James Dean, NYC, 1955 photo by: Dennis Stock
No
I‘ll not listen
not be shackled
not be handled
not be ruled
I’ll not be managed
nor be played
manipulated
or be fooled
you sure as hell
will not tell
me
who
what
where
when
how
or why
what you offer
I’m not taking
your extended hand
I am not shaking
the world I walk
is of my making
I will not have it
any other way
I am a man
of my own mind
and I will live
as my own man
all I really want to be
movin’ fast
and movin’ free
James Dean’s wrecked ‘55 Porsche
*
rob kistner © 2022
Poetry at: The Sunday Muse
Happy New Year Rob
The bongos sing out the spirit of the rebel in your poem
Much love…
Happy New Year Gillena, may it prove to be a great year for you my friend! 🙂
Yes a rebel indeed. That picture of the wreckage is a sobering and sad scene. Gone so young!
Lived high, lived free, lived fast, lived short — the epitome of the saying, “live fast, die young!” The part that gets frequently excluded from the end of that say, “…you make a more beautiful corpse!”
Love the rhythm of this although it also feels lonely, both the awesome loneliness of open spaces and the isolation of constantly rejecting any connection.
Pretty much JD’s rrputatiom.
You certainly captured his vibe, aura … his end. Well done, Rob!
Thank you Helen.
You have captured his free spirit to live his life his way. Unfortunately, it had a fatal ending. sigh I have to wonder what else he might have accomplished had he not died so young?
The cruel helpless question True — what if? 🙁
Rob, I know this is about James Dean, but I can’t help feel it is at least partially autobiographical as well. Nice one! Good musical selections to go with also.
Well, all I can say Lisa, is it rolled off my poets tongue damned easy! 😉 My years playin in bands, ridin’ my MC’s certainly flashed in my head more than once while writing this. Peter Fonda in Wild Angels and Easy Rider, Michael Parks in Then Came Bronson, The Wild One (Brando rode a Triumph like I did — he the Thunderbird 650, I the Bonneville 650). They, like James Dean, were some of the hero’s of my no-holds-barred youth. In the 80’s I rode a CB1100F.