Owner: In the World Where I Live URL:http://worldwhereilive.squarespace.com Join Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:40:34 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This site is my chance to share my poetry, my favorite poems, and my love of words, word mastery, and the great and aspiring masters of words. Site statistics:Click here
Wedding Day Poem 2007-08-26 22:23:48 To Ingrid I wrote this poem for my wife for our wedding. I'm glad to post it as the first poem of this blog.Who crossing kingdoms arch and arid Wandered parched and waited emptyWho sometimes faltered, barely lucidLost in dreams of places where heDrank her kindness like precious liquidWho thus took strength from reverie And headed straight where once was timid~Who followed faithful destiny? I did. To Ingrid. Who holding close her spirit kindredLet go of pain and long regretWho lost in thought and lying languidTook comfort from her silhouette Who found his soul completely nakedMoved by the love that he had metWho in the quiet night where we hidTold his heart’s most deepest secret? I did. To Ingrid. Who consulted the wisest druidSeeking to make himself worthyWishing to give her something splendidA threshold to eternityTo
Early song posting cuz I'm Going Out of Town! 2007-08-29 17:15:32 All I Really Want to Do by Bob DylanI ain't lookin' to compete with you,Beat or cheat or mistreat you,Simplify you, classify you,Deny, defy or crucify you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,Frighten you or uptighten you,Drag you down or drain you down,Chain you down or bring you down.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I ain't lookin' to block you upShock or knock or lock you up,Analyze you, categorize you,Finalize you or advertise you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to straight-face you,Race or chase you, track or trace you,Or disgrace you or displace you,Or define you or confine you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to meet your kin,Make you spin or do you in,Or select you or dissect you,Or inspect you or reject you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to fake you Read more:Early
, Going
Speak for Yourself, W.H.! 2007-08-29 11:10:06 Law Like Love by W. H. AudenLaw, say the gardeners, is the sun,Law is the oneAll gardeners obeyTo-morrow, yesterday, to-day.Law is the wisdom of the old,The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,Law is the senses of the young.Law, says the priest with a priestly look,Expounding to an unpriestly people,Law is the words in my priestly book,Law is my pulpit and my steeple.Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,Speaking clearly and most severely,Law is as I've told you before,Law is as you know I suppose,Law is but let me explain it once more,Law is The Law.Yet law-abiding scholars write:Law is neither wrong nor right,Law is only crimesPunished by places and by times,Law is the clothes men wearAnytime, anywhere,Law is Good morning and Good night.Others say, Law is our Fate;Others say, Law is our State;Others say, others sayLaw is no more,Law has gone away.And always the loud angry crowd,Very angry and very Read more:Yourself
Generous Heart for an Open Road 2007-09-22 12:29:45 All I Really WantBy Joni MitchellI am on a lonely road and I am travelingtraveling, traveling, travelingLooking for something, what can it beOh I hate you some, I hate you someI love you someOh I love you when I forget about meI want to be strong, I want to laugh alongI want to belong to the livingAlive, alive, I want to get up and jiveI want to wreck my stockings in some juke box diveDo you want -- do you want -- do you wantto dance with me babyDo you want to take a chanceon maybe finding some sweet romance with me babyWell, come onAll I really really want our love to do is to bring out the best in me and in you tooAll I really really want our love to dois to bring out the best in me and in youI want to talk to you, I want to shampoo youI want to renew you again and againApplause, applause -- Life is our causeWhen I think of your kissesmy mind see-sawsDo you see -- do you see -- do you seehow you hurt me babySo I hurt you toothen we both get so blueI am on a lonely road and I am trave Read more:Heart
Early song posting cuz I'm Going Out of Town! 2007-08-29 17:15:32 All I Really Want to Do by Bob DylanI ain't lookin' to compete with you,Beat or cheat or mistreat you,Simplify you, classify you,Deny, defy or crucify you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,Frighten you or uptighten you,Drag you down or drain you down,Chain you down or bring you down.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I ain't lookin' to block you upShock or knock or lock you up,Analyze you, categorize you,Finalize you or advertise you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to straight-face you,Race or chase you, track or trace you,Or disgrace you or displace you,Or define you or confine you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to meet your kin,Make you spin or do you in,Or select you or dissect you,Or inspect you or reject you.All I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you.I don't want to fake you Read more:Early
, Going
For Beautiful 2007-09-24 07:37:31 In the World Where I Live By Hank EdsonIn the world where I live The flames arrange in petal folds Silent small open passive And Beauty gathers Beautiful
holds Together draws them closer tighter Their fragrant pulp not fire smolder But light that shines much brilliant brighter In the sweet dark eyes of my beholder. In the world where I live The air resounds in buttery peals The heart's doors swoon and simply give Every fracture smoothes and heals As lifted raised abandoned free The pulse of being open files Trumpeting through the heavenly glory Enraptured song when Beauty smiles. In the world where I live The wave of auburn hair is law Arching eyebrows soft and pensive Command creation awaken awe And the tender graceful definition Of her cheekbones nose mouth and chin Offer chaos complete compassion Beautiful wise and feminine. In the world where I live A pure and perfect peace pervades Man makes amends the gardens forgive Great lakes grand canyons ever glades Noble emotions spiritual
Generous Heart for an Open Road 2007-09-22 12:29:45 All I WantBy Joni MitchellI am on a lonely road and I am travelingtraveling, traveling, travelingLooking for something, what can it beOh I hate you some, I hate you someI love you someOh I love you when I forget about meI want to be strong, I want to laugh alongI want to belong to the livingAlive, alive, I want to get up and jiveI want to wreck my stockings in some juke box diveDo you want -- do you want -- do you wantto dance with me babyDo you want to take a chanceon maybe finding some sweet romance with me babyWell, come onAll I really really want our love to do is to bring out the best in me and in you tooAll I really really want our love to dois to bring out the best in me and in youI want to talk to you, I want to shampoo youI want to renew you again and againApplause, applause -- Life is our causeWhen I think of your kissesmy mind see-sawsDo you see -- do you see -- do you seehow you hurt me babySo I hurt you toothen we both get so blueI am on a lonely road and I am travelingloo Read more:Heart
Step by Step 2007-10-01 17:09:49 The Poet’s Manifesto by Hank Edson1. The first priority is to keep a shelter over my head and enough of my health to keep me thankful just being alive ~ 2. The second priority is to keep myself independent to pursue by my own steps the goals and pleasures most important to me ~ This will require abandoning other goals and pleasures, even ones that are granted standards for everyone else. 3. The third priority is to be aware of life as it passes, never to return, &nb
Orpheus Meets the Piano Man 2007-09-29 17:37:12 River of Dreams By Billy Joel In the middle of the nightI go walking in my sleepFrom the mountains of faithTo the river so deepI must be lookin' for somethingSomething sacred I lostBut the river is wideAnd it's too hard to crossEven though I know the river is wideI walk down every evening and stand on the shoreI try to cross to the opposite sideSo I can finally find what it is I've been looking forIn the middle of the nightI go walking in my sleepThrough the valley of fearTo a river so deepI've been searching for somethingTaken out of my soulSomething I'd never loseSomething somebody stoleI don't know why I go walking at nightBut now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymoreI hope it doesn't take the rest of my lifeUntil I finally find what it is I've been looking for In the middle of the nightI go walking in my sleepThrough the jungle of doubtTo the river so deepI know I'm searching for somethingSomething so undefinedThat it can only be seenBy the eyes of the blindIn the m Read more:Orpheus
The Nation's Crimes 2007-10-11 07:32:13 The Year Begins With War by Wendell BerryThe year begins with war.Our bombs fall day and night,Hour after hour, by deathAbroad appeasing wrath,Folly, and greed at home.Upon our giddy towerWe’d oversway the world.Our hate comes down to killThose whom we do not see,For we have given upOur sight to those in powerAnd to machines, and nowAre blind to all the world.This is a nation whereNo lovely thing can last.We trample, gouge, and blast;The people leave the land;The land flows to the sea.Fine men and women die,The fine old houses fall,The fine old trees come down:Highway and shopping mallStill guarantee the rightAnd liberty to beA peaceful murderer,A murderous worshipper,A slender glutton, orA healthy whore. ForgivingNo enemy, forgivenBy none, we live the deathOf liberty becomeWhat we have feared to be. Read more:Crimes
It's Somethin' Else Makes MY World Go Round 2007-10-08 20:08:24 The Poet's Parallax By Hank Edson 1. Do you and your fellow attachés Surround the tomb of Grant Like suspicious ministers not condemned But fearing the inside seed As though Pandora's box Were your charge or do you stand Like engineers turned doctors Amid the entanglement of life- Support systems running out Their tentacles over your shoulders As you listen to the mechanism Tick like scientists testing the bomb Enduring the silent bridges To be burned hopefully if only You reach the end of the count down From whence you will look back at the corpse Of the Earth through the TV set Cardiographs gone flat Like reporters watching themselves Before the subject become in death An unknown gaping grave? 2. Gentlemen of the Capital Constructing your private models Of marble and glass and leather and shag Explaining the metamorphosis Not from where Read more:World
Song of Myself 2007-10-06 15:15:58 I've Got A NameBy Jim CroceLike the pine trees linin’ the windin’ roadI’ve got a name, I’ve got a nameLike the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toadI’ve got a name, I’ve got a nameAnd I carry it with me like my daddy didBut I’m livin’ the dream that he kept hidMovin’ me down the highwayRollin’ me down the highwayMovin’ ahead so life won’t pass me byLike the north wind whistlin’ down the skyI’ve got a song, I’ve got a songLike the whippoorwill and the baby’s cryI’ve got a song, I’ve got a songAnd I carry it with me and I sing it loudIf it gets me nowhere, I’ll go there proudMovin’ me down the highwayRollin’ me down the highwayMovin’ ahead so life won’t pass me byAnd I’m gonna go there freeLike the fool I am and I’ll always beI’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dreamThey can change their minds but they can’
The Legacy Thing 2007-10-15 21:16:16 The President Wheels By Hank EdsonMr. Bush, in your politics You have so much flash ~ Do you have a clear image? Can you make out one thing You have done that is definite? Do we all stand stunned? And where is all our cash? And why is so much ruined?! My uncouth objections Will ruffle in your flag Rest upon lies and the dead With valiant dedications. Mr. Bush, your monument Has taken from our planet A fortune you controlled And rest beneath the stone wheel Of de-evolution. And what will you do now With your oil but burn it? What wouldn't you pollute? Go to the wheel and turn it. Oh, Mr. Bush, do not groan; You are always talking trash! Do you lead what you don't know? Or do you dance upon the doomed?! Read more:Legacy
, Thing
The Beat Goes On 2007-10-29 21:01:04 Roll Over Beethoven by Hank EdsonGod help us, we were all an enchanted mob Drowning in an unleashed sea, And you were the leash, the master of us all Drowning in human cacophony And though the most cultured womanhood sobbed In love, in heaven, helplessly, The rest of us sang in some bawdy drawl: "Roll over Beethoven and say good night. Roll over Beethoven, roll! When the sea has risen of its own might, All must give up their soul! We who lay b
The Heart Stops, The Beat Remembers 2007-11-27 20:28:34 THE DAY LADY DIED By Frank O'HaraIt is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 9:59 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an Ugly New World Writing to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard) doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life and in the Golden Griffin I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do th Read more:Heart
, Stops
Celestial Benedictions 2007-12-04 21:43:03 Making Love to the Stars By Hank Edson In the car we drove to go to the movie We flew, we smoked, talking of love Unadmittedly there on its highway Banking, skimming through rolling hills We observed there a conjunction In its sky tonight we from the city Breathed in the brightness open from stars Were dazzled by its chimes and scales By Venus, Mars, and Jupiter And further below the moon's held darkness Splashed in a silver bowl like sleep Of the truth we gazed dazzled with awe Beneath the roof of our car beneath All space made by our limited sense To measure by which one said of it "That ninety-three million miles of light Was what we called the distance to the sun And our telescopes looked that distance As if that distance were only a hair And looked again as many light miles" It was plain above our lifted heads Before our eyes, we drove, I to say "So much space ~" and the other to reply "And not another sign of life!&q
The End of an Era 2007-12-04 17:15:46 American PieBy Don McLean A long, long time ago...I can still rememberHow that music used to make me smile.And I knew if I had my chanceThat I could make those people danceAnd, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.But february made me shiverWith every paper I’d deliver.Bad news on the doorstep;I couldn’t take one more step.I can’t remember if I criedWhen I read about his widowed bride,But something touched me deep insideThe day the music died.So bye-bye, miss american pie.Drove my chevy to the levee,But the levee was dry.And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and ryeSingin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."Did you write the book of love,And do you have faith in God above,If the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock ’n roll,Can music save your mortal soul,And can you teach me how to dance real slow? Well, I know that you’re in love with him`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.You both kicked off your shoes.Man
The Relationship Between Form and Content 2007-12-17 22:41:40 The Diamond Life By Hank Edson The first wisdom came in the pride of sunlight, watching the dazzling rays perform their miracles of passage. The brilliant diffusions, the quiet reflections: much more than a mirror, this body of facets in smooth perfect precision. Its solid hallways, entrances of content, windows of crystallized vision. The thought becoming the thing, over and over again; not transversion, but transcendence, the perfect medium for light’s pure energy. Unified in a coexistence lucid but stable, who could say which entered which? Was it the light that grew more endowed, more abstract, a spontaneous lumination? Or was it the jewel’s impossible concentration, the finesse of the diamond life, the absolute strength in its rigid sensitivity, knowing each as each, a meaning for the whole identity? Its prophetic evolution simultaneously organic, rational, hinting beyond at values still indiscernible in its untried depths, what we call the em Read more:Content
, Relationship
Naive Infinity 2007-12-17 21:48:28 Wondering Where The Lions Are by Bruce Cockburn Sun's up, uh huh, looks okayThe world survives into another dayAnd I'm thinking about eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meI had another dream about lions at the doorThey weren't half as frightening as they were beforeBut I'm thinking about eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meWalls windows trees, waves coming throughYou be in me and I'll be in youTogether in eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on meUp among the firs where it smells so sweetOr down in the valley where the river used to beI got my mind on eternitySome kind of ecstasy got a hold on me And I'm wondering where the lions are...I'm wondering where the lions are... Huge orange flying boat rises off a lakeThousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double takePointing a finger at eternityI'm sitting in the middle of this ecstasyYoung men marching, helmets shining in the sun,Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun(Should be!) they got me thinking ab Read more:Infinity
, Naive
New Jersey Nirvana 2007-12-23 18:39:58 Blinded By The Light By Bruce Springsteen Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer With a teenage diplomatIn the dumps with the mumps As the adolescent pumps his way into his hatWith a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-roundWith this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing The calliope crashed to the groundSome all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot Snappin' his fingers clappin' his handsAnd some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover's knot With a whatnot in her handAnd now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot And throws his lover in the sandAnd some bloodshot forget-me-not Whispers daddy's within earshot Save the buckshot turn up the bandAnd she was blinded by the lightCut loose like a deuce another runner in the nightBlinded by the lightShe got down but she never got tight, but she'll make it alrightSome brimstone barito Read more:Jersey
, New Jersey
, Nirvana
Anticipation 2008-03-03 21:25:04 Vienna By Billy Joel Slow down, you crazy child.You're so ambitious for a juvenile, But then if you're so smart, Tell me, why are you still So afraid? Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?You better cool it off before you burn it out. You got so much to do And only so many hours & Read more:Anticipation
Recollection 2008-02-28 11:39:10 Leipzig By Thomas Hardy Scene-The Master-trademen’s Parlour at the Old Ship Inn, Casterbridge. Evening.“Old Norbert with the flat blue cap— A German said to be—Why let your pipe die on your lap, Your eyes blink absently?”—“Ah!...Well, I had thought ‘til my cheek was wet Of my mother-her voice and mienWhen she used to sing and pirouette, And tap the tambourine“To the march that yon street-fiddler plies: She told me &lsq
Opening of the Heart 2008-02-23 14:59:34 Dweller on the Threshold By Van Morrison I’m a dweller on the thresholdAnd I’m waiting at the doorAnd I’m standing in the darknessI don’t want to wait no more I have seen without perceivingI have been another manLet me pierce the realm of glamourSo I know just what I am I’m a dweller on the thresholdAnd I’m waiting at the doorAnd I’m standing in the darknessI don’t want to wait no more Read more:Heart
Winged Ascent 2008-02-21 21:06:25 White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field By Mary Oliver Coming downout of the freezing skywith its depths of light,like an angel,or a Buddha with wings,it was beautifuland accurate,striking the snow and whatever was therewith a force that left the imprintof the tips of its wings—five feet apart—and the grabbingthrust of its feet,and the indentation of what had been runningthrough the white valleysof the snow— and then it rose, gracefully,and flew back to the frozen marshes,to lurk there,like a little lighthouse,in the blue shadows—so I thought:maybe deathisn’t darkness, after all,but so much lightwrapping itself around us—as soft as feathe Read more:Winged
, Ascent
Spurned Love 2008-02-16 13:22:19 Romeo and Juliet By Mark KnopflerA lovestruck Romeo sings a street-side serenadeLaying everybody low with a lovesong that he made.Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade,Says something like: “You and me babe how about it?”Juliet says: “Hey, its Romeo! You nearly gimme a heart attack!”He’s underneath the window. She’s singing: “Hey la, my boyfriend’s back!You shouldn’t come around here—singing up at people like that.”“Anyway, what you gonna do about it?” “Juliet, the dice were loaded from the startAnd I bet and you exploded in my heartAnd I forget: the movie song…When you gonna realize: it was just that the time was wrong! &nbs
The Poet's Solitaire 2008-02-15 11:58:21 One Art By Elizabeth BishopThe art of losing isn't hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster.Lose something every day. Accept the flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.The art of losing isn't hard to master.Then practice losing farther, losing faster:places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, ornext-to-last, of three loved houses went.The art of losing isn't hard to master.I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gestureI love) I shan't have lied. It's evidentthe art of losing's not too Read more:Solitaire
Singular Intention 2008-02-03 21:49:04 By Hank EdsonDon’t want to climb no mountain,I don’t ever want to fly,Don’t ever want to count upAll the stars in the sky.Don’t want to cross no ocean,There’s no seas I wanna dive,No fortunes to collect,Or fancy cars to drive.I don’t ever want to tell youAll the crazy things I’ve doneCuz the only thing I wantIs to be your number one.Lord knows I’m not the savior;I don’t understand his role.I’ve never had that passionAnd I lack his self-control.The president I’m notFor I would not tell his lies.I never ever could cast downWeapons from the skies.I don’t want to be your leaderNot by any god or gun,But by your side I’d dieJust to be your number one.I don’t hope to always laugh,I sure don’t want to g Read more:Intention
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