What kind of beast would turn its life into words?
—Adrienne Rich
Relentlessly describing
Everything I see
I got a magic eye
The world will notice me
Countless dinner parties
Living in the glow
Don't know why I'm crying
Feelings come and go
Candor in my vision
The covenant I keep
I see for miles and miles
But I don't look in too deep
Wealth and fame and glory
Always on the phone
I told a thousand stories
But I never knew my own
by Richard W. Bray
laughing girls
and romping boys
a thousand lovely
aching joys
spots of time
the spirit captures
mundane moments
dizzy raptures
drink all this
the blessèd mood
little things
felt and viewed
By Richard W. Bray
Beware the Wooky Wabble
In the Torple Tapple Tree
He vexonted Carroll Lewis
And he almost blurbled me
Beware the Wooky Wabble
Deceptive in its art
He looks just like a nuknak
But he’s wipple wapple smart
Beware the Wooky Wabble
With his chriomatic forge
He swings a brutesome blade
Lacerating Gordon George
Beware the Wooky Wabble
He sporpled Miss D.H.
She keeps on writing books
But they’re only one page
Beware the Wooky Wabble
He bedeviled Milton John
He behemothed Shelley Percy
Till the raspity of dawn
by Richard W. Bray
Shooting star across the sky
Oh my God, we’re gonna die
I never want to walk around
There’s a chance I might fall down
Live a life of melodrama
Stay inside and call your mama
If that girl won’t go out with me
I’ll live a life of misery
If I’m not getting perfects marks
I’ll be sleeping in the park
When every hill’s a mountaintop
The agony will never stop
I got a pain inside my head
Pretty soon I will be dead
Every surface must be scoured
I boil my food for several hours
Breathe and think and slow your hurry
You don’t need to feed your worry
by Richard W. Bray
A look, a snub, a slander
Says you’re not enough
A heap of indignation
A morsel of love
Silent disappointment
A rolling of the eyes
To never miss a moment
To cut you down to size
The sadness of a soul
Who gives to take away
A sigh that’s filled with scorn
A heart made out of clay
by Richard W. Bray
It’s pretty easy to tell when someone is lying to themself.* But you can never know another person’s truth. And discovering your own truth is an enormous task.
The truth that looks you in the eye
“No reason why this has to hurt”
Tell yourself another lie
Compare yourself to other guys
“My loser friends are so inert”
The truth that looks you in the eye
Bewildered every time you cry
“I’m self-aware – I’m so alert”
Tell yourself another lie
Jump off a bridge – expect to fly
“Only fools return to dirt?”
The truth that looks you in the eye
Deception is your alibi
“I’m guiltless, honest and overt”
Tell yourself another lie
Dismiss your actions with a sigh
“I never aimed to disconcert”
The truth that looks you in the eye
Tell yourself another lie
by Richard W. Bray
*For example, when someone says I don’t care, it usually means they care a lot.
there’s no magic words
to protect you from the hurt
there’s no magic words
there’s just a lot of dirt
there’s no magic words
to cover up the lies
there’s no magic words
for the empty in their eyes
there’s no magic words
just try to stay real
keep your people close
and take the time to heal
by Richard W. Bray
unruly, rambunctious, exhausting and wild
there’s no greater love than the love of a child
boundless, colossal, extending for miles
there is no restraining the love of a child
needy and hopeful, touching and mild
the heaviest burden, the love of a child
investing your marrow, refunded in smiles
there’s no greater love than the love of a child
by Richard W. Bray