collab

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

VALENTINE EVE dedicated to all those single people out there gritting their teeth






        Valentine Eve


    The day of love, it looms on the horizon now
    Teasing me with it's rose and balloon 
    And teddy bear
    The memories of those sweet, sweet days
    And magical nights of wine and candle
    Long slow dances and kisses
    That promised love unending
    But ended all the same
    Forever and a day, you said
    And I agreed and wrote it down
    In my book of remembrance
    And saved it with the cards and hearts
    And pressed flowers that I would
    Not have sold for gold
    Valentine's Day, unfunny, unsweet
    Unlovely, unlooked forward to
    Looming on the horizon now.....
    The worst day of the year
    For those with shattered hearts.





    ©by Voo
    Feb 13, 2005
 9:28 p.m.



OF MONSTERS AND FEELINGS a collab with Nick Nguyen



Of Monsters and Feelings




Long days passed
As I rested 
My pounding head
On my cold hands
Reflecting 
A memory
Now like 
A shattered 
Glass mirror.

It started with
A heartbeat
Rising ever
So slightly
Next came pain
Like hot needles
Protruding quickly
Through my skin
And a dull pain 
In my stomach
Ruining all my nights.

With the realization came the terror
And the terror turned to worse
Worse than any word so spoken
In conversation or in verse.

I had never known such anguish
Such despair or numbing fear
I couldn't dream of an existence
Without your presence living here.

All my feelings became monsters
Feelings once I loved to feel
They made me cry out in my anguish
They did me harm and made me ill.

But love's a healer
And I still need you
As I watch the pouring rain
Come and put your hands on my heart
Come and make me feel again.





Written By Nick Nguyen
and Voo


(c) Copyright Nicholas Nguyen 2019
In Collaboration with Voo 



Tuesday, February 12, 2019

THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS HISTORY an experiment in poetry




















The Rest, As They Say, Is History



Throwing caution to the wind,
I walked into the night,
Down the street,
To your door,
Knocked,
Knocked again,
And gently turned the door knob
And it opened.

And there you sat
Staring blankly at the wall
Then turned and stared 
Blankly at me
You opened your mouth
To ask "How did you.....?"
But I gave you no time to ask.

Slamming the door,
I crossed the room,
Turned off the tv
Turned down the lights,
Took a sip of your wine,
Took a bite of your apple,
And threw myself into your lap
And kissed you like no man
Had ever been kissed before.

This lip, tongue congress
Continued on 
For some fifteen minutes
Or so
And then I stood up,
Dusted off your dustless lap,
Took another sip of wine
And turned the tv back on,
Flipped the light switch back up,
Hurried across the room
To the front door,
Opened it, took a deep breath,
Went outside, slammed the door,
And did not look back.

But peeking through the window,
I watched as you came to your senses,
Swallowed the leftover wine,
Poured some more,
Ran your fingers through your hair,
Stood up awkwardly and said,
"What the hell was that?!"
Then you sat clumsily back down
At your dinette table, frowning,
And contemplated your life
And whether you were possibly awake
Or dreaming and whether you ought
To call the police and report a break-in
Or if you should go back to sleep
And finish a rather remarkable dream.

Caught in the dilemma of confusion
And mild euphoria,
You turned the dregs of the wine up
And drank every drop,
Stood and threw the bottle in the sink,
Turned off the tv, turned on the stereo,
Did some sort of bump and grind dance
In the middle of the kitchen floor
To a song,
By a band that sounded 
Like a cross between Frank Zappa
And Frank Sinatra......
And stopped and shook your head
With the biggest smile possibly
Ever seen on your face 
Since you were a toddler
Tasting ice cream for the first time.

 When you crossed the room
Headed for the door, 
I knew it was time for me
To make my presence vanish
And I turned and ran down 21st Street
Just as hard and fast as I could
Possibly run in high heels
On a cracked asphalt street
At midnight in the rain
On a Wednesday night in February.

But I wasn't fast enough
For you caught me 
By the arm, 
Twirled me around, 
My hair flying, earrings flying,
Heart beating like my brother's
Little tin drum
And just about ready to burst
Either into song or screams of fear, 
I wasn't sure which.

I had had it all worked out
Before hand
But I hadn't counted 
On you coming after me
I hadn't counted on that
Because you were 
The shyest damned man
I had ever met
And you never looked at me,
Smiled at me, noticed me,
Or gave any evidence
That you knew I existed.

Which was why
I had formulated this god-awful plan
With no hope of reciprocation
On your part
And no intention whatsoever
Of explaining myself or
Redeeming improbable intentions
On my part or anybody else's part,
Either in part or to the fullest extent
Of the law, give or take a crime.....
For I hadn't thought much further
Than taking you unawares
There at your kitchen table
Drinking wine
For I already knew that
You never locked your front door
And you always had dinner
At Tom's Cafe on Wednesday nights
And you were always home by nine.

No, I was not a stalker!
(I just knew things.)

Like I knew I had loved you
For at least six months
And that I dreamed about you
Every night
And that I had made up 
My lovesick little mind
To hunt you down
Like a dog
And kiss the living daylights
Outta ya and split
And I would say now
That that was a 
Fait Accompli.......

I was pretty proud of myself
Until I felt your hand
Go around my waist
And the other one grab my hair
And you pulled me backwards
And we went tumbling down
Into Mrs Tompkins's flower bed
Right on top of her gnome
And a granite saint that I
Couldn't rightly remember the name of
At the moment
And first thing I knew, 
You were laughing like a crazy man
And kissing me back so hard
And so sweetly that I could hardly
Even believe that I had ever thought you shy.

"Don't you think a proper introduction
Would be in order about now?" you asked, 
Pulling me to my feet and off the top
Of the unfortunate saint who had rolled down
Under a fake toadstool 
And hidden his face in shame at the shocking
Machinations of a girl, half-crazed with love
And a caught-off- guard man who didn't 
Rightly know if he should be thrilled
Or terrified out of his mind
Or what his next move should be.

"I'm the girl that loves you."
I blurted out like an idiot
And reached to shake your hand
As you shook mine back, dazed and confused
And wondering if you had heard correctly
"You....you're the girl that does what to whom?"
You stuttered and removed your hand from mine
And put it in your pocket for safe-keeping
Like I was going to take it home with me
Or worse
And so we stood there in the rain
With our hair plastered down upon our heads
And our clothes fitting us like skins of plastic.

"Well, I'm...." you began and I rushed to shush you
"I know who you are."  I said excitedly
"You work in the cubicle behind mine
And you always have tuna for lunch
And you read the paper and listen to NPR
And whistle when you walk into work."
"That's....that's... correct." you said, puzzled
And cleared your throat and kicked at a rock
With your shoe
"But why should you.......?" you began
And fell silent, reaching to remove a tendril
From across my left eye.

"Why don't we go somewhere warm?"
You finally completed a sentence
And I nodded and wiped mud and dirt
Off of your chin and brushed leaves 
From your jacket and pretended that it was
A perfectly normal thing to do
That the entire scenario was a perfectly normal
Thing to do
And that I was a perfectly normal girl
Standing in Mrs. Tompkins flower bed
In the rain which was an absolutely normal thing to do
With a man I hardly knew and who didn't
Know me at all to speak of
But boy, I sure did want to kiss you again
With your wine flavored breath and your
Soft brown eyes and your smile that was just
Barely able to contain itself
Now beaming at me and becoming prominent.

I took your arm and stepped over 
The fake toadstool, the gnome, 
The nameless, humiliated saint
And smiled a tiny smile of my own,
Wanting to believe in miracles, 
Or at the very least.....good luck
And we made our way back to your house,
Back to your door, back to the kitchen table,
Back to a fresh bottle of wine
And back to what you had been doing
Before I had so rudely interrupted you
Which, as I found out later, 
After three glasses of wine, 
Fifteen shy sweet kisses
And four that were anything but....
Was the shocking revelation
That you had been sitting there
Trying to think of a way to get me
To notice that you were alive
And about getting up the nerve 
To ask me out on a proper date
And possibly, one day, hopefully, 
Having the good fortune to
Actually kiss me like a proper gentleman
But I had ruined all that, hadn't I?

So, yes, dear children, 
That is how your father and I got together,
Fell in love, got engaged, got married,
Had all you lovely babies
And this wonderful marriage
And this wonderful life 
And these wonderful stories
And lived happily ever after
The end.......

And it had all started with me
Planning and scheming 
And taking matters into my own hands
Because your father was too shy
To do anything on his own
So I fearlessly marched myself
Up to his door, into his house,
Into his kitchen, into his lap,
"Into my heart!" you interjected
"Into his heart" I repeated
Smiling broadly and proudly
And we kissed and said at
Precisely the same moment:
"And the rest, as they say.......
Is history!!"













©by Voo
Feb 12, 2019
4:14 a.m.






















(a mindless write
in which I just typed
without thinking about
what I was typing
and seeing what was on the page
when I got through......)




Monday, February 11, 2019

OUR PLAYGROUND ( farewell GPlus tribute)

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday








Our Playground



Departures are never easy
While hellos are such a breeze
Watching friends walk round the bend
Cannot be done with ease.

It doesn't take me long to fall
In love or out, it doesn't matter
I wear my heart out on my sleeve
For all to see or love or shatter.

I am a poet and so that means
That I love love and sweet romance
I live to read and cherish words
And take my turn in the poetic dance.

And I've been hurt and I've been burned
And built up walls to protect myself
But in that building, kept isolated
And drained till I had nothing left.

But every now and then in life
Friends come along to dig me out
Out of myself, out of that place
And give me freedom to run and shout.

And I give up and I give in
And give my heart to those that do
Encourage me to share my gifts
And pour out my love on those like you.

So many friends I've made here now
All over the world, and close to home
No matter what the time of day
I can click GPlus and I'm not alone.

But they've taken down our carousel
Dismantled the playground and all our swings
Burst our balloons and cleaned out our rooms
Not knowing how precious to us were these things.

Our communities of creative geniuses
Our picture books of living art
Our gifs and comic animations
All came from loving, beating hearts.

What fun we've had with one another
How many tears we've shed here, too
Reading heartache, sharing heartbreak
And helping all to make it through.

Our differences, our prejudices
That we brought here when first we came
All fell away like dried up leaves
When we learned to know each other's names.

So many nations met on these grounds
So many cultures, religions, creeds
And black and white and brown and red
We all are human with human needs.

In the name of poetry, in the name of art
Good books, good food and stars in space
We shared and cared and learned to love
And laid aside the fears we face.

And having said that, now saying this
We may get scattered and lost, it's true
But I hope we meet on those paths to elsewhere
For I've dearly loved my time with you.

You are my friends, my funny companions
My virtual hugs and hands holding a rose
To brighten my day and tell me goodnight
My gurus and teachers keeping me on my toes.

We may never meet this side of Heaven
Having never hugged or touched or kissed
But in my heart, please know, wherever you go
You were loved and cherished and you'll ever be missed.




©by Voo Voo
Feb 11, 2019
8:09 p .m.




Never Say Goodbye
Bon Jovi


https://bluevineyard.blogspot.com/
you can always find me here, hopefully

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
DEDICATED TO ALL THE MANY
WONDERFUL FUNNY PRECIOUS 
PEOPLE I HAVE MET HERE
AND COME TO KNOW AND LOVE
<<<GOD BLESS YOU ALL>>>


We  Don't Say Goodbye
Celine Dion
and 
The Bee Gees



I Will Remember You song
Will You Remember Me????

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

THE ROAD THAT ENDS IN THE SEA



The Road That Ends In The Sea



"Call me!" he said in a voice full of woe
On the message he left on my phone
Along with a dozen other ones I had missed
I could tell he felt so all alone.

But it had been one of those days
And my job had taken it's toll
My mind on the blink, couldn't talk, couldn't think
And he was probably just trying to be droll.

So I had listened to some of them
And the other ones, deleted
I was so tired and needed sleep
And his calling went unheeded.

I went to bed, dreams in my head
Dreams so dark and dreary
Tidal waves and things unsaved
And I woke up so weary.

Driving into work I thought
About my sweet lost friend
We'd tried to make our love work out
But it had reached it's end.

And I'd moved on, found someone else
But he couldn't do the same
He'd call me twenty times a day
To only speak my name.

"This has to stop!" I said to him
When next I saw his face
"You've got to stop this stalking me!
This is so out of place!"

"I know, I know!" he said, in tears
"I just can't help myself!
I've screwed up all of my life
And I have nothing left!"

"That isn't true," I said to him
"You've got so much to give."
"Oh, no, I don't, for without you
I just don't want to live."

I took him in my arms and sighed
And shed a tear or two
It is so sad when love goes bad
And  your love does not love you.

We went our separate ways once more
And I thought that things were good
Until I noticed him hiding himself
Doing things that he never should.

He left me a dozen roses
Upon my car's windshield
Letters and song requests on the radio
He kept trying to break my will.

Showing up and showing out
In front of all my friends
They teased me 'bout my obsessed boyfriend'
And it never seemed to end.

"What did you do to that poor guy?"
My clergyman once asked
"I've never seen anyone so much in love!"
But that die had already been cast.

I'd found a love that just felt right
And seemed so good to me
We met each other's needs and yet
Let both our hearts run free.

I'd never had that kind of love
With sweethearts in my past
Some were fickle, flighty things
And some not made to last.

But when I'd met my former love
Things took a different turn
We started out on the same page
But his heart began to burn.

And burn in ways I didn't like
That gave me no reprieve
He was obsessive and so possessive
That I felt I couldn't breathe.

Our break-up was so messy
I tried hard not to be unkind
But he refused to accept the news
And I exploded and spoke my mind.

And I said things I shouldn't have said
But things that still were true
And I saw the hurt upon his face
When he said, "I still love you."

"But I don't love you, I never did."
I said and walked away
Leaving him crying on his knees in the rain
A scene burned in my brain to this day.

I didn't mean to hurt him
I just tried to protect myself
Sometimes you give so much of you
That there is nothing left.

Months passed and I started to live again
Feeling the freedom to breathe
Finding the joy and the love to employ
While he sank and continued to grieve.

Then slowly he seemed to mend himself
And I reached out friendship's hand
We talked, we had fun, a new era'd begun
But inside, he was still the same man.

We double dated with his new girl
And the new love that I'd met
And all seemed fine but in his mind
He just would not forget.

The phone calls started up again,
The letters in my door,
The cards and flowers, hour after hour
Till I couldn't stand it anymore.

My boyfriend beat him to pulp
When he showed up one night
I tried to keep the peace but failed
And they got into a fight.

The police came and took him away
As he shouted out his pain
And the neighbors watched and shook their heads
When he screamed out my name.

Shell-shocked then, I could only pray
For God to heal his soul
What kind of life could he hope to have
If I were his only goal?

They took him to the hospital
Committed him to stay
I heard that he was making progress
And hoped he stayed that way.

Until last night when I'd heard the calls
Recorded on my phone
(And though collected and calm,
He still sought me as his balm)
And I just sighed and left him alone.

I listened to his messages again
The ones that I had saved
As I ate my lunch, without a hunch
Of what I'd hear that day.

"Meet me at the lamplight," he'd said
"On the road that ends in the sea."
And I couldn't conceive and couldn't perceive
 The message that he had left me.

As I sat in my car later in traffic
I suddenly began then to see
What he had been trying so hard to not say
And to discern his sad request to me.

I got out of traffic and flew so fast
To the only place I knew
Where there was a road that dropped off that way
And a place that he knew, too.

"Oh, no, oh, no." I cried out slow
As I made my way in the rain
"Don't let him do something that he'll regret
Trying to take away his pain."

The park was deserted when I got there
The park where that boy had met me
The park with the bridge that had been there so long
That it had fallen at last in the sea.

And they'd voted not to replace it
For it had only been used in the past
By a family that lived on an island
That'd been wrecked by a hurricane's wrath.

(So the road through the park
Had no where to go now
It was just a joke for the townsfolk to see
It was still lined with lamp lights
And they still lit up some nights
But the road ended there at the sea.)

I parked my car there on the road
As the rain came pouring down
I couldn't see a sign of him
I didn't hear a sound.

Then suddenly to my surprise
A light came on so bright
The last lamp post at the end of the road
Lit up the rain soaked night.

I walked in trepidation
Up to the old lamp post
Saw the note inside the plastic bag
Watched over by his ghost.

"I'm sorry," he wrote, "Won't you forgive?
I've been a hopeless fool
And you were always sweet and kind
You didn't mean to treat me cruel."

I held the note up to the light
As the rain washed away the ink
And then threw the note into the sea
And stood and watched it sink.

Then I saw the strangest thing
His shoes setting off the path
He had taken them off before he'd jumped
And the sight just made me laugh.

For those were his favorite shoes
I had given them to him, it's true
On his birthday, he'd said,
"If  a girl buys a man shoes,
Then that means that she really loves you."

And I dropped to the ground and I cried
For all the ways that things shouldn't be
For his love and his loss and his life
And I knew he'd finally let go of me.

©by Voo
Feb 6, 2019
2:10 p.m.
for.......you know


partially based on a true story
of my life........