Texas Love Song
Elton John and Bernie Taupin

I heard from a friend you'd been messing around
With a cute little thing I'd been dating uptown
Well I don't know if I like that idea much
Well you'd better stay clear I might start acting rough

You out of town guys sure think you're real keen
Think all of us boys are homespun and green
But that's wrong my friend so get this through your head
We're tough and we're Texan with necks good and red

So it's Ki yi yippie yi yi
You long hairs are sure gonna die
Our American home was clean till you came
And kids still respected the president's name

And the eagle still flew in the sky
Hearts filled with national pride
Then you came along with your drug-crazy songs
Goddamit you're all gonna die

How dare you sit there and drink all our beer
Oh it's made for us workers who sweat spit and swear
The minds of our daughters are poisoned by you
With your communistic politics and them negro blues

Well I'm gonna quit talking and take action now
Run all of you fairies clean out of this town
Oh I'm dog tired of watching you mess up our lives
Spending the summertime naturally high

Salon.com - "We sing the body electric..."

Sometimes I feel
Bad about the way I
Look.
Oh well. At least I can
Write poetry.
It's easy!

-- Anonymous staff member from the Academy of American Poets

and more at link.

Soul Works
+++++++++++++++++
What van Gogh saw

by Raphaelle Kosek

Van Gogh saw
the way our hearts burn
like the pinwheel stars
swirling in the night-mad sky,

the way our spirits,
bent and bruised in life's field,
reach endlessly upward
like the cypress trees
full of knotty whorls
curling upwards to mingle with,
and plead benediction from,
the sea-waved sky,

the way wild-maned sunflowers
are almost dizzy with themselves
and the power of heavy seed
flaming within them.

Lose an ear,
lose your mind.
Lose your life,

while your resolve scatters
like crows over the wheatfield
and Lazarus forever blooms
under a fiery sun.

Raphaelle Kosek writes, teaches, and celebrates in the beautiful
Hudson Valley of New York. This poem appeared in the July-August
1997 issue of Sojourners.: http://go.sojo.net/ct/T1axZE11OXcn/

+ Read more about Vincent van Gogh in Sojourners:
http://go.sojo.net/ct/TdaxZE11OXc8/ magazine