After Viewing Helnwein's Epiphany II
Enraptured
mouths agape, they gaze
on the child.
They don’t see her ivory breasts.
Gleaming virginity
eludes Aryan dreams
as she presents them with their
Destiny.
With shadowed arm,
in the harsh glow of
klieg-light,
he teaches them to
submit.
They cannot know
how quickly falls
night's
blackest pall.
____
Gottfried Helnwein, Ephiphany 2, deYoung Museum, San Francisco
poem by Steven Federle

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On Viewing Inferno of the Innocents
Poised on the edge of the bed
she sits in sharp light,
pointed feet barely touching
the dim floor.
Through fear-filled, furrowed brow
she stares at the encroaching shadow.
I want to protect her, reach into the canvas
and take her home,
adopt her
make her my grand-daughter
hold her safe and warm
make her whole
watch her dance
fearless
in the golden morning.
As I despair
another little girl approaches the painting,
and broadly smiles in recognition,
nodding to this new-found playmate.
She knows how morning light
always pushes back
the black night.
author's note:
to see the powerful, heartbreaking works of Gottfried Helnwein, visit his website at http: //www.helnwein.com/
poem by Steven Federle

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St. Sebastian
Slender arrows,
pierce me through.
I wanted to forgive,
but too quickly
they flew.
My mind fades.
I rise to you.
**
ref: St. Sebastian, Andrea Mantegna 1456-59, Kunsthistorisches Museum
(viewed at the De Young Museum, San Francisco)
poem by Steven Federle

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Birthday Remembrances
So true it is that time stands still for none;
Run it swiftly or life's race won't be won;
Idleness leads to dreams of days gone by;
The hands of time rapidly continue to fly;
Days seem to pass as fast as dawn arises;
Night falls just as quickly as the sun rises;
Dusk disappears as midnight doth aspire;
Judgment gives way to dreams of desire;
Calendar all: give everything its own date;
Putting priorities first, all things straight;
Remembrance of the day you were born;
Whence you came; where you were torn;
From GOD's Heavenly Angelic throne;
Cast from dust; sheathed in earthen home;
An ivory palace; abundance of agape love;
Silver cord binding; to a sanctuary above;
Many an angel stands guard at our gate;
As sure as birth, death comes on to wait;
Yet not death, but eternal life; the present;
For trusting the Word; into His presence!
poem by Joseph Blitch

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Rainbow Glow
Rain falls slower than my tears
The night drags on
I lay awake
Breathing nothing but the tears I cry
I gaze at the distant city lights
And all I can think
Is of that day
When I got rainbow hair
But stronger than the rainbow glow
Reflected through my hair
The pain still stays
Grows stronger with every shining tear
That falls
No matter what you do
To try to make it up to me
You can't
No number of childhood dreams
You recreate to be true
No matter every wish you grant
You used to call impossible
You hit me way too hard
When I ruined your car with paint
To love me as much
As you keep telling me you do
No matter how many presents
You give me
You can't make me forget
And I never will
These words, now all you say
I'm sorry, Matt
Even if they're true
Can never take the pain
I still feel
When I think of you
poem by Bunny Crunch

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Jennifer
Written by dennis deyoung
Lead vocals by dennis deyoung
Jennifer
She drinks her sherry wine
She keeps her ladys love for me all the time
Shes seventeen, barely old enough to cry
A child in her fathers eyes
A woman every night
Her love,
Gives me the power
Her dreams carry me on
Jennifer, so inviting
That I sing
Jennifer
She took me by surprise
She told me that shes much too young to keep me satisfied
Jennifer, ah so delicate and shy
A child in her mothers eyes but
A woman every night
Her love,
Gives me the power
Her dreams carry me on
Jennifer, so inviting
That I sing...
song performed by by Styx

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lonely Child
Written by dennis deyoung
Lead vocals by dennis deyoung
Lonely child you make it easy
You give me love like no one can
Youre my heart, you keep me movin
It seems you always understand
My love, Im your man
Lonely child you make me happy
You take my fears and set them free
Every night you hold me closer
Like two notes in harmony
Come spend your life with me
Lonely child be my lover
Well make love in the morning light
Weave your magic spell around me
And come spend your life with me
song performed by by Styx

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ivory
You were born with a face that would let you get your way
Yeah you had everything you wanted child, that is until the day
you know you're much too fine and free, Ivory
You've been dressed in a vest, every minute of your day
You walk into a room, stand in a lit shade
Is your timer too high for me, Ivory
Ivory
How does it feel to be so high
Ivory
How long how long will it take for you to cry
Ivory
I'm in need
Ivory
Ivory
I'll touch your soul, might even touch your brain
I know you can't see me
I know your blind
Come back come back and see
Ivory
So good to me
Ivory
song performed by by Bob Seger

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Images-Perfection Ever Flames, An Endless Supply of Moths
As I am,
I'm perceived Perfection
upon my ivory pedestal
in brilliant light
crystalline.
But these are my prison walls
Uniques Glow
is Perfection's Pall
which exiles me from that outer world
of reality.
I cannot mingle there.
My existence is constrained.
As bright as my Radiant Glow,
upon approach
to your world
I would dim
and be destroyed.
We can talk you and I
in Perfection's Harmony
but the moment you gain
my speaking voice,
my thoughts,
all is taken from Perfection's Shelf
and another less perfect me appears.
Nothing will compare
to me as I was.
Should I
in coming to you
destroy that Perfection which is now so dear?
Conundrum.
Corporeal life
is Kryptonite
yet mental isolation is too numbing.
I am Beauty in the light
but unavailable;
forever Uncoming.
Sometimes
Beauty is torture
we ourselves inflict
to escape our worldly life.
But since its shape
is mental most
it cannot ever be.
Pity the person
whose countenance
is corporeal beauty
realized;
they will have the sterner test
of not living up to hearts image most.
Each prince
whom we have constructed
alas, can only live with us
til that moment first,
the single word;
then the dream slips.
Honeymoons and marriages
might last longer I think
if we did not first wed
our Perfect Prince beforehand.
Is it not truth plain
that love itself is only grown
when 1st Prince Born
is laid to rest
and Prince Now
is allowed to live?
How better ground is it
to love the flower in the garden now
than those ones first grown
in Furrows of Gold
in Dream World
where Perfection's Hoe
was Loves Seeder
and Instigator
of the visions
we now hold
of what ought to be?
How can we in flesh and blood
compete with perfect diamond visions
which never fade or rust?
Whose hand is warmer still
than the Princely hand held in our dreams?
Who is sadder than
those who loved us;
yet whose faces are shadowed
by cold, Perfection's Glow?
How to dream
our destiny
yet still
love those
'round us;
remembering these ones
are the ones who will
when we, in time, tomorrow
are no longer our Own Prince
or Princess Image;
no longer Perfection's Darling.
Rest you better in Human Arms;
while they grow old and leather
they'll not in the end
take your pride and sell it away
to Dream Land Barons
and Rock Star Princes
who all live in Hollywood.
What to do?
abandon Vision
goals and Prince;
leave aside Destiny?
No, we must grapple with
this conundrum sent:
wrapped up
Perfection and Beauty;
living along side
uneasily,
with what is merely Human,
poem by Lonnie Hicks

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Paradise Found
Captured in the suns warm glow
Bound and tethered 'neath it's beams
Gladdened by the sapphire sky
Realizing my summertime dream
It all came about so quickly
In a meadow all green from chlorophyll
Blooming Daisy's everywhere
The summer air fresh and e'er still
Bathed i am in total wonder
Caressed and embraced my mind
Heart and Soul enraptured
This place not hard to find
Exclusive summertime Light and Love
Are earned by our deeds so done
Relinquished totally our Souls and Hearts
United in the sunshine as one
Supreme Joy and Happiness
Bliss filled with nary a pain
Kissed with the gleaming morning dew
Summertime-meadow-heavenly sweet refrain
poem by Theodora Onken

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The Changing Light
The changing light
at San Francisco
is none of your East Coast light
none of your
pearly light of Paris
The light of San Francisco
is a sea light
an island light
And the light of fog
blanketing the hills
drifting in at night
through the Golden Gate
to lie on the city at dawn
And then the halcyon late mornings
after the fog burns off
and the sun paints white houses
with the sea light of Greece
with sharp clean shadows
making the town look like
it had just been painted
But the wind comes up at four o'clock
s weeping the hills
And then the veil of light of early evening
And then another scrim
when the new night fog
floats in
And in that vale of light
the city drifts
anchorless upon the ocean
poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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To a Child -- The Thinker
Enraptured child in contemplative
Apollo Pose
Head resting by jutted elbow's knee-supported
hand on chin
Whose world is this anesthetized by wonder's glow
he's looking in
As it so quickly disappears in an
invaded atmosphere
Of delight and pleasure explained
in factual memories
Teased, let go, and returned again
as a whim or metaphor
This visiting with self
and the spirit of the age
What a priceless glimpse of an awakening
to genius's
Path of exploration with this child's
hypothesis, conclusions, returns
In the quiet of the garden's
flowers and urns.
poem by Katherine Young

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Teacher Man
The Teacher Man teaches kids from all over the world
The Teacher Man teaches no matter boy or girl
The Teacher Man teaches Christans, Musilms, and Jews
The Teacher Man teaches those who say 'God I don't believe in you'
The Teacher Man teaches over demands for more recess
The Teacher Man teaches to only demand the best
The Teacher Man teaches Science, Reading, and Math
The Teacher Man teaches how to live out of class
The Teacher Man teaches all how to share
The Teacher Man teaches that we all should care
The Teacher Man teaches how to keep an open mind
The Teacher Man teaches with a kick in the behind
The Teacher Man teaches there are lessons in life
The Teacher Man teaches how to overcome strife
The Teacher Man teaches there's nothing wrong with a hug
The Teacher Man teaches the world changes with Love
The Teacher Man teaches the rich and the poor
The Teacher Man teaches those who are ready for more
The Teacher Man teaches how to look someone in the eye
The Teacher Man teaches how to accept someone in their cry
The Teacher Man teaches in more than one tounge
The Teacher Man teaches how to make working hard fun
The Teacher Man teaches all the colors of the land
But, most important of all, he teaches we should take a stand
Take a Stand, Take a Stand, for what you believe
Take a Stand, Take a Stand, and you will be free
Take a Stand, Take a Stand, for the least of the least
Take such Stand man, and you will find peace
He's the Teacher Man
poem by Ary Bolanos

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Castle Walls
Written by dennis deyoung
Lead vocals by dennis deyoung
Once in a dream
Far beyond these castle walls
Down by the bay where the
Moonlit water falls
I stood alone while the minstrel sang his song
So afraid Id lost my soul
There in the fog his song kept calling me
Leading me on with its haunting melody
Deep in my heart a voice kept echoing
I knew Id soon be wandering
Far beyond these castle walls
Where the distant harbour meets the sky
There the battle raged like hell
And every dove had lost its will to fly
Far beyond these castle walls
Where I thought I heard tiresias say
Life is never what it seems
And every man must meet his destiny
song performed by by Styx

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This Old Man
Written by dennis deyoung
Lead vocals by dennis deyoung
This old man
He worked for thirty years with
Two strong hands, in the factory light his
Lunch box held all his needs with
Coffee sandwiches and dreams
For me
This old man
He taught me many times
To undertand, that showing love is simply
Nothing you should have o hide
Dont keep your feelings locked inside
He said
When I was young
I dreamed a young mans dreams
I saw in you reyes
The things Id never seen
But now I grow old
But I dont really mind
Cause cant you see with my family
Well share these timeless memories
song performed by by Styx

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Night Light
The last visitor before I sleep
is always the old priest
puffing up the stairs to my door,
a wine cask under each arm,
a loaf of pumpernickel in his teeth.
He's always too late to give the last rites,
and even though I'm usually dead by then,
it falls to me to console him.
So I say, "Father, Father,
you don't have to hurry.
Faith is no longer a klieg.
It's a night light left burning all day,
and its bulb is hissing."
poem by Donal Mahoney

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Dance Quickly Now
-
Dance, I said to the boy in the glass
Staring back at me with a darkening mask
Dance, I begged, with love and pain
Dance, please dance, oh dance again
-
Dance with the moon in the child’s eye
Circling the middle as black as coal
Dance quickly now, its leaving soon
Light of the moon and the child’s soul
Dance with the sun in the child’s laugh
Bouncing round off sinister things
Dance quickly now, with crystal prism
Scattering wisdom, melting wings
Dance with the rain in the child’s tear
Watching the clouds attack then stop
Dance quickly now, the storm has shattered
All that mattered, with a single drop
Dance with the hope in his stuttered speech
Holding it close for a later year
Dance quickly now, before he serves
Nonsense words, in a busted mirror
-
Though the moon may spin and the sun revolve
Though love still waits and the rain still falls
Though the child may laugh he glares inside
Exhaling life with a sudden sigh
-
poem by Ben Paynter

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Darkness And Daylight
You love the day, worship the light.
You mourn the setting of the sun, hide from the night.
I?
I curse the light of day, though most would praise and cheer.
I say if there were no light, the dark would hold no fear.
How would we feel about the dark if the harsh bright sun had never shone?
We would not wish for light!
For we would know the dark, alone.
It is the harsh, stark light of day which makes the dark of night seem cold.
Dark is bad and light is good, or so I have been told.
But without the dark, what would be the light?
What would a day mean, if we had no night?
poem by Lynda Remus

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Somewhere Inside Of You!
Every life, shall meet death.
Every breath crosses that bridge
Every autumn leaf falls bereft.
See all in its burning leafage.
Oh diamond sparks burn inside
…Blue, with rage, behind iron-bars.
Oh there's a heart of a flower
And, somewhere inside of you!
Inside of you, child there's a Houdini…
Honeycombed with green-envying eyes
Somewhere inside of you, child, there's
A queen, that, that, that, never dies…
Oh, look, child how she just swans…
Seductively easy across the skies
Ah, seduction… in ivory,
Seduction… in ivory,
Seduction… in ivory blossom
Into a million crimson dyes,
But—no she'll never, ever, ever, die.
Nor be cast down into that dead leafage.
Ghostly; she's like some spiders webbing,
Webbed; across deaths ebony warring face.
Every life is like a stillborn, thought!
Just waiting, wondering, and rippling out of breath.
Inside of you, child there's a Houdini…
Honeycombed with green envying eyes
Somewhere inside of you, child, there's
A queen, that, that, that, never dies…
Oh, look child she just swans…
Seductively, easy across the skies
Ah, seductively into ivory,
Seduction… into ivory,
Seduction… in ivory blossom
Oh, into a million crimson dyes,
But—no she'll never, ever, ever, die.
Nor be cast down into that dead leafage.
poem by Mark Heathcote

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Christmas Gifts
Ten Christmas presents standing in a line;
Robert took the bicycle, then there were nine.
Nine Christmas presents ranged in order straight;
Bob took the steam engine, then there were eight.
Eight Christmas presents--and one came from Devon;
Robbie took the jackknife, then there were seven.
Seven Christmas presents direct from St. Nick's;
Bobby took the candy box, then there were six.
Six Christmas presents, one of them alive;
Rob took the puppy dog, then there were five.
Five Christmas presents yet on the floor;
Bobbin took the soldier cap, then there were four.
Four Christmas presents underneath the tree;
Bobbet took the writing desk, then there were three.
Three Christmas presents still in full view;
Robin took the checker board, then there were two.
Two Christmas presents, promising fun,
Bobbles took the picture book, then there was one.
One Christmas present--and now the list is done;
Bobbinet took the sled, and then there were none.
And the same happy child received every toy,
So many nicknames had one little boy.
poem by Carolyn Wells

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Love is (Found) is Love
Love
is found;
enraptured
are two, then shared
are understanding
and trust entwined with truth.
Defined are dreams and romance;
aroused are emotions inside;
whenever destiny is working.
~~~**~~~
Working is destiny whenever
inside emotions are aroused.
Romance and dreams are defined.
Truth with entwined trust and
understanding are
shared, then two are
enraptured;
found is
love.
poem by Jo Lynn Ehnes

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