I'd like to meet:

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Galileo, Ben Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, and Marilyn Monroe.

Oh, you mean LIVING people? Well, pretty much anyone ... with a sense of humor ... who are low-maintenance ... and who won't take the last Oreo without asking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music:

LIVE MUSIC! ... all kinds except polka and Gregorian chant. Wagner "Ring Cycle"
Beethoven 9th Symphony
Dire Straits Love Over Gold
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Gustav Holst Planets
Neil Young Harvest
Traffic John Barleycorn
Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life Vols. 1 & 2
Beatles [pick one]. FROM GAINESVILLE/ NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA...
... CURRENTLY:
Spellbox, The Duppies, DJ Hiebel, Mama Trish, Redboy, Bo Diddly, Big Oil, Lasr Din, Hamhock & Slide, Chelsea Carnes, Dashboard Confessional, Folk Jam 99, Gainesville Liberation Orchestra, No More, Pissing on Susie, Prophet of What, Morningbell, The Legendary JC's, Sister Hazel, Less Than Jake
... FROM THE PAST: Vini and the Demons, Vova Nova, Daughters of the Revolution, Kitchens of Soul, Tom Petty (but the traitor moved West!), For Squirrels, Big White Undies, Unkle Funkle, Whoreculture, Dingo Fish Band, Bill Perry Orchestra NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR GAINESVILLE (or dead or defunct): Pink Floyd, Primus, Prince, Zappa, Etta James, Queen Latifah, A Tribe Called Quest, Little River Band, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Lehr, Neil Young, Jane's Addiction, Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, Fela Kuti, Crack the Sky, Thomas Dolby, Joan Armatrading, Offspring, Tinsley Ellis, Howard Shore, Alice Cooper, Al Kooper, Bud Powell, W Guthrie, A Guthrie, Mingus, Mendelssohn, Madonna, Moodies, Marvin, Marley, Mancini, Metallica, Mozart, Marian McPartland, Matisyahu, Morissey, Miles, Mayall, Marillion, Meatloaf, Monk, Flogging Molly, Gary Moore, Meat Puppets, Don McLean, Eno, Emo, ELO, ELP, CSN, NWA, MSG, BÖC, BOA, NIN, SCI, BS&T, EW&F, UB40, Y&T, 2LC, TMBG, Phish, Oysterhead, Oasis, Ozzy/Black Sabbath, Ani, Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, Dennis Leary, Jefferson Airplane, Janis, Jimi, Jim/Doors, Joni, John Phillips Sousa, Scott Joplin, 5th Dimension, 10,000 Maniacs, 3 Dog Night, Willie Dixon, Depeche Mode, Nelly, Iggy, Eminem, Elgar, Ella, Elton, Eagles, Lauren/Fujis, Ferry/Roxy Music, Roots, Barrett, Black Crowes, Big Meat, Blondie, Beethoven, Bowie, Buffett, Beach Boys, Beasties, Barry, Beatles (etc.), Badfinger, Boz, Brubeck, Bernstein, Baez, Billie, Barenaked Ladies, Blind Melon, Bone Thugs-N Harmony, Blues Traveller, Bad Co., Byrds, Kate Bush, Allman Bros., Blues Bros., Isley Bros., Bros. Johnson, Eric Burdon/Animals/War, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, G & R, Mamas & Papas, Sly & the Family Stone, Jimmy & the Teasers, Loggins & Messina, Rogers & [Hammerstein, Hart], Tuck & Patti, Hootie & the Blowfish, Leiber & Stoller, Lerner & Loewe, Iron & Wine, John Williams, Argent/Zombies, Cowboy Junkies, Trower, Temptations, Tori, Tool, Traffic, Tull, Rafferty, Roy Orbison, Ramones, Radiohead, Rundgren, Rush, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Clash, Cranberries, Cash, Clapton, Collective Soul, King Crimson, Coldplay, Cure, Cream, Coltrane, Kraftwerk, Kinks, Crash Test Dummies, Carol King, Chaka Khan, Green Day, Flaming Lips, Fats Dead, Duke, Dvorak, Dylan, Deep Purple, Dolly, Dion, Donovan, Dizzy, Garbage, Nirvana, Nilsson, Alan Parsons, Wilburys, Femmes, Quincy Jones, Les Paul, Lenny, Louis, Liberace, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Annie Lennox/Eurythmics, Lucinda Williams, Billy Joel, Nicks/Buckingham/McVie/Fleetwood Mac, Pete/Genesis, Walsh, Waller, Vega, Aerosmith, America, Aretha, Alanis, Art of Noise, Average White Band, Weird Al, Al Green, Jackson Browne, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman, Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits, Gladiators, Chet Baker, John Prine, Pretenders, Police, George Clinton/Parliament/P Funk, Paganini, Pumpkins, Charlie Parker, Ton-Loc, Schubert, Geldoff, Grieg, Falco, Holst, Haydn, Herbie Hancock, Hamell, Horowitz, Hedges, Heart, Herb Alpert, Hank Sr., Talking Heads, Robert Hunter, Hornsby, Ray, Queen, Church, Fishbone, Cher, Willie, Weezer, Yes, Yngwie, Chicago (only the first 12 albums), Brian Setzer/Stray Cats, Stanley Jordan, Steely Dan, Sting, Stones, Supertramp, Stevie, Santana, Sublime, Styx, Sweet, Savoy Brown, System of a Down, Seal, Satriani, Sinatra, Springsteen, Steppenwolf, Sibelius, Sex Pistols, Steve Miller, Paul Simon, Carly Simon, Rod Stewart, Pat Benatar, Gentle Giant, Van Halen, Van Morrison, Vangelis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Zeppelin, the whole Bach family, the whole Marsalis family, and Cat Stevens before he went completely nuts. Enya, get a real job. Phil Specter, you are an overrated bastard. You have no respect for women or the Beatles. Get a real job. Yoko, you buzzard, at least please wait for the flesh to cool before tearing at it. Go back to sculpture and performance art where you belong. Or get a real job.

Movies:

nuance, depth, humor, surprise, Chaplin, Hitchcock, Spielberg, W Allen, Fellini, Jarmusch, Altman, Kubrik, Branaugh, Coen Bros, Tarantino, Mel Brooks, Spike Lee, P Sellers, Streep, Bette Davis, Keitel, H Ford, Olivier, Brando, McQueen, DeNiro, Nicholson, G Carlin, S Weaver, L Fishburne, G Close, S L Jackson, C Walken, M Sheen, Julia Roberts, Bogart & Bacall, Tracey & Hepburn, Abbott & Costello, Bond, Trek, Python, indie, coming-of-age, animation, musicals, silent movies, art films - anything without Keanu Reeves (even special effects can't help him)
BRIDE OF GOOTIS, Clockwork Orange, Name of the Rose, Blue Velvet, Reservoir Dogs, Network, Player, LOTR, Brain Donors, Hair, Dangerous Liasons, Marnie, Marty, Wiz, Eating Raoul, Trading Places, Higher Learning, Hoffa, Young Frankenstein, Eraserhead, After Hours, Easy Rider, FM, Almost Famous, From Russia With Love, A Christmas Story, Annie Hall, Shane, Ruthless People, Cool Hand Luke, Addams Family, Fletch, On the Waterfront, Raising Arizona, The Jerk, Princess Bride, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pink Panther Strikes Again, Life of Brian, American Pie, The Gold Rush, Star Wars trilogy ("original"), A Fish Called Wanda, The In-Laws (1979), Planet of the Apes (1967), Galaxy Quest, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Akira, Clerks, My Life as a Dog, Color Purple, Oh! God, Kramer vs Kramer, I Am Sam, Waterboy, Manchurian Candidate (1962), Coccoon, Unforgiven, El Mariachi, Breakfast Club, Dumbo, Horsefeathers, Apocalypse Now, Goldfinger, Wizards, Rear Window, Chicago, Midnight Run, L.A. Story, Blade Runner, La Dolce Vita, Spy Who Loved Me, Stripes, Spartacus, Star is Born (1954), Silence of the Lambs, Serpico, Scarface, Simon, Stagecoach, Somewhere in Time, Switch, Stand by Me, Scrooged, Sunset Boulevard, Swingers, the South Park movie, Sunshine Boys, Slap Shot, Scent of a Woman, Sneakers, Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Spinal Tap, Scary Movie, Sleuth, Sound of Music, The Sting, Sling Blade, Sirens, Singin' in the Rain, Soylent Green, Something About Mary, South Pacific, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Serial Mom, Greedy, Nurse Betty, All About Eve, Dodgeball, Running Man, Rain Man, Meaning of Life, King Kong (1933 and 2005), Play It Again Sam, Babe, Braveheart, Day at the Races, The Producers (1968), Big Fish, Grosse Pointe Blank, Crazy People, Robin Hood (1938), Brazil, Time of Their Lives, Barbarella, All Quiet on the Western Front, Dark Passage, M*A*S*H, Taps, Ghost Dog, Little Giant, It Happened One Night, Thin Man (etc.), Bullitt, Manhattan, In God We Tru$t, Roxanne, The Doors, Animal House, Fantasia, Usual Suspects, Deliverance, Back to the Future, On Golden Pond, Frankenstein (1931), Bright Leaf, What About Bob?, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Where's Papa?, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, What’s Up Tiger Lily?, What’s New Pussycat?, Bird, Birdy, Birdcage, Big, Groundhog Day, E.T., My Fair Lady, Men in Black, Thunderball, The Party, Day the Earth Stood Still, Austin Powers (etc.), Neighbors, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Wayne's World (etc.), Do the Right Thing, Going in Style, Airplane!, Little Shop of Horrors, Fried Green Tomatoes, Romancing the Stone, Caddyshack, Red River, Amadeus, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Good the Bad & the Ugly, Sex Lies & Videotape, Bonnie & Clyde, Smokey & the Bandit, Harold & Maude, Colors, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Bennie & Joon, Lady & the Tramp, Arsenic & Old Lace, Trains Planes & Automobiles, To Have & Have Not, Thelma & Louise, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Romeo & Juliet (1996), Ghost & Mr. Chicken, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Hannah & Her Sisters, Amos & Andrew, China Syndrome, Raiders of the Lost Ark (etc.), Marathon Man, Philadelphia Story, In the Heat of the Night, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Batman, Boys From Brazil, Great Dictator, Pink Floyd The Wall, Full Metal Jacket, Mean Girls, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Philadelphia, Shrek, Natural Born Killers, Revenge of the Nerds, Shawshank Redemption, Twilight Zone The Movie, Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation, Dead Poet's Society, Dirty Harry, The Trouble With Harry, Glengarry Glen Ross, Duck Soup, The General, Godfather (etc.), Camelot, Heavy Metal, The Piano, Empire of the Sun, Man for All Seasons, GoodFellas, Big Sleep, Caveman, Blazing Saddles, Dr. Strangelove, Dr. No, Mystic Pizza, Beetlejuice, Vertigo, My Cousin Vinny, The Graduate, High Noon, River Runs Through It, Dracula (1992), Paper Moon, Bowling for Columbine, Thief of Bagdad, No Time for Sargents, Indochine, No Way Out, The 'burbs, Dial "M" for Murder, Mountains of the Moon, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Witness for the Prosecution, Boys on the Side, Chaplin, Deathtrap, Johnny Dangerously, Music of Chance, Inherit the Wind, Carrie, Quiz Show, Ghostbusters, Murder by Death, Life Is Beautiful, Boxing Helena, Schindler's List, Blues Brothers, Less Than 0, 1 Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Capricorn 1, History of the World Part 1, Evil Dead 2, 3 Days of the Condor, 3 Kings, The 3rd Man, Pi, 4 Rooms, 4 Seasons, 5th Element, 5 Easy Pieces, Henry V (1944 and 1989), 6th Sense, 6th Day, Se7en, Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs, 7 Days in May, 7 Year Itch, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, 8mm, Butterfield 8, Fahrenheit 9/11, 9-5, 9½ Wks., 10 Commandments, 10, Oceans 11 (1960), 12 Angry Men, 28 Days Later, 39 Steps, 40 Year Old Virgin, 48 Hours (etc.), Route 66, Around the World in 80 Days, The Naughty 90s, 101 Dalmatians, 1000 Clowns, 1941, 2001, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Million Dollar Baby, Brewster's Millions, Hard Luck, Oklahoma!, Dr. Detroit, Witness, Awakenings, Boyz n the Hood, African Queen, Best Years of Our Lives, Bringing Up Baby, Bride of Frankenstein, Casablanca, Adam's Rib, Inherit the Wind, Andromeda Strain, Malcolm X, Othello (1965), Man with the Golden Gun, Eddie Murphy Raw, Notorious, Kakfa, Double Indemnity, Key Largo, Rebel Without a Cause, His Girl Friday, Maltese Falcon, Coogan's Bluff, Nighthawks, The Apartment, From Here to Eternity, Truman Show, Picture of Dorian Gray, Greedy, Bridge on the RIver Kwai, Greatest Show on Earth, Mutiny on the Bounty, Die Hard, Fugitive, F/X, The End, Ice Bandits, American Graffiti, Touch of Evil, Toy Story, Fargo, Antz, All of Me, Last Tango in Paris, Good Morning Vietnam, She Done Him Wrong, Up In Smoke, How High, High Noon, High Anxiety, French Connection, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Stadust Memories, Outland, Grifters, Risky Business, Last Picture Show, Man Who Knew Too Much, Halloween, Bull Durham, Back to Bataan, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Deer Hunter, Weird Science, League of Their Own, Full Monty, Terminator (etc.), My Little Chickadee, Foul Play, Porky's, Firestarter, True Lies, Escape from NY, Eye of the Needle, Forrest Gump, Norma Rae, Pulp Fiction, Manhattan Murder Mystery, West Side Story, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Under the Rainbow, Zelig, Waking Ned Divine, True Grit, Dreamscape, Brainstorm, Weekend at Bernie's, Office Space, Dressed to Kill, Hook, Cat's Eye, Diamonds Are Forever, NY Stories, Mission: Impossible, Saving Private Ryan, Jumanji, Shot in the Dark, Friday, Time After Time, Night of the Living Dead, Uncle Buck, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978), Carnal Knowledge, Tron, Mighty Aphrodite, Creature from the Black Lagoon, North by Northwest, Taxi Driver, Wholly Moses!, Monster in a Box, Casino Royale (1967), Alfie, Great Santini, Ben-Hur, Class, Teachers, Terms of Endearment, Bullets Over Broadway, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pelican Brief, Mad Max (etc.), Rounders, Fresh, Prince of Tides, Mister Roberts, Watership Down, Lost Weekend, Death to Smoochy, Casablanca, Dogma, Klute, Hoppity Goes to Town, Last Emporer, Laura, Bananas, Man Who Would Be King, Broadcast News, Trainspotting, Last Waltz, Midnight Cowboy, Goonies, Secret Window, Traffic, Tootsie, American Beauty, Chinatown, Shining, The Natural, Barton Fink, Brubaker, Ed Wood, Lawrence of Arabia, Erik the Viking, Man Who Came to Dinner, Parent Trap (1961), Harry Potter (etc.), Clueless, Little Big Man, Legally Blonde, I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, Uninvited, Clash of the Titans, Beau Geste (1939), Erin Brockovich, Fight Club, Team America, Neighbors, Heathers

Television:

¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ KILL YOUR TELEVISION ! ! ! ! I haven't flipped the TV on in almost 10 years. When out visiting, I'll sometimes watch South Park, Jon Stewart, Bill Mahr, Gator Football/Basketball, and old movies. Hey, doesn't anyone read books anymore? Or at least the back of a cereal box? Does anyone buy cereal any more? Why is the rod of an umbrella right in the middle where you'd want to stand? Why can't people just answer questions without asking new questions?

Books:

The greatest novel of the 20th Century is DUNE by Frank Herbert He who controls the MySpace controls the universe Cervantes Don Quixote
Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All
Jeffrey Eugenides The Virgin Suicides
Katherine Dunn Geek Love
Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary
Harry Crews Car and Body
Lawrence Ferlinghetti Coney Island of the Mind
Kurt Vonnegut Cat's-Cradle and Galapagos
Ludwig Wittgenstein The Philosophical Investigations
Lawrence Ferlinghetti A Coney Island of the Mind
Pablo Neruda The Captain's Verses
William Burroughs Junkie
Daniel Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Consciousness Explained
Tolkien Lord of the Rings
Thomas Harris The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig
Kant's 3 Critiques
Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker
Umberto Eco Foucault's Pendulum
Michael Moore Dude, Where's My Country
Salinger Catcher in the Rye
Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide series
Martin Gardner [pick one]
Thomas Berger Little Big Man and Neighbors
Russell and Whitehead Principia Mathematica
Plato The Republic
Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Le Petit Prince
Tao Te Ching (pronounced correctly)
Kama Sutra (performed explicitly) POETS: Neruda, Rilke, Plath, Thoreau, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rives, Wallace Stevens, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Dylan Thomas, EE Cummings, Alexander Pope, Shakespeare (he really gets around!), O'Neill, Whitman, Blake, Eliot, Sandburg, Poe, Keats, Frost, Tennyson, Dante, Goethe, Yeats, Bukowski, Shel Silverstein, and the dude who wrote Grendel MODERN NOVELISTS & FICTION WRITERS:
Gainesville's very own HARRY CREWS and JOE HALDEMAN Robbins, Dunn, Vonnegut, Eco, Patrick McCabe, Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, Mark Leyner, Jeanette Winterson, Bradbury, Clarke, Asimov, W Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Garrison Keillor, Stanislaw Lem, Philip K Dick, Thomas Berger CLASSIC NOVELISTS & FICTION WRITERS: Twain, Shelley, Lovecraft, Baum, Milne, Günter Grass, Harper Lee, O Henry, Lewis Caroll, O'Connor, Salinger, Poe, Swift, Tolkien, Defoe, Doyle, Kipling, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Faulkner, Camus, Verne, Kafka PAINTERS & PHOTOGRAPHERS: Bernard Richardson Okay, so he's a friend of mine, so sue me - you can find some of his excellent work at www.myspace.com/burne
Escher, Dali, Warhol, Ansel Adams, Keith Haring, Alex Gray, Dorothea Lange, Jerry Uelsmann, Klee, Rembrandt, Picasso, Duchamp, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Ernst, Mondrian, Miro, Chagall, David Middleton, David Muench, Jackson Pollack, Hieronymous Bosch, Herman Leonard, Christopher Burkett, Paul Nash, Malcolm Morley, Grant Wood, Anne Geddes No impressionists allowed CARTOONISTS & COMIC ARTISTS: B Kliban, Berkeley Breathed, Jay Ward, Garry Trudeau, Gary Larson, Al Herschfeld, Mark Tatulli, Frank Miller, Wiley Miller, Wrightson, Gorey, Craig Russel, Will Eisner, Sandra Boynton, Stan Lee, Philippe Druillet SCIENTISTS, PHILOSOPHERS, HISTORIANS, LINGUISTS: Richard Dawkins, Thomas Harris, Martin Gardner, Shelby Foote, Joseph Campbell, Darwin, Hofstadter, Dennett, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Chomsky, Searle, Russell, Kant, Kuhn, JS Mill, CS Pierce, Quine, Boas, Freud, Marx, Sartre, Hume, Rousseau, Husserl, Lévi-Strauss, Foucault, Popper, Derrida, Rawls, RM Hare (one of my college profs) ESSAYISTS & COMMENTATORS: William F Buckley (RIP 2008 - miss you, big guy!), Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, George Will, Molly Ivins (RIP 2007 - miss you, sharp lady!), Mike Royko, Frank Deford, Daniel Schorr, Dave Barry, DH Lawrence, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Al Franken, Edith Hamilton, Spalding Gray (I miss you most of all, you big lug!) PLAYWRIGHTS:
Gainesville is proud to have SHAMROCK McSHANE - you rock, dude!, Shakespeare is the shit (as in, good shit), Albee, Wilde, Ibsen, Beckett, Coward, Stoppard, Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Gorky, Marlowe, Ionesco, Chekov, Pinter, Capek, Milton, Ben Jonson, Neil Simon, Lorraine Hansberry, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams The Bible is decent sci-fi, but it's a little over-the-top, don't you think? Stephen King and Charles Dickens are both VERY overrated. Emily Dickenson blows goats.

Heroes:

... by year of birth (almost): Socrates, Aristotle, Buddha, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Jefferson, Beethoven, Lincoln, Ambrose Bierce, Gandhi, Elsa Einstein (Albert's 2nd wife), Bertrand Russell, FDR, Buckminster Fuller, Charlie Chaplin, Dali, Orson Welles, Daniel Schorr, Walter Cronkite, JFK, Nelson Mandela, Earl Nightingale, Malcolm X, Peter Sellers, Marilyn Monroe, Elie Wiesel, MLK, Jim Henson, Lennon, Zappa, Arthur Ashe, Roberto Clemente, Oprah Winfrey, John McEnroe, the Dalai Llama, Tom Robbins, Tim Robbins, Bill Mahr, Cindy Sheehan, Bill Hicks ... and my mother. Jesus didn't make the cut, though I hear he made excellent fishcakes.

Stone

by Charles Simic

Go inside a stone
That would be my way.
Let somebody else become a dove
Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.
I am happy to be a stone.
From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.
I have seen sparks fly out
When two stones are rubbed,
So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
Perhaps there is a moon shining
From somewhere, as though behind a hill—
Just enough light to make out
The strange writings, the star-charts
On the inner walls.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

I Am Waiting

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am seriously waiting
for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles seriously
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the living end
and I am waiting
for dad to come home
his pockets full
of irradiated silver dollars
and I am waiting
for the atomic tests to end
and I am waiting happily
for things to get much worse
before they improve
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the human crowd
to wander off a cliff somewhere
clutching its atomic umbrella
and I am waiting
for Ike to act
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and save me forever from certain death
and I am waiting
for life to begin
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am waiting
for Ole Man River
to just stop rolling along
past the country club
and I am waiting
for the deepest South
to just stop Reconstructing itself
in its own image
and I am waiting
for a sweet desegregated chariot
to swing low
and carry me back to Ole Virginie
and I am waiting
for Ole Virginie to discover
just why Darkies are born
and I am waiting
for God to lookout
from Lookout Mountain
and see the Ode to the Confederate Dead
as a real farce
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for Tom Swift to grow up
and I am waiting
for the American Boy
to take off Beauty's clothes
and get on top of her
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth's dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

In You the Earth

by Pablo Neruda

Little
rose,
roselet,
at times,
tiny and naked,
it seems
as though you would fit
in one of my hands,
as though I’ll clasp you like this
and carry you to my mouth,
but
suddenly
my feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips:
you have grown,
your shoulders rise like two hills,
your breasts wander over my breast,
my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thin
new-moon line of your waist:
in love you loosened yourself like sea water:
I can scarcely measure the sky’s most spacious eyes
and I lean down to your mouth to kiss the earth.

Now Close the Windows

by Robert Frost

Now close the windows and hush all the fields:
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.
It will be long ere the marshes resume,
I will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

Night Poem

by Margaret Atwood

There is nothing to be afraid of,
it is only the wind
changing to the east, it is only
your father the thunder
your mother the rain
In this country of water
with its beige moon damp as a mushroom,
its drowned stumps and long birds
that swim, where the moss grows
on all sides of the trees
and your shadow is not your shadow
but your reflection,
your true parents disappear
when the curtain covers your door.
We are the others,
the ones from under the lake
who stand silently beside your bed
with our heads of darkness.
We have come to cover you
with red wool,
with our tears and distant whipers.
You rock in the rain's arms
the chilly ark of your sleep,
while we wait, your night
father and mother
with our cold hands and dead flashlight,
knowing we are only
the wavering shadows thrown
by one candle, in this echo
you will hear twenty years later.

At Last

by Charles Bukowski

I am sitting here
in darkest night
as one more poem
arrives
and
says
wait,
wait,
watch me as I strut
across the page
letter by letter
like one of your
cats
walking across the
hood of your
car.
watch me,
here I go
again
all the way to
Mexico
or Java
or down
into your
gut.
wait
some
more,
these nights
are meant for that
and for
me
because
I control
you,
a captive there
sitting before
this
illuminated
screen.
you will do as I
want
because
I write
you,
not the other
way around.
I always have.
I always will.
I am the last
poem of this
night
and as you
sleep later in the
next room
in the dark
you will
forget about
me,
forget everything,
you with your
dumb mouth
open,
as you snore your
heavy
sleep,
I will be here
waiting,
immortal,
and
when you are
dead
and the black
sky flashes
red
for you
for the last time,
your dumb
bones
will amount to
nothing
more
than
dust.
but I will
live on.