Never complain
never explain
Life on the margins
others sustain
Freeing both ends
caught in the middle
Releasing the truth
— solving the riddle
(To Cole Porter: September, 2025)
I remember those summers as a boy,
When the sun shone down from morning till night.
That sun on our backs brought us so much joy
And we laughed at those who’s skin was still white.
We knew nothing back then of UV rays,
As we lay on the beach by the ocean.
Sometimes we burnt on the hottest of days
And Mum applied some calamine lotion.
But now, of course, the scientists advise
Avoiding UV rays and CFC’s.
Each year the temperature will rise.
The human race will soon be on its knees.
Our planet will burn up, as likely as not,
As Cole Porter put it, “It’s Too Darn Hot.”
Perhaps he's crackers
to embrace glitz
(to paraphrase Irving Berlin)
'Putin on the Ritz'
tho'
'Sometimes something is better than nothing'
went the writing on the wall
yet
'Too much of nothing'
(wrote the Zimmerman)
is really no good at all
and
'Everything comes to those who wait'
an optimist put in prose
but
Cole Porter said it best
when he wrote, 'Anything Goes'
Odi vulgus profanum et arceo
The common mob I have no wish to know
"I strove with none for none was worth my strife"
Coriolanus to the mob refused to surrender his life
Seething with emotion our vulgar hordes bray
In matters where cool reason should hold sway
Spineless politicians give in to their senseless crap
And dress in fine words their concessions to this pap
Democracy has now sunk to a new low
Where no demand is met with a no
Morality falls apart without any taboos
Soon we won't have any more standards left to lose
"Anything Goes" by Cole Porter was once a popular song
Where do we go when there is no longer any moral wrong?
into the night's dwelling
things are they way they used to be
only more perfect,
and even if I lean into the dark hall
there are stars in my eyes, that keep alive the myth
and we are all there in black and white
tho' my mother's lips are glossy red,
her hair is beautifully coifed, just hours from the beauty shop
she is smiling, wearing an apron, cooking something grand
the table is set with flowers, a tidy house, sofa pillows neatly in their proper place
my daddy sits on the floor with me, playing Chinese checkers, letting me win
and my brother is throwing a ball in the front yard with his friends
things are more perfect
than how they used to be
as the wind drones an old Cole Porter song
into the night's dwelling
where I keep the dream
from dying
_______________________________
1/7/14
Inspired by Nette Onclaud's Contest:" Into Night's Dwelling"
In Niagara Falls was born Carol LoTempio.
Her new name “April Stevens” was the one we would know.
She has a sweet and sultry voice that sounds keen.
April first sang at the age of fifteen.
With the recording “I’m In Love Again", her career had begun.
This Cole Porter song was a hit in 1951.
April’s next record “Teach Me Tiger” had a bit of a rough go.
Many stations refused to play it on the radio.
In 1963, she joined her brother Nino Tempo.
“Deep Purple” became a hit everybody would know.
That was a song that went all the way to number one.
“Whispering” proved that their careers were not done.
They hit the charts one more time with “All Strung Out”.
That was another hit song without any doubt.
This brother and sister act gained great popularity.
Nino and April still perform today. They are a must see.
I thank both wikipedia.org online encyclopedia and Nino Tempo's official website for information I obtained to write this poem.
Thunder off the ocean blurs my vision.
I think I see among the white caps
a school of mermaids trailing a mackerel boat
into shore. A gull and I turn to watch
a fisherman reel in the tide before the storm lands.
I taste the brine as wave on wave jumps the jetty.
At the moment the dark clouds collide,
I race the rain to the shelter of a dance pavilion.
A couple who resemble Fred and Ginger
are dancing the carioca to ragtime. As I approach
I see that Ginger is a redwood coat rack
and Fred is a blue cape hanging on the rack.
I slip into the cape and do a little jig across the ceiling
to a catchy Cole Porter tune I can’t quite identify.
From early night a whistle beckons me
and I glide on my magic cape through an open window
to the deck of an ocean liner.
Ginger waits.
Prompted by moonlight, I don my top hat and tails,
twirl my cane,
wrap Ginger in my arms,
and to a lively Hollywood music track we
two-step,
foxtrot,
tango
tap dance
and gambol
down
to Rio.
© gene Williamson 2008
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