Hello again.
The light from the lamppost reflecting off the rims
Of your glasses.
As deep as a well in a fairy tale
The stars burn.
What have you been up to?
I spent the afternoon playing
Mini golf alone.
Sitting quietly listening to the sound of rain on the pavement
Play out its equivalence.
Airing out a bed sheet after calling off work
Turns devotional.
And the waltzes before 6am.
A cloudy cut of afternoon
Along the railroad tracks
And a little rain just started.
If it gets worse, I’ll stand under
The viaduct for a while.
And the lack of meaning or too much meaning in the red leaves
Astonishes even into the cells and nerves
When autumn fetches the hills.
Like a ship
Parting with the night
Of a prowl
Hardly stepping
Of the sea
Till cloud-decked
With purpose.
Primitive loops of wind
And rain and streetlight.
Over the railroad trestles
I walked since a kid
I’ve done this and picked field
For its lonesome.
Heading home at dusk across a parking lot overrun
And left for potholes.
Potholes are nature’s ingrown toenails.
Unless filled with rainwater.
What could a gymnast do on the even bars?
Let’s begin with a mess, shall we?
This is really cool Bob. The nature of your poetry combined with the casual correspondence reveals… I dunno… something more. It adds a layer to understanding or seeing the poet and person… in a more full or altered light. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
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Thanks Chris. I liked using that correspondence, it helped give it a little more breadth. I’m glad you liked it.
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I’ve always liked the “the walk poem” as a form.
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Thank you! I like that form too. I helps keep something of a form, while letting a lot go on. By the way, I really liked your last couple of posts!
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Yes, it’s like an omelette. You can throw anything in it and it’ll cohere. Thanks for your kind words.
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ahh those railway tracks make their appearance again: so much happens alongside them but it’s those ‘pot holes …. nature’s ingrown toenails’ that knocked me sideways 🙂
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Thanks John. Haha, yes the pot holes. There is an abandoned parking lot near me for a closed department store that the city is letting go, or letting it turn into a seagull and pigeon refuge area.
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a field rich for poetry, Bob 🙂
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This comes to me, a reader, at a perfect time….this poem which is also a rap is in my mind alongside The Pharcyde’s Bizarre ll album from way back in the early to mid 90’s, a fun, rhythmic hip hop album that stays with me until today. I’m never sure when hip hop becomes rap but The Wu Tang Clan seem to have bridged the two with some gangsta rap thrown in there too and now I’m way off topic. Sorry about that.
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Thanks Steve. I always enjoy your tangents. I’m not familiar with the the album Bizarre II. I’ll have to look that up. I do enjoy the Wu Tang Clan.
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I’m glad to hear someone doesn’t mind my tangents. HA! I suspect it will get worse as I get older. I did take ritalin (illegally) for a few years to offset what seemed to me to be ADHD, but I mixed it with booze which wasn’t a good idea and then I lost my connection and had no more ritalin and there were withdrawal symptoms.
Anyhoo, yeh The Pharcyde is quite a bit different than The Wu Tang Clan. They’re kind of what I like to call hip hop neurotic as opposed to political and prophetic like the Wu Tang. Like that Pharcyde song PASSING ME BY…a nice song about unrequited love, so different than lyrics about banging bitches, but it’s all good to me.
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I just listened to Passing Me By. Really good song. Thanks for sharing that. Sorry about the Ritalin experience.
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I forget if i mentioned the Pharcyde song/video DROP. The video director did some crazy shit, had them moving backwards and rapping the lyrics backwards too. I’m still trying to figure it out, but anyway, another great song. Here’s the making of the video.
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That’s an awesome video. I love “making of” videos. Always cool to see someone’s creative process. I see Spike Jones directed it. Thanks!
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Fatlip’s story is so damn inspiring, the way he brings raw honesty and self-deprecating humor to the rap world
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I just love poetry about rain…and of course those ingrown-nail-potholes… but it was the first line that got me…Hello again. Oh yes!
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Thanks Rajani! I’m with you on the rain poems. There’s just something about them.
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Hello Bob. This is fantastic. A letter from someone who has a keen eye for details (like in the second and third lines), and deems them worthy to note, to say, “hey, check this out, isn’t it neat?” Yep, those things are neat, and neat how you put them together. And how you end with a beginning 🙂
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Thanks Dave. I liked the letter form. It helped with the flow of images. Glad you liked it.
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Love this, Bob! “Potholes are nature’s ingrown toenails”. I related to this as I read it after nearly popping the tires of my carpet cleaning van on a pothole this morning haha But the first three lines are really beautiful to me. I love the imagery of the reflection of light off the glasses. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you! I’m glad you liked it. And you were able to dodge that pothole!
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This is wonderful, Bob. I love the correspondence element, and the imagery is both surreal and fun. “Potholes are nature’s ingrown toenails” is great. Well done!
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Thanks. The correspondence form helped open things up more. I enjoyed writing in that mode. Glad you liked the potholes line!
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