She was a fast machine
She kept her motor clean
She was the best **** woman I had ever seen
She had the sightless eyes
Telling me no lies
Knockin' me out with those American thighs
Taking more than her share
Had me fighting for air
She told me to come but I was already there
'Cause the walls start shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you

Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long

Working double time
On the seduction line
She was one of a kind, she's just mine all mine
Wanted no applause
Just another course
Made a meal out of me and came back for more
Had to cool me down
To take another round
Now I'm back in the ring to take another swing
'Cause the walls were shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you

Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long

And knocked me out and then you
Shook me all night long
You had me shakin' and you
Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me
Well you took me

You really took me and you
Shook me all night long
Ooooh you
Shook me all night long
Yeah, yeah, you
Shook me all night long
You really took me and you
Yeah you shook me, yeah you shook me
All night long

funk me   shaman
anthropologists
disclaim me
where the native is sold or stolen
and the dreamcatcher's catch nothing but gold
my allies are my soul
the issues older than Geronimo
the  rivers red with blood
the lands stole
plantations rose
the great spirit rode
off in a chariot
left me wondering where
here is now

of hymn sings melodies harmonics to me
here of all of us
into the dreaming visions of peace
i see, i sing,
out of tune with reality, whatever,
stealing the words, of perhaps,
Ritchie Valens, or the Doors or Who sings
urgency of now like smashing things , pumpkins
guitars , drum solos sets Martin Luther King,
Gandhi, The pope or the Catholic reigns or Jewish straining
the Muslim urgency the forever
strains in nature the beat of streams or trees growing or earthquakes
volcanoes, JFK the sad sight of his death, or MLK on a balcony,
or a stray forgotten lad shot down at 16.
I sing with them , have much hope when I hear,
the females     high and males    baritone
create beauty, so love.

I used to see in white puffy clouds
Mickey mouse
sometimes imagined
the view of a dog or
a reflection of
the map of Grenada
I was so stupid
but something happens when it turns darker
up there in the sky
it now becomes *******
which seems more often
and so
I see Thor and Poseidon
tag teaming Athena
climaxing in
lightning and a loud roar
and the sweat from their adventures and writhing pours
all down the side of my face
my shirt gets wet
and goosebumps shiver
all over
my breast
I seem to have lost
all innocence

ten days worked alone the texts go undressed
often too much
my lifeline drags a trail in the sand to the edge
of giving
the ambience breaks down many Fridays
waiting listening for
Yes on the radio so,
I sit among the Roundabout, Close to the Edge,
awaiting the Delirium, to catch me
by the gate  
the one the song sang about
me the lone lover of prog left.

When I moved away down to Billups creek
a tributary flowing into the Mississippi
and saw unmown wild fields of golden grass
tall trees everywhere
and  the dawn on a horizon
for the first time
saw country girls as
wild fillies,
oats and hay as fun
blue jeans
and got my first buzz with a knot
of 'bacco
I came along real quick
got the slang down tight in seventh grade
and my four-wheel drive pickup
at seventeen
got used to no rock stations
on the radio
just
adapted
to
ridin' country roads
and BBQ
and sassy lasses
and extended family's
and time spent
outside
and golden
fields of nature's
bounty

the sun is
brighter
down south
for a ****
Yankee

like all the others
started out with a ******,
spanked her on the *** ,
she spit it out,
I don't give a **** as long as I get mine,
took a long and smelly beer loose ****
settled down in front of the tv to watch Good Morning America,
only because my remote is broke and that was the channel was
on last night. Put baking soda on my toothbrush and gargled with
the last sip of whiskey, Lara Spencer got me going , so I sprinkled
soda on the sheets , nudged what's her name up.

she had the vision
saw how I worked harder
around payday
saw how I sang better
in the shower
how I was happier
when she was near

she once sang with me we
sang several songs
by Joni Mitchell
Courted and sparked while
lying **** in the dark drunk
high'
watching the sparks

flit and flutter and course
around the ceilings the walls light
up my amateurish paintings
unframed neither a care
in this world

we sang together made music
dealt in dreams
forgot going to Paris
forgot any and all but
us, ours  was a paradigm
a magical hymn
a day

in paradise

two eggs
                once bacon
corned fritter
                maple savoring
sun up
                love making
green grass
                hearts breaking
kitten mews
                puppy pounce
life anew
                every once
on every morn'
                wet dew.

Were days of number instead
Of named
Ground of thunder and rain
And men
Men lived in clouds instead
Of sand
And the hills reached from under us
The tallest trees scant grass
And we lived all of us godlike the upside down world wouldn't be better
Or the mortals be more mortal for
That is us, merely humans living brutal or humorous or just
Striving for sustenance a meal a
Love to love
A heart to embrace an angel to sing.
A reason to be a hope to obtain
And we closely saints would make
The clouds brown and stained
And the earthen ground below cleansed and beautiful
Do my hymn were I an angel
Would be to live
Your best life
Breathe
And dream of a day the clouds
Accept you
Among them

the haziness of dream like laziness
smoke settling as fog around the mountains where I
try to climb are fires burned
in memory and wave as flags on top of steeples
I try to mount them all feel needless
when I envision them
shine glimmering breathe clearly-
the cleanest air-
like a weight has been lifted,
off a chest, where once
a pull and push entered, a darkness, felt
like a ton of fright.
Then I changed how I saw it all.
Got high, a clean one,
and imagined you
and I, alone.

of a song that existed
was written
before we lived

a raspberry
butterfly
blue sky

out there
on a key of
nature fluttering

golden sung
snug in the fold
of composed

sunrises, setting glows
tall trees sway little
creatures

noble, so carrying
on the purpose,
without

worrying

just as watching MTV
the Producers want to pay the bills.
The Artists take a break
to get high, or drink *****
from their purses.

End up over the toidy,
spitting their guts
out, or
arranging rendevous
for when
the lights go down.

Or cutting lines, sniffing up
substances into their
store bought
noses.

I must say , another day draws nigh,
I hate to go , I want to linger,
catch that glimpse of loneliness
shone so far away in red white
and blue of course,
her paints
her name \her lingering smell
that first taste of lips
right in that
space I saw her standing there
watching me
as the night touched the day

I am setting up an adjunct me
to dress me up a little
a bit more polished
a little more free

he , my sidekick, will
be less needy but
have a heart of gold still
and give all he can
to others

this one I set aside to
be the one I wished I were
will fault himself less
and be more mature

his will will bend
if needed
his self worth
will never depend
on others

his heart will be  mine
his head the same
if but a bit more
shiny
and
sane

It faired off cloudy came a dry drizzle
I heard that once
Don't know why
It stuck with me.

a land past the fog the distant see
called hornytoadville
where men and women go
to be their four legged hoppyness
play hopscotch
and basketville in tennis shoes
and not much else
they have saunas built for three
and  margaritas free
clothes only beaches to build your
thrills trains running non-stop
between reality
and neversville
the small kids sit and watch
their parents go all
crazy like they did
those kids they did
in DisneyLand

desire I find I have developed for
nice people and saints and givers
for those who live their lives
content and are good examples
I have this friend
you see who met all those criteria
if I was in need
no questions asked he was there
like a father he was
no questions asked
he gave what I asked for
even knowing at times
I was asking for wrong reasons
he just gave and said I was like a son to him
he is my benefactor
because by his example
I have come full circle
to where I am the one some people come to
when in need and it is all because of him
when they ask for help
I try to give
no questions
ever

Days some endless
Go on towards that infinity
Approach happiness love
Joy
Become circled memories
In a love letter
Or a poem read  years forever
After alone

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "let us flee!"
"Let us fly!" said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Ogden Nash

I
wonder wither why the whipporwhill
whines
a plaintive cry
and the robin shrills
her calling a mate
the daffodil does not make a sound
the rose just stands beautiful
wiregrass grows so bountiful
and corn is hard to make
the season's make a mockery of spring and fall
and winter has become a memory
where tall trees stood proud
and now a thicket
grows of thorns of nettles
I think
of nature
in her way
genius considerate
and man
as a tick a flea
on her back
a bloodsucking
leach

So, now i am nothing without you and I'm old braving wrinkles shorter years days gone quicker losing interest
In all else but you
Needing now like a starving beggar
On the corner of 3rd and main.
Sore knees a cold lingers my fingers
Drawing up
Just alone
It's 12:39
I can't sleep it's
Your haunting my soul
Not the tv always on or the last beer.
I think of you
In your bed
And me here
And how to make
Miracles happen.
Hope after hope
Glows then burns out drowned like the
Wick of an un-trimmed candle
But I know
that flicker of your eye I miss
And your kiss
And your sighs
if i hold out enough
Will
One day
Be mine
And burn bright

I bask
in your tan brown
afterglow skin
Melatonin burns
which is why
my aloe vera like
like lotion is
flowin'

the hot sweat
blood returning where
flushed cheeks
and the wet spot
lie quiet and content

I take him out
every now and again
he has to breathe get air
see the moon
see her smile by god
he is has always been
shut up
zippered in
cloistered
he deserves a day in the sun
I only let him out alone
late at night right
after a full moon

like moving to Los Angeles from Memphis to
discover country music
is the discovery I found
when i packed my duffel bag set off
for college after five years in the Air Force
grew my hair long again
joined Phi beta kappa
crept through the library
looking for lasses
in the romantics aisle
studied beer had no other homework
slept between classes on the lawn
in front of the Science hall
awake I watched the
door of the Arts Department
for Mona Lisa
and her smile
caught it once briefly
after Humanities 102

and who can say them in your twenties
but a brief love  on the shore
forties the desire for success
makes those songs disappear
in the rush
and worrying as the fifties aches and pains
appear take over your fitness
drain most of your energies
sixties soon approach and you tend
to drift off into
memories of a long time ago
be they lullabies
sudden kisses
hands you used to hold
days grow shorter still
on a rocker in the corner
covered by a quilt
and may you be listening
to lullabies
again?

was intended
and another paragraph was
to begin
but I lost my
way among
convention
where among
the apostrophe
i turned left
to another
way of annotating

****,
so tell me again after
I die with flowers and a big ceremony

how I made you feel or melt or cry
talk now as I lay stiff unable to hear
how great and saintly I was , (unreal)

dress me in a black suit (I'd never wear
living)
place me in a golden casket
(I sure can't afford, now)
nor ever could
VA only pays 250

If I could inject while I am breathing
I want my funeral now, while I'm living!
Let's rent out the parlor
at the mortuary
and get high on ******
and Patron

I'll buy a black suit
for that cash in my life
insurance and spend it for
a big bowl of ******* and  Hash
and caviar (i've never tried it)

We'll all slurp oysters and
dance with lampshades on for nights
and then you can plant me
with the biggest smile

On my lapel, I'll die
smelling a rose I plucked
from the cemetery.

if I could
wipe all the tears
from your eyes
and mine
tomorrow
would only bring more
of them

you always had the knack the inspiration
the right karma
never had to ask for permission
just did what you liked
saw your fire burning bright
your talent as a guiding light
then you came crashing down to reality
saw ten million other
stars as bright
and you had that breakdown
took you seems
a thousand years
a long walk through
the fields you missed growing up
to gain that courage again
to try
to make your destiny live
make a place
in this cruel world again
but you perservered
and life is now
your playground
again

Why let the nightmare sour
Again I've
Told you time and
Time just
Forget your
Guilt and sorrows
And begin
To dream
Once more

a rose I had
plucked her from
a ten foot high
bush growing
at the end of my mobile home
the city
loved her incomparable yellow
had many men ask could they have a
cutting
I answered
every one the same
she is nature's gift
her roots and thorns long stems
are a gift to us
her beauty is
not mine to hoard
go ahead
it'll cost you fifty

began the day  
with a lick of sleep
the crust of last night on my lips
Rush songs playing still
grabbed my Olde English I had
not finished in last night's
session
pushed the
volume all the way up
got down to Bizness
ag'in

Painful.
Looking in eyes.
I read eyes. Get all sorts of answers looking in.
At times I see hurt in them.  It's in the black part. It screams almost at me.
Laser beams hurt. I'm in pain!  
Eyes say that.
Some eyes, so innocent,  beseech cry call screech nearly, I love you so much.  
I turn away.
It's a responsibilty.
I'm not worthy of so much feeling so much true love.
My whole life I've been used to actresses actors . The onstage I love you so they catch the bouquet.  Bow after the curtains close and they exit.  
Listen for the crowds call of encore as they dress in street clothes. Run out onto tenth avenue.
Eyes hurt. Its like they know me.
See into my core. All my vulnerabilities so aware like
The streetlights glare.  On the bus.
Strangers, yes
But their eyes
Like moonbeams
A  green glare insidious
Potent unrelenting
Knowing as I reach in my pocket
Fumbling for my token,
Trips me out off run
God
I do want to never look in an eye
Look at noses cheek
just over it
eyebrow
And
It catches me
My greed my
curiosity that peek
The black does the center of me of them the all knowing
black
I turn

truly he knew
           dreams do
                       not last forever
and his
best quote
       like smoke         evaporates
his palette dark needs light colors
a little yellow ochre
burnt umberish too
         much
spicy for a moment
       like
desire
                            piercing shallowly
                  salty
                oysters
with teeth
         needing sharpening
                               the butter hot
way
too
       sweet.

there are characters in romance in wit
in seances that try to pull wool
over your blind eyes

smarter fools than I
catch their games
their playfulness

I believe in them

or want

for I

am star struck and  earthbound

wanting more to life
I sit and hope for  aliens to visit

conjure up visions of ghostly
visitors on full moon nights
werewolves

daredevils  
tight walking Imagineers
peering into an abyss

with thoughts
from the realm of make  believed
childhood innocence

fairy tailed

I love stories and dreams and romance
I love tripping over my two big clodhopper feet
and falling through

my ******* nearly breaking

my ****** neck

again

for redemption  mid life
birthday candles
gas ovens and depressions
******

jewels in white chairs
glistening and hard young loves
in nearby beds
as the fumes consumed

words cannot claim a life nor fumes
unless fed by sad stories
and noxious visions
of a spruce forest

and one lonely larch
calling

no moonshine when she's gone
its not warm when she's away
I need a drink and wonder
if she's gone to stay
ain't no moonshine when she's gone
she got all the money
***** and *****
this glass just ain't
a glass any time
she goes away

woke up late sweaty moist tired
hurried to get my clothes on brush my teeth
ran out without my phone
came back and fed the kids
the labrador and the three musty cats
grabbed my phone
ran out forgot my keys
came back and changed their water dishes
brushed my teeth again to insure
the beer breath was at least minty
went out again started the van
and decided to say **** it all
I have cash
tomorrow I will do the work
today I am gonna
lay around like a lazy cat or labrador and
if someone knocks on the door
I may pant but I ain't getting up

if I could figure out what simple was
when faced with a lifetime's complexities
or lounge like my cat's
knowing the bowl is going to be full
or have an albatross  
of original ideas
and a publisher fawning all  very professional
or at least my license
to at least be legal
for the first time in a quarter
century
I might have more respect for
the IRS
in the meantime I am
gonna play all
stooooopid
my ssn#  I ain't got one those

as love too much or love in vain
or a wrong chord sung in ecstasy
say oh god my tone deaf
partner and it sounds like opera
to me
write me poems leave them in lipstick on my back
I will stand in the mirror and crane my neck
take keys and scribe my vette
stick icepicks in my tires
me and my new love watched
naked inside while peeping out
the window
both of us had been there
before
I hate you hurt but ****, life
is sometimes
hard

just sitting in my den
absorbing existentialism
ain't no way
my genes gonna
be in the next generation

she wrote me a letter, scented
of perfume
I no longer had my third biggest
budget bill
the plug in air fresheners and
Febreeze
by the gallon,  no longer needed.

And, about then I got this Email,
invest
in the US Postal Service, the stock is at an
all time low.
So now I am much richer, more wise,
conscious
of the future again, it is smelling sweeter!!
I have
the emailed  stock certificates to
prove!

I re-invested all those savings wisely.
awaiting
the dividends. When I sit vicariously, pouring over my balance
sheet,
I find Olde English and cigarettes have
risen way to the top of my budget the
empty
cans are my top asset! I
smile
at my luck, almost like winning the
Lottery!

gotta see you someday I been  playing country songs all night
from dwight to John anderson all the cute girls
linda ronstadt to patty loveless
thinking about you
how you can't sing a lick  but
I still love to hear you try

from a misty hillside shines a lonely widow's
light
a faint glow from a mended oil lamp
looking over a devastated countryside
  in her hand the lamp and a clump of black charcoal
now all she has except her old father
   and the scene like an island plucked from the sea
and set right into world war three,
          the faint light leads her and her father
and the lamp and chunk of coal and their hope
   to their rustic home, where necessities are luxury.
Once when, they walked many miles to visit a mosque
  the bombings halted and the clouds parted for one second,
and the sunshine clearly shone them kneeling and peace was heard.

That girl, just a tv show, a comment on equality,
Carol Burnett, slapstick extraordinaire,
JFK and MLK died so young but touched me,
Joe Dimaggio, I wanted to be as a kid,
smashing rocks tossed in the air
the last inning of the world series imagining,
the drama all in my head,
so little of the world did I know then,
Ghandhi should be my hero,
or Lincoln, but in my top ten,
are Marge, just a lady I know,
who loved animals and people,
Pops, my old friend, who has always been there when I needed
him,
Shakespeare , of course,
who I quote ,
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."
Albert Einstein
who once stated
"You can't blame gravity for falling in love."
Helen Keller, when I think of her I feel ashamed
for complaining,
and of course Jesus,
and Allah and Moses and Abraham and
Aphrodite;
Nature and Sky and Wind

In the recent round of changes to HP
was the folding of the Selected category
(The Daily Poem  page)
into the Front Page.

Are you in favor of this change?

Comments appreciated.

I love a little sweetheart
cute as a flower petal
hard as the hardest meadow
sharper than a fuzzy peach
wrought of flesh cheesecake
sweet as chocolate luck
now within my reach
your lips
and now I know your name,
sweetheart,
i die
a metaphorical death.