I read some of my older writing
And it is imaginative and clever, but a little depressed
There is too much searching
Clearly outlining the desperation of a young man who was still figuring out who he was
These days I am happier
More centered and settled
I guess one advantage of getting older is sometimes you can bring more patience, and wisdom into play
Appreciate (even celebrate) the simple things
Also, I try and keep God front and center these days
(I am not always successful)
As a result, my searching is more centered
As is my creativity
This is a confusing and tough world, nonetheless
Filled with real dangers
And we will all face tremendous challenges in our lifetime
But I am doing ok
My friendships, though fewer, are deeper
I am trying to bring some kindness and love into this world
Art is one way to do that - art changes peoples perspectives
Both for good and ill
Art can be a lot of things
Concise, challenging, beautiful grand, boring, instructive, destructive, life affirming, confusing, exciting, charming, elegant, clumsy...you get the idea
Sometimes art even feeds the soul
There is certainly joy in being creative
Good luck in life
I hope you choose to be kind, and learn to love
Love is hard
If you are a hater that is too bad for the rest of us
Haters are such a waste
God blesss
------------------------Copyright(c)2009 by Bob Clendenen

worked in the yard from 9am to 7pm yesterday
tried to think of a poem my mother might like as it was mothers
day
the yard looks good,.................fabulous in fact
no poem
lately in fact I have not written any poems
music yes
I have been planting fruit trees
I currently have 9
although the gophers will get at least a few
I have even been painting again
this time mostly with a palatte knife
I love my mother
she is a kind and loyal person
I get to go on vacation soon
a break from bill work
time for more music, art, gardening
life
Welcome Sun
my shining friend
and giver of so much energy and hope
blast your life
for our world to see
I will play your tune for all to hear
------------------------Copyright(c)1999 by Bob Clendenen

the burning wood is singing,.......and hissing
the snow outside is silently falling, blanketing the ground
the brain is
gypsy's or hippies are playing
music somewhere
helping the ghosts dance
and the ancestors sway
a cow moo's his funeral march, as the barbed wire rusts
and a flock of birds suddenly scatter
the air is beating
a fish breaks the surface
reading a crazy book that makes no sense
eating barbecue potatoe chips
the universe plays a different symphony at sunset
than sunrise
foot stompin' music in the hills
will usually get the dogs goin'
that or tresspassing on their territory
------------------------Copyright(c)1999 by Bob Clendenen

Anyway, the road keeps unfolding, unfurling
like a luminescant spider web in the subtle wind
on a milky night on the beaches
of the Gulf of Mexico
The waves roll into shore
sounding their intent
while the pull of the wind cleans out your head
cleans out your head kind of like hallucinogins
but quicker,....cleaner
Safety is debatable and always unstable,
but the rodeo clown is still thankful for the barrel
of a gun pointed at a sculpture in the sand
pow, power, trigger finger, blast, shoot, cut
Exploding sand blood for the sea eyes
flashing redyellow like a warewolf, selfish, evil
killer - stop!
Forward into conciousness the striped carriage
carreens madly forward speeding up
hoping not to crash while gazing at the stars
Bravo! Standing O (for the stars)
The taxi cab flashed like a bulb through
the intersection after the light was RED
for sure no lie brother sky
the clock on the bank tower read
deep into the night
forte piano
All is well in Paris for a moment!...
as ten young lovers gaze into each others eyes
(synchronicity) city,...pretty
panting
and the universe is timeless and growing
a cliff buffered against the ocean
loses a rock to the depths glowing
and a sea dragon temporarily finds a home/shelter
Eiffel tower
Rennaissance cupids, paintings with messages
arrows of love/pain peirce the human heart and
soul information information emotion in
formation clattering wheels rattling battling
It's just a weed why can't we grow it legally?
George Washington did so
The harmonica moans "hear my call!"
while the ships honk and blare
in the harbor of the patient sea
naive sweating in that sweat lodge buddy
makes no sense.....tense
outside around the bend
moving targets waiting for pow
pool algaes up
and becomes a ruiness stank
without treatment
fresh apple pie by the pond
envisions all our cups full
so snorts the bull
and chimes the tree
temporarilty green and standing free
breathing easily
ho ho ho let us grow
the red suit knows
laughing beats
coming to blows
------------------------Copyright(c)1998 by Bob Clendenen

The angry dragon rises out of the hot barren desert
coldly viciously eyeing the horizon
searching for conquest
Unaware of its potential victim's pain
The moon sings of shadows, strangeness, legend, emptiness, dark, and light
Refracted and real illusion
imagination,......prove it to yourself and your enemies
Art wandering somewhat awry, but still beautiful (terrifying)...ringing!
meandering seems so natural, graceful, and ordinary
Fields of violets and rustling trees, blue birds with dancing dreams
Please listen -
shattering FUNK, vibration and hope against the robotic day to day work grind
(drone)
which pushes boredom at your brain and death at your health
We will find a way out singing, and appreciating (coincidence)
growing quick as thought!
Leaping elastic with joy
fantastic vegetables carrots - so bright
Evidence!............around the corner?
The little dog urinates on the big dog
The sound of rain on the roof is soothing and beautiful
Poems are just words
You are mostly water
------------------------Copyright(c)1997 by Bob Clendenen

numbers,...y2k
5 words
searching
just
sense.....
jail
mountainside
Steep beaches of sliding sand
on a bursting gay holiday
6 more words
juice cocktail
luminescant darkness
wax candles
laps of waves
laugh at caves
laughing lips and straying mouths
beating hearts and pounding
chests
music staves of afternoon daydreams
stream uphill
like a kite - so colorful and bright
6 words, one in parenthesis
big black clumsy telephone
coffee (tall)
taking off my boots and dirty socks
new bland silver planes chug underfoot
and wreckage floats below
bombs and smart bombs, all bombs are dumb bombs
one word
Focus!
a sheep barks in a bar
straining for gained attention, meaning
and some clarity
meanwhile Einstein and
a bullet
change the world
sleeping is fun
except when you
sweat to much
and/or are sick
4 more words
oh my
stillness
why
Jimi's wooden dock waivers in the wind
waves of sound
like a million flags
streaming
------------------------Copyright(c)1998 by Bob Clendenen

As I smoke through
the thick haze of
elusive, yet present insecurity
Questions like moving tendrills
just out of reach elude me,
and tease me
with thier flowing beauty
and wiggling hope
to grow like a plant so
colorful yet
moving with the wind
responding to the sun & moon
purple spiders with thier secret
messages scuttle quickly by
dreaming among other
things, of weaving blue
weaving stick
like salt in waves of
grasping crash - powerful
& overpowering motion
arching white spray splatting
like burning arrows against invisible
walls
dreams & drums say something
activity and movement project me
like a clumsy chipped cannonball
rolling down a desert hill
bouncing off rock and shale,
hoping for understandable change,
and renewal

copyright (c)1997 by Bob Clendenen

Sometimes a minute seems like half an hour, and a year a minute
daily physical pain makes life less joyful
if you are in pain I am sorry, and wish you the best in your struggles,
life, and dreams
TV = Terminal Void (please program me)
lately, I am exhausted with aspects of my routine and exasperated by work repitition
why, nearly everyone I know has to work to much
as a result, I have been dreaming about beautiful fruit orchards in full bloom,
close friends, simplicity, and my dwindling family
wondering why we are all so trapped by Money?
frustrated with my own and others emotional inability....
a slave to the system
and a slave to my own biological limitations
power is used so stupidly by man and always has been
truth and lies surround us
my moments of joy and simple appreciation for the beauty of life are
less frequent (a pattern I am conciously trying to avoid)
my feelings of suspicion and dread increase daily towards all forms of Gov't,
big buisness, and bureaucarcy
my faith is crumbling, and rebuilding every single day
many people I know have 2 or 3 jobs
all they do is work, pay bills & taxes, run errands, and sleep
these people are often depressed or confused
the time that is their life has been taken away from them in the name of commerce
profit and progress
why is our and other system's so unjust?
to the 2 to 5% of the people out there who have all the money and power
the other 95 to 98% deserve much more than you have allowed and their anger is just
so do not eat too much cake!
and beware your day - unless you learn how to share far beyond current conditions
after all, Billie Holiday sang the blues for a reason

copyright (c)1997 by Bob Clendenen

When I start to get inactive I put
J.S. Bach or avant garde jazz on
my stereo system and soon after,
I am busy again.
Lightning flashes staring for a place to
land - Voices sing expressing
human frailty, The violin sings
expressing virtuosity.
Please age with me I love you!
I once wrote a piece of music about the blue
pen I was using. I wish I had not
thrown the manuscript away...
Vibes sometimes sound like
rain.....

copyright (c)1994 by Bob Clendenen