.

a stick.

melted wax.

an oil mix.

a dirty finger and pastel.

a red truck
to roll over ants.

a funny symbol
resembling a crucifix.

a MEST concept
and a thetan
auditing around campfire.

no!
go back to the books.
only black and canvas
for this child interpretation.

October 6, 2008

next to the beginning

back,
all the way in the back -
a
lonely sock
in the underwear drawer.
shades are drawn ,
pretty girl sleeps in dark;
a muffled voice (like the one in the auto shop)
speaks under pillows. no, it's me.
bare feet on wood floor
time to wash the morning sweat

it all sticks,
darkness, vague light
cr
ack from
upper window
still like dust in doorway
waiting for the dance to open.

October 3, 2008

the right place, or whatever they want to judge you for

down marian st.
(feeding the lady with brown bag,
covered in rhine stone
and other vulgarities)
there stands a fountain
among an old world feel -
cobblestone and electricity -

occasionally there are children playing.
dipping feet into sublime distraction
it turns over a ruffle or so
cascading onto wealthy shoes;
aeolus, with dry
time to find,
knows it is no place for a bathing suit.

9/26/08 11:56PM

there is a way to
enter your tongue into a sentence.
not a way of care or concern,
but a way of clarity;
controversy is inevitable,
a steady tongue is intellectual.
one must possess both
intellect and clarity
(books have no intellect,
originality is intelligence)
to mean anything
and understand nothing.
in the end
a sentence has been punctuated,
a thought has been made known
and a conclusion is no more finite
than the words and the flies
sitting at a wall of humanity
arguing which is the best way
to pass through;
which is the best way
to brush people aside.

someone's happiness

i sat in the soft glow of the train stop
behind graffiti that just screamed
and didn't actually say anything,
many strange smells caught me
as this man in filthy shirt and ripped jean
endlessly played an imaginary drum -
he played it so hard that his pants
had begun to slip off without him noticing it;
(i don't think his boxers had been washed,
i think they were supposed to be white,
but they were so long with
the filth and excrement of time
that there was only a faint resemblance
to that of its pure and original make.)
he was playing as if it were
the most important show he'd given in years,
there was someone to impress,
someone to move with swift hands
and bury the embarrassment he was now living.
his fingers were callous and rough,
course from hitting the air so hard
in his cyclical four movement passage.
his right hand began to cramp up
and was followed by a whimper and a long sigh ~
something had set in where he realized that
he wasn't the man he once was,
he lived off the worlds left overs
and could only make music with the air,
but at least he often forgot.

like opening a stale bag of chips

this red brick damper
to a pink cloud, fairy
in embryo dancing to explode;
bleeding black death tree
in the foliage, in the flaccid
limb slapping desiccated flakes

scales on moon, crater
glow in slate shadow
maybe, perhaps, illusion -
fall breaks apart
brown land sketched and carved,
scratching sprite eye
irritated by slightest touch.
new color, shelter
beautiful air
oh, for heaven to give back
on earth moment where death
has no hour.