"Three Poems"
by Robert Campbell
COVE OF THE MAGICAL WOMAN (A Song)
Chorus:
Down there where the sweet sunbeam flowsbeneath enchanted nightshade grovewe can make love in the coveof the Magical Woman.
Overdubs (alone or harmonized):
Come greet me, my lovecome down and see meyou know you need me.
Through the mirror and far away
my mind left lisping azure waves
to find you gently sleeping
near a stream
outside the birds are calling
the wind is blowing, the leaves are falling
outside love sleeps
’neath a dream.
But suddenly we’re here alone
the wind is dying, the birds are flown
and only Zen and moonlight fill
the air
wasn’t Elysian Fields like this?
The scent of music, a stolen kiss
Diana weaving miracles through
your hair?
Drifting through on my lowest cloud
I see you down there dreaming
moon’s cool rays light the love
I’ve found
love of mine, I think you see
this midnight sky surrounding me
and I think you know the tide will turn
around.
You fly around my broken heart
a whirling dervish in the dark
spinning love, then sailing fast
away
you leave me with no roots or wings
a prism held inside your dreams
give me love or let me fly
away.
1976, 7/20/1981
___
RODEO GROUNDS, LAST SPARK OF EDEN*
Cloaked in enigma
it re-seeds again
covert as the drone of music
on a distant wind
though some believe it has dried up
I’m convinced it has just left for a season
to collect more angel and fairy stuff
Rodeo Grounds, the last spark of Eden
a babbling creek where
a garden grows lush
beneath a fig tree
and blackberry bush
Rodeo Grounds stands
on the edge so fair
even the smog circumambulates
her garden-fresh air
a lush green mansion
just east of Malibu
that abbreviates those palaces there
a bowl of cherries cradled
in arms of innocence
Rodeo Grounds Eden
a perfect setting for sin
and the birds of prey circle above
the babbling creek, serenading duality
a reality flown
come and gone
cast out
into outer darkness.
*Reprinted from Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon edited by Pablo Capra (2002), an anthology of 10 poets writing to celebrate their bohemian community, and lament the evictions that State Parks carried out between 2001–2006. Campbell sometimes stayed with the Capra family in The Rodeo Grounds, one of the main neighborhoods in Lower Topanga.
2002
___
THE THREAD OF JOY AND SORROW
Helen and Menelaus were restin’
noticin’ the healthy skin they lay in
munchin’ lunch in the sun
toyboy stole Helen of Troy
started a war in the spirit
she ran away to Paris
to the dismay of Agamemnon
tempted by the goddesses fair
living on high Olympus
Paris’s curse had foretold the worst
a gift disguised as a banquet
to decide would soon lead to his doom
to choose the fairest of them all
Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, or John Paul
his answer came swift charged by Venus’s gift:
the most beautiful girl in the world
but fate could recall that Troy would soon fall
while he wondered curiously, “Who’s John Paul?”
The Gods on high with love in their eye
enjoyed a Greek barbecue
as a wind rose out of the west
and picking his teeth, Apollo agreed with Zeus
that the nectar they drank
could at best have stood more juice
they also agreed Ares had mounted his steed
the two of them taken by the sky
while a chariot blazed across the days
drawing the curtain of night
silk stockings, socks, and shoes
magic nets float into your room
floating around like a balloon
tying you up in a cocoon
leaving you breathless, you dream
magic nets are falling down in the mist
rainbows are steaming on the ground
a conscious thought left streaming on your brow
assures you another tomorrow
it’s your clothes, the pulp, the threads of joy and sorrow
it’s ambient, the matrix you’ve found,
bold as the metal on a chain-link fence
yet annoying, euphoric, ethereal, or moody as sound
the interlinking lace of the shroud
moving mountain, tide, and cloud
man, beast, bird, fish, and beetle
finally threading Penelope’s needle
the needle of stereos
the waistband of pantyhose
CDs, TVs, videos, and radios
weaving tapestries, you dream
through the matrix of volleyball nets
pigskins and tennis racquets
teams and songs rise and fall
heated heartstrings leap with joy
and is it the medium of alcohol
that separates the man from the boy?
the emotion is inflamed
a cry of joy or pain
victory or defeat
a claim to fame
win or lose
the emotion drains
to win or to lose… blue goose!
macramé a basket case
needlepoint the poison pen
weaving tapestries, you dream
and it all begins again
tapestries pull you in
it writhes through dreams
through everything
a miracle that seems
never happens
bigger than life
smaller than a mustard seed
stands you up in the morning
crawling away like a centipede.
2002
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by Robert Campbell
Edited and Introduced by Pablo Capra
Brass Tacks Press, 2022
388 pages
