Category: Uncategorized

A Galaxy Born [a terza rima]

On By Adam AstraIn Poetry, Poetry Challenge, Uncategorized, writingLeave a comment

A Galaxy Born by Adam Astra

Nascent love is like a galaxy newly born,
Its elements simple and lighter than air.
But in darkness, its stars yet unformed.

From its center it is an experience as rare,
As clear as desire unclouded by dust,
But from a distance—a dim blue glare.

Heavier elements—security and trust—
Require a ritual, a sacrifice of stars.
Much later will come the planet’s crust.

~

Click Here to learn more about the Fifty-Two Form Poetry Challenge.

Click Here to learn more about the terza rima form.

~

— A sample of what you’ll find at my new blog, Astra Poetica —

~ Featuring a new form every week! ~

— Creative works are owned by the author and subject to copyright laws —

Adam of the Universe – Our Mother the Mountain [Townes Van Zandt Cover]

On By Adam AstraIn Americana, Indie Folk, Music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Song by the late great Townes Van Zandt. Performed, recorded, and mixed by Adam of the Universe with tremendous respect and gratitude for (and sincerest apologies to) the original artist. Find more fantastic music from Townes Van Zandt at https://townesvanzandt.com.

Our Mother the Mountain:

My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon’s dancin’ purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands ‘neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she’s wearin’
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She’s parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you’re lovin’
By mother the mountain
I swear that it’s true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue

Featured Song: Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat

On By Adam AstraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen

It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening

I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train, and
You came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well, I see Jane’s awake
She sends her regards

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Well, your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

Sincerely, L Cohen

Original Song – The Cardinal

On By Adam AstraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Cardinal

The horizon opens slowly a snowy eye.
The cell phone sleeps beside the bedroom window.
From this dreamless city, no reply.
Just a creeping cardinal beneath the naked willow.

Bird of crimson, bring you any news?
Will you sing in answer to my love?
I am your martyr if you still refuse;
You can paint your children with my blood.

Lost in longing, displaced in aimless passion
This flash of life, this rose of pale December
Finds me blindly caged in my distraction
Still my shivering heart aches to remember
God of scarlet, son of starlit space,
With your fire, with your soul of sky,
Will you let fall a shadow, just a shadow of your grace?
I get no signal from these satellites.

Bird of winter, I softly sing for you.
If you’ll please reply, Cardinal, let me fly.
away with you

The horizon opens slowly a ghostly eye.
The cardinal creeps beneath the naked willow.
From this dreamless city, still no reply.
I press my breath against the frozen window.
I press my breath against the frozen window.

My desire—purified by silence—
May annihilate us both if I
Step out into the air to sing for you.
Step out into the air to sing for you.

 

Words and music by Adam Hummell. Copyright 2015.

Original Song – This Invisible Ocean

On By Adam AstraIn Adam of the Universe Original Song, Americana, Indie Folk, Kansas Poetry, lyrics, Original Lyrics, Original Poetry, original song lyrics, Poetry, Prose Poetry, Singer-Songwriter, Song Lyrics, UncategorizedLeave a comment

For mom.

THIS INVISIBLE OCEAN

As a wild eyed child, little shovel in hand,
I dug for treasure in a box full of sand.
I uncovered a seashell, a spiral of ivory,
And ran to ask my mother what this wonder might be.

She motioned to the plains, as she explained to me
How they were underwater as far as you could see.
I looked out in amazement as the tall trembling trees
Trickled as they shifted in the quick liquid breeze.

I turned to my mother and I said, “No way!
You mean what we see here, that’s just today?
But mama, oh mama,” I said, suddenly afraid.
“Mama, oh mama, why can’t it stay the same?
Mama, oh, mama, will the water come again?”

She took me in her arms and kissed my salty tears,
Caressed my dirty forehead, and whispered in my ear,
“If you live in this moment, you will learn to swim
This invisible ocean that we’re living in.”

Annabel Lee – Poe’s Haunting Poem in An Original Acoustic Composition

On By Adam AstraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Words by Edgar Allan Poe. Music by Adam of the Universe. Copyright 2015.

Annabel Lee

By Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Featured Poem: “The Laughing Heart” – Charles Bukowski

On By Adam AstraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Charles Bukowski –
The Laughing Heart

Bukowki’s poem gorgeously animated by Bradley Bell and read by the incomparable Tom Waits. Music by Grizzly Bear. Wow.


your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.