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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
If You Want To
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
Tomorrow Never Comes
The King of Spain shot a tame drunken bear
In Russia on a trip he took up north
A King of Spain is a pain anywhere
Dramatizing things demeaning the worth
Of tame drunken bears as they roll downstairs
Is it "long live the king" and never mind
A drunken bear ended up dramatized?
It gives me pause but I am not surprised
That the King of Spain had a bear behind
Since this is not the first time nor the last
The present was prevented by the past
Tomorrow never comes in any case
No use of standing gaping and aghast
Although I can certainly understand
Just apologize for our human race
We even kill each other on command
And tell God sort them for us to our will
The King of Spain has a bear behind still
As the past returns and the future burns
It is "long live the king" and never mind
A drunken bear ended up dramatized
Heaven on Wheels
a sonnet for Franziska
Franziska rollerblades the cobblestones
Gathering speed when fast wheels strike smooth tar
But she will not fall she will break no bones
Nor will she ever be struck by a car
For this is how God works his wily will
Through Franziska franzipping down the street
Teaching us joy all the way down the hill
The joy God would show us before we meet
The model he shares with us of his grace
In order to prepare for the surprise
When unnumbered stars skate before our face
And the blindfold at last falls from our eyes
I hope we are on wheels like she is now
Who transcends the why to embrace the how
Heading Home to You
Taking the long way but heading home to you
Dreaming of your love at the end of the day
All through my wandering that is what I do
Heading home to you but taking the long way
False starts with false hearts small actors in big parts
Having seen it all now I see what is true
And I know exactly where I want to be
Wherever you are there is my family
I rest in your love at the end of the day
Taking the long way but heading home to you
This Rambling Road
I have been wandering for so long now
Sometimes it feels like heaven sometimes hell
This rambling road of mine and yours as well
Will get us there but only God knows how
It seems so hard to get a step ahead
So easy to feel several steps behind
I will lose myself in your eyes instead
Of understanding lest I lose my mind
I am so glad you travel next to me
It seems the more I think about the road
Passing from October to November
The longer it is the heavier the load
But you remind me so I remember
This ramble is our march to be made free
Enjoying the View from the Carousel
If I were not like you would I then be
Expected to fit your expectation?
The death of individuality
Of the specificity of the soul
Is the most personal degradation
Our relationship has always been free
Of control where each partner plays a role
According to some predetermined plan
So this is no problem for you and me
Each of us is part woman and part man
And we fit according to the season
As we have since our adventure began
Riding things out through rhyme and through reason
Enjoying the view from the carousel
Having this one chance to live all we can
We know the best revenge is living well
Completion
The thought blooms into my mind that another mind
Is directly connected to mine at this point
By reading these words tomorrow from yesterday
We are conjoined now with no before nor behind
But are connected by common cause and a joint
Fascination in discovering this two-way
Passage of our neurological energy
That what it means after all to be you and me
Is ultimately discovered in reflection
What it means in the end for you and me to be
By looking within in the other direction
We look in each other's souls and our own we see
And our completion in our incompleteness find
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVII
