Jeff Trattner's Webpage
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March 8, 2009You can get a collection of my Poems for your iPhone or Kindle at Amazon.com.
December 11, 2008
Here are a few samples of my poems. Click the title to hear a vocal version (if available):
Venerable
© 2006-2008, Jeffrey Trattner
Are you venerable tonight,
Lying naked on the sand?
Have you made your peace with God,
And bartered your fellow man?
Have you crumbled unto the Earth,
Shed you share of tears as planned?
Have you gotten down on your knees,
And let hope wash through your hands?
In the beauty of this place,
Will the Phoenix ignite?
Will she burn all that was,
In an apex of light?
What if we let it change,
And these doves take fight tonight?
Into the uncharted wind,
Through these uncertainties of life
Are you vulnerable tonight,
Lying, broken on the sand?
Have they dragged you over the rocks,
And inducted you into their clan?
Unto the uncharted Earth,
Have you given all you can?
Have they knocked you all out of breath,
And made you a marker of this land?
Afterbirth
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
I could tell by the tone of her cries
And breathe of her voice, and the tears in her eyes
That this could be the end, my death over life,
Crying and fetal, a bond only blood can tie
You’ve got to be quiet, because I’ve got to decide
I’d be chained to fear for the rest of my life
It’s as eternal as the battles we fight
What gives definition to our mottled lives?
You can stop and reflect for as long as you’d like,
Just not so long as to miss the passage of time,
I remember it all, all that blood on her thighs
The struggle to personify every life
Oh, the leaves in the trees and all these suffering nights,
It tries to defy but lacks what defines
And it could be aspiring, it could be liked
It could be grey from time to time
And it can be just as clear is it likes
Suffering from noise, from sound, and from sight,
It needs to be clear, and it needs to be right
It needs to be crucified to get along in this life
When everything’s fear and everything’s feast
A cord wrapped around, a pole or a tree
What can I provide that you already need?
You’re smothering me, it’s so complete
It’s hollow inside, the façade at my feet,
It’s on the rust of the world that I feed
When everything’s creepy and everything’s neat
Sitting there screaming, bathed in belief
It feels so complete, I feel so complete
I am the tinder from the fields that you reap
Everything’s coming and everything was
I remember it all, a vision of love
Conscience
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
Sometimes you’re right about our collective condition
You’re forming impressions upon our cognition
But these expressions are already given
We’re way past division and you call this religion
You might need me to guide you through the process of retention
Rewriting history is the modern convention
Action without words is often taken for intention
But you know infinite knowledge is never redemption
And you hammer at the conscience to try to dissect it
Oh, the minds of the wise that you have collected
With the help of the deities of war you’ve erected
You’ll never get it and I can’t forget it … now
The process of memorization leads to invention
But your man of sanity is a hopeless contention
You answer, “We do this ‘cause it’s our convention”
But your inspired scripture is already exceptional
We mechanize in our attempts at reduction,
But are we only capable of destruction
Like a litmus test of all of these warring factions
You are not a distraction—you are not a reaction to this
And you hammer at the conscience to try to dissect it
Oh, the minds of the wise that you have erected
With the help of the deities of war you’ve collected
I’ll never get it and you can’t forget it … now
Crown Of Thorns
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
My crown of thorns
Has left scars upon your feet
A rose begins with nothing
Oh, don't you tread on me
I’ll be the judge
Let me be judged
A light begins in heaven
Only heathens under me
So, if I stand on water
What will you call me?
My crown meant nothing
There’s pain in hypocrisy
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
This crown of thorns,
You shall not crucify mankind
Upon a cross of gold
I‘ve washed the stones
I’ve bled on sheets
The Church is not my Wisdom
There’s just no one left to bleed
Can't you see?
You’ve scarred me
And I meant nothing
I want to set you free
So, if I stand on water
Will you talk to me?
Or create another martyr
With thorns above his cheeks
My crown of thorns
Has left scars upon your feet
A rose begins with nothing
Oh, don't you tread on me
Don’t walk all over
You can hardly speak
I tread emotion
You stumble ‘cause you’re weak
Because you’re weak
You tread on me
I cannot speak
You tread on me
Devolution
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
There is just one way, or a practice to patience
Give us a day, what’s the rate in this place?
When you’re breaking bread at the State of the Union
You’ll never escape, you’ve got no where else to play
Devolve; devolve, just to evolve again
Rotate around this sickening experiment
You’ll contemplate on your plane of existence
To hesitate is fatal resistance
Evolve; evolve, just to devolve again
Revolve around this endless experience
Extrapolate from the pain of persistence
One’s hesitation is fatally existent
On a one way trip to a deserted island
Let him have a say, which cards he going to play
Dead on arrival in the heart of the Heartland
Let us curse our false abomination
Evolve; evolve, just to devolve again
Revolve around this terrific accident
You can instigate the face of the Religion
To hesitate is to fade from existence
Devolve; devolve, just to evolve again
Rotate around this endless experiment
What you can’t extrapolate is the pain of persistence
To hesitate is always a fatal mistake
Grace Is an Illusion
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
Whirlpool going down the drain
We stood alone and watched him shatter
Woeful, unaware, you are getting much too close
Don’t get much closer
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?
Blood flows down in sheets of rain
We stood by and watched him suffer
Painfully aware, you stood afar
Can’t get much further
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?
Knowledge flows through the rivers of pain
We float along as if that matters
Ignorance left me much too scared
Paranoia doesn’t mean that they’re not there
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?
Monet
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
Serpentine, higher
Points, blue and gray
The portraits are perfect,
But where is Monet?
He’ll paint an image,
An image or two
One of them is redder,
And it’s making him blue
Bridges like fire,
Points of pure vision
Monet’s silence
Is his infinite wisdom
You know where he goes,
When it’s getting late
Its time to put painter
In his sterile case
He saw the doctors
His vision was hate
Can you paint eyesight
On your canvas, Monet?
I guess its over
So long, on your way,
The paints’ just for color,
The portrait’s Monet
Signal Fire
© 2003, Jeffrey Trattner
You’ve given me you’ve given me the sequence that signified scared
The issue isn’t how much but where
And another thing, I believe man that nobody cares
You give to me, you give to me this excuse and I cheer
You wear your red, white, and bleed
It won’t be long, son, till I’ve got `em running scared
You’ve given me you’ve given me the signal that nobody cares
Oh, baby, it’s the sequence that signified scared
You’re scaring me, this dividing line is thin man I swear
When the issue isn’t how much but where
Don’t take a chance with the people that care
The ones who wear a smile when the spotlight appears
You’re telling me, you’re telling me everyone wore smiles that signified scared
They deviate by miles man but nobody cares
They kill by the millions man but nobody’s there
You signaled me, you signaled me, can you taste the soot and the ash in the air
And tell me something, where they human and why didn’t we care?
They signal fired that they were scared
You’ve given me you’ve given me the sequence that signified scared
Tell me, tell me why are you always so scared
Tell me, tell me, tell me,
Why are you always so scared
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me,
Why are you always so scared
Skin and Bones
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
A walked into your garden
A place of hearts, fond memories
I stared up at you, as your weakness grew
Till I could look right through you
You were all there, but now we’re just…skin and bones
A safe place to stay so we are not all alone
These growing pains are over now
And we’re just skin and bones
A walked into the waterfall
A gall gathered up your things
I swore to you, we’d see this through
But now you’re far away
We were all here, but now it’s just…sticks and stones
There’s no safer place than home
The growing daylight’s over now
And we’re just skin and bones
Illusions shine, bright, light a reflection
Of collected recollections
Take all my kin, imprison them,
Cause we’re just skin and bones
Something Deleted
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
A God in the making, so rough in his apprenticed hands
A world’s for the taking, threats of ambitions supplant
But something’s discovered in these moonless, darkened skies
There was something deleted, and sold at too great a price
The time that he’s chasing, the eons he’s laid to waste
With every breath he’s taking, he too easily welcomes disgrace
When all that he’s wanted, runs ruined in torrents above him,
And all he believes in, crumbles in front of his face, what’s left to say
There was something deleted, something important that we used to share
A kind of kindness mistaken, for a genuinely compassionate air
The beating he’s taken, I don’t think he can shake it
Or maybe he just doesn’t care to be anywhere but here
He’s already hated, by the greatest that history’s known
The something deleted, like a wound that makes him tougher to loathe
But his heart’s still beating, a ticking time bomb ready to explode
In history’s pieces, he lies tattered and tarred in despair, soothingly unaware
Vertigo
© 2001, Jeffrey Trattner
You've got broken hands and wounded flesh
You've got more than you thought you needed
You've gone and fallen in love with yourself
You I cannot, cannot help
Far above the time piece stands Father Time
Standing below you, that was all I needed
You’re the lone shepherd that I shall not want
You are not me, I don’t need you
I shall not speak; I will not sing this song,
I kneel down far atop your cathedral,
And when you spin me around, I will sit back down,
I will not suffer from this vertigo
You’ve got it all, it’s all out of hand
Standing above you, you were all I needed
Not that you will guide me there is so much you can’t know,
And I won’t bless your cathedral
I will sit back down before you mean it,
I will sit back down before you cross yourself,
Before you bless it, I will sit back down,
So I can bare witness to the miracle, of life
December 8, 2008
Check out the Writing section. Or find out
more about me here. My LinkedIn
Resume can be found here.
I am working on putting all my writing into a database so i can share
top selections with you on a regular basis. Check out the writings
section to see a sample.
