Herschel Silverman: Outlaw Poet

Undecided Now

It's Winter in New York

and I'm flyin' the friendly sky

and I can't seem to make up my mind

O my melancholy baby

I'm undecided now

for you took away my heart

and left me with the hesitation blues

Can't seem to make up my mind

you know you know

you could be my jazz baby

beyond the blue horizon

you could even be my satin doll

until I wouldn't even know what time it is

O baby you stir my fire

I'm just sayin' gimme time gimme time baby-face

'cause I've got the hesitation blues

and this poem is for you

You could be my Tokyo

even by my Janis my Billie

and bayybee I could be your Bobby McGee

but I'm still tryin' to tame the lion for real

doin' the money-musk farewell to whiskey

and stompin' at the Pink Pony

so even tho the heat is on

and I'm moanin' buried alive in the blues

afraid but thinkin'

of a second time around

I just can't make up my mind

knowin' there'll never be another you

it's as simple as that

just one of those things

like blues in the nite

I think I'll have to get outta town

go about 500 miles away

all boogied out and bewildered

so for now I'm just sayin'

I'm undecided now

but remember

love can move mountains

and this poem is for you

A Lit-Kicks Summer Poetry Happening

7/21/99 at The Bitter End
for Brian Hassett, Levi
Asher and David Amran

I see all the hip young people

think they've come to their Bitter End

then in a summer's resurrection

rise to sing & dance

to prance the internet

to do the lit-kick lindy

let there be beat poets

and jazz magicians

let there be wailing bleecker st. solos

by poet=fools

to chase away their blues

their cups of woe

to void their oieyz

to fill the world with good sonic vibrations

and pull all imaginable daisies

to place collect calls to the wild

and slam-dunk French ram-horn notes

to eternity

to kum kreate krank krush kronikle

krome yor soul

roll yor stone Bone yor mole

yor holy hairy hole

to be a haiku in alcor disguise

kum howl yor squint

trowel yor skin yor skink

yor super ding-dink

mok yor kok

yor tik-tok-klok

yor mitey klunk

bridge the fringe

the ridge the memory store

the traffic gore the Wall St. Dow

the klak and klink

go cut some slak

quack quack quack quack quack

be neat flirt with the beat

beat yor meat never retreat

go go spank the klank

shoot the shoot

shoe the moon the heavenly goon

and sing this krazy toon

don't shun the pun or smoke the bun

or hipe the pipe this great summer nite

free-verse yor nurse but stay outta her purse

do yuuhh muse don't kook yor goose

but goose the kook with a starry starry glee

be so jazzy jazzy kool

and go go go go go be be be be

be all you kan be

beeee

For Yuko Otomo

Bring me your haiku

Let's make love in 17 syllables

Let's drink kava kava
at the head of a cosmic factory table

It's a time to remember

Let's make new the klezmisha babble
the instant comedy
& sharp philosophic piney symbols

Let's reserve a calendar full of incomplete decisions, directions, and let's cheer abbakabibble dribbles

Let's sing some blue notes for the public's illumination

Let's hang out in the Pink Pony Café
hosted by Jackie & Maggie

Let's get high on the llamas of Drudge
the Dodge city shakers

Let's hang late at nite with klezmokum
smoking, stoking, poking fun in a main spaced

Let's have klezmer at Woodstock
word-stockings hung for St. Nick

Let's have cancles stuck on a Hannukah bush
with a shammos on clarinet & green piano

And get it all down in 17 syllables, more, or less

This Song is for You

I'm feelin' high and happy

High enough to sing a reefer song

You are my lotus blossom

My sunken treasure

My stratosphere where flamingos fly

I don't know why

But it's only 3 o'clock in the morning and I'm feelin' high and happy

Must be the stuff is here and it's mellow

And it's voodoo hoodoo

That's the way it is

Where there's a jumpin' in a julip joint

A-doin' the head-rag hop

Hey let's boogie

The moon is full

This song is for you

And I don't care what time it is.