Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part VI


c
ums end
    granted no life f riley
    granted no regression to womb
    granted tombz stony finger z no headrest
    who looks to directions from whom

cums end
    granted wars supposed good for survivors
    granted desert z lucked-out hitchhiker
        taken fr ride
    granted sneakyeye z heavenly throwback
    whoz left to pull out apocalyptic plum

no cloud sheds tears over rude beginning
    no storm hoists thumb to beg ride
    no continent sewer empties guts uphill
    no millennium arrives c.o.d.
    when pissed-off moles reign warren as midden
    there ll be rakehay in hell to pay
    good bye common sun
    hello lackaday

composing lens f scrutinizing telescope
        tippled bottlez lookalike
    wondering eye at both ends
    mouth to neck f insight behold:
        graspin palm z match fr brandished fist
    wars gross out in subliminal averages
    n punytive peace selects havenots n kings

cums genuine halo-collared oracle
    seers hello thru peoplehole
    bringeth forth undergladtidings:
        puckerlips yields outlandish eclipse
    after crackle-n-pop doom fr breakfast
    crumbs f comfort to regale rumblin stomachs
        stockpilerz f proverbs n gunz
    tighten slack in apronstrings

cums down to what z up
    granted goateed n cloven-hooved one z out to pasture
    granted cinderella shoe-in fr princess
    granted infant millennium z no victim f lewd origin
        if alley z mooted pathway to salvation
    when firestormz brutal affront z brushwarred
        to cosy warm hearth
    'who z who' wont read 'o to whom' nah

no better beginning than feelin fit to bust
     getting leg off three o'pinioned stool
        thumb n tongue unstuck
    kiss off incidental luck n fly-by-night lottery folly
    kiss off glamour-spangled limousine lust
    kiss off primetime religious vaudeville
     song n dance fr god and begging bowl routine
kiss off beggarly dole fr havenots
        or toughtitty on saint anthonyz own
        runts o litter
    kiss off bouquet garni:
        raw malice green envy dried greed
        ground all-spite n crushed bitterroot f blame
     flavouring in transglobal stew
     pressure-cooker we lit fire under
    kiss off with alley loud:
        yeah amen n good riddance

Take yr moods (blues)


T
ake yr moods
'n take yr humours
ain no golden mean
cos yr blues 'cognizes
there's no easy in-between
    no sir, no ma'am,
blues is sunup or sundown, i mean
cos yr blues swings teetered uneven
like lunatic weighin machine

    yr blues is ready laughter
yr blues is weight of tears
yr blues is soun' jeez 'n hereafter
yr blues feels yr hopes 'n fears

    yr blues don seek no middle
yr blues don fake no between
yr blues blesses plenty 'n dearth
'qually like dry 'n rain

    no sir, no ma'am
's clear as right 'n wrong, sez i
we'z swung up 'n we'z swung down
like lantern moon's gyrations
light or dark ignorin
flung clean across th' sky

    yr blues ain nobody's darlin'
yr blues ain nobody's fav'rit
yr blues swings pendular circumstantial
like brains shilly-shally intemperate
like lunatic weighin machine
cos yr blues 'cognizes, sez i
if'n y gets caught plumb dead in th' middle
'member, what's twixt ain worth a spit!

1983, rev. mm

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Ok so you turn your hate (summer, '72)

Poems from the 1970s


Ok so you turn your hate on me
    i'll blast you to kingdom come
here's my gun    bang-bang!
    see the red ochre anger flare on your forehead
now you'll know for sure i've not kissed your bum
    my lips have tasted shit too long
so just swing along with the rest of us hipsters
    lazy bugger-buddha brothers and sisters
who might even be seen as beautiful folk
    if you'd let up on the tight-arsed demands
we go straight

    we'd rather find a space hassle-free
a place you can't get in our face
    with your bloody hang-ups
so before you get shirty
    lighten up!
smoke a toke!
    and piss off in peace     brother
there's world enough of hurt already
    next time     remember
bang! bang!     we don't eat dirt!

1972, rev. mmvii

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Dream

Poems from the 1970s


l
ast night

        i saw a

                         lonely road

                         it wound

                and wound

and as i wended

i found it

lying wounded

                beside a ditch

                         curled up like a

                                snake

                         biting its own

                tail

        and i know

i am

that lonely road

                oh god i’m sick

                        of gorging on myself

         such helplessness!


                                        dec 2nd mmi [1973?]

Friday, February 23, 2007

If no love's better


I
f no love’s better
    than any love
     don’t blame me
if free of love’s
     better than love
     don’t blame me

you provide more
     i provide less
     we both disagree
if sane love’s
     lost malcontent
     don’t blame me

     don’t blame me
     don’t blame me
stop asking
     more of a heart
     that’s a dead fire
you’re stirring the ashes
     for nought

spent love’s not a liar
     we both should agree
     leave it alone
     leave it alone
at least we’re free


jan 24th, mm

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part V


p
arsimonious mind picks over ruined feast
    leftover cornucopia
    sneaks off with crumbz comfort
    what z devoured joins incremental midden

hyenaz shit wormz titbits
    least averages most
    posthumous dance f musical chairs

who z kidding whom
    remonstrance about proprietary rights f critical telescope

terminal questions split tongue
    hyenaz slit tomorrowz exit fer patent scavenger
    anticipates wormz diet

questions terminate in ready-reckoning
    "cripples are fated"
    "fate cripples"
    become toothsome sops thrown to contentious workus packs

cums judgment
    weve worriedly worn record thin
    trumpet voluntary
    supposed to bring on cavalry
    conceal disappointment
    disguise chagrin
    heaven hath no brimstone fury
    like angel in sinbin

cums alley rhubarb chorus
    nyeah!     nyeah!    nyeah!
    heavenly brew-ha-ha first forswore us

run agony thoroughly
        round n round
    until we get dolour n sense
    record z worn us thin
    love aint grand
    love aint worth twocents
        cept when dollarz held in hand
    love z undressed mannequin
        upon crosstrees
    granted artless rejoinder:
        we are bigger than this

Life is incomparably general


L
ife is incomparably general
    not bounded by sentient thought's dimensions
        to you believers – deathly grip on creed or doctrine –
no use figuring on New Millenium or Utopian equivalent
or even Trumpet Voluntary signalling End convenient for Faithful
    Life is smidgin of larger Configuration     re-configuring
what exists before, after, as well as immediately presented

    Gödel's worked it out mathematically
"when all systems are go    some are gonzalez"
they wander off at will whithersoever
muttering "systems are abbreviated bore!"
black bodies    beyond ken    stepping over event horizon
    nothing complicated    just as you slip off your pants
to put others on     like that    matters of fact
because singularity precedes unity    odds before evens

    we all dig unity: "get in line and measure up!"
when bird's in hand, guess how out of touch authoritative guide is
as every birder knows, cart-before-horse-sense
care-of expansion of species defeating categorical definition
algorithmic growth exponential flattens into lessening degree of infinitesmal
mouthful    believe you me – biting off more than i can chew
which is point

            ... bringing us back to origin of origins
spectacular dust-up or much ado about nowt
just as likely as belike culmination of futurity
    we won't inhabit these bodies to benefit from belated invite
"step backstage    ladies and gentlemen!" Exeunt
as Shakespeare directed    to enter Caliban or Hamlet
    to be is not to be either one thing or t'other comedy or tragedy
life is incomparably general of issue never settled
    and here endeth first lesson: discontinuity awaits dispensation
nor contumely nor discontent can modify passage
    Life is not beribboned package sent poste restante finis
it only seems so from importunity

sight and insight, aware of allied senses
devoted to certainty,     fast-holding to chance
whichever lap to settle sore heads on
comfort Mother Nature reckons dispensable
discover nothing stays put!
baffled    bewildered    nigh on to panic
arraigned by emotions we cannot fathom –
where to turn?    surety hangs on "depends"
like children    stricken with fear of darkness and shadows
confronts self (not as 'other', but solitary)
at wits' end    end of wits' witness

by our feelings and thoughts are we grounded
here we stand as abyss opens up
when we lose our heads
dizzily shrinking back from edge of sanity
direction lost like weathervane spun by vagaries of wind
human dilemma awaits human outcome
pedestrian resolution:
come down to earth    look about you
this is who we are
this is where we live
this is how we got here: human savvy!
choices made by kindred spirits, never easy –
better to rely on what matters most
solid foothold where we belong
than cling to shirttails of ethereal omnipresences
manifest need secured, however humble
surer gain than conjuration of reward in abeyance

mmvi

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

not the merest merciful scintilla


T
hat not the merest merciful scintilla
of Eternal Light
can be glimpsed
by the shades of Hades
is the source of my bedevilment

mmv

Monday, February 19, 2007

No, You don't have to listen (summer, '72)

Poems from the 1970s


N
o, you don't have to listen to my prattle
i'll not go on and on for an unendurable period
    though turnabout's fair play
you can go on living out your own wretched fantasies
    to the bitter fruition
or use them as pignasty ammunition
    but not in my ear
i care about others beside myself
    and their gifted or giddy ideas
those that don't cantankerously exhort
    my blind obedience to the letter zzz
pestering me with threats of noxious regimes
    or promises of no forseeable likelihood
in my betterment
    so naive compliance set aside
let's be pleasant for one ridiculous instantaneous
    'good morrow' of fellow-recognition
as when a fallow meadow warms to the season's lead
    we can sow our seeds or stones
as you wish    as you like
    that done we could stay on easy terms
or to make no bones
    for my money
you can take a blithering hike!


1972 (rev. mmvii)

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Chew on this bone


C
hew on this bone:
as chockful of promise
and remiss in commission
as a Speech from the Throne

mmvii

Friday, February 16, 2007

I don't believe

Poems from the 1970s

I
don't believe there is a god!
    show me!    smell taste touch
    knowledge of the senses
    plain     here at once
    untarnished by a patina of drivel
snivelling kids may jeer
    or simple simons sneer at a god
    according to their spleen
it's all a parcel
    a tissue
    a whooped-up
    big     whopping big    fabrication
    like those frocked halls of worship
    which is where He belongs

now me     the bloke what sweats his bucketful
    trying to cope
    wants a god that's more than a cope of stars
    a seat of mars
    a lolloping hunk of lovey-dovey
    downright bunk

well     i haunt the corners of my square-cut brain
    seeking to explain how super he aint
    no saint     no sinner     no provider     no winner
    no dope     no hope for the damned or wicked
    nope!

thoo is what thoo is
    which means
    thoo aint no whiz!

197_ (rev. mm)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Teaching of the Tsue


Y
ou don’t buy
    you don’t hoard
        happiness
            in this world
you share* good fortune
    you share loss
        as a people
            a people among you
that is the lesson
            we teach by example
singly we are straws
                in the wind
together even straws
            can make a structure
    weak as it is
        weak as it is
    together

*not literally
    not literally
we but walk in shadows

Verbal account of a sailor, survivor of a ship wrecked near a remote inlet on the coast of B.C., who sojourned among the inhabitants for many years until found delirious in a canoe off the land, dying in a few days.


mmv

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part IV


w
ho z nasty wiseacre politico
    flowery-bold
    advocating nuclear bloomstorm
    in gestalt amphoric cup
        alley-wise
    we beware
    greeks bearing gifts

sunscorched miracles beyond mention
    suborn deserts
    decorate walls f monumental tombs
        surefire exclamation period

tonguetied recite no proverbs
    when doom becomes rule f thumb
        who holds record up to light f day
    tallyhoing score as foxes begin their run

heart cant compass proliferation
    nor hanged body avoid jounces t taut halter
    tethered camel cant enter eye f portal
    ruminating scientific telescope notwithstanding

such good beginning
    dark clouds don't believe in rain
    proverbs hang on crosstrees
    pluckable as ears f grain
    luck n desire twine as synonyms
    snow falls at Xmas on schedule
    gods content themselves with fun and games

such good beginning
    joyful voyage swung in salty waterz warm habitat
    through eras recapitulated
    importunate disjunction prompts laboured howl
    met with cosy teatz divine succulence

such good beginning
    prompts coup de scapegrace
    Tad throws snakeeyes with namesake
    maladroitz forfeit justifies usurperz omnipotence
    though how is not plain

such good beginning
    after promise of rosemarie dawn
    we'd leap helter skelter over himalayas
    instead sour losers debate wrathful wine
    eden honeymooners dispossessed
    opt for modicum f eternity in vain

behold    hotline protagonist
    cauliflower ear fer euphonious rhythms
    teaching deucedly dunces
    who squat hangdog
    like round pegs in four-cornered circle
    performing wrongheaded penances
    come on with crossed-up mating signals
    pugilists bound for fisticuffs
    as if taking "gotta eat own cadillac" concerns
        at plus literal value
    gets m squared off in frame for fame

Sunday, February 11, 2007

vision


y
es    i had a vision once
it was a true one
though now like a dunce
i'm no surer
than if i'd had a million

Saturday, February 10, 2007

What do i want?

Poems from the 1970s


W
hat do i want of life?
    I want to count
to mean something more than
oh dear, he lived a useless sixty-year stretch
some of it bad    or sad
or occasionally glad
tearing the heart out of my breast
thinking myself a failure
railing at fate
as if fate were a railing to keep me out
    succession to success seemed sweet
high hopes stillborn
still borne like a black patch on the sleeve
to signal grief
    oh well! he died well-spent
having burnt himself out to the wick’s end
when     speeding round the bend
comes the juggernaut that wheels
over wise men and fools
    a foot in the face
a shamefaced apology
lying low    akimbo
mooning on things to come
oh hum!

197_

february blues in 25 words


b
lues got february feel
like winter lost a wheel
'n we'z crunching
through miles o' leftover blizzards
to where sunz gonna smile
for springheeled pedestrians

mm

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

A Butterfly in Texas


W
hen the pebble flung hits the water
    like the stone that overthrew Goliath
    and the bullet-stricken politician
    exits into the limelight of the stage

so the rage of man is the centre
    flinging outwards the ego
    the wedge of passion     lip of wave
    and lace of violence
upheaval of the mind
    races the street in rioting

and the mad hasty dog parades the barricades
    with club in hand     grenades or cobblestones
    newly-torn to dig a grave in someone's Goliath head

we protest over bodies burst in the eye of the hurricane
as the swollen creek running wildly overflows
flooding the land with its sorrow and pain


poem written during the riots and violence of the early sixties, revised mm

The seashore can prosper


T
he seashore can prosper and bloom
    through wintry storms
amid wave-blown spume
    on rocky peninsular
each elemental force
    thrown like the buffets of fate
from titanic hands
    that drew the shrewd design

a trial of character
    to strengthen the will
for a foothold
    on things that matter most
ready for the budding days
    to be met with springy step
having won
    through pertinacity and hardihood
a purchase on the providential
            habitat
    that is this Earth

mmiv

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Alley Loo Yeah Chorus, Part III (Tuesday Blogging)


w
hy does hell befriend fear
   yellow delight mucked up by dearie-me
   yelp tail-tucked between loins
   sliding away from afraidz welcoming charm
   resisting abrading miracle
   of being washed up with aphroditez foam

furrow ploughed ad lib
   greek-fustianed
   share rotating determinate earth
   oxen stubbing hooves on precursory marbles
   writing is writ
   informing terra firma

great gas oven sun eyeballs horizon
   sugar-coated pasteldrawing job f nemesis
   moon twilights earth
   deaf eardrum f star
   paying dues in peripheral dalliance
   circumspect marriage avoiding crunch

touch n go catastrophes happen
   plague f hunches leapfrog to armageddon
   clearsighted window
   gazing out
   reminds us of eye f gods
   looking on from idle end of telescope

if pleading-dumb philosophers re-script no proverbs
   who stands holding oracular telescope
   does watchdog science own no mortal provenance
   is classical clearsightedness looking-glass
   whoz watching whom
   must we solipsize with yeahway:
      “i am what i am”
   and p.s. with popeye:
      “that’s all that i yam!”?

Monday, February 5, 2007

blue funk


    o
ut the door it's daylight
in my head it's dark
    gonna shut my eyes n ease them
where no demons lurk

    twill take a silver bullet
just a dose of sleepy-bye
    to close my eyes n ease them
oh where's the recipe?

    oh where's the lightning bolt
that hits when least you 'spect?
    oh fry my brains n ease them ---
to tease wi' hope, n vext!

    don' care what words is said
don' care ... do what you will
    when i iz dead then happier i ...
some still place t'ease my head!

    don' wanna do nuthin neither
nuthin iz no big deal
    jest seal me in a vacuum
till doomsday knell haz toll

mmi

Saturday, February 3, 2007

If God ...

If God may not be all good
Then the Devil may not be all bad
How do we know the difference between the two?

mmv

Friday, February 2, 2007

Are we a bellyful of instincts


A
re we a bellyful of instincts
         neatly geared
      like the seven-sphered music box
      the ancients taught the universe to be
   or are we cursed by savage manners
      mainly following planners
      wielding sliderules and spanners
      for the robot god
      which will never lie under the sod
         lifeless like us?

   Spike us a saint to the cross
      or tap a barrel
      to spice the variety
         between oohs and ah!s
   -- exclamation points in our destiny

So we go on
   applauding or booing as the fit seizes us
      like crestfallen Caesars
      or little Napoleons running out of victories
   praying zestily
      with eyeballs glazed to lust after lust
         after frustration after frustration
         after god knows what ...

Black spot on the hand
      or bland diet of worms
      eaten between the coughing fits
         of sick affectation
      we call "life"
   as if health and strength
         were flinging caution to the winds
      like a bird winging across the ocean
      never to stop for fear of death
         the frenzy of our motion

Protest song written originally during the 'sixties [196_] revised mmvii

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Take care avatar


T
ake care avatar     sayer of sooth and scryer
there's a measure of bent in straight
to enter we open a gate
    what we let out or what we let in
is like right-doing     others call sin
    some will rub off no matter what stuff
on the other     the other hand robs its brother
    there's a measure of wrong in right
and a mark never cleaved day and night
    so let sobs and laughs serve as feasts and fasts
tis tesselated footing this ground where we stand

mmvi

Just Wondering


I
f nothing is nothing
and something is something
how does out of something come nothing
unless it be something
neither here nor there?

mmvi