Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Ballad of William Wheeler (mp3)


I've begun recording my own spoken word LP. The Ballad of William Wheeler is an older poem of mine and it is pure fiction. I don't remember much about it except that it was inspired by the work of Will Oldham.

The Ballad of William Wheeler

On the front porch of the sun
Sitting in a rockin' chair
Rockin' back and forth for fun
Old man Wheeler is losing his hair

On the front porch
Nothing ever gets done

William Wheeler smokes his pipe
Wrinkled fingers stroke a gun
His eyes are still and sad
Thinking about his gone true love

On the front porch
Nothing ever gets done

Lydia left him in the month of June
She married a stable man in November
William renounced his faith under the moon
& he took a lover he can't remember

On the front porch
Nothing ever gets done

A gunpowder halo around the head
Of William's old chair
Lydia simply shrugged and said,
"Christ, I don't care."

On the front porch
Nothing ever gets done

Friday, May 30, 2008

poems about nothing


Hey guys, what's happening? But really, these poems aren't about nothing, they're about...


untitled 4203

a velvet sky

becomes

the day when the old limousine

driver

consumes an entire loaf

of old wheat bread

and

shoots his lover

in the

back




untitled 4108

I don’t need her phone number

one summer

as the flock of ravens ahead

returns

in droves

I saw a girl I used to know

serving coffee

in a place I used to live

and

she blushed when

I opened my mouth

remember

lovers who never

we unwound in unison and

laid about

plainly upon a disenchanted

mattress in the middle

of a used furniture store




untitled 4296

butterflies amazed

by their

own

wings

.

sunken

in the mire

of the glade

cities

do well when

drowning

and

the smoke

and fog

of dusk

come

settle down around the mountains

Thursday, May 29, 2008

poems for sale


Here are two more poems (I know I said I would do three a day, but I felt these two make a lovely couple) for all you lovely people out there.


untitled 4365

she said of all gardens

I had

made

with my hands

that

jangled glass

tapestries will hang upon

my

skin for all

eternity

until the god of love

and losing

sits in the rock pasture

eating

of flesh as

simple

clouds

gather around the height of the horizon




untitled 4366

of lotus

leaf

to barrel in the river

and sink

you have

picked the white

crest of a wave to speak

the name

of a lover for

eternity

against a glass

house

in the glade

and down the ravine.

when making love

in

circles atop

mounds of white

sheet

she would say that all of all

is

the very thought

she

lays upon

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

poetry is not hoetry


Yes, the post title is lame, but all the better to make the post itself shine!


untitled 4363

wicked love was not made

for

men says

god

when he cries about

the church

that

crashed in on itself

tornado

the country we were raised in

the color

green through liquid

and

glass

that falls atop

a white fence.

your mother

was young

once

and counted coins on a dresser

top



untitled 4362

I am a snake

oligarchy

cripple doing

the good

dance

like the window

shade

drawn

around the curves of a woman

and her

red hips

my

love

is not worth dishwater

she sang

she

sang

and all brothers head off in mountains

with rifles

for my

neck



untitled 4361

the slick rain

sheets

came off the line

in

the moment of

ivy

only a moment

I’ll

be married

to the famous

girl

on

the back of a match

book

and she’ll

be skeleton

so

stringent the silence of sliced

face

against a wire and glass

celebrity sightings in deep sleep


Famous people won't let me sleep! Here are a couple of new poems about my dreams and the well known people that haunt them.

Take a Chance on Me

Ah! The dreams I had this weekend past
I knew they were too strange to last

Johnny Cash said hello to me outside my office
He deep voiced his wisdom
& I listened
& I understood
But when I woke up
I couldn’t fucking remember his advice
Instead I was
Humming “Take a Chance on Me”

Dream of May 21, 2008

The Beat Hotel
Ginsberg
Corso
Ferlinghetti
Even Burroughs
& W.H. Auden
Sitting on rugs
Slouching 'gainst dark walls
Smoking hash
All crammed into a tiny space
I was there too
A door connected us with another room
My family stayed in that room
My extended family as well
The beats shocked them
Foul language
& dirty smells
The bathroom caught on fire...
...Then--------------
I was with K in Houston
(before even visiting that city)
We were in the 'burbs
A group of thugs
& hookers
Came toward us as we walked the downtown sidewalks
Fast food joints and clothing stores
Burger King!
We got in a large maroon Oldsmobile
Must have been at least 8 people in that car
Some kid shouted about picking his sister up from "the shop"
We pulled into a Jiffy Lube type place
A young Hispanic woman in a pink dress waited outside
K and I left that party
I woke up

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

awesome baby


Hey guys, for this week, I'm going to post three untitleds a day. Next week will see a video post daily (or as often as I can) in celebration of the upcoming performance on June 21 at Okay Mountain, 8 pm. Yeah, poetry and motion, technology and oral tradition, the same stuff and the new stuff and a macguffin.


untitled 4358

I want

to be the number eight

on

your forehead

so the mirror

people

can

laugh

and when we just go out

to tumble

for taxi cab

trembles and the night

club

shatter

dance

oh wicked

just why

why

she why



untitled 4355

some fragrance of disenchanted rock

spills

across

the frame

I am the dyspeptic

tic

of the man

in

the laundry mat

yearning

to

be beaten

in

bales of bushed whiskers

collected from

tired women




untitled 4354

lose me

down a flight

or stairs

oh suitcase

faced

woman in red

satire

skirt

in old alleys

we

dawn the disco

fumes

of

the ulterior taxi

cab

rummaging

in

cycles the

plague of

subway

tunnels.

and shiny people

drink

more for the lack

of their

flesh

pounding apartments of brick

and mortar

and prostitution

in

doorways

Sunday, May 25, 2008

pirate day (click here to download)


Hey, to follow up with the new chant poem Jeff posted, here's an audio poem to boot. It's about pirates!


stab! the sword swayed in sand

pirates were hiding in the sand,
ready to pounce on poor old Davy Jones
the hero.

he was a wanted man
but only because of mistaken identity
and so he was running down the coast,
looking for the thief who
stole the woman’s smile.

the pirates grunted and pretended to be
men as monsters and each laughed in his head
when he thought about the promise of
gold and sharp rusty blades;
the leader was angry because
inside
he still felt childish
and only in horrible
id ways of
trying to fuck unfuck.

Davy Jones and
his gallant blonde hair
looked hitherto and thitherto
around the circumference
of things and imagined an ugly officer coming to
arrest him for a mistake and a silence;

he ran
he ran.

the pirates saw him,
running with sun on cheeks and eyes a blue,
and they pounced from the sand
angry as stepped on crabs discarded.

“We come for your life,
hero of misfortune”

Davy Jones froze and made a face
terrible enough to die in
and any woman would have;

he needed to find a pretty smile.
Did these pirates have it?

the head pirate with a tall silver tipped
dark hat and a failing for flattering himself
took steps forward and forward Davy Jones,
his sword swaying out and
cutting dull at ocean mist,
wanting forever freedom.

Davy Jones screamed un-heroically and
made to flee and to fly and to never gamble his face.

“but I’m the hero”
he whispered
and turned despite himself to face the terrible pirate king.

“Have at ye! Mangy cur!”
Davy Jones
Davy Jones sang.

a woman,
maybe the pretty woman with a smile,
looked on from her house on the beach,
dreaming that this be not fantasy or fairy tale
and watched as our hero dove
out of the way as the lead ugly
pirate lunged forth and missed Davy Jones.

he gave a laugh and sped off,
running again;

all the pirates let out ‘blast it all’s'
and gave undulant chase.

the ugly pirate sat still,
sword plunged in the sand,
and imagined a time when he wanted to
be other then the villain,

to be a doctor
or judge
or truant officer.

he wanly looked up weakly
to the house
and caught eyes with the woman
alone and dressed blonde.

maybe she gave him a smile,
if only out of humor,
if only because she needed to give something anyway
before she withered.

the villainous not so villainous pirate stood up and
yielded a roar and tossed his blade high into the air,
letting it fly where it may,
fall where it wanted,
and watched as it stuck stubborn from a lid of luminous sand;

water was soon surely to take the blade
with it into the unknowable sea.

the pirate hung his head low and turned to
where his amiable men had chased Davy Jones the hero;

he trotted away,
following what was destiny but
thinking of prettier things,
lonely women, hearts of twist.

Only in the past could he unfold himself and
find answers to riddles and maybe change;

maybe his Davy Jones.

he ran down the beach in search of pirates