Richard R. Best, conclusion. I Know She Dances She dances on a darkened stage That exists only in the backlots of my mind, Hovering At the edge of the spotlight, An ankle here, a shoulder there, An occasional flash of smile, Her perfect breasts only hinted at in silhouette— The light shrouds her in greater mystery Than the dark alone could compass No one hears her, and Only she Hears the music in her head, The theatre is empty, the seats unpopulated, Even I Am only aware of her presence, Not there, not there— We never see her all at once But I know she dances. Copyright © Richard R. Best 2003

Season of Madness Love is a season of madness, A fevered burning of neurons overheating As synapses char and spit hot juice, Aiming at the underbelly of the void The maelstrom grows, for love is of design chaotic, A thing created from formless nothing, And still no more than phantasmal dreaming But for at least two breathing life into't Love is unreasonable, And the justification we give others for it Does not reveal the secret causes We whisper to ourselves in the closets of our hearts Love is a private thing that must be shared To truly exist Copyright © Richard R. Best 2003

Metal on Metal Fine carbon steel fused with silicon/ in a matrixed crystalline lattice Aircooled smoothly sliding gliding Teflon stickless flow Modern man with a fiberoptic viewpoint Laser targeted and instantly analyzed for stress points Recorded charted and printed out a mile long On a thirty-second conversation logged/ at three in the afternoon, But it looked like midnight through my mirror shades Copyright © Richard R. Best 2003

Richard R. Best was born in Michigan and raised in both Michigan and Illinois.  His literary and artistic influences, in chronological order of acquaintance, include:  Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Carlos Castaneda, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Stephen Jesse Bernstein, and Salvador Dali.

Mr. Best says: "My writing tends to be poetic even when it is prose.  Even when it is very dry and well thought through.  It tends toward the mystic, I think, without being, mmmm, saccharine or false or shallow. [It is] sometimes humorous—humor is shallow only when it proves a point to do so, or something like that."

Besides his poetic contributions above, Richard R. Best's artworks are displayed in the Arts section of StickYourNeckOut.

And, Best's current thoughts and poetry can be found on his weblog.

Contact the author at: rr_best@hotmail.com

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