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Poetry
Poetry has always been a powerful emotional outlet for an artist. Of course, the definition of poetry or a poetic style can greatly vary from writer to writer, genre to genre. Just like music, the style of poetry nowadays is so broad ranged and so unstructured, it’s hard to tell what’s poetry, and what is something else. For me, poetry is a way to express my observations of the world around me using emotional and intellectual images through words and thoughts. When I write poetry, above all, I must be honest with the things I say and feel. Therefore, you may not like some of the poetic images I create, or you may be angry with the thoughts I share, or totally agree, but good or bad, you will feel and think something. In this error of normalization as our perceptions are so bombarded with horrific images that we become numb, be grateful you can still feel and think. There are some who do not.
In Plain Sight, hides from no one. The text within this collection of poems requires no deep pondering of literary images or hides multi-level metaphor. The stories and phrases are as you hear or read them are direct and to the point. The dynamic within the poems reside in the context of contemporary culture. Although simply written, their purpose is to give a slap in the face for anyone asleep at the ethical and responsible wheel. As honesty and truth is above all things, while human ego is extremely stupid, it is sometimes necessary to clearly point out, the race to death is accelerating for all of us here on this planet. If we could just step back and realize how foolish we are with all of our wants, and that wanting is never as loving as giving, these somewhat dark and hopefully disturbing poems nay not require to be forever,in plain sight.
Brain
Descending into the brain
Whose brain?
My brain?
Your brain?
The undecided brain
A noisy brain
The thinking brain
The brain of conscious
Where is this brain?
The brain of complex ideas and profound structures
The wild and imaginative brain
Creative and insane
The untamed brain
The physical brain
Containing our minds
Controlling our body
The human brain
Who we are?
What we know
Where we are
And where to go
The bubbling brain
Organic and alive
Pulsating and retaining
Reacting and restraining
The synaptic brain
Connecting at the speed of thought
The drift of dreams
Powerful images, quickly lost and then forgotten
The subconscious brain
Hidden from itself
Dark and unknown
Should we go there?
Or leave it alone?
The mathematical brain
Numbers, equations results
Quantifiable questions
A logical outcome
I think, therefore I think
The analytical brain
If so, then what?
The metaphysical brain
Who am I?
Why am I?
The emotional brain
Kind and loving
Provocative, passionate procreative
The caring and considerate brain
Sensitive, empathic, remorseful, and forgiving
The angry brain
Violent and hateful
Changing without reason
Revenge, punish, and destroy
The frightened brain
Alone and helpless
Nowhere to run
No one to turn too
No place to hide
Our fears
Closing in on us
Staring into the eyes of what is our own brain
Mortality is realized
Our final day
Our final night
At the end
After a lifetime of experience
The brain begins to let go
All we are
All we were
Our memories
Knowledge
Control
Dysfunction
Disconnection
Death
BrainProfJeff
00:00 / 06:39
This is the actual front and side view of my brain. The images are taken from an MRI scan.
Bowling
​
Passed down through the DNA of my pro bowler Mom
That WPBA trophy jungle on the dining room doorsill
My childhood watching pins set like brightly brushed teeth
My four step delivery and left-hand hook
The 60 foot polished wooden lane and ominous gutters
The characters that made up the colorful drama of College Lanes
All those bowling beings
To Fredy
To Manny
To Jerry
To Gus
To Bella
To Rose
To Abe
To Us
To the Star Journal and VFW leagues
To the boy who chucked the roofers
To the blunt pencil sharpener and paper scoresheet
To the strike and the addition of the next two balls
To the big red-light pushbutton air vent on the back of the ball return
To all those things that make up my childhood bowling memories
I salute you, and all who now sound the angel’s thunder
Invisible
​
I am invisible
Although I am seen, I am discreetly ignored
I walk through crowds of people who know me but silent
I hear not the faintest hello
The slightest sound of recognition
The surrounding laughter and joy is penetrating
But the involuntary bubble that encompasses my existence is unbroken
At some point I was needed
To share an experience, idea or just to listen
I gave what I could
As much as I had to give
And yes, sometimes I failed
But never did I stop loving all who came to know me
All who wanted to seek my advice
All who wanted to hear my words
Perhaps I was too truthful
Saying things of a disturbing nature
Causing one to think beyond the whiteboard
Challenging ideals and perceptions that are no longer relevant No longer valued to what is thought to be necessary
But still I continued gratefully
Without regret or acknowledgment
Yet to this day, I still remain invisible
Cognitive Dissonance (Part 1)
Day is light and night is dark, yes
The ground is hard, and the water is wet, yes
The mountain peak is above and the valley floor below, yes
Two plus two equals four, yes
A square has four equal sides, yes
A word is a representative symbol of an idea or thing, yes
The Earth travels around the Sun and completes a cycle every 365 days, yes
Gravity is the force that is directly proportional to the product of mass,
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two bodies, yes
A body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an opposing force, yes
Every action has an opposite and/or equal reaction, yes
Light is particles of energy that travel at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, yes
The Sun is at the center of our planetary system, yes
Our planetary system is but one system in our galaxy, yes
Our galaxy is comprised of billions of stars, yes
Our universe is comprised of billions of galaxies, yes
The universe is expanding and accelerating simultaneously, yes
Man is the product of a complex evolutionary process that is directly
connected with the basic atomic elements found in stars, yes.
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, yes
Jesus Christ is our lord and savior as he is the son of God, yes
2 + 2 =
Lemmings
Come with me, to this place
This place where we can, jump into space
Jump into space, right over there
Without a care, not a care
Tell your mom tell your Dad
Tell a friend it’s not so bad
It’s not so bad, and oh so good
It’s what I think, I think you should
Don’t think a moment don’t wonder why
Jump into space, have faith you’ll fly
You’ll fly forever, in a happy land
And walk with God, in all that’s grand
Just close your eyes, and take a leap
Jump into space, fall fast a sleep
Fall fast asleep we’re almost there
Now hit the ground, without a…
Dark Hole
​
Some how, I have fallen’ into a hole
Though I don’t know how I got here
Or why
It’s apparently real
Very real
And Very deep
Each step I take
Each movement I make
I go deeper
There are no walls
There’s no floor
Just air
As I feel myself fall down lower, down lower, and lower
Some how, I have fallen’ into a hole
Certainly not of my own choosing
I didn’t see it was there
Some how I’ve fallen’ into a hole
Is there a way out?
Is anyone there with me?
Am I alone?
Some how I’ve fallen’ into a hole
As I fall faster and faster
Is there a bottom to this hole?
Will I hit it hard?
Will I hit it at all?
It’s just a hole
Dark and black and deep and empty
And I keep going down
Some how I’ve fallen’ into a hole
Not one of my own choosing
Perhaps by accident
Some how, some way, I have fallen’ into a hole
Is any body out there?
Throw me a rope
Drop a ladder
Give me a hand
Let me know
For some how, I’ve fallen’ into a hole
A very deep hole
And I’m not sure I’m going to get out
Hello
Is anyone there?
Can anyone hear me?
Is anyone alive?
Some how I’ve found this hole
It’s very empty
All there is, is me
And I’m going down
Lower and lower
Down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down, and down
Some how, I’ve fallen’ into a hole
Dark HoleProfJeff
00:00 / 05:00
It was late, around 1:30am when I was sitting in Studio B, KUOP’s 16-track recording studio, feeling rather depressed. The new Station Manager tossed out the entire community based public radio format, switching to all talk news and entertainment. Denying the research performed by graduate students from the School of Communications that news/talk would not be supported in the Stockton Modesto market, the Station Manager went ahead and made the switch anyway. Goodbye Saturday morning Prairie Fires and Paper Moons, goodbye Sunday morning Dixieland is my beat, goodbye morning Classics, goodbye the world of Mell Williams, goodbye Breezen’ in the afternoon, goodbye Sabor Latino, goodbye old time radio, and goodbye Home Studio. More than 30 diverse cultural music programs manned by community volunteers each week was tossed aside for the expense of NPR programming. Now that NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been defunded by the MAGA Republicans, the entire national public radio network has fallen into that same dark hole.
​
Dark Hole is an improvised spoken word poem recorded in 1998 when I saw the demise of K UOP quickly approaching. The piano track was performed extemporaneously using a Kurzweil 2500RX digital synthesizer sampler workstation module. The original recording was produced using an Apple G3 computer, and a MOTU 2408 audio interface.
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