Pretentious Poetry Readings

[Spoken]
Excerpts from "The Earth Household," "Return of the Beat Menace," and "Let's Spin!"

"The Earth Household"

We chase with hounds for the meaning of the world
The unattainable meaning of the world
Now I'm going to run to the other side
Beyond the borderland of death I ride

Slip through a tear in the fabric of the world
The earth household
Speak the foreign language of a place beyond
The earth household

I drink you endless toward my hollow heart
And wake at night, repeating "How strange, how strange!"
All is touch and vision in a passionate kiss
And life's a drab curtain waiting to be raised

Struggle to go somewhere beyond
The earth household
Go to the other, unknowable side
Of the earth household
The earth household

"Return of the Beat Menace"

Again you announce
While you whirl and bounce
Intentions to pounce on the beat menace
No woman or man
Could ever withstand
The devious plans of the beat menace

Come to lay you low
We've come to vex your soul

Feeling the heat
Hell at your feet
Don't even speak of the beat menace

Something to take away your innocence
Someone to blame it on
Helps you to defeat
Dancing in the street

Come to lay you low
We've come to vex you

Resolved in your mind
The nature of crime
Is to swallow the line of the beat menace

Imagination's on the rise again
So hide your heart away
Dust off the fears and guilts and lies again
The beat is here to stay
Your satellites can reach that Eskimo
He buys a suit and tie
Re-styles his hair like girls in Tupelo
And sings "Sweet By-and-By"
He's meeting all your strange requirements
He thinks you can't be fooled
He'll get the rules and laws and sacraments
By sending checks to you

We've come to bring you low
We've come to vex your soul

"Let's Spin!"

We'll do the shimmy shimmy shake
The shing-a-ling, and the missionary stew
And if they punch us in the face, we're going to turn the other cheek
And do the cha-cha too
We put our hands together
We're doin' curlys on the floor
We sweat like pigs, but it's a steady gig
That's why we're crying out for more
More! More! More!
We're going to preach hellfire
And the Kingdom come
We're gonna love our neighbor as we love ourselves
And then--well, we're going have some fun

So let's spin!
Everybody, let's spin!
Come on, come one, come on, come on, let's spin
We're going spin right up to heaven again!
Let's spin!