Dark Side Of The Brain: A Romantic Evening In The I.C.U.

Dark Side Of The Brain: A Romantic Evening In The I.C.U.: When we ignited this body of concrete and fluorescent lights we didn't strike the match in a shroud of fraud or as an act of revol...

57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper

57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper

You Look Like Rain

"I can tell you taste like sky because you look like rain."  ~~~Morphine

She was ridden hard, and put away wet.
Carnal pleasures, the fist after the kiss,
Riding waves, intense and in the zen zone.

We start the process of bonding
wedding the spirit and body and soul
learning about each other.

I pour my self inside of her.
I am swollen turbidity
Master of girth.

Time disappears when we are together. 
We live in the moment
with each crash, body to body.

Sweat-slicked and penetrated,
the marathon comes to a close.
All that is left is clean-up on aisle one.

She steps into the shower,
reluctant to wash away the musky smell
of sex, blood and magic.

The pulsing warm water jets
down her back
down the drain go the remnants of last night's tryst.

I was not living 
before she came.
I was simply existing.

She has turned my life right-side up.
I cannot imagine living without her.
It is my turn to join her in the shower.

We slow dance in the warm waves of water.
Body to body, mouth to warm mouth.
Hands exploring.

Rather than continue the marathon,
we take our time with the soap and washcloth;
purity of body, purity of soul.

I no longer simply survive each day.
I wake up with anticipation 
of another joyous experience.

We get one more day together. 
And then another, 
and another.

She is everything to me
my reason for being
my reason for life.

We are no longer individuals.
We are two souls intertwined,
not sure where one begins and the other ends.

We walk the path together,
side-by-side,
as one.

"The Moon Pours Down"

"The Moon Pours Down"

by Wm. Andrew Turman on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 8:19pm ·

'It was a train that took me away from here/but a train can't take you home.' ---Tom Waits

A Muse taught me 

that there are

many kinds of love.

It is special

when you finally 

make a connection.

To be

with someone

who understands.

When silences

are read as

important as words.

I am tentative

when we dance too close

I break away.

But she understands

and knows what

I am going to say before I say it.

It is like

"Welcome Home"

to a place you've never been.

Each of us

wounded make 

each other whole again.

I want to watch

an old movie on TV

cuddled on the sofa.

It is a long walk

she says...

I say, "Hurry."

Art speaks from the soul. A lost memory found.

Art speaks from the soul. Suffer it a voice. It stands to reason:

I need to get out of this fear bubble someone has put around me. Don’t ask questions. Don’t question god. Who told you that shit and made you afraid of your own mind? Is my freedom bothering you? I am here as you are. When I hear the advice of those who I do not share a foundational belief with all I can do is accept it and move on. Never have I told anyone they were wrong. Truth is, you don’t know just like I don’t know. All any of us can do is believe in what we believe in and base our lives upon it.

Is it so hard to believe I exist on another plane of thought? Why is everyone so impressed until I cannot put a label on myself, then they are scared for me? I am fine with being free – what I am not fine with is always having to explain it. I see a world of talkers and not doers. I am guilty of not doing. Nothing else I would rather do than NOT DO. But this has to change – I see this in myself because my life is so very uncomfortable. Something has to change or I will not survive. That is not unreligious nor religious. It is just a reality I do not have to be pious about because my piety is my existence in itself.

My spiritual life was founded on ghosts in pews screaming and dancing and I will always love that. What those ghosts and dances told me was that I could think and then know anything I wanted to. That I came from a god who made no mistakes and therefore I was saved! Let the choir sing! My teacher alone corrects me so I do not feel I need a church full of ghosts these days to convince and shape my thoughts. When I was young I was innocent and that’s when I got my gift, I don’t need anything else.

Insomniac Apocalypse

"I'm goin' to hell---who's comin' with me?"   ---Emenim

or as Mr. Samuel Clemens said:

"I'm not worried about going to heaven or hell---I am sure I have friends in both places!"

Insomniac Apocalypse

by WmAT

12/4/11

The clock is 

running    the piano

has been drinking

How long can a person go

without sleeping?

I have been up

way up

for thirty hours or

is it minutes?

Whirling dervishes

swirl in hallucinigenic nightmares

I wake up scared

I wake up strange

I am afraid

I am never going to change and 

that nothing is ever going to be the same

What do you do when 

Another shall be Another's

forever? 

Do you take down 

the shrine 

dismantle the choir

or pass up the crown

of the clown?

I have replaced 

my dearest

with another for

lack of contact

and because the new poet 

is epic in her own write.

She gives me 

all and expects

nothing.

Her therapy is not mine

She uses ink and

I use paint.

Somehow the song remains the same.

21 Questions with Zen Daddy T

Please explain what just happened.

I am not sure, the cats were playing with it when I walked in. Is it dead?

What is your earliest memory?

My mother reading a book to me, when my dad was stationed in Viet Nam.

If you weren’t an artist, what profession would you choose?

Politician---except I wouldn’t sell my soul to the highest bidder. I wouldn’t last very long, so I would be living on the sreets again soon.

Please describe the current contents of your refrigerator.

Crusty bread, sugar-free jello, and milk. I am a bachelor, so if it doesn’t come from the drive-thru window or out of the microwave, I don’t eat it.

What verb best describes you?

Burn.

What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and have a conversation with yourself at age thirteen?

I would tell myself to not give up and go along with the herd mentality. There were a helluva lot of things they didn’t tell me when I signed on with this outfit, but I have not compromised myself yet!

What are the steps you take to regain your composure?

Breathe…and imagine them naked and fornicating. I think fornicating is the answer to every problem we face. If everyone were getting laid, the world would be a better place.

Define “success”.

Not compromising yourself in the face of adversity. I came up with this catchy little phrase over coffee, cigarettes and facebook this morning:

"Be authentic and pure in all that you do; the consequences are not great, when your aim is true...."

From what or whom do you derive your greatest inspiration?

I have a stable of Muses to give me inspiration, from which to derive inspiration for my art, but the true inspiration for my writing is Hope. Hope in a better tomorrow, with a dash of snarkiness. That is what inspires me.

What change do you want to be in the world?

I know that my work will be lost in the translation, but I would like to make things easier for those who have mental health issues, to let them know there is Hope. Some people have real problems---I am just crazy and lazy!

Are you pro- or anti-emoticon? Please explain.

Anti-. Hey, I am all for brevity, but the whole emoticon issue is too cutesy for me.

How are you six degrees from Kevin Bacon?

I haven’t a clue…we both like pork?

What makes you feel most guilty?

The fact that I have lost everything I held most dear to my manic antics. Who I am is all I have left.  It is okay when I am depressed, I just take to the bed and leave everyone alone. When I get manic, I tend to get cacophonistic and get into peoples’ faces. I can be so outré sometimes. I have hurt the ones I love the most, and have paid the price.

Please list three things you never leave home without.

1. Keys, for one, because I have to drive everywhere

2. Cigarettes. I must have cigarettes.

3. My MacBook Pro. My whole life is on there. From my music and my art, to my schedule and social connectedness. I love connecting to the internet for free in public places. I feel like such a rebel..

What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

I do not dwell on “worst” issues. Not me. The BEST advice I ever got was from my father, when a friend unintentionally committed suicide. He gave me five words---“Be safe and be strong.” That has become my mantra.

What is the best advice you’ve ever given to someone else?

That there is hope to be found, in every situation, that is my best advice, especially to those with mental health issues. That shines through in everything I do, from my art to my poems, from my work as an advocate for mental health issues to my stand-up comedy routine.

What do you consider the harshest kind of betrayal?

Turning one’s child against a parent. I am not some kinda scary monster. A maniac, yes, but I am no demon. This I have experienced first hand, and it hurts. I finally had to move, just to live my life.

Of all the game shows that have graced our TV screens throughout history, which one would you want to be a contestant on and why?

Jeopardy, because I am such a snob and so shallow. I know a lot of random facts due to my love of knowledge. I would kick your ass!

What do you want to know?

Why? Do you have the answers? I want to find out for myself, first-hand.

What would you like your Last Words to be?

“FUCK!!!”

Please explain what will happen.

There will be dancing and feasting in Jeruselum next year. That is all I know. I am gonna make it, through this year, if it kills me.

Another Shall Be Another's

Another Shall Be Another's (Ode to JB, courtesy of Pablo Nuerto, Poema 20)

by Wm. Andrew Turman on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 1:23am ·

I burn

my smoke competing 

with the fog sliding

across the pasture before me

I hear the crickets sing

in the darkness

at my feet

another shall be another's

Venus shining down 

through the clouds

whispering

another shall be another's

Leaves falling

from the trees

remind me 

another shall be another's

It is easier

I tell myself

to pine for the unattainable 

so let another be another's

I stare 

at the tattoos that

cover my arms 

what was once art 

is now a warning:

Don't get too close!

Lest you become 

blood of my blood

skin of my skin

bone of my bone.

Bare Naked Ladies 

on the computer croon

"I wake up scared, I wake up strange 

I wake up wondering if anything in my life is ever going to change 

I wake up scared, I wake up strange 

And everything around me stays the same"

So I paint. That is what I do

fast and furious. 

I don't want to stop 

lest sleep over come me

I need someone 

I want to love,

to be loved. 

I don't want to be alone.

But for now

to staunch the bleeding, 

I allow myself only

what crumbs are left over.

A Buddhist, a begger

is there a difference

at this point?

My needs don't matter.

Not when another shall be another's.