Happy Birthday Mary Shelley

Music: Peter Gabriel Shock the Monkey 

Happy Birthday Mary Shelley

And thank you for your gift

The book

Discussing life and death

And the eternal rift

Dark Paladin’s desperate search

Described

Frustrated attempts
To breathing life anew

Into bones long dead and dry

A seeming fool’s errand

No matter how hard he tried

To

Brilliance sophomoric

Vision myopic

Manic dance with putrid flesh

Lest he get off topic

Overlooked signs

Tensions breaking

Foreign experiments known

Only drove Frankenstein deeper

Into the world all of his own

Making

Making what?

An intellectual stillborn man-child

Or so that it would seem

Which the world called monster

Ungainly grunts and

Movement stiff

Encased his frozen dream

Was this Frankenstein’s fault

Or that of the beast

Who knows?

Perhaps Frankenstein’s pride

Was Frankenstein’s curse

In his unholy attempt

At least

Happy Birthday Mary Shelley

Caught in phase

Music: Peter Gabriel 14 Black Paintings

Sister moon

Almost at term

Hung heavy in the sky

Straining against

Crescent shadow sliver

Preventing completion

Fullness denied

Caught in phase

I long for her words

Sing to me

Soothe me

Storm clouds spent

Exist only

To absorb golden glimmer

Of an absent sun

Caught in phase

Slicing surface of a placid pond

Held

Slack tide

Mimicking motion

Of dancing diminutive waves

When inspection

Reflect a stagnant moment

Of an aimless waltz

Caught in phase

Pair of geese

One preens

Other

Burrows by bed

Of reeds

Finding no nourishment

Caught in phase

Distant nutria

Dives down

As child throwing crumbs of bread

Causing concentric circles

Forever reaching out

In deafening silence

I wait

I know

That

Caught in phase

Is fast fleeting

The gods aren't dead Part I

Music: Devo: Beautiful World

The gods aren’t dead, they’re merely gone.

Allowing us to linger on

And what a linger

Haunted memory

Missing peace

Babel built

to distract

From spiritual release.

“We shall build a tower

We shall make it strong

We shall force the gods to see

It is us

They lean upon.”

Hymns and mantras

Newly bought

Enter doxology

That all need to be taught

You’re always on time.  You are in control.

Have it your way. 

90 days before first pay

-ment due

It happened to him.

Don’t let it happen to you.

Shake before serving

Any questions call

Caution contents hot

Now playing at the Sunset mall

Guaranteed Fresh

Until printed date

Chips enlarged

During transport some settlement

May occur

Hey J.C. won’t you please

Bless me

As I

Rinse and repeat

Rinse and repeat

The candle smoldered

Gypsy Kings: Un Amor

Revolutionaries need revolution as dreamers need a dream.  It’s poetry that gets lost in translation.

Between the two

Enforced half-light

The candle smoldered

Smoke

Acrid ashen

Perpetually arched

Monument

Of the flame

Heaving

Beckoning

Silent float

Cried out

For
Merely a touch

Or a whisper

Slightest spread

Of heat
Would provoke
Immediate action

If flame

Approached

This snake

Of smoke

The flame

Would devour

The very ether

A racing return

To surround

Embrace

The wick

Drawing light

Drawing life

Where

He could see her

And she

He

And that

Was the danger

So

Between the two

Enforced half-light

The candle smoldered

Go Rogue

Music: Cat Stevens On the Road to find out 

Go rogue

Drastic reaction

Amidst satisfaction

Why rock the boat?

Examine the veneer

Held precious, held dear

That keeps it all afloat

Go rogue

Eternal smirk

Young Huck’s smile

Returning to find

All the while

The savage behind the civil

Go rogue

The gleam in the eye

When Don Quxiote tried

Conquering windmills for

Desperate Desdemona

Go rogue

Jefferson’s stare met

The promise in sunset

At eternally incomplete

Monticello’s

Forever facing west

Go rogue

When dipping Dow

Causes knocking knees

Nature’s perfection

Meets rejection

Truth decried

Falsified

Love bound

Underground

Go rogue

Go rogue

Go rogue

Villains reviled

Saints laid low

You can’t

Recant

When there is nothing left

To confess

Save

Going rogue

Go rogue

Keep Writing

Music: Johnny Cash: One 

Keep writing

Desperately said

Before informed

She never read

But me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

Confused nod

Understanding not

Prayers delivered

Where angels fear to tread

And perhaps

Rightly so

Lupis lies

Between tulips

Forgotten

But the

Tulips

Never

Broken bow

Cutting tomahawk

Rests next to the

Continuing sow-

ing of fields

Where swords

Must be

Must be

Turned into plowshares

Bitter harvest

Continued reaping

But me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

They knew the bitter

All too well

For they knew

The succulent sweet

That made bitter

Each retreat

For

In binding closeness

There was always a distance

However diminutive

Where the winds of heaven warmed

Raged

Raced

But mostly danced

Free, unfettered

Furious

Safe separation

However slight

For the Willow cannot weep

Nor the Oak grow

Hidden in 

Anothers light

Captivating giggle

Desirous eyes

Beckoned

While

Hands hungry

Lips voracious

Engaged engorged

In the feast complete

For me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

Over time

Fear

Turned Beauty

A little more bestial

While Beast

Bore beauty

But me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

So released

Silicon world

Of piety purchased

Land of riches

With honesty

Only luxury

She can’t afford to buy

But me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

The gift of light

Refuted

New songs

New life

Knew 

No purchase

In barren soil

But...

Me and e.e.

Have a deal

When it comes

To she

Don’t we?

Welcome to the Big Top

Music: US3 Canataloop

Okay... so the work is still a little rough.  This poem is supposed to be apolitical.  This poem is about the political process!  If you think your politics will be offended, don't read it.  (It's not even close to the election and already I am tired of the politicking)

Welcome to the Big Top

Calling barkers cry

"Watch

Promises of hope

Change to mud"

"Amaze as

Snake oil smiles

Pantomime

God bless America

God bless"

Cesspool scream

Goes unseen

In the “Three card monty” cry

“Red get you ahead, black set you back”

Shifting current

Of moving cards

In dirty deft hands sprouting from every corner

Astute observers mimic shock

“They said black… could only mean race!”

Magicians smile

In the fall for the take

And distraction make

it easy

For

Issues to be palmed

With

Crowd divided

So

Easily conquered

Oh so easily conquered

Must be about race

And never class

“Class!  Class!”

Not in my America

Where the only class

Purposely Ill defined

But wisely placed

As

The one that counts

Is the one that is home to all

You find them at

The shopping mall

Save

The victims of poverty

Or 

The villains of success

Gap toothed carnies

Love to stress

The comfortable

Endangered

Middle Class

In the middle

The middle of everything’

Storm and shelter

Up and down

High and low

Middle ground

 

They try to make the crowd reflect

For if they can be controlled

Then votes

They will collect

Welcome to the Big Top

Not a word

Not a word

Two figures

In silence stood

Frozen between

The world of the real

And that which was secret

Not a word was spoken

Words

Too long

Were constructs

Of constraints

Simple symbols

Had been used

Or abused

To hide

Disguise

Merrily dance

In a refuting prance

Around a truth

Undeniable

The

Longing

Beckoning

In its resilient

Intricately fragile

Yet

Forged of iron

Enduring Permanence

Simple

Truth

Yet they stood

Not a word was spoken

Focus intent

On safe harbor

In the piercing tempest

Of a sorrowed gaze

He moved towards

Her beckoning retreat

For his two steps of advance

Only one

Only one

Was taken to retreat

Yet in the delicate ballet

Not a word was spoken

Persephone stopped

The fatal ruse

Accepting

His silent approach

As

A tear

softly slid

From tempered torment

She had fought

For so long

So long

Symbol for pardon?

Penitent pain?

In the darkness his heart

Split in a soft tear

Neither was necessary

It was of little matter

So very little

A gentle raise

Of his hand

That sought to meet

Her

Merely for the sake

Of her

And wipe the precious jewel away

Not a word was spoken

Cautious unfastening

Facades finely fashioned

Fell to the floor

With soft support

He drew her to him

As sculpted supple

Melded into chiseled chest

Not a word was spoken

And with a slight lean

And the devastating heat

Of lips long denied

In the fires of contact

Desire sweetly sang

While truth roared

And in the midst of the fevered bedlam

Not a word was spoken

She always liked unicorns

Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQK4YfiPj1Q&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DqkXWTZMNHHoO2odxerfxf (Rufus Wainwright Hallelujah)

She always liked unicorns

Mythical majesty

Silent solitude

Appearing only

When, where, and to whom

they choose

Communicating all

The scrape of a hoof

A tender whim from a shaking head

Before retreat

To keep mystique

Of the hidden glen

She always liked unicorns

Toned muscles

Rippling power

Unblemished coat

Glistening white

Long haired mane

Dapples down

To a 

Cascading flow

Dancing on neck

Like I said

She always liked Unicorns

If she

was to be

A Unicorn

She would be elegant

As Unicorns go

Safely hidden

Forest glen

Heart static

Behind the wall

Safe

But static

Seeing all

Yet none

could see

Her 

Or her heart

Or hear

Her 

Cry

None could know

For Unicorns

Aren’t supposed to cry

Longings frozen

None could know

For Unicorns didn’t do that

And she so desperately liked

Unicorns

Stay young, stay beautiful

Become a unicorn

Only problem

Unicorns aren’t real

A frozen myth

Of impossible expectations

Yet

She always liked Unicorns