Another Tom Petty Warmup

It's not Tom Petty but it almost is…




Climb That Hill
Tom Petty
Somethin' threw me in the dirt.

Kinda got my feelings hurt.

Weed was burnin' somewhere down the wind.


I had to get up

And climb that hill again.


Little Lucy's such a doll,
Like to climb her garden wall.

But she only sees me as a friend.


I got to get up
And climb that hill again.

I gotta bury my pride,

Drag this line

Over that hill

One more time.

Gotta get up in the mornin',

Make my way

Over that hill again.





Tempers flare and words are spoken.

You close one door and another opens.

You hear the music and you wander in.


You got to get up and climb that hill.

Get up and climb that hill.

You got to get up and climb that hill again.

This song and lyrics remind me of a time I was once contemplating my own Hill in Tacoma, Washington… May be time for me to Climb That Hill again….


Halfway up the hill

A giant hawk screams warning
I whistle back
then the dog barks
then the Volkswagen
lies dead in the woods
right there
It happens that way
on Sundays
out walking with God
Then the Volkswagen
lies smashed and dead
papers scattered across the straw
windshields blasted away
and I sit
where it sits
still as death
while my dog walks close
and sniffs and barks
and the sun warms my back
on an October Sunday
when leaves are crimson
more bright than the dead

My life is filled with symbols
and signs
like the dream of thumbs and fingers
Mimi says I need to be touched
Yes I say
Touch me
all you people
Touch me
and my heart will shatter open
like this broken windshield
so very still
so right with the world

And how in the hell did this
stolen heart of a Volkswagen
get up this hill halfway
to this place here
to be dumped lifeless
in the woods
And what's in it for me
where is the sign
what does it all mean
and where'd that hawk go?

Jeff Hartzer
©1984,2012



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October First

Digging through the archives, here are two poems I wrote regarding my favorite time of the year...

October first

brought
the sound
of geese
fifty four
in flying vee

Jeff Hartzer
© 1981-present


Halfway up the hill

A giant hawk screams warning
I whistle back
then the dog barks
then the Volkswagen
lies dead in the woods
right there
It happens that way
on Sundays
out walking with God
Then the Volkswagen
lies smashed and dead
papers scattered across the straw
windshields blasted away
and I sit
where it sits
still as death
while my dog walks close
and sniffs and barks
and the sun warms my back
on an October Sunday
when leaves are crimson
more bright than the dead

My life is filled with symbols
and signs
like the dream of thumbs and fingers
Mimi says I need to be touched
Yes I say
Touch me
all you people
Touch me
and my heart will shatter open
like this broken windshield
so very still
so right with the world

And how in the hell did this
stolen heart of a Volkswagen
get up this hill halfway
to this place here
to be dumped lifeless
in the woods
And what's in it for me
where is the sign
what does it all mean
and where'd that hawk go?

Jeff Hartzer
© 1984-present
from Jeff Hartzer's cd/book: Flamingos

New Poems

A friend in Washington State wanted to see any poems I have written 'recently'...By request, here are a few in the raw stages of their own birthings...

For Joy Harjo

I took her hand in mine

hoping to lend myself
a hand
up from the frozen earth of my time

to the starry heavens of her time.

Thank you for your touch;

thank you for your song;

for the answers of your new world:

war less,

desire less.

Jeff Hartzer ©2010

**********

Brilliant Reds-for Peter and Henry

Back to the garden
the hippies sing
and the bliss of gardening
overrules the chop-chop of copters circling

The red poppies blaring out in the morning sun
brighter than the blues and reds of cops
robbers and chaos in city streets a block away
Miles away in the gardener's paradisio
men float in a magic garden of wonder
created in love with love

And all around the chaos flies
And all around the bliss kissed rein
of cops and robbers
and springtime gardens
Chaos or bliss:
can you choose both?
Can you love enough
to rise above the fray?
Can you bring peace home
when all around you copter chaos wails?

If you are a kind soul
an old soul
a Chauncy Gardner in his garden
a man of means in a creative world of growth
you can reach skyward toward sun
and copters with silly beams of cameras aimed down

Life unfolds on our block of the world
Love unfolds into blooms of poppies facing up:
Brilliant reds

Jeff Hartzer ©2010

*********

In my dream

spaced mind
I love you
dance with you
worship you as beloved
and not on facebook.

Jeff Hartzer ©2010

********

shock and awe

comes ashore
our nation's belly blackens
katrina wasn't enough
shock and awe
dooms us all

Jeff Hartzer ©2010