I was in a slick city
I was slick
I was where it’s at
I was it
I did the right things
I said the right words
I was biting, sarcastic, cynical
I thought the right thoughts
I was an atheist
Body and Soul
26 Apr 2018 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: hair, joy, poetry, reasoning, skin, wisdom
There’s a lot of talk about
Skin, hair, fingernails, clothes
A lot of talk, business, money
Skin, hair, fingernails, clothes
Then there’s mind and soul
Feelings, lusts, affections, joy
Thoughts, truths, reasoning, wisdom
Not much talk about this
Life Is
24 Apr 2018 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: bitterness, complacent, contentment, Harvard, life, music, poetry, rich
“You’re going to have a hard life,”
My boss told me, in my 20’s
I’ve had dreams crushed, my heart broken
But who hasn’t
I’ve lived impoverished a long time
I didn’t feel it as a Harvard student
When I got my Ph.D.
I was worse than impoverished, deeply in debt
And I felt it
I’ll likely never get out of debt
I wrote and published a book
When I was poor
I lowered myself to begging a few times
Was relegated to the back seat of a lot of cars others owned
All the while I played and wrote music, poetry, lyrics
Some people live a comfortable life
To them, a good life
But shit happens, even to them
Some people are rich and complacent
Some people are very rich and dedicated to acquisition
I have known a few years of comfortable middle-class
And bought expensive art prints
A piano, an amp, guitar
A couple crystalline rocks
I travel places with my partner
My life has been hard at times
And I have known accomplishment, and contentment, and bitterness
I have no regrets
A Ruffle, a Whim, a Whine
22 Apr 2018 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: poetry, relationships, sacrament, self-fulfillment, separation
Mine is a generation of relations
That don’t stay
Separation, reunion, broken connections
Together today
Tomorrow away
A ruffle, a whim, a whine
Is enough to sunder sacred institutions
For better, for worse
In good times, in bad
These used to be lasting words
And couples stayed, sad or glad
Relationships weren’t just a fad
A ruffle, a whim, a whine
Didn’t amount to a curse
We’re too concerned with self-fulfillment
Too accustomed to our own way
Too comfortable independant
Unwilling to give others their say
In a world without sacrament
A ruffle, a whim, a whine
The basis on which our hearts are lent
Time
21 Apr 2018 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: poetry, time
I remember a time
When most of the world was older than me
It seemed much of what I did
I was inexperienced in, it was all new to me
Now much of the world is younger than me
I know what I’m doing, and I’ve seen it all
To Play Like Darryl
24 Aug 2017 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: keyboard, music, poetry, scales
“It’s fun,” Darryl said.
He was playing pentatonic scales in every key.
Up and down the keyboard.
That’s what it takes to be able to play like Darryl.
Playing pentatonic scales in every key.
And it’s fun.
Home Is a Mental Construct
03 Jun 2017 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: home, memory, mental construct, poetry
The band cost me a tear
They were from home
Brought up a memory of home
I have no home
Only a memory
A memory of friends
Former friends
Home is a memory
A mental construct
I went back
Encountered a memory
But was only a visitor
An emotional tourist
The faces I used to know
Who knew me
Knew me no more
My memory encountered strangers
Startling, sad strangers
Home is a memory
A mental construct
And yet
I wasn’t happy at home
Day after day stretched out my misery
Stagnation and stupefaction and boredom
And friends,–the faces
Faces I encountered again and again and again
And that counts for something
That counts
This all I forget
When I miss my home
Home is a filtered memory
A mental construct
Perpetual Spring
26 May 2017 Leave a comment
in Uncategorized Tags: aging, blues, Jazz, Jesus, love, Moses, Mozart, peace, poetry, seasons, symphony, Zoroaster
As I age, the world ages with me
As it always has
Things I treasure go out of style
Live music, blues, jazz, the symphony
Peace and love
Mozart went out of style
And nobody knows where he is buried
Who performed for princes, kings, queens
High art, technique, form fail
Churches dwindle, consolidate, close
Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus shrugged off
They follow Zeus, Apollo, Heracles
There is no perpetual spring
There follows summer, autumn, winter, and spring again
As I autumn, I can’t see spring again
No, I don’t see spring
I will be leaving this world
And I look toward another
And as my world dies, perhaps it is well that I also with it
I think less of my legacy than I do my potential
In my autumn I see perpetual springtime
The Footfall
22 May 2017 1 Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: brokenness, elation, electron, galaxy, humble, planet, poetry, pride
I have lost and been broken
In brokenness, I am humble
I have won and been elated
In elation, I know pride
Knowing extremes, I walk a measured pace
In full awareness that pride posits humility
A bowed tree will never right
The sky will never ground
I walk a middle way
Clouds are more or less fog
In brokenness I see pride
In elation, humility
And neither really matters in the long run
The page my pen darkens
How my face meets the face of the other
The soul of a heart that touches
The footfall placed in front of another
The planet’s ambulant circuity
The galaxy’s aeonic spiral
The electron’s quantum shell
Measure time and times and half a time
All I really know is the footfall placed in front of another
David Fekete 