Last Call For Alcohol 1953

26 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1953, lyric, our times our culture Tags: , ,

               Last Call For Alcohol

The bar is closing as the clock nears three,

And the waiter sings his very last phrase

To the guys and dolls in the very last phase of life,

Strife and dissipation.

So the waiters speak again,

And the drinkers seek again:

Another bar to outlet all their blues.

“Last call for booze!”

“Last call for alcohol!”

So the waiters sing their mournful cry

To the men and women who want to die,

Cause they can’t continue their supply of alcohol.

How quite unfortunate,

As you listen to their importunate pleas of,

“Please, buddy, can’t you spare another drink?”

How ominous that last phrase sounds

As the realization hits them

That they can’t get any more rounds

Of whisky or gin,

Or anything else that’ll let them in

To the land of Oobladee.

When you ask them why they drink,

They stop, they pause, they think.

And what excuses they all give,

Such as, “This is really livin’ ”

Or, “The job’s a bore…’

‘Can’t take no more of life!

What strife!

So they’ll stay as long as they can stall,

Until their weary faces fall

And Jimmy utters his last call:

“Last call for alcohol.”

“Last call for alcohol.”

©Last Call For Alcohol 1953

Lyrics; Our Times, Our Culture;

Arlene Corwin

 

Impulsion 1959

26 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1959, a sense of the ridiculous, our times our culture Tags: , ,

           Impulsion

My brand new psychoanalyst agreed.

I could tell as he sat smoking in his tweed.

I’d found someone who understood my need.

Yes, I’d found someone , someone indeed.

My monologue was you and our affair;

The reason, as you know, why I was there.

I put aside my pride (I even cried).

As last, my silent analyst replied:

“You’ve got impulsion.

In the jargon of my colleague, Doctor Dyber G..Enetic,

It’s pituadrenalogic, in its early form kinetic.

Symptomatic is that hilo-satisfactatory pain

Pushing firmly, gently, always on the amatory brain.

But a functional disorder is not measurably plain –

So relax and we will see what we can do.

It’s possible there’s nothing wrong with you.”

My fifty minute hour flew

At twenty dollars per.

Parenthetically, I pay him less

Than all the rest, I’m sure.

Left the office, said “Goodbye, nurse.”

Reached the door and found my purse.

Took an Equanil to calm me down

And calmly feeling worse,

Took a Deximil to pick me up,

A stick of gum and nursed a cigarette.

How did it start?

Where is the cause now?

I guess I’ll have to blame it one my youth.

My applecart is applesauce now,

And my actions are neurotically uncouth.

I’ve got impulsion,

I’m very glad it’s got a name.

Now I can play my little game

Of poisons darts blown at your little picture frame.

I feel so stylish.

I feel so chic.

I’ve got impulsion.

©Impulsion 59.3.20

A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Our Times, Our Culture;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

Bonuses & Politicians 2008-9

19 Mar 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2008, 2009, our times our culture Tags: ,

     Bonuses & Politicians

The problem is, we justify.

Everybody can and does.

All sanctioned by the theories

Which seem to work. They don’t.

Numbers, stats’, trends

End in partials.

Some truth, more left,

No theory the whole;

Admit it.

Budgets, monies –

Whole is a half,

Or quarter or an eighth.

They do not work.

None of it works.

Are they fools?

Are we jerks?

With the best intentions,

There are no solutions

But just one –

Reducing, drawing in, contracting.

That’s a start, an opening.

© Bonuses & Politicians 4.15.2008
Our Times, Our Culture;
Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

Global Situation 2008

21 Feb 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2008, defiant doggerel, our times our culture, war book Tags: , ,

          Global Situation

Afghanistan

And all around;

Mass fleeing,

Caused

By wars

Imposed

By us –

There has

To be a downfall,

Short-term windfalls

Notwithstanding.

Really,

How dare we

Indulge in self-deceit,

No self insight

And not expect

The stars to fall

On Alabama?

©Global Situation 2.17.2008

Defiant Doggerel; Our Times, Our Culture; War Book;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

 

 

Day After #1 2009

16 Feb 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2009, a sense of the ridiculous, circling round time, our times our culture, special people special occasions Tags: , , ,

             Day After #1

Day after New Year is

Continuation ordinaire:

Nothing changed except the number.

I‘m a yin/yang, pro-con person

Celebrating time that’s done.

Why the fireworks?

© Day After 1.2.2009

Time; A Sense Of The Ridiculous; Our Times, Our Culture;

Special People, Special Occasions;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

Clearly Not Enough 2008

30 Jan 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2008, birth death & in between, I Is Always You is We, our times our culture Tags: , , ,

      Clearly Not Enough

Overwhelmed by paper:

Baskets full,

Information right and wrong,

Longing for a Oneness

But,

Your longing not enough.

Long away from silence,

Tempted, drawn to

Print and sound;

Fated to go round on round

In matches never winnable.

Knowledge sweet and fooling,

Even true

(Like what I say to you)

Swerve eye and hand to keyboard clicks.

Handing over selves to clocks,

Count absolute and relative,

Their measured digits running

Precious paring into Silence.

Overwhelmed by paper baskets full of information right and wrong, when all I want is Oneness. Everyday and every moment I am pulled away from silence, tempted by print and sound, fated to never get that Oneness. Even knowledge that is true knowledge persuades my eye and the rest of my senses away from seeking silence (the way to oneness). It prevents me from

understanding the true meaning of time and its destination…silence.

Arlene Corwin

© Clearly Not Enough 1.27.2008

Birth, Death & In Between; I is Always You Is We; Our Times, Our Culture;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addictions 2008

27 Jan 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2008, I Is Always You is We, our times our culture, the processes creative thinking meditative Tags: , ,

        Addictions

She tries to sit out in the sun

Alone,

No one

To phone,

No paper, pen:

When

Longing vague –

A need to do,

To have,

To move;

Oh dear, a fever

Of the modern clan, man

Sends its muddily demanding

Signals

To a brain

That wants to sit out in the sun

Alone

Without a phone,

A paper, pen,

A load of notions

That addict.

© Addictions 3.23.2008

I is Always You Is We; Our Times, Our Culture;

The Processes:Creative,Thinking, Meditative;

Arlene Corwin

 

  

I Like To Mention My Friends 1998

19 Jan 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1998, I Is Always You is We, our times our culture Tags: , ,

 

       I Like To Mention My Friends

Some people, when they get their urges,

Urges that amount to purges,

Clean the house. I write – then clean.

Some go on courses, paint a canvas.

I have friends who go to dances

Every weekend. I can sit,

For I am hardly ever hit

By needs to shine the copper.

Quite the opposite,

The things that flirt with me are titles,

Issues; wrong and right.

I have a friend –her husband too –

They run. What running they do do!

On roads, through woods, over the hill;

The pair is almost never still.

No wonder, while the world goes under

That the world is going under.

I have friends who, everyday,

Ring up each other’s phones and chat.

Between the urge to clean the flat,

The nighttime ritual TV,

The gym, the diet, free of fat and calorie,

The guilty spurt of gluttony,

And purchased books on meditation –

Problems tot up megaton:

Everyday and anyway.

Stress, success, rejuvenation,

Pressure, longing for elation,

Restless tapping for completion;

Finding the machinery

To focus on the proper ends

Is why I like to cite my friends.

(I’m sure they’re citing me).

©

 

I Like To Mention My Friends 98.3.18Our Times, Our Culture; I Is Always You Is We;

Arlene Corwin

How Not To Save Money 1998

14 Jan 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1998, birth death & in between, circling round energy, circling round vanities, circling round woman, lessons to be learned, life, our times our culture, special people special occasions Tags: , , , , , , , ,

      How Not To Save Money

A good job:

You’ve got it!

No snob,

And yet you eat out

Quite a lot;

All over town,

This restaurant, that café,

This talked about museum, that play,

This club,

This pub –

Why not?

You’re earning pounds, so use them.

A good flat, clothes,

Of course!

No clothes horse,

But what’s ‘in’ is key –

Not consciously,

But in the stream.

Friends, trips –

One needs the new,

To come to grips

With life. One’s young,

Headstrong;

One doesn’t smoke,

And one or two good trips a year

Do well to stoke

The fires.

Still no risk of getting old,

Growing bald,

Losing out to someone younger

On the job or in the home.

The time’s to find out

Who you are, and what to do

About the days and nights you roam

The streets with gobs

Of energy, a heart that throbs.

Philately, a cup of tea,

Reflecting on the death of days,

The endless, certain, fickle ways

Of change –

Now’s not the time to pan the range,

Examine change.

It’s all so strange,

It’s all so new:

Now is the time to do.©

 

How Not To Save Money 98.7.2

We’ve Cancelled The Papers 1997

11 Jan 2009 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1997, our times our culture Tags: ,

 

      We’ve Cancelled The Papers

We’ve cancelled the papers.

My goodness, I’m glad.

I find them demanding, confusing, depressing.

They take so much time from the day that one’s had.

I like all the sales that one can exploit:

The discounted coupons that scream “Clip me out!”

But then I spend more than I ought

Cause I’m, caught;

The Post and the News and the Times all expressing

Interpreted fact

Without tact, exactitude,

Flaming the attitude,

Fixing our views.

It’s all so distressing.

And that’s why I’m glad

That we’ve cancelled the papers –

Their principle’s bad.

But then again I watch TV.

Whatever will become of me –

And him? As long as we share house and room,

It’s possible we – common pair –

Will share a second-rate, commonplace doom.

Or, will we one day, pull the plug,

And flog it all:

New sweep, new broom,

New bloom,

Finished consumer:

A new human being.

©

 

We’ve Cancelled The Papers 97.4.13Our Times, Our Culture;

Arlene Corwin

 

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