Somewhere In Hollywood

Down on the casting couch
A star is gonna be born
A star with the stature of a harlow
Whos doomed
And groomed to enrapture
All her co-stars, and stuntmen, the co-stars
Oh, let there be lights, action, sound
Lights, action, sound - roll 'em!
Out in the mezzanine
On the arm of a dumb marine
Her beauty looks out like a trailer
Norman mailer
Waits to nail her
Hes under the bed
And hes waiting for her to be dead
Hes out on the patio
With his polaroid and scenario
And hes armed and hes dangerously....
Close was the weather
When I was a kid

[...] Read more

song performed by 10 Cc
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Pads, Paws & Claws

Shes a feline tormentor, not any vaudeville wife
But with a drunk-town lament he leads her a miserable life
But when hes full of that beer-champagne
She pads, paws, pads, paws and claws
And if he should wake up in some terrible dive
And he dont know if hes so-so
But hes so surprised hes alive
Come on little honey, let me under your hive
She pads, paws, pads, paws and claws
She pads, pads around the bedroom, practicing ways to flirt
He paws, pours another drink and anything in a skirt
Anything wearing a necklace
He thinks of claws scratching his back hes
Going out there hes not coming back
Shes got spider-leg fingers, sharpened whenever he strays
And she carries a bird-purse, with all of her womanly ways
til hes drinking hairspray, she knows that he never would dare
She could be in pictures if she wasnt all covered in fur
Hes coming home now and heres the surprise
You wouldnt believe the lies that he tries

[...] Read more

song performed by Elvis Costello
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Pads, Paws And Claws

Shes a feline tormentor, not any vaudeville wife
But with a drunk-town lament he leads her a miserable life
But when hes full of that beer-champagne
She pads, paws, pads, paws and claws
And if he should wake up in some terrible dive
And he dont know if hes so-so
But hes so surprised hes alive
"come on little honey, let me under your hive"
She pads, paws, pads, paws and claws
She pads, pads around the bedroom, practicing ways to flirt
He paws, pours another drink and anything in a skirt
Anything wearing a necklace
He thinks of claws scratching his back hes
Going out there hes not coming back
Shes got spider-leg fingers, sharpened whenever he strays
And she carries a bird-purse, with all of her womanly ways
til hes drinking hairspray, she knows that he never would dare
She could be in pictures if she wasnt all covered in fur
Hes coming home now and heres the surprise
You wouldnt believe the lies that he tries

[...] Read more

song performed by Elvis Costello
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Southern Son

Born on the hudson, twenty-two years gone
Bred and raised in the city
From my daddys knee I learned the union songs
But grandma sang lullabies of dixie
And though the northern winter fills my heart with joy
Oh its a southern sun that shines down
On this yankee boy
Mama dreamed of paris nights
And boatin on the seine
She said, were gonna make it there too
Soon as papa comes home again
And shed speak to me in broken french
Dressed like a painting of lautrecs
In the night shed clutch me to her breast
And say, well make it outta here yet
And though parisian women
Strut so fine down the eiffel mall
Its a southern one I sing my songs for
Well with the local bunch of do-good boys
And an old man from the west

[...] Read more

song performed by Bruce Springsteen
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

How a Little Girl Danced

DEDICATED TO LUCY BATES

(Being a reminiscence of certain private theatricals.)

Oh, cabaret dancer, I know a dancer,
Whose eyes have not looked on the feasts that are vain.
I know a dancer, I know a dancer,
Whose soul has no bond with the beasts of the plain:
Judith the dancer, Judith the dancer,
With foot like the snow, and with step like the rain.

Oh, thrice-painted dancer, vaudeville dancer,
Sad in your spangles, with soul all astrain,
I know a dancer, I know a dancer,
Whose laughter and weeping are spiritual gain,
A pure-hearted, high-hearted maiden evangel,
With strength the dark cynical earth to disdain.

Flowers of bright Broadway, you of the chorus,

[...] Read more

poem by Vachel Lindsay
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Tell the Truth, Like it Is…

These words sound like a cliché,
Albeit they are not.
Oh! In this day and age only a nut
Will fearlessly come out naked
To spew out ignorance and to spill the beans.
It is okay to be serious human beings,
And to tell it like it is and like it was.
Brother Gill Noble used to give us a good dose
Of this honey, every Sunday, around noon.
No kidding, the duck did not have a spoon
Full of worms in her mouth yesterday,
And the cheetah did not race on the bay.
The flamboyant must come out clean.
It is a grave injustice, a deadly sin
To do otherwise.
Be frank and be wise,
Be careful of the disguised politicians,
Who behave like vaudeville magicians,
Painting half-lies and half-vérités
On stage.

[...] Read more

poem by Hebert Logerie
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Sitting In My Hotel

If my friends could see me now, driving round just like a film star,
In a chauffeur driven jam jar, they would laugh.
They would all be saying that its not really me,
They would all be asking who Im trying to be.
If my friends could see me now,
Looking out my hotel window,
Dressed in satin strides and two-tone daisy roots,
If my friends could see me now I know they would smile.
Sitting in my hotel, hiding from the dramas of this great big world,
Seven stories high, looking at the world go by-y.
Sitting in my hotel room, thinking about the countryside and sunny days in june.
Trying to hide the gloom, sitting in my hotel room.
If my friends could see me now, dressing up in my bow-tie,
Prancing round the room like some outrageous poove,
They would tell me that Im just being used
They would ask me what Im trying to prove.
They would see me in my hotel,
Watching late shows till the morning,
Writing songs for old time vaudeville revues.
All my friends would ask me what its all leading to.

[...] Read more

song performed by Kinks
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Colonel Buffalo Bill

Who's got the stuff that made the Wild West wild?
Who pleases ev'ry woman, man and child?
Who does his best to give the customers a thrill?
-Who?
Colonel Buff'lo Bill
Who's got the show that gets the most applause?
Five hundred Indians and fifty squaws
Ten feature acts and there's the special feature still
-Who?
Colonel Buff'lo Bill
Did you ever see a cowboy rope a steer?
-No, we haven't
Or an Indian with feathers throw a spear?
-No, we haven't
Or a marksman shoot an earring from an ear?
-No, we haven't
Did you ever see a hold up?
-No, sir
Then gather closer
And let me give you some of the atmosphere

[...] Read more

song performed by Irving Berlin
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Knight in Disguise

[Concerning O. Henry (Sidney Porter)]

"He could not forget that he was a Sidney."

Is this Sir Philip Sidney, this loud clown,
The darling of the glad and gaping town?

This is that dubious hero of the press
Whose slangy tongue and insolent address
Were spiced to rouse on Sunday afternoon
The man with yellow journals round him strewn.
We laughed and dozed, then roused and read again,
And vowed O. Henry funniest of men.
He always worked a triple-hinged surprise
To end the scene and make one rub his eyes.

He comes with vaudeville, with stare and leer.
He comes with megaphone and specious cheer.

[...] Read more

poem by Vachel Lindsay
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

It Never Rains

I hear the seven deadly sins
And the terrible twins came to call on you
The bigger they are babe
The harder they fall on you
And you youre always the same you persevere
On the same old pleasure ground
Oh and it never rains around here
It just comes pouring down
You had no more volunteers
So you got profiteers for to help you out
With friends like that babe
Good friends you had to do without
And now theyve taken the chains and the gears
From off your merry-go-round
Oh and it never rains around here
It just comes pouring down
And your new romeo
Was just a gigolo when he let you down
See the faster they are babe
The faster they get out of town

[...] Read more

song performed by Dire Straits
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

State Ward of Mental Dissonance

Fabled puppet masters
residing in the shadows of the rafters
pull miss piggy's short curly strings
profiting capital amusement
capitol cameras roll as she strikes a war time payload pose
Audience caught in a pants down trance
by the mindfuck marionette vaudeville show

protestors boarding the edge of sanity and passion
firing off dull rounds of awful aimed textbook hate rhetoric
Library bondage liberals
swat yesterday's invisible fly
with rolled up issues of rolling stone.
Kamikaze conservatives
march the mall
burning mosques in drunk fear rage
armed with molotov cocktails
of holly roller rhetoric
fueled by tomorrow's oil
and old burning remains

[...] Read more

poem by Gregory Allen Uhan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Night In State Street

Art thou he?—
The seer and sage, the hero and lover—yea,
The man of men, then away from the haughty
day
Come with me!

Ho—ho! to the night—
The spangled night that would the noon outstare.
Her skirts are fringed with light,
She is girdled and crowned with gems of fire that flare.
The city is dizzy with the thrill of her—
Her shining eyes and shadowy floating hair;
And curious winds her nebulous garments blur,
Blowing her moon-white limbs and bosom bare.

She beckons me—
Down the deep street she goes to keep her tryst.
Come—come—oh follow! oh see

The many-windowed walls uprear so high

[...] Read more

poem by Harriet Monroe
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Muskrat Skull, Albino Asteroid, Chunk of the Moon

Muskrat skull, albino asteroid, chunk of the moon
fallen to earth, ivory doorknob picked clean
by ants and wolves, half your teeth stacked like books
on a shelf behind the crescent moons of your fangs
and their reflections, as above so below,
that don't quite meet in the middle of the bridge
you're building like an engineer with overbite.
When I look down upon your cranium from above it's
a beautiful amphora, handles like arms at its side,
a woman hoisting her long skirt up to cross a river.

Musquash, you must be a holy food if they let the Catholics
eat you at Lent in place of fish because you spend
so much of your time aquatically. Do the wolves,
the owls, the foxes, the mink, the hawks, the fishers,
the feral dogs know they're enlightened
by the flesh of your body? You, alone, of all
the animals who tried and failed, the Gabriel
of the native creation myth that touched bottom
to bring back the starmud that made the earth,

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Never Alone With A Candle

Never alone with a candle
a firefly in a valley,
a star above the hill,
is your seeing less beautiful
than that stranger in the mirror
who takes you by surprise?

Can you hear your eyes
your eyes your eyes your eyes
falling like rain
on the plectra of the flowers?
Is that a coffin or a harpsichord?
Scarlatti playing the columbine
or the midnight requiem
of a dolorous pine longing
for a nightbird that never comes?

I can sense you count yourself
a dandelion among delphiniums,
a brown star without solar flare,

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!