Poetry by Gary Buchanan

Cold
By Gary Buchanan

We found her dead
There in the hotel room
She had lived all her 23 years
To the full extent of the spoon

Lived loved flashed that smile
When that didn’t work
She sold her heart, body and soul
The mirror was no place she
Wanted to go

She passed this world too quickly
For me
I saw more in her than most
What she was what she could be

The spoon just wouldn’t let her go
It’s hard to figure
Who can or don’t
Who will or won’t
Survive the dope

One thing for sure
Christy lives there still
Starring at the celling
Life gone, love cold

Faith
By Gary Buchanan

An illusion was woven
For the world to see
Ooohs and ohhhs in unison
Could be heard from the faithful
And me

The usual suspects sat in the from row
The one who came without need
They raised their hands and shouted
To the ceiling let it be

The show is enough for most
But I came looking for hope
I wanted answers
I got stiff-armed, faith is all I heard

Hallelujah amen and praise God
I got caught up in the outpouring like theres
There was an emotional let down after had
Dress up, punch your ticket eat at Grand ma’s
Was all they were offering

All these years later, I finally found what I was looking for
Right in the middle of my chest
The indominate me faith in myself
My beating heart
Hallelujah me

Now
By Gary Buchanan

A reckoning with who I have
Been what I’ve done
What’s left of me when I
Again walk in the sun

Yearning for a chance to be
No longer questing a Eulogy
Turning the altars I’ve built
Into bonfires of what’s
Not to be

Determined seeds planted each day
Dreams come true in such ways
I’m gonna have to fight to just breath
Discovering a new part of me

Arguments made and discarded
Feelings hurt and unregarded
Brief glimpses I have seen
Breathing new meaning into me

The Dream
By Gary Buchanan

My daughter at her mother’s breast
More than a man like me should expect
It’s been twenty five years now
It’s immeasurable what she means
To my family and me

I can still see the picture of them
Clearly poetically beautifully
It’s forever right there as remembrance
Of what could have been

I tried to be the man they needed
Me to be
But I had a demon living pulling killing

How had I found such a love
It had to be pure luck
There’s always a draw a force with me
Some days I can control or abstain

Intoxication is always there romancing
An adventure in itself
A hell like none else

Like the picture of my girls in my mind
Battling for my soul
eternally

Essence
By Gary Buchanan

The essence of this art
Wavers within on a daily basis
Will my masterpiece come today
Or will I forget what I have to say

Words and scenes flicker past
My mind’s eye
Is there a song a story or poem
That will last till sunrise

I’ll conjure and record till my eyes fall
If someone comes calling
I’ll be in my corner of hell

My penitence parred and imagined
With flare and the dramatic
A waged battle I’ll fight with
Remembrance
Doing a lovely sentence

Hurry now, time’s running short
I am winning right now
But the devil is always at the door

Snakes
By Gary Buchanan

There were a lot of weeds
In the green grasses of home
The melting pot of my mind
Still plays one day at a time

Devils and angels can come calling
In an instant
The mystery of life
A varying distance

Screams in the middle of
The night
I thought I had the answers
Last time

A rattle snake dead on the track
Train cut it in half
What was left was flying
In the sun

I wondered about the long walk
Home
Was there a way not to see the
Bodies on the side of
The road.

Alone
By Gary Buchanan

Minute by minute
Running from shadow to shadow
I tried to leave the night alone
But it has become my home

Alone here in the dark
I can take heart
Life makes sense here alone
Alone here in the dark

I don’t have to explain
I don’t know your name
I don’t have to entertain
Your simplicities
Alone here in the dark

Nothing I see life liberty watching
You speak
Makes sense to me
There in the midst of you
I can’t breath

Alone here in the dark I can see
I can breath
I can live
I can be me

Poetically
By Gary Buchanan

Poetry comes at an instant
Lasts for a lifetime
Changes everything
Lets me know I am alive

These days finding poetry
Is everything in my quest
It’s when life’s at its best

Some beautiful some brutal
Life is a poet’s dream
There’s nothing like it
In search of meaning

I’ll keep watching and waiting
When life’s beauty finds my eyes
Perfectly displayed
I’ll put it on a page

If you find a perfect scene
Or hear a perfect phrase
Pull out a pen let us hear
What the mind of an artist has to say

Just
By Gary Buchanan

Just under the surface of things
Right behind the veil of consciousness
The fevered pitch of it all
Just out of reach
It exist

The driving force of this spiritual epiphany
That has livened my mind and me
The unfolding of this self-discovery
In a spontaneously beautiful creativity
It exist

Words a sentence a kiss from a princess
In a story like Romeo and Juliet
In the grandeur of a starlit desert night
On a canyon road that corners at
Pepperdine and PCH
It exists

What I see what I feel who I am
How can it be real
The possibility and poetry in this pen
Come take a trip with me past Neverland and see
It exists

Rumpelstiltskin
By Gary Buchanan

Was a jolly fellow with his hair colored yellow

He told of a fierce battle and a fair queen
There was a hero in there somewhere
But I replaced him with me

My sword glinting in the sunlight standing
On the blood-soaked ground of my enemies

Her royalness called to me from the tower
Hurry handsome prince save me

I mounted my steed (her later) and came forthwith

I slayed and rescued then we headed back to Avalon in victory

The gold the rumpled one had weaved we sold
For a fortune but the trickster had his claws in us
His spell would bring us back soon enough

Darkness
By Gary Buchanan

A bad woman a drink of whiskey
Letters from the penitentiary
Waiting there in the shadows
Shell casings littering the street

Some smell blood and grit their teeth
Tear drops on the cheek for those who used to be
Machine gun fire on Lewis Street
A pinch of powder death in the street

Lies told out of my hearing thankfully

Concrete never gives
Sidewalk grates warmed me
A whole village under a bridge
How can it be
Blood blood and more blood
How can we come close to
Cleaning this up

Old Man
By Gary Buchanan

Huddled over the fire
Hands gnarled and scarred
Warmed not by the stove
But his memories of old

I was young once he thought
Strong handsome and respected
Children at my feet ladies at my call
Many men listened when I spoke
Now just echoes in the empty hall

Does time have to be so cruel
Is there a way around this rule
Now when I seek my children
Grown and wise of fame
They have not consideration
From whence they came

When sunrise brightened my eyes this morn
My old dog whined at the door
Wanting the day’s fare and a pat on the head
Is this all I am good for before I am dead

The Protest
By Gary Buchanan

Such energy such desire
Such a love of us when we cared
The time was when the country dared
We dared to say no and we spent
Time saying so the 60s

What music musicians poets and kings
Such marches speeches and hypocrisy
We died at the end of it but
We were alive to be the 60s

The end sang one we flirted with
It enough
We heard the shots ring out all three
Were they the only ones to believe
Enough and passionately

Passion will drive our dream can we
Dare to believe
They say a river exists deep in this
Concrete
Can I raise a renaissance in you in me
Will I dare enough to believe

XYZ
By Gary Buchanan

The smell of cordite filled the summer air

Sirens and screams were all I could hear

The hotel was filled with killers and
Prostitutes I knew

The door didn’t lock but I slept well right thru

Morning came and the bodies had been taken away

The blood washed down the drain

An old man offered me beer and cocaine to kill the pain

I had done nothing at all to save myself or even
Try to get away

When I left I drove the block then back to my chair
To watch the nightmare

So Mo
By Gary Buchanan

A Tarantino hotel sat there
On the edge of a surreal
Acid trip affair
Kimbo Slice selling ice cream
In the parking lot
Heidi Fleiss ordered pizza
For everyone

We watched The Sound of Music
Projected on the hotel wall
The gangsters were hosting
A Sadie Hawkins ball

The girls were running amok
Bundy and Mendenhall
Had last call
We drank the Kool Aid
And found ourselves alive
Jim Jones and Koresh lead prayer call

Quinton shook me awake and said
“We’re late the plane to L.A. leaves at 8.”
Angel and I were in first class
Sipping champagne at last

Again
By Gary Buchanan

To begin again is a lonesome friend
Not much on which to depend
Pockets empty not many options
Look the world in the eye no doubts

Criminal insanity a silent calamity
Plaintive wails from other cells
Haunt my steps painful remembrance
One killed another the day he was to get out

I’ve thrown away many lives
A cat has got nothing on me
A gun shot within my hearing
Somehow the bullet didn’t find me

Chances given chances taken
These words I arrange (are they enough)
I’ve called the table all in
Last man standing let’s begin
Someone call Taylor for me

The Edge
By Gary Buchanan

I saw her there on the edge of surrender.
She couldn’t find the fears
She was trying hard to remember
What life used to be like

Every once in a while she’d smile
Not the ones she used or faked
Real joy real life then she’s think
The pain would come crashing through
It would be horrible to watch

I tried my best to find a way
To love care and protect
She wouldn’t; even come close to letting me
She had chosen long ago
To never feel a thing and keep the end real close

One step is all it would take
She couldn’t let me get in the way
It would be so easy dying
If I stopped her there’d be a shattering
Then no more coping or faking
It would be more than she could take

Uvalde Nashville
By Gary Buchanan

My heart is broken again
I saw them, their faces, just then
I knew they would show them
The pictures of dead children

Those precious children smiling at us
Looking at us adults with trust
Hoping we do the right thing
Do they have to die for political gain?

They don’t even know what’s wrong
They just get killed in the hall
Terrorized by our stubbornness
What kills them is a desire to win

Please, please, no more guns
Please say we’ll protect them
Real quick if you will
Look in the seat next to you
Do you want to see them on the news too?

The World and All In it
By Gary Buchanan

The blank page calls to me now
Like the call of the turtle dove
Lonesome and plaintiff somehow
Wishing I would come create

It’s more joy than I’ve ever known
To look at a blank sheet then to
Make it my won, how is it possible
For suddenly I am God-like delightful

Shake my head slap one side of it
Then the words the characters come out of it
One thing I’ve learned is those that
I make grow and change and become
Like friends to me

It’s salvation in this penitentiary
To make a friend that will be all I need
them to be
They listen be the things that I could
Never bring myself to be
They love and treat people well
Have great love affairs
Well maybe one day I’ll listen to me
Oh well!

Meditation
By Gary Buchanan

Breathe in breathe out it’s as simple as that
To move from death to confidence about
Tried all the other trite ways to save me
Then came to find out I could save my own day!

Deep Slow Peace Love area couple of stanzas
in my mantra that goes deep into my life to straighten my way. Yea!

Then I got serious no more than life saving!
Taking refuge in the Buddha The Buddha takes refuge in me!
It’s about nothing but peace all that I can get
Amazing!

The Dharma is the path that’s walked past
Present and future not transcendental but the ever
Present now and oh boy how!

Seek ye love and be enlightened!
I am not talking about metaphors for fighting!
I am talking flower power love
and a girl in California somewhere!

Finally and this is as real as it gets!
Take refuge in Enlightenment and you’ll find love!
That’ll save anybody! That’s it!

Gary Buchanan