Verse

Ray Sherman
Creations Musical ,Philosophica l, and Poetical

Website contents © by Ray Sherman

Renascence Fair
(with apologies to Edna St. Vincent Millay)

All I could see from where I stood

Was three big tents and lots of food;

I turned and looked the other way,

And saw three hippies high on hay.

So with my hand I traced the line

Of your proboscis, thin and fine,

On down through mustache, lips and beard

Till I had gone too far, I feared,

And then remembered where I stood,

And those damn tents and all that food.

Why we were here, I couldn't see:

That was the thing confounding me.

We could have been near sea and sand,

But here we were. This scruffy band

Of punks and fops began to pall.

"I'd rather be at Burbank Mall

Than dusty, sweaty here," I said.

"What is so great is o'er my head.

If I want tradesmen hawking wares,

I'll go to swap meets—county fairs—

And not to cultural events

That specialize in food and tents.

Shakespeare's fine on PBS,

Who needs to put up with this mess?

Why venture forth through smog and stench

To sit upon a dirty bench?

Elizabethan music stinks—

It grates upon the ear, methinks.

(Bagpipes may be a friendly sound

To one who's six feet underground.)

Come on, let's go and hear some jazz,

Or something that has more pazazz

Than madrigals, motets and such.

That mimes's as funny as a crutch.

Red Skelton's got him beat a mile;

He doesn't even make me smile. "

The sixteenth century's OK

For those who love a rondelet,

But me, I’ll take Two Thousand One

Or Brave New World. They sound like fun.

Why, even Nineteen Eighty-Four

Beats being back in days of yore.

So, after eating kidney pie

We bad the ancient world good-bye.

Unpredictable
(With apologies to Irv Gordon)

Unpredictable,

That’s what they say—

Life’s more unpredictable

In every way.

Just when you thought
Things were going so smooth,
Just when you thought
Your nerves, you just might soothe,
It happens again.
Surprises, again.

Unpredictable,
Life has become.
Of its parts
It’s not the sum.

But of course
We could learn to live with it;
Learn to like
The “take and give” of it,
And so, all become
Unpredictable too.

Hear Ray Sherman's piano playing at Ray Sherman Radio 1

Hear Ray Sherman's favorite classic-jazz records at Ray Sherman Radio 2

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