PopcornJackTerry

Once upon a time I was a tortured artist. (Well, as tortured as an artist can be while growing up in a relatively stable middle class family in Connecticut.) Like any good tortured artist who wants to maintain their tortured artist card I wrote a lot of poetry. From the looks of what I kept, I wrote a lot of bad poetry, most of which was just subconsciously about me not getting laid. (That was probably the most tortuous part of my post-adolescent/college years.) And when I wasn’t lamenting my lack of female companionship, I fancied myself some sort of bizarre hybrid of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohan and a Tin Pan Alley lyricist. But in the middle of all of that, there are a few I was and am proud of. This is one of them.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to dream of you.
I went down out beyond the Ocean tonight
    to receive you.
I slept in the endless tomb of the undertow.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to cry with you.
I went down under over the Ocean tonight
    to believe you.
I swept away the remaining drops of starlight.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to lie to you.
I went down and threw up
    to the Ocean tonight to deceive you.
I crept away like a guilty dog in the night.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to be with you.
I stood up on the surface of the Ocean tonight
    to achieve you.
I tripped on the narcotics of your beauty.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to search for you.
I long ago forgot how to find the ocean tonight
    to retrieve you.
I managed to cry just a little in the sand.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to hear from you.
I turned my sunburnt peeling back on the Ocean tonight
    to relieve you.
I slipped and fell like a pilgrim at the temple.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to feel for you.
But I couldn’t.

The pale sliver of a moon only helped me
    Lie to myself
As I find myself doing with what you would call
    An alarming frequency,
But someday a lie is the only thing that gets
    Me out of bed
And into the mortality of rushing water that
    Drowns me a little
Every day.

I went down to the Ocean tonight
    to dream of you.
I stood looking at forever over the Ocean tonight
    to remove you.
I left the sand as naked as the dawn.

And in case you are curious, the reason for all this tripping down poetry memory lane, I’m entering a poem writing contest and figured I could use some inspiration from when I used to write poetry more often.