30 November 2011

Imma Be [Gil Scott-Heron]

Imma Be [Gil Scott-Heron] (Black Eyed Peas 2010) 11/30

Crossed the globe and seven seas
Sat my ass down in the crossroads and stared the devil in the eye
Livin’ life, feelin’ free, that’s how it’s supposed to be

He asked me where I’ve been where I aim
I told him everywhere and again
Crossed the globe and seven seas

I walked in the pathways of kings devil
You cannot claim this body devil
Livin’ free, feelin’ free, that’s how it’s supposed to be

He said he didn’t believe in me
And I said I didn’t believe in him
Crossed the globe and seven seas

I’ve seen too much to believe in anything
Too little to not understand that this body is going to cycle around
Livin’ life, feelin’ free, that’s how it’s supposed to be

Everything becomes more itself devil
Even you, you either renew or end
Crossed the globe and seven seas
Livin’ life, feelin’ free, that’s how it’s supposed to be

29 November 2011

Right Round [Minos]

Right Round [Minos] (Flo Rida ft. Kesha 2009) 11/29

I am out of control
Raging down hallways – reaching for anything
We build castles made of sand

My wife – my deformed child in his prison
Take all the sacrificial youths I send down their paths
I am out of control

If I said I was sorry – returned everything I have taken
Unbuild the tomb of this house
We build castles made of sand

I spin my wheels – turn – turn – turn – find nothing
Worth touch – the tide comes in and takes
I am out of control

Pouring tankards of alcohol across the asses of my lands
My wife – she is not idle in this – not untouched
We build castles made of sand

But I –

Here is my arm – split it along the meridian – see the wool
pour forth like the ocean along a shore
I am out of control
We build castles made of sand

28 November 2011

Love In This Club

Love In This Club (Usher ft. Young Jeezy 2008) 11/28 

On the couch on the table
the air is thick it might be daylight
on the bar on the floor

Even the walls are sweating
the air is moving is alive
on the couch on the table

Life is inventing itself in time
with whatever this song is
on the bar on the floor

The people become bodies
become silhouettes become silent
on the couch on the table

Noise is background white space
everything is erasing itself
on the bar on the floor

There are eyes only staring out
from your darkness and from mine
on the couch on the table
on the bar on the floor

27 November 2011

This Is Why I'm Hot

This Is Why I'm Hot (MIMS 2007) 11/27

They ask me how I do it
Where my mind comes from
I got that fire

In my belly I see the ocean : the sun is setting : everything is going
from liquid to solid : the caps are shifting emerald : foam everywhere
They ask me how I do it

I pull that into me : take the caps of the sea and breathe it
Here is the salt in my veins staining my heart : here a fish-bone knife
I got that fire : split my chest

Let is pump on the table a moment : the mirrors will reflect only blank
light and empty rooms : the curtains are limp broken skin
They ask me how I do it : I take hostages of myself

Roam the sand bar and count the threshing grasses : how many were
green and how many were bleached white ?
I got that fire

And it consumes me more then it could you : ocean thick
breaking : particles float satellites about the earth of my brain
They ask me how I do it
I got that fire

26 November 2011

You're Beautiful

You're Beautiful (James Blunt 2006) 11/26

My life is brilliant,
amazing, incandescent
‘cause I’ve got a plan

I have a backpack full of food
A tent, canned food, books, but the first reason
my life is brilliant

is that I have bombs,
lots of them – The second reason: a shotgun
I’ve got a plan

From this water tower
I can pick you off one-by-one and
my life will be brilliant

See, I’m not going lightly – I have chains and cuffs
This isn’t because I read some book
I’ve got a plan

I want to take you down – I want zombie pets
I’m starting with the neighbors
My life is Brilliant
‘cause I’ve got a plan

25 November 2011

Candy Shop

Candy Shop (50 Cent ft. Olivia 2005) 11/25

We are going to sip until every bubble in every bottle is gone
It’s late and neither of us will leave this room
I'm a seasoned vet when it comes to this shit

See this steady hand that doesn’t tremble with the glass
The gaze in my eye that is the steady gaze of determination
I’m a seasoned vet when it comes to this shit

Have more you are floating
I’m floating
We are going to sip until every bubble in every bottle is gone

I can hardly think when I’m sober
We are going to sip every bubble in every bottle
Gone

The CD is skipping
I’m a seasoned vet when it comes to this shit
Hit it on the side by the blinking light

Every bubble is gone
Sip
Well seasoned
Shit

24 November 2011

Yeah!

Yeah! (Usher ft. Lil Jon & Ludacris 2004) 11/24

She’s saying come get me, come get me
and the phone goes silent. I’m standing in the bar, the music is loud and
next thing I knew she was all up on me screaming

She was outside trying to get me to leave the bar, the music,
it’s some Usher song and the place is dark, sweaty. I’m stuck to the stool
She’s saying come get me, come get me

as she leaves the bar, her mascara running her eyes raccooned
I follow and the night is close, it’s still 80
next thing I knew she was all up on me screaming

about the other day, the other night, I’ve done wrong, something
about a friend of hers and how I tease her too much in front of everyone
She’s saying come get me, come get me

She wants me to save her, or I want her to want that
or I want her to save me, she is all fear and fists
next thing I knew she was all up on me screaming

hitting. Nails into skin. I’m bleeding and she is running
away throwing her purse into the air, leaving her shoes.
She’s all come get me, come get me…

23 November 2011

In Da Club

In Da Club (50 Cent 2003) 11/23

20 deep            20 knives
Jungle of edges
If the roof on fire            Let the motherfucker burn

Like reeds on the river            Bow
In the wind
20 deep            20 knives

All out the long ways                        This incantation
Here in the circle of light
If the roof on fire            Let the motherfucker burn

Melting iron is mud on your tires
This is London burning
20 deep            20 knives

My eyes            Yours                        Are silver disks
Quick            Light                        We eat this bitch world up
If the roof on fire            Let the motherfucker burn

The secret jungle            We play the reeds fluted
We couch in the dark spaces            You best get the fuck out
20 deep            20 knives
If the roof on fire            Let the motherfucker burn

22 November 2011

Ain't It Funny

Ain't It Funny (Jennifer Lopez ft. Ja Rule 2002) 11/22

I'd live a thousand lives
Life can be cruel in a way that I can't explain
And I don't think that I could face it all again

Through the years the world has changed
And standing at my start I’d never guess
I’d live a thousand lives

Wake each morning new and clean
End each night old and failed
And I don’t think that I could face it all again

Here I stand on the edge of time
Facing the world crumbling and I wish
It would live a thousand lives

But everything is eventual
And the universe collapses in cycles
And I don’t think that I could face it all again

I dream of a darkness of a death
Oh, I wish this could be real
I’d live a thousand lives
And I don't think that I could face it all again

21 November 2011

Stutter

Stutter (Joe Ft. Mystikal 2001) 11/21

You told me, with yer friends, hanging out late last night
Talk to me, tell me, where you were late last night
You lying, cuz you stuttering, now where were you late last night
Stop lying to me, cuz you're ticking me off.

I called you, on your cell phone, no answer. Tell me why.
So I paged you, on your two-way, still no response. Tell me why.
I took care of you, I loved you, and you played me. Tell me why.
Stop lying to me, cuz you're ticking me off.

It's funny to me, when you lie to me,
You start stuttering, tripping.

I smell cologne, how'd you get it on. I'm not done.
He messed up your hair, makeup's everywhere. I'm not done.
Girl you're crying cuz you're lying to my face. I'm not done.
Stop lying to me, cuz you're ticking me off.

Why did I?

I hear you lying, I hear you st-st-st-st-stuttering.
You should have left me alone, get the hell on.

I can tell you're lying, because when you're replying,
Stutters.

20 November 2011

Amazed

Amazed (Lonestar 2000) 11/20

And it just blows me away
The sight of 5th Avenue rolling
Forever and ever

Down the length of Manhattan
With all those people cars rats etc.
And it just blows me away

This is a place in time and it exists
And here I am in it
Forever and ever

I want to spend the rest of my life
Being always amazed by this
And it just blows me away

That everyone ignores it
Goes about their business
Forever and ever

Locked in a straightaway of blindness
I’d compare them to ants but ants have purpose
And it just blows me away
Forever and ever

19 November 2011

Believe

Believe (Cher 1999) 11/19

Because I've had time to think it through and the night is the breeding ground of philosophers and lovers
Because I’ve stood at the edge of the world watching daylight come up from below the ocean and thought I want to live where the sun sleeps
I need time to move on

I need time ticking in its ivory casements on the nightstand in the churches I need time signaling out itself but contained
Because I am afraid of death and in love with its blackness and forever and ever
Because I've had time to think it through I understand the scythe and understand that it will feel like ice melting in my chest

Do I believe in the eternal in any way is it the place of peddlers of ass to say what they believe in any category
Here is a small word that means nothing and here is my thought on it and here is a flashlight to illuminate the darkest corners of your own mind
I need time to move on

From this from myself from the ache of wanting to expand forever
Because I want to be the universe stars swirling over my flesh making me glow like I am bathed in semen under UV lamps
Because I've had time to think it through I am ready to admit that I fail

I fail in being the universe as we all fail in being the universe I am nothing if not a flesh bag full of life and that is it
And in this death which is the death of the younger idea that I could be all things to all people
I need time to move on

But in that time and in that moving I find the faint seed of growing
Because I am still nothing if not fertile and young and fire in someone’s belly
Because I've had time to think it through and I may not be the universe – yet – but I may someday bang my way there
I need time to move on

18 November 2011

Gettin' Jiggy With It

Gettin' Jiggy With It (Will Smith 1998) 11/18

On your mark ready set let’s go
All of you want to be me
Living that life some consider a myth

It’s all castles clouds naked chicks coke
Parties by the pool Miami it’s the loudest
On your mark ready set let’s go

I’m ahead of you son I can’t help but be
Number one burning brighter then a pheonix
Living that life some consider a myth

I roll up that hill like Theseus break stones
Like Herc and light fires like Prometheus
On your mark ready set let’s go

Like to see you win this try to outdo this
I’ve got the body of a horse and a course like Nautilus
Living that life some consider a myth

I’m a Disney movie all happy by the end
You can’t even try to move from the start to the finish
Living that life some consider a myth
On your mark ready set let’s go

17 November 2011

Wannabe

Wannabe (Spice Girls 1997) 11/17

If you want my future, forget my past
It is a book, locked in its case, forgetting itself
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

You could, smash open the gates and release this
Library of evils, could manage to overlook everything
If you want my future forget my past

The dark corners of history, the beliefs held then dropped
At the first sign of wind change
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

We do this to ourselves, check and mate
I was once a Nazi a murderer a robber a mass of heat
If you want my future forget my past

Swirling in the ether between us
Is this idea : and then…
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

I absorb your atrocities, and you will take on mine
Is this not what love is?
If you want my future forget my past
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

16 November 2011

One Sweet Day

One Sweet Day (Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men 1996) 11/16

Never had I imagined
The severe clear of June
‘Cause you’ve flown away

All pinioned snow-white
Tips and coal eyes that
Never had I imagined

Before or since
I wait in the silence of wind
‘Cause you’ve flown away

Like the eye of a storm
That will never touch land
Never had I imagined

The breaking seas on
The lighthouses of the eye
‘Cause you’ve flown away

And because away is far I am content
With thoughts of breaking earth
Never had I imagined
‘Cause you’ve flown away

15 November 2011

Take A Bow

Take A Bow (Madonna 1995) 11/15

There’s no one here
across the empty field the lights blink out one by one and
how was I to know you’d break

apart in reentry
and scatter like confetti at New Years
There’s no one here

the lights are low and the fireflies are rising like shadows
In slow motion an eye blinks then twice
How was I to know you’d break

apart in reentry
That you would shed skin and eyes like clothing
There’s no one here

Somewhere an organ is breathing
the rasping lungs of a church no doubt a gray-haired choir –

How was I to know you’d break
apart in reentry

That I would be standing in this field glowing

There’s no one here

How was I to know you’d break

14 November 2011

The Sign

The Sign (Ace of Bass 1994) 11/14

No one’s going to drag you up
No one’s going to feed you the answers
Where do you belong?

Such a boring question – you belong wherever you are
you belong to the moment you belong to
No one’s going to drag you

kicking and screaming into any new century
give you a suit and sack of cash make sure you’re
where you belong

Mortality is – there is a period after that
You have you end you go on or don’t
No one’s going to drag you up

from your grave and prop you in a room
dispense tales from your undead mouth
Where do you belong?

Tell yourself every day – Here
then kick your own ass until you believe that
no one will drag you up
where you belong

13 November 2011

Informer

Informer (Snow 1993) 11/13

Now they blow down my door, these aliens
They look up my bottom, they need answers, they ask
through my window

if I know the secrets of man
I do not, I say so, I laugh, tell them that they cannot be aliens
Now they blow down my door

Apparently their costumes should fool me. They are not kids
pretending, they are full-grown men. They toss me
through my window

I land on grass, another in bug eyes probes me
points to others dressed in black
Now they blow down my door

I hear them shuffle my things and scare my cat
what do you do naked in the cold with tweezers up your ass
Through my window

I see them light it all on fire
to rid evidence of abduction, now I’m in a car, blindfolded and tied
They blow down the door
through the window I went

12 November 2011

To Be With You

 To Be With You (Mr. Big 1992) 11/12

Little boys that talk too much
are a dime a dozen
Waited on a line of greens and blues

just for you to kiss me off
tossing your nails and cigars at me
Little boys that talk too much

would say that I was asking for it
calling you a whore and such
Waited on a line of greens a blues

like some fucking book doctor
like some paparazzi to your star
Little boys that talk too much

will tell of everything you do
a dime a dozen but there are dozens
waiting on lines of greens and blues

just to be the next to get kicked
I fucked ‘em all you your
little boys that talk too much
waited on a line of greens and blues

11 November 2011

Someday

Someday (Mariah Carey 1991) 11/11

Might be coming back to own me
Take my hand the night is longer these days and I lost my gloves
You’re never satisfied with any other
type of light anyway these burning street lights
are that orange color because they have sodium in them

Might be coming back to own me
I can hear them cycling back up the arc will hit and we will all be yellow
I know what you’re thinking and my hands are cold
You’re never satisfied with any other
and you’re rarely satisfied with me

When it’s like this this just beginning winterness I forget that you
might be coming back to own me
that you really just want to own something and my gloves
are just another thing that I’ve lost that you have to hold
You’re never satisfied with any other

You’re rarely satisfied with me
Here I’ll put my hands in my pockets this was a bad idea
You coming back to own me and all because
you’re never satisfied with any other
And I’m too silly to remember that I’m too satisfied with any other

10 November 2011

Escapade

Escapade (Janet Jackson 1990) 11/10

As we go along
there is a skip – eye blinking
            endlessly blinking

And break them all
the frames that is – push on this
            black colloidal edge

As we go along
there is that need to hold again
            fight that

And break them all
paint this wall black and that
            one will be green

As we go along
there is that fire – much smoke
            endless mirrors

And break them all
hold this to your face see if
            you are still breathing
As we go along and break them all

09 November 2011

Lost In Your Eyes

Lost In Your Eyes (Debbie Gibson 1989) 11/9

When I’m lost I can’t let go
There is a party going on and I’m gouging cookies
Knowing what I’m headed for

I pay for sex in apartments full of life-sized photographs
These black and white faces are edged in spokes
When I’m lost I can’t let go

I writhe on a table a horror movie victim
This party is for some guy I barely know and want to fuck
Knowing what I’m headed for

I listen to Radiohead and think about melting
I rethink my stance on poetry
When I’m lost I can’t let go

The sky is a myth it rains like watercolors turning puddle
Spotting the sidewalk like some period panties
Knowing what I’m headed for

I arch my back and think about cats
Then I turn my mind over and the party spills on the floor
When I’m lost I can’t let go
Knowing what I’m headed for

08 November 2011

Never Gonna Give You Up

Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley 1988) 11/8

And if you ask me how I’m feeling
my stomach is turning on itself – I feel green
Inside we both know what’s been going on

You’re leaving – right? – go
I will molt will go on in some form will turn to bug
Ask me how I’m feeling

and I will tell you about a grave man
Here is my St. Sebastian bullet hole
We both know what is going on

You fed me poison – made me eat glass
Pusherman – your cock held love
And you ask me how I’m feeling

I have this bellyful – and I’m not euphemistic
Green is as green does and I house an alien
inside – we both know what’s been going on

I’m turning into you and you’re lost to me
this is a despicable love
And if you ask me how I’m feeling
inside we both know what’s been going on

07 November 2011

Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (Huey Lewis & The News 1987) 11/7

I met a fan dancer
I told him that I didn’t believe in god
Now he’s trying to save me

He presses hands on stomach
Says he can take out this cancer
I met a fan dancer

I told him I had no time for tumors
That my hands ached and
Now he’s trying to save me

“From what?” I asked and he smiles
Smiles and presses into my flesh
I met a fan dancer

Somewhere in an airport
And his hands up inside me
Now he’s trying to save me

He says and I watch the blood well up
And he pulls this black thing from me
I met a fan dancer
Now he’s trying to save me

06 November 2011

Sara

This poem is composed of lyrics from three separate Sara's.

Sara (Dylan, Nicks, Starship 1986) 11/6

No one could
Hear the sound of the Methodist bells
Go back in time

I can still see the shells fallin’ out of their hands
You never told me about the fire
No one could

And now it’s gone
I can still see them playin’ with their pails in the sand
Go back in time

There’s a heartbeat that never really died
The sound of the Methodist bells
No one could

Hear the sound of the Methodist bells
You never told me about the fire
Go back in time

The shells fallin’ out of their hands
I can still see them playin’ with their pails in the sand
No one in time
Could go back

05 November 2011

Can't Fight This Feeling

Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon 1985) 11/5

Throw away the oars forever
drift – close your eyes – you are
grown – I only wish I had strength

When I walk I think run – there
that passport on the nightstand –
throw away the oars forever

Drift – sister I cannot stand it
anymore – this is all that is done
Grown ? I only wish – I had strength

of mind – My fingertips burn
with the memory – what shore did I
throw away the oars forever

Did I ? There is a dream – where
I drown – it plagued me ‘til I was
grown – I only wish I had strength

to go back to that room face water
I am not the man I think I am
Throw away the oars – forever
grown – I wish – I had strength –

04 November 2011

Jump

Jump (Van Halen 1984) 11/4

I ain’t the worst that you’ve seen
I’m holding this sparrow I snapped its wing like twigs it didn’t cry out the way I thought it would and there isn’t any blood anywhere but in my body and in its body
You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real

There are these dancers in India the Kathakali it’s all hands cutting through the story all body and heat applied to the surface of air
If I jump three times and scream in gibberish
I ain’t the worst that you’ve seen

There’s no way I could cut apart this room in the time you’ve given me
This broken sparrow is a transplant like me it hid on ships like rats or in cages in the hair of British royalty it came over the ocean carried not on air but on water
You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real

If I flap on the floor in the dirt if I end up covered in soot what of it if I leap out a second story window and land on my feet
On Broadway the other day there were fires and a building allowed itself to let go its roof
I ain’t the worst that you’ve seen

There are plenty of things I’ve done plenty and I count them like beads on necklaces strewn about like fictions like stones I will hold up a feather from this bird and I will allow it to fall to the floor
You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real

This is a fit I am flailing against the wall and suddenly I can’t tell if I’m standing upright or not anymore my face is bright red with white streaks and that means I am a devil
If I let this all go to pieces and just drop it here on the floor on the head of whomever
I ain’t the worst that you’ve seen
You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real

03 November 2011

Billie Jean

For this one, I just let the lyrics do the talking. I think they are weirdly haunting.


Billie Jean (Michael Jackson 1983) 11/3

Who will dance on the floor in the round

For forty days and forty nights

Be careful what you do cause the lie becomes the truth

Who will dance on the floor in the round

This happened much too soon

For forty days and forty nights

The smell of sweet perfume

Who will dance on the floor in the round

Be careful who you love don’t go around breaking

For forty days and forty nights



Who will dance on the floor in the round
For forty days and forty nights

02 November 2011

Centerfold

Centerfold (J. Geils Band 1982) 11/2

Does she come complete?
I’m looking at these pictures thinking of lips
Floating in space : disembodied voices

My memory has just been sold : these are phantom women
The pages from my mind stripped bare left for dead
Does she come complete?

A part of me has just been ripped : in a desert of audio
Tape and magnetic hush floating in space
Disembodied voices are popping off the pages

Of my memory which is of a face in a fog
You are this woman : magazine woman you : But
Does she come complete?

Am I to order you back into my book?
Out of the cloud of history : COME HERE NOW!
Floating through darkness : disembodied desire

Pushing out from pages : pressing the fabric of everything
Tell me are you more then lips?
Does she come complete?
Floating space-like embodied lips?

01 November 2011

I Love A Rainy Night

November is going to be a month of change for me. I will be finishing up a long stay in northern New Mexico and returning jobless to New York City. In an effort to stay upbeat about this I have dubbed it PHASE 2 of my so-called long term life plan.

So. I am changing the format of the poems!

For November I present a series of villanelles based on the songs that were #1 on my birthday each year so far. The repeating lines are actual lines from the songs and I will link to the music video or live performance where I can.

I think the songs say something about my life, personality, relationships. The poems...


I Love A Rainy Night (Eddie Rabbit 1981) 11/1

Watch the lightening
Count until the thunder hits
Taste the rain on my lips

And taste it again
Resist looking in my eyes
Watch the lightening

I’m soaking you are too
There may be some dry over here
Taste the rain on my lips

What would it take
Get you out of your clothes
Watch the lightening

Down on the ground
In this muddy grass
Taste the rain on my lips

Take the dirt into mouth
Lock fingers in orgasm
Watch the lightening
Taste the rain on my lips