This is a video poem. An idea I had that I explored in some downtime in Northampton around the iron horse. Which was one of the best shows of this leg of our Real alligator rollout tour. I wrote this poem after I woke in the middle of the night in Norwich, New York. I can’t remember if it was the night before the show the night after. It doesn’t matter. The piece itself is not really finished. It’s a work in progress as many of my poems are. Hell as many of my songs are as well. As much as any of us are actually. Works in progress all of us? What’s interesting is shooting these lines from the poem as best I could remember them in the moment, thinking about audio, video, the shot and people wandering around, fans stopping me on the street while I’m shooting. It’s quite challenging to do. And then editing later something else, a different version of the poem. Anyway, here it is. enjoy. The full unedited poem is here as well, so you can see how things got edited from the original that woke me in the middle of the night. And I should say, though the poem reads as though there is someone in the room rubbing my belly in the middle of the night, it was a dream I had that Robin, my wife was rubbing my belly. That’s what woke me up in the middle of the night. And then this poem came to me as I laid there at four in the morning. Some have asked if I ever stop writing. And I think the answer is probably no I even write in my sleep….
Also, I should say a bit of this idea comes from listening to Alan Watts lecture. If you don’t know, Alan Watts, I would recommend listening to the podcast, called being in the way that’s curated by his son. It’s a bunch of his old lectures. And for reading sake, start with a book of his called, The Wisdom Of Insecurity. This is an important book to me in my growth as a person. Basically the idea is that life is inherently, insecure, dangerous, risky, and eventually will cause death. It’s not exactly Bobby McFerrin, Don’t worry be happy, but that’s the basic gist
You think you are here
Don’t put Descartes before The horse
the divorce before the source
It’s not that you are at all
It’s that you think you are
Is that You are in between
The drudgery and the dream
None of what you see is what you’ve seen
If seeing is believing, to love is to fear
It is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t
You just think you are here
And if that’s not a hook I don’t know what it is
They used to say
ain’t ain’t a word
But it is what it is
to love is to fear
If I think, therefore I am
I’m a man
I’m a ham
I’m a wheel
I feel her hand, caressing my belly
In the still of the night
The absence of light
Let’s a beam or two
sit and brood
Around the window
Of the blackout curtains
Across the street I can see
The church, 100 years old
Under renovation
this dismal little town
Heart of darkness and still
In the middle of the night
Love over gold
Lightning over the park
Norwichers Norwichians norwichites
Dancing in the rain
Frolicking in the mud and the beer
The frequency of feelings
Lost somewhere between
The singer and the song we are singing
As deep as it is long
It’s nothing really
You just think you were here
Love over loss
Love over fear
How clearly must I say it?
For this machine to hear
To write it down from the sound of my voice
I must speak so perfectly and so clear
You are not here because you think
You just think you are here
Love over fear
Do not be afraid
We’re always here
On our way to nowhere
Don’t think
Just keep dancing in the mud
Until the lightning says go home
To your family and
Sit down by the fire light
Good night, Irene
I’ll never let you go
But I must
Love over fear
I think that I think
You’re always near
Confused, I stopped and looked
At the simple map
Where is it I was going?
An arrow points to me and says
You think you are here
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