David L O’Nan – Page 18 – Fevers of the Mind

3 Poems of Silence by David L O’Nan

Silence: Your Little Bottle of Wine

In this silence
All that you hear is midnight
The kitchen sink still dripping
Hour after hour...dripping
I lay sweating in a semi-conscious fever
The bombs are still popping,
Bullets still flying
The explosions deafen me to silence
Cuffs me crookedly to the blading seas
I become lonely as the sunshine vaporizes-
from my evergreen pastures.
Will I survive this silence?
Or die once the last tear chokes away my breath?
I'm killed in the boredom
Holding a little bottle of wine and asking for a rapture
Scrape me away with the scum
Cornered me in the darkness
I listen to the liquified poisons talk to me -
as it is being ingested through my bloodstream
I whisper love words to another make-believe-monster 
to fill in the void.
Inches away from licking towards my wounds
"Come here baby, Cuddle me in this silence"
Show me the moonlight in the tunnels
The canyons in which all deities are birthed,
Little bottles of wine broken all over the floor
Let's sleep, sleep, sleep

Silence: The Evenings

The evening arrives like a clashing satellite
To my head
Biting thoughts in raptured clouds
Sweat dripping,
I hear no sound
Silence barks into my auditory nerves
My brain is spinning erratically
Into the stars again
Blood trips, I fear not -
my mind
There are darling breaths
That rub sticks together in my chest
Lucid lungs that make liquid death
When there are recalls, echoes
It is almost like a new prayer
Slightly subtle and less vain
The head now pounding,
The dynamite inside destroys the muscle trains
Moonlight molds
And I crawl back into a malignant meadow.

Silence: The Winds

We smelled of baby breath and rosemary
Dragonflies swarming the prairie
Fluid from our connected union,
The perfect cohesion for a Spring day
Every morning we will now awake to a tri-colored blue
Touch each other's hands
With the sensational nerves on the skin
Make love to the sound of our laughter
Vocal, deep, breathing like a vacuum of wind
Our visions no longer lost in hidden eyes
And you will start your shifting -
In the air where you broke many hearts


 “Before the Bridges Fell” by me David L O’Nan Poetry book is out today on Cajun Mutt Press 

Available Now: Before I Turn Into Gold Inspired by Leonard Cohen Anthology by David L O’Nan & Contributors w/art by Geoffrey Wren

Bending Rivers: The Poetry & Stories of David L O’Nan out now! 

Bio: David L O'Nan is a poet, short story writer, editor living in Southern Indiana.  He is the editor for the Poetry & Art Anthologies "Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art. and has also edited & curated other Anthologies including 2 inspired by Leonard Cohen and an upcoming one inspired by Bob Dylan. He has self-published works under the Fevers of the Mind Press "The Famous Poetry Outlaws are Painting Walls and Whispers" "The Cartoon Diaries" & "New Disease Streets" (2020). A compilation of 4 books "Bending Rivers" a micro poem collection "Lost Reflections" and new book "Before the Bridges Fell" (look under books tab in Amazon) under Cajun Mutt Press & "His Poetic Last Whispers" (2022)  David has had work published in Icefloe Press, Dark Marrow, Truly U, 3 Moon Magazine, Elephants Never, Royal Rose Magazine, Spillwords, Anti-Heroin Chic, Cajun Mutt Press, Punk Noir Magazine, Voices From the Fire.  Twitter is @davidLONan1 and for the book @feversof     Join Facebook Group: Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Arts Group .   Facebook Author page DavidLONan1   and goodreads page is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18366060.David_L_O_Nan

The Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with musician, writer Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith is an acclaimed singer/songwriter musician from Ontario, Canada. He has been putting out records since the mid 1980’s and signed with Interscope/Warner in the 90’s and began putting out a collection of records that gained attention from not just fans, but other musicians such as Elvis Costello. He has worked with Chris Martin of Coldplay, R.E.M., one of my favorites Leonard Cohen, Ane Brun & many more. He’s had work covered by Rod Stewart, Feist, Emmylou Harris, k.d. Lang, Michael Bublé , Nick Lowe. His latest album in 2020 is “Hermitage” and should be sought out today. Also, please look for Ron’s book “Deer Life” through Dundurn Press. (2017)

Ron’s album “The Last Rider” in 2017 (Compass Records)

Q1: When did you start writing & first influences?

Ron: My first attempts at writing songs came in my mid teens which was mostly riff rock with dumb lyrics. Mostly influences by UK bands like the Beatles & Kinks. I didn’t start writing anything decent until I was about 21, and by then my influences were Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot & Dylan, etc.

Q2: Who is your biggest influences today?

Ron: Most of the same people although i’m quite obsessed with Warren Zevon these days.

Q3: Where did you grow up and how that influence your writing/art?

Ron: I grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario in the mid 60’s and 70’s, which was a great time for radio. All the songs I heard were so melodic with such thought provoking lyrics that made life feel quite magical.

Q4: Have any travels away from home influenced work/describe if so?

Ron: I’ve written many songs on the road while on tour, etc. So I guess the short answer is yes…

Q5: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be an artist/writer/poet?

Ron: When I found out I was born on Elvis Presley’s birthday as I turned seven and promptly fell down a flight of stairs.

Q6: Favorite activities when not writing/performing to relax?

Ron: Walking mostly and reading

Q7: Any recent or upcoming promotional work you’d like to do?

Ron: I’m hoping my tour will happen next year. It’s been postponed 3 times now.

Q8: One of your favorite lines from your poem/song, or favorite piece of art or photograph?

Ron: “In every nowhere town, there are somewhere dreams” from my song “Love Shines”

Q9: Who has helped you most with writing?

Ron: Other than my influences, perhaps Mitchell Froom who produced my first 3 records.

10. Thank you for a quick interview.

Ron: My pleasure!

Several Micro Poems from David L O’Nan

Stuck

We lived like stuck ants in a wine glass
In the red wine remnants
That was sifted impure
We lived like the homeless man,
Whose skin and jacket
Has become one with the epidermis
Who can believe our past truths, or fears?
We must be symphonia, forever
To a deaf vain psyche.

Predators and Monsters

Do you believe in monsters?
They speed past me every day
Then creep slowly by the staircases, or a window
This essay to be an urban folk legend
A paradigm of masking behaviors
Pockets with fading hands
Can we get away?
A freedom that makes predators out of choirboys.

TB Jailbirds

In white lines, broken coughs
It fills my chest with an extinct disease
in the distance I can hear harmonicas
From a desert
In a 1950's jail
Only the demons listen in
To the blues that die
Like the TB Jailbirds.

Through Faith

In the frame of heaven,
I became dust
Interceding with the sunlight of a narrow hallway
Dividing into millions of tiny poisons
A quotient of one malevolence
Why the hiding?
As the piling of sales papers and bills accumulate
Teases to aneurysms
Can I be more like Paul in Malta,
Impervious through faith?

Willowy Barn

That Winter weather smiles like
A goldfish in a swill water tank
Snow cresting inside the chambers
of an 1800's willowy barn
Breaking steadily into cracks
I bathe inside the warmth of ash
And I remember you,
When you were royalty in a laugh
And in a cry, we were united..then
This willowy barn will eventually
Fly away or burn to the ground
We have to be able to comfort each other then
Can we?

As Dolls

They opened the door to hatred hundreds of years ago
Every time we get that door to budge
Racist, sexist, bigotry, homophobic, narcissistic dictators
put more magnets to our metal minds
To fail us til we only become tunnels
Dark as night
As dolls we can only blink.

Value Menu

He left home faster than a manslaughter
A family,
Like the taxi drivers in the morning with an unknown name
A drunken father yells
Can no longer behest him,
To rolling cigarettes,
Neglecting your own appetite
Always eating from the value menu
He sold you to the power of his slurs
He reminds you he wished you were never born
As wheelchairs push against the broken tiles of a linoleum floor
Another broken bottle
Move away to the comfort of being a lunatic
And a farewell to the crowding hatred.

Jersey Cowboy Drunkard

In an immortal memory
You, a growing lily
Intercepted by the pushers
Whose medicines scream magic
Soon, they were the entrapment
And soon you were a wife
Married to an impulsive amphetamine
With devils dancing in whispering lullabies
Your Jersey cowboy drunkard
Un Viaje Sin Una Casa

Yesterday's Sky

Removed me from the healing of saints
Drowned a colony of us, like ants
Infernal flames
Remove me
I can't feel the power
You keep painting over my smile
My laughter lost in the fabric of miles
You are the manic artist
With an evil eye
Paint me back 
to yesterday's sky


Bio: David L O'Nan is a poet, short story writer, editor living in Southern Indiana.  He is the editor for the Poetry & Art Anthologies "Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art. and has also edited & curated other Anthologies including 2 inspired by Leonard Cohen and an upcoming one inspired by Bob Dylan. He has self-published works under the Fevers of the Mind Press "The Famous Poetry Outlaws are Painting Walls and Whispers" "The Cartoon Diaries" & "New Disease Streets" (2020). A compilation of 4 books "Bending Rivers" a micro poem collection "Lost Reflections" and new book "Before the Bridges Fell" (look under books tab in Amazon) under Cajun Mutt Press & "His Poetic Last Whispers" (2022)  David has had work published in Icefloe Press, Dark Marrow, Truly U, 3 Moon Magazine, Elephants Never, Royal Rose Magazine, Spillwords, Anti-Heroin Chic, Cajun Mutt Press, Punk Noir Magazine, Voices From the Fire.  Twitter is @davidLONan1 and for the book @feversof     Join Facebook Group: Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Arts Group .   Facebook Author page DavidLONan1   and goodreads page is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18366060.David_L_O_Nan 

 “Before the Bridges Fell” by me David L O’Nan Poetry book is out today on Cajun Mutt Press 

Available Now: Before I Turn Into Gold Inspired by Leonard Cohen Anthology by David L O’Nan & Contributors w/art by Geoffrey Wren

Bending Rivers: The Poetry & Stories of David L O’Nan out now!

Poem by David L O’Nan : “Valen, Mocky, Georgie, Johnny Happy”

Valen, Mocky, Georgie, Johnny Happy

We remember back to years we knew them all,
Valen, Mocky, Georgie, Johnny Happy and the paper dolls.
The misfits from the hills.
The hicks from the razor-sharp streets,
The change from Brown to Green,
once the storm bleached out the heat.
Taking in all the sensations of the awakening.

They were prisoners, weak to death
Strong in mind,
yet always quaking in a shiver.
In the cold house of steel,
Those who danced, those who'd construct, Deconstruct,
shatter, and then wilt.

We knew all that was beginning to change.

They will be colored in fevers
They will have burning coals in their chests
They will battle their wars tight in a jar
They can die in silence,
or as the night becomes berserk.
They will continue to find the distance,
from their wives and children.

Oh, we are all getting older
White hairs crawling from each of us -
like wild mice to cheese
Those that'll chew holes through our shoes.

The boys and the mannequin stares,
the Danny O'Day doll's eyes,
a novelty we all are.
Living in the nightmares of grapevines, barbwire
for the butchers.
Friends from childhood to distant shadows -
absorbed into delusions.

We used to be tender, family, unbound, and free. Asleep
allowed to leave the trenches.
Gifted, wrapped as a holiday present - Away
from all the borders.
They choked us from power.

One by one a new demise.
Thwarted in the dust.
Fighting the skeleton inside.
And the memory pops like bubble wrap. Little
green wings of fire now tipsy and burst.
Drunk and tiresome.
Woozy, scared as they remove our food.
The heart lives on like a patch.
How long will you feel my love?

All of this bleeding becomes breezy
Like an infinite painting of crimson wind,
still framed and lost is our revolution.
They will carry us out
like stuffed animals taking too much room. Evict
the mites, so what is left can breathe.
The riots yell sounds soft in a madman's dream.

“Before the Bridges Fell” by me David L O’Nan Poetry book is out today on Cajun Mutt Press

Available Now: Before I Turn Into Gold Inspired by Leonard Cohen Anthology by David L O’Nan & Contributors w/art by Geoffrey Wren

Bending Rivers: The Poetry & Stories of David L O’Nan out now!

Bio: David L O'Nan is a poet, short story writer, editor living in Southern Indiana. He is the editor for the Poetry & Art Anthologies "Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art. and has also edited & curated other Anthologies including 2 inspired by Leonard Cohen and an upcoming one inspired by Bob Dylan. He has self-published works under the Fevers of the Mind Press "The Famous Poetry Outlaws are Painting Walls and Whispers" "The Cartoon Diaries" & "New Disease Streets" (2020). A compilation of 4 books "Bending Rivers" a micro poem collection "Lost Reflections" and new book "Before the Bridges Fell" (look under books tab in Amazon) under Cajun Mutt Press & "His Poetic Last Whispers" (2022) David has had work published in Icefloe Press, Dark Marrow, Truly U, 3 Moon Magazine, Elephants Never, Royal Rose Magazine, Spillwords, Anti-Heroin Chic, Cajun Mutt Press, Punk Noir Magazine, Voices From the Fire. Twitter is @davidLONan1 and for the book @feversof Join Facebook Group: Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Arts Group . Facebook Author page DavidLONan1 and goodreads page is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18366060.David_L_O_Nan

The Hills Have Blindsides by David L O’Nan (poetry)

The Hills Have Blindsides

also published in IceFloe Press

A flock of hideous birds float through the wind. I feel these crows in shriveled fur,
Their flight, an old man’s crippled slur.
They congregate together
Cross-eyed and angry
To yell from the diaphragm,
Your rebellion is based on ignorance!

These were feathers from the same war. All brewed up and steamed together, Before peace became a relevant idea.
In caskets, they lay
All purpled – in art
Waiting for someone to dance and sing –
With the bells ringing from the heart

After all the diseases sink in their talons Then gnashing and biting begins.
When the prettiest star waves you in
To meet God or the jealousies of all sins, They roll up those hills to see clarity.
The problem in all the darkness
Is not within your peripheral understanding. The hills have blindsides,
When you’re looking for Jesus
When you’re looking for Jesus

“Before the Bridges Fell” by me David L O’Nan Poetry book is out today on Cajun Mutt Press

Available Now: Before I Turn Into Gold Inspired by Leonard Cohen Anthology by David L O’Nan & Contributors w/art by Geoffrey Wren

Bending Rivers: The Poetry & Stories of David L O’Nan out now!

Bio: David L O’Nan is a poet, short story writer, editor living in Southern Indiana. He is the editor for the Poetry & Art Anthologies “Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art. and has also edited & curated other Anthologies including 2 inspired by Leonard Cohen and an upcoming one inspired by Bob Dylan. He has self-published works under the Fevers of the Mind Press “The Famous Poetry Outlaws are Painting Walls and Whispers” “The Cartoon Diaries” & “New Disease Streets” (2020). A compilation of 4 books “Bending Rivers” a micro poem collection “Lost Reflections” and new book “Before the Bridges Fell” (look under books tab in Amazon) under Cajun Mutt Press & “His Poetic Last Whispers” (2022) David has had work published in Icefloe Press, Dark Marrow, Truly U, 3 Moon Magazine, Elephants Never, Royal Rose Magazine, Spillwords, Anti-Heroin Chic, Cajun Mutt Press, Punk Noir Magazine, Voices From the Fire. Twitter is @davidLONan1 and for the book @feversof Join Facebook Group: Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Arts Group . Facebook Author page DavidLONan1 and goodreads page is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18366060.David_L_O_Nan