Tag: Poetry

Mongrel

Back in the early 70s I fancied myself as a poet of sorts….I even self-published a short book of a few of my shorter poems…the book was titled “Mongrel”….

Over the years I had lost many of the volumes and Katrina made sure the rest were totally destroyed…then a woman that was friends with my father had a copy that she eventually returned to me…to say I was thrilled would be an understatement.

Mongrel because it was a mixture of short poems…..some are dark….others are metaphysical and others are just a commentary….

This is the cover….

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These are a few of the poems included in the volume….

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I apolgize for the crappy photos…..

Like I said…there was a time in my youth that I fancied myself a poet….I tried to generate some interest by posting some of my earliest poems here on IST…..they bombed badly so I discontinued the effort….but these are the first of several that I posted…..

Poem #1–1969

Poem #2–1969

If interested then my search will get you there…just type in POEM…..

Keep in mind that these were written in my early to mid twenties……some are morbid and metaphysical and some are risque…..

Enjoy the poetry and the rest of your weekend……

Be Well….Be Safe….

 

Say Good-Bye To Leonard Cohen

On the weekends I try to post on subjects other than what is in the news….and this Sunday some sad news….the songwriter Leonard Cohen has died….

Did you know that one of his signature songs was not that popular originally?

Don’t be surprised if you hear Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah dominating airwaves today as a tribute to the man described by some as the best songwriter who ever lived. But there’s quite the story behind the song covered by more than 300 artists, including Rufus Wainwright, Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake, Neil Diamond, and Bob Dylan. Part of an album released in the US by an independent label in 1986—Sony “didn’t think it was good enough,” Cohen later said—it took more than a decade before it became famous, USA Today reports. Jeff Buckley, who first heard John Cale’s cover on a 1991 Cohen tribute album, recorded his own version in 1994. It was that version that finally became popular when Buckley died in 1997.

The creation of the song is also fascinating. Cohen reportedly wrote some 80 verses for Hallelujah—which took five years to complete—though the finished version contained only five, reports the Washington Post. He later recalled sitting in a New York hotel room in his underwear while “banging my head on the floor and saying, ‘I can’t finish this song.”” Today, it’s considered “pop music’s closest thing to a sacred text,” according to Maclean’s magazine. In his 2012 book on the song, Alan Light called it “an open-ended meditation on love and faith” that’s both “joyous and despondent, a celebration and a lament.” Of course, it’s not the only Cohen song worth listening to. Time points out five others, including one released this year.

In honor of his music and the sadness of his passing……I ask you to celebrate his music with me…..26 fabulous songs…..

Good bye old friend….you will be missed….Rest in Peace

There Was Once A Man From Nantucket……..

Do not PANIC………I have NO intention of finishing that start of a poem……

And since the election of 2012 is anything but interesting….as a matter of fact….it is boring, pathetic, lame, ignorant…..and about 100 other words used to describe something……I need to get my head away from the searing boredom from time to time…..what better way to do so than to reach back into my past for a little enjoyment…….

But I will use it to introduce a new feature.  Back in my much younger years I thought of myself as something of a poet and from time to time I would like to share a poem that I wrote starting in 1967.  I wish I could say that they all are amazingly good or well formed or whatever….I cannot.  Some are quite naive and juvenile and not up to the standards of poets like William Blake or e.e. cummings or Robt. Frost or any of the thousands of poets.  Basically, they were a coping mechanism that I used in Vietnam and after my return when the dreams got the better of me.  Some are just plain dumb, some have a bit of eroticism in them and some make sense only if you are tripping (a nod to Hansi)……….and then there is those that are just plain….CORNY!

I will begin in the year 1967.  After my first couple of months in Vietnam, I needed a release from the mental dodge ball my brain was playing with reality.  If you were there then you know what I mean….if you weren’t then take my word for it….you needed an outlet, especially a mental outlet.

This first poem was written about the girl back home….the girl that you knew would be there no matter what……we were naive in the beginning……in more ways than one…..please remember this was an 18 year old trying to cope…be kind….

Poem #1

DAWN

Early morning is her name,

Gold, the color of her mane.

Pale green eyes shining bright

Piercing every lonely night

lovely, graceful—mysterious he guise

Young and innocent yet old and wise.

Delicate, fragile–a gazelle

Beautiful, this girl, I know so well.

Heady scents enshroud her beauty

Do I love her?

‘Tis my duty.

Far away in a dreamed of land, never near yet never far.

Will she be the one for me?

Am I good enough to be,

Will one day she be mine?

Ever lovely, ever true,

Am I the one for you?

To hold you, in my arms, once more,

I will never be a boar.

Til the day of my return,

For you, I will yearn.

Yes, my love, as you can see,

You will always be,

The one and only girl for me.

12/12/1967

Oh God!  Was I a sap……funny the coping mechanisms that our mind employs……this is the only poem I wrote in 1967…..Okay …let me have the critique!