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"wherefores" poems
He can’t explain the pain Like boot prints on his brain And it only seems to subside When she is beside him. Then, it begins to slowly dim. When she is not around He can be found on the ground Screaming just like his head, Full of frenzied villagers instead Of what everyone else feels And thinks, as he again sinks Into that swamp of horror And anguish. Moreover, He knows he is alone in this. This is not from her kiss It is from its absence. He’s not addicted to absinthe Like some Victorian poet. He’s insane now and knows it. But she can calm mind In the deluge he always finds When she goes away a while. First he loses the desire to smile Then he can’t talk any more. He forgets what words are for. He only howls and raves. He knows nobody can save him. He has but to swim to shore From the wreck that is his peace. It is his only real release. It’s all that heals his soul. She has become the goal His only purpose in the world Is in the hands of this one girl; This woman, elevated to deity. His only true reality. How can this happen, he cries. He doesn’t understand the whys And wherefores that turns love, Completion and fulfillment Into horrifying derailment Of all his hopes and dreams And fills his heart with screams Like a little boy on a wrong bus. And nobody there to discuss things To help him see what is happening And why the one thing he cares for Doesn’t fulfill him anymore Unless she is here to hold his hand. He fails completely to understand. Brent Kincaid 2/13/2015
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Feb 13, 2015
Feb 13, 2015 at 9:14 PM UTC
OBSSESSION
He can’t explain the pain Like boot prints on his brain And it only seems to subside When she is beside him. Then, it begins to slowly dim. When she is not around He can be found on the ground Screaming just like his head, Full of frenzied villagers instead Of what everyone else feels And thinks, as he again sinks Into that swamp of horror And anguish. Moreover, He knows he is alone in this. This is not from her kiss It is from its absence. He’s not addicted to absinthe Like some Victorian poet. He’s insane now and knows it. But she can calm mind In the deluge he always finds When she goes away a while. First he loses the desire to smile Then he can’t talk any more. He forgets what words are for. He only howls and raves. He knows nobody can save him. He has but to swim to shore From the wreck that is his peace. It is his only real release. It’s all that heals his soul. She has become the goal His only purpose in the world Is in the hands of this one girl; This woman, elevated to deity. His only true reality. How can this happen, he cries. He doesn’t understand the whys And wherefores that turns love, Completion and fulfillment Into horrifying derailment Of all his hopes and dreams And fills his heart with screams Like a little boy on a wrong bus. And nobody there to discuss things To help him see what is happening And why the one thing he cares for Doesn’t fulfill him anymore Unless she is here to hold his hand. He fails completely to understand. Brent Kincaid 2/13/2015
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52
i feel i am an acquired taste maybe i'm not everyone's cup of tea i am one who will not always have the right words to say but will search high and low even down the back of the couch to find ones that will fit to make you smile just so i know you are happy i won't always have the answers to life's whys and wherefores but if you give me reason i will believe in you and follow your lead to the ends of the earth my only pleasure will be in my giving you pleasure i seem to be wired that way it's just how my heart works i'm soft and i can't change it no matter how hard i try i guess most others want the one they share their life with to have spirit to be feisty to be strong but i am very often none of those things but in my own way i am them all so i come as a package deal complete with fairy lights a quiet soul and a sunny disposition i don't know if that's annoying probably is but like i said i'm not everyone's cup of tea but i like coffee so maybe it doesn't matter all that much so for now i will keep it to myself for when the moment comes and someone asks to take me out to tea until then i will wait patiently with hope behind my eyes eyes which will always look upon you in wonder
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Sep 5, 2016
Sep 5, 2016 at 4:40 PM UTC
not everyone's cup of tea :o)
Yeah, I know all about your people How they worship drunken image How they've exalted you to the status Of a hero, a legend A mythological god Bacchus best buddy You keep good company but swine follow you Different as day and night Yet they all clamor for a good seat They fight and swing fists For a place in the front row For the chance that a stream of gin-soaked spittle might splat on one of their faces a soothing balm a gob of stench and sputum They gather it up They mix it with mud Thicken it into gel and bow down to a snot green idol a pus dripping idol They'll worship it at the foot of the mountain The towering landfill where you've brought them Or they'll bring it to your ceremonies They wave your banner in the air A colorful representation of the Beefeater Proud of their devotion Proud of their status as "The Chosen" Not necessarily Sure Of the WHYS or the WHEREFORES You just seemed to be worth the trouble Worth a laugh to watch you To see you falling down To hear your words of wisdom (True wise words they are, too) Slurred into gibberish You are their man Whose oracles remain silent Lost in a deep dream that swirls through your sleep-dizzy mind Whose glory and honor Fall down From your pulpit In the center of a room full of people 99% of whom see YOU Not as a profit Not as a beatnik Not as a poet Not as a sage Not as a seeker Not as an asgst ridden agnostic No idol No god 99% know exactly What you are
0
Sep 14, 2010
Sep 14, 2010 at 6:55 AM UTC
pIANO mAN
You’ll find them in all such establishments, (Be they graceful small-town former Victorian homes, Or cinderblock edifices mindful of some campus multi-faith center) Sitting in the basement, cheek-to-jowl With moldering burial records and banking statements, Yellowed newspaper clippings, faded prayer cards Small squared-off boxes hastily tabbed together, Ostensibly temporary containers which have acquired An unintended and wholly unwelcome permanence. The whys and wherefores of their subterranean placement A mixed bag of foible and outright foolishness: Unresolvable squabbles concerning possession and burial, Families that skipped out on the bill, leaving mom behind, Cases of outright not giving a good-goddamn. And so they remain, in lieu of repatriation and redemption, To sit for something akin to perpetuity in some cases (Members of the profession resolute in their respect For the dignity of life, Though their sincerity enjoys less unanimity) While others wait for mass burial Once legal niceties have been satisfied, While still others, in care of firms not so scrupulous About crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s, Are flung, albeit somewhat surreptitiously, out the back door, The remains to take flight if the grass is dry and the wind is brisk, Otherwise to be left to the vagaries Of curious birds and creped soles.
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Aug 31, 2018
Aug 31, 2018 at 11:28 AM UTC
the unclaimed
messing with perfection, you critique yourself, why do it yet again, a single choice, ******* yet every time them words, penetrate, they instigate, and you want to let~vent, burst busting out in glory bible student, we both. so understand that titled reference instantly, the secondary hid, secreted a hurting with hallelujah familiarity I weep. missing the singer, his poetry delights, paralyzes with a *********** indescribable, ecstaticly indebted to him, his chosen words he chose, I chose, this decision to accept, the need to expiate, explain, to better understand our whys, therby grasp our wherefores, to give ourselves up entire, thereby making, giving and even t a k i n g, the very chore so human to accept, that surrendering, f o r g i v i n g, one accomplishes a chance to uncover the godliness within that sparks our frail humanity to blossom to fruition, that our fragility is the thinnest tissue of diamond iron strength encasing and encoding us unique but yet united by a single commonality, that we are holy, born to be to be celebrated and to share our voices so differing in an unceasing harmony
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Sep 16, 2024
Sep 16, 2024 at 9:11 AM UTC
The Baffled King
its birthplace, its origins, the where the whence, these clues are inclusive of sources of inspiration which are like handholds, Even, "incidents and accidents / There were hints and allegations" but you knew, you knew in advance, you, Can Call Me Al" eye easing offerings, kindly giving kindling, to the overwhelmed reader burning eyes, ease the struggle, hire/higher the insights, just hints of the wherefores, if the whys so desperate must remain secreted in your heart alone you are so right! the greatest poems ever go oft,  without stepping stones, why not mine? If you anticipate scholars centuries later explicating your poems, well then, they most of all, will  need a leg up about your disco~ graphy
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Sep 1, 2025
Sep 1, 2025 at 4:04 PM UTC
On Writing Poetry II: A poem exists forever but, oft, can use/needs handholds
*Every time I see your face I remember, Every single moment we had and wonder, How could you become so cold and dull, How come  you changed and I dwell, On keeping you in my heart's core, To abide your promises among the lies, Neglecting the wherefores and the lies.* © copy right protected
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Apr 5, 2014
Apr 5, 2014 at 4:24 PM UTC
I REMEMBER
She is the living embodiment of the cliché, The song where the male sub-lead Returns from some second shift, some third drink To find she has gone, leaving some scrap-paper note, Hastily scribbled and wholly incomplete, Some variation upon Don’t try and find me, And so she is suitably unfound herself, As she has given great thought to her froms, But rather short shrift to her tos, Finding herself north of the Thruway, Looking for somewhere to spend the night (The twin motors of adrenaline and anxiety running on fumes) Happening upon, as if almost by some beneficent magic, A Travelodge bordered by an expanse of cornfield (Long since gone to seed, the stalks bowed and spent, Waiting for the patently overdue cob harvester) And after she is checked in and somewhat unpacked (The bored, bemused woman who slumps about the front desk Mercifully sparing with the small talk) The skies, which had been late-October slate blur-gray, Slightly malevolent but only implicit in their threats, Open up in a cold and unwelcome drizzle, And, whys and wherefores being things for a later date, She runs outside and begins dancing in the parking lot, Unseen and unremarked upon, And even though the rain is cold, soaking, grim in portent (The forecast dourly noting the possibility of wet snow, Nattering that accumulation is possible at higher elevations.) She is seemingly unaware and unconcerned As to the upshot of this drenching, Any whispers of the two or three other occupants of the motel, Any judgments passed upon her mad danse pour un, As she has passed beyond any notion of admonition.
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Nov 2, 2017
Nov 2, 2017 at 12:34 PM UTC
woman, jumping
She is the living embodiment of the cliché, The song where the male sub-lead Returns from some second shift, some third drink To find she has gone, leaving some scrap-paper note, Hastily scribbled and wholly incomplete, Some variation upon Don’t try and find me, And so she is suitably unfound herself, As she has given great thought to her froms, But rather short shrift to her tos, Finding herself north of the Thruway, Looking for somewhere to spend the night (The twin motors of adrenaline and anxiety running on fumes) Happening upon, as if almost by some beneficent magic, A Travelodge bordered by an expanse of cornfield (Long since gone to seed, the stalks bowed and spent, Waiting for the patently overdue cob harvester) And after she is checked in and somewhat unpacked (The bored, bemused woman who slumps about the front desk Mercifully sparing with the small talk) The skies, which had been late-October slate blur-gray, Slightly malevolent but only implicit in their threats, Open up in a cold and unwelcome drizzle, And, whys and wherefores being things for a later date, She runs outside and begins dancing in the parking lot, Unseen and unremarked upon, And even though the rain is cold, soaking, grim in portent (The forecast dourly noting the possibility of wet snow, Nattering that accumulation is possible at higher elevations.) She is seemingly unaware and unconcerned As to the upshot of this drenching, Any whispers of the two or three other occupants of the motel, Any judgments passed upon her mad danse pour un, As she has passed beyond any notion of admonition.
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The whys or where's nor the for art thous or the perhaps now I know not the love me nows nor loved me then or even the when I know not the cerulean sky nor the indigo goodbye or the softest sigh... I know not when words tried nor when the rhythm died or Poetry became a lie I know not the how's or wherefores or keeping score but I know when love of something begins to end bleeding from lacerations bashed against rocks... I know then...
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Jul 20, 2014
Jul 20, 2014 at 3:41 AM UTC
I Know Not...
They met in a secluded lane Though didn't kiss, or touch exchange No kissing was there to be done For he felt the sadness in her voice For life had so far run its course Leaving only sadness in its wake Exchanging thoughts and views The why's and wherefores Of how and when their lives had broken Then as chance they met, They parted same Only to go their separate ways It was rather nice he had to say To look once more upon her face Imagine days and nights gone by Emmbraced in passion in a former life But part they did in stiff lip fashion Parting with no kiss or embrace Home to bed and thoughts to race He awoke having made love the whole night long But when he turned to kiss her she was gone He realised then it was all but a dream Nothing in life is as it seems.
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Sep 25, 2013
Sep 25, 2013 at 6:09 AM UTC
About Last Night?
Don’t stare, but don’t look away as if we don’t exist or will disappear. Don’t judge. “So glad that’s not me” It could be. Don’t assume “drugs”…”lazy” “offer a dollar it’ll go for ***** You don’t know Don’t presume to grasp the reasons, the whys the wherefores don’t write us off as useless, worthless, less… If you can’t help, don’t want to help, are afraid to help, don’t trust, then Just offer a smile, A good wish or prayer But acknowledge we exist, we, too, are human. We breathe, we feel, We need… trust and love, Not disdain, not even pity if that is all you have to give… don’t…
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Apr 28, 2018
Apr 28, 2018 at 9:49 AM UTC
Homeless (a repost)
Time eternal, time translucent of light Time in our hands Who would believe That we were once borne in a lifetime All by itself and the many generations That came after.. Time eternal as they say Yes..there is always a time for us But memories however vague Still color our world of make believe Reminiscent of an era not so long ago Taken by light as another dimension The wherefores, and henceforth Man so solid in light A time for us..time as you guessed It is in our hands Whether you open it To welcome opportunities Or when you close it to finalize matters To stand and corrected And be at peace with God.
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Oct 8, 2014
Oct 8, 2014 at 1:49 AM UTC
A TIME FOR US
By: Cedric McClester Here are the wherefores and whys Alternative facts are just lies Projected as strong alibis To misdirect the unwise The photos offer us the proof That alternative facts aren’t the truth From the mouth of the liar and chief It’s incredulous beyond belief Admittedly she’s a real jewel Convincing to those she can fool But she’s being used like a tool And that is unusual and cruel The universe she’s living in Is ruled by an ocean of spin She does it because she can Can we have the church say amen The press is truly amazed How she instantly coined the phrase Alternative facts now replays In interesting and varied ways Like no one wants to see his taxes When the opposite is where the facts is But I guess she’s had so much practice At the prestidigitation she waxes She’s his spokesperson, as it were Her words rarely represent her Over time it becomes a blur Though that thought might not occur His taxes remain on a shelf So blame him and nobody else If he de-legitimizes himself Like Kramden, I’m talkin’ ‘bout Ralph Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
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Jan 23, 2017
Jan 23, 2017 at 8:22 AM UTC
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
--- is it the forest or the trees where the real truth lies? is it in elephant graveyards where a true heart dies? and how can sages ask the wherefores and the whys? *there's only One who measures the circumference of the skies.* soulsurvivor aka Write of Passage aka Invisible inc (C) 8/26/2015
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Aug 26, 2015
Aug 26, 2015 at 11:55 AM UTC
circumference of the skies
If wishes were prayer Saturday, January 28, 2023 12:06 PM let me go wry or right, let me be as one you witnessed falling, and for that breath, believed, wishes work as wonders do, with very little help from things thought truer. I think of you, reading words I write, I thrill a little at the intimate point of wedom, the thoughts I fit to words, and sent into the other state, to wait, and wait, and become too tiny to make any change not made, at the time, when we touched as words do, and held the hope that words hold. Being as an event, we be apart, we be all one. And we cannot unbecome. ---------------------- Inner being, being in me, other than I, guide me, today. I am willing to be useful, I do not have an aim, I hold no hope of fame and recognosis, I live to become a memory, at best, and less than a memory, eventually. I lie if I deny the joy I take from any sign, I see you, thinking whys atop wherefores and how comes, sudden otherness occuring in a wedom framed by grand imaginations, a new form of governing mankind, a new reason to be defensive… earnestly contending for pride of place, top of the pile. ------------------------ My Saturday, as all my days are now, a day of rest, a day of being after growing old enough, not, too; but plenty old enough, to reason with war, face on face, as if, war and I were forces of the same sort. Ideas, grand wads of thought threads, spun from times last chances, grabbed with all I have to hold, huggishly, for comforting knowledge, I am not alone in wishing prayers were left being, answered on reception, now, then, left being alright. Amen. ----------- It is in the thousands, tens of thousands, even, Even, everish, same old, same balanced on the upright, walking, past any hope to become one of those, the greats, not even a billion to one, the odds of me becoming, by the time I survived, the odds were even worse, not a chance. I bet, I said, I bet I won, my race already run, by now, you know, the results are pending review, and then I died, and the results were these remaining lines you take in, as though you heard me talking, and thought you might over hear and know, all the songs of us, are about you. The most self-centered man I ever met, said my therapist to me, as I spun dervishly on my point. ------------------
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Jan 28, 2023
Jan 28, 2023 at 4:41 PM UTC
Wish or prayer, or transubstantiation
If wishes were prayer Saturday, January 28, 2023 12:06 PM let me go wry or right, let me be as one you witnessed falling, and for that breath, believed, wishes work as wonders do, with very little help from things thought truer. I think of you, reading words I write, I thrill a little at the intimate point of wedom, the thoughts I fit to words, and sent into the other state, to wait, and wait, and become too tiny to make any change not made, at the time, when we touched as words do, and held the hope that words hold. Being as an event, we be apart, we be all one. And we cannot unbecome. ---------------------- Inner being, being in me, other than I, guide me, today. I am willing to be useful, I do not have an aim, I hold no hope of fame and recognosis, I live to become a memory, at best, and less than a memory, eventually. I lie if I deny the joy I take from any sign, I see you, thinking whys atop wherefores and how comes, sudden otherness occuring in a wedom framed by grand imaginations, a new form of governing mankind, a new reason to be defensive… earnestly contending for pride of place, top of the pile. ------------------------ My Saturday, as all my days are now, a day of rest, a day of being after growing old enough, not, too; but plenty old enough, to reason with war, face on face, as if, war and I were forces of the same sort. Ideas, grand wads of thought threads, spun from times last chances, grabbed with all I have to hold, huggishly, for comforting knowledge, I am not alone in wishing prayers were left being, answered on reception, now, then, left being alright. Amen. ----------- It is in the thousands, tens of thousands, even, Even, everish, same old, same balanced on the upright, walking, past any hope to become one of those, the greats, not even a billion to one, the odds of me becoming, by the time I survived, the odds were even worse, not a chance. I bet, I said, I bet I won, my race already run, by now, you know, the results are pending review, and then I died, and the results were these remaining lines you take in, as though you heard me talking, and thought you might over hear and know, all the songs of us, are about you. The most self-centered man I ever met, said my therapist to me, as I spun dervishly on my point. ------------------
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70
The most learned of astronomers, philosophers and medical men state man is born to die. Timely sands starts flowing, in-vitro. Before you first open your beautiful eyes. Opening those eyes, to first see the light. For, as a child, odd moments occur. You could potentially be dying of fright. Just me having a chuckle. Not wanting to believe life is minute. Oh, so scared of dying. At some stage in life. Children can't conceive the fact, one day all men have to die. Once upon a time. I was said child. I grew. I started to ache knowingly. My worry dispelled. Dying was fearful. I became tearful. Not scared anymore. Now my fellows in life are falling like flies. No whys or wherefores, Nothing's wrong. Life's an eternal wheel. Rolls on and on. What follows life on earth? Find me a dead man who can confirm the truth to those who still live. Welcome to the land of wait and see. (c)LIVVI Inspired by the untimely death of VICTORIA WOOD.
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Apr 21, 2016
Apr 21, 2016 at 7:01 AM UTC
THE ART IN DYING
Such raiments would be the province Of those gated and corniced places Up on the hillside, and even that milieu Living on residue and recollection, The glories of the past Fading like so many past-peak October leaves, Beautiful in the sense of such colors They heretofore possessed, Though in any case, the whys and wherefores And relative merits of thens and nows Secondary to more prosaic matters: The price per gallon at the Gulf station down on Route 17, Seasonal temps at Bear Mountain Trying line up some other gig or side-hustle Once the land locks and the leaf-peepers and hikers go home, Those hoping corroded propane tanks and curled shingles Can make it just one more winter, And if the worried and wondering Enjoyed the luxury of philosophic musing, They might ponder upon what those earlier residents Who had lived at the apex of Manhattan society (And possibly even those earlier residents, Jumbles of Patroon and Lenape blood Who crouched forlornly in the Palisades As that skyline came into being) Would think of what became of this place, Yet as they look up there are no ghosts of the ancients, But merely the impassive, lazily circling turkey vultures, Implacable, enduring, constant.
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Oct 14, 2022
Oct 14, 2022 at 4:09 PM UTC
tuxedo junction, now
Her parentage was a thing of considerable comment Though a good deal less circumspection, Mama's identity relatively sure, as everyone knew her mama, Her father one of a laundry list of unpromising gardeners, Yet she was a child of grace--no, more than that An outlier in every sense of the word, The dazzling unintended consequence Resulting from a series of unwise and unhappy choices. She sauntered (though there are those romantically inclined sorts Who would insist she outright floated, Her feet rarely if ever touching ground) By the courthouse in Okolona most afternoons, And though her dress was from the house of Ralston and Purina And her jewelry courtesy of Sailor Jack and Bingo, She neither shrunk nor slunk self-consciously Nor walked with eyes ablaze and fists clenched, In a manner asking Mebbe you wanna make sumpin' of it? Simply walked her own walk, Such things as poverty and pedigree Trvial matters beneath her concern, Though she was always provided for, as a seemingly chosen child, Judge Hibbard giving her a store-bought doll from Jackson When she turned seven, others providing her pop and bubble gum, And later Miss Lucille Brisker sewed her a bright-blue silk dress Plus gave her forty-two dollars for a Greyhound ticket To Los Angeles via New Orleans (When she hopped the bus in front of the K &B, She gave her a peck on the cheek, and said *Miss Lucille, you take care, but I doubt I'm much likely to pass this way again.*) Her whys and wherefores after that were lost to time and tide: Perhaps she made it in L-A, perhaps she thought else-wise And hopped off the bus in Hattiesburg or Bogalusa Though most were of the opinion that it mattered little if at all, As she allowed them, leastways for a little while, To be in her orbit while she shone in such a manner as pleased her.
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Mar 26, 2018
Mar 26, 2018 at 4:27 PM UTC
A Variation Upon Bobbie Gentry's "Chickasaw County Child"
Her parentage was a thing of considerable comment Though a good deal less circumspection, Mama's identity relatively sure, as everyone knew her mama, Her father one of a laundry list of unpromising gardeners, Yet she was a child of grace--no, more than that An outlier in every sense of the word, The dazzling unintended consequence Resulting from a series of unwise and unhappy choices. She sauntered (though there are those romantically inclined sorts Who would insist she outright floated, Her feet rarely if ever touching ground) By the courthouse in Okolona most afternoons, And though her dress was from the house of Ralston and Purina And her jewelry courtesy of Sailor Jack and Bingo, She neither shrunk nor slunk self-consciously Nor walked with eyes ablaze and fists clenched, In a manner asking Mebbe you wanna make sumpin' of it? Simply walked her own walk, Such things as poverty and pedigree Trvial matters beneath her concern, Though she was always provided for, as a seemingly chosen child, Judge Hibbard giving her a store-bought doll from Jackson When she turned seven, others providing her pop and bubble gum, And later Miss Lucille Brisker sewed her a bright-blue silk dress Plus gave her forty-two dollars for a Greyhound ticket To Los Angeles via New Orleans (When she hopped the bus in front of the K &B, She gave her a peck on the cheek, and said *Miss Lucille, you take care, but I doubt I'm much likely to pass this way again.*) Her whys and wherefores after that were lost to time and tide: Perhaps she made it in L-A, perhaps she thought else-wise And hopped off the bus in Hattiesburg or Bogalusa Though most were of the opinion that it mattered little if at all, As she allowed them, leastways for a little while, To be in her orbit while she shone in such a manner as pleased her.
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36
By: Cedric McClester Words have meaning (oh yes they do) But some of us act like that isn’t true Out of our own mouths we degrade ourselves And call it a term of endearment But that’s hoping and wishing That the definition no longer means what it meant Isn’t it strange that nothing has changed Except the user’s intent Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Who can deny (or try to justify) The use of a term born from hate Open your eyes your wherefores and whys Aren’t creditable things to debate Too many fatalities come from the realities Of the words that we state We have to change course by influence or force Cos the hour is getting late Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Why do you figure Jay-z became Jigger And gave up his first claim to fame It was his ambition to defy definition Besides that wasn’t his name It was a non-starter for Mr. Shawn Carter That he wasn’t willing to barter Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today So let us aspire to (remove or retire) A term that we’ve come to abuse I swear I’m no liar we can aim higher Than some of the words that we use Let’s give conscious thought to the thing we had ought Not to do that we can refuse It an offense that doesn’t make sense And we’ve already paid the dues Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Words have meaning (oh yes they do) But some of us act like that isn’t true Out of our own mouths we degrade ourselves And call it a term of endearment But that’s hoping and wishing That the definition no longer means what it meant Isn’t it strange that nothing has changed Except the user’s intent (c) Copyright 2015, Cedric McClester.  All rights reserved.
0
Apr 21, 2015
Apr 21, 2015 at 10:08 PM UTC
WORDS HAVE MEANING
By: Cedric McClester Words have meaning (oh yes they do) But some of us act like that isn’t true Out of our own mouths we degrade ourselves And call it a term of endearment But that’s hoping and wishing That the definition no longer means what it meant Isn’t it strange that nothing has changed Except the user’s intent Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Who can deny (or try to justify) The use of a term born from hate Open your eyes your wherefores and whys Aren’t creditable things to debate Too many fatalities come from the realities Of the words that we state We have to change course by influence or force Cos the hour is getting late Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Why do you figure Jay-z became Jigger And gave up his first claim to fame It was his ambition to defy definition Besides that wasn’t his name It was a non-starter for Mr. Shawn Carter That he wasn’t willing to barter Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today So let us aspire to (remove or retire) A term that we’ve come to abuse I swear I’m no liar we can aim higher Than some of the words that we use Let’s give conscious thought to the thing we had ought Not to do that we can refuse It an offense that doesn’t make sense And we’ve already paid the dues Ain’t it absurd people died for a word That we openly use today It never occurred that to be referred to As sub-human is not okay A term of affection (or misdirection) Which do you think is in play When you use that word that is so often heard Out of young mouths today Words have meaning (oh yes they do) But some of us act like that isn’t true Out of our own mouths we degrade ourselves And call it a term of endearment But that’s hoping and wishing That the definition no longer means what it meant Isn’t it strange that nothing has changed Except the user’s intent (c) Copyright 2015, Cedric McClester.  All rights reserved.
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72
He'd always been able to slip it on and off, Puttin' the tux on, as he put it; He'd often told his wife (A legit beauty, real glamour top to bottom) *I may be scruffy little wop-ass Walden Cassotto in here, But once I go outside, I'm Bobby Darin And I ******* well make sure they don't forget it.* But it was a garment much like the ones he wore Back at All Boys in the Bronx, a hand-me-down thing, From some third-tier department store or Army -Navy, A little too worn here, a little patched too often there, Unable to mask the real whos and whys and wherefores Of a decidedly gilded-cage existence, And while he was musing ad infinitum Upon the vicissitudes of Sukey ****** and Lotte Lenya, There there were things going down   Away from The Flamingo and Golden Nugget, And begun to suspect that he was on the wrong stage, So he chucked it all in-- the cars, the studio sessions, The club gigs, even the sequin-sparkle wife, Opting to hunker down into a small camper (A decidedly acoustic model at that) Eschewing the hairpiece and putting on glasses, Looking like just one more Summer-Of-Love refugee Wandering down the coastline Seeking some pastoral pot-primed epiphany, And he was looking, suspecting it was more likely That he wouldn't know it for sure until it snuck up on him, So he waited, plucking a dime-store six string In a ratty old lawn chair by the door of the cub camper, The tuxedo inside, either as a hedge or habit, Though as he invariably told the occasional visitor *Thing ain't no more empty on a hanger Than it was on my shoulders*.
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Apr 2, 2018
Apr 2, 2018 at 11:33 AM UTC
Bobby Darin In Big Sur
He'd always been able to slip it on and off, Puttin' the tux on, as he put it; He'd often told his wife (A legit beauty, real glamour top to bottom) *I may be scruffy little wop-ass Walden Cassotto in here, But once I go outside, I'm Bobby Darin And I ******* well make sure they don't forget it.* But it was a garment much like the ones he wore Back at All Boys in the Bronx, a hand-me-down thing, From some third-tier department store or Army -Navy, A little too worn here, a little patched too often there, Unable to mask the real whos and whys and wherefores Of a decidedly gilded-cage existence, And while he was musing ad infinitum Upon the vicissitudes of Sukey ****** and Lotte Lenya, There there were things going down   Away from The Flamingo and Golden Nugget, And begun to suspect that he was on the wrong stage, So he chucked it all in-- the cars, the studio sessions, The club gigs, even the sequin-sparkle wife, Opting to hunker down into a small camper (A decidedly acoustic model at that) Eschewing the hairpiece and putting on glasses, Looking like just one more Summer-Of-Love refugee Wandering down the coastline Seeking some pastoral pot-primed epiphany, And he was looking, suspecting it was more likely That he wouldn't know it for sure until it snuck up on him, So he waited, plucking a dime-store six string In a ratty old lawn chair by the door of the cub camper, The tuxedo inside, either as a hedge or habit, Though as he invariably told the occasional visitor *Thing ain't no more empty on a hanger Than it was on my shoulders*.
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34
If you observe occurrences in Nature (The way a stone ripples the water, The arc of a cormorant descending toward its prey) You will note a precision in the movements Which is utterly Pythagorean in its pattern (Not that the natural world is without its inconsistencies; The progress of a conflagration, for example, seems entirely random.) It would seem that such a thing is good; No, more than that, entirely holy, All that is necessary and sufficient to prove beyond doubt That which is equally necessary and central to our belief: A plan--His plan--which governs all things under the sun. Such notions, I have found to my considerable dismay, Do not sit well with viceroys and archbishops, Who have a vested interest in the maintenance of certain mysteries (To be fair, they are not evil or necessarily even impious; They are men, nothing more or less, And have to navigate perilous, unmapped straits Between the secular and the sacred; at their appointed time, They will have their own commissions and omissions to answer for.) Nevertheless, none of us can escape the certainty That the root of our faults can be found at our own doorway, And I cannot deny that the attempt To reduce God’s works to a schematic of formulas, diagrams and triads And then, preening and squawking as a peacock, Trumpet the results to the world (As if the mystery of faith would be no more Than a handful of equations and charts) Is simply the manure of arrogance, the flotsam of sinful pride. I have had, these past few weeks, Considerable leisure to pray and reflect; My thoughts have not drifted, curiously enough, To the great and sweeping, the grand and all-encompassing (Perhaps that is due to the whys and wherefores of my current predicament, Perhaps due to the narrow window of my enclosure), But rather to the most pedestrian of things: The clarion of the wind in the trees prior to a brief summer storm, The lover’s dance of the hummingbird and the lupin, And I am comforted (and, I confess, a bit amused) By the notion that Our Savior may take a moment from his labors To watch them as well.
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Dec 20, 2016
Dec 20, 2016 at 10:26 AM UTC
In Which Brother Juniper Muses To Himself On The Morning He Is To Be Burned
If you observe occurrences in Nature (The way a stone ripples the water, The arc of a cormorant descending toward its prey) You will note a precision in the movements Which is utterly Pythagorean in its pattern (Not that the natural world is without its inconsistencies; The progress of a conflagration, for example, seems entirely random.) It would seem that such a thing is good; No, more than that, entirely holy, All that is necessary and sufficient to prove beyond doubt That which is equally necessary and central to our belief: A plan--His plan--which governs all things under the sun. Such notions, I have found to my considerable dismay, Do not sit well with viceroys and archbishops, Who have a vested interest in the maintenance of certain mysteries (To be fair, they are not evil or necessarily even impious; They are men, nothing more or less, And have to navigate perilous, unmapped straits Between the secular and the sacred; at their appointed time, They will have their own commissions and omissions to answer for.) Nevertheless, none of us can escape the certainty That the root of our faults can be found at our own doorway, And I cannot deny that the attempt To reduce God’s works to a schematic of formulas, diagrams and triads And then, preening and squawking as a peacock, Trumpet the results to the world (As if the mystery of faith would be no more Than a handful of equations and charts) Is simply the manure of arrogance, the flotsam of sinful pride. I have had, these past few weeks, Considerable leisure to pray and reflect; My thoughts have not drifted, curiously enough, To the great and sweeping, the grand and all-encompassing (Perhaps that is due to the whys and wherefores of my current predicament, Perhaps due to the narrow window of my enclosure), But rather to the most pedestrian of things: The clarion of the wind in the trees prior to a brief summer storm, The lover’s dance of the hummingbird and the lupin, And I am comforted (and, I confess, a bit amused) By the notion that Our Savior may take a moment from his labors To watch them as well.
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40
He is unsure at this point if the soft pings and dings Which inflict themselves upon his ears Are courtesy of the wired-up grotesqueries Stuffed cheek-to-jowl by his bedside Or from the ubiquitous phone perched forlornly next to him (Even at this stage, he has his inevitable newsfeed, And he imagines he will be tagged in Facebook posts Long after he has been exorcised From the concerns of this workaday world) Chronicled nattering of people Tethered to him in the most tenuous of manners, Or the fifteen or so seconds of flashing come-ons Purveyed to capture what passes for our attention On those three-inch billboards Without which our very existence Would have only the most speculative of meanings. As he totters toward the final reckoning, Remaining breaths perhaps few enough To be counted upon his desiccated fingers, He would, though he has nothing left to pawn, No collateral left to barter upon, Give all for just one more trip around the sun, Even though he remains nonplussed by the notion That we leave as we arrive, Bereft of clues or whys and wherefores, Not unlike those came before us, Whose weathered and indecipherable stones Stand as mute sentinels as some staid convoy Brings our pitiable refrain to a full stop.
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Sep 25, 2018
Sep 25, 2018 at 12:20 PM UTC
A Variation Upon Father John Misty's "Ballad Of The Dying Man."
Do you ever wonder Is there’s any thing to find In the wide world Outside your mind The whys and the wherefores The reasons and the rhyme For dreams of the night And the daytime There is coming and there’s going One day things will end All the walls will fall All the wounds will mend There’s a space between every thing A cushioning of air Everything will be OK If we stay in there In the crevices and cracks In all realities We will find a deep And everlasting peace March 25 2017
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Mar 25, 2017
Mar 25, 2017 at 7:08 AM UTC
Crevices And Cracks
By: Cedric McClester Let’s get down to brass tacks And ask ourselves the whys Are we savages or civilized In other people’s eyes We take death for granted Of course everybody dies But they go a whole lot faster When the bullets start to fly Guns are everywhere To their advocate’s delight And they’re quick to sprout-off About Second Amendment righs While another lone assassin Puts out somebody’s lights And the argument continues Throughout the days and nights One thing is for certain ‘Cos the point's made very clear The only place it’s happening Appears to be right here Is it something in our psyche That we need to learn to fear Or are we just violence prone ‘Cos we’ve had more than our share As we look for answers And engage in a frantic search Nine innocents at Bible Study Are shot down in their church He was there to take those blacks Off the face of the earth And turn the tide for his own kind In a search for his own worth Copyright © 2015, Cedric McClester. All rights are reserved
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Jun 19, 2015
Jun 19, 2015 at 5:14 AM UTC
THE WHEREFORES AND THE WHYS