From the liner notes
of
Butch Hancocks
OWN THE WAY OVER HERE
Advice To a Young
Poet
In the Wings
(HA!)
By Butch Hancock
i'm telling ya kid
it
aint in the glass
not in the glass of the bottle
not
even after
youve seen gawds awmighty face scowlin back at you
in neon replicas an reflections
on the tiny rim of the mouth of that bottle__an its not
not
in the glass you pour the
contents of the bottle into
as if theres
somethin civil or moral or spiritual or humane
or even proper about doin that
like it will dilute the fluid
of its duty
which it wont__
its just another layer you put between
you and what youre drinkin
an what youre tryin to drink__
an
it aint in
the dance
tho youre wise, if not innocently so,
beyond your ears
to get your ass out there
with the slinkiest or the fattest
or
the slowest or the fastest
or the firmest or the flabbiest
or the floppiest or the
flattest
or the craziest or the
classiest
or the cleanest or the clammiest
SHE-DEVIL-GAWD-ANGEL-WHORE-QUEEN-EARTH-MOTHER-VIRGIN
you can possibly find
an get your moves down tight...an loose
an
everywhere in between
cause youre for sure gonna need em when you least want
em
an if your lucky
youre gonna want
em when you most need em__
no
it
aint in the dance
tho thats one of the places
you can get as close to it
without gettin there as it is possible to get__
an it is one of the requisites
sort
of puts you in the general vicinity__
it's not there...you can't even see it from there...but sometimes
you can actually
see
its shadow from there__
an
it aint in
your words
your songs
tho youll soon think
it is__cause itll come
whizzin past you
come whizzin right thru you when youre
writin your best or when
youre singin your best
itll come an youll
think it came right FROM you
right outta
your own hands or outta your very own throat__itll feel
that good
but its long gone
like that turkey thru the corn, boy
long before you even
get the twitch of reaction
to its been-an-gone-ness
to its dust
in your mouth
to its long distance
rumblings over the horizon_________________________
so dont lie to yourself over that
one
it could cost you
YEARS!!!
but
dont stop writin or singin either
get
it?
an
it aint in
the wisecracks
an the fun
an the jokes
an
the fronts ya put up
an the fronts ya put up with__an it aint in the laffin
an
it aint in the cryin__
an it aint in the laffin just to keep from cryin__an
youll find out too
it aint even in the cruel soul-savin cryin you do
that cryin that is
the cryin that keeps you
from laffin
IT...for lack of a shorter
word
slips right thru the wisecracks in the walls we build
an goes on its merry way
not even wonderin or carin if we
follow__
IT does not wait
an
it aint in
the wind tho its close
its close to breath
tho it aint there too__but
youll think it is
when you breathe her breath in your lungs
an she, yours
in hers
an
it aint in
the breath you grasp for between words in your songs
tho its close when youre out of that breath
when
your stomach muscles
are locked tight an theres no more air in your body
an your lungs are vacuums of anti-matter
an the last bit of void that even resembled breath was squeezed
outta your throat
scrapin your vocal chords with a sneer that its
getting out of your system alive
but youre still in there_
an when youve got nothin left to squeeze outta there
an
your hearts in your head
poundin bigger than your head can hold
an your sweats
shootin outta your pores
under pressure
an your spine wants to turn back into its
d-n-a corkscrew
an your neck and back muscles are tryin to help it do just that
an your eyes went blind on the last verse
an you can feel
that sweat streamin
in the inside of your eyeballs
an you realize that sweat
and breath are brothers
an THEY are runnin your show for you tonite
an when your hands go numb
an you cant tell if youre
still holdin
your guitar
much less strummin it
an your ears fill with light that gets blown back out by the
sweat
comin out of them now
an you know that your whole
existence is a
ONE WAY EXPLOSION
when you get there AND you know you still have
two more lines in a song to sing before you can take a breath
an to do otherwise you lose the beat
even then
thats not it
its close
but
youre not there
cause somehow you sing those two lines
the exhale
the
explosion is complete
__but HA! NOT ETERNAL
you didnt get IT out
__an what you did get out
comes roarin right back
in__
an it brings more back in with it than what went out
with
a kind of maniacal
cruel cosmic feed-ing process__it comes back in with the sights
you didnt see
while your eyes were busy bein blind__it splatters those sights
against your mind-
walls__murals
posters
slide shows
feature length
movies
of those multitudes of
honky tonk angels dancin like the dickens on the heads of pins
those
sharp little
notes an words of your music an songs__
its like you squeezed the IT
no
it squeezed itself
down to impervious-ness
untouchable-ness
an in
doin so
drove everything away from itself and outta you
expanded
you from limb to limb
to your little limits
an before your explosion could cease
expansion
it opened
UP the intake valves an what couldnt find a place in you
before NOW rushes
IN an finds all kinds of spaces to settle into between your exploded
parts
an it is all taken into your be-ing when you collapse back IN
together
so to speak
ah
i could go on
an i will
but thats none
of your bizness or anybody elses just yet
just ill add
YOULL GO ON TOO
an youll look under every rock and leaf
youll lift every dress an every eyebrow
youll look into layers an beyond layers upon layers
of this-ness an that-ness an thus-ness
an be eternally satisfied an bothered
disappointed an fulfilled
each an every step of the way__
just remember: DONT GET ANY
SMARTER
THAN YOURE WILLING
TO BE DUMB
if space is curved So is form in any form
we dont even see thru a glass darkly
we see thru minds distorted
even face to face the best we see of truth is that it too is
a mask
T R U T H I S A M A S K M A D E O F L I E S
just remember: EVERY SO OFTEN
you must somehow remove
it
so you can put a new one on
because humans in all their many roles of helpless-ness
do
have a charm-ing little
quality
a continu-ing small opportunity
in fact
an
ABILITY to do this thing:
to remove the mask that quickly replaces
the one they remove
T R U T H I S A M A S K M A D E O F L I E S
when you wear it out you will replace it This is your
blessing and your curse.
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