Next Stop, Hell

By Al Ferber

We are all on a roller coaster ride. We are all passengers
on a runaway train. We are drivers under the influence,
of something: love, hate, ambivalence, jealousy, lust, some
element of emotion, unbridled passion. We are all careening
toward the abyss. We are all on a crash course with isolation,
desperation. We are all trapped in burning buildings. We
are always just one step away from hell. Heaven & Hell
reside within us. Which one, do you think, is behind door
number two. These poems provide a roadmap to hell. Good
luck on your journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479773190

Al Ferber

Al Ferber a septuagenerian going on 13. Born. Regrettably… A North Philly kid. Survived education at Temple U., Penn State, Villanova U. Alcoholic 30 years. Sober 23 years. Indenture servant to Catherine the Great 34 years. Learned to love and appreciate cats and one dog. Authored 30 books of poems, 2 novels, 3 chap books. Poems in Magazines in U.S., England, Scotland, France. Still alive, on the downward path of the sliding board, as of this writing. An undocumented alien in the world. Resides Ocean City, NJ surrounded by water with Cathi, Luna, Mitzi, and Opal. So there.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Al Ferber.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4797-7318-3

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4797-7319-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover painting by Herb Martin

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Contents

Rainbow

Through the

Looking Glass Darkly

Dali & Co.

Thin Thread

Dark Underworld

Anger

Gogo Bordello

Kind of Surreal

Passionate Ardor

Save Me From The Storm

The Scales of Justice

Sinkholes & Imbeciles

  I.T.  

A Good Time

Carnival

Living The Lie

Social Expectations

I Am Dancing

Tom & Viv

Godspeak

Engulfed

Skull No Crossbones

Shadows

Jetties

Tree of Life

The Best Parts

of the Book

Allure of the Moon

Shaman

Jawbone

Revisitation

Art For Art Sake

After Quake

Ghost Land

Dream Catcher

Red Stone

Adobe

Finally

   No   

Le Grande Canyon

Williams

Higher Elevations

Trailing

Rises

Arizona

   Zen   

Elevator

Breeze

Passage

The Third Eye

Blue Notes

Swept Away

A Night in the Village

Squirrel On A Wood Pile

Imbalance

Tear Times Two

Aspects

Balance

Palette

Another Tear

Emotional Convulsions

Undesignated Tear

Blue Funk

Diaphanous

Bitch

Young Blood

Dreamcatcher

Balancing Act

Etta

Sea of Tranquility

Fire Road

Up Against It

Monsters

Infinity

Crumbling Walls

Hinge

Killing Radius

Free Fall

Cold Winter

of the Heart

Interspersed

The Look

Irrational

Amen Amen

Dancing

Flipping Away

Concession Speech

Gargoyles Spitting

Into Fountains

Quick Change Artist

The Doctor Is In

One Song

Moonscape

Duke of Earl

Danny’s Inferno

Formulas for Suicide

Tempest

Physical Complaint

Dream # 3,241,923

Tomorrow

Fissure

Ancient Writing

Artifice

With Thanks

To My Father

Perdition

Jabberwocky

Friends

Circumference

Semiconductor

Fits & Starts

Crossfire

The Interloper

The Air

Next Stop, Hell

Tunnel In The Park

Illusion & Delusion

Evidence Based Research

Requiem For A Dream

Bad End

Batman & Rubbish

Mudslide

Writer

Collateral Damage

Travesty

Mandala

Before The Storm

Rain Forest Canopy

A Fairy Tale

Carburetor

The Infidel

How Important

Chronologically

Not Always

Scribblings

Mesa

Dementia

Up Against The Wall

Dust

Grappling

Uninvited

Rainbow

I had a rainbow

cross my path

this weekend

two solid get

togethers

of persons with

similar missions

a freshly scrubbed

and smiling client

approached me

shook my hand

and thanked me

for my help

a vision of the

greatest legs

I’ve seen in forty years

the smiling face

of a long forgotten

friend who’s finding

the light that exists

on the other side of hell

Through the

Looking Glass Darkly

The streets

are blanketed

in darkness

stripped forever

from the sun

the moon

and stars

switched off

it will not be

a bomb

that kills us

it will be

voluntary blindness

to the truth

unfounded prejudice

to open thought

the constant

ignorance of racism

the constant

street fight

we wage against

each other

bought off by

the drugs we take

wide screen TVs

and high tech phones

the pathetic

inability to look up

and see

the evil puppeteers

who pull the strings

Dali & Co.

The surrealist pushes

just beneath the surface

takes his paintbrush

stick or words

Charles Bird

Miles Davis

Dali & Co.

Gypsy Rose Lee

stirs it around

and blasts away

that first deceptive coat

of this dimension

into the less ordered

dripping tears of the circus

clown

the circus

high wire walker

walking over

the Grand Canyon

walking over

the glaciers around

Glacier Bay

the Fat Woman

the Bearded Woman

the tiny man