Dippy Dippy Dappy

April 21, 2015

You said that
I was boney
You can’t ride
My pony

You said I
Was a fool
Don’t swim
In my pool

Neener Neener Neener Neener
Neener Neener New
You weren’t nice to me
I won’t be friends with you

You said that
I’m unstable
Don’t come sit
At my table

You said that
I look funny
You can’t
Pet my bunny

Neener Neener Neener Neener
Neener Neener New
You weren’t nice to me
I won’t be friends with you

Maybe I
Should try again
Do you wanna
Be my friend?

Dippy Dippy Dippy Dippy
Dippy Dippy Dappy
Give someone another chance
And you will be more happy

by Richard W. Bray

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

April 18, 2015

Life’ll wallop your desire
Life’ll sock you in the eye
Life’ll set your guts on fire
Life’ll make you wanna cry

Don’t beat yourself up
Don’t put yourself down
Just keep your head up
And try and stay above ground

Life’ll pulverize your wishin
Life’ll shatter your heart
Life’ll tackle your ambition
Life’ll tear your world apart

Don’t beat yourself up
Don’t put yourself down
Just keep your head up
And try and stay above ground

Life’ll crumble your dreams
Life’ll brutalize your soul
Life’ll make you wanna scream
Life’ll detonate your goals

Don’t beat yourself up
Don’t put yourself down
Just keep your head up
And try and stay above ground

by Richard W. Bray

Skweeples

April 15, 2015

Skweeples aren’t people
Their foreheads are blue
They eat with their noses
And talk with them, too

Skweeples aren’t people
They laugh with their ears
They sleep upside down
And cry purple tears

Skweeples aren’t people
Their bodies are green
They play in the swamp
And hate to be clean

Skweeples aren’t people
They live in old cars
They drink stagnant water
And eat lice and tar

Skweeples aren’t people
But they love each other
On Saturday night
They all call their mother

People aren’t skweeples
That’s easy to see
I don’t bother them
And they don’t bother me

Skweeples are skweeples
They do what they do
They belong in the open
Not locked in a zoo

by Richard W. Bray

There Are No Little People

April 8, 2015

Why swagger, then?
The Gnat’s supremacy is large as Thine —

Emily Dickinson


I’m an influential person
I’ve got important things to do
I have a giant office
And I don’t have time for you

I’m an influential person
I am big and you are small
I have a slew of little people
Waiting at my beck and call

I’m an influential person
People do the things I say
If you aren’t here to serve me
Then please just go away

Pardon my existence
I don’t mean to waste your time
I’m here to serve some papers
You’ve been accused of heinous crime

Some of your endowments
Are certainly excessive
But your wisdom and compassion
Are not at all impressive

It’s a silly, silly man
Who does not realize
There are no little people
And souls don’t have a size

by Richard W. Bray

Don’t Wanna Tell Nobody What to Do

April 4, 2015


Figuring out just who
I wanna be
Is a burden
On my sensibility

I try to take
Responsibility
For how my deeds
Affect society

But every move
A person ever makes
Ripples like a stone
Dropped in a lake

So please don’t ask me
What you oughta do
It’s exhausting and it’s
Time-consuming too

Don’t wanna tell nobody
What to do
I’ll just be me and
You can just be you

by Richard W. Bray

Figure it out

March 31, 2015

download-5

 

You’re a real sweet guy
You treat a lady right
So let’s get together
And warm up the night
I’m ready to romp
I’m ready to rumble
I’m ready to hit
The hay for a tumble

I can’t say
If we’re gonna work out
So let’s have some fun
While we figure it out

We can give it a go
And keep sweet company
Before we start sharing
Our whole history
Are you ready for me?
Cuz I’m ready for you
But I ain’t in the mood
For an interview

I can’t say
If we’re gonna work out
So let’s have some fun
While we figure it out

Dust That Lives

March 29, 2015

aaaaaaaaaaaaaastar

You live awhile
And then you’re dead
And everything
You did and said
Disappears without a trace
Welcome to the human race
Your days will wither
Down to dust
In wind and rain
And fire and rust
Stars burn hard
And then they’re gone
Their residue
Goes living on

Fire breathes
And ashes give
The universe is
Dust that lives

by Richard W. Bray

Serious Like Me

March 17, 2015

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakids

I was born to be a grownup
And I really dislike
The senseless sound and frolic
Of a gaggle of tykes

I’m a serious man
I do serious things
Got no time for games
Got no songs to sing

The stupid mirth and vigor
Of a roomful of youth
Annihilate my comfort
Like you’re drilling my tooth

I’m a serious man
I got books to read
Can’t tolerate those noisy
Little buckets of need

Living in a world
Of squalor and pain
Kids can make amusement
But it’s not very sane

So cut the happy hoopla
And the hullabaloo
Be serious like me
And miserable, too

by Richard W. Bray

I Wanna Study French and Sanskrit

March 10, 2015

640px-Mt._Kilimanjaro_12.2006

I wanna study French and Sanskrit
I wanna spend a week at the Louvre
I wanna read some Russian novels
I wanna spend some time with you

I wanna hike Kilimanjaro
I wanna see Timbuktu
I wanna have a summer safari
I wanna spend some time with you

I wanna end global warming
I wanna end injustice, too
I wanna buy the world a soda
I wanna spend some time with you

I wanna write a Hollywood movie
I wanna play for the Lakers, too
I wanna have a billion dollars
I wanna spend some time with you

There are a whole lotta things
That I’m never gonna do
But I’m gonna spend
Some time with you

by Richard W. Bray

An Unedited List of Artists, Movies, and Page Numbers from On Photography by Susan Sontag

March 8, 2015


Giorgio Morandi

Artists

Paul Strand 6, 96
Walker Evans 6, 29, 30, 61
Dorothea Lange 6,17
Alfred Stieglitz 6, 29, 32, 65
Paul Strand 6, 96
Walker Evans 6, 29, 30, 61
Ben Shahn 6,
Russel Lee 6,
David Octavious Hill 7,
Julia Margaret Cameron 7,
Atget 16, 67
Brassai 16, 46
Matthew Brady 17
Andersenville Photographs 17
Felix Green 18,
Marc Riboud
Don McCullen biafra 19,
Jacob Riis new your 23, 57, 63
Edward Steichen 28, 32
Lewis Heine 29, 63 Natl Child Labor Committee
Rosenfeld writes of Stieglitz 30, 47
Julia Margaret Cameron 35
Robert Frank 46, 61
Giorgio Morandi 46
Man Ray 52,
Laszlo Mohol-Nagy 52
John Hertfield 52
Alexander Rodchenko 52
John Thompson 57
Bill Brandt 58
Ghitta Carell 58
August Sander 59
Edward Muybridge 60
Emerson Stryker 61
Adam Clark Vroman 62, 64
Clarence John Laughlin 67,79
Roman Vishniac 67
Bod Edelman’s Down Home 72
Michael Lesy Wisconsin Death Trip 73
Albert Renger_Patzsch The World is Beautiful 91
Edward Weston 91, 96
Minor White 91
Ansel Adams 102
Nadar 104
W. Eugene Smith 105
John Szakowski 129

Movies

Godard Les Carabiniers 1963 (3)
Chris Marker Si j’avais 1966 (5)
Dziga Vertovm Man with a Movie Camera 1929 (12)
Hitchcock Rear Window 1954 (12)
Blowup 1966 (13)
Peeping Tom 1960 (13)
Tod Browning Freaks 1932 (38)
Warhol Chelsea Girls 1966 (45)
Buster Keaton The Cameraman 1928 (53)
Robert Siodmak Menshem am Sonntag 1929 (70)
Chris Marker La Jetee 1963 (70)
Goddard A Letter to June 1972 (108)