Tag Archives: Blue Öyster Cult

SISSIP a Poem

Posted on May 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

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SISSIP

katapeuk papasow
nehapi metoci shacahocan
sissip apiw numeskotut
aminekarak nummabukkamut

This poem is in Virginia Algonquian a.k.a. Powhatan.  Here it is in English:

BIRD

Spring, it is sunrise
I sit like a stone
A bird sits on my leg
Seeds in my head

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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GIVE TO ME a Poem

Posted on April 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

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I’ve found that you’ve given me
Give to me, give to me
Much more than I meant to give
Give to me, give to me
You came from the killing tree
And I from the bull and bee
But I gave and you gave to me
I called and you came to me
Hear my plea, hear my plea

If I lost what you gave to me
Give to me, give to me
Four locks and trilling three
Hear my plea, hear my plea
I’d hunt for the world to see
I’d run to the rocks and sea
I’d dig for the golden key
I’d wait in the broken lee
Hear my plea, hear my plea

One source and it’s you for me
One thing and it’s meant to be
One step and it’s meant to be
Give to me, hear my plea

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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RILEY’S RECEIPT a Poem

Posted on November 30, 2020 | Leave a comment

From the bolt she measured and paid
Four yards of rope, a triangle squared and laid
A cream-colored coil, a circle wound
She knew the yarn but not the story
The line was cincture bound

Clerical top and layman’s bottom
The fancy top is my pronotum
To hold me tight, arcanely tied
Binds up ego, holds in lies

Into my hand she pressed rope, receipt
I took them both with self-deceit
Rushing off to communion adventure
Unaware of my indenture

Somewhat stilted, self-aware
Involuting, standing there
Trying to be and love and fly
The more I limp the more I try

Meal is over, dalmatic gone
Alb laid by, cincture withdrawn,
The receipt beckons like a prayer
The note she wrote lays be bare

Grand loves yes, but small ones too
Seed the fields and spirit breathe
Small kindnesses, simple things allow
The pupil of the greater eye to see
The true I within the I

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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ISHTAR OF THE GATE a Poem

Posted on September 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

Ishtar of the Gate

I am Ishtar of the Gate
Venus, morning and evening star
Queen of Heaven on my way to the East
Shedding seven garments I descend into Hell
Ascending I put them on again
and rise to my throne

I am Mary, mother of God
My star rises over Bethlehem in the East
Suffering Seven Sorrows I descend into Hell
Elevated by Seven Joys I ascend to my coronation
Queen of Heaven, in wisdom I reared the son
With my breast I sustained him

Eternal opener of the ways am I
No man cometh to the Father except by the Son
Neither to the Son except by the Mother
Follow me to the King of Kings

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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Posted in Martial arts

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SACRÉ CŒUR DIABOLIQUE a Poem

Posted on August 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

sacré Cœur diabolique

The power of my art is such
That I chain the world or set it free
Make me Queen or let me be
Anoint me Queen or from me flee
To make my art I must speak free
Whatever my inner heart doth see
I give it voice the choice is mine
To be whatever I must be

 

 

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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Posted in Martial arts

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THIRST a Poem

Posted on July 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

Thirst

To be hard is just too easy
and too forceful’s my jam
so I retire to a garden of roses
slow down my wicked left hand
breathe out and breathe in
make time for the art of giving in

Hesychast by fire light
the candles and the joss
staring at the jointed icons
burning off the dross
baptismal fluid drowns
thirsty desert air
heat waves rise and bake
dense as rock I forget
the fluid that will slake

Roses wilt, sere are petals
fall, fall, fall
forgotten memories return
of my first initiation
of the following repast
and I recall the missing element

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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Posted in Writing

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My Top 10 Most Influential Albums

Posted on May 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

My daughter’s fiance Jack is a cool kid, as well as a very talented musician and singer.  So when he challenged me to blog my Top 10 most influential albums, I had to answer the call.   

Some records have influenced the world, and some of influenced me as an individual.  The latter is what this post is about — the ten most personally influential albums.  So, without further ado, not ranked by rating but rather in the order in which I heard them, are My Top 10 Most Influential Albums…

  1. Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin IV (1971).  It was summertime, probably 1974, and the next-door neighbor was working on his ’65 Galaxie 500 with the radio on.  I was taking out the trash when Black Dog came on.  It was the first hard rock song I ever heard and the cat was out of the bag forever.  Eventually I got the album and listened to it about a million times.
  2. The Beatles — Abbey Road (1969).  I was sitting on the floor with my two uncles, Jim and Tom, listening to the Beatles for the first time, and I knew my head would never be the same.  By the end of the day I had heard several hours of their stuff.  It was too much for one brain to hold.
  3. Jerry Lee Lewis — The Session (1973).  Dad liked country and Mom liked a little bit of everything — but her favorite artist was Jerry Lee.  This record changed me.  Jerry Lee infuses tunes of every genre with his unique redneck flair.  Guests include include Albert Lee, Alvin Lee, Mick Jones, and Peter Frampton.
  4. Blue Öyster Cult — Some Enchanted Evening (1978).  The Öyster Boys are my favorite band, and this was the record that opened Pandora’s box.  Listen with caution lest you get pulled into the orbit of this Saturnian ensemble — sucked into a swirling kaleidoscope of biker rock, occult musings, and stun guitar.  On the other hand, maybe you shouldn’t fear the reaper after all…
  5. Cashmere Jungle Lords — Oodjie-Boodjie Night-Night (1987).  How do describe the Lords?  Southern Fried Surfabilly?  Western Surf Jungle Rock?  Neo-primitive Twang-a-Dang?  I don’t know, but it’s great fun.  This record didn’t come out until ’87 but I was hearing the songs in the early 80s because the lead singer, Dominic Carpin, was a college roommate of mine, and he taught me a lot about music — about how hard and painful it is to make, and what’s good, and what’s bad.  They’re still going strong.  Go see e’m.  Tell Dominic, Mitch sent you.  And yes, like the Beatles, their name is misspelled on purpose.
  6. The Police — Synchronicity (1983).  I was basically still a kid, but I was married with a kid when this record hit the radio and sliced it in half like a batarang.   I was trying to figure out what what being an adult meant and how to do it.  This record is forever tangled up in my tangled-up 80’s head and it’ll never come out.
  7. Ratt — Out of the Cellar (1984).  Go ahead, be a hater.  I don’t care what you say, Ratt is the best of the 80s hair metal bands, and this record bangs from cut to cut.  There’s a reason why they got a Geico commercial.  Kiss, eat your heart out.
  8. Kyuss — Blues for the Red Sun (1992).  This was part of the rotation when I got my 5 hour chest tattoo done by a wall-eyed Pall Mall smoking maniac with an IQ of 160 named Maxx.  These songs are slow even when fast, are brutal even when soft.  I know that makes no sense.  You just have to listen to it.  And by the way, Josh Homme should’ve kept doing this instead of moving on to Queens of the Stone Age (there, I said it).
  9. The Sword — Age of Winters (2006).  Another record from the Maxx rotation.  Long before GOT became an HBO phenomenon, these heavy metal rock geeks gave GRRM a nod with this album title.  In an alternate reality time warp, Age of Winters was a groundbreaking 1974 album that went platinum.  Somehow it manages to sound old and new at the same time.  Best played on 11 while driving to work like I did for about a year after I bought it.
  10. Steve Earle – I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (2011).  I was really disappointed when I heard that Steve was going to put out a book and record combo.  I thought he was selling out, that it was some kind of creepy media deal.  But I bought them both anyway, and soon realized that Steve Earle is one of the most talented people in the history of the planet.  The book I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive is one of the best novels I have ever read — pure hayseed Dostoevsky — and the record is devastating.  Yes, Steve Earle is that good.

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RUINS a Poem

Posted on March 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

RUINS

I was there once, a secret place known to few
Where sound was muffled by vines
The dew ever-settling, glistening in perpetual twilight ~
It might have been evening when I knelt
In the half light of that temple
A place more ancient than philosophy
Older than Babel

I say, I proclaim
(as if to prove)
Seek attention as evidence of existence
(it can’t be proved)
Repeating myself, making pointless noise
(there is no proof)
I am like a tourist in a foreign land
who speaks louder to be understood
Talking loudly to myself but I don’t understand
that even speaking rarely is far too often
(If invisible I’d be free)
There is a way back
(a mile beneath the tomb of Ozymandias)
But the road requires sacrifice
Each step a drop of blood apace
Until, foot upon the jamb of the primordial palace,
drained and coronated
I slip the crown and take the nameless throne.

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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THUMBS a Poem

Posted on February 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

THUMBS

Happy as long as we’re manic
That’s probably what it is anyway
But who knows — drawn forward
Sucked into the emptiness of the future
Running from the failures of the past
Trying to remake the now
But time is an illusion, and
Whatever we are or ever will be
Is only what we are at this very moment
Quicksand mind clicking, unable
To take a bite of the silence
Even though the wafer is right there waiting
Waiting for us to open wide
And accept its sacrament
Tongues, instead of lying calm and flat, expectant,
Wag and slice, carve up life into shards of time
Thumbs typing messages
Instead of hooked in pants pockets

 

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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CRESTS AND WAVES a Poem

Posted on February 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

CRESTS AND WAVES

Crests and waves — cycles, gyres and tides
I think I control — pushing and pulling and
I suspect it’s brain chemistry more than anything else
But if it isn’t then I’m just a jellyfish

Pulsing and floating — moon, wind and stars
I think I can’t control — drifting and moving and
I expect I’m part of them more than anything else
But if that’s true I’m just a puzzle piece

Doing and working — projects, books, and art
I think and create — pushing and pulling and
I suspect my problem is, more than anything else,
I can’t stop doing and merely be

“Hey Mitch, what’s this poetry thing all about?” I want to collaborate with Blue Öyster Cult and I’m hoping the Öyster Boys will think this would make a good lyric.

Did you know I wrote a paranormal/mystery/romance book inspired by Blue Öyster Cult’s lyrical themes?  Click here to download it here for free!

The cover to my book “Chatters on the Tide” inspired by the music of Blue Öyster Cult

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