Good Morning, Mr. President

Posted by B.L. McGarr on November 5th, 2008

Good Morning, Mr. President
A mandate, received
A directive, posted
A dream, invested

Good Morning, Mr. President
Today is the first day
Of many days
Of your days

Good Morning, Mr. President
History, made
Politics of Fear, defeated
And a page turned, just the same

Good Morning, Mr. President
Fix us, heal us
Console us, unify us
Repair us, honor us

Good Morning, Mr. President
The struggle, over
A new one beginning
The world, in your hands

Oh, Mr. President:
Remember, Remember
The Fourth of November
Two Thousand Eight
The Ballot Box

I know no reason,
This Election Season
Should ever, ever
Be forgot

Good Morning, Mr. President
The sun rise this Fifth of November,
On the Obama Administration
Make it bright, make it right.

Good Morning, Mr. President
Good Morning, Mr. President

Good Morning

Bookmark and Share

Untitled 10-25

Posted by B.L. McGarr on October 25th, 2008

1

alone i sit wild thoughts dancing
around my brain, awaking each moment
a movie, a blockbuster of sorts
playing its matinee in my head

i am not dreaming of specific things
for specific things don’t make very good stories
i dream in concepts, aspects, past and present
now and future, myself and you

my soul has ventured it seems across the ages of time
for it feels the wear of days of old
it carries with it the mark of time before
it knows the story before the story is told

i know not from whence it came, it just did,
as all history does, engraved deep in our souls
encoded in our bodies
entrenched in our minds

the past written, each cell and fiber of my being
each product of centuries before me
each product of trials and tribulations
each of a story unsung, untold, unknown

2

i sit alone in the darkness of my cave
a modern hole in the rock
my candle the flicker of a screen
my pen the clicking of my fingers

i sit alone before a portal to the rest of the world
yet i am alone
yet i am not alone
i am both continuously and the same

in this modern world of blue humming and whirring
i am a lone flame within a roaring bonfire
i suspect there are more
just as i am

the earth buckles beneith the burden
each step i take
a mark upon the landscape
i am made up of it, and it is made up of me

the souls of others, of flora and fauna
haunt the dark corridors and bright streets
except here
before my portal

3

i go forth to the mountains - solice!
i breathe in the wind, smell of pine and cedar
and i know i roamed here once before
long before

the mountain spire scrapes against the moon in the sky
sheer luck the damn thing doesn’t break
and the water flowing in the falls chilling the air
turning summer into the cool of fall

and i know not where i am going - nor where i have been
nor do i care, for it is not here or now
i will worry about memoirs in my dying days
today i live, breathe, eat, sleep, and mate

4

standing naked below birch and pine
my body soaks in all that surrounds me
although i mustn’t stay this way for long
the rangers whilst surely arrest me

wonder i do, a path long and narrow and wide and short - it is all things
and is nothing
it is what i make it
it is clay for me to mold

it is the pottery i so choose it to be
be it a cup
a bowl
a basin
a baptismal font
a urine bucket
a plate
a spoon
a wobbly and oddly shaped thing-a-ma-jig - if you can find it’s purpose, you can has it, fifty cent

the vines of the trees on the shore near the light remindst me of cable and coax
no - no, damn it why must my brain spoil such beauty and splendor with the dull gray of the portals
why must i long for horse drawn carriages and the portal at the same time?
i am hungry, and wish to be engorged by all that is past and present.

the light upon the shore sends it’s flicker flash across the waves
and the lighthouse keeper is no longer present, the portal in his place
sad, because today I wished to lunch with the housekeeper upon the sands and talk a while
perhaps woo his eldest daughter, but the portal is all that is found

5

there is someone looking for me and i can feel her,
she calls my name and it sounds like the wind
when she screams for me in fear, it is the thunder
and i do not know where to find her

a romance unfolds, two parties not knowing
a dance recited, the dancers divided
she is where, i do not know tonight or tomorrow night or even the next night
and not even the portal can bring her to me

she is young, but old, careless but careful
she wonders what there is to wonder and wonders no more than what there is to wonder
if it is tangible it is true, or a lie, and if it is not seen it is true, or a lie
she holds in her heart the roar of silence and the whisper of a symphony.

her long hair transcends from her highest peaks down upon her glorious shoulders,
cascading down the small of her back,
her breasts the way they should be, and her hips as smooth as silk
her lips taste of fresh dew and sweetness not known even to Hershey

her eyes though, a new portal filled with the mysteries and truth of the universe
and through this new portal i find all comfort i need
and it is beautiful as she
and it is as lovely as she

her words sound of a song, a slight twang of the banjo, the cry of the violin, the strum of the guitar
paints a picture of many worlds - a old cowboy riding through myst and fog to deliver seal’d parchment
her breath is life - and with each passing day breathing new into mine.
our paths whilst cross, but when only she knows.

6

the young child full of curiosity asks of the days before
and why men do such evil things
i know the answer and do not know the answer
i cannot speak for the atrocities of yesterday

what would i answer the child seeing before him replay of yester year?
what do i tell the young man furious that again we see the same as yesterday
that learning learns nothing but foolish ways and means
what is it that i tell the child and the young man, valid questions they hold

they are not mine to ask, and bring them to the President - ha!
jest you surely do of such insidious and incredulous notion of that.
bring a question of great heft before the court of fools and jesters?
simply cut off my testicles and fry them before my eyes.

ask them to the Clergy? again I laugh at you and chuckle - do you not see?
the questions you should ask these of is thee!
the clergy much like the politico feed their goals and motives - and never answer a single question
answer this yourself! answer it, and then change the answer within you and your seed

i say not speak to your semen and expect them to listen
for if i saw you shouting to your groin i would have you committed
but teach those product of your seed
and teach them well, for patriots are not blind and cotton mouthed

Speak! doest thou hath a tongue to form words and sounds?
does thou hath a soul and conscious to form what is right?
or hath your soul and conscious been tainted with the murky waters of your father
hath you not thought for yourself?

dead men and unthinking men have two traits in common - they both languish in their states forever
never becoming more, never becoming less
withering away to irrelevancy
nothing more than a fable, footnote, or poetry

7

the wheel of the machine twists
and banks around swoops and swerves
it is a marvelous machine
and it brings me closer to nature

closer to nature as i choke the life with each mile, each piston beating upon her brow and boosem
although it will change
one day
and this machine will breathe into her new life

8

music is the language of the spirit, it is what reaches into you and dances with your soul
listen, and you can hear it tapping
clapping
dancing

oh the music of the isle emerald, or the song of the republic, the banjo and the guitar of the west
sings to me deeply a song my soul knows
calls it up to say - i’ve been here before
and i knew your name

9

the lights of the aurora dance upon the frozen ice
the wind of the arctic bites all it touches
this land is no place for man
and here reside the Inuit

they astound me, as they should
their tolerance for the cold,
melding of ways modern and ancient
yet they sing to me a sad song

i have never met the Inuit, but they sing to me
in the night time
from the cold arctic circle
high upon the north

they sing that they are losing thier heritage
and it a song that makes me weep inside
yet i do not know why i weep
whilst i thrust the dagger deep into their hearts.

10

seasons come each cycle
spring, summer, fall, winter
and each one brings with it new life
yet there is one season that is all but misunderstood

folks talk of springtime love, of playful summer days,
but it is the chill of fall that signals love is in the air
true love, spring just brings sex
and summer more sex

as the cold winds bite and the leaves change colors
the first frosts kiss the land
the season is upon us
the time is at hand

bundled up, dressed in thier best,
as the snow falls upon the trees
love springs to life
and the season begins

there is no romance that compares to the one fostered
in the dead of winter
sparked in the autumn leaves
it roars brighter as the nights grow longer

the cold means being close
the long nights mean long nights
and the woman i desperately seek
knows all too well the magick of a little bit of snow

as thanksgiving comes the families get together to meet
and to eat
and the newly acquired flame sees the roots of their love
they see their history come alive

they see mom in her quirkiness, they see auntie the life of the party
they see dad and uncle razzing each other over football
they see grampa matching whits with the boys
they see grandma coordinating it all

they see the kids of relatives play, and see what lies ahead
they count the beers drank by the boys
they count the gossip told by the women
and the rosy cheeks on every kid

she now has a sense of the roots of the clan,
she now knows what makes the man
she can sense the humor or the tension
she can smell the fear or the jubilation

as christmas lights are strung on each home
and sparkle in the snow, she sees she has found
a good man
from good stock

and as the nights grow colder their love grows bolder
and as december nears its shining day
she lets you into her den
to see her clan

christmas dinner as she shows off
her prize catch
and he sees the history of the family
her roots, and in it the future

he notices how jolly mom is, how snarky auntie can be
he sees how dad prefers to read christmas stories to the kids,
while uncle and grandpa get dressed to play santa
(adding a few pounds of fluffy pillows to make it authentic)

he counts the glasses of egg nog the boys have,
he hears the chit-chat of the ladies
he sees the joys in the kids eyes
as santa comes to visit

he now has a sense of the roots of the clan,
he now knows what makes the woman
he can sense the humor or the tension
he can smell the fear or the jubilation

as the family ventures out to sing carols
in the snow, he sees he has found
a good woman
from good stock

and this is why winter breeds love
and romance
for as the new year passes
a new life is begun

much is why i hate arizona
winter never comes
the snow never falls
the magick never sparks

oh for why do i live in a desert
when i belong in the north?
i am a refugee
and i seek asylum!

11

it is samhain
and i remain home by choice
some time was needed
to reflect

have i changed ‘or the years
have i altered whom i am since ‘04?
i don’t believe i have
but others do

thinking hard about what it may be, what it may mean
i wince hard as my brain plunges the depths of archived thoughts
searching for why i may be
changed

it has been four long years since i ventured from Cascadia
it has been four years of success and failure, joy and sadness
health and sickness, pleasure and pain
in four years, i had changed

i had grown up
grown out
grown thoughtful
moved about

i have not changed for the worse, nay for the better
at least i feel,
my thoughts, my convictions studied in great detail,
placing them on a scale of justice and fair

i guess thats what you get
when you go away from home
and become your own person
you become your own person

you change in the eyes of people who thought
they knew you best
but all that hath changed is that your brain has been freed
and your convictions your own.

i know not where i will go hencefourth into the night
and i surely know i will continue growing, changing, morphing,
for that is what life is all about
and that is what we should celebrate.

12

exhaustion fills the body
creeping through every fiber
every node and vessel
every nerve

the body slides into numb-state
the brain detaches
so to seem
at least to me

the eyes focus on nothing yet everything
wandering with pinpoint precision
and each breath feels colder and colder
everything growing weak

death feels like being awake for 20 hours with minimal sleep
a nap here
a unconscious period there
nothing more than 2 hours in a spread

exhaustion feels like death
grabbing you from the inside
and strangling you with icy
tingly fingers

can’t scream
can’t sleep
restless for no reason
and never knowing why.

Thirteen

Thirteen
Thirteen
unlucky?
cursed?

’tis but a rediculous notion to think
a number carries ill luck
so read this segment
this section

thirteen
thirteen
thirteen
thirteen

fearful yet?
are ye?
thirteen
thirteen

14

To Be Continued…

Bookmark and Share

YouTube Reading

Posted by B.L. McGarr on October 17th, 2008

recind, Sentinel, and Watchman have been recorded being read by yours truly and posted to YouTube. Enjoy!

Bookmark and Share

Leaving the Station

Posted by B.L. McGarr on October 10th, 2008

the trains leave the station
on a whistle stop tour across the nation
carrying with them politicians
and the future of the world

here comes this one train
broken axle bound with duck tape
chugging along like nothings wrong
gears grinding all along

this is the story of the Fail Train
conducted by Senator John McCain
barreling down the rails at full speed
powered by bullshit and greed

chugging along
digging his grave
he picks up a hockey mom from Alaska
as his Vice President

Palin brings twenty tonnes of the same shit
can’t even last one sit
with Gibson or Couric
says ‘Maverick’ enough to make you sick

this is the story of the Fail Train
conducted by Senator John McCain
barreling down the rails at full speed
powered by bullshit and greed

‘My friends’ he says,
hoping someone will believe his lies
as he launches a smear campaign
a last ditch effort to stay on the tracks

yet this fail train is chugging full steam
straight toward the end of the line
the end of the dime
and a cliff

no one believes his shit
Sarah’s just a dimwit
Arizona’s slip and fall
something to regret

this is the story of the Fail Train
conducted by Senator John McCain
barreling down the rails at full speed
powered by bullshit and greed

all aboard the fail train,
full steam toward demise
powered by bullshit
powered by lies

Bookmark and Share

Chester Pettington

Posted by B.L. McGarr on September 23rd, 2008

I remember blue skies
snow days, once apon a time
We laughed and sang our cares away
but that was long, long, long ago

and I remember thinking
oh, thinking you were part of me and,
I remember dreaming,
dreaming of building a family

Oh but those days are so long, long ago
and today I stand in the snow
Singing, “I am not afraid, oh not afraid, no, no, no,
I am not afraid to be alone”.

But you remember me as this jackass,
sinister little prick.
at least that’s what you told our friends,
you two-faced lying bitch.

But you don’t remember me at all,
oh no no no no,
you don’t remember a damn thing,
not a damn thing at all.

Oh but those days are so long, long ago
and today I stand in the snow
Singing, “I am not afraid, oh not afraid, no, no, no,
I am not afraid to be alone”.

Under blue skies dreaming, singing, out in the snow,
I finally met a woman who knows me,
who truly, really knows
everything.

Oh but those days are so long, long ago
and today I stand in the snow
Singing, “I am not afraid, oh not afraid, no, no, no,
I am not afraid to watch my children grow.”

Bookmark and Share

rescind

Posted by B.L. McGarr on August 21st, 2008

lying here
almost comatose
trying to be
a little bit verbose

the words i form
have no sound
they leave me
nothin’ but spellbound

i try and i try
to cause discourse
but i run and i run
endless racecourse

everyone stares
emotionless blank faces
not a one taking stock
blame for their choices

and as this world
turns and burns
i get up, dust off,
my soul yearns and churns

i can’t take anymore
of all of these fakers
middle-class trash being
hookers and drinkers

stand a part
my heart ripped out
found beating and bleeding
and kicked about

what do I got
I ask myself
my life and just some stuff
on the bookshelf

when does it end
a wise man asked
only whence the madman
has been unmasked

till then i’ve got
to fight and live
and only hope my
grandchildren can forgive

for the world i will hand them
will be nearly dead
thanks to greed and ignorance
retards like the skinheads

but i do my part
i get out the vote
watch the politicians dance
and media misquote

forgive me father
for i have sinned
all of the actions
i cannot rescind.

Bookmark and Share

Sentinel

Posted by B.L. McGarr on August 20th, 2008

silent watching
through the night
dim flicker flame
only light

beating fingers
across the desk
finding happiness
in time and meter

yet nothing comes

stepping away
the heart goes
searching
scouting for the sentinel

hiding in shadows
watching still
too afraid
to say anything

yet nothing comes

the sentinel waits
for something good
to come his way
waiting all night and day

loneliness takes its toll
a disease no drug can cure
a societal condition
we must endure

from time to time

oh dear sentinel do believe
that something good
can come your way
if not today

keep on hoping
and watching still
train your heart
to be a better scout

send him out to seek her out.

- B.L. McGarr

Bookmark and Share

Watchman

Posted by B.L. McGarr on July 28th, 2008

i count the seconds
passing by-and-by
log the minutes
as they pass

i quote the hours
each moment passing
observing
recording

as each second ticks by
i forget the last one
i don’t know why
i never remember

though i have a friend
she remembers for sure
each day of the year
the seasons, and more

i count forward
she marks days
both past
and future

a lovely couple
we are
in our place
beside the door.

-B. L. McGarr

Bookmark and Share

Annual Independence Day Letter

Posted by B.L. McGarr on July 2nd, 2008

Greetings everyone,

I am again sending out my annual Independence Day email to everyone that I know and hold dear. It is my way of celebrating the birth of this nation in which we live in. This year, our 232nd year of existence from the time our Founding Fathers and their families committed High Treason against the British Crown, is one of a special occasion.

Two-hundred-thirty-two years ago 56 men signed what could essentially be their own death certificates had their actions fizzled and failed. Fifty-six men gambled in a game few others dare to play: succeed and secure liberty for their families and friends; or fail, and swing from the gallows prior to being drawn and quartered. The idea of hanging by a rope is more than enough to keep most from seeking change in the world they live in. Yet, those men felt so passionate about their cause that they would risk death of them and those around them to seek a better life.

Here we are, 232 years later… and we’ve forgotten. Today, we idly sit while our representatives in Congress, the abomination that is our Executive Branch, and hundreds of other key individuals on all levels of government unravel the very fabric of what 56 men and their followers placed their lives on the line for two centuries ago. We sit while our ability to travel is reduced to being identified, classified, scanned, searched, probed, and violated all in the name of ‘national safety’. We sit while Congress considers granting the Telecommunication Giants such as Verizon and Comcast immunity for violating our constitutional rights by allowing the Government to spy on your phone calls and internet traffic without proper warrants. We sit while a war is raged in our name over lies and deceit. We sit while our economy slides further and further towards the abyss. We sit while our leaders destroy our nation.

Oh, we find plenty to bicker about. We bicker about non-issues like whom can marry whom. We bicker about whether religion and science belong in the same classroom. We fight over obscenity on our television. We fight over dumb things while our nation grows more uneducated, poorer, more violent, more polluted, and less healthy. We try to blame it all on corrupt politicians, inflation, urban influence, corporations, fast food, and illegal immigrants. The fact is, we’re all to blame. Every time we blindly vote for candidates that we hear on TV, every City and County Council meeting we miss, every time we fill out a ballot we know nothing about, every time we tune to ‘American Idol’ or some other crap show instead of PBS, C-SPAN, etc., or every time get our news from snark-filled comedians and websites, we do it to ourselves.

This Independence Day, I challenge everyone of you. I challenge everyone to buy every member of their household a pocket-copy of the U.S. Constitution ($5 at any bookstore, or online at Barnes and Noble) and have them read it, from the opening to the end. All articles and all amendments. I challenge everyone to carry it with them everywhere they go, and read a portion from time to time. I challenge everyone to make giving everyone they know a copy at one point or another a priority. I challenge everyone to get involved, to take the time to go to City or County Council, or to any other meetings in which the public are invited, such as for the Fire District or School District. I challenge everyone to research the issues, the candidates, the whole ballot. I challenge everyone to take a stand against the tyranny that has befallen our nation and proclaim once again:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

My friends, it is time we re-evaluate our situation. It is time we look again to ourselves and determine “Is this the Government we wanted representing us”, and if that answer is NO, then we must again make the hard decision: Do we believe in the wording of the Constitution and are willing to wager all that there is to wager, or do we cower in the corner hoping that nothing bad ever happens to us.

Two-hundred-thirty-two years have passed since the families of this nation placed their lives on the line in pursuit of a greater cause, and in that time we have gone full circle and come back to where we started.

We can change the nation, but first, we have to change ourselves. We have to start by giving a damn. Only then, will anything else be possible.

Below is the link to a poem I wrote last Independence Day which I hope you enjoy.

Good night, and good luck.

- B. L. McGarr

Bookmark and Share

Breakaway

Posted by B.L. McGarr on July 2nd, 2008

looking at life
through a window pane
feeling the wind rattle
and the pounding rain

looking back at all that i’ve been through
i see my struggles before me, and the pain
that’s when i see you
my fire flame

looking at life through breakaway glass
watching the scenes play out, alas
learning from each moment, day after day
wanting to dive through to save the day
looking at life through breakaway glass

you said that you loved me every night
but you treated me like a toy
and comeback like everything was alright
i believed you because no one else ever loved this boy

looking at life through breakaway glass
watching the scenes play out, alas
learning from each moment, day after day
wanting to dive through to save the day
looking at life through breakaway glass

and if i could i’d shatter this glass
reach into the past
help myself along
keep me from you, from the pain you caused

but then again

looking at life through breakaway glass
watching the scenes play out, alas
learning from each moment, day after day
the hurt made me stronger, made me this way

now i can go on living, paving my way
and when i meet her, she will know
i’ve been there, done that, grown
games are for children, and stands here a man

Bookmark and Share