Poetry Ex Nihilo

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Falling in Love Again and Death Defied by Will

Falling in Love Again

I'm so tired
Of falling in love
Finding it easier to fall out
Can't deny it
I feel it inside Cupid's fire
I can't hide

CHORUS:
I'm falling in love again
Ain't nothing I can do
Falling in love again
Girl this time it's with you
When I fall
It's always the same
And I'm so tired
Of playing this game

It's been so long now
Since I gave up my heart
I've kept it locked down
I don't wanna get it harmed
So let me tell you now
I just want to be sure
That you won't hurt me
Can you promise me that

CHORUS

You got to tell me
If you're going to break my heart
'Cos I don't wanna take the chance
And if it ain't true
All it's gonna be
Is nothing but a poor romance
So give me that promise to hold on
And I'll never let you go
We gotta have something to go on
I'm letting you know now

CHORUS

Falling in love again (REPEAT)

Death Defied by Will

He only thought he was going for the thrill of a ride
Wasn't in the plan to be gone for long
But he keeps looking back over his shoulder
He knows that something might go wrong
The ride it ain't smooth that is for sure
Strange mood what is the cure
He's got that feeling of impending doom
Like being trapped in a casket inside a tomb

CHORUS:
Death defied by will
Like a drug that doesn't kill
Boy you gotta learn what's true
Death defied by will
Like a drug that doesn't kill
The joke is on you
You ought to know better
You ought to know better

He is determined to outsmart this snake
With conviction he will stand his ground
Feeling invincible like death itself
But his immortality won't be found
What should he say at his own wake
That he refuses to fulfill his fate
He doesn't know that this is his last drive
On the road we call alive

CHORUS

Now the time has come
You can't play around
And you ought to know
You ought to know better
You ought to know better

CHORUS

Amos Lee: Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight

Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight
Amos Lee

well I walked over the bridge
into the city where I live
and I saw my old landlord
well, we both said hello there was nowhere else to go
cause his rent I couldn’t afford
well relationships change though I think its kind of strange
how money makes a man grow
some people they claim if you get enough fame
you live over the rainbow
over the rainbow
but the people on the street out on buses or on feet
we all got the same blood flow
oh, in society every dollar got a deed
we all need a place where we can go
and feel over the rainbow
and sometimes we forget what we got
who we are,
and who we are not
I think we got a chance to make it right
keep it loose
keep it tight
keep it tight
I’m in love with a girl who’s in love with the world
and I can’t help but follow
though I know someday she is bound to go away
and stay over the rainbow
gotta learn how to let her go
over the rainbow
sometimes we forget who we got
who they are
and who they are not
there is so much more in love than black and white
keep it loose child
gotta keep it tight
keep it loose child
keep it tight
keep it tight

Midnight

Why does truth wait until midnight,
Until the last drop of ink,
Until the last flicker of awareness?
Why does it wait until it can’t be remembered
To shimmer in a tired eye
And fade slowly
Like a sunset
Into that imagined world
Where the fictitious
Is more real
Than reality
And happily combines with the honest
To form a lie?

Perhaps that’s why it’s truth—
Too good to proceed from lips that deceive
Or to rest permanently with the impure,
But dying to shine just long enough
To save us from the hopelessness of everyday,
And to provide a journey for active minds to pursue.
Or perhaps it’s just too kind
To make us see ourselves in its light,
Rough and unpolished in more ways than we think
But happy enough in our density
To see only slivers of our imperfections,
Instead of the truth
About what we’ll always be.

-John

55 Through New Mexico

55 through New Mexico
her eyelids flicker at the passing day.
Yellow lines running together,
sister quietly napping
face nestled restlessly in the crook between seat and window
leaving faint streaks of oil on the glass.
Driving
her eyes grow accustomed to the pleasantries
of devils twirling in the sand
and age-old mesas standing stark against the backdrop
of a fading copper sky,
a sunset the color of silence
rimmed by clouds
reflecting violent light as something more serene.
A comforting quilt settling softly on a body in need of history and rest.
On the horizon lies a desert with no end,
and as night arrives to obscure all but the glowing vapor of twilight,
her memory grows shorter
by the mile.

John Coleman
Ramifications, Fall 2002

Constantino's Translations

My friend Constantino has translated some Jaime Sabines. Here is the first entry, hopefully with more to come. He hints that there may be some Neruda in the future.

Manhattan

Everyone should fly over Manhattan in a plane
To see the enormity of the city rise abruptly
And forcefully from the flat, brown landscape,
The jagged edges of the buildings shining, standing
Tall as a symbol of progress--one of the greatest accomplishments
Of mankind.

Everyone should see the buildings from above,
How they look like toothpicks stuck in the sand
Of the vast Manhattan Island, the rivers running
Endlessly beyond into the sea that gently touches,
On the horizon, the great blue oceans that cover
The enormity of the whole Earth, just one of
Many planets on the outer fringe of a
Galaxy among galaxies.

Everyone should see -- needs to see --
The juxtaposition of Manhattan skyscrapers
With even the tiniest corner
Of the rest of our immense world--
One a creation,
The other a creation
Of a creation.

Matt Grady

Tanner Poetry

David Tanner has begun to dabble in poetics.

Kiss

Warm breath
tension
times stops
thought disappears into night
your heart catches

(Words could never describe it
they can only remind us)

of heat
and light-headedness
of stillness
and love
and that heavenly brush
when imagination
becomes reality.

John Coleman

The First Dream

The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight
and as I lean against the door of sleep
I begin to think about the first person to dream,
how quiet he must have seemed the next morning

as the others stood around the fire
draped in the skins of animals
talking to each other only in vowels,
for this was long before the invention of consonants.

He might have gone off by himself to sit
on a rock and look into the mist of a lake
as he tried to tell himself what had happened,
how he had gone somewhere without going,

how he had put his arms around the neck
of a beast that the others could touch
only after they had killed it with stones,
how he felt its breath on his bare neck.

Billy Collins

Hear the rest here.

In Your Hands

I didn't know I would love you when I looked into your eyes
But now I have a heart I cannot keep
And the greatest of fear is that you'll leave me here
Stranded in this water so deep

So don't you turn away from me
Because my heart and my hopes, they're in your hands
If I don't seem certain
It's just a common fear from a common man
But I am in your hands

Just so you know, I have never done this sort of thing before
I've never given up my very soul
But I have heard a voice like none I've heard before
And it's a voice that never grows old

Don't you turn away from me
Because my heart and my hopes, they're in your hands
And if I don't seem certain
It's just a common fear from a common man
But I am in your hands
I am in your hands
I know*I am in your hands

Bebo Norman, Ten Thousand Days

Special thanks to my friend Autumn from Cedarville University for reminding me how great a musician Bebo is. I met him several times in my hometown (Columbus, GA) and he is also a great guy.