Arte Soy

That chap?
I heard he’s fulla crap
Give him a slap
Silly hill billy
Like his Uncle Willy

Naw, jus playin
He’s my brotha from anotha
Naw’m sayin?
We go back, jack

lox+o-sxl+o+mxa+o-ixu+o-lxg+o-exh+o-xve

Lost in stare
I’m unaware as to where
Somewhere between here and there
What remains is his name in the middle
And my instincts and instruments
To solve the riddle
Where’s my fiddle?!
I’ll say, I’m on my way
Some day, perhaps today
We’ll say “hey!”
Break bread
And play
Let us pray
Add some color
To this gray

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Dear Josh Weiss,
This is dedicated to you
And all our namesakes
Throughout time and space.
Greetings and good graces
We are one with many faces
Emblazoned as it were
With a name, swift and pure
Like snow
But what lies below?
The will to grow
Like the lotus
Out of the muck
We truck
Called to the light
From the dark night
We shall not fright
Our future bright
Let us take flight
Be thou knight
No need for bark and bite
When we have heArt and write

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I read that you were in a tailspin.
That your life had shattered, so to speak.
And that in the solitude of nature you pulled yourself together.
That, in the refuge of a wood cabin, you rendered a masterpiece.

Whether it’s a simile or a metaphor, I’m not sure.
But I’d like to be as the wind and the rain, and the shelter from the two;
At one with our blessed Earth, her sacred fruit, and the nourishment and delight derived therefrom.

Song bursting out, voices free in the silence.  The listening.  The voices.  Soaring crosswise and playfully about.

A reckoning.

The soul and the man, and one’s time on Earth.

The coming together and the breaking apart.

The breakdown.

A wretched wailing, followed by silence.

Solace and surrender.

A time of peace.

A sanctuary in the eye of the storm.

There, with the rudiments – my mind, my hands, my will, a few instruments, and the good graces, I commune with my heart and soul, and the spirit moves me to this.

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Today everyone has asked about you,
How you’ve been, and where you were…
I didn’t know.
I remember faces, smiling and laughing.
I remember your eyes…
Oh those lovely eyes of yours.
I was a fool.
Beautiful women have lay down with my books.
Over my poems they would let down their hair.
But they were hardly aware of me.
Where have they all gone to?
The country road is nice and inviting, but it is not for me, not anymore…
Constantly, I think of you, you who left behind your guitar and your beautiful self
Engraved in my mind.
But the evil men have now set their eyes on you, all of you.
The evil men are after you, and this is beyond my control.
Without effort, I realize that a man constantly suffers
That his heart is as fragile as the feelings of a baby
That when involved with a woman he loves
His mind gets confused, he feels insecure
And he becomes more of a man
When he conquers the heart of a different lady.
Considering the fact that a man, in confrontation with another
Like an animal, he shows his teeth, brings out his nails, bites, screams
And combs his hair.
Realizing also that a man can get extremely sad
That he can become quiet, as if about to cry
Especially when he discovers that the women he loves
Are no longer mine.

(Oscar Fuentes contributed this.)

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Offline
Disconnected, isolated…estranged
And yet thoughts reverberate beyond
Beyond thought
There is ONE
One’s response
My response
My act upon the stage
Of consciousness
Whose consciousness??
Besides,
What good are your little fantasies?
Where are the signs, the marks…
Of your greatness?
Your great intention
Your great feeling
Your great love
Your great this and that?
Let me see them.
Let me feel them!
Be them!!
Be…
Simply
Free
Connected
Whole
United
Happy
Harmonious
Helpful
Hopeful
Honorable
Humorous
Healthy
Humble
Honest
Heartfelt
Heard
Here

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I’d like to sing a song for you
That comes out feeling soft and true
Sometimes I don’t know what to do
But I know how it feels
When it’s beautiful

If in these few words and lines
I find the rhythm and the rhyme,
I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do
I’m gonna give my love to you

And even though it may sound quaint
This love is an ocean
This love is an ocean
This love is an ocean

My gentle friend
I do contend
That in the end
Our hearts will mend
And our rivers blend
Into that great ocean

Ocean of love
Ocean of love
Ocean of love

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Imagine the sound of a dog panting, haahahaahahaahahaaha.
And voices, mother and daughter.
The dryer door being shut.
Someone whistling.  A child, or an adolescent.
Conversation, downstairs.
Laughter.
Noises…getting louder.
Ah, it’s some sort of game,
The nature of which involves pattern and rhythm.
But the noise…
Subsides.
The conversation goes on.
Mother explaining, relating,
“Hay que ir…porque…no se pue…”
Daughter responding,
“Si, porque el banco cerro…”
Daughter’s son interjecting.
Voices fall silent.
The dryer.
Softness.
Voices.
Listening.
Breathing.
Typing.
Seeing.
Curser flashing.
“Hi Josh,” says daughter’s daughter.
“Hi.”

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A poem a day keeps the rust at bay
On the things I feel but do not say
So here I go once again
Giving voice to what lies within

It’s more than just a clever rhyme
It’s making sense of my place in time
It’s leaving something of me behind
A window into one human’s mind

And though it might seem rather mad
From a distance it’s never all that bad
In fact there may be something true
That unites this poet with you-know-who

In any case, I’ve found my place
And it ain’t a-runnin’ the ol’ rat race
There may be better but there’s surely worse
Than passing time drafting verse

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What if I were so well read
If you cut me it’d be ink I bled
And I could weave, thread by thread
Theories to let me mentally shred
Every last last bit of dread
I was ever sold or fed
And all the shit I’ve thought and said
Turned to fertilizer for my head

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Wife, love of my life,
Tenderness is your name
When love’s your game

Would that you tame
the flame of your pain
And I the shame
that drives me insane

Let them wane, and we’ll wax
Wise with the main idea
C’mon, it’s so clear
We’ve got to hear the call

And see over, under
And through the wall
To what lies beyond
Like a pet turtle
Returned to the pond

The years of tears
Give way to a joy
That falls like rain
And we are united again,
Washed of our sin

I say enough
Let freedom ring!
And you and I sing
Sweet harmony

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