Laugh Clown… Laugh – A Spoken Word poem

In memoriam for Robin Williams…


Delivered the joke, smiled through torment…
On humor’s wings your malady was bent.
You shared with all your gift of the jape,
For our maudlin hearts a moment’s escape.
A manic laugh ‘pon your face fights,
We raised you up to astonishing heights.

Laughing… laughing… laughing… laugh
From the depth of melancholy in your eyes,
Take flight now before us… ever higher you’ll rise.
Made us laugh ’til we did cry apiece…
Precarious… you teetered ‘pon the precipice.
Played out your suffering ‘pon the stage,
Lights… camera… the pedestal… your cage.

Cry out loud… make jest of your pain
For you ever inspired, gave hope from your fragility,
Shined so brightly for all your frolicking jocularity,
Behind the door… in the dark… burned out alone.
Did we ever see if a smile from your eyes shone.
You always were easing our lonely malady.
You made the joke from your own tragedy.

The lonely clown… living to entertain
Reveling in your hilarity taken for granted,
Your warmth… your joy… we were enchanted.
Left none to ease your heart so dolorous,
To deliver joy beyond depression’s curse.
To strive with unending adverse poignancy,
Gave joy… spread smiles… and tears of hilarity.

Dying… dying…dying to make us laugh
Laughing… laughing… laughing countenance
Hiding behind laughter, your sustenance.
Your soul laid bare… laid bare for the joke,
Poured out… poured out… ’til your heart broke.
Loving the clown to death, we cried,
Cruelest cut the day the laughter died.

Laugh clown… laugh

Laughing… laughing… laughing… laugh

Cry out loud… make jest of your pain

The lonely clown… living to entertain

Dying… dying…dying to make us laugh

© 19 August 2014, by D. Denise Dianaty

Joseph’s Angel

Daughter, sister, wife, mother… friend
She gave loyalty for loyalty to the end
Her flame-kissed hair shinin’ like a halo
That gently teasing turn of her lips, just so
Losing Dawny cuts deep to our hearts
A little piece o’sunshine torn from hearts

With her bright laughing eyes
And those one of a kind Dawn smiles
O Lord, we all need Joseph’s Angel
Givin’ us reason to laugh in the middle o’hell

Joseph’s Angel, mom to the fiercest degree
Gone from us now with the Lord to be
Laughing eyes dimmed in pain never more
Gone home, sharin’ stories on the golden shore
Lookin’ down on her Joe with hopeful sighs
In our Lord’s bosom Our Dawny now lies

With her bright laughing eyes
And those one of a kind Dawn smiles
O Lord, we all need Joseph’s Angel
Givin’ us reason to laugh in the middle o’hell

We see her now with little tricksy pranks
Laughter for all in Heaven’s ranks
We’ll miss Joseph’s Angel while we rejoice
God called her forth with His wise choice
To with the Heavenly Hosts her stories regale
Dawny’s gone Home, made new, hearty and hale

With her bright laughing eyes
And those one of a kind Dawn smiles
O Lord, we all need Joseph’s Angel
Givin’ us reason to laugh in the middle o’hell

I never imagined such a world or day
Where she wasn’t just a phone call away
Joseph’s Angel always found the laughter
In every situation of the joke she was master
She told our stories, rendered humorously
Showed us not to take ourselves so seriously

With her bright laughing eyes
And those one of kind Dawn smiles
O Lord, we all need Joseph’s Angel
Givin’ us reason to laugh in the middle o’Hell

RIP Dawn Dell Dever Connell – my sister and my friend. [11 July 1967–30 November 2016]
I never imagined a world where our Dawny wasn’t just a phone call away. When you went Home, Dawny, a little bit of sunshine went out of the world. I don’t weep for our Dawny. There’s no more pain and suffering for her. She’s gone Home to the Lord’s embrace – for that, I will celebrate. However, for now… and for a long time to come… I weep. I weep for Joseph and Wayne. I weep for our parents and sisters. I weep for myself. I weep for a world without our Dawny… without Joseph’s Angel to make us laugh.

D. Denise Dianaty
©23 July 2017

Starman

Image source: http://www.thegap.at/uploads/tx_monolith/Bowie2013.jpg

The Starman has taken flight, 

Broken the bonds of earth

Set sail toward Heaven’s height

And the stars look very different today¹

Our imagination’s a bit lonelier

Now our shining Starman has gone away

There’s a Starman waiting in the sky²

Each psychedelic tear’s a rainbow

Falling now from our lonely mind’s eye 

Tell my *world I love her very much **earth knows¹

The Starman painted with his inspiration

Ever ‘pon us his kaleidoscopic vision bestows

Dancing dreams of what more may be

The stars are never far away³

And the Starman will always fly free

Through the kingdom of the ghost⁴

Leaving words with something to say

Starman’s shredding with a ghostly host

We’re not ready to let go, we say
Let him sail back *to-us tonight⁴

But, Major Tom led him home today

¹ Space Oddity 1969

² Starman 1972

          *original: “wife”
        **orginal: “she”

³ Stars (are out tonight) 2013

⁴ Dancing Out In Space 2013
          *original: “home”

by D. Denise Dianaty 

© 11 January 2016

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