what Jane needs to paint
fuel from foolish adventures
folly from feeling
alive
swirling her flashy flesh filled shape
as metaphors
a warm blanket
around her naked frame
what Jane needs lately to feel
hip in her new age
is company, coolness shared
some touchable one
who cares what she paints
more than about
what's under her blanket.
douglas brent smith
Sketch: A Slightly Sinister Creature - from journal #10 cry Wolf (1977).
Once an angel
fell
from her warm but insecure
perch in an artificial sky
damaged and breathless
afraid and in tears
i ran to her soft side
more than anxious to
help her to heal her
and hear her words of love
mending her wings and
sealing her strength
hoping she'd fly over worlds
that were also mine
and love me for something
that angels don't have
but...once healed
on the wing
she took flight from my sight
not willing to waste
her freedom on fools
so i wait with tears streaming
waiting and dreaming
and hoping that when
that angel falls again
she remembers these steady hands.
douglas brent smith
Five Sketches in Search of a Hat - from journal #10: cry wolf (1977)
i left my typewriter in new jersey
as if some bloodied murder weapon
trying to hide the crimes
or forget the posturing
of the scene of all my passion
and pathos
for these seven quite odd years
where manhood came
and with it the twisting
torture of passion's pain
distressed and then daring
darling and then distressing
messing with alternatives
though the people traded places
sliding parade-like suddenly
my massive wooden desk i
called the aircraft carrier (covered
with unfinished scripts, snatches of poems,
and doctors' bills)
half my soul (it seems) was
spilled poured and splattered
into these gold, black, red walls
onto the dusty floor filled with
cat hair, beard hair, auburn hair
too precious to sweep away
no, it was not a castle
or a page from Architecture Digest
but it gave me all I ever needed
to become an artist
they say we become completely new
every seven years
we'll see i suppose we will see
i left my typewriter in new jersey
i guess i'll need to return for it.
douglas brent smith
embarrassing errors boggle and
jog clumsily a spell mispelled
an assertion averted a
bumbling humbling remark
all those things
we were all those
things bringing confidence to
a dance without knowing
any of the steps i
of course stepped continually on
toes not my own
breaking light into frozen
patches not fixable fixed
in a moment exposed
so sorry so sorry so sorry
you told me that insecurity is
often expressed as bravado and
of course you were correct
you don't have to forgive me but
what if you did?
-- douglas brent smith
