June 28, 2004
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“Words Don’t Wail Me Now”
poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
May 9, 1983 9:05 p.m
(30 year old “birthday poem”)
I don’t have to say the things I said
When yesterday I cried
The rhymes were programmed
Rhythm eternal
And the singer simply paused and sighed
He looked out at the audience
He lost his voice, his seventh sense
And no one was the one to grant his pension
I felt as if no shears could snap the tension
No tender urgings daresay intervention
My hip romance just faded away
When yesterday I cried
The poems proved lost
Searing understanding
And the singer just stood there and tried
He looked out at the audience again
Mouthing with pity his incredible pain
And no one was the one to clap and cheer
I felt as if his worry had no peer
A futile grin becomes the cavalier
To sit back and emulate my bard
As with yesterday a tear
Came to my eye
Salty memory
And the singer turned his back
He gazed at his intermission
Had no words for idle repetition
And no one was the one to heed mistakes
The things I felt as if the feelings fakes
Because when shame had gathered what she takes.
I can’t remember the poems I cried
When yesterday I screamed
All attitudes programmed
Automatic delay
The singer simply wasn’t what he seemed
He looked into the mirror now
Stared at my visage and raised a brow
And no one was the one to tell him how
I felt as if I watched a movie show
No tender urgings when we’re feeling low.
And when you’re seventeen.
Yesterday’s hopes
Uncertain dreams…
And when you’re thirty
The mind cloud haze is eternally dirty
The ink dries before the
thoughts mature
And my lover’s soft looks
Are unseen, and so pure
I remember the words and the actions
And for tomorrow and you I’ll cry
Nothing is certain
Caverns eternally dry
And the singer simply lets his wisdom fly
He smiles as tears grow fatter
And fall as heartache’s batter
And no one was the one to stir the broth
I felt as if no spoon could ladle the froth
No one to ever turn around and scoff
I’m a gentle timebomb
And time removed the fuse
unused
The tear in my eye
The causes fly by
There’s no need to cry
Emotional patience
Resignation renasence
I don’t have to say the things I said
When yesterday I cried
When yesterday I
yesterday
He lost his voice
I have this choice
Please listen as I make it plain
Place the needle in the groove
And repeat the last refrain…
All matter of matters
Don’t matter any more
And I don’t
have to say
When just yesterday
I
cried
Hello, the singer just finished the song
He looked to the audience
They understood, their seventh sense
And no one was the one to laud the show
You and I are the only ones to know
I cried as I felt the final
crushing blow
to 9:50 p.m. 5/9/83
nonsense ruminations
concerning the culmination
of thirty years of existence
I’ve transcribed and uploaded 8 previously unseen poems to ElectricPoetry on the 1983 page. I have about 15 more poems to post to that page and another year will be “completed”. I wrote 35 poems in 1983.
From my 1980 introduction to the Complete Works:
“I began to be prolific once more. Out of the poetry slumps, and into some of my best work. Beginning with “Symphony For One”, and including “State of Mind” my sarcastic bent and poetic soul merged for one fantastic year, yielding in retrospect some of my best work. I believe I matured in 1983, nearing my third decade on the planet. I worked for Gemco in 1983, and the girl in my life was Leslie, a hostess at one of my frequent restaurants.” MFN 1980)
