November 14, 2008

• ElectricPoetry Post: Early works 69-74

  

  “The Pedestal, and Ode to Love and Beauty”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  1969 (16 years old)

  
  If I had a pedestal,
  A large, white marble pedestal,
  I’d place my mother on it,
  For the whole, wide world to see.

  If I had a pedestal,
  A big and glossy pedestal.
  I’d put my father, and house on too,
  And that would really please me.

  My pedestal would tower high;
  And every person that passed by,
  Would see it and my family.
  They’d smile as they passed by it.

  Someday I’ll have a pedestal.
  A taller, grander pedestal.
  I’ll put my friends upon it,
  And my love, and all I own.

  I do not have a pedestal.
  So I cannot honor anyone,
  By placing them on my pedestal,
  But still my love is sown.

  If I had a pedestal,
  A large, white marble pedestal.
  I’d place my mother on it,
  For the whole, wide world to see.

   

  “Rushing On By”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  1971 (17 years old)

  
  Hey Love, look at me
  Show me where to turn
  Point me to the right direction
  Give me time to learn
  Hey, Love, don’t rush on by
  Talk with me awhile
  Tell me the secrets of admiration
  Show me who likes my smile
  Hey Love, there you go
  Passing me by once more
  Leaving me again to lonliness
  Closing tight your door.

  
  “Failure”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  1971 (18 years old)

  
  The man who always succeeds will find life a boring
  Monotonous road with no detours to hide
  The dull absence of fear and expectation.
  His expectation is replaced by surety
  And he leads a slow life.
  On the other hand the man who fails
  Will learn from his mistakes
  Will feel better when he succeeds
  Will have felt depression
  Will be a better man

  Failure is an awful thing
  When you first have felt it.
  But rewards a simple failure brings
  To all people who have felt it.

  Once they’ve failed, they know of loss
  And when they win
  It will be much more rewarding
  Because they will have lost.

  
  “Girlfriend”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  1972 (19 years old)

  
  The girlfriend laughs so carelessly in the wind
  She throws the tattered letters away
  And the boyfriend waits so nicely
  As she turns around and walks away

  The boyfriend wanted more than
                                    she could give him.
  He wanted love.

  
  “Future Memories With You”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  Feb. 16, 1973

  
  I used to could say it all before
  I used to sit beyond my incapabilities
  And talk about myself forever.
  They used to call me a good conversationalist
  I used to be very popular.

  Then I changed
  I wanted to face reality with no fronts
  I wanted the inescapable “truth.”

  Then, within the course of a few months,
  My mother fell into life’s limbo
  My family changed
  My sister fell in love
  for real

  I found myself lost
  Among all the truths I’d ever needed
  I reasoned carefully
  But it was no use
  I tried to sit beyond my incapabilities
  But it was still no use

  Then you stepped from out of nowhere
  And the faceless girls in dreams assumed identity
  And life means something to me
  Now.

  The past is full of dire memories
  But the future has memories which
  Haven’t been counted.
  I want to spend these future memories
  With you.

  
  “Lunchtime”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  October 1, 1974 1:00 p.m.

  
  Once I could eat with the zeal of a revolution
  But now I can only think of you.

  Once I could write reams of elocution
  Now I only think of you

  When words were wine and time stood still
  And I could eat and drink my fill,
  My life became as I had dreamed
  I’d done my best, I’d had my will.

  Once I came home, and wrote it all down
  Poetry’s poems, my life’s throne and it’s crown
  I would remember my sadness and hopes
  Deal with life lightly, remember my jokes
  Crumble my dreams with a paper and pen
  Get hurt and like it again and again.
  Life was so busy, and fast and remote
  I could face anything, poems I wrote –
  Then I met you and the poems were gone
  My appetite faded, my poems were done
  Life’s not so easy I’ve found once more
  I will find the answer, when I’ve
   found what you’re here for.

  ---

  BEHIND THE POETRY: I was disappointed to only see eight comments on my previous ElectricPoetry Post. Usually these are among my most popular entries. This one doesn’t contain any new poetry. I think I’ve only written about 20something poems this year. Today’s post includes one each poem from the early years, from 1969, when I was a mere 16 years old, through 1974, at 21. I don’t believe I’ve posted “Failure”, “Girlfriend”, or “Lunchtime” before on the blog. All the poetry can be found on the ElectricPoetry website, where I’m slowly but surely transcribing my life’s work online.

  XANGA GROUP REDUX: This is a bit off topic for this post, but I wanted to give lip service to the tenor of some of the comments on my previous entry, a parody post featuring “xanga group” blogsites that don’t exist. It was pointed out from a few people that if Xanga splinters itself too much, creating muliple narrowcasted blogsites, the diversity, differences of opinion, and worldwide experience of the “Xanga Community” will in fact disappear, as more people flock to the newer blogsites. Xanga wishes the platform to be vertically integrated, where Xangans can interact with Datingishers, etc, but for a lot of people, this is merely more confusing. Really, enough is enough. We already have blogrings. And I’ve seen a lot less participation on some of the blogrings to which I belong for some reason lately. I’m fond of saying “Xanga is only a website. It’s the people who make the community”. And the more diversity the better, as far as I’m concerned. I have readers in South Africa, Pakistan, Australia, England, and a host of other places. I’m friends with gays, pastors, vegans, politicos, and parodists. Even though the splinter blogsites in the Xanga Group are easily maneuverable, and cross pollinating is evident, this might foster the compartmentilization of Xanga rather than the intended diversification. I hadn’t thought about this aspect until it was pointed out to me in comments.  MFN/ppf

  • 10:06 am
  • 14 Comments