Dave Blank
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Bio: Dave Blank is a Providence Poet who was once the co-host of The Spoken Word in Providence RI, and has since moved to OHIO. 14 Days It was in cold lightning That I dreamed the moon left me here and you an I where wondering like madness Like life left us here to drift I can’t help but think of Highways and the Sea at times like this This is the moment of the breakdown in communication between me and myself as my words have run off To dance where it is warm In the desert to the coyote's song My home has become the walls and rugs of madman Strung out on sterility and a void so Zen it hurts If Zen would let me hurt for just one moment Now emptiness is binding me in foreshadowing of strange vision quests Based in chemicals running through my system like spitfire An Aftermath of every binge time has left to me I am the only voice here A constant echo of good-bye’s Said so often they have taken the shapes of monsters The largest one is named guilt He is dressed in furs the color of dried blood One eye constantly dripping tears Voice a wild windstorm In his hand is a clipboard as he is marking each of my mistakes One by One and if he let the pages fall I would drown Standing next to him is his lover longing She is a wisp of Silver, Red lipstick A shadow of soft flesh, breath of pollen layered on flowers She is every what If, that hope can dream up Her hand brushes by my cheek and every nerve tingles at her touch But that never happens The moon cracks the whip But their is no howl left in me no sound to place in this tune No memories sharp enough to cut threw this ice crusted layer frozen by these feelings This is the moment of a BLIZZARD white blindfolding the heart Slowing the Blood Waiting for sleep But she is not coming This is the madness melody The sun has been gone to long A thousand tears unrelinquished Lying to yourself and everyone around you This is what the desert is The last note in a song you thought would never end This is mayhem and mercury sucked down your throat and Pity has left you for dead And you don’t know if you want to hold on or just let go Like some Blaze of Glory Some switchblade tap dance Some gun toting recital This is the violence of silence That only hurts yourself All your really wishing for is warm arms to hold you in bed But your waking up on the floor alone and soon..... soon you and I won’t even have that * * * * * * * * * * ME You see when I talk about ME I say ME But when I talk about you I say you But when you talk about you you say ME & when you talk about ME you say you Now doesn't that make us both ME? that would mean that you you & YOU are ME so WE is just a bunch of ME's & ME is just another way of saying I & I I I I remember the Garden of Eden where I pulled out a rib to make more of me I used to have all of my arms & legs back then until I ate the fruit that made God angry tasted dust was forced to leave the Garden with me in tow I remember The first time I laid down with made love to me until I made more & more of me you see to me I am ME & you are YOU But to you - YOU are ME & I am YOU, which makes us both ME or in other words I would have wiped the tears from my eyes if my hands weren't already nailed to the cross would have breathed in my last breath if I hadn't already swung hard to break both my kneecaps made ME die the martyr for all of ME to come while halfway across the world I was challenging all my altered Identities to understand the great oneness that was ME when I was called Nirvana but confused & delusional parts of ME decided to name themselves created lies like US & THEM Didn't I understand there was only ME? As a youth I believed so strongly in my country that I raised my hand High High HEIL HITLER! & I took the soap from me because I was tired & dirty all I wanted was the water to cover ME in Dead Bodies Group graves of myself I once told ME I loved ME then smacked me around till I swore I would never come back to ME until I promised I would never do it again I believed long enough to return to this cycle of violence &HATED myself so much I created something called RACE ism deciding separate was equal I wouldn't let ME drink from clean fountains Eat at the nice restaurants even sit in the front of the bus when I was tired & had worked so long don't I understand this is not a dream society is nothing more than the schizophrenic whirlwind of my heart there is no us or them only we a Thousand MILLION ME's NOW CAN'T YOU FEEL IT CAN'T YOU FEEL IT the continents they are shifting on my back .. * * * * * * * * * * Untitled Sunset And the shadows of my parents rise up from the west mix in with the wind Cut into me like crystal and ice For a moment I swear I can feel them But darkness is quicksilver I am silt and seaweed Drowing in 40 days and 40 nights of tears flooding Around me Yet in this flood I can hear my mother's voice Like static and vinyl "We are fighters boy, We are survivors boy, Stand Up, Stand Up and Burn!" Daylight comes like lightning and I am moving to the metronome of the city Bus line, the click and whirl pass keys and time clocks Basement office, motion direct and mindless Numb and timeless But between the lines on the computer screens I can see the words of my mother "We are fighters boy Survivors boy Stand up, Burn Boy!" Suddenly I am in the oven and kiln, Made of molten steel and glass Becoming fiery dove holding a burning bush in my beak Streeking the heavens burning my image into the iris of God "We are fighters boy Survivors Stand up, stand Up and Learn" I find all the facts and myths, Grind them under the heel of my foot to make My own pair of life colored glasses See the absurd irony swelling around me, Images of Gandhi eating a cheeseburger Malcom X listening to Gangsta Rap The Mossad playing punk rock Until I become Beowulf siting in lotus potion Searching for enlightenment "We are fighters boy Survivors boy Stand up! Stand Up and Grow! I become Ivy racing stone growing faster than the Internet Chaos fractals growing in multiples of myself Expanding until I hold up the sky like Atlas I will Burn I will learn I will grow As Dorothy clicks her heels three times together saying "theirs no place like____" I will burn I will Learn I will Grow As ET Lifts up his glowing finger pointing towards the stars saying "Phone___" I will burn I will learn I will grow As a child pulls the pants leg of their Mother asking "Mommy I want to go ____" I will burn I will learn I will Grow As I reach the beaches of the east Where my mother took me to as a child Turn my back on the rising sun Feel it's heat burn on my neck My shadow will stretch out until it touches the cheek of my mother The wind will carry my words I'm a fighter Mom I'm a survivor Mom I will burn, learn, and Grow And I'll know your Home Mom I'll know your my home Mom And I'm coming Home I'm coming Home The above pieces are owned and copyrighted by Dave Blank, ©1999.
Reprinted with permission from the author. GotPoetry.com. All rights reserved. This page was created on October 10th, 1999, and last updated on February 13th, 2000.