Al Young

 

Editor's Note: Underscoring the importance of poetry and the literary arts, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on May 12th 2005 appointed Al Young as California's Poet Laureate. A well deserved tribute and recognition for an outstanding man of letters. Congratulations Al.   All of us here at Asili celebrate with you.

A DANCE FOR AGING HIPSTERS

For the aging hipster
there isnt any cure,
as he fumbles the key
to his own front door
it gives & opens anyway
Loaded again yes
it's him & he's loaded again
this time on time but
the very mellowness he fathered
& nurtured thru high spring
has fallen now
into an earlier autumn
than even he
had anticipated

Dreamily he clings
to his favorite memories
of splendid explosions ...
that titillated the glands,
cold implosions
 in the blue of his heart
& he suffers leftover visions
of festive backrooms
on crazy warm nights
where he jived other jivers
& set the pace
 for a whole nervous subculture
 strung out behind loneliness

 

MYSELF WHEN I AM REAL
for Charles Mingus

The sun is shining in my backdoor
right now.
                  I picture myself thru jewels
the outer brittleness gone as I
fold within always.          Melting.

Love of life is love of God
sustaining all life,
                                        sustaining me
when wrong or un-self-righteous
in drunkenness & in peace.
                                        He who loves me
is me. I shall return to Him always,
my heart is rain, my brain earth,

 my heart is rain, my brain earth,
but there is only one sun & forever
it shines forth one endless poem
of which my ranting, my whole life
is but bream.
                                    I long to fade back
into this door of sun forever

SELF PORTRAIT HOLDING ON

Sitting in the  kitchen
of a strange room
surrounded by fixtures
a window on my left
window on my right
the slow pouring of light
into the room
into my head
filled with old wine
the whole outdoors is ticking
 inside I feel as black as distant trees
in the dead of night
there's nowhere to go
nothing to do

THE OLD FASHIONED CINCINNATI BLUES