Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Voices and Voices

March 5, 2016

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There was no shutting them down! Whether we had anything for them to do or not, they ran all the time! And were they ever loud! Oh, God, were they ever loud.

—Kurt Vonnegut
, Galapagos

People and people screaming with need
Their dreams and desires and egos to feed
Attacking my senses and making me bleed

Bloody compassion fills me inside
My fragile existence cannot abide
I’ll dig me a hole where I can hide

But even alone I can’t clear my head
Voices and voices of anguish and dread
Rattle the skull until we are dead

by Richard W. Bray

Passy Aggressiva

February 27, 2016

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Did I forget to tell you
That your boss left a note?
“Come to work or you’re fired”
Is all she wrote

I made you egg salad
Was it such a fiasco?
There wasn’t any mayo
So I just used Tabasco

Glad to hear you’re dating
We were so distressed
So you like the other gender
Whoda’ ever guessed?

Everyone agrees
He’s the best you’ll ever do
But we can’t figure out
What he sees in you

So I forgot to feed your pets
Don’t be such a bore
You need to check your values
You can always get some more

Lighten up as little
And give me a break
You’re so uptight
Like you never make mistakes

by Richard W. Bray

Songs of Self

February 21, 2016

wwwwdarkmatter

Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that’s true!

Langston Hughes, Theme for English B

Separation
Is illusion
Bringing pain
And much confusion

We tear our lovely
World to bits
To believe
That we exist

We devastate
And we devour
Accumulating
Stuff and power

What is life?
And what is matter?
Songs of Self
Just make us sadder

by Richard W. Bray

O fairest of Creation

February 21, 2016

wwwwwwweve

A universe of traits
Lively and sedate
Butch and straight

Matron and girly
Smooth and curvy
Delicate and nervy

Nimble and bold
Young and old
Precious like gold

Fun and feral and silly and wise
In every shape and shade and size
You make the world a lovely place
In three point seven billion ways

by Richard W. Bray

 

every act of hope and love (A Rebuttal of Sorts to that Sad Mr. Larkin)

February 14, 2016

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Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Phillip Larkin

In our lust for power and pelf
We pass on pain to son and daughter
I’ve passed along much hurt myself
It spreads and spreads like dye in water

Our lives are sad; our fate is strange
Life just seems like one big trap
Human beings will never change
Is existence merely crap?

Life is pain; there’s no exemption
I don’t seek meaning up above
Succor pain and seek redemption
In every act of hope and love

by Richard W. Bray

Put the World in its Place

February 5, 2016

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyman woman

Time was away and somewhere else

Louis MacNeice, Meeting Point

Together in a room
With no one else around
We dance to a tune
That doesn’t make a sound

Where dreamers rhapsodize
Inside a cozy space
With my eyes locked in your eyes
We put the world in its place

by Richard W. Bray

What Was I Thinking?

January 31, 2016

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And I wonder sometimes, what is it in me that hates me?

Richard Wilbur, Complaint

What was I thinking?
Am I insane?
I wonder what happens
Inside my brain

Boss took me out
To announce my promotion
I puked on his shoes
And got a demotion

Whenever life hands me
The perfect shot
It ties up my tongue
In a perfect knot

She asked for my number
I was ready to score
Why did I tell her
She looks like a whore?

Whenever I’m offered
A True Romance
I flub all my lines
And ruin my chance

My mind is an iceberg
I just see the tip
I cannot control
What comes across my lips

by Richard W. Bray

really, really, really, really cute

December 31, 2015

You mesmerized me
Strumming your lute
Cuz you’re really, really, really, really cute

I got an ache so
Stunning and acute
Cuz you’re really, really, really, really cute

I’d give everything I got
To taste your fruit
Cuz you’re really, really, really, really cute

I spend every minute
Planning my pursuit
Cuz you’re really, really, really, really cute

Down in Beaumont, up in Boston
Out in Butte
There ain’t another woman
Half as cute

I’m dying here
But you don’t give a hoot
You already know you’re really, really cute

by Richard W. Bray

Chores

December 28, 2015

social loafing


I’ve got a long list of real good reasons
For all the things I’ve done

Willie Nelson

Chores

I didn’t do the dishes
Cuz the water’s awful mucky
And it wrinkles up my digits
And it’s really rather yucky

I did not rake the yard
Cuz I didn’t wanna blister
If you need a beast of burden
You should get my little sister

I did not clean my room
Cuz I’ll just mess it up again
It’s simply Sisyphean
Why can’t you comprehend?

Your nagging and your pleading
Make you sound like such a bore
Now fetch me up some vittles
And then finish all my chores

by Richard W. Bray

Fortunate to Know

October 8, 2015

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzpain

Been hived and herded
Doused and dirted
Desecrated
And deserted

Life is an ocean
Of misery and woe
Love is a notion
I’m fortunate to know

Been punched and prodded
Nailed and knotted
Fiends who plotted
Stomped and swatted

Life is an ocean
Of misery and woe
Love is a notion
I’m fortunate to know

Been kicked and slandered
Dumped and dandered
Pitched and pandered
Without candor

Life is an ocean
Of misery and woe
Love is a notion
I’m fortunate to know

by Richard W. Bray