Saturday Poetry

At dinner last night, I was engaged in a conversation about why people settle. Get a job, buy a house, have a baby, save your money, etcetera. I’m not speaking out against any of that, but its interesting that we often live these linear, predictable lives. Why doesn’t that bother more people? I don’t know…I was just thinkin’…it kind of bothers me.

The conversation reminded me of a poet/poem that often awakens whatever rebel that lives inside me. I love this poem. It makes me want to always stay in motion.

the suburban prophets
(d.a. levy)

oh its an easy cool
that rolling of long grass lawn tranquility
and long grass philosophy
sounds almost as absurd
as suburban hipsters
smoking long grass
like panama red while subtly discussing
plato ouspensky sartre or zen
putting it down
its easy
from the long grass lands &
from the long grass lands
‘everything is good’

“everything is god”
in the land of shad trees
“Everything is God”
“the universe is one”
walking in the long grass lands with flowers
within reach of quiet hands

“You bet motherfucker,
let me tell you about
the satori i had last week!”
in the suburbs
its easy
to remember
golden rules & golden days
& god is good even tho non-existent
its a good world in the suburban long grass
you can watch the grass grow
& smell progress in the open sky
and its easy to forget
across the city
are streets of hunger
and that suburban tranquility
doesn’t feed those hungry streets
and that suburban tranquility
doesn’t mean a good fuck
on suburban lawns

its easy to think there
are jobs for everyone
when youve got one

its easy to quote lao tzu
when yr wife isnt on the streets
and dont have to dodge the
welfare children

its an easy cool
laying on the quiet suburban lawn grass
“in tune with the universe”

and its like smoking long grass
panama red
you just slip into
an easy forgetting
and its easy to forget
some men are starving
and some men with guns…