I like you if
you’ll like me
and then we can all
like each other
and there will be
peace in the world
and we can Twitter
with the birds
If there were a button for “Launch”
would someone press it?
in a New York
minute.
David Michael Jackson Poems
Why I Should Poem
Why I Should
Because I still breathe
because I have something to say
even
if it is only me
Even if it’s only me
saying it to
me
Because the sun came up and the rivers flowed
and if feels good to say so
because it’s the end of a year
a new year and
and it felt good to say so
because I’m a crazy fool
who will spend his last penny
making something he likes
even if others throw it away
even if it rots in the back of an unknown book
even if it is forever an unknown song
even if it rots in a basement
so I will grab another handful
of colored sand
for whose works
are not
swept
away?
Why Should I Poem
Why Should I
There are two points in every life
that is in the artist life
the point where the painting and words and music
and the person
are asking why
with a fire unlike any fire
and a point
where the artist or writer or musician
and person
is asking
why should I?
why should I?
I beat my primordial head
on this stone in this cave
why am I not hunting the elk
instead of scratching with this
blunt burnt stick
until my hands are worn
and I beat on this stone with these hands
and this stick.
“Oh you have drawn the elk
we saw him this morning
but wasn’t his leg longer
and his horn had more points.”
what I saw
what I saw
what I saw
I do not understand
I cannot understand
Why should I?
david michael jackson
Maybe if you just express those moments they won’t stand in the way of the bigger why. Maybe. We’ll see.
Sirens Poem
Sirens Poem
I grow old I grow old
I shall wear my trousers rolled*
Wear them rolled
walk upon the beach and that mermaid you hear
is your wife
calling across the ocean
darling
darling
darling
why did you leave me
did I embarrass you in front of
your friends as you
spoke of the Greek gods?
These are the sirens we all hear my
friend but you
knew why they called and
maybe
there never were sirens,
only life
only guilt
and life itself
calling
calling
calling
come sailor unleash yourself from the boat
do not fear the wind, the waves
come
come
come to us
can you not see us,
our long thin arms waving in the wind,
our hair blowing behind us
come to us
by david michael jackson
*Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot
Art Poem by David Michael Jackson
Art Poem
you mean devalue another canvas
he said
A blank canvas is worth something.
If I put paint on it
I can’t take it back
“You put paint on it”, he will say
“I can’t take that back.”
The canvas , you see
has value
if it is blank.
If I put paint on it
you might have to pay someone
to
haul it away.
Why devalue any more canvas
he said
so he painted some crows
and shot himself
in a wheat field
a golden
beautiful
wheat field