Poem by Poet Ozzy

HEARTBEAT

Boom
Boom
Boom
Babababa
Boom
Boom

I'm afraid you have a heart condition
It's nothing to be unduly alarmed about
Irregular heartbeat
With atrial fibrillation
You have an increased risk of stroke
You will have to be careful how you live
Moderation is the key

That's no problem doctor
I'm a lifestyle artist

Boom Boom  BbaaaBaa Ba Boom  Boom

Let's take a stroll into space
Look back to see the earth
Throb
Alive

Systole
Internal radioactivity heats the core
The Earth expands

Diastole
With expansion comes cooling
Gravity compresses

Boom Boom  BbaaaBaa Ba Boom  Boom

Time exists in the mind

The Universe a rock and roll band
Jimi Hendrix plucking living Quantum strings
Time and Life 4th and 5th dimensions
Consciousness an element of life
That's why Heisenberg was uncertain
Our lives are not unique
It's ALL ALIVE

Boom Boom  BbaaaBaa Ba Boom  Boom

Hawkeye, suppose Cora had married you
You wouldn't have moved ever westward
You would have put down roots
Built a house
Had kids
Milked cows
Butchered Beef
Grown Lettuce

You moved on when things became a mess
They called it civilization
That was a perversion
They did it to justify their destruction of things
You were The Pathfinder  The Deerslayer
I was the Last of the Mohicans
Chingachgook Uncas Le Renard Subtil Magna
I was Poet Ozzy

No I'm Poet Ozzy
You're The Deerslayer
Her name is Leslie not Cora

No I'm Poet Ozzy Leslie is a sociology teacher over at the U
Did graduate work a SUNY on Long Island
Cora is a fictional woman

Maybe I should have married Coraleslie

Some call me Leatherstocking
Others Natty Bumpo  Pathfinder   Deerslayer
Hawkeye because of my vision
Poet Ozzy because I see
I knew the frontier was doomed
Somehow I was the frontier
It's my creation
Without me it couldn't have happened
All suicides are confusing
The rights and wrongs

You know goddamned well I'm Poet Ozzy
I'm tired of this STUPIDSHIT!!!
Tired

Boom Boom  BAAaaaaaaaaaaa

HHHAAA HHHAAAA hhhAAAAAA (mad laughter)

He must have had the big one
They say he lived on alcohol in The Blindman's
You know I remember this guy
Called himself Poet Ozzy
and could hold your attention
Some of his poems made sense
Degenerated the last few years
Started calling himself Karaoke Ozzy
Couldn't carry anyone else's tunes
A star in his own mind
What's this?
A folder of poems
Garbage can over there

Boom Boom  Boom Boom 

by Bill "Ozzy" Martin

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Poet Ozzy

Poem by Poet Ozzy
Poet Ozzy at the BEAT MUSEUM, 2007
photo and handout by Marsha Bellavance
with info from Heather Barraclough and Leslie
For the memorial at Spec's on May 21, 2007

POET OZZY was born in Providence, Rhode Island November 13, 1940.
He was part Irish, French/Canadian and Blackfoot. By the time he died at midnight in San Francisco May 7, 2007, he had become Poet Ozzy.
As child he dabbled in poetry, later he attended Cal State, studied English and History and received a BA degree. He was a wanderer and a sailor and a boxer on the Intercoastal waterway. Went West and became a policeman in Los Angeles to help support his son Robert and wife Judy. Moving on he did police work in New York but did not like it. He "went" bohemian and returned to Florida where his mother lived. In Florida he taught English and, about twenty years ago he met his lady love, Leslie.
At 57 he started writing and performing poetry. His readings were a hit in Tampa Bay then in Australia, Chicago and New York. Sometimes he claimed to be Bukowski younger and better looking brother. He followed his own muse and never compromised his values. Loved to dance and visit the Spank a go go. With his tattoos, long hair, black clothes and sun glasses he seemed a perpetual punker with a rich fantasy life and a fetish for toes. A wonderful performer, when he died he was living his dream in San Francisco, following his own muse as a part of the North Beach Creative Community.

 

Ozzy surveys the scene
Ozzy digging the scene at the Beat Museum

 

 

Ozzy in Kerouac Alley