Rock Star
for Paul Weller
Happiness stops at my door with a greeting,
I let it in, offer coffee, we hardly say a word to each other.
I'm a Chinese vase made of jade, pretty-faced and new
without a feeling. Or I'm of porcelain with invisible stains.Effect without cause or simply formulaic for the muse,
Self-consciously marketing my direction-lost curses.I'm flexible, adaptable, chameleon-era produce, or
so I'd like to think, this is my Buddhism to a metro rhythm.
I'm horrible, lovable, changes-wise age ideal,
nervously laughing to threats of a second coming,
blindly climbing to watchtowers of self-justifications.Time I regard as a bus I just hopped on. I'm not going anywhere.
But yet I know I can go anywhere. I only have to tell the driver.And so I look out the window, see the world looking at me,
I know on as it knows me, the habit forgets comprehension.And so thoughtless I aim for the central park,
look for a fight with the angels in the dark,
experiment with cars especially the black,
and the custom forgets all conventions.I'm flexible, adaptable, chameleon-era produce, or
so I'd like to think, this is my Buddhism to a metro rhythm.
I'm horrible, lovable, changes-wise age ideal,
nervously laughing to threats of a second coming,
blindly climbing to watchtowers of self-justifications.
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This poem is an interpretation of a 1995 radio song, The Changingman, by the left-leaning British rock artist Paul Weller. Weller is best known outside of Britain, however, as the writer of working-class—sometimes quasi-Marxist—songs he produced while still with his bands The Style Council and The Jam.
Copyright © 1999, 2004 Vicente-Ignacio Soria de Veyra. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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