The Complete Poems, Rants, & Lyrics of Tom Harker, "Ukulele Man": Illustrations by M.H. Israel
By Tom Harker and M.H. Israel
()
About this ebook
Related to The Complete Poems, Rants, & Lyrics of Tom Harker, "Ukulele Man"
Related ebooks
“Afro Blues from Heaven”: 65 Original Poems to Enlighten and Excite the World During these Difficult Times! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBull Headed Saviour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInspired By Leonard Cohen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat a Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGosh, Mom! Don’t They Know You’Re Not Anybody?: One Woman’s Journey Through the Perils of Performing, Living, Laughing, and Loving Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Twisted Muse: A Collection of Poetry and Lyric Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChesterville Center Union Meeting House an Evening of Poetry Readings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVersa Libra One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWords from the Music Room: A Collection of Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inside of an Orange Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEastern Promises Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Broken-Hearted Schizophrenic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaves That Blew Away: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor Your Mind For Your Heart For Your Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPorgy's Revenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnlike Almost Everything Else in the Universe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Five Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Was Naked On The Roof But The Cat Was OK! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Am I Doing in Casablanca?: Collection One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoetry From Down South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUna Voce: The Drama In Opera, Both Onstage and Off Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLondon Harmony: Doghouse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cherokee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Time of Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Hold the Stone and the Stone Holds Me: Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJeffanetics: Musings of an Old Philosophy Major Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYouthful Gray: The Poetry of Ray Rivera Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sound of Silent Songs: A Book of Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Poetry For You
The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things We Don't Talk About Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Complete Poems, Rants, & Lyrics of Tom Harker, "Ukulele Man"
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Complete Poems, Rants, & Lyrics of Tom Harker, "Ukulele Man" - Tom Harker
ISBN: 9781483514062
About This Book
Included for your perusal are 41 poems, 88 lyrics, 5 prose pieces you might call rants,
and 49 illustrations. This constitutes my complete literary output and a small part of M.H. Israel’s prolific collection.
Each lyric is accompanied by a link to a performance of the song, and I have included end notes for items whenever I thought comments might be relevant. You will also find brief bios of the author and the illustrator.
Thirty of my songs, along with their chord charts and video links, are also available as an e-book: Ukulele Man’s Song Book.
And here are some of my influences:
Dad, Big Billy Goat Gruff, Mom, Horton, Hippity Hop Bunny,
Captain Video, Howdy Doody, Pinky Lee, Captain Kangaroo, Scrooge McDuck, Sister Ann Mary, Alfred E. Newman, Mark Twain, Li’l Abner, Tarzan, Uncle Vern, Turok Son of Stone, Aunt Sis, Laurel & Hardy, Hank, Sally Flowers, Soupy Sales, The Kingston Trio, The Mouseketeers, Pete Seeger, Little Richard, Ed Sullivan, Elvis, Sherlock Holmes, Chuck Berry, the Plymouth, Honorable Ball Peen Man, Woody Guthrie, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Beatles, Edgar Allen Poe, Dylan, Brown Eyed Girl,
Inherit The Wind, Herman’s Hermits, Herman Melville, the DeSoto, the Temple of Psychic Prophecy, The Monkees, the Jones-Lawrence Memorial Award,
Don Quixote, Indian Ike, Twilight Zone, MLK, The Conqueror Worm,
Star Trek, Malcolm X, Robert Frost, Dr. Strangelove, Venice, The Rolling Stones, Fellini, Ozymandias,
Don McLean, Edvard Munch, Animal Farm, Al Crapp, the TR3, Emily Dickinson, Kung Fu, T.S. Elliot, The Crucible, e.e. cummings, Leaves of Grass, Jung, Steven Crane, the Bug, Brave New World, Carlos Castenada, Eldorado,
Bob & George, New Orleans, Joe Cocker, Sondra, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Kenny Sparky Mona and Ray, John Lennon, Café Du Monde, San Francisco, The X-Files,
Waiting for Godot, Oscar Wilde, the Redwoods, The Simpsons, Manhattan, the Eldorado.
I’ve Never Been to Stuckey’s
Well, I’m goin’ down the highway goin’ my way
Goin’ nowhere, goin’ fast; oh you gotta be so strong
To keep on keeping on down the highway of life.
And the wheels go round and round and round
And they never touch the ground, the ground
Spinnin’ nowhere, spinnin’ fast.
But I know I’m gonna get there, somewhere, if only I can last
On the highway of life.
I’m goin’ down the highway goin’ my way,
Goin’ nowhere goin’ fast; oh, put the pedal to the metal,
You know somebody’s gonna try and pass
On the highway of life.
Look there’s a Stuckey’s
Maybe we should stop and get a pecan log
Nah, we got time. We’ve got lots of time.
There’ll be another Stuckey’s down the road.
We’ve got time; you can cut it with a knife
On the highway of life
And the hotrod comes out of nowhere
Goin’ nowhere, goin’ nowhere, goin’ fast,
Oh, he hangs there on your bumper
Then he blows out, around, and past
Down the highway of life.
And he’s goin’ nowhere, goin’ nowhere, goin’ nowhere
Goin’ nowhere, just like you and me,
But he thinks that when he gets there, he’ll be young, tan, and free
On the highway of life.
Oh Look! There’s another Stuckey’s!
Two Stuckey’s have emerged in a mellow mood,
And I, sad that I could not travel there,
Oh, I took the road more traveled by,
And I don’t think it’s made a damned bit of difference
On the highway of life.
Oh, I’m goin’ down that highway goin’ my way
Goin’ nowhere, goin’ fast; you gotta be so strong
To keep on keeping on down the highway of life.
But I know I’m gonna get there, somewhere
With the wind blowin’ through my hair
On the highway of life.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alFso8JMJg
Bird Man
Traveling in a foreign land
I came across
an old
Bird Man
Who took me in
to his humble home
where with his birds he lived alone.
And all that evening his cottage rang
While the birds sat listening and the Old Man Sang.
His song was as strong as an Eagle’s cry
As mournful as the gray Dove’s sigh
Hypnotic like the great Owl’s stare
Haunting as the Loon’s fanfare
And the listening birds added not one note
To the song that flew from Human throat.
On and on throughout the night
The Old Man spread his voice in flight
Until, near dawn, he did alight
and smiled at me, that Wren-ish sprite
With wizened face but sparkling eyes
Who suddenly
to my surprise
Hopped ‘cross his well-worn, littered floor
And opened wide his chamber door.
Then the birds
– as men leave church –
Arose as one from off their perch
And through the door into the sky
to fly to soar
Burst through the door to fly, to soar.
And then I saw it
( a simple thing ) :
Free birds fly; we caged birds sing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4VP_V207-I
Gemini
Gemini has two faces
With opposing views
(sometimes they make the
effort to commune)
Mostly
One makes demands, and
The other makes amends
(neither will let the other rest)
Indeed !
One sees what gods see, and
The other mourns humanity.
And whenever
(on those notable occasions)
They turn inward upon themselves
To kiss,
They bite instead.
Crazy Old World
It’s a crazy old world
As crazy as it can be
If you don’t think so,
Just take a look at me.
It’s a crazy old world
I know it’s true
If you don’t think so,
Just take a look at you.
I’m just sittin’ on the world
And watchin’ it go round.
Just sittin’ on the world
Tryin’ to keep my feet on the ground.
I’m just sittin’ on the world
And watchin’ it spin
Just sittin’ on the world
And tryin’ hard to win.
But I’m goin’ away
Yes, I’m leavin’ today
Yes, I’m goin’ away
‘Cause there’s nothin’ left to say
It’s a crazy old world
As crazy as it can be.
It killed the Romans once
And now it’s killin’ me
I’m just sittin’ on the world
Watchin’ the wheels go round
Just watchin’ ‘em spin
until I leave this town.
And I’m goin’ a way
Yes, I’m leavin’ today
Yes, I’m goin’ away
‘Cause there’s nothin’ left to say.
It’s a crazy old world
It’s a crazy old world
It’s a crazy old world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfRxohfzcxU
Two Trees
Two trees lived in the meadow
All alone together
And they loved the world
And shared their treasures
With the boys and girls
And men and women
who passed their way.
And while the boys and girls
And men and women
Passed along their own way,
Two trees lived in the meadow
All alone together.
Wonderful Child
I used to be such a wonderful child
Where am I now?
All grown up and runnin’ wild
Where am I now?
Well, I’ve been to the river
and I’ve been baptized
Ate from the tree and I opened my eyes
Oh, I used to be such a wonderful child.
Where am I now?
Does it matter, do you care
That I’m getting’ tattered and showin’ wear
Oh, I used to be such a wonderful child.
Where am I now?
I look to see what’s become of me
I don’t see real clear
Look and see what’s become of me
Can you help me, my Dear?
I’ve been to the river and I’ve been baptized
Ate from the tree and I opened my eyes
Oh, I used to be such a wonderful child.
Where am I now?
Where am I now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KXClgerou0
Lazy Boy
My reclining chair broke his hip last week,
and being as he was old and had seen better days
that was it.
No sense in reconstructive surgery.
Tuesday he goes to the curb,
to await the undertaker,
with nothing to look forward to but
the resurrection of the upholstery.
"Remember chair that thou art dust
and to dust thou shalt return."
It hurts, what with
all those years of intimacy,
to send him away, but what could I do?
I ache,