long poem redux

it appears that i have nearly exhausted
the patience of the edit function of the
blogosphere
by adding endless accounts of my thoughts
and adventures it became too much for
the fragile technology to work with
and i want to say that i understand
i am hoping to be understood as a
person who is compassionate toward
the world of hyped up technology
technology technology technology
it works for you and it works for me

thus we begin again the epic journey
of the long poem which when finally
printed out it will be page after a page
an extremely long poem a poem quite
likely very few people will ever read
and in that will lie its inherent dignity
and worth just as virtually nobody reads
the modern sequel to ulysses by kazantzakis
so this piece workes out in sweat and intellectual
anguish set into a coherent form with
what is now understood to be excruciating
attention to detail and the subtleties of form
and also the gentle emotions of the reader
which through the astute insight of the
noble poet of the ludicrously long poem

loo dah criiz
loodah kriz
ludeduderudea kriz
doodahdooah doodaodiz
yaoa yaoa yoooya jizz

excuse the faint reference
to ejaculation there it was
oblique in its conception
just wanting to rhyme in the
music sequence to be sung
at the proper time
when there is nothing else to do in
the whole damn world than to read the long pome

now i will speak of the brief dalliance that i had
in the presence of a lonely lady a noble woman
a woman in destress a woman with the weight
of the world on her shoulders
and i could see by looking in her eyes that
she was in fact a beautiful and tempting woman
a woman whose wieght of the world was such
that she needed a noble and compassionate
helper to help her carry the load as it so powerfully were
her hair was shining black and her skin was fair
except for the creases down her cheeks where
far too many tears had fallen yet i saw in that
agony of soul the radiance of beauty
that her stature as a woman of dignity was
inherent in her beauty and her ability to
write the poems of her agony which i
in my capacity as knight errant in the
21st century in my obligation to face with
courage the enemy warriors of the modern day
and to assist fragile damsels in their distress
why just the other day i passed through
a whole battallion of sword swirling demon thugs
from a ghetto in LA slashing and forcing me
to resort to my own particualr brand of
martail arts training
they with their three bladed twirling blades
nearly made an end of me near palm springs california
there were at least three hundred of these warriors
blocking my way to the mountain top
where the fairest of women i know in all the world
resides with her noble lay-about musician husband
who is always busy writing songs which reflect
the given sadness of life
he is a philosoher of the modern song
and she sings along

at any rate i was hard pressed to
pass through
and after i did with rousing success
i found me a clear stream
at whitewater and nursed the
wounds of the horrendous battle
wherein in broke my hand smashing with
all my might at the leg of one of those
wretched and ignoble villains
who for all i know are still inflicting
untold harm and insanity on the
desert there
with their white three bladed twirling swords
and temperaments to match that of a pack
of wild palm desert hounds

that i was successful at all in so deceiving
these blood maddened three bladed twirling
sworded sordid monsters of doom and gloom
was due to the protection afforded me by
confidence of love which i bring to the world
in my perilous journey of musical rambling
which marks my 51st year

jessica o jessica o jessica
were you not loaded down with
four children and living in a
run down trailer out in the desert
were you not desperately seeking
to rise up above the squalor
you were left in by a husband
who perhaps could not forgive
your whorish descent into feminine
darkness or his own proclivity
to err by means of the flesh
that most common of human error
for it is to pleasure that we cast
ourselves when it looks fortuitous
yet our pain of living with the need for
pleasure has only brought you sorrow

now if you will permit me leave
i will go upstairs and prepare a cup
of coffee for myself so that i may continue
with the long poem the poem of the
most virtuous knight errant to journey
forth and encounter directly
the monsters of the 21st century
curtailing their mad desires with both
poignant intellectual diplomacy
appealling to reason as it were in order
to captivate their interest away from the
bestial froms of domination that occur
almost unwittingly
were it not for noble poets to point out
the potential for devastation
inherent in the militant idealism of
the monsters in all their deficiency

and if that doesn't work
we resort to man to man combat
where i reduce to almost nothing
their devious plots with my bare hands

but at this very moment i am being summoned
to dine at a most virtuous tavern along the way
to break the bread with my friends who convey
such wondrous love to me that i am humbled
and thus i will go to share in the meal at the
meeting place known as paula's and know there
the brilliant basis of culture that is all meals shared

my philosopher physicist astronomer rock and roll pal
is playing a gig tonite on the rim of the world
this is not to be confused with the center of the world
in felicity california

i shall go now and return to the long poem
before long

i shall relate now the nearly fatal brush
with the kinds of danger awaiting most knights
i would suppose that is if they are serious
about the work to which they were divinely assigned

it is true that in the life of the poet
there comes a time when musical accompaniment
seems the right thing to exploit
and for my purposes the guitar
has proven most acceptable

i pluck and i strum and i brush
and i twang the strings
i snap and occasionally
incorporate the technique known
as glissando
this i do as well

take note gentle reader
for you are now under the spell
of a guitarist who knows something
about the technique of glissando

and while i digress
and speak of the maiden who is on my mind
i think it almost impossible at this point
for our encounter was much too
frought with the tempestuousness of passion
that is for the most part all but dead
for i discerned in her and she in me
that most noble intentions
hardly for a moment did i imagine myself
undoing her dress
barely did i conceive in my mind
what lay above her luxurious white thighs

no for i was more intent on knowing her
as a person
i know my old pal jack would smirck
at this point and suggest that her person
was just below her belly button
but i would rapidly disagree
for while spilling her whorish flirtations
about the room
even to the point of running upstairs
and dawning apparell befitting a belly dancer
and then gyrating in a drunken outlandish way
belly dancing to folk music
of the west (for all music is folk music
as someone fairly important once said )
in a most unbecoming way
even though of course we looked with
admiration at her audacity as well as her
form which radiated such a powerful force
as to drive the whole room a little mad with
bewilderment as to what sort of creature
this actually was dancing before us

a romanian creature

let me describe her face

a face quite comely with
eyebrows dark and a nose
of noble form and lips of
a sensuosness rarely seen
and with all that she set about
drinking a bit too much and
she would show me her
love for juicy food and chips
and wine and
at one point she smiled at me
with a sensuous mouth full of
bread and cheese
and stated with a flirtatious smile
"i am a pig"
and i halucinated at this point
and actually saw her as pig
for a moment
then she returned to normal
in my eyes
and i was moved to pursue her
for raw pleasure
but my noble instincts prevailed
and i returned to my senses
only to be once again thrust into
the lovely possibility of physical
union ( on a purely aristotelian level )
with this maiden i shall call natasha

having related that tale of intrigue
i shall now turn to more contemplative matters

for i am nothing if i am not
a master
in the practice of
sleep

but before i go i must attend
to the requirements of the long poem
and return to the guitar theme
of a few stanzas back

for i rode el toro loco
up from the desert
up from why
up from felicity
all the way to banning
and beyond to the mountains
above san bernadino california
in order to participate in a musical
extravaganza
and now it is finished and it finished
in a maelstrom of musical madness
that was much too loud much too confused
for me to accept the whole mess of noise into
my mind for the purpose of further
investigations into the nature of music and its
affect in the life of the soul
after all this is the only question

why music at all?

anon

alas all poems must end
for all poems are but a brief stanza
in the longest pome of all
the poem of life being written
in the experience of every living human
a poem which sings itself in harmony
and at times in dissonance with that
even more intriguing poem
the poem of nature being written
constantly in the world around us
the world of nature the world of flower
and tree the world of insect and
bird the long poem written in heaven
to which in comparison
even this long poem is but a
passing breath

and thus i will curtail this poem
with the tale of a journey
to a place akin to paradise
even while bearing the oft disturbing
characteristics of human interaction

it came upon myself and my noble
mount the el toro loco ( who by the way
received his name while the poet of the
long poem passed a gathering establishment
in a small town on his journey to
california california
somehow befitting of the end of the poem

for i have fought with heathen
i have pursued the noble wisdom
of fair maidens and have kept
true the intentions of my heart
for the one true love
despite the whiles of the devil
and the less than dignified encounters
which await anyone who sets out
in the world to honor the eternal
principles of chivalry

autumn has arrived with a cold wind
and it is time now for this knight
our fearless and very dangerous
when he has to be warrior of the long
long long long long pome
so long it nearly left itself out in the cold
of winter

i must end here because an evil witch in
the machine a scolding schoolmarm
posing as a nanny has decreed
that the long poem has in it
material offensive to a bishop
\and herein lies the difference between
a bishop and a poet who sets out
on a long journey and writes a poem
for i seek only to ennoble the reader
while he seeks to usher saved souls
to the gates of heaven above
but it may be fairly asked
"what does a bishop know about
the trials and perilous encounters
of a knight in the 21st century
intent upon composing for eternity
a long poem
one that perhaps no body will ever read?

i followed the san andreas fault
to the land of valyermo
to the valley of the hermit
to a little isolated valley
on the north side of the
sand gabriel mountains
where i entered into the most
sublime practice of pwsalme chanting
with monks of a grand monastery
and made peace with my past there
for years ago i lived there
and while i am running out of time
adn cannot relate the horrendous
battles which ensued and left
me defeated and nearly without
recourse for safety
only by the ostentatious wiles
of another noble monk was i able
to acquire a mount to lead me away
from potential danger
and thus i relate only i passing
the accord the union of hearts
which can come about by way of forgiveness
the only virtue which permits the
world to continue

and now dear reader i bid thee adieu
as the french are wont to say
adn grant you my blessing as this long
long poem comes to and end
adn here i must confess that indeed
there are longe poems
the poem ron silliman for instance is writing
a poem which makes this one pale
by comparison
even while he avoids the noble tradition
of saving maidens in danger and
fighting the inimical monsters
who assault the peace of the kingdom
he is writing a poem
and nikos kazantzakis
wrote a sequel to the the old long poem
written by a little known ancient bard
who went by the name of homer
and there are other long poems to be sure

after the final edit
and one last word sword battle
with the monster in a nanny's dress
i will bring to a close this venture

but be alerted
there may well be another long poem

for now i must turn my steed northward
to the country of cold winters
where the interior battle
will commence with all its perils

ah it is sad
endings are sad
but they end with
and