Assured me everything was ok

That he was a great leader

That scientists were wrong

We could live for the day

So radiant so confident

Said if you wanted to be rich 

You just had to pray

I believed in her love

Opposites attract

They say

Never having time to read

Laughing in the face of experts

It was only a cold she said

When ...

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I’ve given giving

up a lot of thought

and have decided

I’m not that tough

to face the thought

of failure every day

not that hanging in

has been a thrill

there are in fact

a lot of people I could kill

but I’d have to deal

with that reflection

masochism saves me

the sweet pain of failure

the interior narrator

laughing at...

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I have limited empathy

I feel it first

Then I feel you through me

And I can’t remember a thing

Just a feeling of excitement

In vertiginous moments

How is it that

You remember

everything I’ve said

Every promise

in the heat of passion

Every doubt mouthed in bed

Lacking your crucial component

I want to feel it again

Life tricks us like tha...

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Writing your autobiography

I gloss over the way we met

I’ve edited your childhood

Down to a sentence

And I’ve taken some liberties

With your mid-life crisis

Which you’re about to have

If you’ve got no objections

Tomorrow we go to press

We’ve already sold out

The first run of one

and I’m suddenly

having it withdrawn

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We see patterns

We feel patterns

We believe in patterns

Everywhere

Survival mechanisms

Part of our evolution

We make inferences

Draw conclusions

And when we’re wrong

And we fall apart

We rearrange them

All over again

Taken in profile

We resemble

A slow orgasm

Stretched over a lifespan

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I love my problems

I’ve created every one of them

I want you to star in them

I’ll direct from my chair

There’ll be a big drama

With a really tiny budget

I’ve finished the soundtrack

Now on to special effects

Choose your own costumes

I’ll need to approve them

Could you give me a hand

Erecting the set

It might seem hopeless 

But I’m rewritin...

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Now that you’ve got my attention
What do you want with it

You want me to buy something
Then you’ll regret it 

As if we could face this longing
And then move away from it

Somehow transcending a hunger
We’ve always taken for granted

Now that you’ve captured my interest 
How will you keep it 

You know that it accelerates 
And you have to feed it 

Did I happen to mention
It ha...

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Been looking for myself

Everywhere

Have you seen me

I found myself with you

But that was a while ago

I really don’t know

What I’ve been

Up to since

Do you remember

What I looked like

How I tasted and felt

If you’ve seen me lately

Give me a call

As I’m lonely

Missing us both

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seems to know someone 

smiling at the hostess 

not moving from the punch 

cornering cupcakes 

nodding in approval 

snorting news relayed

hoovering removal 

fish, ham, and cake 

stranger at the party’s 

swallowing your body 

aiming righteous anger 

between various legs 

everything obsessing him 

coughing on your napkin 

avoiding certain traps...

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we had our health 

without the wealth 

just enough to 

wiggle around 

there was a plan 

we believed in 

it even had its own 

theme song 

and we knew it then 

it couldn’t stop anything 

we were just silent and cautious 

as we crept around our lives 

and we see it now 

try to recapture it somehow 

touching ourselves 

clo...

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dream about turning it off

think about getting up

fantasies become elaborate

as the mirror moves away

sweat you know nothing about

dreaming in the supermarket

words in advertisements

start to call your name

adventure adventure

waiting for you

giving up security

is all you have to do

adventure adventure

embracing your fears

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joined your cult

liked the food

the guy droned on

in that stupid costume 

but the dance segment

I could feel it too

who needs freedom

feeling that good

elation obvious 

words symbolic 

couldn’t take it serious 

that’s why we fell for it 

joined your cult 

after you left

felt emptiness

some regret

but I got promoted

and many rec...

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out of the corporate

funded educational base

between unaccounted for minutes 

on my paycheck 

I sometimes get to do what 

I’m supposed to 

when not shoveling

meaningless dreck 

I’ve been teaching a kid to read 

using basic flash cards 

twenty minutes at a time 

it’s not really that hard 

it takes a lot of patience 

particularly as a kid 

if ...

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I wanna have a world together 

That we build forever 

I wanna agree on what’s true 

Baby, I just wanna make sense to you 

I know you see things different 

it’s what gets to me 

Sometimes I feel you love to argue 

Just to generate heat 

But we need to establish premises 

We need to get real 

So much hangs in the balance 

When we agree to dis...

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You left the meeting

turned off the laptop took off the tie

burned the notes went outside

into a car drove out of town

passing people I went further on

until colors filled my eyes

forest greens blue seas and skies

forgot my name why I came

then decided I had to stay

you left the meeting

with a taste in your mouth

scent you remember

when you were y...

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Dunno how I ever lived there

Dunno why I ever wore that

Dunno what I was doing with you

But I don’t feel like I regret it

Can’t believe I’d eat that everyday

Can’t remember feelings I had

Don’t recall ever saying that

Can’t remember that photograph

You’d just have to ask my previous self 

I haven’t seen him around lately

You’d have to go back

I wouldn’t r...

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I work with crazy people

I’m surrounded by crazy people

I love crazy people

I hang on to myself

I don’t feel more than equal

I don’t think they’re superior

I admire them for letting it out

While I have stomach trouble

I was told I think too much

But I feel like It’s just enough

To hold on to what I’ve got

And navigate this future

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Tell me how to feel

I lost it years ago

And I’m concerned

I’m offensive

It’s the nature of generations

To articulate a rage

and then swallow it as they engage

Economically

I’m not feeling anything

In particular

Just kick me

If I do something wrong

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I'm very superficial and live on stuff like this to get me through the week: 

https://offthetracks.co.nz/bob-gaulke-pocket-blues/

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I live in a community

of half-fascists

under a hippie exterior

is hirohito sipping tea

I ponder cutting my mustache

into a hitler

but settle for

a bearded khomeni

by day I work with

the poor and downtrodden

by night I mock them

mercilessly

and my favorite thing

to do with you

miss holier-than-thou

isn’t appropriate to divulge

in a...

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We keep our better selves

In the back room

Promising them they’ll debut soon

We just gotta take care of

Something pressing that might

Require unorthodox methods

We tell her we love her

We even post her picture

She doesn’t know however

About our

Browsing

Histories

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I live on false hopes

They help me cope

I don’t have to know

Until it’s too late

By then I’ve measured

The depth of my fall

Thickness of the walls

I congratulate myself

For being so young

And dumb

And holding out

For nothing at all

I wear my heart on my sleeve

Where it can breathe

And the memories walk

Right through me

Without lea...

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even in the cruelest pain

she kept her sense of style

until they put in the catheter

she kept her dresses organized

while he was dying on a battlefield

he was thinking about that night

when his dreams came true

under a different moonlight

hostages with terrorists

come to an understanding about holidays

children with parents

compromise on ho...

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You stand for this

It’s what your life is

It’s just your role

You’ll fight for it

With your last breath

Even if you’re wrong

How you need

The world to make sense

How you feel

You’re at the center of it

As planets revolve

And species evolve

You’re a stone

She was probably right

About that fight last night

Now she’s gone

And yo...

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Just enough space

Not to move

Just enough money

Not to quit

Just enough love

Not to leave

Just enough time

Not to think

About your container

Its color and shape

Smoothness and thickness

Size and weight 

Your container 

What if it breaks

You start to notice

Hairline cracks

You think about

Everything said

You think about 

What y...

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a nation in your pockets 

an ideology to go 

go set up anywhere you’ll see 

your ideas remain remote 

you came at a delicate time 

shedding skin twice at night 

she couldn’t stand your ideas 

you were off; it was real 

how you love to smoke 

how you love to talk 

how your ancestors would recognize 

a lot of your tarof 

a very elabor...

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we could give them

say, South Dakota 

pave it over 

drop bologna 

they could pretend 

to live off the land 

form tribes 

attempt civilization 

we could wait until 

it freezes over 

metal cassettes

recorded over

send in a fleet 

of lifestyle counselors 

bags of wheat 

albums of photos 

and run them through 

t...

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Just to be clear

Every poem I write

Whether about

An old man on a train

Children dying 

In a war zone

Or the most distant star 

In the sky

Is about you 

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I woke up wanting this 

it was as clear as day 

nothing else mattered 

the feeling remains 

hunger subsided 

worries dropped away 

clock needles divided 

night turned to day 

I think you were there 

it was hard to tell 

as we moved in concert 

with everything else 

out of the trance I broke down 

I sewed myself up 

I just need to get to that...

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....poems into songs: 

https://bobgaulke.bandcamp.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ZT9TQV3ReO7WxL3ZkQVri

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bob-gaulke/807780013

https://tidal.com/browse/artist/5405983

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You look like you’re moving

Got that feeling that

Everything’s happening

But I know you too well

You don’t know what you’re doing

Confidence is seductive

It seems like you have your bearings

But I hear your insides all night

Sounds like you’re booming

Maybe somebody loved you too much

Maybe you took that ball and you run

But weather’s getting cold

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My Project

you’re my project

something to protect

infused with a logic

I don’t understand

I give you my best stuff

it becomes transformed

you return me something

I never thought of before

I give you my attention

I don’t get it all back

I get the feeling I suspect

I’m your project as well

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I was terrible 

I know this now

because you’ve told me

I don’t know 

what I was thinking

but as you’ve won the present 

I have to accept 

the terms of 

surrender 

I do, however

reserve the right 

to create new memories 

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chasing that line

your entire life

entangled surrounded

from all sides

cat with a laser

closer then disappears

while you’ve been

inside the entire time

the distance makes

things delicious

you feel a weakness

from a certain perspective

the female form

rules your mind

you can only forget about it

for seconds at a time

the femal...

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I get a lot of prayers from people

who are like,

“Can you give me that one

again; I think I can handle it now”

Or “if I just had a bit more talent 

here I could make it”

Or even, “I wanna redo 

this decade”

And I don’t know how they 

read my silences

but if they just looked around

maybe they’d see how 

ridiculous they sound

...

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Please tell me about America

I like hearing the news from you

When it comes with your accent

It seems somehow more unreal

And maybe less painful

I can see the plot points clearer

I notice the elapsed timer

I pay less attention to the actors

And I'll tell you about faraway

Where we can be together

Where imaginations save us

Until things get ...

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The Burden

My parents gave me 
Shit-tons of kindness

I got so much of it
I can’t monetize it

I mostly just 
Give it away

Sometimes I use it up 
With difficult people
 
Sometimes on a Tuesday 
I go through three packs 

But there’s so much left
That I’ve been dropping it off

In places over the years
Other people get into it

And I go back 
And it’s still there

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What The Book Wants 

when you put it down 

you’re far from done 

thoughts demand action 

demanding blood

you could read another 

but you’d just move deeper 

as you search for signs 

of literacy in the world 

They stir up the memories

Rearrange the thoughts

I don’t think they resonate 

Unless they touch on love

And then it spills out of you...

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Under her skin
She dreams of violence
Punching her boss
Drowning her co-workers

The most tragic headlines 
Pale in comparison
With her balsamic
Idylls

Where to put all this
As it burrows deeper into 
Her waking thoughts 
Past her jokey edges

She thinks somehow
Her mind’s preparing her
For the earth’s future 
Or the next election

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what you fail to understand 
takes you by the hand
slaps you repeatedly
until the animal in you learns

he started to repeat himself
pulling attention away from the work
raising questions about his private life things never considered 

his popularity expanded greatly
he bought a suite of identical suits
working his entire life to get here 
now he wanted to torch the room

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Ignoring biology
Laughing at the gravity
You worship obscure ideas
Moving deeper afield

The day comes down like rain
Without stopping to wipe your face
You climb the steps to the space
To start from zero again

Relying on changing thoughts
Firing on pure impulse
The work takes on a form
Then you take it apart 

It tells you when you’ve had enough
You’re left feeling spent and undo...

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Our dreams get angry with us 

“How come we’re not part of the plan?”

“None of this political maneuvering 

between the chair and the bed.”

Our dreams screaming at us 

from everything heard and said 

“I can’t believe this-don’t let 

your heart get bought by your head.”

And the body moves 

calls a timeout 

Wining and dining 

And sleeping it of...

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Looks like they’re on crack
Dresses like the circus
Talks five times too fast
Probably escaped from prison

Frequently with coffee
Screaming now singing
Showing videos and cartoons
In hot water with administration

You wouldn’t work with them 
But you’re in a union
Sorry- I wasn’t talking about them
I was describing you

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I lived in Salvador, Bahia for 18 months in the early 00's. It changed my life. A bunch of songs I wrote then have been remixed and are now on streaming sites. You can click the link if you're curious: 

Sunga by Bob Gaulke

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I cry for my students 

cry for their parents 

cry for the species 

I haven’t even heard of yet  

I cry for the ignorant

cry for the intelligent 

cry for the rich 

I cry for the cognizant 

I take all these tears 

I fill a polluted ocean 

and start to swim 

towards that distant horizon 

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she stood on the platform 

with a chest and two bags 

there was an enormous man 

next to her about double my size 

I came up to meet her 

I kissed her and shook his hand 

she said, “These are my needs. 

I go everywhere with him”

I told her I had a small place

I wasn’t expecting a third 

she told me not to worry

he was vegetarian and mute 

we heade...

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under the civil surface 

there’s a beast in a cage 

filled with rage

chained to a million formalities 

despite decades of 

domestication 

centuries of education 

it hungers for a new reckoning 

some well-intentioned fool 

bends the rules 

and is lucky to get away 

in just one piece 

other reformers 

have become pot-boilers 

lacking only a pi...

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walk into the room silently 

don’t talk 

take your assigned seat 

and pull out your notebook

copy what’s on the board

I’m putting the timer on 

for three minutes

answer the quick write

“What does freedom mean to you?”

in your own words 

I’m coming around with my stamper 

to check your homework 

be ready to share

if anyone talks

you’ll be sta...

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she knew 

it wasn’t a suicide

he dared match his wits 

with hers

she burned 

him alive 

she turned herself 

in involuntarily 

she knew

she wouldn't carry him

not with his 

heavy sides

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when you put it down 

you’re far from done 

thoughts demand action 

demanding blood

you could read another 

but you’d just move deeper 

as you search for signs 

of literacy in the world 

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