IT WAS THAT

Soundtrack to piece

by Roy Todd

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It Was That

Dogwoods blooming by crystal streams

Twilight drifting past your shoulders

And touching my cheeks with starlight

We kissed our first kiss………….

It was that innocent, that special.

Mistletoe falling from Christmas trees

In a meadow draped white with snow

And decorated by angels

We danced our first dance………………

It was that breathless, that pure.

Cathedral bells chiming in the new year

In a golden city with silver streets

And champagne filling every mud puddle

We became one at our first joining………..

It was that beautiful, that forever.

And we breathed each other’s air

And walked upon one another’s feet

Arms entwined like ivy through lattice

With lips that sought no other mouth……………

It was our life, it was our love.

Van Gogh painted us,

Monet decorated our house,

Chopin wrote our love songs,

And Da Vinci was our teacher……………

It was our future, it was our history.

We grasped life with eager eyes

Living every moment

With our souls woven in wonder

Devouring love like bowls of bread………

And never getting filled.

Dandelions pushing through newly born grass

On a May day so golden the sun was singing

And wrapping the river in heated arms

We felt our first inkling……………..

It was that puzzling, that inconceivable.

And Autumn came

And the leaves did not turn orange and fall

The trees fell instead

And with them, all the colors in the world……………..

And left a canvas gray and without sun.

The gold of the dandelion

Turned to fragile wisps of fluff

Though the stem stood tall and straight

As long as it could stand…………..

And the winds came, dispersing all it’s glory.

What do you say when the book is finished?

When symphonies lapse into silence

And landscapes fall from their frames?

How do you recapture dreams that die at waking

And retrace steps that have vanished on the shore?

Dragons breathed upon me

And swept the sky of stars

The last rose wept and laid itself so gently on your heart

And every light blinked in the dark……………

And our house bowed it’s head.

Wildfires burning through emerald forests

Clear cut mountains that used to be green

Dust and ashes where there used to be life

We said our first goodbye………………….

It was that desolate, it was that sad.

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©By Voo

June 10, 2012

11:19 p.m.

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Run To Me

Run To Me

Don't run from Me but to Me

Don't go but yet draw near

Don't hide your face now from Me

Don't look on Me in fear.

Don't shout "Oh, God!" in anger

But call My name in love

Don't think I do not see you there

From where I live above.

Every day of your life is an integrity test

To see what character you build

You can't win the game by exalting your name

But only when to Me do you yield.

I have only such good thoughts about you

I have only true love for your soul

I have much success and so much I will bless

If you make serving Me your one goal.

My child, don't turn your back on Me

In this world of hate and harms

I wait to heal your aching heart

When you run into My arms.

©by Voo

Jan 13, 1998

a word the Lord spoke through me and to me

EASILY PLEASED AND AT THE SAME TIME DISCONTENT

Easily Pleased And At The Same Time Discontent

I am an enigma boiling in my own juice

Of confused red ripened heart

I think to myself in song-less rhymes

Unborn yet ageless in their need to be

And silently screaming, I shout down

Every faded gray wall within my soul

Until I fall into the newly broken day

There you are! I think. There you are!

And I reach forth

Tiny, outstretched fingers digging

Their way out of my being

To grasp the only thing that means anything

In this world to me

Or ever will:

The love I threw away

The love I still see shining on your face.

©by Voo

Jan 11, 2007

9:13 p.m.

face by Mark*

inspired by a line by Ebenezer Stone

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IN THE BACK OF A BLACK LIMOUSINE

  Other Days 

by Black Chamber

play as you read

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 In The Back of a Black Limousine



I always wondered what went on
In the back of a black limousine
When I was a child, I watched in awe
As the “centipede” car inched it’s way
Down the street, hiding celebrities
And famous unknowns
Looking at my own curious little face
Reflected back 
In those dark tinted windows.

I was sure it was a movie star
(Aren’t they all?)
Some glamorous somebody
In gold lame’ and chinchilla fur
Rhinestone sunglasses
And men at her feet
Passing through our insignificant town
On the way to somewhere important.

Sometimes it was a gangster or a politician 
(Or both)
Hard to tell the difference
When you’re a child
Or a grown up
They all wore hats, smoked big cigars
And smirked in our faces as they passed us by
Tipping those hats in benevolence 
Before the windows zipped up in a flash.

One day a famous singer came through
And the crowds lined the streets
Trying to get a glimpse of his shiny white teeth
And his golden voice
We wanted his autograph.........
But all we got was a blasted recording
Of the latest big hit coming from the speakers
And a trail of his glossies flying out the windows
(I went home and burned his ole records
And tore up my fan club membership card.)

When I was older 
And the world had lost it’s silver sheen
I marched in peace marches,
Rebelled against everything and anything
Did sit-ins, stand-ins, lay-ins and sleep-ins
Carried homemade signs that changed daily 
According to my whim
For I was a sheep.............
(I was a rebel and a non-conformist
But still a sheep following a crowd of sheep)
But that soon got old
And I fell into convoluted conformity.

One day before I became jaded forever
A man in a black limousine
Stopped at the curb where I walked in a haze
Put down the window and concocting a smile
Asked me if I wanted a ride or a drink
And still fascinated by those big, long black limos,
Limping along in my tattered Flip Flops,
I hesitated with a quivering heart
Then climbed in and said yes to the man and his offer
(And the rest, as they say, bla bla bla bla..... is history.)

He took me to California
To New York and to Paris
His tanned greedy hands in my hair and my heart
Promising me paradise and giving me hell
I sang, I danced, I posed for the magazines
I laughed on cue and I cried on cue
I lived on cue and I died on cue
He cut and dyed my hair to gold
And he changed my name to Candy.

The audiences seemed to love me though
They gave me awards and legions of fans
Followed me everywhere that I went and was sent
Flashbulbs a-popping like the 4th of July
Blinding my eyes, even behind the dark shades
I blew them fake kisses and signed 8x10 glossies
Made myself thousands and my manager, millions
And traveled the world in a black limousine.

Champagne flowed and glasses clinked
Surrounded by roses and the smell of new money,
I was The Girl, the golden girl of the hour
With a string of new romances and none of them real
They made me all over until there was none of me left
My biography faked, my hometown now, changed
My name, my hair and even my face
And for ten long years when I looked in the mirror
I was always shocked at the face that looked back..

Every dog has its day, they say
And I guess I had mine
Or at least they told me I had it
It all went by in so much of a blur.........
Famous friends and Latin lovers,
Duets and dances with the cream of the crop
Laughing on the outside
Crying on the inside
Running to and away from
All at the same time.

My driver drives for hours
He never knows where we’ll end up
A seedy dive, or a Malibu beach
A cemetery full of matinee idols............
Or sitting and crying on an ex lover’s lawn
He never knows but he doesn’t care
He’s paid by the hour and he earns every cent.

Sometimes I have company
As we go on those drives.............
A famous politician, a mafioso don
A gigolo, a hanger on, a Wanna-Be new star
That fell down from the sky like I did
Into the hard hands of fate
I offer them no sage advice, I usually only listen
For that is what I’m good at..........
I have no opinions for I have learned
It’s wise to have no thoughts of your own
When someone is pulling your strings.

I like to drive through little backwater towns
Like the one I am from
Like the one I never went back to
After my kidnapping and meteoric rise
Plundered of innocence and curious dreams
I like to drive down Main Streets at noon 
And watch the residents stop and gawk
Wondering who's there behind the dark windows
Wondering what it’s like to be rich and famous
And important and glamorous with the world on her plate.

But mostly now, we drive by night
And past the night into dark mornings
I like to ride in rain and listen to the way
The tires sound on the shiny, wet streets
I like to put down the dark tinted windows
And let the wind blow back my regrown black hair
Sometimes I play the radio or listen to my old songs
But mostly, I ride in silence and wish I was loved
Occasionally flashing my movie star smile
At the startled faces of fans.

But here's an opinion that I'll always have
     and one that I want YOU to hear..............

Sometimes it’s good not to be too curious
Sometimes, you should look away and then let it go
Don’t wonder, don’t wish, don’t stop and don't stare
Let the motorcades pass on their way through your lives
And don’t envy the glory 
Of the pedestals of men...............................
We were born only humans, 
Not meant to be stars
Those cold, distant things birthed in dark, icy space
Shiny and lonely, blazing up to burn out 
Flashing brilliant like flashbulbs
In the faces of men
Sitting, waiting, in the back seats of black limousines.

©by Voo Shining Stone
Sept 11, 2010
5:34 p.m.

 Soul Suckers by Amos Lee

so apropos of this tale

REVELATION

Revelation


Standing there at the corner of 3rd and Main today, I had a revelation
It burst upon my shattered mind and war torn soul like the sun coming up
Over the Rocky Mountains
Or the tides of the Atlantic Ocean hitting New England in October
A revelation............
Standing there gazing up at the azure blue sky and the flashing DON'T WALK sign
Hypnotizing me into zombie somnambulism, I began to walk into oncoming traffic
As a dozen cars and their impatient drivers honked and screamed 
"You idiot! Watch where you're going!" Honk. Honk. Scream. Scream. 
I waited for the crash that never came
And found myself on the other side of the crossing safe and sound 
But lost in the relevance of the revelation
A blind man with a white cane rounded the corner and whistled 
And motioned for an invisible seeing eye dog that never came either 
And I had a sudden ache in my heart for him because I realized 
That he had forgotten that his dog was no longer there.

A flower vendor selling tulips and star gazer lilies caught my eye 
And I walked over and bought a Stargazer on impulse 
And thrust it into the startled blind man's hands, saying "I know you can't see this 
But it's beautiful and I want you to have it." 
Then hustled away when I saw a tear begin to fall down that leathery face 
From behind his dark glasses. "It's a Stargazer, right?" he called to my back
And clutched the flower to his lean chest as I hurried away, 
Softened by unexpected emotion.

The revelation kept rising up in me like a well too full of water and at the same time
Gave me visions of an old hotel wired for implosion and imminent devastation
Boom! Boom! Rumbling like a subway car in the belly of New York 
Boom! Va-Room! in the dark or a silver jet streaking across the midnight sky.
Instead of going to my dead end job, I found myself entering the downtown city park
To find the worn bench where I used to sit and feed the pigeons
And listen to erstwhile musicians and small time hustlers running their mind games
Looking for instant fame and fortune in someone else's pockets
Where I had lain in the grass sometimes, arms folded behind my head, 
Watching for animal shapes in the clouds and dreaming of yesterdays
And tomorrow mornings
Dreaming of revelations that never came and that I had long since given up 
On ever getting. Always questioning and never getting answers. 
Never getting answered. Never getting noticed by man nor God. 
But ever always questioning.

My bench was occupied by a little old man and woman dispensing day old bread
To greedy birds and shooing away devious squirrels who looked more intelligent 
Than most of the park's noon time visitors
I was momentarily disappointed and turned to walk away, perhaps to discover 
An undiscovered bench somewhere and stake my claim on it, knowing that it
Could never really feel like my old bench, like mine.............
"Excuse me!" the lady called out to me as I hunched my shoulders and began 
To hike down the trail edged with carefully planted daffodils 
And the odd purple unidentified flower. "This is your bench." she said as I looked back
Over my shoulder in restrained wonder. "Isn't it? We were saving it for you." 
"Saving it for me?" I asked, repeating the phrase like the human parrot that I was 
"Why would you save it for me?" Kind of disdainful like......

Walking back towards the bench and the beaming old couple sitting there
Surrounded by pigeons and squirrels, I put my hands in my pants pockets 
And stood there staring at people I'd never seen before in my life but people
Who felt oddly familiar. "Do I know you?" I finally asked and met the woman's gaze 
With a defiant but weakening glare. "No, but we know you, dear." 
She said sweetly, then, "You've had a revelation today, haven't you?"
"M-me?" I stuttered and threw my head back to get the hair out of my eyes
 "How did you know about that?"

"Oh, we know." she said and briefly touched the arm of her elderly companion 
And they smiled at one another in a way I've never seen two people smile. 
"We've been sent to bring you your answers." "My answers?" I almost shouted
And felt a thrill go through me like a kid on Christmas morning
Opening up the box of his dreams. "For real?" I whispered 
And began to tremble and melt and rise up and fall down 
And soar and expand and die and be born again in an instant 
That seemed to go on forever
I became and decreased, gathered strength and released 
All at the same time, flashing through time backwards and forwards, falling and flying 
Dead as a stump but more alive than I have ever felt in my whole life!
And then, before my jaded eyes, I saw the little old couple begin to glow 
With an otherworldly countenance.

Seeing but not believing but believing anyway, I reached out to touch them 
But couldn't seem to make contact with any earthly flesh
"Soon." they said to me in unison and bestowed upon me the most magical 
And marvelous of promises emanating from eyes 
That could have only come from Heaven. "Soon." they said 
And vanished from the bench, seemingly unnoticed 
By the hundreds of other unlucky ones who could not see 
"Wow!" I said and collapsed upon the bench 
Reveling in the strange power that flowed from it's rough planks
Into every fiber of my being. Love like I have never known it before 
Rippled through me, up me, down me and all around me, cascading like fireworks 
And dissolving me into helpless tears. Washing me like a hot bath 
And like fire on a potter's plate. Refining fire and water. "Wow." I repeated

And sat back, unable to move my arms and legs and not really caring 
If I ever moved again. The world around me disappeared
With all it's noise and confusion, cynicism and scorn
Taking it's cold evil tentacles out of my heart and out of my mind
Where they had always been. I felt the world release me. I felt free. I felt loved. 
My earlier revelation had been a veil falling down from my eyes. 
Blind eyes opened at last, seeing Truth and knowing I was different 
Now knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was real 
He had sent His angels
                      My answers had come................

©Voo

December 24, 2004 

12:30-2 a.m.

copyrighted