ODE TO L.A. WHILE THINKING OF BRIAN JONES, DECEASED
I'm a resident of a city
They've just picked me to play
the Prince of Denmark
Poor Ophelia
All those ghosts he never saw
Floating to doom
On an iron candle
Come back, brave warrior
Do the dive
On another channel
Hot buttered pool
Where's Marrakesh
Under the falls
the wild storm
where savages fell out
in late afternoon
monsters of rhythm
You've left your
Nothing
to compete w/
Silence
I hope you went out
Smiling
Like a child
Into the cool remnant
of a dream
The angel man
w/ Serpents competing
for his palms
& fingers
Finally claimed
This benevolent
Soul
Ophelia
Leaves, sodden
in silk
Chlorine
dream
mad stifled
Witness
The diving board, the plunge
The pool
You were a fighter
a damask musky muse
You were the bleached
Sun
for TV afternoon
horned-toads
maverick of a yellow spot
Look now to where it's got
You
in meat heaven
w/ the cannibals
& jews
The gardener
Found
The body, rampant, Floating
Lucky Stiff
What is this green pale stuff
You're made of
Poke holes in the goddess
Skin
Will he Stink
Carried heavenward
Thru the halls
of music
No Chance.
Requiem for a heavy
That smile
That porky satyr's
leer
has leaped upward
into the loam
____________
Far Arden
In that year
We had an intense visitation
of energy
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SIGNALS
When radio dark night existed
& assumed control & we rocked in its web
consumed by static, & stroked w/ fear
we were drawn down long from
a deep sleep, & awaken'd
at dayfall by worried guardeners
& made to be led thru dew wet
jungle to the swift summit, o'er looking
The sea. . . .
A vast radiant beach & a cool
jewelled moon. Couples naked
race down by its quiet side & we laugh like soft mad children,
smug in the wooly cotton brains
of infancy.
The music & voices are all around us.
Choose, They croon
The ancient ones
The time has come again
Choose now, They croon
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream, come w/ us
Everything is broken up
& dances
(Mt. Music
Violin)
Moonlight night
Mt. Village
Insane in the woods
in the deep trees
Under the moon
Beneath the stars
They reel & dance
The young folk
Led to the Lake
by a King & Queen
O, I want to be there
I want us to be there
Beside the lake
Beneath the moon
Cool & swollen
dripping its hot
liquor
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Frozen moment by a lake
A knife has been stolen
The death of the snake
I know the impossible sea
when the dogs bark
I am a death bird
Naughty night bird
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Bird of prey, Bird of prey
flying high, flying high
In the summer sky
Bird of prey, Bird of prey
flying high, flying high
Gently pass on by
Bird of prey, Bird of prey
flying high, flying high
Am I going to die
Bird of prey, Bird of prey
flying high, flying high
Take me on your flight
Indians scattered on dawn's
Highway bleeding.
Ghosts crown the young child's
fragile egg-shell mind
Underwaterfall, Underwatwefall
The girls return from summer balls
Let's steal the eye that sees us all
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAPE NOON
Tell them you came & saw & looked
into my eyes, & saw the shadow
of the guard receding
Thoughts in time & out of season
The hitchhiker stood by the side of the road
& leveled his thumb in the
calm calculus of reason
(a car passes)
Why does my mind circle around you
Why do planets wonder what it
Would be like to be you
All your soft wild promises were words
Birds, endless in flight
Your dog is still lost in the frozen woods
or he would run to you
How can he run to you
Lunging w/ blooded sickness on the snow
He's still sniffing gates & searching
Strangers for your smell
which he remembers very well
Is there a moon in your window
Is madness laughing
Can you still run down beach
rocks bed below w/ out him?
Winter Photography
our love's in jeopardy
Winter Photography
our love's in jeopardy
Sit up all night, talking smoking
Count the dead & wait for morning
(Will warm names & faces come again
Does the silver forest end?)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORANGE COUNTY SUITE
Well I used to know someone fair
She had orange ribbons in her hair
She was such a trip
She was hardly there
But I loved her
Just the same.
There was rain in our window,
The FM set was ragged
But she could talk, yeah,
We learned to speak
And one year
has gone by
Such a long long road to seek it
All we did was break and freak it
We had all
That lovers ever had
We just blew it
And I'm not sad
Well I'm mad
And I'm bad
And two years
have gone by
Now her world was bright orange
And the fire glowed
And her friend had a baby
And she lived with us
Yeah, we broke through the window
Yeah, we knocked on the door
Her phone would not answer,
Yeah, but she's still home
Now her father has passed over
& her sister is a star
& her mother smokes diamonds
& she sleeps out in the car
Yeah, but she remembers Chicago
The musicians & guitars
& grass by the lake
& people who laugh'd
& made her poor heart ache
Now we live down in the valley
We work out on the farm
We climb up to the mountains
& everything's fine
& I'm still here
& you're still there
& we're still around
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I'll tell you a story of whiskey
& mystics & men
And about the believers, & how the
whole thing began
First there were women & children obeying
the moon
Then daylight brought wisdom & fever
& sickness too soon
You can try to remind me
instead of the other
you can
You can help to insure
That we all insecure our command
If you don't give a listen
I won't try to tell your
new hand
This is it can't you see
That we all have our end in
the band
And if all of the teachers & preachers
of wealth were
arraigned
We could see quite a future
for me in the literal sands
And if all of the people
could claim to inspect
such regret
Well we'd have no forgiveness
forgetfulness faithful
remorse
So I tell you
I tell you
I tell you
We must send away
We must try to find a new
answer instead of
a way
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All hail the American Night
And so I say to you
The silk handkerchief was
embroidered in China or Japan
behind the steel curtain And
no one can cross the borderline
w/ out proper credentials.
This is to say that we are all
sensate & occasionally sad
& if every partner in crime
were to incorporate promises
in his program the dance
might end & all our friends
would follow.
Who are our friends?
are they sullen & slow? Do
they have great desire? Or
are they one of the multitude who
walk doubting their impossible
regret. Certainly things happen
& reoccur in continuous promise;
All of us have found a safe
niche where we can store up
riches & talk to our fellows
on the same premise of disaster
But this will not do. No, this
will never do. These are
continents & shores which
beseech our understanding.
Seldom have we been so slow.
Seldom have we been so far.
My only wish is to see
Far Arden again.
The truth is on his chest
The cellular excitement has
Totally inspired our magic
Veteran. And now for an
old trip. I'm tired of thinking.
I want the old forms to
reassert their sexual cool.
My mind is just - you know.
And this morning before I sign
off I would like to tell you
about Texas Radio & the Big Beat.
It moves into the perimeter of
your sacred sincere & dedicated
Smile like a calm surviver
of the psychic war. He was
no general for he was not old.
He was no private for he
could not be sold.
He was only a man & his
dedication extended to the last
degree. Poor pretentious soldier,
come home. The dark Los Angeles
evening is steaming the Church
that we attended & I miss
my boy. Stupid in gree -
What the color green? When
I watch the T.V. & I see
helicopters swirling their
brutal & bountiful sensation
over the fields & the comic walls
I can only smile & fix a meal
& think about the child who
will one day own you.
In conclusion, darling, let
me repeat: your home is still
here, inviolate & certain
and I open the wide smile of
my remembrance. This to you
on the anniversary of our first
night. I know you love me
to talk this way. I hope
no one sees this message
written in the calm lonely
far out languid summer afternoon
W/ my total love
_________________
Jamaica
The hour of the wolf
has now ended. Cocks
crow. The world is built
up again, struggling in
darkness.
The child gives in to night-
Mare, while the grown
Man fears his fear.
I must leave this island,
Struggling to be born
from blackness.
Fear the good deep dark
American Night.
Blessed is Night.
The flood has subsided
The movie panic & the
chauffeured drive
Thru the suburbs
Wild folks in weird dress
by the side of the hiway
Some of the men wear
Tunics or short skirts.
The women posture on
Their porches in mock-
classical pose.
The driver aims the car
& it guides itself. Tunnels
click by overhead.
Love the deep green gloom
of American Night.
Love frightened corners,
Thrill to the wood-vine.
So much of it good
& so much quantity.
___________
The Major's boots are where
he left them.
Pseudo-plantation.
Period prints - white
& black boxing match.
A Negro Dance
___________
The principal of the school holds his nose.
"A dead cow is in there. I wonder
why they haven't sent someone to
remove it?"
A vulture streams by,
& another. The white tip
of his claw-like red beak
looks white, like meat.
Swift sad languorous
shadows.
The cat drinks little cat
laps from a sick
Turquoise swimming pool.
(Insane couplings out in the night.)
America, I am hook'd to your
Cold white neon bosom, & suck
snake-like thru the dawn, I
am drawn back home
your son in exile
in the land of Awakening
What dreams possessed you
To merge in the morning?
"I been in a daze"
A spot, a reef, behind
the nursery door, off
the main bedroom-
"Those are the major's."
The bed looms like a white
funeral butterfly barge
at one end of the room,
hung w/ nets & sails.
"We're outlaws."
"What church is that?"
:Church of God."
while bandana, white tambourine
-Walking on the Water-
"In traditional style, we'll
give them a good political
back-siding" - (laughter)
"Victimization"
a frog in the road
children in church
drums
Sun-Sun
lying like death
on the back seat
Revival.
A whore-house.
Lord John & Lady Anne's.
Red-blooded Blue-blooded.
Queen's bosom.Is it The Princess?
Golden-blood, like me, he said,
folding the bill again neatly,
the Queen's ear - a naked
cock stuck in her ass.
Ha Ha Ha Ha.
You're no more innocent
than a turkey vulture
A cannon.
The Negro slaves & the English
killed the Indians, & mixed
w/ the Spanish, who were soon
forced out.
Yes, big battles
Boom Boom
________________
DRY WATER
The velvet fur of religion
The polish of knife handle & coin
The universe of organic gears
or microscope mechanical
embryo metal doll
The night is a steel machine
grinding its slow stained wheels
The brain is filled w/ clocks, & drills
& water down drains
Knife-handle, thick blood
like the coin & cloth
they rub & the skin they love
to touch
the graveyard, the tombstone,
the gloomstone & runestone
The sand & the moon, mating
deep in the Western night
waiting for the escape
of one of our gang
The hangman's noose is a
silver sluice bait
come-on man
your meat is hanging
on the wing of the raven
man's bird, poet's soul
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
the thin rustle of weeds
the voice comes from faraway
inside, awaiting its birth
in a cool room, on tendril bone
The insane free chummy cackle
of infants in a ballroom, of a
family of friends around
a table, laden w/ feast-food
soft guilty female laughter
the bar-room, the men's room
people assemble to establish
armies & find their foe
& fight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clustered in watchful terror
by vine-growth, the hollow bush
dry cancerous wells
We awoke before dawn, slipped
into the canyon
Noon schoolyard screamed
w/ play, the lunch hour ending
ropes & balls slapped hard at
cement sand, the female land
was bright, all swelling to degree
most comfortless & guarding
A record noise shot out
& stunned the earth. The music
had been bolted w/ new sound.
Run, run the end of repose
an anthem has churned
the bad guys are winning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silver shaken in the gloom
I left her
Trees waste & sway forever
Marble porch & sylvan frieze
Down on her knees
She begs the spider-king to wed her
Slides into bed
He turns her over
There is a leather pouch
that's full of silver
It spills like water
She left
And took the coins I gave her
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As to the drowning man
hoarse whisper
invokes, on the edge,
an arroyo
Sangre de Christo
Violence in a time of plenty
There is one deaf witness
on the bank, the shore
leaning in finery against
a ruined wall
as Jesus did. Red livid lips,
pale flesh withdrawn from
ragged dress, pit of the past
& screens unveiled in the
scarred chalk wall
When, often, one is not deluged
by rain, 3 drops suffice
The war is over there
I am neither doctor nor saint
Christ or soldier
Now, friends, don't look at me
sadly ranting like some
incomprehensible child
I know by my breath of what
I speak, & what I've seen
needs telling.
Please, freeze!
Danger near.
A message has started its path
to the heart of the brain
A thin signal is on its way
An arrow of hope, predicting rain
A death-rod bearing pain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
I will not come again
I will not come again
into the swirl
The bitter wine-soaked
stallion eats the seed,
all labor is a lie;
no vice is kindled in
these loins to melt
or vie w/ any strong
particulating smile.
Leave sundry stones alive.
II
Now that you have gone
all alone
the desert to explore
& left me here alone
the calmness of the town
where a girl in black
gets in a car
& searches numbly
for her keys;
Now that you have gone
or strayed away-
I sit, & listen to the hiss
of traffic & invoke
into this burned & gutted
room some ghost, some
vague resemblance of a time
Off-on, on and off,
like one long sick
electric dream.
This state is confused
state. Out there her life
like warm connectors,
plug into her soul
From every side & melt
her form for me.
But I deserve this,
Greatest cannibal of all.
Some tired future.
Let me sleep.
Get on w/ the disease.
_____________
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