Capital Punishment, 1969

 In 1966, the total number of executions in the U. S. was one for murder.  When a man is sentenced to life imprisonment, he can be paroled after eight years.  The types of capital punishment are electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and shooting.  You can spend two years on "Death Row" waiting for your execution.  There are so many things wrong with capital punishment that it should be abolished.

Can I

Can I see your face
 Through the shadows
  Of our lives.
Were you there last night
 When no one was around
  In time.

Campus Politics and Styles of Dress, 1970

 After World War I, students in college started to realize what the world was doing.  In the pre-World War II days, the students made effigies of Adolf Hitler and burned them.  They dressed like the G.I.'s and proclaimed their patriotism to America.  The pre-German wore Nazi-armbands and brown shirts.
 The 1950's gave the students a time for leisure.  They were not concerned with the problems of the world.  All they cared about was dancing in bobby socks.  They wore loose dresses and baggy pants, so that they would have more freedom for dancing.
 The 1960's was the decade for awareness.  The Bay of Pigs incident made all the boys shave their beards, because they didn't want to look like Castro.  Then the Vietnam War became a reality.  Student protests became commonplace.  People started to put peace signs over everything.  Non-conformity became the fad, so hair became longer, dress became "sloppier", and the whole fashion was liberal.
 There is no telling what the 1970's will bring.

Calling You, 2008

You
You are in my heart
You
You are miles a part
 from me.

We
We could be together
We
We could make it better
 every day.

I
I don't want to lose you
I
I don't think you do
 love me.

My
My tears run down my face
My
My tears are not in this place
 called your love.

You can't see me
We aren't as one
I want to tell you
My soul wants to be free.

Our
Our love is out there
Our
Our love is so rare
 without you.

Call Me-Tell Me, 1991

Call me and tell me
 you don't love me
Call me and tell me
 you don't care
Call me and tell me
 you won't see me
Call me--Take the dare.

Look me in the eye
 and tell me you're leaving
Look me in the eye
 and say I'm no good
Look me in the eye
 and say that tale you're weaving
Look at me--If you think you could.

I don't want to lose you
I can't make you feel guilty
But if you can tell me,
I'll leave you alone.

Call me and tell me
 you won't see me
But you don't even know my name.

Cafe Royale, 1976

Sunlight, sun dark, sun
 life, sun death, all is
sunshine none is night.
 And all is happy for the
  sun and not for me.

But What are Friends For?, 1976

From the time I was sixteen
and she was merely a tyke,
there were just a few people
that I liked.

Kilbourne Park brought together
many diverse souls,
and as far as my mentality went,
they plugged up all the holes.

But times have changed from
long ago and we've gone our separate ways,
and now we're coming back again,
after many lonely days.

A group of folks brought
me together out of despair,
and I've seen three of them,
three of those that cared.

Six years have passed since
those happy days of yore,
but the emptiness remains so I ask,
what is on the other side of that door?

Warmth of heart, and cold of mind
are two different degrees,
but what I want most
out of life is little, old me.

Diamonds are hard, and so
are floors, and many times you fall,
but gems are a sign of happiness,
and floors lead down long halls.

Riddles are spoken by those
who are never quite sure,
and if I looked at all my
life, I would say I'm not poor.

Just lonely and empty and like
an empty shell,
And sometimes I wish I could
scream because it's hell.

Busing, 1969

 In Charlotte, N. C. rural children were bused to the city schools, and the urban children were bused to the rural schools.  (The only reason was to achieve racial balance.)  The children and their families voiced concern over this action, and the children did not get along in their new school.  Freedom of choice is the only acceptable method that we have now.  Each state is an independent body.  It has a separate legislature and state government.  If the states were to have busing, it would be done by the states, and not by the government.  This is a "land of the free", and not a nation of force.

Born in FBC, 1984

I came to this church when I was five,
I looked inside and knew I'd arrived,
The first thing I did was see the light,
And the preacher spoke on what's wrong and right.

Born in FBC, I was born in FBC, I was born in FBC,
I'm a real strange guy in FBC.

I went to church for Sunday School,
The teachers I had were really cool,
I sang in the choir 'cause the girls were cute,
Though some of the guys wished I was mute.

Born in FBC, I was born in FBC, I was born in FBC,
I'm a real strange guy in FBC.

I've grown up--they say I have changed,
All I know is that I'm still strange,
The time has come for me to close,
But I love this church from my head to my toes.

'Cause I was born in FBC, Born in FBC, Born in FBC,
I'm a real strange guy in FBC.

Blurted Silence, 1973

He wanted to say,
But it wasn't possible
That day.

He wanted to yell out,
But no one would hear
What he was talking about.

He laughed and cried,
But no one saw,
So, he just lied--
His head off.

The truth is never known,
Because silence is only seen,
And no one knows how a mind shone--
In their world.  Amen.

The Blue "B"

 We all know the story of the first Thanksgiving between the Puritans and the Indians.  Most of us know the story of the Scarlett Letter, which we should have read in high school.  But, did you know that there was another letter that the Puritans used besides the letter "A"?  It was The Blue "B".  Nobody knew what the "B" stood for, but they had it.
 One day, the Indians came to visit from their new home in Cleveland.  Chief Waccamaw saw hundreds of people wearing blue B's on their clothes.  He asked Captain White what these letters meant.  He said that nobody had asked him that question before.  He went to their spiritual leader, Father Macy, to see if he knew the background of this letter.  Father Macy told J. B. to ask Private Tapp, because he knew about such things.  Private Tapp said that his next door neighbor, Louis Rich, made B's for people and probably knew.  So, the Chief and the Captain went over to Rich's house and there were blue B's all over the place.  Upon investigation, they found out that the blue B's were contracted by a man for people all over the Southeast.
 The mystery of the blue B continued for years.  People for hundreds of miles had these letters.  Every Thanksgiving, the Puritans would sit down with the Indians and talk about nothing but football and blue B's.  Finally, a stranger came to camp.  Women swooned when they saw him.  Men were envious of him.  He wore a solid blue outfit, and introduced himself as--you guessed it--General Belk.  The rest is history.

A Blind Seer, 1980

Matching colors
                  smiling
                  face
Always a good
                        word
For those he can't see.

What if...
         he could see?

Would he still
            be happy?

A kind and precise
                          man
There is no other.

He is a breed
                     apart.

Blind, 1973

Sometimes we see, but
 do not feel, because
  the fortunes of time
   do not require it.

I always wish that
 my time was such
  that I could feel
   but all I do is see.

To see is to observe
 life as it is or how
  you want it to be, but
   to feel is to love.

I love to see, to touch,
 to love, but for me,
  I only
   see.

Whether I see, because
 I want to see, or whether
  I see, because there is
   no other, I don't know.

All I know is what
 I see, and how I
  wish that seeing
   was all there was to life.

May we only see and not feel,
Because feeling is only to be wished
and not felt.  Amen.

Blam, 1971

 Blam!  Bam!  I crammed for the test.  I was studying about Hoover Dam, Virginia Ham, and a traffic jam.  My teacher was a lamb, but she was on the lam.  Her name was Pam.  Her husband was a ram.  His name was Sam.  Her favorite group was the Tams.  They all ate yams.

 It's been a long time, since I fell in the cotton bin.  It was in a lion's den.  The lions had eaten a fish fin, again.  A hen was in her roost drinking gin.  They notified her next of kin.  They were all men.  They brought a pin into the pig pen.  That was a sin.  The pin was made out of tin.  There were ten pigs.  They couldn't win.  They sold the pigs for yen to Zen Buddhists.

 I baked a bun.  It was done in fun.  He had a gun.  He was Attila the Hun, As far as his men were concerned, there were none.  All I had was a pun.  I tried to run, but the sun blinded me.  My son weighed a ton.  He sat on Attila.  We won.

 The bing-bong and the ding-dong came from the gong rung by King Kong.  While the long Ping-Pong match was going on, King Kong sang a song with Anna Mae Wong.  It was all wrong.

 The air was bare with the bear.  It took great care to dare the bear to give the fare to the fair hare, whose hair was caught by the lair.  The mare, which was mayor used Nair on the pair of his rare legs.  It would tear and wear his wares.

Blah!

It's a cold, wintry
 spring day, and death
  awaits to catch
   anyone who attacks it.

It shakes you until
 you want to give
  up the ghost, but
   you can't run.

But death reaches
 out and grabs you
  until you can't fight
   it anymore, and that's
    a sad case.  Blah!

Blah!  Blah!  Blah!
 Oh, I wish it weren't
  so Blah!

A Bird, 1971

On a bridge one day--
A shot was heard,
It killed a bird--
One day.

The blood ran cold.  It flew away, I think.

Bigot, 1974

Listen my children,
and don't make a fuss,
of my afternoon tale,
on a Greyhound bus.

A woman of eighty was
spouting off about the
Commies in society and
started calling them out.

Oil Producers, Rockefeller,
President Ford, Democrats,
G. Gordon Liddy, John Dean,
Inflation, Dr. King, Divorce,
Catholics, Kennedy, Howard Hughes,
Presidents assassinated, Egypt,
and many more, too.

But, she said that she
had a fine nephew who was
in electronics, and a niece
who committed suicide.

With an aunt like that,
who can wonder why?

Beauty

To see the sunlight
 through windows of life
  is to see beauty
   as it exists.

But beauty isn't real
 because there is no
  defined idea on
   what beauty is.

To me--beauty is
 a natural beauty
  that isn't fake
   or phoney.

What I'm trying
 to say is this:
  beauty is not
   beautiful always.

Don't condemn people
 whose idea of beauty
  is different than
   yours, because you are only you.

Beauty, 1973

 In a forest, there was a leaf, lying on the ground.  All the trees in the forest said, "Hey leaf, I'm going to make you fly."  So, the trees made a great wind and blew the leaf away.  One day, a little boy came along and found the leaf.  He picked it up and took it with him.  The big trees laughed at the boy with the leaf, but he didn't care, because his leaf was beautiful.  The moral to this story is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and big people talk, but they don't really see.

Beautiful World, 1974

Together or getting together
or getting it all together or
being together or being where
it's at, or whatever the
phrase is, there seems to be
the lack of any one word to
describe what we are trying
to say.  Because to see today is
to see beauty, since beauty begins
with a B.  Together begins with
a T.  Put them together, they
spell BuT, which is what this
world's about.  Everything is beautiful,
but.

Bethlehem/Peace

(Both are sitting)

2.  Okay, I'm waiting.

1.  Good

2.  You told me to wait for Him.

1.  Yes.

2.  And Christ is coming here?

1.  Yes, that's what the Bible says.

2.  Are you making this up, because I could be doing other things.

1.  No, He's coming.  The prophets wouldn't lie about that.

2.  (looking at watch--fidgets)

1.  Can you please be still?

2.  I'm sorry.  It's just that it's cold, and we're outside, and it's dark, and I'm scared.

1.  It's okay.  (pause)

2.  Why is it so quiet?  Shouldn't there be music and stuff?

1.  Lie still.  Everything will be fine.

Bargain Basement Love

I called up a girl
 and asked her for a date,
She told me to pick
 her up at half past eight,
I asked her where
 she wanted to go,
She told me she
 wanted to see a show.

We got to the show
 about a quarter to nine,
I thought this girl
 looked really fine,
But when it came time
 to go through the door,
I found that I was
 really poor.

I looked at her and
 asked if she could pay,
She looked at me and
 said--No Way,
She said--What do you
 think I'm made of,
I found out that she
 was Bargain Basement Love.

I've got Bargain Basement Love
 in the morning,
Bargain Basement Love
 at night,
Bargain Basement Love
 in the evening,
Bargain Basement Love
 is all right.

She turned around and
 looked for a cab,
She said--I wish you
 could have gotten the tab,
But if you got no money
 then you don't got me,
'Cause I'm not Bargain Basement Love.

Bargain Basement Love is worth it,
Bargain Basement Love is free,
Bargain Basement Love is careful,
'Cause Bargain Basement Love is me.

Away, 1973

She's so far
 away, like
  too far for
   me to see.

But not so far
 as to write and
  not so far as
   to talk.

If only the distance
 was non-existent
  and she was
   with me.

But the time
 will one day
  catch up with us
   and that day will be beautiful.

So now the distance
 is great and too
  far for me
   to see.

The Awful Experience, 1970

I saw something today that I'll never forget,
The incident that I'll always regret,
It was one of the worst things I've ever seen,
The accident was rough and mean.

The thing that happened was a wreck,
I hope the woman doesn't have a whiplashed neck,
A big car rammed into a little car,
And it knocked the car door ajar.

The window in the car crumbled and broke,
This wreck was no joke,
The woman in the car was hurt very bad,
This made the other driver very sad.

I hope and pray,
That the woman is okay,
She has glass in her face,
From that fateful place.

They towed the car away,
The other driver will have to pay
For the damages that were done,
But the damages to the other were none.

What happened here was a running of a light,
It may take away the woman's sight,
Why can't people, just take care?
Instead of taking that dare.

Awareness

Ride, ride ride along
With nowhere to go
It doesn't matter where
You go unless you quit.

Pull, push, upsetting ideas,
And where will it end
My friend?

A Song

In the light of morning sun
we see the birth of strangeness fly
and we can see a bird.

Flying high over the trees
He soars among the clouds
and sky of blue.

We can see people singing,
laughing at the light of day
and we are friends of all.

After we see the little stream
and green bushes all around,
We will know that we live
and peace is abounding.

Now we come to the mountains
laughing, running, and singing a tune,
While we see the cameras pop, we
see the wonderful valley green
and we're home again.

Now and then we'll live on the sun of life,
People will see that we live,
At our paradise.

Anti-War, 1971

All is a question,
Why are we here?
If we could find out,
Then toast it with beer.

If the beer is gone,
And you can't find a drink,
Then get to your cars,
And follow the stars.

All can be answered,
Without anyone to guide,
If you find yourself without love,
Then go kill yourself a dove.

Another Look at my Poetry at the Present Time, 1974

 In the last report on my poetry, I talked about loneliness and a feeling of thinking about death.  One thing that I thought that I should talk about is another aspect of poetry that I have developed--SAS.
 SAS stands for Serious Anti-Symbolism.  This idea means that the words, that I use in my poetry, usually do not have any great, symbolic meaning.  Many times, people try to read into someone's poetry, just to satisfy their own desires.  My poetry is usually straight-forward with no underlying meanings.  Recently, the titles of my poems have been greatly symbolic, so keep that in mind.  But, if I say something about Death, then I mean Death and not some far-out philosophy.
 I talk in riddles, many times, so much of what I write may seem symbolic, but it's not.  Perhaps, the reader needs to know something about me to understand my poems.  You'll have to decide.

Angels/Love

1.  Look at Him.

2.  Everybody's so quiet.

1.  I heard a shepherd say that the voice in the light was an angel.

2.  An angel from God?

1.  Yes, and the angel said not to be afraid.

2.  I'm not afraid...much.

1.  And this baby was God's son...And He was going to be our savior.  (pause)

2.  Look at Him.  (Feels the love)  And is that is mother?

1.  Yes, that's Mary with her husband Joseph.

2.  You can see the love in their eyes.

1.  Yes, Love is everywhere.

2.  Christ Has Come!

1.  And now you know that God loves us.

Untitled, 1974

I

And the reason is unclear why I
would switch fingers through the
years or maybe it's just my nature.
At first, two fingers meant peace,
and then, one finger meant Love,
and then, no fingers--clinched in a fist
meant power, but now there is one
finger placed in the middle that
means contempt.  And you said,
"You want to love but your heart
is filled with hate".

II

And the reason is unclear why I
would be lonely but I am.  I fantasize
loves and life to where I don't
know what is real and what is not.
There is no love in my life because no
one will love me, but my love continues
to exist.  Once it reached out and
caught someone but she flew away.
And two years of loneliness has resulted.

III

And Homecoming, 1974 was a
prime example of unhappiness.
People with People; Persons
with Persons; and me with
me.  A concert and people
together.  People getting drunk.
A big barbecue and people eating
together.  People getting drunk. A
football game and people getting
excited together.  People getting drunk.
A dance that night and people being
together.  People getting drunk.  And
I watched T. V.

IV

And maybe it's a lack of courage.
And maybe it's a mass of inferiority.
Whatever it is, I die each day
without Love or my Love, whoever it
is.  Maybe it's me.  Don't take
pity.  Let me be, but PLEASE someone
ask me what is wrong, because I
must tell someone, or I'll revert back to 1969.