"Find the way to your own creativity and everything else becomes better."
-- doug smith
Let It Flow
Can you tell when you're holding back? Or, are your senses dulled when things get dull and the sparkling shine fades away?
Creativity can act like water: sometimes we need to prime the pump to get it flowing. Let it flow. Move it forward. There will be surprises. There will be storms. I really do believe that the best thing you will ever create has not yet been created. It awaits your initiative, your verve, your motion.
You can't help but be creative -- no need to hold back.
-- doug smith
Better than not perfect
"One brilliantly creative idea a day is all that it takes, to undo a hundred thoughtless mistakes."
-- doug smith
five years
thru five years
we've danced daringly with many
diverse partners
crept thru bedroom windows of
a few starched spirits
and spilled a few
tears of our own
after five years
kids become searching adults,
your face remains soft and warm
and my hands remain calloused but curious
(a learning, yearning, burning process
breathing Spring,
simmering Summer
fearless Fall)
in five years
it appears:
some dreams last longer than others
and life's road turns faster with eyes open
as it rolls on revealing (with a
wink) that some cycles and hearts
remain synchronized, and that dance steps
echo softly and that i love you still.
douglas brent smith
some lies
pacing thru the time tripped delicately on
edges of faceless fancies freed from the
rushing resentment of relentless realities
battering upon a daring door of dancing
chances taken and rebuttals received
answers mistaken and desire deceived.
douglas brent smith
Cloud Posing as a Pipe
Sketch: Cloud Posing as a Pipe, from journal #10, cry Wolf (1977) douglas brent smith
secret dreams
so what if
your hair style
is three years
ahead
of the trends
and you will
not regard fashion
because we are
above and
beyond all that
caught between
generations
and
secret dreams
"your mustache
tickles,"
she said.
-- doug smith
that shirt
soaring up here
on a colombian
vacation
looking up to
find you
straight ahead
looking down
eyes narrow
ears open
for sounds
lending a touch
of thin
but absolute
meaning
strong enough to
stand
wearing someone
else's
shirt.
douglas brent smith
Alaskan Pipe Line
Sketch: Alaskan Pipe Line, from journal #10, cry Wolf, 1977
Note:
My dad smoked a pipe for years. He favored two flavors of tobacco , one was Old Hickory and the other I do not remember. It's a filthy habit of course but I did enjoy the smell and he did seem so peaceful whenever he had a pipe in his mouth. It was no good for his teeth of course, which he lost and wore dentures for years but that was also probably because of the gallons of heavily sugared iced tea that he drank.
We all drank too much iced tea.
I haven't been to Alaska yet as of this date but it is one of only three states that I have not been to, the others being Hawaii and Montana. Funny, two of them were not states when I was born -- as I often say "that's how OLD I am..."
I did contemplate traveling to work the Alaskan pipe line -- the actual oil line and not the cartoon -- but correctly determined that it was all probably too rugged for me. Life certainly would have changed in a different path, even I'd even survived.
Any way -- that's my silly cartoon.
-- doug smith
a breath and a sigh
magic never mattered much
spells and incantations are
punchlines pounding air
barely worth a chuckle and
lately most of life stacks
a natural order and predictable
placid piecemeal wave
but
a breath and a sigh ago
in the warm night air
somewhere between the pause
of the sunset and
the promise of dawn
you touched me gently
recklessly upsetting all mystery
a promise no proper landing
dancing between knowing and
hiding in a never-land of
grins and giggles
shakes and surprises
dreams and desire
say,
maybe there is magic after all.
douglas brent smith
in need of a doctor
she held back her tears
as she told me the reason
she just could not hold me tonight
"i'm in need of a doctor
who does not ask questions
can you tell me a place to go?
and my body is trembling
from a night past remembering
and i don't want the family to know
"why does it happen it's my cross to bear?
i hear thru your silence -- you weren't even there
but i do need some help some how
"i know it's not unusual
it happens all the time
but it's so devastating
when the choice is mine..."
she refused to cry
as she ended the call
"i will find a way
to overcome it all..."
and never spoke of this again.
douglas brent smith
openers
universal bang it was a universal bang
it was a universal bang it was
a big bang
got to thinking about the nature of existance
and with a certain degree of persistence
i proceeded to untangle all the angles
that approach us
from the cosmic cloud encroaching us
all leading to the theory
that a weary sort of human
needs awakening acumen
to make sense of any reasoning
and weather all the seasoning
that's bound to blow right thru you
no matter what you do you
come up a little short and then
it slips right thru your hands again
it hasn't changed much to the aliens
deciding if we're enemies or friends
still hoping that we finally get the joke
universal bank it was a universal bang
it was a universal bang it was
a big bang.
douglas brent smith
Note:
from journal #10, cry Wolf (1977)
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