AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

Pillow talk


Holiday Lady – foto Smith

Lying in bed she says “So what do we do day after day?”
“We walk the rat wheel.”
“What am I going to do with you?”
She says that a lot when I let truth slip.
“Nothing you can do, I’m incorrigible. You thought I was corrugated cardboard you could mold at will, but I’m incorrigible; I remain beast.”

Four months into our seventh year and she’s still trying to civilize me. That shows hopeful heart.

May 2012 be good to us all, and we to it.

Especially we to it.

Personally, I’m going to try walking this brand new 2012 rat wheel with softer, steadier steps (so maybe her persistence is working a wee bit after all).


Piano Lady – foto Smith

strange song


Singer – foto Smith

I’ve been getting a wee bit smoother on some of my singing attempts lately so thought I’d go back 8 years to show you where I was — and play a truly strange vocal attempt to turn a 1965 poem (when I was 19) into song (when I was 57). Peter saved this segment of the session and exorcized the rest.

One of my stranger attempts – Old Man’s Lament > reverbnation.com/play_now/song_8051171.

Old Man’s Lament / Sweet Little Sixteen

I want to caress your breast
And when passions mounted manifest
Take my hate in hand
Caress you all the more
Make you writhe about in uncommon whore
Kiss the taunt of your innocent thigh
And wrench from your lips a cry
Of pagan pleasure all your own
The low human female moan
Shattering your sacred hymeneal pride
Rampaging you full deep inside
So you feel my subfreudian lust
In each violent misogynous thrust
Of my hips against yours . . .

— Smith, fragment of 1965 poem recorded as song 2003

If I don’t get beat too badly for this one, I’ll blog some more of my strange brood that I’ve been hiding in the cellar.

Music, mix, recording Peter Ball aka Apartment One; words, voice me.


Song – foto Smith

Monkeys monkeys moneys and more


Shadowjack – foto Smith

Took a fragment of a 2005 poem and turned it into a bluesy rasp rock song called Uncle Sham. It walks the moral dark side of “Do unto others as they’ve done.” But other than that, it’s a nifty little number, bounces right along.

Click to play Uncle Sham: www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11543779.

Uncle Sham

Monkeys monkeys moneys and more
My monkey’s so hungry I gotta score
So I’m takin’ names, I’m makin’ lists
Of faker folk who got me pissed

Save your seedy greedy soul
Before you find you’re masshole
My monkey’s not drugs or food
But fairness, truth, trying to do good

  Though I forgive I never forget
  Those who think truth is sublet
  So make my day, try your lies
  Watch them weave among the wise

And hurtin’ the bad begins to look right
Along these paths we walk to light
Let’s do the monkey on money’s men
Hurt those who hurt and then begin

De-tongue the liars lying their load
Run the road ragers off the road
Cast the priests with very dull spoons
Engage in cage the Man’s police goons

  Though I forgive I never forget
  Those who may think they sublet
  So make my day, try your lies
  Watch them weave among the wise

— Smith, fragment of 2005 poem

Music, mix, recording by Peter Ball of Apartment One; words and voice me.

There are 38 Ball/Smith word/music jams at revernbation.com/mutantsmith.


Flutterbye – foto Smith

4 story





4 story – fotos Smith


The Bisque Buddha

What good this dusty truth I hold in hand
to gain immoral ground in other’s land?
What use the pure of heart when acts of need
in escalating schemes the living seed?
Truths change naught, though they scurry so
while new lies easily sought hurry low
themes rhyming jism to rhythm within
all going nowhere in wisdom, or whim.

If truth to be told takes who, how, and when
why the eraser at truth’s other end?
Why all the viewpoints and let’s make amends
when no truth’s all truth and all truth’s a sin?
For all gain’s no gain less all gain as well
(a story told truly too often to sell).

— Smith, 2003

4 of by Lady + 1


Composition by cat and Lady – foto Smith

Composition of Lady and mirror – foto Smith

Composition of Lady by Lady – foto Smith

Composition of cat by Lady – foto Smith

Lady Gray

Well I got a little lady
Maybe she a shady grey
But when I lap her lapidary
She the only way

She make me sweet begonia
She jolly up my jam
She make me sweat petunia
She amp my is with am

I want to be her front door man

O lady let me light your darkness
Won’t you lead me late to sin
Let wicked lie be my harness
And my whip lip on lip

— Smith, 2005

Fire chant


Fire dance – foto Smith

Fire Chant

Dance without pattern
reshuffle the stars
brighten your lantern
shake their sad are
play within patterns
which muffle their mar
fight their dark lantern
break their code bar
dance with your shadow
ruffle their raw
light your own ladder
wreck their zone war

— Smith, 12.24.2011


Cyber fire – foto Smith

travel ku


Sunrise over moonscape – foto Smith

~ ~ ~

Essaouira Haiku

West African coast
Low tide, shadows, sea bottom
Tracks from brine to blues

~ ~ ~

Marrakech Haiku

Marrakech at dusk
Purple petals on the ground
Red flower falling

~ ~ ~

Oaxacan Haiku

Oaxacan hawk on
high watches Oaxacans hawk
trinkets to their prey

(Oaxacan is pronounced wah-HAWK-an)

~ ~ ~

— Smith, 2007


Rest stop – foto Smith

Winter Solstice 12.22.2011


Through a glass darkly – foto Smith

December 22, 2011

Click of contracting metal
as heat fades
cat asleep on tabletop blanket
to my left
wife asleep too early
few feet in front
sweet, perky
good looking woman
stretched easy on couch
too much much inside her head
me awake in chair aware
I know naught of either
or any other
or me
yet suspect
she got more flavors
than I got neighbors
a whole hood inside her house
where I but roustabout without
standing, steadfast
stout
safe harbor
depth determined
no matter ice
of winter solstice
this longest night of year

— Smith, 12.22.2011


Winter Solstice 12.22.2011 – foto Smith

Chain of Command


Chain of command – foto Smith

Chain of Command

Some life forms will eat you.
Some want to be pet.
And I spose
there are those
that want to be et.

— Smith, 12.22.2011


Command of chain – foto Smith

Look B4 I Bleat


My forebrain – foto Smith

Look B4 I Bleat

Hey Mister Brain/Patience/Thought cortex:
help me think before I say
let me listen before reply.
Lived long enough to gray
I should walk a wiser why
slay my Pain/Intransigence/Ought reflex.

— Smith, 12.21.2011


My desired forebrain – foto Smith