2.393 : 5/31/06 : Align

I try to align
every vector that
strives to diverge
I try to resist
I pantomime a struggle
with this devil’s urge
declare a truce
a day or three
finds me slipping
wondering the use
wonder at my
white knuckle gripping
will this be it
the time the balance
gets pushed past
the barrier or pit
the obstacle I call out
just myself
at last

what

2.392 : 5/30/06 : Parsimony

The principle of
parsimony
Occam’s razor, all that
three part harmony
what could not be expressed
in any verse
what I could not fake
I could not rehearse

what

2.391 : 5/29/06 : Easy Money (2)

It’s all the same thing
it’s all the same story honey
trying to forget the dream
of the easy money
we think it would change everything
assured that it would not
if you want to change
everything
learn to be satisfied
with what you’ve got
this is the new
American Dream
Get your hands on enough
to say fuck you all
In that spirit I threw a lot of shit
so sad not one bit of it
stuck to the wall
And I tell myself I have to
learn to give it up
but the easy money keeps
telling me to live it up

what

2.390 : 5/28/06 : Vacation

The need for a vacation
is the proof that the whole nation
must be eternally
founded on a fundamental lie
prosperity is an invention
wealth is just a cruel convention
still I hump after it just
like anybody else don’t I?
I want a long vacation
from necessity and ideation
I want a magic ticket
golden lotto sure you pick it
I’ll base the number on my date of birth
and my fantasy net worth
and the date of the first day of creation
spend it all on the final vacation

what

2.389 : 5/27/06 : Strong as Death

Bind me like a seal
across your heart
some things never end
but all things must have their start
And at the long long day’s end
with waking’s drifting breath
I whisper
there’s but one thing
strong as death
this is no brief candle
it’s a forest fire
and if I said it
didn’t frighten me
I’d be a liar
but love is strong as death
so how could I deny
this new day
this new way
henceforth this:
you and I

what

2.388 : 5/26/06 : Five

Five tours around the sun
Since I said you forever
were the one
since you said
despite everything
I, thee
with this ring
I’m ready for
a thousand more
I never looked back
my life’s a thousand times
more full
since you joined me
on this track
so as we three
go traveling on
to someone else’s start
I offer all I ever had
a thousand times
my heart 
 
what

2.387 : 5/25/06 : More Clear

The bit of carrion
I’ve been circling for days
finally appears
that’s not zen my friend
just avoidance
just distraction
and it seems this dumb
confessional is
never going to end
suppose it all could be made
a lot more clear
so here’s the reader’s digest
version:
I’ve had it up to here
I took a week’s vacation
‘Cause I gave up something bad
And now I’m scrambling
trying to prove
it’s not just a fad

what

2.386 : 5/24/06 : Every Tree

My eyes see every tree
my eyes see every leaf
but memory
that liar
steals them steals them
like a thief
leaving just a green blur
a scenic little plaque
leaving finally nothing
leaving finally black
My eyes reveal a pattern
I ponder while I sleep
but in the glaring light of day
I suffer mission creep
thank God these wells have
lids on them
So I can close them tight
So I can shut my
eyes against your
ever present light

what

2.385 : 5/23/06 : Mark on Me

I relate how
great it is to be
sweating for the lack
of an illusory desire
Every last man
says hmm I understand
some have even tasted
this exquisite fire
It’s all part of it I guess
but I resent the
loss of privacy
It forces me to be honest yes
so hell with it all hey
I’m still alive I see
and that’s just
the tiny
inconsequential tale
of striving for some
new freedom
within a self-constructed jail
some afternoon
that will soon be gone from
memory but
if the plan stays together
it will leave a lasting
mark on me

what

2.384 : 5/22/06 : Proven True

Proven true
in the past tense
a week hence I’ll
prove to you
say two days more
Still hold that door
make no mistake
it is without satisfaction
that I announce
posthumously
the triumph of
this rearguard action
he said I wrote
in coded verse
he’s onto me
I spat a curse
It’s just that I so often
have to travel round in time
it messes with my
clarity
but it makes for
solid rhyme


what

2.383 : 5/21/06 : Million Five

2,574 : 3 ?


Divide a million and five
by three
if you did your math right
the remainder is me
it’s so easy to call the last
So hard to stick the first
So I just clench my eyes shut
and go in hard
expecting the worst
retrospective is a luxury
the lesson’s painful
at least the instruction’s free

what

2.382 : 5/20/06 : Rapid

Rapid deployment
I’ve got gainful employment
sweep in sweep out
sort you rebel
leave no doubt
equipped with the finest
naught but a trail of dust
behind us
It’s a dirty job
but I like it
see it
go forth
and strike it
I spent half my life
thinking about the
categorical imperative
when I saw that
trope had failed
it really hit me where I live
but now I have a mission
oh
now I have a place
and so
you’ll go
without a trace

what

2.381 : 5/19/06 : Cup

Ring every bell that’s set before you
shake every pillar;
heaven may still ignore you
catch up again or fall behind
check with a mirror over your mouth
looks like you’re still in the same bind
things take time also attention
and a thousand little details
they forgot to mention
there’s no such thing as desire
there’s no such thing as will
magnetism drives it all
that’s a bitter pill
why should I care if
I was born without a purpose
why should I care when
I can get by on the surplus
inside me there’s some tuning fork
that I can not shut up
some devil child who won’t act
happy with his half full cup

what

2.380 : 5/18/06 : Hegemony

Hegemony:
I’m not the only
one who’s
striking that bell
Plutocratic
I’m ecstatic
to find everything
that ever rose
it also fell
just a scribble
that ends on a note
not foul not fair
I can feel it
almost unpeel it
it’s something something
something in the air

what

2.379 : 5/17/06 : Peak

One day maybe the power will go off
and never come back on again ever
Some say we’ve reached our peak
Some say we won’t be stopped never
the dangers seem to grow right along
with the power to overcome
I could almost say
it seems meant to be that way
but then everyone would think I’m
dumb
is this the peak?
are we on the downhill
are we picking up speed
but not the clues we need
Are we ever gonna synthesize
the magic pill
feels more like a trough to me
I know it isn’t what they mean
all I know
there ain’t much I can do
but wait and see
what really could
replace the machine

what

2.378 : 5/16/06 : Big Bug Bop

There’s a bug band
that plays in bug land
plays every night of the week
with bugs playing horns and drums and jugs
in a little bug joint in Chesapeake
they play a style
all that moonlit mile
is filled so every bug will stop
to take a listen to that smooth smooth sound
they call the big bug bop
one night at ten
the bugs were playing again
wand they hit an old vaudeville tune
well it seems some bugs it sort of took them back
to a bad trip to the moon
and he jumped up shouting
and there’s no doubting
he might have raised an awful mess
but the band just revved up that
big bug bop
and pretty soon the kid couldn’t care less

what

adjustments

So I spent some time recently engaged in a few minor experiments of self-promotion on this thing, and having done that and observed the effects I think I'm done with that and going back to "fairly secret" mode.

Quite long ago now when I started the first Songs of Days project it was at the suggestion of another individual, and the primary intent was that some of them would be set to music and played with a band (or at least a friend).  I think my aspirations of being in a band, never robust to begin with, have seen their final, basically peaceful expiration.  I don't have a friend to play with at the moment, and the fact is that I'm just not making music these days.  I sing experimental versions of various songs to myself as I go about my business, I'm in the midst of a collaboration on something that proceeds at a glacial pace, and I am accepting that I'm not actually looking for anything else right now.  I don't know if I'm likely to later, but all predictions are a sucker's game.

In the meantime this writing became something else to me, a thing with a much less clear object.  I work out extremely spare textualizations of various ideas, philosophies, narratives in the pages.  I persist in a goal that has become a self-contained abstraction, at times feeling as if I am subjecting my own conception of goal-ness to some sort of stress test.  The daily posting isn't going away and the daily writing isn't going away.  I thought a couple of people might wonder where intermittent tweets or the "Media Empire" posts on Plus had gone, and this is the answer: They're gone.  The songs are occupying the place they have long found their level at and I'm otherwise moving my attention elsewhere.

2.377 : 5/15/06 : Exactly What You’re Looking For

I’ve got exactly what you’re
looking for right here
close your eyes and hold your
breath and it will just appear
when you’re least expecting it
when you’ve lost all hope
you’ll spot my freak flag flying
when you raise your periscope
I don’t expect things to go easy
For everything to change overnight
I expect a thousand unexpected turnings
and still I plan to taste a little sweet delight
Doesn’t this seem like just
exactly what you’re looking for
Doesn’t it seem like you’re
the same person who opened the door
don’t you believe it
we all leave something on the other side
we all keep looking endlessly
we’re just along for the ride

what

2.376 : 5/14/06 : False Dawn

2,567 : 10 ?


Another
false dawn
another
false sun rising
the excuses at this point
no longer strike me
as surprising
but the
demolition orders
are unambiguous
there’s no room to equivocate
or try to act inconspicuous
I thought I’d left behind
this counting game
I found something behind it
they never gave a name
so breathe out
blow the false dawn away
recall the best laid plans
of we little mice
gang aft agley
close your eyes
suppress the urge to yawn
and open wide your arms
to the false dawn

what

2.375 : 5/13/06 : Revelations

The revelation is not what you think
it wasn’t really what he
put in the drink
if today it is not today
count on that anyway
the only real way
to push push on
another day dollar or
sure another song
When I add it all up
I’m still ahead
still not quiet
still not dead
still quick and nimble
rash and strong
and hey today
another and another song
early riser or
good old night owl
you won’t catch me
throwing in the towel
as long as the breath burns revelation
the revelator will
remain at his station

what

2.374 : 5/12/06 : Finality

I seek finality
it’s plain as punch you see
when granted parity
I hold my own with the best and the most free
I thought I’d write about it briefly
try to skirt its complexity
dance around like a bumblebee
watch my ass shake the dictionary
wrap it up just like an eschatology
I’m laying words down like a spelling bee
and when the last line strikes you mentally
you’ll understand I’m the original fat J.C.

what

2.373 : 5/11/06 : Forge

I’m building a forge
that cranks out song
will you come with me
will you come along
yeah nothing looked real
it all sounded like plastic
I came along with my
elastomer mind
and invented elastic
watch the fire burn
watch it crank out rhyme
watch me create anything
just give me enough time?
will I make it through?
blow it out the top?
will I find
the final rhyme
and still refuse to stop?

what

2.372 : 5/10/06 : Mirror Mask

Mirror mask
look within
the reflection of
a perfect place to begin
it’s never enough
he spat as he smoked
I’ll have the last laugh
guess that means
you’ll tell the last joke
it all comes to
the same thing in the end
the same apostrophe
the same around
the same bend

what

2.371 : 5/9/06 : Consciously Unconscious

Can you forget that
you’re remembering
when the ghosts of the past
you’re disassembling
Cause in dimension N
everything lives again
You can touch the sad sad memories
that you’re dismembering
it doesn’t come easy
it doesn’t come fast
a dozen complications
but it comes at last
when Jon the revelator
lays a beat on this:
the feeling of the clinging
to the precipice

what

2.370 : 5/8/06 : Scrape Down the Side

Scrape down the side
of the bowl of
batter
Get every drop of it
cause one day it might matter
One will call the spot an end
another a beginning
observe them well
and it becomes
a compass of who’s winning
but frugal lads like me
don’t care about those contests
Go no time worrying
about the man and all his second bests
I just keep scraping down
amazing look another serving
something to think on
when your
ship of fools gets swerving

what

2.369 : 5/7/06 : Ends the Story

2,560 : 3 ?


Hey so ends that story
stupid story that I told
trying to tell the future
trying to tempt fate oh so bold
I sure don’t know what will come next
I sure don’t like to guess
Though it’s not far out on a limb
to say it’ll be
some kind of mess
Did you read the hundred false endings
did I fool you in the second act
I’ve really got a winning way
lack only discipline and tact
it’s just another story I guess
the story about how it ends
I guess I ought to worry ‘bout
the message that it sends

what

2.368 : 5/6/06 : Leaves

Leaves do not turn singly
but by thousands
millions
billions
trillions
who really knows, though
I’m sure someone would take a
grant to figure it out
I called a day my new leaf
foolish
foolish
vanity of vanities
a thousand and a thousand more
days maybe I’ll figure
a tiny bit more
I doubt
that a thousand lines
of text or something like it
could be worth the
picture in my head
so quick print that mother out
then spike it

what

2.367 : 5/5/06 : Stretch

Winds gusting dusting off
moment that I cough I feel the
serious mistake I made
and the long ago sentience
who my attention bade
I stretch and retch for a recollection
another storybook to add to
the collection
the insurrection
can’t help but be televised
in the corridors of so-called justice
the plan by necessity revised

what

2.366 : 5/4/06 : Pumpkin Shines

Fun times and pumpkin shines
and rainbow unicorns
and twiddle bats who wear red hats
and play enchanted doodlehorns
the little stream that runs all through
is filled with twinkleberry juice
in the magic land ruled by
the purple king goose
Bouncing balls and upside-down falls
and dancing fuzzy bearlets
you can dance with them
and prance with them
and wander anywherelets
arrive by underwater train
and leave by space balloon
and all the happy friends you find
hope that you’ll come back soon

what

2.365 : 5/3/06 : Purge

Don’t be afraid to
purge
fear not
don’t fight the urge
the factor left
until now
unreported
the Magdelene
and the
reaction she sported
nobody ever told
if she touched
just that she was
told not to
I suspect a purge
must have
followed wherever
she got to

what

2.364 : 5/2/06 : Exhaustion

Exhaustion
I’m beating out
it’s Faustian
how it all keeps coming about
have another bone
find out how bad it is
I’m here regardless
this is my business
it’s got a go somewhere
some days you run
some days you don’t
some will
some absolutely won’t
when I feel exhaustion
time for another pill
stolen from the ones
who went before
they’re paying for it
still

what

2.363 : 5/1/06 : A Prayer

I only
vested one
prayer today
I didn’t think about
her sister
so what do you want
me to say
this ain’t about me
this is about
something bigger
it should be
enough that I prayed
don’t you
figure?

what