4 CIHTD?: G(r)in & Tonic

Title:  You and Me & a Bottle Make 3 Tonight (Baby)

Artist:  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Album:  Live
Genre:  Jazz

Notes:  It's been about 10 years since I was introduced to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  I had a student who had learned I liked big bang music and told me I should check them out.  He definitely wasn't wrong.  There is part of me that when I listen to this song am not 100% sure who the "you" is in this.  I can't decide if he's talking to someone or if the you is the drink in his hands.  Either way, it definitely is a catchy tune.

G(r)in & Tonic 

I drank away my sorrow
drown my dreams of tomorrow
focusing on you -- only you --
and what might be tonight  

Pour me another 

We click our glasses together
clear our minds of whether
there's more to us -- to this --
than what might be tonight 

Just leave us the bottle 

You steal away my troubles
stir an emotion that bubbles
around me -- surrounds me --
and what might be 

You're my last drink of the night

15 Last Call: Love's Allure

---

Love's Allure

Love is pain and sorrow wrapped in disguise;
I hear its sweet whispers calling to me.
"Come to me my dear.  Love is all you need."
And every time I fall into its trap,
it laughs at me with its seductive lies.

For far too long my heart has run carefree
unwilling to be tamed--that is until
I heard your sweet whispers calling to me.

With your enchanting words my world did still.
"Come my darling; my love is all you'll need."
Ensnared by this intoxicating thrill--

so easily--I fell into your trap.
I bared all of me and you drank your fill
then pulled back leaving my heartstrings to snap.

Love laughs at me with those seductive lies
knowing my heart has longed to be set free.
So softly, love calls, "I am all you need!"
then tugs waiting for my heartstrings to snap.
Love is pain and sorrow wrapped in disguise.

---

Inspiration for this piece comes from a pom seed written quite some time ago.  Due to syllable count, I had to modify it slightly (replacing intoxicating with seductive), but I did manage to get my original word back into the piece in another spot.

This is the second time I've toyed with the expanded nota.  I'm not really sold on this piece.  Not 100% sure what exactly bugs me.  I think part of it might be that the first and last stanza address love as a whole, while I chose to have the middle sections focus on a specific someone.  I'm not sure they blend so well.  I'll have to think on it, but for now it is what it is.

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This is my offerings for this week's dVerse Poets Pub OpenLinkNight. If you get a chance, check out all of the talented poets who have stepped up into the spotlight.

2 Time Capsule: Love at First Sight?

Title:  Love at First Sight?
Date:  02-10-02
Setting:  Life after college--during second post-college job
Form:  Free verse

Love is a mystical connection
between
two people
A connection of mind
knowing what the other is thinking
finishing one another’s sentences
answering before the question is even asked
A connection of the body
knowing what the other wants
reading one another’s signals
longing for just the simplest of touches
A connection of emotions
knowing what the other is feeling
allaying one another’s fears
comforting each other without even a word
Love is a mystical connection
Can it be found in a simple glance?
a single moment in time?
Can such a bond
of mind, body, and spirit
be struck without even a word
There are those who believe so
and though I am not one of them
I cannot deny
that with a simple glance
in a single moment
one person may be drawn to another
not because of looks
or appearances of wealth
but by some mystical force
which hopes to spark within them
a desire to discover everything
there is to know about the other
leaving them susceptible
to that which is love.

Notes: I will go on record here...though I am a romantic at heart, I do not really believe in "love at first sight"--at least not in the truest sense of the phrase. I did my best to capture my thoughts awhile back in this particular piece.

Artifact I: Page one of original.

Artifact II: Page two of original.

5 CIHTD?: Methods...

Title:  n/a

Artist:  n/a

Album:  n/a

Genre:  n/a

An Aside:  I've been sick...still sick technically...and my brain has been a bit too fuzzy to compose.  Every time the music plays I want to close my eyes and fall asleep.  So I am taking a different approach to this week's CIHTD?.

Notes:  I can remember coming in late on a debate between my brother and cousin about whether it is the lyrics or instrumentals of a song that were more powerful.  Each was on a different side of the fence.  I, myself, have always found myself in the middle.  

There is definitely something to the lyrics that touch the mind and heart.  They can stick with you and follow you around.  You can relate to them.  And sometimes having words that you can sing out (whether you actually know the words or not) as the music plays can be very cathartic.  

Now the instrumentals ..the instrumentals have a way of getting under your skin--syncing with or altering your internal rhythm.  I have always found this to be very therapeutic.  A couple of years ago I wrote (and posted here) the poem below.  Eventually this turned into a bit of series where each of the poems that followed incorporated music as an entity to soothe.  

So with out further ado...

Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions

gritted teeth
hold tears at bay
a flimsy dam of sticks
bombarded by raging emotions
longing to pour freely

rioting music
course throughout
a volatile tidal wave
melding with raging emotions
longing to find rhythm

breath moves
slowly in, slowly out
a soft gentle breeze
releases the raging emotions
longing to suffocate

Followed up by four additional poems with music playing in the background:

• Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions:  Music Echoes
• Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions:  Rage On
• Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions:  Perscriptive Drug
• Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions:  Out of My Misery

11 Last Call: Burning Flame

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Burning Flame

candlelight flickers
     flick(flick)flickers
casting me in shadows

my core projected
across the ground
mocks me.  its silent
full-body laugh
surrounded by golden hues
emulates my everyday existence--
shedding light on the truth.

When will I let the love in?

---

This is my offerings for this week's dVerse Poets Pub OpenLinkNight. If you get a chance, check out all of the talented poets who have stepped up into the spotlight.

3 Time Capsule: Pining

Title:  Pining
Date:  01/12/06
Setting:  Life after college--during second post-college job
Form:  Free verse

Notes:  I spoke about my Poetry List emails before.  I had originally started them in college.  Years later, as part of a New Year's Resolution, I thought to reinstate my poetry list emails.  This poem was the first one sent out when I finally brought it back up.  I admit the new Poetry-List emails did not last very long (only to Volume 1 Number 7 -- which was a total of ten poems).  I believe I tried blogging a couple of years later; that didn't go to well, but I eventually found my way back to it and started this here blog.  So yeah...at least for now.

Artifact I:  Front of original.

Artifact II:  Back of original

Artifact III:  Blurb from the bottom of Poetry List: Resurrection email.

15 CIHTD?: Tune (Stuck Inside My Head)

Title:  Day that I Die
Artist:  Zac Brown Band (feat. Amos Lee)
Album:  Uncaged
Genre:  Country

Notes:  There is something about the way he sings "a guitar in my hands."  I don't really know why but I do. I had thought I might use that as my 'radif' (see information on form below), but I found myself instead utilizing a phrase from the line "I just kept chasing that melody."  I even initially used 'that', but 'our' just felt a better fit by the time I uncovered the first stanza.  Yes, in the scheme of things, I wrote four stanzas prior to coming back to the one that used the 'radif' in both lines.  A couple of other lines from the song played into the poem, but for the most part the topic is not aligned with the song.

A Form Aside:  This is a ghazal--more specifically it is intended to be a ghazal sonnet.  This was not my first attempt at a ghazal.  I tried one (back in August 2011).  Normally I try to give a form several goes before I make a decision on it, which is why when it popped up at dVerse Poets Pub for their FormForAll, I thought I'd give it another go.  Still not really sold on it, but...

Tune (Stuck Inside My Head)

I never shall erase our melody
nor could I dare replace our melody.

You are the only tune I care to know,
though I might have to chase our melody.

My fingers long to graze your skin
allowing me to trace our melody.

How long, I wonder, must I wait for you
to finally embrace our melody.

I know how fear can still the beat,
but please do not deface our melody.

Until the very end I'll sing of us
and strum across my bass our melody.

Guitar in hand with roses at our feet
together we'll retrace our melody.

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my humble offerings for dVerse Poets Pub FormForAll.  If you get a chance, check out what some amazing talents are doing with the ghazal form.