And the steam outside looked like an escalator.
It caught my eye while I was sitting here
thinking about writing this poem.
I found a pick (a guitar pick),
a four of spades, and a Swedish Fish
under the chair coushions.
I can’t remember how to spell cooshians.
I was looking for money because
I thought that mabe some rich guy
dropped a hundred and all I needed to
do was check.
I couldn’t leave it unchecked.
I think that this pick must be some kind of omen
because only a few minutes before I found it
I was wishing I had brought my guitar on tour with me.
This will be the pick I play with
when I get home tomorrow.
It has character; it will make me play better.
I actually on some deep-down superstitious level
believe this pick will make a difference.
Poor soul who lost that four-of-spades.
I wonder how long it takes for someone who
lost a card to realize it’s gone, on average.
Depends on the game I guess.
But I was thinking about how I
wanted to write how I feel like I
am on the verge of being a really good dancer.
I wonder if this is a reaction to the newspapers.

Then I start to think that this is just another
one of those stream of consciousness poems.
The ones where people who think they have ADD
write down whatever comes to their head
because they think that they are geniuses and everybody
wants to know what goes on in a genius’ head.
And it pretty much is one of those poems
and I’m a little embarrassed, except for the order.
Order like a letter in a word in a sentence
in a paragraph in an article.
Order like a pile of old newspapers that goes back in time.
Two weeks, maybe longer. A month, with Sunday
usually out of order and picked through.
Pages, sections missing, used for new puppies
or gift wrap or set aside to be a reminder
of a writer you forgot you want to buy.

And now I can’t see the steam anymore
that looked like an escalator
because it never really was an escalator:
it was steam.
But this lost Swedish Fish is real.
But I won’t archive it, I won’t keep it.
I’ll leave it under the
cooshians, cushions, cushans,
pass it on.
Besides, real things don’t have much of a shelf life.

Here’s a version of “Summer Rain” with harmony and a little reverb added to the verse, the “Ooohs,” and didgeridoo vocals, and reverb and “amp simulation” effect to the verse harmony. Which one do you like better? The original has no effects… other than cupping my hands for the “Ooohs”:

Summer Rain (with harmony and FX)

***************************

Here’s a song I made tonight playing around with GarageBand. It was a poem I wrote last year when I was teaching kids how to write poetry (our theme was “water”) and how to use it to make a dance, but I never used it (I madeand used a less weird one) because I knew they would have probably thought it was dumb. I didn’t think it was dumb. It did just kinda sat in my notebook, though, for the last year unfinished as a sort of snapshot of what I thought it might have been like for my mom (in particular) and dad to find out they were having me, their first child together. I hope you enjoy it and are not wierded out. It sounds best with headphones.

Summer Rain
When my mother’s water
broke before I was born
they knew I’d be a healthy child.
It drained like summer rain
through a clogged house gutter;
warm as a sitting summer pool.
I was to be the first
son for parents hoping,
the firstborn of infant lovers.

***********************

I’ve recorded a few songs and made a few mixes using my new used iMac and GarageBand (The songs are not exactly Glam; I felt I wanted some kind of alliteration and it is late and I don’t care. Besides, I could be meaning that recording and posting my own songs is itself glamorous and, while, at the same time alluding to my days of cross-dressing and Michael Jackson impersonations!). Anyway, I’m really enjoying it! Here are some samples:

Home Now
– A song I wrote a few years ago. A the first song I wrote. This is a rough recording as I just thought, “Hey! Let’s test out this GaraeBand thang!” and I just used the built-in mic (you can hear the buzzing and certain notes vibrate the desk top or something). It sound pretty good considering.

Brunomix1
– This is my first mix I made using GarageBand. The organ sounding thing is actual a guitar that I played with because I didn’t like their organ options. The ending seems random, well… it is. I was more or less tesing the equiptment.

The beginning.

I feel God hovering over me
like I took Catholic communion;
I feel like a bearded man.
I dialed the number and invited myself.
And now, rolling under the clouds like a sunset
I don’t need to look to know
twilight on my tail.
Which way is up, which way is earth?
But there is a table and there is a man
passing salmon into my hands.
Take the cheek, he says, it’s the sweeter part.

I go
back to the drill.
I leap
off of the roof.
I spin
like a turbine vent powered by the wind.

And the Easter salmon is still on my fingers;
And my name is still in the books.