Brian37 AKA Brian James Rational Poet…… My Poetry

  • Welcome to Brian James Rational Poet’s poetry blog

    Welcome to my poetry blog. I love reading Plath and Sexton and Dickenson and Maya. But to me, the best poets I have read are the unknows. The giants are great for sure, but the friends and locals and groups are a joy to participate in. I encourage everyone who writes poetry to be themselves. It is ok to have influences, but you should always in the end be yourself. There is only one them, and only one you.

    Let words be your canvas, show them the raw you, in all your happiness and sadness. Show them your love of nature, and empathy and kindness, but also make them think, provoke, even blaspheme. The poet’s job to me, is to never be shy or timid, but use every word in your vocabulary to paint the best pictures you can. Paint your sunrises, your sunsets, your romance, your fears. Paint your insecurities, your addictions, your successes, your tears.

    This blog is dedicated to my late mother Jane. She was my biggest supporter and never let me fall through the cracks. While she was a bit of an authoritarian growing up, that all melted away in her late years, and we grew as close as any parent child could. We had so much fun with our silly car games and rubber duckies, and counting the trees. And our wordplay games, and our thumb wrestling. And forget Yahtzee and backgammon, she always kicked my…… at that. I love you mom. I miss you horribly.

    And also my late best friend ever, Bob. He unfortunately passed away in 2017. He lived in Australia, he was a science geek, and he taught me a lot about debate, and some science. I can only grasp overall concepts, not real nitty gritty details. But he most importantly made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I miss you too Bob.

    Then there is this annoying guy from Okleeee homa, who says “tators”, and “videeeaaaa” instead of “video”. And don’t get John started on banjos. He is my best friend and he is always there for me, and I love that redneck.

    And also Dwayne, Stacey and Vicki. You saved my life all of you. Thank you.

    All poetry posted by me on this website is attached to RationalPoet@brianrrs37, handle “RationalPoet” on Twitter ,as well as “Brian James Rational Poet” on Facebook/ META. And is subject to copywrite on all my pages.

    A Special thanks to Brian Sapient of Rational Responders http://www.rationalresponders.com for hosting my poetry thread for so long. Thank you.

    AND….. YOU are more than welcome to share this link on your social media. Especially Meta and Twitter, but your own social media too. Any help bringing traffic here is more than welcome. THANK YOU. You may not publish individual poems without my express permission. Any links to my poetry must be credited to me.

    This poetry blog may contain some material that may be considered sensitive to some viewers. Reader discretion advised.

    Now, everyone, grab your popcorn, glass of wine, and watch me make a fool of myself. Enjoy.

    HEADS UP….. THERE ARE PEOPLE MIMICKING MY TWITTER ACCOUNTS……

    I only have two Twitter/X accounts. Twitter has now changed it’s name to “X”. So all poetry in this site referencing Twitter is also including the new name “X”.

    “RationalPoet@brianrrs37”
    AND
    “Brian@rationalpoet37”

    I have also joined Facebook/META poetry group “Facebook Poetry Society” Under “Brian James Rational Poet”

    Also I just joined http://www.allpoetry.com under the user name “RationalPoet37”

    THERE ARE MORE PAGES. WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE, in mice print….. It says “Next Page”. <—-CLICK ON THAT.

    NEW EDIT………


    A special thanks to Zaylen of “Okay Atheists” on the Discord app, for allowing me to guest host this poetry reading available on their YouTube channel originally aired 5/22/23. Here is the link
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ikCkc7lWE

    If you want to leave a comment to any poem, click on the BOLD title of the poem first, scroll to the bottom of the poem, and you should see a field to leave the comment in.

    UPDATE EDIT AS OF 11/13/2024. I have a new account at Bluesky Soical under the handle @rationalpoet37.bsky.social .

     

     

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  • Artic Circle,

    Artic Circle, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Moving through the tundra
    The craven blizzards bleach
    The permafrost making meals
    For both predator and prey
    Sparce, if not impossible
    A hellscape at the center
    Of Dante’s ninth circle
    February flirts a little
    With the notion
    Their frozen purgatory
    Will give way to thaw
    (end)

    Keep in mind, I am an atheist, but also a former Catholic. All of this is metaphor for how much I hate the cold. Ironically, in Dante’s Inferno Satan is not in a pit of molten fire, but frozen from the waste down in a lake of ice at the center of the 9th circle of hell.

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  • Dear Mom

    Dear Mom, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    When I was on the brink
    After watching you sink
    And take your last breath

    I wanted it to be my end
    How could I continue
    My life without you?

    Clocks kept ticking
    The sun kept setting
    The pain unrelenting

    But the clouds dispersed
    And the rain stopped
    I could now look up

    At the bright blue sky
    And today I know why
    You wanted me to try

    Dear Mom
    It has been 5 years
    Since you’ve been gone

    My ups and downs continue
    The tulips still bloom
    The brown maple leaves doom

    And yet I found room
    To write this poem to you
    And tell you everything since

    That I have been through
    My endless, boundless gratitude
    If only you knew

    How productive I’ve been
    In painting pictures in heads
    The security you gave me

    Keeps me in a warm bed
    But even then, it’s more than that
    If it weren’t for you, I’d have not my cat

    If it weren’t for you,
    I wouldn’t have met
    Bob and John and Vicki

    I wish you were with me
    I’ve been a poem factory
    The past several months

    I am glad I stuck around
    Glad I didn’t give up
    I drink up your memories

    When I fill my morning cup
    I was fearful and scared
    But because your life you shared

    I am here, I’ve dried my tears
    Well, not completely
    I still stress and veer

    I know this
    You will never hear
    Dear Mom

    You would be tickled
    If you knew an Angel
    Tweeted me

    You would have been
    The first I called
    MOM MOM MOM

    You won’t believe this at all
    You like the Golden Girls
    I did not

    I was fond of their spin off
    I felt empty having no nest
    Overall where to park

    Without getting a ticket
    I stumbled on her
    This same week

    The Friday last
    When the Angel
    Did Tweet

    You’d have said “That’s neat”
    You’d see me smile, and beaming
    A and goofy and giddy, and gleaming

    Yea Mom, I got to talk to
    To people who played
    Characters I loved

    On top of writing poems
    In snow pile droves
    Dear Mom

    I hate that you’re gone
    I still get down sometimes
    But you’d want me to move on

    I am still stuck
    On one ABBA song
    Ring, Ring, cant call

    Dear Mom.
    (end)

    This poem is dedicated to my late Mom Jane. I was crushed when she decided not to do any more and they sent her back to the nursing home from the hospital for the last time. And then when she took her last breath it was like an atomic bomb going off in my heart/head. My biggest supporter had died.

    I really was shaky on and off after that, the worst was the moment and for a good 2 and a half months after, I was in a very dark scary place.

    But I know my mom, and she wouldn’t have wanted me to stay down and sad forever. And if she were alive today, I would be still calling her every day and telling her what was going on in my life. I would read her my poems, I wrote her a few while she was alive, just mainly cute stuff about her and her her dog Honey.

    But she would be thrilled today at my productivity in writing. And for her it would be about getting famous or rich for me, but just merely about me being happy. That was her biggest concern in her last days, how I would survive and could I be happy.

    She’d also be tickled pink to know I got to converse on social media with two of my favorite TV characters, the actresses who played them. This past week has been awesome, and I wish I could still ring her on the phone and visit her and ask her about her day and tell her about my day.

    IN MEMORY OF JANE 1933-2017, I LOVE YOU MOM!

  • Joseph’s Got A friend

    Joseph’s Got A Friend, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Joseph is a friend
    You’ve read, he’s been a good friend of mine
    But crazy things are claimed, and they’re hard to define
    Joseph’s got himself a virgin, and I’m going to make her mine

    And I’m watching with my omni eyes
    And Joseph’s loving her with his body I already know it
    I’m going to send Gabriel in late late at night
    You know I took

    Joseph’s girl
    He wished he had his own girl
    When can she find a sky daddy like that?

    I won’t play along with the charade
    It takes two sets of DNA to be made
    God feels so peeper when they start talking cute
    Joseph won’t have her, so the point is always moot

    Cause I’m watching them with my omni eyes
    And Joseph’s loving her with his body I already know it
    I’ll send Gabriel in late late at night
    You know I took

    Joseph’s girl
    I took, I took Joseph’s girl
    He’ll never bag a virgin like that

    And he’s looking over his shoulder all the time
    Wondering what he could seed
    I think it’s funny, pulling the wool over his eyes
    Isn’t that the way a con should be?

    Tell him, he’ll never bag a virgin like that.

    You know he’ll never bag a virgin like that

    Joseph’s girl
    He wished he had his own girl
    I took, I took, Joseph’s girl
    (end)

    If you are a product of the 1980s this needs no explanation as to what it a parody of.

  • And Then

    And Then, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    With well intent
    My younger sister did
    Introduce me long ago

    To her friend
    To a billiard bar
    We all went, talked

    Failed bank shots
    Scratches, nobody cared
    We all drank, had fun

    We discovered we
    Both liked that band
    That wanted to save paradise

    That boiling hot river
    Sang of cocaine addiction
    And Krugerrands

    Rack after rack
    Our eyes kept meeting
    I think off to the ladies room

    My sister went
    And then our lips met
    Out of her sight

    But when she came back
    We were still at it
    And then, she rolled her eyes

    Get a room you guys
    Well, we got done,
    Paid the bill and left

    And then
    In the parking lot
    We had to decide

    What to do next
    Sis offered her a ride
    Back to her place

    I think we both sat
    In the back
    Holding hands

    And then, we got there
    And she invited me in
    Didn’t expect that at all

    Excited and nervous
    But trying not to show it
    I must have stuttered “sssssuuuurreee”

    And then, sis drove off
    We went in
    The kissing and hugging

    Started again
    I’d take any risk
    To tie back, and then

    She walked me over
    To her computer
    Booted it up, and then

    She asked me
    If I wanted to talk about Jesus
    And then

    My theatre lights
    Went dark, and then
    There was no rocking the paradise.
    (end)

    Based on a true story. My younger sister and I were adopted out to completely different families when I was a toddler. Fast forward almost 30 years to the mid 90s, I found someone who helped me find them. So one trip I took to visit my younger sister. She introduced me to her friend and we all went out to a billiard bar to play pool.

    Now I do not consider myself a Brad Pit or Roger Moore looker. But I noticed she was eying me, couldn’t figure out why though. So we kept on talking about where we were from, what our lives were like and the things we were into, and her friend and I both like the 80s rock band Styx, which is where a lot of the references in this poem come from.

    Anyway, so we hit it off, and start kissing, and my sister comes back probably thinking to herself “I need to get these two out of here”. So still a bit confused as to why we left so early , she offers her friend a ride home, and I was thinking that was going to be it.

    Nope, her friend invites me in, and I do believe I said something stupid like “How am I going to get back to your house sis?”.

    So we go in, the heat starts up again, then she stops me, and says something like “Before we go further”…….. Then proceeds to take me over to her computer. She boots it up, and back then some computers could take a minute or two. It seemed like forever. Wasn’t sure what she wanted to show me.

    Now mind you, I would have simply been happy with the hugging and kissing and maybe watching tv or a movie considering it was a first date. But no, at the end of that old crackly dial up modem, a few clicks later she has me looking at an online bible. ……………………………CRAP! I wasn’t interested in dating a JW. That was it. I sat there politely and listened for what seemed a long while of preaching, tried to tell her it wasn’t my thing, she kept pushing a bit, so finally she called my sister and I left.

    Not because she was religious, but I know a bible thumper when I see one, and she was a bible thumper. And again, it wasn’t that she didn’t put out, I would have been happy just with the hugging and kissing and cuddling. The fundy stuff that killed it for me.

  • Not a poem.

    For all reading this. If I do not approve your responses or it does not show up here in your response to my poem, please understand this website is confusing to me and I am not used to how it works. So if you do not see your comments show up, I am not ignoring you. I simply am not used to how the bells, whistles and buttons work here.

  • The 5:18

    The 5:18, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianarrs37 on Twitter)

    She belted out the notes
    In the big band club
    Steamy trumpets
    Not meant to snub

    Alone she was standing
    Under a moon of gold
    I’d never go away
    And claim she was cold

    I saw her standing alone
    I was not waiting
    With my lunch
    Next to my phone

    You rang twice
    Your silky voice so nice
    Some dream sequence
    So much my vice

    I want to be your sheep
    You are the Sheperd
    Belting out jazz
    Your over night shift

    I could never resist.
    Not another word
    Not another sound
    Until I hear you sing again.
    (end)

    This is an ode poem to one of my favorite Moonlighting tv show episodes where they did a black and white Big Band club episode where Maddie sang two songs “I Told Ya I Love Ya” and the classic “Blue Moon”. That episode introduced me to big band jazz. And is directly responsible for my being a fan of others such as Harry Conic Jr, Candy Dulfer, David Sanborn, Manhattan Transfer. The ode is to an episode called “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice”.

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  • Thank You Fellow Poets

    Thank You Fellow Poets (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    The palettes
    That inspire
    That impress
    That don’t rest
    The palettes that paint
    The dreams we dream
    The midnight screams
    The cold sweats of nightmares
    These are the constellations
    These are the atoms
    Of prior dead stars
    I’m glad it lead to my
    Reading your poems.
    (end)

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  • Helpless

    Helpless, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter )

    I know that feeling
    All too familiar
    Waiting in the exam room
    With my late mother
    No it was not me
    Going through it
    But she was my pillar
    To hear her say
    That final time
    “I don’t want to go further”
    DNR orders are devastating
    Even to the observer.

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  • Shredded

    Shredded, By Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Obsidian sudden
    Solidified, absconded
    Taunted, haunted
    Unwanted, flash
    Flamethrower
    Torched, discarded
    Detached, dismembered
    Four chambers
    Pulse vessels
    Pulverized
    She tossed me aside
    No longer alive
    Dead inside.
    (end)

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  • Letter Board

    Letter Board, By Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Black felt, enclosed
    In a glass case
    Telling you which room
    White letters

    Give you the name
    Impersonal, clinical
    Office, official
    Business, credentials

    Starburst mosaic
    Recently buffed
    Chemical waxy fragrance
    Janitor’s closet maintenance

    Elevator lobby
    Everyone’s hobby
    Press it again, and again
    It’s lit up, cant you see it?

    They shuffle in
    The box fills up
    All the numbers
    All lit up

    The doors open
    Some let out
    Heals click on floor
    Closing the door

    Another glass case
    Pointing the way
    325-344 to the right
    300-324 to the left

    Another beat
    Of many hearts
    Some to work
    Others sick

    Another sign
    Becomes your greeter
    Out in the street
    Watch your meter
    (end)




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