Poetry Jam #2

Gather around, however few of you, for the second (long awaited?) installment of poems by myself. Once again, I make no claims with regard to quality, except that I assume I must be getting better at these over time. I've thrown a great many out, rewritten a few that seemed worth it, and dithered, and dithered, and dithered some more, before finally sucking it up and sticking another handful out into the cold, cruel world. I'll stick some commentary down below, for those of you who think auto-analysis is halfway interesting.


Lady, Do You Like the Blues?

Lady, do you like the blues?
Do you like to hear them sung?
Can you overlook the cheap guitars,
And see the lovely, aching hearts?

Will you pay them any mind,
The sad young men who sing them?
Will you take the time to feel their art,
Can you hear it with a feeling heart?

Will You Come?

I don't trust you to feel like I feel,
'Till you answer me true, do you see like I do?
Then I will know that you see like I see,
Do you hear what I see, do you see me this way
Like I see you?

Do I need you?

Will you be there?

If I might love you and you would love me
I don't know what I'd do, I've been feeling so blue,
And if I ask you to make me feel well,
If I give you the call, will you see me at all,

Will you come?

Hello, Anna

Hello Anna, can I meet you after class?
This is one test that I'm never gonna pass,
I'm twenty one, but my voice begins to crack,
And there's nothing anyone can do about that,

Anna, tell me, would you please go out with me?
Now you smile, and your answer I can see,
You say I'm nice, and my offer's very sweet,
But you're seeing someone, and he isn't me

It wouldn't be so bad, but you sit in front of me
And every other day, I look up and I see
Your soft brown hair, and it's speaking to me,
Telling me the lovely things we'll never be

Goodbye, Anna, hope you have a happy life,
I see you go, and you're such a pretty sight,
And now my heart is feeling small and tight,
And my head is spinning, my mind is feeling light

And there's nothing anyone can do about that,
There's nothing that I can do about that.

In the Very Same Way

I don't know why, but it sounds so appropriate
Late at night on a bus,
Though you and I have never met,

But it strikes me, as the lights are tuning out
And the saxophone is playing,
And you are beautiful, in the very same way

You turn your head, you button your coat,
And the saxophone blows,
It is beautiful,
And you are beautiful, in the very same way

February

It came to a head, on that unassuming day. The weather was mild, and I had very little to say. But so much depended on that day.

That rhyme was not intentional. I'll try to be more careful.

Due dates, deadlines, random settings
Conspire, collude, to drive me crazy
So much depends upon this day,
But why'd it have to be this way?
House guests, hearings, unknown crises
Arise, erode and ignore my needs,
So much is slotted for this day,
Oh, why'd it have to be this way?

Pressure, pressure, f****** pressure,
Not quite enough to make me faster,
Why'd they overload this day,
Oh why'd it have to be this way?

A poem in three parts, two parts put together.

So much done, on this day of reckoning,
So why have I failed to change a thing?

Drink

You know that sometimes I need a drink
To get me through the day,
I feel like someone who's on the brink,
Of failing to stay awake

Asleep, you know I'm falling asleep
And it's nobody's fault,
I don't think,
Believe, I think I'm losing myself,
I need someone's help,
I need that drink

I am so heavy, I'm going to fall,
I'll lose my grip on thought,
I feel like someone who's going to sink;
I slowly sip from my straw.


_______________________

These poems all range from approximately one year to eight months old. Lady, Do You Like the Blues? is actually the oldest one here, and is probably even older than the idea for this website. It's sort of an experimental half-poem, written mainly to test the possibility that I was actually capable of poetry. It's kind of cute.

I actually really like Will You Come?, for reasons that I'm not even sure of myself. Maybe it's good, or maybe I've got to like something I've written or I'll go crazy.

Of all of these, the one I'm most conflicted about is Hello Anna, a poem which is almost completely autobiographical; after going back and forth for a few weeks about asking a girl in my history class out to coffee, I took the plunge, looked a little silly, and got politely shot down. A few days later, I started thinking about a song the Beatles recorded on their first album, Anna (Go to Him), and somehow, a set of words came to me. At the time, I was really proud of it because it came quickly, but it didn't take me long to feel slightly embarrassed by it. But rather than let it stew in my binder forever, I'll put it out in the light with the usual caveats. It's the only poem I've saved two drafts of, and the version here is slightly different from both, as I saw fit to remove one or two of the corniest phrases.

In the Very Same Way was written a short time after I'd downloaded the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack box set, and was, you guessed it, listening to it on the bus. It's a simple poem expressing a very simple idea, but I think the idea is charming, to say nothing of my presentation.

February is barely a poem. Let's just say that February 2009 seemed like an unusually hectic time, and I felt like doing something with it. It also contains a very naughty word, which I've censored here, because I'm a pansy. You know what it is, though.

Lastly, I want to be clear about Drink. The drink is tea. Iced tea, in particular. I love me some iced tea. The poem is about drinking said tea in afternoon classes because by all rights, the afternoon is nap time, dammit. The original draft includes a drawing of a plastic cup containing ice, which I have faithfully reproduced in MS paint. Enjoy!