"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment." - John F. Kennedy

Thanks for finding me. This is a fairly random sampling of my poetic rumblings beginning in the mid-70s to present day. Not definitive or complete, just things that struck me again for one reason or another on revisiting. There are a couple of previously published collections here which might be good places to start if you are diving in blind from the precipice.

Try the collections MEET THE BEATS or GLIMMERING RAY DUET (both archived in June 2008 in the menu below right) for starters if you are so inclined...

As of 2016, I will be publishing my song lyrics on a seperate page from the more poetic scribblings here. Pieces that first appeared here and then later were arranged for music will remain here in their original form but may appear edited on the lyric page. Check out the links section for the original song blog.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

TRANSFORMER




Lou Reed looks down, youthful freckled complexion
Beneath blond curls
From between the two beds
No sign of heroin chic
Just youth
Rock n roll unguarded between arrogance and grace
And while she freshened up after an evening out
Dining deliciously on erotically exotic drinks
Sexy fish and saucy sides
I pulled a floor to ceiling mirror
Away from the wall
Dragging it across the room
To snuggle it into the crack between the bed and the wall
Checking the angle for optimum exposure
Our sensual doppelgangers
To rise from the crisp white sheets
As if another couple
We seeing us just in reach
Our excitement daring them to reach out and grab a handful
Something illicitly taboo.

-- Hollywood, 3/31/08 – Roosevelt Hotel, Room 612 – for Sandy

RENTAL

I saw another woman wearing your ass today.
Walking around town as if she owned the sweet thing
As if we wouldn’t know that it wasn’t just a rental;
Something she procured for a night on the town
Maybe wearing to an awards show
A graduation
A hot first date
Perhaps adding extra oomph
To an important job interview
But I know better
Magnificent behinds like that don’t grow on knees
I know by how my body reacts
How the precarious laptop shimmies
Like my hymn book rose and fell
back in Sunday School
where at 12, I first caught a glimpse
of AP’s cottoned crotch
and wouldn’t dare stand for half an hour
no matter how badly I felt I had to piss.

~ for Sandy, Feb 15, 2007

WHAT DO I SAY

What do I say to someone like you?
I keep to the silly, the sexy, the blue
Everything’s easy, so real and so true
What do I say to someone like you?

How do I keep my emotions in check?
When your touch and your kisses just make me a wreck
All the laughter and glances flow, those legs and that neck
How do I keep my emotions in check?

Where did the years go, how’d they fly by?
You dropped into my lap like some dream from on high
With our past a small river that just never ran dry
Where did the years go, how’d they fly by?

What is this song that I find on my lips?
There’s your name and your heart and your love and your hips
So our melody swings and the harmony drips
What is this song that I find on my lips?

What do I see when I look in your eyes?
I see love, understanding and a stunning surprise
That we both share a passion that just soars as it flies
That’s what I see when I look in your eyes.

~ for Sandy, possible lyric to unwritten melody, Feb. 14, 2007

NEW VISION

Shattered mirrors
Crackle underfoot
When I’m with you.
See me as a twenty-three-year-old
Brown-haired hippie
All lusty and new
Fresh dipped in the magic of lust,
Love and longing.

Your eyes
Green pools
Appreciative of the simple praise
Spewing from my goatee’d craw
Simple in its ease
Falling from my lips like soft, shooting stars
Blazing fuzzy across the heavens
And you
So caring
Smart and generous
Such loving intensity of spirit
Behind those eyes.

Luxuriating in this moment of you
Could I ever give you a glimmer
Of what you deserve.

~ for Sandy, February 10, 2007, Arcadia

ALEXANDRIA

I can still feel your hands on me
I can still feel your hands
I can still taste your mouth on mine
I can still taste your mouth
I can still smell your sex on me
I can still smell your sex

Your eyes as you sleep
Your eyes, your eyes
Your eyes as you sleep.

For JS – 06/21/09 – Arden, DE

FAITH IN THE ADORABLES

What is this wealth of riches
Working hard not to sacrifice my deep respect
Striving, polishing my honesty and reflection
For those who give me their cherished moments
Their subdivided hearts willingly;
For those who share their stories
Aches and joyous epiphanies;
For those whose fingertips trace
Epic tales of romance across my furrowed countenance
Lost loves, souls torn with time’s scornful glance
Life’s diverted energies focused
If ever so briefly upon my grizzled grin,
Whose hands hold all of this very moment’s hopefulness
Whose lips whisper the only truths we are sure of
Whose arms comfort and envelop me
In their neediness as well as mine.
I praise the deep longing for what only we can give each other
Whatever is distinct from what the next will give,
The last withheld,
from the dream we all search for
of The One we may never find.

How I cherish their willingness to accept my fragility
My smokescreens, my flailing attempts at flinging myself head on
Into the path of the battering ram of self-reliance --
Oh, how they surround my aging gracelessness with the kindness
Of compassionate longing
And what they find there in the darkness is me.
Simple in the very complexity that I brandish
A credo of web-like stickiness
What is and what should always be
never quite making the grade
That they see in me what I do in them--
Humanity masquerading as something so much grander
Reaching for the ring and reaching yet again
And we hold each others care to our hearts
Defying definition by any previous standards
Because our friendships
Our devotions
Our lusting and loving
Can only be seen as the courting of the impossible
Of the toe-on-the-rail, abyss leaping swan dive
into The Perhaps.

Leap with me, wrap your wings around me
Adorables
Freefall together
Past jealousies, fear, doubt
As lovers, muses, friends,
Believing
In love’s mystery
The heart’s resilience
The soul’s compassionate grace
Believing
In the undiscovered moment.

- For The Adorables: JS, MM, RR, SV - the amazing women in my life...alphabetically, of course ;-)