FROM A BOOK OF WINTER DREAMS
A WORLD SCENE
A young pregnant mother
Walks down the street
Her boy follows obediently
Does she have a man at home?
Does he help provide for their needs?
Does she have the time to feel alone?
Does she have any family?
She stops and looks
Through the window of a boutique
Where all the women stop
To window-shop or to treat
Then walks on with an afterthought
On the way, another mouth to feed
She doesn't treat herself a lot
The boy follows quickly
His posture erect
And head down in childhood's reverie
Under her arm of shelter
He submits a fearless respect
She doesn't have to lash with leather
And he understands a little better.
___
IDYLL #1
The farm was a place
Set away from time
Being the first foundation
After the earth itself
The tractor was too old to run
Like a dinosaur in the brush
Weeds, insects, an intense sun,
No one mounted it much.
They used to have horses
But all they have is cattle now
Cars to take them to the bars
Trailers for the slaughter-houses.
The people at the feed-store
Don't know the farmers anymore
Everybody's strangers
It's not like it seemed before.
The old, deadwood fences
Grayed, softened by the second-half.
The barn itself is falling in,
Full of everything, even rats.
___
IDYLL #2
Only the farmhouse looks old
The earth seems as new as ever
A tree grows through a hole
In a collapse of the shelter
The ceiling is caved in low
The roof didn't survive the weather
With salt in the airs that blow
And sun in the sky forever
How long abandoned and fallow
Has it worn the rains together?
.
The tree stands through the roof
Its palms unfolding slowly
Under all conditions a proof
There is more and more unfolding
The sky is open and wide
The birds fly through like arrowheads
Then they fly through single-file
Through clouds in the emptiness
A loner treads behind
And swoops for fish at the surface.
___
Human beings have been living
As long as there has been a distinction
Between their species
And its predecessors in succession.
Many of our common cousins
Already met their extinction
For whatever deprivation or reason
Whatever natural order or treason
People have left magnificent ruins
Testaments to their lives,
Their world, and the social vision.
Death is no more than a sleight.
Palaces, settlements, and temples
Forming great complexes
Centered for trade, worship symbols,
Habitation, and tribal connection.
What remains of a people is more
Than its buildings and temples
It is the people themselves
In their migratory travels.
The have not left us for good
They have not left us alone
They are still here--in a wood
Beside the water, making a home.
___
NOTHING PERSONAL
I really did love you,
You know that.
And you know how
I thought of you
And I still do.
Nothing will ever change
What we shared
During those years
Time has tempered.
I understand how people
Have to move on
It wouldn't be life if we didn't--
If it wasn't gone.
But we shared something
No one can ever take away from us
No matter how long we live
Even if we turned today to dust
We didn't break each other's hearts
It was the thrust of love
Breaking them apart,
And the weight of love
Crushing them asunder.
___
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
So many people in the world living
So many places to hide-out
It takes so many people to conduct
The mass enterprise of war
The inter-generational conflict
And the semblance of government
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
People pretend to be in power and everything
But really they too are just helpless--
It takes so many people to conduct
The widespread peace of nations
The great harmony of co-existence
Service to all generations
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
People live to defend the industry
Despite its bad business.
__
THE POSITIVE SIDE
I don't have many problems
Life is pretty good
Issues--whatever you call them.
It isn't that bad:
A tendency to avoid
Excess social situations
Saves me a lot of trouble
And snaring entanglements
It helps me not to drink
Which is inevitable
In the boredom-gatherings
Of bars and pub-tables.
Performance anxiety helps me
Not to rush anything
It ripens what life tells me
And makes me wait until it's ready.
Addictions grow from habit
Mine is not so uncommon
I hope you don't have it
(We may free what is bonded).
___
A STORY ABOUT ABRAHAM
He told a story about a man
Who challenged Abraham
And the belief in some kind of single
Lord of the universe.
While some thought there were many,
Others thought there were none.
The man told Abraham,
"I too give life and death,"
Because he had been
Appointed an elite position.
Abraham said,
"My Lord brings the sun
From the east,
So bring it from the west."
You tell me the war won't stop
And people won't get justice,
Necessity, equality,
And freedom of thought.
Well, freedom is more than that,
And it's what's not going to stop.
Show me a little peace,
Show me the best of the best.
My lord brings the sun from the east--
So bring it from the west.
___
NOT LONG FOR THIS WORLD
I am sure that I love you--
What are we supposed to do
About what time puts us through?
Maybe we should try something new.
The traditional spiel
Isn't working out so well
Hell, it isn't working out at all
It's a shell of its former self.
I know this love is real
Because I know how I feel,
But I don't know how it'll
Play out in this world.
I don't want to give you a diamond ring
If it comes to a day of mourning
My support would give your suffering
Shelter if your world were storming.
I will be a friend to you
And as loyal as the moon
Beyond all the well-to-do
I will give you something true.
___
It's hard to have any fun
It's even hard to feel good
After all the things I've done
From the peaks of mountains
To the industrial underground
Parking-lots at night
To rooftops before dawn
Lakes in a dim sunlight
Before the day is gone
For the sky's underside.
Maybe it's just the times I'm living in
Maybe it's not the same for you
It seems like it was the same for you
But then time changes all this
Through and through, by and by--
___
THE SLEEP OF TRYING
Don't be scared
I'm just looking at you
My eyes cannot harm you
What may they do?
You don't have to be defensive
You don't have to stand on guard
But as long as you live
You're fine as you are
You don't have to be mine
I prefer that you are free
Not a person alive
Could be owned by me.
We're not anything
As long as you deny me
And it is all a dream
In the sleep of trying.
___
I'm starting to believe
Nothing changes but perspective:
The wind is still windy
And the tree is still a tree
The rain still rains
And the sky's still empty
The stars are still shining
And the sun's still blinding
___
WINE DOWN
It doesn't have to be this way
There are so many other options
Just remember what I say
And observe your own response
It's all a matter of mind-set
And how all is inevitably relative
Through appearance the addicted
Depend on other correlates.
Stop--and start over
To consume the cycle.
How few masters there are
Who lord the wheel,
And, then, who lords the wheel?
It doesn't have to be this way
There are many worlds of options
Through how you do and what you say,
So much for an immediate response.
It's all a matter of mind-set
Get up and move around
If the world spins you up, then wind down,
Relax and stretch out.
___
Measure what you see by the unseen
Energy moving earth and its waters
Namely, the solar system thing--
Dependent on recycling.
Wildcats are scared by the dogs
In escaping with ease to the salty streets
Taking the lazy way without a thought
Health is not an easy habit.
Horrible stories get the news
Ignoble acts casually misconstrued
Dependent peace, original blues.
Delusion is addiction's muse
Endowed with mental tools unused
Never mentored into the truth.
Mob-mentality took over briefly today
Eighteen or more chased and beat one man
Shadows in the streets of the city
Stretching out alone.
Any place can seem bleak
Gardens of delight gone in a week
Endless the procession of headlights
Slowly passing la Policia.
___
I hear chimes the moment I see lightning
A man passes in the phosphorescence
An androgynous shuffle under skies
Again, the lightning before the thunder
The recurring crash of waves on the sea shore
Both figures have passed in the great wonder
But the sound of the sea is still right here.
He claims that some people don't work these days
Because he sees me sitting here at lengths
Doing nothing as far as he can tell
But doesn't know what I am here for
Just to stay awake and to watch the place
You couldn't pay me any more money
To listen to his shit for one mere hour.
The wind blows frequently onto my face
Oriented towards the far, wide sea
I know some of what is beyond this place
And it is no better in blood or breed
When it strays from the right path wickedly
With civilian casualties
And endless words of warlord trickery.
___
Decades of damage smuggled into the States
To manipulate foreign politics
And business investments, as well as
To supplement people's sure misery
A gracious welcoming for the rainclouds
Though I was not expecting indulgent
Drug-smuggling to arrest raw power.
Even our beloved United States
Courted nations into a Third World sweepstakes
Guerilla warfare from the jungle's hands
To urban, street-fighting revolutions
To mother Africa, they followed Che.
Fidel told Kruschev to launch the missiles
Knowing the U.S. would destroy Cuba.
Eisenhower knew about the machine,
And the military-industrial
Complex he had unfortunately seen
Cratered in the European soil
He warned against it with serious zeal
But Kennedy shot for the moon and coiled
A martyr's film in Zapruder's shocked hands.
___
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first note I ever touched
The first name I spoke, the first chord I struck
The first beat laid down, the rhythm strummed
Verses followed by a chorus from home
Then the bridge into another new world
And we would refrain to instrumental.
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first keys I ever played
On somebody else's old piano
Feeling them down, hearing the sound in them
A world of order in their cyclic rounds
But chaos in the wildness of their tones
I would blank out in the instrumental.
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first I wanted to dance
I don't guess I could want anything else
But maybe drums, and big synthesizers,
Violins, and some brass, a stand-up bass
Maracas and flutes, wind chimes, enough space..
We could refrain in an instrumental.
___
We're in a small town with an urban bite
Nestled to a cove two or three miles long
You might get what you ask for, it's a blast
You know where this is going to end up
You just don't know how it's going to get there
Pictures hanging of a girl who's missing
In the underground world of whistling
The prostitutes are out during the night
But Johns are most usually the threat
They're always the ones who get violent
And go psycho under surveillance cams
In the streets they position the players
And send messages to each other's heads
In the underground world of whistling
All the organizers behind the scenes
All the architects of the convention
Whether "new American century"
Or the same old guise of peace and freedom
They have beating hearts but they cease to be
When they forget to breathe the beginning--
Struggling, costing, not having money
In the underground world of whistling.
A young pregnant mother
Walks down the street
Her boy follows obediently
Does she have a man at home?
Does he help provide for their needs?
Does she have the time to feel alone?
Does she have any family?
She stops and looks
Through the window of a boutique
Where all the women stop
To window-shop or to treat
Then walks on with an afterthought
On the way, another mouth to feed
She doesn't treat herself a lot
The boy follows quickly
His posture erect
And head down in childhood's reverie
Under her arm of shelter
He submits a fearless respect
She doesn't have to lash with leather
And he understands a little better.
___
IDYLL #1
The farm was a place
Set away from time
Being the first foundation
After the earth itself
The tractor was too old to run
Like a dinosaur in the brush
Weeds, insects, an intense sun,
No one mounted it much.
They used to have horses
But all they have is cattle now
Cars to take them to the bars
Trailers for the slaughter-houses.
The people at the feed-store
Don't know the farmers anymore
Everybody's strangers
It's not like it seemed before.
The old, deadwood fences
Grayed, softened by the second-half.
The barn itself is falling in,
Full of everything, even rats.
___
IDYLL #2
Only the farmhouse looks old
The earth seems as new as ever
A tree grows through a hole
In a collapse of the shelter
The ceiling is caved in low
The roof didn't survive the weather
With salt in the airs that blow
And sun in the sky forever
How long abandoned and fallow
Has it worn the rains together?
.
The tree stands through the roof
Its palms unfolding slowly
Under all conditions a proof
There is more and more unfolding
The sky is open and wide
The birds fly through like arrowheads
Then they fly through single-file
Through clouds in the emptiness
A loner treads behind
And swoops for fish at the surface.
___
Human beings have been living
As long as there has been a distinction
Between their species
And its predecessors in succession.
Many of our common cousins
Already met their extinction
For whatever deprivation or reason
Whatever natural order or treason
People have left magnificent ruins
Testaments to their lives,
Their world, and the social vision.
Death is no more than a sleight.
Palaces, settlements, and temples
Forming great complexes
Centered for trade, worship symbols,
Habitation, and tribal connection.
What remains of a people is more
Than its buildings and temples
It is the people themselves
In their migratory travels.
The have not left us for good
They have not left us alone
They are still here--in a wood
Beside the water, making a home.
___
NOTHING PERSONAL
I really did love you,
You know that.
And you know how
I thought of you
And I still do.
Nothing will ever change
What we shared
During those years
Time has tempered.
I understand how people
Have to move on
It wouldn't be life if we didn't--
If it wasn't gone.
But we shared something
No one can ever take away from us
No matter how long we live
Even if we turned today to dust
We didn't break each other's hearts
It was the thrust of love
Breaking them apart,
And the weight of love
Crushing them asunder.
___
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
So many people in the world living
So many places to hide-out
It takes so many people to conduct
The mass enterprise of war
The inter-generational conflict
And the semblance of government
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
People pretend to be in power and everything
But really they too are just helpless--
It takes so many people to conduct
The widespread peace of nations
The great harmony of co-existence
Service to all generations
It's like no one can do anything
To stop all this madness
People live to defend the industry
Despite its bad business.
__
THE POSITIVE SIDE
I don't have many problems
Life is pretty good
Issues--whatever you call them.
It isn't that bad:
A tendency to avoid
Excess social situations
Saves me a lot of trouble
And snaring entanglements
It helps me not to drink
Which is inevitable
In the boredom-gatherings
Of bars and pub-tables.
Performance anxiety helps me
Not to rush anything
It ripens what life tells me
And makes me wait until it's ready.
Addictions grow from habit
Mine is not so uncommon
I hope you don't have it
(We may free what is bonded).
___
A STORY ABOUT ABRAHAM
He told a story about a man
Who challenged Abraham
And the belief in some kind of single
Lord of the universe.
While some thought there were many,
Others thought there were none.
The man told Abraham,
"I too give life and death,"
Because he had been
Appointed an elite position.
Abraham said,
"My Lord brings the sun
From the east,
So bring it from the west."
You tell me the war won't stop
And people won't get justice,
Necessity, equality,
And freedom of thought.
Well, freedom is more than that,
And it's what's not going to stop.
Show me a little peace,
Show me the best of the best.
My lord brings the sun from the east--
So bring it from the west.
___
NOT LONG FOR THIS WORLD
I am sure that I love you--
What are we supposed to do
About what time puts us through?
Maybe we should try something new.
The traditional spiel
Isn't working out so well
Hell, it isn't working out at all
It's a shell of its former self.
I know this love is real
Because I know how I feel,
But I don't know how it'll
Play out in this world.
I don't want to give you a diamond ring
If it comes to a day of mourning
My support would give your suffering
Shelter if your world were storming.
I will be a friend to you
And as loyal as the moon
Beyond all the well-to-do
I will give you something true.
___
It's hard to have any fun
It's even hard to feel good
After all the things I've done
From the peaks of mountains
To the industrial underground
Parking-lots at night
To rooftops before dawn
Lakes in a dim sunlight
Before the day is gone
For the sky's underside.
Maybe it's just the times I'm living in
Maybe it's not the same for you
It seems like it was the same for you
But then time changes all this
Through and through, by and by--
___
THE SLEEP OF TRYING
Don't be scared
I'm just looking at you
My eyes cannot harm you
What may they do?
You don't have to be defensive
You don't have to stand on guard
But as long as you live
You're fine as you are
You don't have to be mine
I prefer that you are free
Not a person alive
Could be owned by me.
We're not anything
As long as you deny me
And it is all a dream
In the sleep of trying.
___
I'm starting to believe
Nothing changes but perspective:
The wind is still windy
And the tree is still a tree
The rain still rains
And the sky's still empty
The stars are still shining
And the sun's still blinding
___
WINE DOWN
It doesn't have to be this way
There are so many other options
Just remember what I say
And observe your own response
It's all a matter of mind-set
And how all is inevitably relative
Through appearance the addicted
Depend on other correlates.
Stop--and start over
To consume the cycle.
How few masters there are
Who lord the wheel,
And, then, who lords the wheel?
It doesn't have to be this way
There are many worlds of options
Through how you do and what you say,
So much for an immediate response.
It's all a matter of mind-set
Get up and move around
If the world spins you up, then wind down,
Relax and stretch out.
___
Measure what you see by the unseen
Energy moving earth and its waters
Namely, the solar system thing--
Dependent on recycling.
Wildcats are scared by the dogs
In escaping with ease to the salty streets
Taking the lazy way without a thought
Health is not an easy habit.
Horrible stories get the news
Ignoble acts casually misconstrued
Dependent peace, original blues.
Delusion is addiction's muse
Endowed with mental tools unused
Never mentored into the truth.
Mob-mentality took over briefly today
Eighteen or more chased and beat one man
Shadows in the streets of the city
Stretching out alone.
Any place can seem bleak
Gardens of delight gone in a week
Endless the procession of headlights
Slowly passing la Policia.
___
I hear chimes the moment I see lightning
A man passes in the phosphorescence
An androgynous shuffle under skies
Again, the lightning before the thunder
The recurring crash of waves on the sea shore
Both figures have passed in the great wonder
But the sound of the sea is still right here.
He claims that some people don't work these days
Because he sees me sitting here at lengths
Doing nothing as far as he can tell
But doesn't know what I am here for
Just to stay awake and to watch the place
You couldn't pay me any more money
To listen to his shit for one mere hour.
The wind blows frequently onto my face
Oriented towards the far, wide sea
I know some of what is beyond this place
And it is no better in blood or breed
When it strays from the right path wickedly
With civilian casualties
And endless words of warlord trickery.
___
Decades of damage smuggled into the States
To manipulate foreign politics
And business investments, as well as
To supplement people's sure misery
A gracious welcoming for the rainclouds
Though I was not expecting indulgent
Drug-smuggling to arrest raw power.
Even our beloved United States
Courted nations into a Third World sweepstakes
Guerilla warfare from the jungle's hands
To urban, street-fighting revolutions
To mother Africa, they followed Che.
Fidel told Kruschev to launch the missiles
Knowing the U.S. would destroy Cuba.
Eisenhower knew about the machine,
And the military-industrial
Complex he had unfortunately seen
Cratered in the European soil
He warned against it with serious zeal
But Kennedy shot for the moon and coiled
A martyr's film in Zapruder's shocked hands.
___
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first note I ever touched
The first name I spoke, the first chord I struck
The first beat laid down, the rhythm strummed
Verses followed by a chorus from home
Then the bridge into another new world
And we would refrain to instrumental.
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first keys I ever played
On somebody else's old piano
Feeling them down, hearing the sound in them
A world of order in their cyclic rounds
But chaos in the wildness of their tones
I would blank out in the instrumental.
If I could make music with you, Baby,
You would be the first I wanted to dance
I don't guess I could want anything else
But maybe drums, and big synthesizers,
Violins, and some brass, a stand-up bass
Maracas and flutes, wind chimes, enough space..
We could refrain in an instrumental.
___
We're in a small town with an urban bite
Nestled to a cove two or three miles long
You might get what you ask for, it's a blast
You know where this is going to end up
You just don't know how it's going to get there
Pictures hanging of a girl who's missing
In the underground world of whistling
The prostitutes are out during the night
But Johns are most usually the threat
They're always the ones who get violent
And go psycho under surveillance cams
In the streets they position the players
And send messages to each other's heads
In the underground world of whistling
All the organizers behind the scenes
All the architects of the convention
Whether "new American century"
Or the same old guise of peace and freedom
They have beating hearts but they cease to be
When they forget to breathe the beginning--
Struggling, costing, not having money
In the underground world of whistling.