The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

out of shadows

the dank dirt dealt in darkness

the seething propensity of city by the sea

oozing floozies and floorshow flesh home

the taloned and fanged furies following on

disjointed unannointed disappointment

corrosive explosive surge of traffic baffling the bends

the full stop of propellors in the too thick air

they never will land anywhere

jelly and lamb as sick as i am

i force you to main course i do

divorced in corsica or something formless let me see

the doggerel biting ankle deep in steeped tea

the spirit of lucien set free

i’m a little bigshot from the CBD

with my stripe tie die as i try i never seem to

its the idiomatic lie that i ever dream to

concrete bunker hunker down who’d have thunk it?

they can just print more money …cant they..?

just gone noon

i am the sweet child in timebeing yeblik

i awake and its sunday and i live on a sphere

rushing round a star

all lost in deep space miles from anywhere

i awake to a world of pain and fear

wars and killing

a pox on both yer slaughterhouses

god if we all wanted it…

god what if we all really wanted it?

the end of suffering and the reduction of all anxieties

money at the bottom of all of it

i didnt want to believe it my goslings

i didnt want to believe it but why else the killing?

the killing of man beast bird

the lifetimes of tortures for an epicurean plate

no obscenity is too much

we are back in ancient rome my friends

god god god

you say speak through me

but when i run to you for a loan…

god why do you permit us

to permit all this?

the girls hanging from a tree

the surprise of the newly skinned dog still living

the crafty dirty wars and their sickness of heart

money money money

god stretch out your infinite hand

god envelope this mutilated earth in your mercy

some have had enough

in our idiocy they mumble atheism and science

injecting shampoo in some bunny’s eye

airstrikes on some foreign city

mine blowing off some kids leg

i invoke you seriously today

let there be an end to the killing

cant you feel it all around you my readers and my pets..?

the unholy miasma of killing killing killing

no one has the authority

no stupid book

no cooked up rationale

its all wrapped up together

barbarian in a suit knows not what he does

chicken nuggets holocaustic nightmare

dealers in agony and filth

purveyors of finest wars and meat shot

trophy gunslinger blew away giraffe

bees all leaving silently

god where are you today?

someone explained to me once your non interventionist scene

but for one day  could you manifest some peaceful miracle

close down slaughterhouse

end war

let the good prevail

and let the bastards who deserve to be, get punished

whatever that means

not everlasting hell

but tell them its time for killing to stop

bring everyone home

set all creatures free

theyre not dumb we just cant understand em

its all gone wrong

let mercy and forgiveness descend into today

swirled into this world

spiritus sancti

i am the over achiever

i do everything at once

as i sit here now on early saturday night

i have 4 albums waiting in the wings

in various almost completed stages

every one of them will blow your mind i have no doubt

i sang all the songs on the new kil/ken album last week

our man martin came up with another groovy bunch of instrumentals

and your humble narrator wrote and sang

5 songs one day

6 songs the next

i can only say so far it sounds like you are everything part 2

building on foundations and moods and lyrical ideology

from that record and expanding it out even more…

of course then we have my record with frank kearns from ireland

finally finished after umpteen years across time and continents

modern faerie music for grey autumn days

this is one of the most warm organic soothing records

a big soft slow record

full of melody and melancholy

and sudden rays of diffused euphoric rapture

frank kearns is a dreamer

and hes dreamed up some dreamy guitar landscapes

for my voice and my bass to wander through

ready to be mixed …

then we have kilbey/hu dost

which is me and the sufi rockers from kentucky

here i have written bits and pieces of songs and music

and these guys have added jammed and augmented

its totally different to whatever has gone on before for me

jon anderson from yes sings and writes lyrics on one track which is a monster

the whole album is about to be soon mixed ..

finally of course we have further/deeper

being mixed and amended even as we speak

there are guys out there mixing away

further/deeper is its own cosmos

it picks up from U23 and it accelerates outwards

it contains big epic numbers

and it contains pure pop songs

templates of jingle jangle masters

it contains oddities and novelties

it contains some huge thumping things

it will surprise you baby oh i promise you that

meanwhile i am back into painting in a slight lull in events

feeling like the mana is flowing thru me again

yes

i am doing some good work at the moment

x = x

man i dont know how to explain my life to you

the extremes between mundanity and elation

i making records

doing gigs with people like robyn hitchcock

who is everything you might think he would be in spades

a walking encyclopaedic minstrel and legend

robyn and i

some of the last of a dying breed

some incredible moments onstage together

where it all happened

our voices and the songs

to boot the geezer is a gentleman and very pleasant company

i believe he and i could chat for days about dylan and the beatles

i did some gigs with mark gable from the choirboys

and again

an absolute charmer of a guy

they make it easy to create music

ploogy came back on that tour and is the finest form

his drumming was superb..what a comeback..!

he remains one of my fave drummers on a good night

and he had a good night every night on this run

meanwhile the churchs record is very near completion

it will comprise of fifteen tracks

7 of which are now mixed and ready to go

it is nothing like you or i think it will be

it is complex ambiguous and joyful

your preconceptions will be shattered

something new has emerged

i am quietly confident this album will be universally acclaimed

within its own sphere of references naturally

within its own genre it is a triumph

some advertisements say

obey your thirst

i obey the music

that was trying to come into this existence

with myself as part of a team dedicated only to the music and the music only

we are deemphasised as personality x and y

none of you will know who did what and who was the driving force

because all four elements strove together for the musics sake

the music became the all

the song was everything not the singer

my mission in this life has been to make people happy with songs

then this will put a smile on your mind

because we have experts here tinkering with the mechanisms of rocknroll

we have experience and enthusiasm and we

have made a fucking good record

despite everything

time has come for a reassessment of the b®and the church

we poured heart and soul into this

i channelled other voices who came rushing out my throat

i cant wait for you to hear it

let the naysayers say nay for now

lets hear them after they hear the fucking thing

or my name isnt..uh…

fuck

anyway just a few months longer

further/deeper than ever before

please keep your comments  relevant

and avoid excess rudeness towards myself and each other

thank you

sure thing

well its like this

the world was made by god who then had a rest

a naughty angel became the devil to get our souls

god made a man and a girl and some animals who could talk

the naughty angel tricks the man altho its the girls fault really

god says to man “murder animals like this ” and “wear your hairdo like that”

god picks his favourites; a tribe in the middle east

he tells them to go around killing the other tribes and cutting off their foreskins (ouch)

what does god have against foreskins anyway?

meanwhile with all this the devil is unemployed

not much for him to do with all this going on really

god nukes some naughty cities and floods the whole world

a few good people escape but it all goes wrong again

incest false idols blasphemy genocide golden calves blah blah blah

and thats just the good guys

these are gods own faves out there living it up

murdering and pillaging

eventually god lets the faves get captured by some bad babylonian guy

to teach em a fucking lesson

are you following me?

god and devil play a game with Mr Job

of course this really happened

of course some omnipotent creator would play around with some miserable geezer

to see if geezer “believed” in him

oh sorry it was the naughty devil who did all the stuff not god

god just watched curious to see what mr job would do

then after all that god goes strangely silent

he stopped talking to us, didnt he?

this must all be true in its a book with scary illustrations

after a while a nice guy was born who had some good advice

which was be nice if you can

for his trouble he was nailed up to die painfully

after this we had the catholic church

who murdered oh millions and millions

sometimes they just cut off peoples noses

it was all for their own good you see

if you misinterpreted the trinity your nose should be cut off

meanwhile we herded and murdered all the animals

we killed each other too over land and their heathen gods

heathen gods with preposterous stories not like our proper god

oh we burnt the witches who were good friends with the naughty devil

and we went round the world giving our god to em

whether they wanted it or not

we gave em cannons and muskets and gin and VD

we gave em St Paul the apostle who knew a bit about killing himself

we saved their heathen hides from hell

we decided jesus died for our sins in a blood sacrifice

who exactly decided that tho i am not sure

it doesnt seem to quite make any sense

tho it certainly arouses a lot of furore from those who never thought it through

the naughty devil brought the sin

so god killed himself

to save us from hell

well thats logical i suppose

i’m glad we have not adhered to some old superstitious stuff

but if jesus died for our sins why did we have to burn all those witches?

why is an organisation that committed such atrocities still extant and offering no apology?

no apology either for the havoc and misery wreaked by idiot missionaries

finally the western world comes along

the spanish and portugese fuck south america

and the english fuck australia america and africa and india

and then england and germany fuck each other twice

and lots of people get killed

i mean lots and lots and lots

but at least freedom was saved

and now finally its 2014

we have a christian prime minister in australia

we are following christs example and buying some fighter jets

we are disregarding the bit about looking after the children and the old and all that

we are tough on drugs

we are tough on the not so great barrier reef

we are tough on the dole bludging lazy oiks sucking off the welfare system

we believe in a fair dinkum go

we believe in what australians believe in

and that is

a fair shake of the sauce bottle for battlers

and shouldering the pain for australia

because thats fair dinkum

jesus himself abhorred a deficit budget

he didnt like refugees without immigrant visas either

and he hated pot smokers …i read that on facebook

easterly breeze

its almost impossible to talk about this character jesus

everything has been said

much evil has been perpetrated in his name probably more evil than good has come of jesus and his mythos

witches burnt crusades waged with loads of dirty fighting

continents invaded ransacked and converted torturing and maiming over ideological differences

the christians of the western world have murdered millions all in the name of the prince of peace

could any one of these rampaging bloodthirsty popes seriously have read the gospels..?

their behaviour is the very antithesis of Jesus’ life

finally the corrupt churches have preyed on children

they have manipulated the peoples anxieties

they have grown to be fat and powerful and gold-loving monsters

i exhort my readers to not blame this on Jesus

they called Jesus the man of sorrows

but his greatest sorrow surely is not his own crucifixion

but the fact that this scum has used his teachings

which espouse ahimsa and charity and mercy

to perpetrate the horrors the christian organisations have unleashed

now go and read the fucking bible!

go on can you see what is happening in these pages..?

being somewhat of a minor expert in all things myth and ancient world

seeing how i have read the koran and the gita and srimad bhagavatam

and the iliad and the odyssey and the norse myths

and ive read the (not so) good book a few times too

and i have delved deep into these subjects

and i am naturally interested in these things

so for whatever its worth here is my easter take

everyone who wrote about christ wrote long after his death

there are no first hand accounts they are stories passed down and around

they are surely have been elaborated on

there are 4 gospels each writer talks about bits of the story the others dont mention

the stories were surely manipulated and altered and mistranslated

one cannot simply take the stories about jesus as gospel

i reiterate that matthew mark luke and johnny never met Jesus

He is only once mentioned in history (i think but may be wrong)

there are already many other heroes who are born 25 dec and who are killed and reborn

A lot of Jesus’ story is obfuscated in accretion, yes it’s true

a lot of the rationales have been added on by the churches hundreds of years later

ok get ready for my main point here

it isnt about jesus

it’s about his message

his message somehow manages to survive through all of the above

some continuity of thought just like the buddha’s

and here again one wonders if Jesus had heard Buddha’s message

Jesus’ parables certainly resemble Buddha’s sutras

Using simple stories about farmers and families and livestock

Jesus and Buddha were able to get across subtle but important spiritual ideas

to the great confused woolly-headed masses who have trouble understanding

they still do

Jesus himself whoever he was or wasn’t is always de-emphasising himself

there are a few grandiose statements however which atheists always quote

yet i wonder which pope or catholic hack may have stuck those words in his mouth

Jesus is not about Jesus Its about his message

his message is basically to be kind to each other

read his message and think about it

dont be distracted by all the hoo-ha and bullshit

that has circulated by cynical charlatans of emperors and popes

chucked in there to give them leverage over us: the proletariat.

They have raped and plundered and molested and murdered us for 2000 years

i ask you to read the gospels and see how they got all of this out of that

Jesus offered people  a new way to lead our lives

he suggested peace and love

he was like johnny lennon who also got taken down for saying the same thing

People, it is the song not the singer

it doesn’t matter who you believe Christ may be or may not be.. can you live by his words?

can you inculcate love and empathy for the old and poor and dispossessed?

can you share what you have?

do you disdain wealth and realise its potential for corruption of the soul?

do you abstain from violence and cruelty?

can you forgive and can you show mercy?

this is what Jesus is about

he does not demand belief from you

that is such a pointless stupid exercise

believe in me …!

what the fuck does that mean or prove?

jesus exhorts you to be a good person

and he explains in easy to understand ways why you should be

only his words matter

focus on his advice for a successful life and a successful planet

and wonder at how his message has been perverted

and turned into witchtrials and holy wars

and then imagine if everybody was playing by jesus rules

and doing as they would be done by

thats all jesus’ message is

be nice

it all boils down to that

all the rest is something stuck on there by some other untrustworthy cat

ps dont read St Paul

hes no saint he’s a murdering bastard dickhead aggrandising himself in JC’s name

in fact he’s an early example of how it all goes so wrong so fast

i hate him

and so would have Jesus

you can take my word for it

happy easter sk bondi saturday arvo

a few years back i had my second art show in pittsburgh USA

the thing was that were paintings and there was a little poem for each one

although many are not little poems as i have rambled on and on

i reached into each fucking painting and i wrenched the poem right out it

and then i recited or chanted them or half sung them to a bunch of ambient tracks

until now these tracks were only available as a box set containing post card sized prints

the boxes were individually handmade by our own holly

if you have a box set look after it they are now scarce

i dont even have one myself anymore

i wonder where it is..?

anyway we decided to make the poems available as a 20 dollar download

with 19 tracks bursting with wonderful poetry thats good value you poetry fiends

poems rambling and roaming all over my psyche like a herd of phantom buffalo

daydreaming out loud this is automatic and manual labour of love

this stuff here is like me whispering all this stuff in yer ear

as if i was actually here

the words are divinely inspired a little tired

divinely insipid hellishly tepid

the words fall out of your sky

but you hear them first hear

a must for all fans of all ages and all errors

poetry that will have zebras changing their stripes

leopards in tight spots will cheat a bit

the poetry written by stars and jaguars recited by the rain

poetry for every time and place

the grapevine rag

a wags guide to words

my poetry streams out around me like tendrils in ethers

it will fly to you across the internet

a column will change somewhere

and then the poetry unleashed flying out from me here

to you there it wings its way with winged words

juicy austerity i juggle the paradox of our lives

i decide which poem live and die

i in my poem coming through the wires to tell you something

poetry on tap got poetry if you really want it

sexy sad poems about tigers in cities away in a jungle

yes theres buddha theres daddy theres lou lou theres tiger

lonely city where are you with a love so rare and true?

forget the old testament

this is the brand new testimonial

my own arc of the cover-note

see me free the music from my bass and hear me declaim it hear

poems for the future or poems of the colourfast past

dream poem reverie severing real life

beneath the thin veneer of poet i am a peruvian which doctor

and the thousand eyes of the night are fluttering and bugging out

my poems now come to you of their own accord

breeding poetic thoughts in your fertile feverish mind

here as a true poet

here is a true poet hear

hymn to old school new school

the travelling poems of paintings themselves in cognito ergo sum

poetry to baffle you and hassle you and ignore you when you want it

poetry you could have waited for and never heard before

you will love it you will want it you will have to have it!

why why why are you way way way waiting

hot poetry going so cheap i wonder how they can write em for just over a dollar each

wow poetry so good and well made

the beauty and all that stuff will probably never fade

poetry get it now here hear!

who profits

i dont like the old testament it frightened me as a child

a vicious old bishop promising a 7 year old hellfire

a jehovahs witness selling armageddon rags at the door

the israelites a problematical bunch

i mean i started out wanting to cheer them on

but i find them a barbaric brutal slippery stupid crowd

if they are the chosen people i dont want to be chosen

if thats the best old jehovah could come up with

a whinging whining bunch like all the others

why should i be happy when jericho falls down?

or the philistines get their dicks cut off (J asked for this!)

whats it got to do with me these garbled old fables?

its not that i mind them so much in themselves

but silly people interpreting this stuff literally has been a bane to this earth

the popes and bishops have used this tripe to murder you and me

this ugly old hopeless myth of big old nasty jehovah the jealous geezer

has been used to kill and tax and torture and molest us common people

since the day this malarkey was first adopted by the first ever pope

and…have they ever apologised for the murder and mayhem?

no they just go on pretending theyre holier than thou when the truth is in front of your nose

jehovah is a tent god invented by a middle eastern tribe millenia ago in a brutal past

i ask you is this character consistent with your vision of this world and its beauty?

how can a holy book contain such a load of superstitious mumbo jumbo and violent claptrap?

and how can people living in the 21st century give any credence to these myths?

the silly stories and borrowed bits…half of it nicked from other people..it is beyond belief

the dopey idiotic episodes one calamity after another

everything jehovah touches turns to death and destruction and plagues and warts

look what he does to job? does anyone here condone that?

fuck youd be better off under lucifer another imaginary cat

these 2 fictional constructions straight out of a badly written sci fi cheapie

battling it out for our souls…gimme a break!

and you go to hell unless you “believe” in Jehovah the jealous geeza

unless you “believe” in him you will go to hell

well that makes perfect sense doesnt it?

do you “believe” in him?

you better or you’ll jolly well go to hell, forever!

and thats a long time, my little pigs.

And dont go blaming Jehovah for this mess

its all that cunning Lucifer that rascally angel

I mean Jehovah made him and all and knew itd all end in tears

i mean Jehovah could presumably squash old Lucy pretty easy one would imagine

and let the rest of us off the hook

why wait till judgement day…?

on judgement day Jehovah will call my name

or i expect one of the helper angels will:

steven john kilbey eh? tell me. did you believe in me?

um, errr no sorry Jehovah but if…

Sorry son its off to hell with you even though you werent very naughty really

meanwhile

the whole damn thing is so incredibly silly

it really doesnt warrant me wasting anymore time demolishing a cobbled up book of old tent stories

not very good or interesting stories that dont seem to have much morality or anything

i come away disliking jehovah and his chosen people equally and contemptuously

bollocks! i say

the real god is the opposite of all this

he contains every single desirable quality and attribute

this stupid bible has put people off the real god

these stupid buildings with their stained glass miseries

these corrupt and lecherous popes and priests

the disgusting destruction and pillaging of the new world

all sanctioned by this twisted misunderstanding of a load of old stories

this is not god

it is man at his worst

christ was a cool cat and everyone here knows i dig him

why do you have to gild the lily and make him more than that?

its all accretion written after the fact.

made up by a pack of blokes in silly gowns who wanted to control you and me

and they have wreaked havoc on this world with this ludicrous book

good book..?

what good has it ever done anyone?

bye jove

i am the mad poet created from the.saurus and DMT

my mind is a bookshop

all the pages missing

only the titles and pictures remain

oh magical realism the tree boughs

i am a useless genius borderlining stupidity and saga-city

my concentration is shot put there by god

my own sweet private god

god of flowers god of rivers

god of beasts god of peace

eden penetrated by that old snake

i wont make that same mistake

in the formlessnesses  before today

i dreamed i was a man in a forest

i talk with great spirit pervading every single thing

you and i and you and i and you and i and

i walk in glimmering groves for everything is sacred

nothing is disincluded

i am primitive man amped up on future now

i simmer and pop in the glades where aya whispers

i coca leaf and indica and treacly oozing poppy

i working class war locked wizard nowaday powerless

the absence of god makes me cry although god is already there

in the heart of every little fish

in the heart of every little stone

your world is sin phoney and out of alignment

your holy books are full of hate i laugh in their general direction

we are all chosen people but chosen for what?

we chose it all ourselves

god is very kind he says

go ahead be steve kilbey

go ahead be john h citizen

go ahead be a fucking water buffalo or a black cat

god give me what i ask for

in a secret place

where i cannot myself hear

what it is i ask of my god

god has no pope presiding over torture and cruelty

he has no truck with missionaries spreading stupid stories

everyone has their own story

my story is my forest and my god and someone i was a long time ago

when i moved through these trees i see before me in a reverie glow

my head outlined in the fires shadow

my feet hundred miles below

the poet lionised

i fell such a long way to be with you

my night was a slide

something on the billowing pillows made me drown

my gambit becomes my sacrifice

i lose the game

i renounce the crown

i drove through the rain

i ascend to my chamber hands and head full

the photograph of a magical naughty boy in a field of nude women

wow my clock is beating slow

the thunder was a relief grumbling over the sea

sleep trampled blackness as i go down into the waiting dream

theyre all there waiting for me

i can never rest wherever i am

i run through a jungle night

this is all taking too long

all the drugs have surely burned my brain

why do i run?

who do i fear?

but i’m working working working in my dream

running around fixing everything that starts to break all over again

envisaging mars i trip over pluto

thirsty and tired i am so persecuted invisibly

i meet a lovely woman although she is just a dream

sweet woman take me in please take me in

yes she is a foreigner and she beckons aloofly

i cant get a fix the smoke will not come

i’m so busy my legs are so aching

i run and i go nowhere at all

i struggle and moan caught in an unseen chain

the nectar boils over

the sweet honey love maker has gone

i know a word to say to get me out of this room

i try to remember the word and i try many others

i can never capitulate

anxiety pursues me with its nameless shadows

the numbers come up

the credits omit my names

the centuries roll on burying us under them

everything i said was true or coming true

look no further

everything you see in front of you

is me