In 2008 I wrote this piece. It was all about meeting the one. The one that would rescue me from mundanity. It is living poetry and has been updated quite a few times over the intervening years. You can even see some of the influences I have found along the way, Jack Kerouac being the most obvious one near the beginning of this piece. And so? Living verse … enjoy. Lots of others have.
Rescue me from mundanity my lover
You have always been on my mind, since I first never knew you
A hot Arizona night, walking an endless black top desert road looking at the stars above us
Each one a soft salty kiss on your dry warm lips.
The desert moon so full like a cold dead face hanging oppressively above our small lives, our blessed intense love.
Jumping a flatbed to Denver or Austin,
And us, sharing a pint of rot gut to keep the cold desert night from our hearts and welcoming Jack into our souls…
Wish Sal was here … Sharing the scent of our travel sweat. Dean too.
And through Missouri…Wish I had a crystal ball …
I could see your face so much better through the fog …
The clarity of knowing your troubled thoughts.
Travelling together …Carolina odyssey …White beaches, blue sea.
Reading my own lovelorn, lonely poetry to you under the shade tree …
In a town square, full of civil war memories…Oppression. Domination. Slavery
But we laugh it off…Both of us, we are no Martin Luther King’s to exorcise injustice.
Only mine. My own sad injustice. My own truth.
Lover … Meet me soon … You are too often in my crazy dreams. Never in my love enveloping arms.
Your face is always behind a veil of not knowingness
And I plead … Rescue me from mundanity my lover.
A cold clear Scandinavian night … Jagged shimmering lights in a northern sky …
And you are with me … As always. Only a heartbeat away but so so far.
Holding my small careworn fingers in your own. I feel you now. I can imagine your warmth.
Tracing ‘Jeg elsker dig’ on the back of my hand with a slender loving fingertip.
Riding the train … A city … Somewhere … Entering a city … A no hope city … No trees, no green gardens.
Watching the evening lit windows from the train … Life going on out there in those small windows
In those rushing past snapshots … Secrets. Lust. Hate. Mundanity … Because it’s always there. Perhaps in me too although with you ….
I banish it … And, and, and yes, I am waiting for you…Please come to me soon my unknown lover.
Riding the bus in England’s sad heart.
Second city blues … Am I in my own lost England? Is this really my home?
Minarets fill the vista of a crumbling slowly disintegrating society … Full of dark faces. Foreign speech and unfamiliar ways.
I love them you say. They bring us our own destruction. New Anglo-Saxons… New invaders. You smile.
Slowly taking over … And you smile again and tell me a story about your younger years.
Lover I know you so well …We talk most nights … You hold me close …so close I can feel your heart, so close I can hardly breathe.
I can feel your sweet breath on my cheek as you whisper to me in my loneliness.
Is this to be my penance for not meeting you yet. My pain for this being away from you.
I can’t even imagine your name. I do try but it is always a quiet whisper away from me.
But I hear your voice and like everything in my life …
Are you too late. Will we ever meet or will we just pass each other by?
Will you leave me again?
Lover please … Save me from mundanity. And I will rescue you from a life of not having my kisses.
Not having my love, not feeling my heart beat beside yours.
Can you see me now? Can you feel me? Do you dream of me on your lonely nights?
Or do my words echo in meaningless voids?
Crying out but never ever answered?
I am writing this for you now. I compose this for you.
Do you know me? … and still I look for you.
A red grape … A crushed Tuscan dream. A red stain on you ruffled white blouse.
One button too many undone. Temptation?
Blood of your heart or spilled wine?
But a smile that says I don’t care. I will never care when I am with you.
Wherever we are. Whoever we are… whatever we are.
Yes. Oh Yes, our morning … Driving to some dead-end job.
I left you this morning … Skinny legs sticking out from under the duvet. Hair in your face.
A mess…But my mess. Love tossed bed … Chipped cup of coffee left.
And save me from mundanity. Lover Please save me now.
I can barely exist with this pain,
And moving on.
Are you with me lover? Not yet?
Are you the same as me? Seeing sense in darkness. Love in a gesture.
Are you thinking of me now?
Are you missing me … still unmet?
Do you yearn for your unknown lover as I do?
And we travel and love.
A small island off the African coast. And different stars above.
And always we said. Where we are means nothing.
A snowflake on a spring morning
Yesterday’s newspaper, last year’s worries
But we will have each other. No matter where we are. No matter the things we do.
And save me from mundanity my lover.
But my lover I fret. Words taken wrongly on a drunken night.
Misunderstanding. Fear of our own feelings
Fear for our lives. And still I wait for you my lover.
And still I search and I knew I had found you. Did I?
A city of holy spires and river walks.
Of hope and love.
Of dreams and talks, but you fell.
You lied and misled for no other reason than hurt
And I lost you on a crisis ridden night
Your dreams weren’t mine
Your needs not as sublime
And so?
Mundanity went on, you weren’t the one.
But maybe the time was wrong, maybe we will meet again…
And still on this cold English day
Save me from myself, and Mundanity lover.
But …
Love is not dying away. Love is eternal.
Not fading or giving in
And I won’t lover. How could I give up hope so I seek you still?
And so now I move on … in your heart and your arms
In your love and your kindness
Did mundanity go with Mid-Western dreams?
In middle America. Did my dream lie there?
No. It died there. Slowly it was strangled…
My dream died my lover.
But love warm sheets never warm again.
As warm as your ice cold lies
Latte frosted lips will kiss never again
My heart broke asunder one more time.
But you weren’t the one
And you lost me. You lost love
And I lost mundanity again at last.
Oh, my lover. You tease me so.
You hide in my dreams, although you walk in my heart.
And I go on. Yearning for you lover.
And maybe destiny will still bring us together
Maybe it has already
Or maybe cruel fate will forever keep us apart.
© 2018 Stan M Rogers. All rights reserved.