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Johnny Adriani

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New Orleans, LA, US

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001 by

Johnny Adriani

I walked over to the River's edge
only hoping to drown
But when the moon rose overhead
it was you that I found

In the moon I could touch your face
though we were far apart
Each of us in our separate place
with the moon you were in my heart

Of all the torturous feelings
is this love I have for you
And upon this winter's evening
I can only love you through the moon

So near, so far, separate but complete
Oh, miserable Fate, why can't we just be?

005 by

Johnny Adriani

Nevermore numb could I have felt this day
sitting silent by River's edge with you
Wandering with the world's weight in dismay
absolutely alone searching for truth

Our senseless souls now mired in darkness
depleted and detached from the earth
The water's wind whispers calmness
still desolation overflows all mirth

I desire foremost to be your friend
to navigate most troubled waters
To anchor uncertainty to an end
reviving consciousness really matters

In all truth I wish that I did not care
but I can't help myself when you are near

004 by

Johnny Adriani

In early morning when the sun rises
through the day when the sky is sapphire blue
By nightfall when the moon is eclipsing
all my soul thirsts for is the love of you

You are the water which quenches the earth
an ethereal essence bringing comfort
You are the tender spring that has poured forth
soft solace for he who dwelt in the desert

Yet at the same time your love is fleeting
as carpe diem has become your creed
This philosophy is merely self-defeating
and painful to the one who is in need

Why must you slight me every few days?
Is it only proving you can have your way?

003 by

Johnny Adriani

Never can I begin to comprehend
the unforgiving pain plaguing your past
Paternal images etched in my head
unsober sadness that forever lasts

And my only wish is to bring you solace
to free the undeserved guilt from your soul
Bring you stability, never malice
the sea and earth to become whole

But I fear that I cannot be that man
who can make you feel totally complete
Neptune nor Venus can I command
nor the sorrow of the past can I delete

So forever I willingly remain
eager to shoulder the worst of the pain

002 by

Johnny Adriani

Danger is emotion overruling wisdom
Damn this affair of carnal lust
Depress ME, love that cannot be
Destroy this love of broken trust

Yet what beauty rests in her face
yes, what sweetness is upon her lips
Yesterday was a simple kiss in place
you, Emotion, Wisdom could not resist

Captivated by her soft breath
caressed by her scarlet hair
Complicated by where she rests
coerced by her standing near

Kill me fate with a fatal blow
Emotion is a fool, Wisdom should know

006 by

Johnny Adriani

Warm golden ripples on steel blue water
soft southern flow so deadly to penetrate
I lay beside you - beautiful murderer
everflowing body please drown my fate

Cool brown silt on solid rocky land
steadfast earth holding the River in place
You lay beside me - the ridged command
an unyielding body you must escape

And so, the River overflows its banks
to escape reality and scar so deep
Safely returning, to the good Lord's thanks
Emotion, however is crushed in defeat

sitting silent searching for our souls
wishing by the River's edge to be whole

007 by

Johnny Adriani

Sitting on the stoop of a halfway house
I watch her under the bleak winter sky
She places a cigarette to her mouth
smoke seems to sooth her sorry eyes

Once red hair, now dyed to hide the gray
once vivacious face, now sullen to the pain
Once eager eyes, now darkened to the fray
once ethereal essence, now forever drained

In the dark depths of her tragic mind
a tale of rash endeavors can be told
Though to Wisdom's call she was not blind
to Wisdom's worth she could not be sold

And such for you, my love, this is my fear
Wisdom calling loud, you failing to hear

008 by

Johnny Adriani

The moon gently caresses the water
as the night slowly drifts into day
Awake we whisper warmly and wonder
about why life is leading us astray

You said that you can't afford to loose me
from the heart your emotion may be true
Though I know as you grip my hand tightly
Wisdom conceives Emotion as Time's fool

Time will teach you what I know far too well
for friendships fade fast into the wind
Scattered like dust they soon will settle
in seldom pondered thoughts of oblivion

So my love, on a clear night in June
think of me fondly, gazing at the moon

009 by

Johnny Adriani

Tonight I walked an aimless meander
through the still streets of a vacant downtown
Listening to the soft wind for an answer
what I expected could never be found

In all my attempts at high eloquence
feeble are the words uttered in my voice
No elocution can end your suspense
of the love for which I have made no choice

True love is what I possess for you
it is a love I hold for no other
And from the wind I ask if you are true
but her reply is: does it really matter?

And thus the wind has no wisdom to hear
And in my heart you are a cross to bear

010 by

Johnny Adriani

As we walk along the promenade
I gauge the anguish within your eyes
Lush oaks appear to absorb your charade
and my heart cannot do otherwise

You expect me to be solely yours
from you I am not to expect the same?
Your drunkenness wears on my nerves
and frustration becomes harder to tame

You call out for my help and I am there
to receive my advice as controlling
You beg for my love and I simply share
with you something not worth bestowing

Above the oaks hangs a waning moon
I distrust you now, so we are doomed

025 by

Johnny Adriani

Depression surges upon me in waves
dashing my bones onto rocky shores
destitute I count the day’s remains
devoured by loneliness, I am no more

I bemuse the Wisdom I shall gain
riding this swiftly sinking argosy

An albatross wrung around my mane
is a child’s fortune I can’t foresee

Cast away my soul and bones broken
I am a lump of flesh easy to use
as bait for an invincible marlin
oh Pisces, how you slowly abuse!

And Pisces, my writing ever is your
script in bottle searching for a shore

024 by

Johnny Adriani

The bottle speaks vast volumes to me
dripping rhyme in metric milliliter
Spirits can lead to grave destiny
men who reel in unstable ether

And in my cloudiness I am numb
and everything emerges with meaning
and to the grave I shall hope to succumb
and know the bottle was not worth weaning

As a piece of me grows inside of you
forget me not, I am the creator
Alas, drown me now, suffocate me blue
for you are the beautiful murderer

The bottle writes as I take a backseat
Hoping soon that this work will be complete

023 by

Johnny Adriani

I move through a quiet cemetery
reflecting upon the bold wrath of death
There five infants lie in a row
from the same womb they drew their first breath

Fast into the dust I fall with a prayer
out of desperation I lie prostrate
Grasping cold marble, shuddering with fear
sudden uncertain anguish I embrace

And everything now seems meaningless
for with so much Wisdom comes sorrow
and with more knowledge, comes more distress
wearisome are the days of tomorrow

All I can do is just sit and wait
For now I have no control over fate

022 by

Johnny Adriani

If mankind’s mind would freely allow
for me to cast my soul into the sea
There I would hope to peacefully drown
and from Emotion’s grip to be free

But the moon has drawn away the tide
far from me lies fish filled waters
Deserted in deep despair I must abide
forlorn to wallow in hollow quarters

Of all the pain upon me you’ve born
most ill is isolation inflicted
Now, from each other we cannot be torn
for you this is not a clear depiction

A solution together we must find
As my flesh and yours are now combined

021 by

Johnny Adriani

"Vale, aeterna, te semper amo"
thus was this knave’s fullest desire
But in the hard process of letting go
Jack was discovered to be a sire

So it was, Water and Earth were fused,
clay became flesh, and thus a spirit born,
Emotion was choked, Wisdom bemused
counting the days as the Potter formed

For now in Water the new soul resides
but soon he will emerge upon this Earth
And from you I wish to run and hide
but my progeny I cannot desert

So my love, on a clear night in June
I ponder life, gazing upon the moon

020 by

Johnny Adriani

I gaze on the moon through broken storm clouds
lifeless knowing how I have been played
Warped by the moisture I wonder aloud
about the one-eyed Jack which was laid

What the heart is now willing to forgive
the mind is incapable to forget
On the dining table our flesh will live
having love for you is my sole regret

To what was occurring I turned a blind eye
now sold soul, how sober is the truth?
Oh, curséd moon who lies in the sky
oh, running faucet do you really soothe?

In the Emotional River Wisdom flows
Vale, aeterna, te semper amo

019 by

Johnny Adriani

Upon your call I now hope to redress
my sins against you drawn out of passion
In the desert my penance was spent
and there I killed a man of aggression

No longer can he let his anger fly
No longer can he be an assailant
No longer will his brutal words apply
He is dead, and I am complacent

So here I am to serve without reserve
I pray you will bestow your forgiveness
I have been humbled, and you deserve
utmost devotion and selflessness

I hope to gain with my fruits of labor
endless amnesty and honest favor

018 by

Johnny Adriani

From temper’s flare and fire ant’s sting
red welts rise up on swollen minds
Digestion of events, the act must bring
question to the stability of mine

Sedona secluded, canyon oaks line
a starlit sky of the deepest blue
So crisp is the air, I pen words of brine
by a crystal creek purely streaming truth

In the creek I place a strand of your hair
and record the acts of my evil ego
Upon the heavens I sigh with a stare
and release the red wisp to the flow

I find to forgive your rash endeavors
although My guilt lives with me forever

017 by

Johnny Adriani

Emancipating yourself from the world
grants time for serious meditation
Inner thoughts of the psyche untold
are unearthed via isolation

In the dark desert heat I ride alone
besides myself and the man I now am
of Truth or Consequences I bemoan
Within Truth I know I must kill this man

Carry my mind towards insanity
Carry a man who carried prejudgment
Across the Earth I carried wickedly,
carried you to my own detriment

and I carry this man within my soul
I must carry out his death to be whole

016 by

Johnny Adriani

In the west the scarlet sun is setting
and in the east the gold moon does rise
Darkness descends devouring my being
as from red to blue to black turns the sky

My passenger persists his ponderings
of you he hauntingly knows well
And as he speaks I cannot stop hoping
that this rancorous soul shall go to hell

Of all my life this is the longest day
tormented by a malicious spirit
Westward words reek in malignant ways
of stale alcohol upon bitter breath

In the darkness I wonder if you care
But all hope is lost as he plays my fears

015 by

Johnny Adriani

As the day draws longer and the sky clears
the landscape of my life now begins to change
Laboring in thought as mountains draw near
the yellow parched earth thirsts for rain

As you have been the water of my life
yesterday I strangled off the source
For tainted water has caused me strife
for this I cry out in painful remorse

My traveling stranger just shakes his head
he scoffs at my lamentations
Cynically he hears what I have said
berating you with miscalculation

Alone and arid, ascending the hills
This grizzly stranger gives me the chills

014 by

Johnny Adriani

Overcast, foggy, hazy and unclear
thus the new day has finally broken
Staring off into a traffic nightmare
is my rider who remains unspoken

His face in the light is now plain to see
unshaven, unkempt, with steel blue eyes
He wears a demeanor that is overly
angry of something he cannot hide

As I continue my trek to the west
I think of you and my most bitter hate
Tears flow down as I recall the event
when passionate rage decided my fate

Obscurely he remains very angry
Certainly, I anguish in misery

013 by

Johnny Adriani

Darkness surrounds me through the dead night
neither moon nor star guide me in the swamp
Desperate fear has drawn me into flight
for the raging madman who must be stopped

There is a person sitting next to me
from where this man has come I cannot tell
Silent, sullen, somberly smoking
a cigarette which only I can smell

Hauntingly to me he speaks not a word
as the white striped lines quickly fly by
Only the sound of the road can be heard
the grinding highway on a westward drive

And towards destiny I now race
with a man in the dark who has no face

012 by

Johnny Adriani

When you say I have charmed your life
I wish to believe you, but you do lie
When we speak of you as being my wife
I think on the rack I shall rather die

If I am such a mystical charmer
perhaps I should be out charming snakes
As for charming you is far deadlier
thus proven by my many mistakes

The venom you strike with is alcohol
it distorts your being to the worst
And out of the sting my blood does boil
to crush this serpent into the earth

And to the desert I find I must go
As poison renders me out of control

011 by

Johnny Adriani

What word shall I choose to ascribe the sense
of tension amongst true love and bitter hate?
For strange fits of passion I have come to know
and these fits of passion have sealed my fate

My mind slowly squanders my life away
consumed by the simplest thoughts of you
And as you think of me throughout the day
the question becomes: can you be true?

The sole infidelity of the rose
are the thorns which prick the lover deep
The sharp pain erodes the lover's compose
and out of true love causes him to weep

I am not that man full of raging hate
but strange fits of passion have struck me late