I Left It All Behind by Klaus J. Gerken 2014 I left It All Behind Once there were many Now only one Once there was a future Now the past has won I ran to the centre I acknowledged the applause But somehow it vanished An empty garage I prayed to the devil He paid me no mind When god came to get me I left it all behind I walk to the graveyard It's raining so hard My old umbrella Served me well at the start The town seems so distant So far in the sky Lost loves and desires Could walls only cry I prayed to the devil He paid me no mind When god came to get me I left it all behind There's a shadow that blindly Reflects an old truth What age must develop Costs us our youth I guess I was naive I guess I was lost When spring finally came My soul paid the cost I prayed to the devil He paid me no mind When god came to get me I left it all behind So wander no farther Than the horizon you see If emptiness follows It's cold company I bid you in splendour One kiss and goodbye If I don't see you again I won't even cry I prayed to the devil He paid me no mind When god came to get me I left it all behind. kjg 350pm 2 jan 2014 * Frozen It's cold. I touched the latch on my Balcony door and my fingers froze. The cats Are quite animated. They won't go to sleep. As if premonition keeps them in harmony With a god I can't eat -- a simple desire -- After all the church disseminated this belief. They settled down by the afternoon after I Got home from walking to the grocery store And back. I needed some food for tomorrow. All I can say is that was some kind of walk. At least I can say it woke me up. Not many Walks do that. But what's done is done. And It's warm in the apartment and I'm quite well Settled in. Winter can continue, "Bless my food!" kjg 447pm 2/5 jan 2014 * Modern Living Life is not diminished because we're tired, Life is diminished because we're wired. kjg 452pm 2 jan 2014 * Fate Even on an Automated train A conductor Cannot Fall asleep. kjg 835am 4 jan 2014 * Beware the past The last glass of wine always remembers sobriety. -- kjg 838an 4 jan 2014 * Haiku: Even fodder dreams I run through the blue field The breeze submits me to the blue sky The scythe cuts my ankles. kjg 842am 4 jan 2014 * Wind I love the way people conjecture. The con is always a wonderful lecture. kjg 904am 4 jan 2014 * Horticulture Death is high drama indeed; reemergence would be better: Strapped to earth by gravity is all that keeps me from the stars. Today I feel the gentle breeze upon my twitching face, Tomorrow I might be that breeze, and never know my age. So speculation won't correct the fallacy of fools... To think we live forever is not within the rules. But somehow if what we perceive is embedded in our hearts We will gather in the cosmic nova to replicate afar. Here today and gone tomorrow doesn't quite exist, We might not take it with us but we leave it with a twist, A dunghill for the beetle that crawls into our mind. I will venture we will meet again before the age is done, Time's just a conception, a meaningless harangue, What's to say we haven't met yesterday, or a million ears ago? kjg 948am 4 jan 2014 * I am about as holy as an onion; I make people cry. kjg 1014am 4 jan 2014 * to Ferlinghetti If poetry is voice, Then what about the def mutes? Do they write poetry? I bet they do! And I'll go even farther, Good poetry's written on the loo! Have a good one too! KJG 1020am 4 jan 2014 * I lost cohesion; My band aid fell off. kjg 1039am 4 jan 2014 * Inquisition Our society has made life an inquisition, You'll never notice till you burn. kjg 1048am 4 jan 2014 * Perception I bought black toilet paper, My girlfriend was aghast! I said: I'm colour blind, White's just a mask! KJG 1059AM 4 JAN 2014 * switch i spoke to the devil he said I'm a glitch Your illumination I said with a twitch now several years later I'm human once more the devil's the only one who can open god's door. kjg 526pm 5 jan 2014 * betrayal katerina was a barmaid she knew the shepherds well they gave her wool for favours the inquisition levied hell the men she brought to justice were "goodmen" that's for sure but they found she was no joan of arc and burned her as a whore all this means is justice does not follow rules god does't quite discriminate if he did he'd be a fool "kill them all" count montfort said god will always rule! kjg 540pm 5 jan 2014 * fools! Either god controls the devil or the devil controls god; what does this mean to me? not a goddamn lot! kjg 601pm 5 jan 2014 * The Inquisition by any other name still stinks! kjg 212am 6 jan 2014 * Fools run away When there is no place to hide. kjg 401am 6 jan 2014 * Slow 4/4 beat blues Don't you care Anymore Wild is wild Score is score I find it funny There isn't more Crime detected On the floor There's got to be A little peace In the making When released From the wild dreams In raging storms Pretend a little And ditch the horns Don't you care Anmore We had our beauty Whatever for What must be fleeting Will never last A lost horizon An empty fast A dream we cannot Remember when We have woken We were not in So I fondly Bid you farewell Burst the bubble Where we must dwell Don't you care Anymore Wild is wild Score is score I find it funny There isn't more Crime detected On the floor There's got to be A little peace In the making When released From the wild dreams In raging storms Pretend a little kg 230am to 725am 6 jan 2013 * Immaculate Conception I finally relented and married the woman of her fathers dreams She was the sweetest of angels Jesus was her hero We didn't discuss much religion When she didn't conceive after 6 months of marriage she accused to me of impersonation She said god would have been quicker on the trigger It was his job The marriage was annulled She went back to the church Gave birth to a little Jesus He grew up to be a preacher Had a daughter out of wedlock Refused me last rites when I died. kjg 1129am 6 jan 2014 * Stoic Song There's a stoic for every purpose Don't acknowledge me so fast Socrates drank hemlock I was limping in a cast So don't be academic My cats like herring too Voice me an opinion And I'll recommend a zoo! kjg 1141am 6 jan 2014 * To the moon/Resurrection I will seek your predilection I will manage your addiction I will be there when you vanish Bow when you appear There can be no one so holy Than the priests who tell us truly The worship of the Pharaoh Is Jesus Christ in peril But somehow we've forgotten Osiris wrapped in cotton Moses of the slavers No one begs for favours Jesus in the Temple Herod Christ was simple Let Pilot do the trick A god will I resemble Jesus didn't wake up He high-tailed it out of there James got lucky with the cake He knew religion on the make So pray to the Madonna As if Jesus was a clone Of god who crucified him So very much alone. kjg 1244pm 6 jan 2014 * Sacrament I'm a frozen cabbage in a patch where onions grow... Sever me an oak tree branch And watch the witches glow! There is more to this than meets the eye If the grand inquisitor agrees You may have burned a lot of them But you've only set them free I make no bones about it Your pretending's so much mud When you stop being so hollow You'll drop the cup of blood kjg 104pm 6 jaqn 2014 * Past There are moments I remember There are moments I forget But the moments I remember Will live forever in my head. kjg 109pm 6 jan 2014 * No hindsight; no foresight; just panic. 13,000 years ago there was a minor temperature fluctuation in New Zealand resulting in the melting of a glacier therefore releasing trapped carbon into the atmosphere which resulted in the ice melting on Antarctica releasing more trapped carbon In another thousand years or so the northern ice cap began to melt man migrated north the wooly mammoth and sabre toothed tiger became extinct They didn't call it global warming then we call it the end of the last ice age a completely natural phenomena we're just panicking because it might mean the end of our species no great a loss. kjg 208pm 7 jan 2014 * Phone call Hi son can I have a word with you Your mother gave me the number Not advise and you don't even have to listen I know it's a different world out there And we've been way too long out of touch I won't even try to explain I'm old and not really in touch with the 'feeling' It's kind of difficult to know where to begin A rotary phone is my condition and you don't even know what that is! Perhaps music but well music is another predilection Rap isn't my bag and never will be I just want to say I'm sorry for the gap we created between us I let the chances slip between the cracks and you grew ever more distant I guess we're two different persons far apart I was hoping there would be some kind of spark Just treat your children well OK I'll get out of your way now Stay well Bye dad...love you. kjg 318pm 7 jan 2014 * Pierre Maury Before the grand inquisitor The lowly shepherd said without fear or malice: As a good Catholic I was tought to obey my father. This is what my father believed in. I must therefore also believe in what you call a heresy. I cannot do otherwise. This was in 1324. Sent to the dungeon erased from memory, he lives today in the pope's ledger -- the same man who condemned him to his death, for believing what the church taught him was the right thing to do. kjg 413pm 7 jan 2014 * hence the moment lost regret faulty favours in the bed mad transition in the head duty calls you to be dead nothing sinister no one bled the walls of urine glow instead in the moonlight neath the stars who would know me from afar one little kiss i say goodbye sailors never ever give high fives kjg 631pm 7 jan 2014 * Retribution Judas saved your ass little man Otherwise there'd be no christ no saviour! kjg 1126pm 7 jan 2014 * We foolishly rip apart what we have mended; Then we dig our own graves and our lives have ended! kjg 156am 8 jan 2014 * Compassion Nothing is explainable. But conjecture has a heart: It allows us to die Before we go mad thinking about it! kjg 202am 8 jan 2014 * I like to stay close to the gutter; That's where art is found! kjg 810am 8 jan 2014 * I may not always know what I'm saying, But I always say what I know! kjg 949am 8 jan 2014 * Touche! A long poem isn't always art, But a short poem's always a fart! kjg 950am 8 jan 2014 * Revelation! I have no idea what life is; And don't tell me God knows, She told me she doesn't know either. kjg 1029am 8 jan 2014 * Inquisition I knew that they would come for me But I didn't really care I lived my life from day to day I don't bow to their error! I should have stayed in Spain they say The arabs would have kept me free But what's exile without a home Death's no good without family So I sold my sheep and crossed the pass In hostile winter snow I was almost dead in the mellow spring The inquisitors should know! They revived me just in time to see My family put to death. Strange the way I see it now I didn't even curse them with my breath... In chains I contemplate my days Of rats and lice and fleas As now my life does nourish them Their death will nourish me! kjg 1112am 8 jan 2014 * The End It's comin' up fast The last quarter mile The audience roars And you can't raise a smile It's too useless to feel Any concrete ideal Like a chip off the block You think it's a crock The finish line waits It's an endless debate You cannot cheat death When it comes it's too late So don't sing me no song The prosody's wrong I'll willingly end When there is an abend Let's curl up together In this horrible weather Let history warm us We're all on it's teather 1222pm 8 jan 2014 * teeth hurt to the gums baromatic weather change doesn't bother cold but warming up bored morning snowing outside sifi on tv cats asleep and last of wine kjg 955am 10 jan 2014 * Vortex An Heretic about to be burned at the stake yelled this to someone who screamed, "I hope you feel the pain!": God will take the pain away, it's you who have to live. kjg 1122am 10 jan 2014 * The Flames of Ignorance A commentator on a gourmet travel show explained we never burned any witches the fires were to warn them to mend their ways ...and cater to the tourists who 500 years later watch them as an appetiser to their hefty meals kjg 1135am 10 jan 2014 * Those who have no sense of history have no sense of the present. kjg 1215pm 10 jan 2013 * Isolation Diseases make us stronger, Doctors make us weak. If you live in a barnyard You ain't gonna be too meek! Let your body fight the bug In stages...but we're lost Inside a plastic bubble And damn we pay the cost! kjg 1223pm 10 jan 2014 * Living longer doesn't always equate to living better. kjg 1214pm 10 jan 2014 * In the next few billion years, but not now. The sun burped. Some on this planet panicked. Not sure what to say, I didn't even get to see the aurora borealis! kjg 1229pm 10 jan 2014 * Consequence I view the present as history, It's gone before before we're ready To understand the consequence: Live for the moment...tomorrow's too unsteady! kjg 1235pm 10 jan 2014 * I don't care if you hate my poems, I'll write them anyway; But if you like my poems, OK, OK, OK! kjg 1237pm 10 jan 2014 * Tempest In A Teapot! Damn this island! It's cold and reprimands each wasted calibrated moment. Dull harangue! There's no evil where the shadows plie Their devious trades. No alley where the bastards cry Abandoned to the death of lies. Old I stumble In the years I might have left. Come here to die? Not really. Come here to live a quiet life away from the ragged clamour of the city? To contemplate? Don't be a fool! Only the young contemplate...the old meander in the cragged truth of broken joints and forever hobble with a cane. Nothing pretends worse than wisdom! It's a hollow substitute for life. Gather me in confidence and I will show you all my strife! Well, maybe not. kjg 856pm 12 jan 2014 * Home Cuxhaven! Forever in my dreams! I grew up there: Always in my heart. Yet my heart froze into time That never ever parts the vision left behind on sale In souvenir shops and adverts spewing Art. I cringe At where I lost the human way. Did I really have to go Three thousand miles away to exorcise where I was born? I can't think there might be another way. Too close To what we cherish and we lose it in the common wood. The narrow path is quite destructive where we hold the heart Empty of love, desire, or an honorary start. Self exile is a stubborn fate! It holds us home And drags us in terror of debate we never lose and never win. It's a dungeon we make for ourselves; one we forever try to escape, yet gladly live within! kjg 914pm 12 jan 2014 * The Legally Insane! It's all false. We live in a conjectural society, Where what we believe at the moment is the cause To brand others with the stigma of the holy underground Activity. The Inquisition by any other name is still The Inquisition. And because we are all deluded by their Insane melodrama we become the flaggerants ever On the path to torture and salvation. Today it's in the Name of safety that we lose our liberty, tomorrow Who knows what? They drag us down with whatever is their Sadistic pleasure --no standard in the eyes of any god. Mistranslation gives them stamina. And the poor have to Hire lawyers to get past their gobblygook of a legalspeak! And so we languish in the dungeons of their laughter! The LAW is NOT for commoners! It's for the legally insane! kjg 303am 13 jan 2014 * 3 AM Madness I rage against the walls! I rage against the silence! I rage against decay! The body in decay! I rage against The economy of a solution! I rage against the downward spiral Of Darwin's evolution! I rage against my raging! I rage Against myself! I rage against what I'm no longer! I rage Against what I've become! I rage against the rage! A planet full of hunger and madness; a planet full of mass delusion! A planet where the few control the many! And no "liberty" Should promise retribution for those who seek it! I do not See Democracy anywhere. There is none where I live, and There is none where they worship it. Professed freedom Is not freedom, it's shallow outhouse of deceptions. "Give me liberty or give me death!" They shout and yet The sword they brandish is the sword that keeps them slaves! kjg 320am 13 jan2014 * Tolerance We only tolerate those Who are more powerful than us! kjg 323am 13 jan 2014 * The Hard Way My gums ache with a magnificent obsession; Eat more candy and learn a lesson! kjg 325am 13 jan 2014 * All poems copyright (c) 2014 Klaus J. Gerken Published by Ygdrasil Press January 2014