Firing guns are in my brain again
across the sky – like falling stars
The Big Dipper cannot catch them
the liquid from those evil tracks.
It pours the souls away from boys
with lead, not water, they grow up.
Me – a coward, I turn my back
and drink some water from the tap.
The water with metallic taste,
it has captured blood and bullets,
from the boys – that learned to kill
Manipulated, crushed to dust by men.
But on the TV there’s a game
and with those smiling perfect faces
a taste of wine within their song
so sweet, so sweet it dulls my mind.
I go barefoot into the night
and find a well – forgotten now.
And finally I can rest refreshed
from coldest water, sweet and clean.
The sky is clear and up above
Big Dipper now is clean again.
The sickle of the moon – reborn
and yet again I can hear myself.
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
Today at dVerse meeting at the Bar, Gay does beat poetry with us. Free verse influenced by blues, jazz, post war angst, the feeling of being beat down by society (therefore a little rebellious) inspired by hallucinogenics (so surreal) also influenced by meditation, zen buddhism, and native american tribal lore and folk stories. Hmm no idea if I met that… Bar opens at 3 PM EST.
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October 17, 2013
Björn Rudbergs writings 
You certainly were handed a tall order by Gay, but I think you threw it down quite nicely.
Thank you 🙂 Look forward to what other’s did.
Cool poem, and VERY cool to hear it in your own voice.
Thank you Bryan, and something tells me you’ll love this challenge
Gay has asked me to re-submit my poem from OLN, so I’m not sure…am I allowed to link up 2 poems for the same prompt? (not sure of the proper ethics here…)
Beautiful and emotional piece….also a bonus to hear you reading it. 🙂 Wonderful job!
Thank you 🙂
The poem itself was beautiful, and hearing you read it made it even more so. How clever to write to the van Gogh piece! I enjoyed the surrealism.
I liked to use the early version .. I think the black and white worked better to the theme. Thank you.
it pours souls away from boys with lead…you had me at that line..and this is so fluid as well…image to image thought to thought…i go barefoot into the night is another line that i really like…great feel to this one man
Thank you.. .I read a few Ginsburg poems to get some feel… and tried to follow his rather tight form
This was great. It’s nice to hear the inflection in your voice when you read it as well.
Thank you.. This was an interesting poem to do…
how cool to hear you read this… and cool on reading ginsberg as well to get inspired…very tight images…some gave me shivers…The water with metallic taste,
it has captured blood and bullets,
from the boys – that learned to kill…. heck… so tough..
Thank you.. yes some of Ginsberg’s poem are amazingly tight and almost true to classic form…
Wow. It’s great to hear this poem read in your own voice. I like it even better when read. Poetry is a performance art at its best. Thanks.
Thank you.. I will do it every now and then.. It was fun…
Did you record on your computer or use something more special than that? The voice quality was nice.
I used my iPhone actually.. There is an app for Soundcloud..
I’ve used soundcloud from my computer. Smart phones have gotten so smart. I shall have to get one some day.
Hearing the words in your voice, with your inflections, gives your poem such life that I, in my words, can not do. Lovely, Bjorn.
Thank you .. it was fun reading it.. though had to bring me out of some shyness first.
I enjoyed hearing you read your excellent poem too Björn! I particularly like the fifth stanza.
Oh I love to go barefoot… 🙂
Sometimes going barefoot is the only thing to do.
Indeed.. it solves everything.
Great write Bjorn and some cool lines …..The water with metallic taste,/it has captured blood and bullets … very powerful. Good job.
Thank you.. being a pacifist I needed to get some of it out of my bloodstream
A grand ride straight back into the post-WWII quagmire, into the first stirrings of real free verse, as jazz & the Beats collide, & the freedom of playing tennis with the net down recruited so many of us, too impatient to initially work within verse forms, writing rawness, sensuality, muscular stanzas, within the language of the people, the proletarian prose warped & weaved into poetic line breaks; damn rights, brother, you got down and the weather’s fine; really appreciate your recording this piece; hope you continue this, because it augments & deepens experiencing your poetry; thanks.
Thank you.. yes I will continue to record.. I wanted to write something that was close to form but a little withered… and an anger from the war.. actually my thoughts were in modern warfare with child soldiers. I thought it could almost be a refuge from Africa … feeling the same things as the beats did. Though I guess they do it in rap music instead
So many of the Beat facets are in there, Bjorn. Well composed and I liked the juxtaposioning with the wild Van Gogh picture.
Imagine i really found it after I wrote the poem and brought it in here.
I read this as a protest poem. I guess even in Europe guns are becoming more common (not so when I first went there). It’s a gun culture over here. It made headlines this whole last week there were no murders at all in NYC. In Ft. Worth we have 20 a weekend, usually people killing someone they know. I find the juxtaposition of the bullet culture to the stars a fresh and unique idea. There is something so clear in a cold night sky, and so cleansing. Well done.
Thank you.. a protest poem against killing and war it is for sure.. and even if it’s not so common yet we have immigrants escaping war.. ending up damaged here.. war is still going on in many of the word.
This is beautiful any which way one looks at it. 🙂
Thank you Imelda… it was one I liked to write.
Wonderful to hear your voice! The darker side…yes!
The first line nearly got me scared… Smiles. The mixed pictures in this is what i like most!
Excellent Björn and your reading makes it even more special, more alive.
(I think I am falling in love with your voice…)
Anna :o]
Great to hear you read this out for us! We now have a voice to go with the name and the word-weaving. I really enjoyed this – mesmerising.
I started a comment with the intention of quoting some of my favorite lines here–but I deleted it. Too many favorite lines. Let me just say that the “smiling perfect faces” is completely frightening, laid against the stark background of tracers, blood, and death. Very well done! (I’ll listen to the recording shortly!)
The near-rhyme of “Me – a coward, I turn my back / and drink some water from the tap” really seized me, as did the insistence of your voice.
Great poem, Björn. Bravo my friend.
Gosh to go barefoot and find an untouched well to wash ourselves clean, feel refreshed… if only…great poem and enjoyed your reading very much! 🙂
Incredible recording, I look forward to more of them. Great work for the prompt.
Bjorn loved that , i read it then listened sipping coffee as it shrouded me in a rhythm almost hypnotic
Beautiful poem and how lovely to hear you read it 🙂
I loved hearing your voice and the flow of this is great..sad, beautiful, with a beat and full of protest’s pleas….
A mesmerising read, Bjorn. I felt myself sweetly lulled.
I don’t think – no I know I didn’t capture beat poetry in its proper form. I wrote one before the prompt and was told I was a beat poet… I am so not sure now. I also did a voice reading so was amazed to see yours – great lines and loved hearing your voice recite BR. Bravo.
Beat poetry I think lack form.. it’s more about content…
Liked your poem and your reading!
Glad that you found your voice back..refreshed on bare foot! very evocative!
Loved hearing you read this incredible poem!