Best Sections Poems
To this scene we have gathered on September’s eve
Under darkening sky, where a storm may conceive
Not a sight better is that face I’ve hardly known
So frail and aged in years past he had grown
A tragedy that one with his talents immense
Must be interred so young, still with look of innocence
Too long had my brother decayed under the weight
Of a burden, I’m afraid, that had become too great
And of that blessed curse that I speak
She stands now in the background waiting for her peek
At the man who loved her more than life itself
From the moment they met, he would heed no help
For his eyes had spotted Atlantis it would seem
That girl was no less than a living, breathing dream
And so it was fated by the powers above
The late Ryan Adams be doomed by his love
Young and wild, his heart would stay no cage
At 18, good Ryan as wise as any mage
With the world before him and regrets left behind
The hermited scholar thought the world quite unkind
Joyous was he of his departure from home
To leave for greener pastures where he was free to roam
An artist he was in his heart and his soul
If not to this end, he would never be whole
Paintings so quaint did he stroke by the night
Quietly laboring by the buzzing street light
Mountains snowcapped and rivers of glass
Any nature’s fancy to pay the time to pass
Restless in heart and sleepless in mind
The troubadour knew not what he wished to find
But longing did fester in his young fevered head
And his heart ever ached, beating love as blood red
A man needs a woman, so the heavens made it so
Cloudseated phantoms casting spells down below
Enchanting a fool so to drive him insane
For the purpose of loving another in vain
To squeeze every drop of passion from his being
And blindfold the eyes he could once use for seeing
A hopeless romantic is born in such a way
And so poor Ryan Adams did become that day
The night air was cool and the liquor ran free
Rivers to the gates of hell or a wine dark sea
For the bottle does make demons of us all
If freedom from troubles is a price fairly tall
And Ryan did imbibe twice his weight on occasion
No other could compare to a man of his station
No less than three times in a week did he stumble
Into stupors of hazy, chaotic jumble
She left him there ruined, to drink and to brood
For three years thereafter he held the same mood
Trapped was the artist in a cubicle office space
Torture for his feverish mind and heart now laid to waste
Alcohol was life though he would never call it so
But the bonds were too strong he still could not let her go
Sorrow turned to anger, then to bitterness and hurt
Many nights did he wind up crying face down in the dirt
It was not long before his lifestyle took its toll
And his vices had threatened to swallow him whole
His liver long battered his kidneys near their end
The doctor admitted he had but a year of life to spend
Broken down and scared, the penniless loser fled
Away from all his comforts for the country instead
“There”, he had argued, “no one will have to see
All the pain and all the suffering of the ugly end of me”
Not far from the city Lyla Dawson did dwell
With a successful career and a fiancée Johnny Bell
They lived in the suburbs in a colonial on a hill
With a view of the lake for which most would kill
Yet her thoughts often turned on her old college friend
Of his current whereabouts and the time they’d spend
Talking endlessly in the library and watching the rains of the spring
And how she could always rely on him for everything
These thoughts crossed her mind on a hot summer day
When the heavens tore open and turned the clouds black and gray
A storm front lashed out savagely upon the world below
A driver was fishtailing, but Lyla Dawson didn’t know
With a sickening crunch the cars collided hard
The accident was gruesome, with the driver barely scarred
But Lyla and her boyfriend were less fortunate than he
Johnny was in a coma, Lyla bleeding heavily
As they were rushed to the hospital and I received the news
I decided to call Ryan Adams, who was swimming in his booze
The call disturbed him greatly and he said he would come soon
Yet I saw no sign of the man that entire afternoon
The story goes, a neighbor said, sickly Ryan dusted off his paints
To muster one more masterpiece of his lover with the saints
At last they were together, in that lovely afterlife
Having waited for eternity to finally make her his wife
But the lover he knew this would not be enough
In such games as romance the going will get rough
And his youth had not abandoned him yet
Such failures monumental he would not so soon forget
And all had been less than this goddess on earth
No other had touched his heart so since birth
So amidst the glorious dreams of love in spring
The icy chill of doubt began to take its wing
The mirror told truths he’d never liked to hear
When faced with himself he’d rather disappear
Than bear witness to what he saw as a goon
A common ugly brute, spawned from a cartoon
With his disproportioned limbs and pessimistic hunch
Never had Ryan stood out from the bunch
His muscles had weakened from ailments past
And his metabolism sadly had deserted him too fast
His green eyes burned fiercely for his love had not gone
And sleep seldom reached him until long after dawn
Ruminating at length on the woman he desired
Wrecked his body and wracked his mind so tired
Could she ever love one as common as I?
He asked many times neath the midnight blue sky
His answer proved negative on most mornings young
And the tears had scarcely left him when the first sparrow sung
At last, the abused and depressed young pup
Decided he would go out on the town and drink up
Pounding beers with no regard for the consequences thus
Leaving him to stagger, cry, and flirt and cuss
And as sudden as the sun blooming on the skyline
The lovely Lyla was there, alone and looking quite fine
In an instant all sorrow was cleansed from his mind
And convinced him once more no greater love would he find
On that evening with conscious sobered by passion
My old friend took to speaking in a serious fashion
Only I was there to listen to his marvelous speech
Of the intensity he possessed, I know I cannot teach
With a storm gently rolling on a westward winter wind
The dark haired young man, chilled and quite pale skinned
Turned to me slowly with the look in his eye
That told I would recall this moment till I die
“Tonight,” he began, “I have chosen to wait
For this woman I love until some later date
And I shall stay to this, if months or years may pass
If that is the price of being worthy of the lass
If I must stand by and watch others lay
By her drunken side, while I have no say
And hundreds will flirt and many win a kiss
So I will remain in a life without bliss
"If the drinks rob her balance from her beautiful feet
there my arms will be outstretched for her to meet
And each season we spend apart from the other
I will think of her always and never another
No matter how I long to see her once more
And talk to her for hours on the second floor
Each moment with her a memory unforgotten
By this mind so twisted by love begotten
Oh, I know well the struggle of love unreturned
Another man she loves, but how to deal I’ve learned
Silence is a price not easily bought in such times
And my feelings are punished as emotional crimes
Never to know if her mind will someday turn
And fear and loathing in my heart do churn
This has caused me trouble in the sleepless nights I hold
But these will deter me when the flames of hell are cold
A girl like this one I have never met before
And I have heavy doubts that this world contains more
No matter the lengths and the pains I must endure
I will wait for her forever, this I know for sure
In my very bones, and no deeper feeling have I felt
In all my failed ventures, as if my heart could melt
Such a condition is so difficult to explain
But it lies in everything she does contain
Her smile that lights the darkest hour
Her voice that raises me from days so dour
Her eyes that sparkle in so unique a way
And her hair that cascades as the falls by the bay
Her every aspect enchants me wholly
And so I devote myself unto her fully
I desire no other for no other would I need
the pursuit of someone else no longer taking seed
I know that she doesn’t love this face
And I ask not for it at such a pace
But rather the chance for my value to be weighed
And if this is too much to ask then I shall fade
Into the mists of this rainy Cleveland night
Knowing in my heart that my love was right
Even if I must be a friend for always after
My love will still echo in the sounds of our laughter”
I knew not what to say to man who loved so fiercely
But I took his words for gospel before his gaze could pierce me
And so I saw his oath made on the evening cold and wet
Not a word from his mouth that night do I forget
From then on he strove with every ounce of his soul
To do everything in his power to achieve his goal
Lyla Dawson, stunning smart and loved by all
But never have I thought she heard my poor friend’s call
From there he drove madly to the hospital where
He was coughing up blood but stayed far from care
His only desire was to see his one love
And pray that help would arrive from above
She was bandaged and bloodied all over in the bed
As he planted one kiss atop her pretty head
He said he was sorry for having let her down
And broke her heart in kind with his genuine frown
He said he no longer possessed a fear to die
For he knew his time had come and knew exactly why
She rushed to protest but he would not have it so
And the last thing he said was “You will never know
Just how much I love you, to your very soul”
And with that Ryan Adams left with spirit full
For his destiny lay in plain view for once now
And he would reach that goal before the sun set over bow
Despite his ravaged organs his heart was still intact
Lyla needed a transplant and their blood types were the same in fact
She did not know till after for he requested she not know
As he laid upon the steel with his skin as cold as snow
He told me he would meet her in the next life someway
And for that reason alone in peace he could lay
Ryan gave away his heart, which he said was always hers
And passed on to the next world, which we are here to observe
And so we have joined to return him to the earth
Please take him gently, spirit that first gave him birth
Replace him among all the stormclouds that race
Across the Technicolor sky, with Apollo giving chase
To the edge of the oceans at the end of the world
Where the seas are as blue as the eyes of that girl
Whose tears do now mix with the gently falling rain
Of another storm in heaven over a piercing green plain
my day's done early
about eleven a.m.
i'm showered and changed
off to tim hortons
coffee and donut drive thru
playing cassette tapes
oldies and goodies
get back home with my dark roast
sit at computer
and enter a world
a strange that is fake and true
which is which and faith
that it means something
may not be here but is there
underlying space
higher dimensions
the cross sections of chaos
show order and sense
stan sand
(aside: lost a recent soup mail...dear sender: if you read this please try again)