Saturday, June 23, 2012

In Dreams

This is one of my very first published poems. It appeared in the 2005 of SCC's SPINDRIFT Art & Literary Journal. 


I keep thinking this might make a nice little performance piece...maybe incorporating a weird little puppet. 


oh. wait. I've already done that...



In Dreams

I once hit my head
so hard
dreams leaked out

they were semi-solid
things
gelatinous and transluscent
like something from the dark
reaches near the bottom
of the ocean
pale, icy colored reds and blues and greens

I could never view them directly
but only from the corner
of my eye

there were not many
perhaps half a dozen?

if I allow life to slow
or backslide
my dreams, they get agitated

once, one of them even kicked me
in the shin.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

May, Twenty Eleven




I wrote this poem two years ago. Last summer I worked and reworked it and it became a performance piece. I've done it in front of people twice. I think it says everything I ever wanted to say about the person living  between its lines. 


May, Twenty Eleven

In May he loaded his iPod
with all the songs they danced to
22 years ago…
Winwood,
Seagulls,
Bowie and,
(God help him)
WHAM!


And then he lit a candle,
turned out the lights
And danced on the furniture
just like they did
22 years ago

At 45 it’s not easy to
hoist yourself up
onto the kitchen counter
like you did at 21

but he made it up there
though the cat gave him
strange looks.

And he danced.

he remembered the time down
on the mall when some girls
gave them a whoop and waved
And he said, “they must be whooping at you,”
And the other said,
“No, they’re whooping at you.”
“How do you know?”
“Oh, I just do.”

And he danced,
the way people 
of older worlds danced
to remember
those they loved
long gone
to celebrate the truths
left behind
And to remind the universe
that some hearts
are so strong
they live beyond their
brief, brief
dance

And he danced,
on the counters
like it was 1986.

This is and always will be
for David.