Some Poetry. The Road of Life

From an opera libretto. I'm not a master poet, and this would qualify as light verse (though with some existential meaning? You decide).

Wrote it in 1994 or so, and it developed into a two-act light opera, 459 pages long (so I won't post it) that has never been performed, and probably never will be. It's a metaphor of conflicting philosophies of life based on hippie and mobster characters, and musically sounds like a mix of Arthur Sullivan and Kurt Weill (with some of myself thrown in, of course).



BTW, the setting of the first song from the opera. The opera is a real opera with orchestra, but these songs, sung by my hippie hero Rainbo Climer, are just vocal with guitar chords. This will be hard to read, but will give an idea...



The second page is yellow for some reason; trippy! :chuckle:

Another one.

Here's my best poem, short and unpretentious.

Linville Gorge

In Linville Gorge, I sat on the rocks
Of The Chimneys; a beautiful spot.
Sometimes I come here, where nature's hand
Has carved out the valley in a style so grand,
Yet callous: not like the precision of art;
Its cold-blooded beauty still moves the heart:
For nature creates, yet also rends
In a silent cycle that never ends.
I come to escape the grit and the noise.
Society's cares, its material toys.
A suffocating ether settles down
From dingy skyscrapers at the center of town;
The highlands of our world, more perfect than these,
And yet less so, and here I find ease.
And over the mountains, Behemoth grins
From his sooty lair where the pavement begins.

I used to go to the rim of a place called Linville Gorge, to The Chimneys (Google) back when I lived in North Carolina, to clear my head by enjoying nature (and smoking a lot of weed).

This came out of one of those trips, and was written up there on the mountain, in less than half an hour...

I did end up setting it to music.

What you did here is very unique i havent read all of your content but I plan on it soon. This should be posted here and not in member writing forum in my opinion, The little I was able to read through I understand you are trying to pose a picture in someone elses minds eye. I really do appreciate what you did here! SNF

reply to post by Brotherman


Very sorry I missed your very kind reply; thought this one had died, and ATS, though I love it, is more of a reading than a posting forum for me. I don't tend to start the sorts of threads that do well here...

If you are interested in hearing my music, think I posted a link, but if not, Churchcantor on Youtube...

Nature And Man

Man is not eternal. Eternal Nature
Weaves her web; man's stature
Allows participation in Her plan.
And yet we know that every man
Must someday die by Nature's hand.
He hardly understands. This is his lot:
Nature lives forever, man does not.

Man, not by nature eternal,
Weaves his webs, and plots infernal
Designs, thwarting Nature at every turn.
He poisons the Earth, and forests burn.
The Earth is sacred, but we never learn.
Realize if you would profit from life's journey:
Man's eternity is to be a part of Eternity.



Pay special attention to capitalization...

Satan sat by a sulphur spring
In Hell, and that infernal king
Gave thought to man, whose constant whoring,
Vice and greed was getting boring.
At last with fiery fierceness he cries:
"I'm tired of being the Lord of Flies!
Human sin yields nothing new;
I need something else to do."

"God sent me here, for craving power.
'Twas fun at first; now every hour
Crawls along, and new temptations
Fail to give me liberation."
So he mused, that evil wight,
Upon his stupefying plight.
How could he find a new release,
To give his demonic heart some peace?

Then he hit upon a plan:
Pleasing him much better than
The endless days of souls in torment
And agony could ever forment!
"Why, I'll just play a little game
With Man, and his eternal shame
Will turn from avarice and pleasure
To more graceful forms of leisure."

(Maybe I could go on with that later, but my head hurts...)