There's Only A Handful Of Forms (Song/ Poem) Poem by Nathan Coppedge

There's only a handful of forms
In the moonlight kept all in tether
The people laugh and they shake their heads
They ask me about the weather

There's only a handful of forms
In the darkness below and above
The people laugh and they shake their heads
They tell me the answer is love

There's only a handful of forms
On the faces of the strangers
The people laugh and they shake their heads
They tell me there's no danger

Science says it and religion says it
My mother says it and my father says it
Is there a human voice to withstand the
despair of disknowledge
They tell me "go to college."

There's only a handful of forms
On the darker side of the moon
I tell them they're all strangers
And they tell me I'm a loon

There's only a handful of forms
On the faces of the strangers
The people laugh and they shake their heads
They tell me there's no danger

But people laugh and people cry
People grow and people die
People grow weary and people get wed
Some of us don't want to be dead!

A voice calls out from the shadows
It tells me there's a door—
And if I ever cross it
I won't be here any more

Wisdom says its nothing
Or nothing to explore
Weakness fills the recess
With some dark allure

Time will tell me
There's a price to cross the shadows
And many beastly sorrows
I've got nothing to regret
Though there's much to endure

It's a race cross the shadows
No man could have asked you
Beginning and end are darkly secured

With a name to be gathered
And roses gathered
Who's to be had in this silly old world?

(I don't know if I laugh.
But would you laugh, Gotschiem?)


- Dec.2004/January 2005