as I look out of the nighttime window
a window that looks down across the Chao Phraya River
I look
...
like a gray fog of wet emptiness
covering all realms of my vision
covering all realms of my thought
it is raining so hard, I can’t even see the road
...
the nighttime dangles its emptiness
refusing to caress the dawn
the passion it drains out of us
...
the red wine flows like blood
the blood that poured out of her veins
I was not there to see it
...
Scott Shaw is a poet, author, journalist, composer, musician, actor, photographer, and filmmaker. Shaw was born and spent his formative years in Hollywood, California - growing up just a few doors from Charles Bukowski. Though much younger than Bukowski, the two developed a friendship. Shaw's poetry and literary fiction was first published in literary journals in the late 1970s. He continued forward to have several works of poetry and literature published in book form during the 1980s. As the 1990s dawned, Shaw's writings began to be embraced in Spiritual and Martial Art circles. From this, he has authored a number of books on Zen Buddhism, Yoga, and the Martial Arts, published by large publishing houses. In addition to writing, Shaw has an active career as an actor and filmmaker. In 1991 he developed a new style of filmmaking that he titled, Zen Filmmaking. In Zen Filmmaking no screenplays are used in the creation of a film, 'The spontaneous creative energy of the filmmaker is the only definng factor.' Several of Scott Shaw's books on poetry have been published; they include: Bangkok and the Nights of Drunken Stupor, Last Will and Testament According to the Divine Rites of the Drug Cocaine, Love Lived Too Long, Shattered Thoughts, No Kisses for the Sinner, Sake in a Glass Sushi with Your Fingers: Fifteen Minutes in Tokyo, Scream: Southeast Asia and the Dream, Suicide Slowly, The Most Beautiful Woman in Shanghai, TKO: A Drunken Night in Tokyo, Wet Dreams and Placid Silence, and Zero One. As a university professor, Shaw has taught courses on Asian Studies and Filmmaking at such institutions as the University of California, Los Angeles, California State University, Los Angeles, the University of Oxford, Silpakorn University, and the Korea National University of the Arts.)
Woman From The Hills Of Thailand
as I look out of the nighttime window
a window that looks down across the Chao Phraya River
I look
I see your reflection in the glass
woman asleep on my bed
your golden skin reflects the night
a night of love
a night of passion
you have had so many that you do not know what they mean
a moment purchased
a life given away
and when nothing means anything
and the lies are spoken as truth
the rhythm sounds
and we each know the answer
the answer
that there is no answer at all
she grabbed me in passion
but, the passion became only a game
in the game
as in all games
some one wins
some one loses
and some one gets up and walks away.
this is life
this is Thailand