collab

Saturday, July 22, 2017

ONION SKIN







ONION SKIN



MY KINGDOM IS LIKE AN ONION
BELOW WHAT'S REVEALED ON THE SURFACE:
THERE ARE MANY PARTS, MANY LAYERS
LEVELS, GOING UP, GOING DOWN
MANY HIDDEN TREASURES
WAITING TO BE PEELED BACK AND CLAIMED.

YOU ARE LIKE AN ONION
MANY COMPARTMENTS, MANY SIDES, MANY THINGS
THAT MAKE YOU WHO YOU ARE
AND SLOWLY BY SLOWLY, I PEEL BACK YOUR LAYERS
REPLACING THE WRONG WITH RIGHT, THE POOR WITH RICH
YOURSELF WITH MYSELF
UNTIL WE ARE ONE.

THIS IS HOW I MADE THE WORLD
THIS IS HOW IT IS
SHALLOW PEOPLE RECEIVE THE SHALLOW
AND THE DEEP SEEK OUT THE DEEP.
IT'S ALL LAID OUT LIKE AN ONION
BITE INTO LIFE AND IT MAKES YOU CRY
BITE INTO IT AGAIN AND YOU ACQUIRE A TASTE
WHAT MAKES YOU WEEP GIVES YOU JOY
WHAT SEEMS TO HURT THEN GIVES YOU THE ULTIMATE PLEASURE.

MY KINGDOM IS LIKE AN ONION
AND ONLY THOSE WITH EYES TO SEE CAN SEE
ONLY THOSE WITH EARS TO HEAR CAN HEAR
ONLY YOU, OF MANY LEVELS AND LAYERS
MAY SEARCH OUT THAT KINGDOM WITH DETERMINED HANDS
AND WITH PASSION AND ENDURANCE AND SURETY IN ME
MAY POSSESS IT.








©by Voo
Feb 02, 2002
 12:15 a.m. 

a prophetic word
from the Spirit


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

IN THE CLAWS OF A COLD CRUEL NIGHT







The Way by Zack Hemsey






In The Claws
 of a Cold Cruel Night


(for the victims of the slave trade that is still going on
all over the world on so many levels even here in my own country)




Clasped in the claws of a cold cruel night
I battled to breathe and I struggled to fight
With the terror that hooked me and took me away
Far from the fire and the safety of day.

In the arms of the awful and hopelessly lost
To pay just a fraction of what my life cost 
And though I was broken, the merchandise, marred
There were some who were looking for the thing that was scarred.

And they circled around me, more vultures than men
Reaching and touching and reaching again
And I bit at their fingers and I hit at their eyes
And they laughed at my despair and crowed at my cries.

In the depths of the desert, in the forests, forlorn
Slave markets for creatures in feminine form
In cages of steel and ropes without pity
Taken from home and village and city.

For the want of a woman, for the need of a night
We were captured and hidden from rescuers' sight
By men who were soul-less and wanton with lust
They shattered our innocence, they destroyed our trust.

And we prayed to our fathers and we called to the sky
As we listened in silence to the scream and the sigh
Of our sisters before us in the tents of the knave  
Who gave in and gave up when no one came to save. 

I had long dreamed since childhood of a love of my own
A husband and children and a sweet little home
Living free in my country, loving free in the arms
Of a man who would love me and keep me from harm.

For my mother had promised he would come one fine day
Sweep me off my feet and would carry me away
To the dream and the passion and the joy of my heart
But the dream's dying in me before it could start.

I'm a child! I'm a child! I'm still young and not old
I am more than this flesh, I am spirit and soul
You can't buy me with money or own me as chattel
I am human and worth more than fields full of cattle.

My eyes filled with tears, I can hardly see now
They tell me to follow, they make me to bow
They pull on my hair, they bruise and they squeeze
Like traders at market with fruit ripened to please.

But the fire in my heart and the fight in my fist
Gives me courage to say No, I won't go like this!
You can kill me and burn me and throw me away
But none of you devils will own me this day!

And they laugh in their shock at the brave little girl
Who would dare to resist her sad fate in the world
Who would stand up to men who were greater than she
But worth more to God than they'd ever be.

Then the dark crawls to shadow and dawn suddenly breaks
And the traders and buyers and those holding the stakes
Are revealed in the sunlight and exposed in the light
Like insects, they go scrambling for the cover of night.

And a man in white clothing, reaches his hand to me
Pulls me to my feet and says,  Daughter, you're free
And an army of good men, like heroes so tall
Open cages and knots and gives freedom to all.

And my sisters and I, we rejoice and we yell
As they round up the men who had made us this hell
Who had kidnapped and caught us and bought us for slaves
Who would wish that they hadn't as they lay in their graves.

We are yellow and black, we are white and we're tan
We are equal in God's sight and equal to man
We are precious and worthy and worth more than gold
But are torn as we leave there with such holes in our souls.

In the trucks going home through the forests so dark
We embrace, giving thanks with our little girl hearts
And we wonder aloud about the good man in white
Who had reached out and freed us and faded from sight.

And we pray for the children and the victims like we
All over the world who just want to be free
From the tyranny of evil and the lust of it's eyes
For we know now there's someone who does hear our cries.

You're so brave! they all tell me, You stood up to the beasts!
But I smile saying nothing till their praises have ceased
For my bones had near melted as I'd stood and defied 
And in the arms of my sisters, I fell and I cried.






©By Voo
July 19, 2017
2:42 a.m.







I don't know where this came from......the story just fell into my fingers tonight and I had to 
write it down..









                   Liza, originally by Bill Withers....
                              a powerful cover that seems so appropos




At last!!!!!!  The Sound of Freedom!!!!!

4

Saturday, July 15, 2017

DANCES WITH BIRDS




















Dances With Birds




Standing in the kitchen this afternoon
Wearing nothing but a white cotton T shirt
That barely covered the imagination
(It's 116 in the shade, dammit!)


I was making a chef salad
And pouring myself a tall glass of lemonade
When, from outside my window
I heard the scream of a bird
So loud and startling I almost said a bad word
What on earth was that? I thought
And finished the slicing and dicing,
Wiped my hands and pulled back the curtain.


The bird stood there on the driveway
It's wings held up in the air
In a kind of ecstasy
It's head raised up to the sky
It's little feet doing an impromptu
Crazy birdfolk dance
Paying no attention to anyone or any thing
It screamed again, not a bird sound
(Definitely not a bird sound.)


But then I noticed that all around the critter
Fell big fat liquid drops of rain
Rain! 
Real ThankGodAlmightyLetItRain rain!
Like we haven't seen in weeks
That we've needed here more than gold.


And I realized
That the bird was screaming in joy
Pure unadulterated joy
No one will believe this, I said out loud
But who cares? 
I dropped the curtain,
Took a big long drink of lemonade,
Looked around to see if the neighbors
Were watching......stepped outside....
And joined him in the dance.




























Too Hot by Kool and the Gang


©By Voo
Aug 20, 07
4:30
based on a true event


Friday, July 14, 2017

AND THERE WAS ONLY










And There Was Only


The mist was gray and wet as dew
And there was only me and you
Walking there so close to dawn
With all the ink of midnight gone.

The champagne drained,
We laughed, wide-eyed
And dropped the bottle
Off the side.

We heard it splash
Into the water
And watched a gull
Go diving after.

All night, we'd talked
And sang and marched
Enlisted soldiers
With new-born hearts.

You quoted Rumi
From memory
And showed me things
The eye can't see.

And I, in turn
Like dervish, twirled
In ecstasy,
An entranced girl.

Until the bridge, 
Rose from the mist
And set the scene
For our first kiss.

The bells of London
Called to the day
And ran the ghosts
Of night away.

And still we stood,
Like statues there
Upon the bridge,
We didn't care.

For love is careless
When it is new
And "we" is born
From "me and you".

Like little children
That played a game
We had no worries,
We had no shame.

Tomorrow's worries
Tomorrow's shames
Could wait to find us
And learn our names.

(And oh, they would
And oh, we'd cry
And fight
Though love refused to die.

Through many years 
Of toil and pain
We'd yearn to be
Like that again.)

But this, our night,
And this our dawn,
Will live when all our lives
Are gone.

In memory and faded rose
In poems on pages faded blue
The bridge, the mist, the sacred kiss
And there was only me and you.

and there was only me and you.....













©by Voo
March 7, 2011
11:49 p.m.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

THE GAME OF CHANCE



Play song with poem, it adds so much
Song to the Siren by George Michael originally





The Game of Chance



I was falling off the the mountain top
I was splashing in the sea
When there came a tiny nightingale
Who sang her song to me

I was drifting like a piece of wood
I was drowning in the deep
When there came a mermaid siren's call
That lulled me down to sleep

I was plunging to a watery grave
I was descending down to hell
When there came a fish that made a wish
And said he wished me well

I was fighting death with every breath
I was longing so to breathe
When there came a cup that raised me up
But the cup was like a sieve

I was clinging to the sides of hope
I was ascending to the sun
When there came a voice that gave a choice
And I quickly made the one

I was dying when I met her
I was living when she left
When there came the day she went away
And I plunged broken and bereft 

And I don't know how to say this
How to tell you how I felt
When she won my  heart in her game of chance
As I played the cards she dealt

I have been a weary traveler
I have been a tortured man
When my mountains crumbled at her feet
And I was buried in the sand

I have walked the lonely desert
I have swum the cold black sea
When the voices whispered to my soul
That love never wanted me

But off, now, I hear the nightingale
And I hear it call my name
And when the siren sings, I know that I
Will play her games again.

For what is life without taking chances
And what is love but breath?
When she reaches her hand to this man
I'll choose that living death

I have seen the other side of love
I have known what few will know 
When love smiles at me with sunlit eyes
To it's embrace I will go

Even if it starts to die
And the world goes dark again
When all is gone and I'm alone
I'll reach out to love again

I'll be falling off the mountaintop
I'll be splashing in the sea
And when the nightingale sings her lonely song
I will know she sings for me.







©By Voo
June 24, 2017
6:45 p.m.


inspired by the poetry
of the great Leonard Cohen