Some poems, art and music

Creek 120 x 100 x 1.5 cm acrylic on canvas

SOME POEMS

Ludwig Van Beethoven

once told a prince he was merely

a prince while he Beethoven was Beethoven, i.e.,

far superior to an aristocrat

what was that all about

I don’t know

he was rather self-conscious about his forehead

his “massive brow” the way it bulged

into everybody’s social space

which is about three feet in California

a foot and a half in New York City

doesn’t exist at all in Germany

people in your face

they don’t even know it

suddenly nose to nose and wondering why

why don’t we just move on

never thought I’d find you here

lost and found

waiting for someone to claim

you

is that a pun

a trope some people will say is “bad”

then why do they laugh

are there “good” puns

or “average”

markets tell us energy’s in decline

irrational exuberance

has taken a couple of weeks off

don’t put that in your mouth, honey

it’s so quiet out there     how do you pun on silence

what is the proper response to such a pun

a measured, ambiguous chuckle

you can keep the change

you can change for keeps

if I say another word ( measured, ambiguous smile)

I’ll kill you

Old Masters were the best

but would they win the superstar contests

think of what

was endured

plague      wars on front door steps

dreadful dearth of deodorant      thank

fully unfinished symphonies

the whole world was third

not just the part with diamond mines

or super cheap labor in it

identity issues     am I Stalinist or Trotskyite      Frank O’

Hara said de Kooning and Pollack were not mutually exclusive

Americans          hard

isolate     stoic        killers      according to

D. H. Lawrence

who actually slipped his mum an OD of morphine in a glass of warm milk

She was dying of cancer     in terrible pain

some things were easier back then

unspoken humane things

do you ever think about

the relationship between line

break and syntax

oh yeah        all the time      you wanna hand me that beer

Michaelangelo was an OM who rarely removed his boots

papal assistants

clothes pins pinching

their nostrils

hoisted him up to the Sistine ceiling

its holy images of sweat sauce over cubes

of beefcake on wet plaster

lightly sprinkled with powdered steroids        which wine

would you recommend       oh one of those muscular reds from the south

I don’t know who said we are less violent now than before

before what

I would gladly trade my second hand

International Harvester for a vintage panzer

which

in obscure German dialect

means dildo

don’t put that in your mouth, schatz        people

somewhat inbred

interesting physical deformities

ears that might have

made an elephant preen

food good if simple and the beer

did I mention the beer          it hasn’t

stopped raining since 1972

was Karl the Great “Charlemagne”      was that even legal

back then

King John saw fit to repent

repeat after me

if you eat water melon seeds you will not      I repeat    will not

not die of cancer

depends on what you do with it, Schatz, not how big it is     Dankeschön