Author Archives: Damian Garside

RELEASE

RELEASE

here I am
at Woodstock 69

my head exploding in the moment
     did not think things
could change out
of all proportion

Carlos Santana standing there
wrestling with the demons
in his guitar
      ripping out my heart
serving it back to me shredded,
dripping with
     Lysergic acid

did not figure he could
mellow so
       smooth

and the end of Vietnam
lead to everything headed
in the wrong
direction

and here we are now
         having lomg said our
goodbyes to
a raw music of ecstasy
of transformative connection

music now
         filtered and distilled

served
in a box

box we would ask you politely
not to think outside of

ever dream
         that soul, spirit, body
whatsoever
     altogether

we can agree to release

QUIETLY (SAID THE PHILOSOPHER)

QUIETLY (SAID THE PHILOSOPHER)

quietly, said the
philosopher,

thus
the philosopher spake

argued quietly
should be
my default mode

here
on the edge
of an abyss

never jump to, rush to,
solution, conclusion

only after
careful inference,
                   deduction
make
   lightning leap

remember
   that a single feather
a flock doth not
of
  necessity make
still less
     an angel

though the brush of a wing
where none
      should logically be

the feel of
a beyond
          you cannot put your
finger on

may be
    different thing
                    entirely
every
   ounce of your being
shred
    and philosophical fibre

crying out for
     deeper engagement

doing so
      quietly

VERTIGO

VERTIGO

I hate vertigo

fear it
entirely

wonder what
life should be
like

could it
be at all tolerable
if it
    did not go
of own accord
consent to
  leave me

and so I am
sensitive to
the world’s vertigo
the one
that mad philosopher
wrote of

the one where all
that was balanced
is lost
    the tipping point
of fundamental energies
refusing reconcilement

in the words of the crazy one,
forever our fate,
    determined to return.

TO BE SURE

TO BE SURE

rejoice;
beware!

something
out there

a new
continent
       as yet
undiscovered?

unnamed
asteroid;
         new
planet?

something which
we found
      found us

bound to change
                everything

bringing, to be sure,
greatness and goodness

for
all mankind!

rejoice!
       beware

something out there
          already, to be sure

new planet
new continent

near
     as it is far