The Ghost of Phil Ochs

 The Ghost of Phil Ochs

I think of Phil Ochs

staring down America 

holding a promise

it never kept 

I pick up a guitar 

I hear someone else  

into these chords 

as if they could help

how short is a lifespan 

what can be done with it

I’ve never felt god the cemetery didn’t help 

neither did the ritual trip and other circumstances 

when I play guitars when I sing to myself 

ghosts aren’t that far something tries to help 

new york city keeps changing

new york city might care 

rubbing money in faces 

a stranger hands me a kleenex 

feeling the world 

done up in plastic 

vomiting on the stairs 

keeping it moving with ourselves

Vows

 Vows

everyone’s crazy 

some hide it some parade it 

all suffering with it 

a few monetize it 

everyone’s crazy

 just give it three months

 for the masks to drop 

and the moves to run out

 that’s when things get interesting 

that’s when things get real 

we acknowledge the three-sixty view 

and then we start to deal 

that’s when we start living 

that’s when we know the freak

partners in this business 

held together by love and fear

Exclamation Points

 Exclamation Points

Don’t you

 know 

who I am 

I write poems and 

then go to bed 

like no one else can 

I stand up 

then take a bus 

seen by dozens 

I post photos 

and release songs 

listened to 

and commented 

on 

more than once 

and who 

are you

how dare you be so young 

and beautiful 

without being 

clever

Our Initials

 Our initials 

I wanna believe everything 

without discernment 

travel the universe 

of your moods 

I’m just so happy 

not to feel alone 

even if this feeling 

is made for fools 

we flatten initial 

differences 

digging them as friction 

that finds a groove 

we intake 

all these indulgences 

knowing full well 

they’ll be paid in full

Mechanical Bull

 Mechanical Bull

you know how it goes

it just goes to show 

entitlement blinds

you to its outcomes 

oh the ride 

doesn’t stop you 

thrown again into those 

special circumstances 

remixing old

strategies in a way 

that flatter you 

riding on fumes 

back home 

reworking scenes

in your mind 

until you’ve won 

while a hope 

for tomorrow

 

pleads for 

another shot

The ideas

 The ideas 

where do they come from 

where do they belong 

inside out upside down 

wrapped around and around 

you get attached to them 

you blow them out of your head 

some people get buried under them 

others throw up their hands 

do you take them out to examine them reconsider them or just replace them 

are you wedded to your opinions 

will you fight for them to the death 

or just leave them for someone else 

take my advice as I can’t use it 

Vinyl

 Lonely men record collection 

these are my records of seduction 

those what’s left from the divorce 

there are a handful 

from my childhood bedroom 

mixed with some that 

just arrived in that box 

I’ve carried these crates 

through stints as a deejay 

there are many that I can’t spin again 

I’ve sold half several times over 

then I think 

there are many worst sins 

I don’t need your condescension

your pity or your uninformed views 

I just ask if you have the time to listen

There are many things I’d like to play for you

Warm Blue Noise

Hit Me 

As a whole, I feel that the modern world is sad enough without adding to it, but every once in a while, I can’t repress darker feelings, and I just sort of let it all hang out. I started listening to white noise as a way to get to sleep as too many times I found myself listening to Rolling Stones Greatest Hits albums on repeat at three in the morning, so Warm Blue Noise is my attempt at a lullaby for an insomniac.  I just wanted to shout out my collaborators. Greg Odell did a wonderful job on drums and percussion. Leon Gruenbaum came through with beautiful washes, jabs, and plinks from all sorts of keyboards and synthesizers, and Martin Scion did a wonderful job mixing and mastering, so warm blue noise is here and I hope you enjoy it more things planned for 2024. Thanks for listening, Bob.

Teeth

 read by Emilia Cataldo...#poetrybooks Available on amazon: https://a.co/d/iWhcQ78

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True Life Funnies

 True-Life Funnies

As he threatened 

me with the knife 

I thought, 

“this isn’t the time” 

I had just come back 

from my shrink 

ready to do more work

on my things 

As he growled, 

“Give me your money!!!” 

I snarled, 

“I don’t have any...

...but if you want 

the debt on my cards, 

feel free for 25k!!!” 

I then assumed the pose 

part Shaggy-part Groucho 

I let fourth a growl 

straight out of GI-Joe 

He got scared and said, “Peace” 

Then I walked down the street 

I thought I should call the police 

Just then he robbed someone else 

We went down to the station 

where they new his name and location 

they had him under surveillance 

and were waiting for a warrant 

He was an English learner 

He seemed pretty nervous 

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hurt him 

Or simply call his parents

Good Intentions

 Good Intentions

Assume good intentions

everything’s misconstrued

without directions

in the world that contains you

I strive to be honest

decent and true

in a life of temptation

none sweeter than you

I might go on longing

for the impossible

as my imagination takes me places

I want to show to you

I might go on being wrong

in what I see in you

but I assume my intentions

will get the better of you

Confessions

Confessions

I think 

I’m perfect 

i’mperfect 

I’m imperfect 

for you

I am the world

I am the world

I feel tired, neglected 

misunderstood 

I just wanna get some sleep 

because I am the world 

I’ve tried, pretended 

it’s all good 

but there are so many parts 

rotting amongst the pearls 

when I get enough sleep 

when I make love with the moon 

that hope springs eternal 

rising with the sun 

when I look over the cities 

when I look over the fields 

I  see so much work 

still to be done 

I spin around 

I look up to the sky

and pray like an atheist 

for some sort of sign 

The Hot Core

 The hot core 

everything flows 

everything goes 

about its way 

stays and fades 

it feels nowhere 

perspective 

changes, we 

reorientate 

everything 

can be in the air 

at once 

without holding on

falling back into our 

hot cores 

our knowing souls 

melt back into our hearts 

Pleasure without a cause

 Pleasure without a cause 

prove you’re human 

accept all cookies 

select the images 

with bicycles

leave the meeting 

Imperfect World

 Imperfect World 

you bring some beauty 

into this world 

it’s so rare 

everyone wants their turn 

you retreat 

into dreams and pillows 

the rain leaves 

and clouds follow 

I’m selfish just like everybody else 

wanting these things for myself

for a moment for a memory 

a pose to remember before I sleep

you bend and press 

against reality 

until something breaks 

out of routine

something’s transgressed 

some jealousy 

insists you can’t exist 

forever at peace 

Studies in Transgression

 Click the link: 

Click here

Reporting from the Inside

 Reporting from the inside

let’s paint our insides 

with flavors of home 

mixing colors 

with this decor 

we might recognize 

something we know 

mixed with something 

brilliant & unknown 

we could realize 

what’s in our hearts 

we could dance

with this rush of blood 

interior lives 

need to come out 

dreams and futures 

are making love

Henrietta

 Henrietta 

we would go shopping in Henrietta 

the sprawl near our town 

parking lots stretched forever 

watching from the left side of the car 

it felt like another planet 

fluorescent and asphalt 

its monotony broken by signs 

the kind you’d find in airports 

I’d get nauseous in Henrietta 

from the traffic and ice cream 

the dazzle of a new toy to take back 

to Penfield 

we all now live in Henrietta 

mom’s gone with the sheen 

we find occasional pleasures 

amidst flash food warnings

Men

Men 

I will do the wrong thing 

I’ll do it with style 

just to prove 

I’m alive 

of course you’re correct 

of course you’re clever 

that’s why I’m burning it all down 

just to start over 

Like a human

 Like a human 

love takes off our pants 

leaves on our masks 

settling on lands 

claimed by earlier peoples 

running our rackets 

offering blankets 

reading histories 

to learn about our evils 

as Sinatra plays 

we go on our way 

smirking at prayers and players 

in the chapel 

We call it a day 

robbed of our fates 

unsure if anything we did 

was ever helpful

On Vibrate

On Vibrate

vibrate the metaphors

fly the songs 

attack tomorrow 

with all you’ve got 

sex the silence 

dazzle the verbs 

eat the film 

cos there’s no cure 

Situations Circumstances Complications Consequences

 Situations Circumstances Complications Consequences

where does time go 

in these times 

like to get some back

yours and mine 

I can read the news

almost make it rhyme 

but I get so tied up in 

this life of 

situations circumstances complications consequences

there’s no confusion anymore 

you’re expected to know 

what it’s all for 

and the things you learned 

don’t add up to a future 

what do they expect out of you 

I know something about you 

I know how we feel 

how we move 

further than that it’s all 

a trap do you blame me for not 

believing the truth of 

we might never get our day 

but we’ll fight to make it change 

moving in a möbius comic