Long Form 51 Johnny Sonique
*Changing You *
To those who love to play with ideas
Devious Metaphors 52 Changing You
Thanks for the readings
of my brain’s bleedings
as they push and pull the words
I‘d keep them together
in all kinds of weather
but they flap and fly like birds
Thoughts turn and twist
like a magician’s wrist
there is no holding them back
I rein them in
they spin out again
being neither white nor black
I suppose it could be
that I’m trying to see
a picture that’s bigger than I
The act of creating
and never negating
makes my mind really fly
Long Form 53 Changing You
Rough hewn dreams
and particle beams
feed my hungry soul
My mind is burning
I’m always learning
going down the rabbit hole
To my elation
it’s pure creation
I embrace mental anarchy
No inhibition
no inquisition
no need for apology
Will you take part
throw an idea dart
in the game we all can play?
Mind open enough
to play with this stuff?
yes, you can have your say!
Devious Metaphors 54 Changing You
I’ll give up control
and open my soul
if you will do the same
Together we stroll
the bridge of the troll
always to a much bigger game
So thanks for the readings
and on with proceedings
exchanging our bright synergy
Through mutual consent
our time is well spent
changing you as you change me
Long Form 55 Changing You
*Cup of Time *
Dedicated to those who never have enough time
Devious Metaphors 56 Cup of Time
I’ve got big plans in lots of lands
things to do and see
A cup of time would be so fine
to explore possibility
Life is a sea where you can be
a time-weaver of tradition
As we play I show you the way
riding the tide of your mission
What does it cost not to be tossed
on the seas of heaving time?
I’d give my labor, protect with saber
for enough to end this rhyme
My head’s running slow, where does time go?
it always seems to change
I’m way ahead or almost dead
there is no comforting range
And doing less, we must confess
would really feel absurd
Doing nothing is like stuffing
without the rest of the bird
Long Form 57 Cup of Time
I’ve swum many oceans of circular motions
life going round and round
Trying straight lines, not following signs
I end up going aground
Those signs are flow that gives the go
to my creative actions
Yet time pulls me back and off the track
causing frustrated reactions
Daylight savings and other such ravings
try to clean up the mess
Leap years abound, time zones are found
lacking continuity’s finesse
When in the flow, all systems go
congruency does appear
But as I reach that creative peach
obligation’s in my ear
Yet poems I’ll write and fight the good fight
doing the dishes after
Yes there’s laundry, it’s a quandary
I hear their mocking laughter
Devious Metaphors 58 Cup of Time
REALITY FIRST! You must not thirst
for the abstract and inane
Take care of business, don’t think of isness
you just might go insane
But I want to grow, my talent I’ll sow
goodbye normality
You know I must play, it’s the only way
to find the authentic me
And I want some spaces where I’m in two places
my time would surely double
Twice as much done, while having fun
could I get into trouble?
I do have tensions in time dimensions
I wouldn’t want to get lost
Internal traveling can be unraveling
what if time gets crossed?
I’ll take my chance, it’s about romance
traveling the Einstein express
On that train time’s really insane
a game of quantum chess
Long Form 59 Cup of Time
Time doesn’t track the steady tack
of smooth linearity
It skips and stumbles, declares and mumbles
demanding to be free
It’s often said that Time was bred
all things shouldn’t happen at once
But maybe things do and perception’s the clue
that sorts it out and hunts
For explanations among the nations
why we’re are so locked in
Where’s that place that people have space?
and playing’s not a sin
So does time exist? Am I caught in a mist?
a spray of general consensus?
Segmented days, like an intricate maze
can swiftly dull the senses
The truth of the matter is a mind-splatter
we don’t need time to run
If I agree, just to be
I’ll still get everything done
Devious Metaphors 60 Cup of Time
I’ll be dynamic without the panic
life isn’t emergency
I’ll make my plan in the world of man
calm as herbal tea
Between being and doing is inward viewing
imagination will steer
The mind can borrow from past or tomorrow
to widen the creative frontier
As a time-blender, to Caesar I’ll render
enough to be socially correct
But if I fail to weave my tale
this rat-race I’ll defect
I won’t talk weather and other such blether
all kinds of time sucking things
I look to my soul, and a new goal
to fly on creative wings
I’ll cut through the chaff with wit as my staff
ending the nonessential
Priority flows and minority goes
there is no inconsequential
Long Form 61 Cup of Time
So I’d like to borrow a cup of tomorrow
with interest you’ll be repaid
The time-cloud’s vast, there’s plenty to last
you’ve seen beyond the charade
Yes only those trying, and in their hearts dying
to bring something worthy to hold
Feel the keen edge and will always pledge
to use their time as gold !
Devious Metaphors 62 Cup of Time
Long Form 63 Johnny Sonique
*Dayjobrant *
The longest days
Devious Metaphors 64 Dayjobrant
My real day always starts at dusk
I feel just like an empty husk
Of what I really long to be
Please meet me in the dark belfry
Though not a thirsty dead vampire
I’ll tell of what I do aspire
I envy people there at work
who just go home to sit and lurk
In front of hypno-television
and exercise their indecision
Their day is always wrapped up done
they feel complete; they’ve done the run
Don’t think I’ve lost my mental humor
I’m only a crazy long lost boomer
This is all just rant and raving
although sometimes misbehaving
I’ll laugh with all the rest of them
sit back, plan life and wear a grin
Many things there are I want to do
more than just a precious few
Things that give my life some meaning
big ideas looking out and gleaming
But my time is always spent
paying the ever present rent
Long Form 65 Dayjobrant
The day job takes my breath away
I guess I’ll make be no song today
Work my long and precious time
sometimes money is such a crime
I’ll use the sweet song of the lyre
to get my mind out of this mire
I use my talent and ambition
yes I’m on a secret mission
To see beyond the average norm
and weather out the psychic storm
I use my precious focused time
to mold many thoughts into rhyme
Don’t need the usual social crutch
of lawns and sports, gossip and such
They’ll do just fine while on their own
I can easily work alone
Though not a lonely desolate island
I’m surely not all welcome dry-land
But when the job is finally through
and I’m out of the corporate zoo
Sitting in the glowing sun
a fresh clean tasty air of fun
My day perks up and me begins
I open up and my mind turns Zen
Devious Metaphors 66 Dayjobrant
My brain fires up and comes alive
and once again I really strive
To make some sense of this old world
it is a bright and shiny pearl
Busy pushing, pulling, gleaning
drawing out my special meaning
A busy artist’s daily run
is never ever really done
Her mind is always ever turning
always thinking, always yearning
No time left to sit and snooze
need more time with the playful Muse
Devious Metaphors 67 Dayjobrant
*Finished Work *
Are comics ever finished?
Devious Metaphors 68 Finished Work
Captain Rochester
my eyes do fester
with visions of counterfeit things
But the artist who drew
the likes of you
has an authentic ring
He’s as real as can be
and the likes of me
knows from where he comes
We try to be real
and put as much feel
in our bright artistic crumbs
We sit there pensive
in time intensive
disciplines seldom lauded
It would us unfetter
and we’d be better
if sometimes we were applauded
For not being fake
and trying to take
the viewer for all she’s worth
All we are trying
is to keep from lying
and show our real selves from birth
Long Form 69 Finished Work
Uncountable panels
come from the annals
of our dark and fevered brains
Colors to mix
pencils to fix
whether it shines or it rains
With so much work
you could go berserk
I’ll bet you’ve never tried
To birth a plot
and yell Great Scott!
as the Enterprise gets fried
So give us a break
and let us take
the glory where we can
A copy of the finish
really wouldn’t diminish
after all I’m my biggest fan
Devious Metaphors 70 Finiahed Work
Long Form 71 Johnny Sonique
*FireBell *
Thanks Mr Poe
Devious Metaphors 72 Fire Bell
Ah distinctly I remember
it was in the bleak December
And each dying ember
wrought its ghost upon the floor
Eagerly I wished the morrow
vainly I had sought to borrow
Surcease from the sorrow
And a pop screen for yon fire
Now the flames are climbing higher
oh the consumption of the fire
On the floor a great bright pyre
blackening ever more the door
Ah surcease from sorrow
sorrow for the lost Lenore
Sorrow for not buying more
a fire extinguisher for sure
As I nodded nearly napping
suddenly there came a tapping
As if someone gently rapping
rapping at my chamber door
Long Form 73 Fire Bell
Over the black and charred remains
looking for someone yet to blame
Thinking of the burning pain
I stumbled to the sooty door
Face was known throughout the land
cowbell shining in his hand
His demeanor as usual bland
I saw his sunken eyes once more
I pled help me find the lost Lenore
yes, to you I do implore
Money, jewels and much more
to take on this grievous chore
Ah, His voice it never rose
as he leaned in so close
Fireman’s badge striking pose
his whisper rising above the roar
Came the tintinnabulation
as I tried evacuation
Voice raised in cool persuasion
quoth the Walken, nevermore
And more firebell for Lenore !
Devious Metaphors 74 Fire Bell
Long Form 75 Johnny Sonique
*Gathering *
Celebrating a place to share
Devious Metaphors 76 Gathering
The books gaze down in celebration
of the coming feast
Their pages gently fluttering
sun retreating from the east
Eager rainbows line the titles
with the lambent glow of sharing
Adventure peering from their covers
a promise of ageless caring
Imagination fills the air
the embrace can now begin
Breathing life to liquid metaphors
through words of women and men
From generations of the printed word
Calliope’s gold unfolds
But her real magic soon begins
as the tales are being told
Every story begs a stage
a place to show its pride
A poem is a wondrous thing
when allowed to gain its stride
Long Form 77 Gathering
The words rush out so clean and bright
caressing each one’s heart
Profound, with humor close behind
pleading us to take a part
We are now the story’s journey
our lives are now the measure
New directions rise to meet
cavorting in their pleasure
Books listen from enduring shelves
find reason for being written
Our universal mind is there
purring like a kitten
On this breezy mid-week night
many thoughtful voices rise
It’s just the way we play and grow
and show that we are wise
We know the worth of wisdom shared
jousting with the form
Respecting the passion that one needs
to communicate our storm
Devious Metaphors 78 Gathering
We struggle, push and curse the verse
defying the tyranny of grammar
Embracing chaotic caffeine thrill
we demand a bigger hammer!
The pencil is our mighty sword
we sharpen with our wit
Pounding out impatient rhymes
until we humbly admit
It’s not a verbal assault we seek
a demon that must be tamed
It is a subtle and delicate skill
finely wrought and finely grained
Under the smoky microscope
of meter, rhythm and rhyme
Embers take pregnant, glowing shape
as we excavate our minds
We use a broad and earthy canvas
woven in vibrant hope
On which we paint our living story
learning how to cope
Long Form 79 Gathering
Here, the competition is ourselves
free from malice or constraint
Expressing ideas in dynamic splendor
like a splash of fluorescent paint
The curiosity of the artist
a theater in the round
Sings to our deepest inner being
like a balladeer renowned
We collect the past and future
snapshots along the way
As the quest continues for our truth
In this church of the mighty Roget
Our poems call to the tomes above
knowing they belong
The ancient keepers of our culture
look down with kinship strong
We magnify this present moment
everything slows gently down
The frantic world hurtles by
but never us to drown
Devious Metaphors 80 Gathering
Celebrating poetry’s love of life
You and I will always meet
In this cozy little bookstore…
On long and winding Water Street
Long Form 81 Gathering
H* omeosynthesis*
How did it all begin?
Devious Metaphors 82 Homeosynthesis
Nothing…
BANG!
From the core of time and randomness
Heat. Dust. Exploding celestial artistry
A turbulence of moment, place, and chance
Tumbling matter-energy coalescing and cooling
Evolution playing a timeless game of trial and error
A spark arising from the millennia of dancing DNA
Hacking out existence, becoming strong
Morphing experience into sentience and synergy…
Thought shards swirling in a maelstrom of potential
A murky undefined soup of spiraling relationships,
pleasures, and pain
Quietly screaming to be set free and grow.
Igniting echo after echo after echo in dimly lit halls of cogni-
tion
DARK!
Long Form 83 Homeosynthesis
Many dark voices rising in a crescendo of confusion
Black and white conclusions ricocheting off prejudices
Mental walls closing in; no space, no breath, no growth
The blade of unanswered questions severing desperation’s
fabric
Truth spilling onto paper in a free-fall of ah ha!
Faster than biomechanics can record
Urgency, anxiety, and anticipation playing a metaphoric sym-
phony
Frantically grasping fleeting shadows of thoughts, ideas,
and curiosity
Neural nets hungrily connecting with brain-mates; flashes of
insight
Volcanoes of electro-chemical inspiration releasing wonder
and amazement
The seeking tide, fueled by emotions, washing up on shores of
consciousness
Opening the Mind’s floodgates; washing away failed assump-
tions
BRAIN!
A shazam of organizing magic darts hither and yon
Casting pixie dust on stubbornness and paranoia
Sorting, sifting, focusing; a brilliant beam of perception
Lightly traveled paths reforming into highways of enlighten-
ment
Devious Metaphors 84 Homeosynthesis
Seminal sparks of passion falling from the clearing mind-skies
Raindrops of opportunity plummeting to the ground, nourish-
ing
Warming sun on growing tendrils of new awareness
Mind-space breathing a sigh of openness and expansion
The glow of emerging wisdom forming a soft motherly shield
Playing with kaleidoscopic thoughts in a vast arena
Knowledge parachuting through clear fresh air, settling gently
Waiting for the firm hands of clarity and affirmation
SUN!
Student and teacher merging in primal realization
Their beingness forming power centers of reciprocating en-
ergy
A communing subconscious, becoming The Flow
A vibrant pulsing grid of dynamic sharing
Imagination sculpting the marriage of think, feel and script
Molding symbols into concepts, destined for a hungry world
Cosmic minds weaving the rough melody of pen upon paper
Reaching out to infinity, crystal clarity calling...
BANG!
A poem is born
Long Form 85 Homeosynthesis
*I Want To Play *
Ahh... to let go and play
Devious Metaphors 86 I Want To Play
I have a habit of hanging out
rooting around and digging about
Being where I should not be
because I actually want to see
Things dismantled for the quirk
finding how they really work
Things are sometimes strangely made
in places where great plans are laid
Behind the winding human scenes
by most unique clandestine means
Ideas are wrestled and finely wrought
bartered, hidden, sold and bought
That’s how it is I know a lot
yet when I look at me I’m fraught
With a twisted oblique tangle
an odd opaque perception mangle
I need some clarity to see
it is so rare to fully be
Everything turns a dusky gray
I’m always in my own slow way
The path I take seems like the one
to get me where I want to run
A race to tune my own fine song
where can I be going wrong?
Long Form 87 I Want To Play
I mix the colors and the sounds
I try to fully make the rounds
But at the end of this long day
I feel that Life gets in the way
It’s the strangely human condition
of my time and long tradition
A tradition of being so unique
and maybe just a tad oblique
I cannot do what others do
my own strong path must be true
To myself I’m locked and married
so I must be not swiftly carried
By little people at my side
who want to take me for a ride
They really all do seem so smug
pushing me under the sameness rug
Want me to be like all the others
A perverse idea my sanity smothers
Perhaps I don’t want freedom enough
being totally me is really tough
I have a feeling of the sort
that could cause me to abort
All my good and timed intention
at first sign of danger’s mention
Devious Metaphors 88 I Want To Play
I find it hard to step off ledge
always holding onto the edge
How is it I never dare
to go and fly without a care?
Drifting off to lands unknown
my damn self-editor gone from home
Perhaps my life isn’t hard enough
does it have to be so rough?
Living has had an easy tone
coma of comfort in twilight zone
Makes me feel like it’s a sin
to break out of my cozy bin
Creation of meaning is satisfying
why then is my mind still sighing?
I thought this way of being flowed
is the Universe in testing mode?
Throwing rocks along my way
to see if I really, really want to play
Play in the celestial, open oneness
in the tradition of laughing funness
The microcosm transcended soon
on a warm and lazy afternoon
All is right with the day
I really, really want to play !
Long Form 89 I Want To Play
*Just Like Me *
We influence one another
Devious Metaphors 90 Just Like Me
Here’s to another
I’ll likely smother
as I rave about this and that
Whining and wailing
and mentally flailing
with ideas that may go splat
He graciously reads
my mind’s odd feeds
all the while pleading for mercy
In my jail of revisions
he’s conjuring decisions
about my dark-artist jersey
In a day job
that’s come to rob
us of our talent and time
We’d rather splash paint
for the patron saint
of artistry and fine rhyme
I aid his struggle
he seeks to smuggle
his talent past the mundane
His skills are great
but it’s only fate
that keeps him halfway sane
Long Form 91 Just Like Me
So I send him rhyme
for passing the time
though now very little helps
I send pricks and pins
and very often sins
then listen for his yelps
They give me pleasure
for in some measure
I know that I’m reaching him
We both are leveled
and soon bedeviled
by constrictions that are grim
Time is sucked dry
wanting to die
for 8 hours every day
How can the mind
ever unwind?
long enough to really play
His eyes are glazing
his mind is lazing
like a warm summertime grass
As he grits his teeth
art bubbles beneath
waiting for hours to pass
Devious Metaphors 92 Just Like Me
And pass they do
like very old glue
or molasses in January
But he reads my stuff
even though it’s fluff
and I think that’s very scary
If the brain does change
and rearrange
with reading that’s a tease
My world will bend
and perhaps descend
into his bright synapses
Shaping his thinking
barriers shrinking
enables him in seeing
My dark point of view
and scary crew
that inhabit my very being
In a coma that’s used
when he feels abused
and his mind really needs to flee
His head will open
he’ll be broken
and end up just like me !
Long Form 93 Just Like Me
*Kaleidoscope *
Dedicated to people playing outside of the box
Devious Metaphors 94 Kaleidoscope
I got a good buzz sipping pleasure fuzz
dancing in a rainbow day
I tasted the sky, tickled a sigh
and hoped tomorrow would stay
To mix and mingle is a fun jingle
an ad for the active brain
Like standing outside to take a mind-ride
in the cool October rain
I refuse to sway to the usual way
of adding two plus two
I put numbers in, give them a spin
and come up with fancy blue
I am unique, if somewhat oblique
but that’s my destiny
To polish my is-ness and get down to business
brings out the best in me
I wish to play in fields of gray
jumping the black and white hedge
I love to make peace with the idea police
and then leap over the edge
Long Form 95 Kaleidoscope
The flash of death from a killer’s breath
brings colors dark and cold
The vampires ache, the scream of the stake
makes me feel so bold
Many colors I fear and rough sounds appear
in the quiet of midnight’s black
But writing of sorrows with borrowed tomorrows
fills where experiences lack
I’m out of bounds and I know that sounds
like anarchy will rule
But I carefully craft what may seem daft
using the perfect tool
Yes I rev up my mind and try to be blind
to my usual mundane habits
I’m a verbal musician and mental magician
pulling out laughing rabbits
There is disorder like the dark of Mordor
in what I try to achieve
But I’ll take my chances with odd circumstances
changing my ways to believe
Devious Metaphors 96 Kaleidoscope
Can one transform a mind in storm
with the alchemy of chance?
Caught in a spiral, with an idea, viral
I do a fantastical dance
I let myself go, to the mystical flow
and heed the call of the wild
It’s my insistence to lessen resistance
and toss the dice of exile
In my brain-weather I do fight a tether
must I be just a pawn?
Of the deviant decree MAKE ALL THINGS PC!
do I need the perfect lawn?
I’m not some hellion seeking rebellion
to shake up the status quo
I just want to play and say it my way
with mental mayhem and flow
What’s done is done, why be the one
to reinvent the wheel?
I’ll strike out for gold and let pen unfold
and above all, be real
Long Form 97 Kaleidoscope
I have to say I am in my way
in taking on my art
But I dare not stop until I drop
to come from that place in my heart
Where I blend the senses and mix the tenses
including the frown and the grin
I want to see, all the things to be
through my kaleidoscopic pen
I want to see, all the things to be
in the kaleidoscope of men
Devious Metaphors 98 Kaleidoscope
Long Form 99 Johnny Sonique
*Last Resort *
Sometimes you just feel this way
Devious Metaphors 100 Last Resort