Kaleidoscope: (poems and fables for our times)

By Michael F Barbiero

An panache of poetry and fables on subjects to which we all are bound from a veteran of fifty years in the music business, spent recording, mixing, writing and producing songs and albums that helped make the soundtrack of our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ring Bearer Music Ltd
• Release date: Dec 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798989116829

Michael F Barbiero

Michael Barbiero is a lyricist, songwriter, record producer, mixer and recording engineer with a string of Grammy Award-winning albums to his credit. A native New Yorker, now living in northern New Jersey, Michael's passion for poetry has spanned decades, with several published poems in The Harp-Strings Poetry Journal. His insights and interviews have also appeared in respected publications like Mix Magazine and Musico Pro. Now he lovingly presents his first collection of poetry.

Book preview

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope

(poems and fables for our times)

Michael Barbiero

Ring Bearer Music Ltd

Kaleidoscope

Contents

Dedication

Alchemy

Transcendent Transition

Villanelle

Media Stars

Affirmation: Shanghai Jazz

Politically Correct

A Case for Compromise

The Wind and the Temple Bell

After the Fall

A Family Tree

Change

Message In A Bottle

Sharon

Dinner Date Dessert

Winter 101

The Lion, the Crows and the Wind

Betwixt and Between

She Ran

Hokendauqua

Ode to Marilyn

Whirlwind

The Physicist

Hate

2022

The Squirrel and the Fox

Flawed

Ah, Tempo

The Choir School

Recession 2009

Great Uncle John

Topsy Turvy

Gnosis

Northern Exposure

Late in the Season

Autumn Guest

Slumber

Thank You

Wrong or Right

For Vivian

Elegy

Acknowledgements

About The Author

For Vivian,

without whom I would be

poorer in every way.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael Barbiero

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2023

Alchemy

The alchemy of poetry

lies not, for me, in sophistry,

morality, philosophy

and how they may be wed,

but, rather, in the sense and sound

of adverbs, adjectives and nouns

and how they may be twisted ’round

to fashion gold from lead.

Transcendent Transition

She thought she walked a fourth-dimension seam,

as though the churning, ocean waves she loved

etched in the sand a secret path between

the timeless dunes and heavenly orbs above.

The smooth, flat skipping stones and broken shells

that washed up on the shoreline at her feet

came from a deep, antediluvian well,

wherein all things eventually meet…

or so it must have seemed to her that night,

as, thoughtfully, she went upon her way,

far from the urban borealis; lights

that flicker under vaulted heaven’s sway.

Each sodden footprint slowly disappeared

to