The Collected Poems

Fran Landesman

• Publisher: The Permanent Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781504011037
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Women in Poetry
• Index: Literature

Poet and lyricist Fran Landesman occupies the ironic territory between Dorothy Parker and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Landesman's work combines pathos and humor and glows with the tough wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of riding in fast convertibles and hanging out in smoky bars. This ebook contains Landesman's books Invade My Privacy, The Ballad of the Sad Young Men and OtherVerse, and More Truth Than Poetry.

Invade My Privacy

To both my publishers

CRIES FROM THE HEART

Invade My Privacy

I wish you would invade my privacy

Scatter my silence

Mess up my day

I wish you’d leave your mark all over me

Handle my secrets

Teach me to play

I wish you would

I want you to assault my mystery

Open my letters

Finger my face

I want you to invade my privacy

Use up my hours

Fill up my space

I want you to

I’m so sick of living in dreams

With music and books for friends

So safe in my ivory tower

Improving the cloudy hour

With intimate odds and ends

I want someone to see inside of me

Fondle my fancies

Enter my art

I wish you’d penetrate my privacy

Conquer my vanity

Touch my heart

Somewhere Called Home

Sing softly, sing sadly

Of somewhere called home

A town by a river

All muddy and brown

It wasn’t so lovely

It wasn’t so kind

But now I’m so lonely

It glows in my mind

The winters were bitter

The summers were fierce

But life offered something

That seemed like a choice

Sing softly, sing sadly

Of something called youth

Of music that moved us

And seemed like the truth

The trumpets still echo

In rooms far away

I learn a new language

To curse a new day

But I am a stranger

Wherever I roam

Sing softly, sing sadly

Of somewhere called home

I Should Have Been Dancing

I wasted my whole life

Messing up yours

When I should have been dancing

I was slamming the doors

I sulked in the spotlight

Wearing a frown

When I should have been dancing

I was putting you down

We could have been sensational

A couple of luminous stars

Could have been inspirational

When all the tomorrows were ours

I gave you a hard time

Fighting our wars

When I should have been dancing

I was settling scores

When I should have been making sense of my life

I was busy messing up yours

Through the Smoke

Though I see your lips are moving

I can’t hear you through the smoke

But I wouldn’t say I’m losing

I could use another toke

We’ve been up all night unwinding

With some nice refreshing coke

And the room is pretty funky

I can’t hear you through the smoke

But I know you’re out there somewhere

I can spot your silhouette

And I know you’re gonna need me

Though you’re playing hard to get

We are all a little crazy

Just some old R. Crumb cartoons

And when all the games are over

We will lick each other’s wounds

Now your fingers touch my teardrops

I’ve been crying at a joke

I can see you through the music

I can hear you through the smoke

After Many a Summer

In the morning grass the dew is gleaming

Picnics for a dragon and a faun

Later come the coffins and the candles

After many a summer dies the swan

We may have some sunny days to sing of

Nights of love that lasted till the dawn

Still behind it all remains the echo

After many a summer dies the swan

Though we know there are no happy endings

Still we have the nerve to carry on

Time will take our wings and all our wonder

After many a summer dies the swan

Each has his appointment in Samarra

One day I’ll awake and find you gone

Give me one more sunrise to remember

After many a summer dies the swan

Speed Queen

I was busy looking forward

So I hadn’t time to notice

That the night was rushing toward me

And the days were running fast

When I woke one rainy Sunday

I was facing toward the past

I was all hung up on someday

But I couldn’t seem to catch up

I would find a special someone

But the sweetness wouldn’t last

When I woke one rainy Sunday

I was facing toward the past

I was hungry and ambitious

Always longing for the spotlight

Busy scheming, dreaming, speeding

So I couldn’t stop to see

That the one that I was beating

In my crazy race was me

I was flying toward the future

Till I finally stopped for breath

And the only one applauding

Was my lover Lady Death

The Rope

Try cutting your wrists – they will bind them up

And give you a quick transfusion

You jump off a bridge and they fish you out

There’s always some damn intrusion

I won’t go on! I cannot cope!

To end it all I choose the rope!

You swallow some pills but before you’re gone

Their stomach pumps start in pumping

Climb out on a ledge and they’ll grab you back

Before you’ve quite finished jumping

The rope is swift, the rope is sure

For all my ills the rope’s the cure

A man may live his life alone

None share his debts and dangers

But when he’s had enough he gets

Advice from perfect strangers

A pistol you say, that’s the way to go

You smile as you clean and oil it

But you can be sure as you take your aim

Some ass will rush in and spoil it

If you’re a chap who wants to swing

It never fails, the rope’s the thing

Only Why No More

Only why no more

Sometimes never

Then beginning

Slowly something

Almost meaning

Love

Always lost at last

Sometimes quickly

Hold me, hug me

Almost reaching

Nearly home now

Cry

Only now for just a moment

Only just perhaps a meaning

Why no more

Why no more

Almost never known

Always ending

Eyes escaping

Sky returning

So long stranger

Only why no more

Beginning again

Anyway

Sometime

Cri de Cœur

(from the French of Jacques Prévert)

It’s not just my voice that is singing

There are voices from the past

There is the sound of church-bells ringing

And some dreams that didn’t last

There are the desperate and the gay

The siren song of yesterday

The voice of all my youthful follies

And the one that got away

There is the voice of Sister Sorrow

And the voice of fleeting joy

There is the voice of some tomorrow

That this moment may destroy

There is a fugitive who drowns

A little girl in Mother’s gowns

T...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Content
• More Truth Than Poetry
• Invade My Privacy
• The Ballad of the Sad Young Men and Other Verse
• Copyright Page