What a crazy ramble this life has been And I suspect not nearly over yet With so much seen some better left unseen But what I have seen I will not forget
Nor would I change a moment anyway In a beautiful game without regret I keep my cards close and I mean to play So if you want to play awhile come on The night is clear and it is warm inside You might as well stay awhile until dawn Make yourself at home and enjoy the ride
My finger feels freer without a ring Once I was lonely but now I am not For freedom is better than anything I just got sentimental and forgot
Nobody cares about me like I do But you can stay with me if you want to
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 25, 2006, 4:29 pm
Autumn Leaves and Commonday Miracles
It turns out life is simpler than I thought Commonday miracles bloom around me Hope on the wind but somehow I forgot The only way to live free is just be And take no thought for anything but now
What is my place in the universe And is it for me to say? Can I make my place better or worse From one to another day?
The answer always comes to me somehow That letting go is what to do To float like a leaf on the autumn wind It seems not up to me nor you
We autumn leaves ought not be caught and pinned But sail the day with a sense of play As into dust at dusk we pass Along with summer's waving grass Under soft snow as we fall away
Eternity begins for us today
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 23, 2006, 9:02 pm
Uncertain Raven
for Franziska
I wonder if you love me I wish you could be here This lonely sky above me Seems more empty than clear
A raven circles wary Uncertain in the sky I feel it knows the very Day on which I must die
Uncertain raven in the sky I wonder if that day is now Yet know we never know somehow
I only wish that I could fly To meet Franziska far away And bring her home with me today
Uncertain raven certainly You see me lonely here below You know how much she means to me Tap on her window: let her know
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 23, 2006, 2:35 pm
The Rose Within the Flame
Tangibility Palpability Our ability to touch What we need we want so much
You are the hands of Christ to me The face of God my destiny
My healing comes by loving fire In the rose within the flame Speaks me my unspoken desire When I feel you speak my name
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 22, 2006, 5:13 pm
Mr. Hot Dog Head is Gone
His head was smaller than his neck was wide His paunch preceded him into the room He peered perverted was watery-eyed And when we kicked him out how he could zoom About with huff-puffing efficiency The way he did was and will always be A typical Hot Dog Head mystery
He could have had a heart attack and died Been ground up squeezed into casing and fried For all the fury of his hot dog ways As victim of his hot dog headed pride But huff and puff and in and out he went And all of us are happy now if spent Anticipating cooler fat-free days
Pull up a chair and stay with us awhile Thank heaven Mr. Hot Dog Head is gone But that the moon remains and soon the dawn Will bring back sunny Sunday memories Of all the happy times gone by and these New memories which we will make today Consider Mr. Hot Dog Head and smile
No one comes back from where he went away
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 20, 2006, 11:34 pm
Mr. Hot Dog Head Hits the Road
Goodbye Mr. Hot Dog Head goodbye Your past is frying your fat at last May you reach that big bun in the sky Run along and try to catch it fast
Although I will not miss you still I Marvel at the shifting shadings of Your proud pulsing purple hot dog head I wish you had somebody to love But I see at least you are well fed
Goodbye Mr. Hot Dog Head goodbye Your flushed head flashing red as you go Your only love is the kind you fry But all you can do is what you know
Your inner rebirth is in your girth And we both know that you cannot grow In any other way at least today Good luck now as you wander the earth But please Mr. Hot Dog Head: stay away
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 20, 2006, 1:17 pm
Mr. Hot Dog Head
His head looks like the tip of a hot dog If he wore a hat I guess it would be A tip of the hat to a spotted hog The spots seem to be from the sun I see Sunspots on that big round hot dog tip head By which he navigates till he is dead
Mr. Hot Dog Head you make me nervous I try to put the war behind me now But somehow you are still in the service You give me sunspot flashbacks anyhow Marching to the kitchen to the bathroom Addressing both ends of the meat grinder A marching hot dog marching to the doom Which makes us blind and makes you still blinder
I thought things were as strange as they could get Until Mr. Hot Dog Head and I met
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 19, 2006, 7:42 pm
Because of You
The busy-ness of business threatened To eat the morning and spit out the seeds Into these heavy-lidded eyes my friend Till first you measured then you met my needs
Ever since then I am much on the mend And have had such small successes as these: The oven man came and made his repair The garage man filled his dumptruck to spare Us the ruins and rinds of centuries
Someone will live in the garage and we My properly-working household and me Will make better use of our groceries The oven fixed garage cleaned more or less All because of you my friend to the end Too busy with living for busy-ness
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 18, 2006, 11:00 pm
A Rice Day
Adding the juice of five limes to my rice Followed by the salsa I love so well I feel how blessed I am knowing how nice Brown rice tastes made tangy and hot as hell
So now breakfast lunch and dinner are done Since this is all three meals in one for me An abundance worthy of anyone A piquant and pleasing satiety
I do not choose to stuff myself with stuff I prefer a purer and simpler way I eat once a day and once is enough This is a rice day: a very nice day
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 17, 2006, 11:09 pm
Robots Calling
Lately when I answer my telephone Robots ask me rhetorical questions They hardly need me they chirp all alone Or accompanied by my suggestions That they go plug themselves or blow a fuse
A robot has rather little to lose
Which is actually a lot like me Although we have nothing to talk about I could chatter in answer endlessly I could purr politely or shriek and shout And none of it matters in any case
I like the unpredictability One finds within our moody human race Much better than the cold sterility Of rhetorical robots calling here Unrelieved by shades of humanity
With their chipper chirp and their chilling cheer
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 17, 2006, 1:59 pm
Quiet and Cool
when a blowhard blows in then out again
Any fool who cannot write poetry But can skim the first few lines may become The judge and jury and jailer of me Or you or of anyone not as dumb As this self-appointed arbiter is This tempest-in-a-teapot not-so-hot Who could burst the bubbles in a gin fizz By sheer and self-anointed dullardry
And so every day the real poets pay As they pray this gasbag will float away But until he does he creates his buzz As he gets his kick from making us sick While he stars in his deconstructive play Till it all goes back to the way it was If tempest-tossed and slightly overwrought With the exception that we all agree
On one thing at least Having tamed the beast And booted the fool Together Our weather Is quiet and cool
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 16, 2006, 4:39 pm
Pickled Hell
for some and against others
I do not speak these poems for you Who tear down to enlarge yourselves But for those few whose hearts are still true Not pickled up in jars on shelves Where bottled-up in brine they will not grow I speak from a place where these dare not go
No! I speak these poems for you who Can feel your heartbeat in your breast Your eyes are open your mind is too To you my best I give my best And let those who only pick apart dwell Preserved picked-apart in their pickled hell
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 15, 2006, 6:09 pm
Midnight Song
Come let us breathe fresh magic from the air And feel how free it is to be alive All times all places always anywhere Particularly right now and right here In this our time our place in time and space As we wait for the magic to appear
Come tingle with surprise as midnight brings Something out of nothing which is born there Where the moon dances and the raven sings The song which is the rhythm of our lives
Come let us breathe fresh magic from the air And see what is brought when midnight arrives When the hands of time are raised to its face In a timeless moment of victory The triumph of time having run its race And won when the clock strikes for you and me
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 14, 2006, 8:19 pm
The Rest Remains
for Maria
The more I know the less I know: I know A secret which nobody else can share I understand myself and poetry That it is always better here than there And thank God for the promise of this day The rest remains a mystery to me So I just keep to myself as I go On my softspoken solitary way
Eyes open mouth shut keeping my head down Listening to what other people say Avoiding the fool sidestepping the clown Waiting for the blowhard to blow away
I walk through crowded streets alone and see That in the end I am my only friend A secret which nobody else can share With nothing left except to simply be And be more simply here than anywhere The more I know the less I know: I know I am my only friend that in the end The rest remains a mystery to me
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 13, 2006, 3:39 pm
The Only Cure
Why does it hurt to grow? All I know is it does
More when fast less when slow Then never as it was Or ever as you were
This pain is not in vain But effect of the cause Of life where growth is sure And ceaseless without pause
Yet pain will not explain Till death the only cure For life: by life again
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 12, 2006, 9:47 pm
Right Here
I eat the scraps my tenants give me And enjoy their youthful presence here They and the mortgage will outlive me But without them I'd have died in fear And probably homeless hopelessness
To say nothing of the starvation Which is part of my situation By nature and nurture ...yet unless I am very much mistaken I Will be eating well until I die Nourished by their solicitousness Well enough for me in any case
O Lord bless the ones by whom you bless Your unworthy servant in this place You gave my ancestors long ago And have now entrusted unto me I always believed but now I know:
Right here is where you want me to be
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 12, 2006, 5:25 pm
Second Saturday
A dirty little man who claimed divinity Worked its way through all his works walked on my ceiling Conspicuously lacking in concinnity All he left were dirty footprints and the feeling That I never should have let him walk up there
But I was too broken then to really care At the time until those footprints first appeared Since he made them walking on the other side Which really is as wonderful as it is weird Especially now that all the blood has dried
I trace the pattern pleasing in its disarray Of the footprints of a barking madman's reeling And nobody can see them but for me And then just on the second Saturday According to the whimsy of divinity
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 11, 2006, 10:34 pm
Back Home to the Dark
I went for a walk with my eyes to the ground Ordinarily I keep them to the skies But after that beckoning quarter I found I knew it could never have been otherwise
I looked up and looked down I looked all around And I could see it was a very good day To live and especially to live as me Already seeing how exercise can pay
So I pumped my fist in solidarity With the anti-war protesters in the park Twenty-five cents richer lucky as can be And feeling a chill went back home to the dark
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 10, 2006, 2:01 pm
Feeling Time a Pinwheel
Somehow I knew she was waiting for me There was a question mark in blue and black Tattooed in exclamation on her back Like me she wondered when we might be free We both knew we had no answers at all Just questions as we headed into fall Those unanswered questions life is made of
Headfirst head over heels in love with love And ready for that deep-end dive at last Which had been waiting for her and for me With presently no future and no past No time like the present for us to be And feeling time a pinwheel spinning fast We held hands as we jumped into the sea
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 9, 2006, 9:10 pm
My Special Relativity
"Monday is such a busy day" I hear the airplane plainly say As it sighs and shrugs off in flight I think this might be a long night But since I think this Friday last You see how one lives in the past
This soon-to-be Tuesday morning Fell upon me without warning Though I am unsure as to when
As once I fell to earth in fall Caught in the wonder of it all When last I heard the airplane say "Monday is such a busy day" I think it was a Friday then But since I think... but then again...
Time is relative anyway And especially so to me My special relativity
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 8, 2006, 11:26 pm
Reality's Ledge
Now in this moment between grace and sin Here at the meeting place of night and day Where light and dark play teeter-totter in Their equipoise I see a middle way Before the day can end or night begin Here at the very tip of time I stand
A middleman between two worlds am I Dark in my left and light in my right hand The black and white of only one grey sky As of one world where kiss the sea and land Converging in our tandem-beating hearts Make love to me on reality's ledge
In perfect balance as the magic starts Come dance with me upon the razor's edge Where we will glide between the to and fro The universe will make it worth our while Between two ways the shadow of a smile Is how you know that now you really know
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 8, 2006, 4:49 pm
Fresh-Baked and Only for Today
There is a moment more or less In which right when I first wake up I find it clarifying to Begin my day from nothingness Remembering that all I do For good or ill to curse or bless Find new love or kiss and make up Is only mine to choose and then Proceeds the somethingness of when Fresh-baked and only for today Alone unfettered by some stress From overnight to overstay
Since new days ought to be brand new Let each unfold in its own way Without the complications of The preconceived: less fear more love
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 8, 2006, 12:51 am
The Man in the Moon
I wander alone at the midnight hour And see the face of the man in the moon Who while saying nothing sees everything
Since he says nothing I might as well sing At least these words if you make up the tune Because my heart feels like a blooming flower
It waxed with the moon now it opens bright To taste the magic in the air tonight Which affects the cycles affects the tides As well as everyone and me besides
I study the face of the moon and see That we are different in many ways He has the gift of patience unlike me
But I agree with how he spends his days And when I go rambling he comes along Over my shoulder my friend in the sky
I think he likes it when I sing a song About how it would be if I could fly He surely thinks flying is no big thing But he just smiles and shines on while I sing
I wander alone at the midnight hour And see the face of the man in the moon Who while saying nothing sees everything
Since he says nothing I might as well sing At least these words if you make up the tune
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 5, 2006, 10:24 pm
Harvest Moon of Saturday
When moonlit magic shines my way It feeds my soul and makes me smile The harvest moon of Saturday Is something to savor awhile As I already feel its light On this bright blazing afternoon Here on Thursday before the night Has fallen yet: but night falls soon
And when night falls then I will rise
When moonlit magic shines my way I dance beneath the waxing moon And rise with it through velvet skies Reflecting on reflected grace Two rovers riding destiny We bloom full-blown on Saturday When we reveal ourselves full-face Ascended to our rightful place
My friend the harvest moon and me
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Oct 5, 2006, 4:06 pm
As the Night Gives to the Day
You are every song I sing My poems are all for you Whether you know it or not All I write and all I do Is for you no matter what Anybody else may say
Count the countless stars which shine And you count one dream come true All the sky is yours and mine For as you give I give too As the night gives to the day Nothing less than everything
