"precedents" poems
beyond Montana’s yellow lines
there is a field
~a field of painted soles
and laces rubber tread
~a field of ****** curls
and fallen headlights
where kaleidoscope lenses
look onto twisted frames like origami halos
where teddy bears hug stop signs like pickets
fringed in anger
runaway childhoods sleep cautionary tales
beyond Montana’s blushing acne
there are red cup melodies
blasting from blacked out tints
weaving blues notes through Rock & Rap
distant cries are drowned by Bass
or maybe Bud (light)
a haze of teenage eyes
they might as well be ghost riders
whip game copped from GTA
these pubescents are a Vice to their City
blooming sidewalk sloths
like flowerbeds
beyond Montana
is a country of bar stools
where bar tenders play therapists
and therapists play coroners
precedents are shots of whiskey - taken to the head
and reflected in flooded eyes
beyond Montana
is a country of MADD mothers and SADD students
beyond Montana
is a country of unexpecting pedestrians
beyond Montana
is a field
~a field of wing-clipped snow angels
That field is Mariah's home now
and she challenges you to change
yourself
your friends
your country
she challenges you to
STOP DRUNK DRIVING
Jan 6, 2013
Jan 6, 2013 at 2:22 PM UTC
Pradip is newborn (impossible wisdom)
“a new day, a new chance for my soul... to heed
a small voice ... to give flowers, to plant new seeds.
to not trample on wildflowers and unwanted weeds...” Sally
“Sweet baby
with your head on my shoulder
I'm no more growing older...” Pradip
~
the unpredictability and randomness of the winds,
seed carriers, of small voices, yearning to be heard,
powerless in appearance only, for within are powers superior heroic,
who can grow others who can feed
who can sustain multiple living creatures
each seed unique, a poem composed and complete,
authored by precedents, authorized by predecessors,
utilizing the cocoon of soil and sun,
rainwater from space and deep driven to
the clear milk of underground railroad rivers,
to give nurture to its revisional generational code
these new children of an old mix,
are quiet lifesavers giving proofs positive,
that those who will one day grow old,
with deep gnarled roots, are most capable
of finding ways of manufacturing fresh youth whim within,
to those who give babies homage, in attendance
this then the newborn miracle, the new seed,
wind borne, replants itself in old soil,
taking but more so giving,
injecting bits of vitality into its arterial ancestry,
how can this be?***
*I do not know the why or the how,
but am evidence of the therefore,
and the thereafter, of impossible wisdom*
7:07am 4-5-19 a newborn poem for poetry passing grandparents
Apr 5, 2019
Apr 5, 2019 at 7:19 AM UTC
There's a city glowing in my ears,
biting blur of the nightlife.
Figure I've been here for a while.
My supplies were piled high,
now they're in short supply
and I'm high.
The walls of my
apartment are red.
I wait until the streetlights
flick on before I flip into a
somersault, I wait until the
streetlights flick on before
I call you out tonight.
The walls of my
apartment are red.
Dead presidents, don't
answer for me,
I paint the walls red.
Dead presidents couldn't have
seen it coming,
I paint the walls red.
Dead precedents, don't correct me.
Could have been a fool,
could have been a rule
you didn't know, so
when your friends are
wrong sing a song that
won't offend anyone.
You kept me waiting for hours,
you were shining. In a dress like
blood and flowers, you were shining.
You better sell it hard tonight.
The walls of my
apartment are red.
Mar 16, 2011
Mar 16, 2011 at 8:55 AM UTC
Damaged trust and marriage schemes
Held hostage in each others' dreams
Pinned to walls but flailing still
Forgotten values, failing wills
True love waits, we tell ourselves
True love gladly stacks the shelves
True love sets conditions and
True love does the dishes and
Slowly, slowly, we forget
Just why we're here and who we met
Another notch in wrinkled frowns
Where I keep getting lost and found
In roller-coaster ups and downs
I'm lost and lost and lost and found
Missing flights and toxic tongues
Catharsis found in tar-filled lungs
I lost myself in who I wasn't
And in what true love does and doesn't
Not quite gaslit, not quite safe
Playing back the ancient tape
We envy death for constancy-
Besmirching our own consciences
We forgo our emoluments
Too traumatized by precedents
But hush you tell me, no one knows
The pretzel-bending ways we grow
Forever twisting round and round
Lost and lost and lost and found
Now freaking out, now breaking down
Now glaciers found in evening gowns
Now agonizing 'Who am I?'s
Now dying fire in your eyes
At last the sunset settles debts
We tally up our last regrets
Relenting to incessant ghosts
Abandoning essential posts
'Til all that's left is loss and hurt
It burns and burns and burns and burns
And now I choke on orders filled
And mourn alone the youth we killed
I scrape the comb across my nettles
Pricking feelings, bleeding mettle
Finally free from ups and downs,
I find myself on solid ground
Oct 2, 2018
Oct 2, 2018 at 10:52 PM UTC
WE sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, "A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'
And thereupon
That beautiful mild woman for whose sake
There's many a one shall find out all heartache
On finding that her voice is sweet and low
Replied, "To be born woman is to know --
Although they do not talk of it at school --
That we must labour to be beautiful.'
I said, "It's certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam's fall but needs much labouring.
There have been lovers who thought love should be
So much compounded of high courtesy
That they would sigh and quote with learned looks
precedents out of beautiful old books;
Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.'
We sat grown quiet at the name of love;
We saw the last embers of daylight die,
And in the trembling blue-green of the sky
A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time's waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years.
I had a thought for no one's but your ears:
That you were beautiful, and that I strove
To love you in the old high way of love;
That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown
As weary-hearted as that hollow moon.
2k
all my poems are unique general principles
~for Helene Mendelsohn~
“A general principle never comes to life in my mind except by exhibiting itself in various special forms and in
crowds of instances for each form":
R.G. Collingwood
each a construct - an arch-i-texture,
each a crowd of a single instance
special forum, a dialogue differentiation,
a conjugate particle,
forming up, in marching order,
a singular troop, a base case singular,
a soldier especially demanding,
“Of Me, Write, Write”
for within my insight,
a one-off sighting,
one glinting wave reflecting,
its one millisecond exactitude of existence,
reforming unseemly, a new but not!
a seemingly similar shifted shape,
but no wave is a precision repetition,
perhaps a passing familiarity
of its precedents, antecedents,
at best
an instance borrowed and paid back
to the generosity of time
for a fully developed statement of a
general principle,
even a primary secondary textual emendation,
requires a unique naming definition
being born and dead dying while you are blinking,
does not understate absolute value,
a principle exists to give absolution,
so the moments resets,
perpetually,
but its own resolution is n’err forgotten
do you see the crowd of inferences
herein contained?
the principal unique,
poem plucked from passing sun ray,
a tickling hair of a brazen breeze,
one wave, one wave reconstituting a
millennium of preceding lives,
deriving its abbreviated genealogy
of droplets of prior principles
forever reinterpreted
so I gave you back
words you knew
but in a new combination
establishing this poem,
its constituents,
as a unique general principle
there is a prior poem, new, unique
in everything
Jul 21, 2019
Jul 21, 2019 at 10:06 AM UTC
I've been searching all life long
Placing my bets
Amidst all my missteps
Listening to the same ol' song
Dancing on gass soaked briquettes
Risky as it gets
Find me between right and wrong
Racking up debts
And future regrets
My self hatred is strong
Setting precedents
With no true benefits
Only ever told I'm wrong
No corrective steps
Only more empty threats
Just wanted to belong
But that's too complex
Don't want to know what's next...
...out beyond the smouldering bridges and life threatening safety nets...
...my residence
©2024
Jan 1, 2024
Jan 1, 2024 at 6:38 PM UTC
With wild teased hair, bright orange, and wearing shoes too big,
The clown abandoned Ringling to take on a new gig.
He was not content to pay his rent, like others of his “race”,
By acting in the remake of “killer clowns from outer space”
Nor would he do kids’ parties although he is no slouch
at raising fears that will take years to solve upon a couch .
With wild teased hair, a bright red nose and makeup piled on thick,
This clown decamped to Washington to try out his new Shtick.
With Eddie Munster as his pal, new laws he would propose,
that Femes, dressed as Vaginas, would vociferously oppose.
He’d surround himself with Sycophants but will not get too far
as, unlike his former colleagues, they don’t all fit in one car.
The clown claims he can build a wall to keep out one and all,
and he has a herd of Elephants at his beck and call.
He rules our land by fiat, as delay he can’t abide
He is a textbook narcissist with an overweening pride.
Minnesota has Al Franken as a Senator of course
And, back in Roman times, the purple was worn by a horse.
So one might say that precedents exist for this strange thing;
for a clown to wield a scepter and rule over us as king.
Feb 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017 at 7:31 AM UTC
you are a complex circuitry of veins and arteries
a compendium of extremities and intimacies
you are either a trillion accidents or a single success
a whisper of life or a shattering of precedents
your structure is art
your conception a masterpiece
mechanically, you are beautiful
the core of this existence is uncertainty
does your rib cage shiver around the catechisms?
at your worst, you are
the part that can not be cut open
the part that can die before the body
your existence is a war
a perennial blooming and crumbling
your mind and body's slow destruction
flinging themselves together and apart
Jun 12, 2013
Jun 12, 2013 at 1:28 AM UTC
That's the thing,
we did it to be free.
We wanted to be liberated,
to not have to take no
for an answer.
We did it
so that we could taste the fruit
without fear.
It was easy.
I can show you.
Others may think it wrong,
but to us they were movers and
shakers.
The precedents setting standards.
And we wanted to be like them.
We did it for the Innocent and the ******
We did it for the young and dying.
We did it for the ones who think they're king
and for the rebellion.
We did it in honor of the sinners and the righteous ones.
I did it for you and me.
So call us guilty and we'll face judgment,
but that's why we did it.
We just wanted to be free.
Oct 20, 2014
Oct 20, 2014 at 7:43 PM UTC
Behind the extreme luster of pearl of the orient sea
tons of covenants, precedents, and laws
But why O' why I unfailingly see
the same pathway to exiguity
Jun 26, 2014
Jun 26, 2014 at 10:43 PM UTC
So When It Comes To My Poems...
And The Things I Express...
What My Poems Project...
Are Lyrical Blends....
of POWER And STRENGTH... !!!
That PROVE I’m A Poet...
Whose Verse Is POTENT... !!!
Because It’s Content...
Has High Levels of DEPTH... !!!
Did You Catch What I Said... ?!?
… HIGH Levels of DEPTH... !!!!!!!
Paradoxically Speaking...
So You See What I Write...
Has MULTIPLE Meanings...
And Various Rhymes...
That Prove That My Mind...
Is Deep And Invites...
DEEP Levels of Thought...
For Those Who Absorb...
What My Poems Draw...
Within Their Depictions...
of How We Are Living...
My Verse Can Be RAW...
But Mostly Contorts...
Like Those Who Distort...
What Newsrooms Report...
That Many Now Think...
... ISN’T True ANYMORE... !!!
Because Most of It STINKS...
of Reports That Seem FLAWED... !!!
With Opinions Now BOUGHT...
By Those Who ENSURE... !!!
That Things Should Stay Hidden...
When These Things Are RIDDEN ...
With... CORRUPTED Visions...
And Missions Where Killings...
Should NOT Be Permitted...
Because They’re FORBIDDEN... !!!
EVEN In... Wars...
That Reach Foreign Shores...
Corruption Runs Deep...
In Police And Armies... !!!
And Only Gets Seen...
LONG AFTER BAD DEEDS...
Have Made People Bleed... !!!
So My Poetry Feeds...
On Corrupt Policies...
And STATES That Are DEEP...
Like These... Conspiracies... !!!!!!
That Are Now Being Spread...
Via The... Internet...
Some That Lack Depth... !!!
But Some That Present...
The Type of Content...
That Now Clearly UPSETS...
The Calmest of Heads... !!!!!!
When These Internet Trends...
Show What Is... INCORRECT... !!!
Or Is That... CORRECT... ?!?
Well Fake News Is Here...
And Fake News Is There...
And Some Is Subject...
To Just Breeding FEAR... !!!
And Now Traps Are Set...
To Catch Heads Who Steer...
Fake News To The Ears...
And Eyes of Their Peers...
You See Much We’re Now Seeing...
Is Deep With Things Leaning...
Towards Some Poor Teachings...
And Things That Need Screening...
Like Movies Now Streaming...
On Websites Online...
Where Minds Seem Inclined...
To BELIEVE ANYTHING... !?!
That Comes From The Links...
That Many Now... Click...
To Inform What They Think...
Well I’m A REALIST... !!!
So My Lyrical Scripts...
Deal In Thinking That’s Deep...
Like Today’s Protests Scenes...
About Things Like Vaccines...
And Police Who Use Knees...
And Yes... BRUTALITY... !!!
That Makes People ANGRY...
In Homes And On Streets... !!!
So Now That This Poem...
Is Reaching It’s End...
It's Final Subject...
That Encompasses DEPTH...
Are These Corona Deaths...
And How They've Distressed...
EVERYONE From ***
To... Heads In Congress... !!!
Who Will Now Accept...
This Vaccine That’s SAID...
To Be Ready For Heads...
To Accept And INGEST...
As The Best Way To STOP...
This Viruses Spread... !!!
A Form of Defence...
That Could Set Precedents...
That Could Change Things In Ways...
That May NOT Be So Great... !?!
UNLIKE My Poems...
That Go To Great Lengths...
To Use Common Sense...
As Well As... Intellect...
And Of Course One More Thing....
That Was Earlier Said...
Within... THIS Poem...
HIGH Levels of.....
....... “ Depth “......
Sep 22, 2021
Sep 22, 2021 at 9:17 PM UTC
https://soundcloud.com/spiritbarehear/meta-4-4-time
meet me at the morphosis
suckin on our cherry pits
sun melted away our icycled veins
clorphylled up minds
unconcerned with measurement
leave our woes behind
to wither with our precedents
our guards are on vacation
changing of a nation
through the power of
this entity of love
my love
it's not for me it seems
not to guide me to prosperity
not to satisfy my wants
give yours away and you'll get more of
the winds of change are blowing here
tell your girl she's not to fear
the ending of a page
the boggling of brains
london bridge is falling down
but we'll make a louder sound
to create a wave
we'll struggle a lot but they'll wash away
we will be the living dream
forever to grow
already blossoming
our hunger will sustain the changing of this game
explode implode cause a scene
ignorance is all they're conducting
the pyramid design was fine
8 billion sheep all fed with lies
but the winds of change are blowing here
tell your girl she's not to fear
the ending of a page
the boggling of brains
london bridge is falling down
but we'll make a louder sound
to create a wave
we'll struggle a lot
but they'll wash away
Jan 25, 2014
Jan 25, 2014 at 9:53 PM UTC
How long has it been?
Days, weeks, millennia?
Ways speaks to character
Methods of ingress
Or egress
Or regrets about time spent
In the pursuit of something wholly less valuable
Something less palpable
Less tactile
More senile
My words have hit walls at high speeds
Left bleeding on the pavement
Leading on the evening news
Amongst the views of corporate hucksters
And genuine accidents
Dodgy precedents set by corrupt intuition
What am I even saying
These nonsensical ramblings
Born of too much time and too little patience
Have swallowed my cognition
Until I dribble to a halt
The moon is out tonight
Jan 23, 2013
Jan 23, 2013 at 5:36 AM UTC
She always thinks I'm two steps away from the door
But I'm not.
I'm secure with two feet on floorboards,
Scoreboards painted with permanent scores we forgot.
Permanent residence, precedents set by our parents,
Hesitant pecks on the terrace.
We're all just specks on a Ferris wheel,
Careless, real, with empty eyes, ever open.
Forget the divers;
Empathize with the ocean.
Plagiarize with emotion.
The boy who tells you to stop is more lost than you are,
More Boston, and too far from devotion to breathe.
You don’t need him.
Take my advice,
Like a traveling salesman in a baffling city.
The path isn't pretty,
But the destination is beautiful.
Dec 30, 2014
Dec 30, 2014 at 7:11 PM UTC
the keystone walls melting on on its of gold, taking their glistening edges, spreading all over, the foxes dipping in their hands in the outrage chase, dodging the bulders, putting down the poison that looks like the puddy, passing on the next seed, ears perked up, hunger and pity in the eyes, jesus I speak then I speak too quickly then I don’t speak quickly enough, wanting a few words to help me get through, but find that the words fall then the predictable precedents I’ve set for myself come back in a rush, and those who I at once thought were on my side have been injested, and I have become bigger, and even more confused. The swag is definite, and I have a few directions, then I pull ojn the tabs and suddenly I’m back with some of my pals, hey arnold preaching his word, his riches heir, poetry and padding patty and curly, punching me in the gut, great little suite in a little niche, its the life, what do I compare the next thing to, the abstract seems even more real than any joke falling on an audience, with a dead face that gets a chuckle and the band falls on the downbeat, a dance to distract from the lack of content
where am I coming from? Complete utter confusion, questions upon questions, leading me with no prejudice, missing the sweetness of pre-judgment, how it helped me get through days and dismiss, where is jesus? I’m lucifer, pesticide and bourbon and swanky classes sketching hateful remarks into the desk ******* off professor clawson, sent to the office of vice principal dawson, not the alpha but the cronie who worships, trouble with no proper attention, tar with no high, get used to the asphalt,
Jan 25, 2015
Jan 25, 2015 at 7:36 PM UTC
Yesterday I raced to get to the air pregnant,
awoke early to get to the starting line,
vacant pavement.
Today I wanted a new beginning,
to be awake finally,
to the erasure of all things,
precedents, that make desires incredible.
The sun gives light,
like fresh batteries.
Who did fashion who,
sun fashion man,
did man fashion sun,
did man work himself to get grace from the sun,
did sun work sun to be good for man,
or did air work both sun and man,
to be it's good children.
The fashions do change,
but one thing remains the same,
man is in a world well suited
for new beginnings.
Jul 12, 2013
Jul 12, 2013 at 1:43 PM UTC
The struggle’s made vivid
Played out in a telecast
The boundaries made rigid
Erecting a minted sociopath
Swallowing sick lies at the mercy of a pint
Regurgitating references made to incite
The warden lost hold
When privatization was sold
The winter ran cold
Captives grew bold
Scratching out eyes for dead presidents
Smoldered in flame
Lost in the mire of false precedents
Monopolizing the game
Hectic self-imposed calamity drawing heavy on the soul
Elitist mentality rips you away from the bowl
Recently paroled
Breathing in the mold
Knocking pawnshops for gold
Adjustments held…cost of being old
Nov 7, 2014
Nov 7, 2014 at 5:35 PM UTC
Laying this head
upon a hillside...
whose nurture
was numberless
bosoms.
How green the
liberties of innocence...
lost in termless growth.
Of whose Age of Joy
could never be qualified.
The yonder yellow of
networking dandelions,
setting sunny precedents.
As raring turtle doves
echo winds that have
already changed.
This season of werewithal,
for the reciprocation
of benediction.
Apr 11, 2016
Apr 11, 2016 at 3:57 PM UTC
Drawn from the seed
whether that be hurt anger or greed
on life it feeds
punishing misdeeds
it's not a pestilence
but it strangely represents
not dead presidents
but precedents
and the presence of man
comprehends and demands
that we make a plan
to understand
this simple constant
Dec 9, 2014
Dec 9, 2014 at 2:45 PM UTC
My world today is upside down
When truth is lies and cheating;
When the country is run by a clown
Who wants to be beyond defeating.
When robbing the poor is fun
For those who don’t need money.
When taking sick people’s insurance
To the wealthy is something funny.
The world is thinking with it’s ****
If looking back to Nazis is correct.
We have the burden to protest this,
We have a society we must protect.
Some are badly uneducated now
Because we have lowered the bar
On what we teach our children today.
Yes, we have sunk down that far.
As a people, we don’t seem to care
About who is making our laws now.
The law is full of massive restrictions
But most of us have no idea just how.
How did they get there, these rules
That support the rich and corporations?
When did we become this leviathan
Of criminals running our fine nation?
So, what can we do, short of revolution?
Do we all march in the streets and strike?
Do we stop buying cars and houses
And go to work every day on a bike?
Do we boycott spending money at all
Until the crooks are cleared away?
And how do we tell good from bad
In the way things are slanted today?
We all must speak and write and demand
Of the current representatives elected
To look to the precedents we have had
Upon which our great country was erected.
We founded this country on equality
And promised freedom for us all.
We have the burden to see to it
That our government answers that call.
Sep 6, 2018
Sep 6, 2018 at 1:25 PM UTC
We soon got wind of of the crime: he wound up with a wound but weathered it fairly well, waiting for the affair to wind down while they wondered whether windy weather had played a role affecting the whole scene. The effect of the hole, (seen in court) was downplayed, read at the hearing as a likely red herring.
The jury, having heard, gave their verdict as a herd; unanimously.
(And, more famously, anonymously.) The infamously failed assassination set precedents for presidents as we asked, as a nation, to have safety take precedence over presidential presence, urging all residents to monitor their residence since shooters deft for lead could leave others left for dead indeed.
The casings were recovered, and the whole case covered by the press (though some journalists, pressed by the particulars of the case, cased out the possibility of covering close-up) until the case closed up.
Apr 15, 2019
Apr 15, 2019 at 3:17 PM UTC
Drib drab syntax;
don’t follow what you’ve been taught.
Dreams flow delicate, and words follow suit.
Precedents only compliment,
the things that should go wrong.
Calamities may seem tragedies,
without the softness of time.
Don’t listen to the music;
you’ll only define your mind.
If you don’t like what’s hidden,
then don’t let it be true.
See the goodness of intention,
notice the sorrow of the action.
Hear the wisdom of ignorance,
See the colour of the dark,
hear the song of the mundane,
know the heart of the timid,
list the parts that make up nothing,
feel the touch of empty space.
Know the difference between a skipped heartbeat,
and the love that takes its place.
Feb 19, 2014
Feb 19, 2014 at 11:21 AM UTC
This resident hedonist
is feeding false promises, premises,
had precedents
lacks presence
get off our premises president
our countries bloodied and blemished
supposed genius turned menace
made a promising entrance
now with vehemence, menaces
subverts his messages, sentences
burn our nemesis' edifice
don't hide in the crevices
its prescience
Dec 2, 2015
Dec 2, 2015 at 4:42 AM UTC
white owl breathless beaming
pale is favored ghost
**** how you are feeling
when u feel it **** the most
breed evil when you’re sleeping
ghost finds pale is home
*** life under purple
is bareskin under bleeding vol
while you are wide away
sad poison smiles weeping
lungs sawwed off life precedents
for coffins that they’ll slleep in
Jul 23, 2015
Jul 23, 2015 at 3:27 PM UTC