Music Integrity Poems

Politeness,
like kindness,
may not sell newspapers
or win the partisan debate

Civility,
unlike deviliciousness,
will not win the civil war
nor leverage the biggest tax rebate

But integrity
is the world wide web...

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To the successful best ...

I can see the future,
it's been calling me
I'm gonna live my life,
it's how it's gonna be
Some people never listen,
Some people gotta...

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Lake county music company filled with 
slots carney folk real carny folk the little 
pete's illegal gambling road show throughout 
the  Midwest gaming like...

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At sixteen
People's Bible Church
sent me from rural Michigan farm lands
to Moody Bible Institute
in siren-screaming Chicago

Church fathers assumed,
despite curious evidence to the contrary,
that I was a...

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I am the banner planted on the hill,
Twisting and flapping in the breeze.

I am the pale bird following the ship,
Over blue waves and swelling seas.

I...

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We find ourselves with you in time, 
Thoughts of you are roaming our minds
Angels playing music at the Gate
Heaven will be Home; let's call it...

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When I entered the City Senior Center
with my Open Mic proposal
to increase resilience
and decrease apartheid dissonance

I could hear no music,
see no dancing.

The quilting room
and the...

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I would like to see
and hear
and feel a peaceful day
and silent night

When guns
are as rare as typewriters

When partisan hate
is as extinct as flying dinosaurs

When ranting...

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We may need a rest left here
right now
said the Muse
to his Warrior
and her Sage.

In compliant spirit,
Sage feels a rest not
not significant
in music's octaved stories
of wealthy
deep...

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Aunt Mary was a small and wiry mother
of six;
four by birth
and two by informal adoption.

She sang in a small querulous voice
yet spoke boldly
filled with loving...

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If Thou take not our hands,
and feet,
our bodies
hosting ghostly minds,
our organic inside lives
flowing out emphatic love

We will continue to fail,
to fear,
to feel tired,
retired,
weary,
untreaded,
worn.

When I try...

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Music
especially sacred music
feels round

Not such clear lines
prescribing desecrating marches
needing to move somewhere
noting something
speaking against someone
in StraightWhite privileged time

Right/Left balancing divas
sometimes sing in resonant rounds,
round
and round
in...

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I followed your success,
I heard all of your music, and you sang them great,
what progress,

Names on billboards,
Bet men waiting to be your date
Awards,

What? Who?
That's not...

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A mental health difference
between being stuck
in an impoverished designation
and being stuck 
trying to merely survive
with mostly "Loser" marginalization
dehydration
ancient locked-up degeneration

Feels like same difference
between economic red-lined
unenlightened...

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I feel like I'm trying to sing
slow win/win
in universal C-major
key of resonance
while you are trying to resiliently dance
fast and furious win/lose
in disuniting F-sharp keys
of in-between...

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