WE MADE IT TO BROADWAY

It was the sixties after all,

but I think you had to be there.

It is hard to describe the deep

human zeitgeist morphing from

Elvis Presley into The Grateful Dead

in the blink of a monkey’s eye.

A time when in the West especially,

people shed the masks we’d always

worn, our suits, and “Father Knows Best”

philosophy of ignoring the issues implanted

in our bloody guts. Our manifest destiny

of nobody counts but us.

It was a fertile ground for rebellion and

escape. We didn’t know what we were doing

only what we wanted to leave behind; inherited

music, clothes, cars, houses, dreams that proved

the elders were a dark and shallow bunch so

we were in the big empty post modern gag fest.

We grew hair, smoked weed, dropped acid,

moved into Victorian painted lady communes

free for all love, and thought about everything

with our new kaleidoscope eyes. An orgy of chaos

with no picket fences across our dance floor when

rock and roll had important things to say.

We even thought we’d won! At the end, it was

just a strange movie we were in, and did not know

how short our supply of film. We had passion,

we had joy, we had psylocybin minds, beads,

rainbows, and the best music in history. I’m bald

now, lost my hair and my bells with all the rest.

Author's Note

Ravin' Ink poem for 02/22/2025 prompt, "HAIR"
From Gouge Eye, Texas.

Reviews

[K. Louis]

This poem captures the essence of a pivotal moment in history. The imagery and language really transport you to that era of rebellion and transformation. What struck me was the sense of disillusionment that comes across towards the end -- the realization that the freedom and idealism of the time were perhaps fleeting. Well done.

[Vol]

K,
There was something about sitting all akilter around a room, as many as would fit on the floor. Somebody plays bars from songs we know and a joint floats from lips to lips in the quiet.
Vol

[carl]

Love this - got to be we are of the same generation - all you have resonates so very well - carl

[Vol]

It was a time that required personal involvement, if you were not there, you cannot get it. Like Woodstock as a defining moment... Not true, it was just something there in the middle, the music was as good as it gets, but the only reason it gets the spotlight is that it happened in New York where there were news cameras... The rest of the country stayed home and happily stoned, listening to our transistor radios and LPs while we talked, sincerely, about war and peace, "Barbarella," "2001 a Space Odyssey," or running away to Haight Ashberry. Today they give our glory to the seventies Mod scene, evidence our souls were dead or dieing. A Los Angeles Free Press headline in late 1969 declared Hippie is Dead." and they were right. Our music is still the best, and many of us are like stickmen these days when we dance with wild abandon in the kitchen listening to Grace Slick...
Vol

[carl]

Would definitely identify myself at that time as a sudo-hippie - living in highrise in Alexandra outside of DC walking the streets of georgetown to visit all the cool shops filled with hippie culture, attending the rock venues of the area, listening to vinyl with Kenwood and Harmon Kardon, drag racing on Pennsylvania Ave in my 68-Z28, missed Woodstock b/c roommate called into work at last minute ( with my lack of knowledge and propensity to accept “ here try this” probably saved my life. Absolutely a case of cultural appropriation. But great style, hair, music, clothes, friends, language, lots of tune in turn on and drop out. Lots of wild crazy fun - thankful I survived.

[Vol]

Thankful for every minute of it...

[Michael Sun Bear]

Yes, I was there, and all my past interpretations, my past explanations for that “strange movie” have fallen away. With a sorrowful nostalgia what I remember of that time is turning corner after corner to encounter beauty and joy in forms entirely new to me. You spoke elsewhere of your multiple past lives. One of my past lives was lived as a student of Sufism, a deep dive into the underlying reality of existence. I was taught, and have come to believe, this is a dark, dark world, a turning point in our timeless journey through existence. I now wonder if those times you wrote of, and we both lived through, were the beginning of a mass awakening, the beginning to remember of brighter worlds where we once did dwell, where we will dwell again. All the overlays of rebelling against politics, the values of our parents, the war, blah, blah, blah was just crap. We started to awake, but alas, fell back asleep.

[Vol]

Michael,
I think I could write pages about this subject. It was a sea change that was global and spiritual, I’ll never forget when the Beatles landed in Tokyo to the screams and noise of hundreds of hippies with long black hair and pointy boots. Asian hippies? Of Course, it was global! An EPIC shift in the Zietgeist.
But haunted at every turn by the jagged contrast of Viet Nam.
As you say, beauty was everywhere, from a quilt on the ground with Boone’s Farm and three friends, to small venue concerts in college basements.
When I think of the girls back then I see those sparkly blue eyes, and come-hither grins, the sun was a brighter yellow, and the air was clean enough to breathe.
Since you mentioned your Sufi studies and came away with an awakening, let me tell you mine. I was born at Pentecostal Bible college, my father, two uncles and both grandfathers were pastors as well. MY blood is made from that tradition, but not my religion. I’ve been impressed with with rather frequent reports that quantum physics points to a Conscious Universe. For decades after I realized God is not an old guy taking gotcha notes, I thought if not that, then what? I think the Quantum guys might just be on to something.
Vol

[Michael Sun Bear]

I wish I had a grasp of advanced mathematics to better understand quantum mechanics.

[Vol]

I have no math so I understand none off the mechanics, but the conclusions they draw from experiments and observation are often told in laymen's terms.

[Lorry]

Kaleidoscope eyes? I hear you can still get those when properly herbally medicated, but as you say " you had to be there man!"
Unfortunately for me I only showed up late sixties and knew I'd missed something special when the 70's started and people started wearing brown suits to make a statement. What that statement was I have no idea, other than the need for guys to look like geography teachers and women looking like knitted tea-cosy's.
I thought I'd won too, but those rules catch up to us all Vol. Either pay your way and get taxed on it too, or... nothing, just pay your way and get taxed on it.
I remember the days when I used to tell people I had an almost photographic memory, but the only thing I forgot was to put the film in! 😃
I'm so happy I got to use that line again, because telling the youth of today that would only get you blank looks and an overly long explanation of film cameras, to which they'd just say "but what about the sd card?"
As you say, we move on and this lot is what we've got now! God help is if we ever go to war!

[Vol]

Lorry,
A wise ole biker poet I knew down there in Florida once told me "When the lights go out for good, this generation is gonna starve to death trying to read the directions on a book of matches."Mark Tiger Edmonds

[Vol]

Lorry,
A wise ole biker poet I knew down there in Florida once told me "When the lights go out for good, this generation is gonna starve to death trying to read the directions on a book of matches."Mark Tiger Edmonds

[Lorry]

Ha! So good you said it twice!
I can just picture them using the last of their phone batteries Power to post something along the lines of "Help! I'm sorry I thought I knew everything," just as they become part of the last ever Darwin awards! 😃

[Vol]

OMG!!! Shades of "CATCH 22"

[Lorry]

😃 😊 😀 😄 😁 😆

[ETERNITY]

You have not "lost" a thing! You give me drive with every single thing I read. See? I read this one off-line and had to sign on to let you know I found out what zeitgeist means! = "the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time." -Never heard the word before today.

Vol, I still feel we can have that passion. There are still points to be made in music. Listen to Kim Dracula! Remember when the man did all the damage with the TANK? Watch KILLDOZER (Don't let the "language" turn you off...Listen to the "message".) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LprN30M7zpE (I love your stuff!) YOU have messages, too! Good response to the prompt!

[Vol]

Glenda,
I used to drive a tank, gas got to be too much, though, not to mention, have you ever tried to parallel park one of those monsters? sheesh...
Vol
Cool video...

[ETERNITY]

I love you to pieces! I thought you were serious at first! You're not are you? Yeah, I watch this kid a lot! I think he is poetry and prophet combined... Except he says "God texted me... I blocked his number"...I think that was PR. Listen to his remake of Paparazzi by Lady Gaga. He does a great job. Vol, please PLEASE don't give up the flame! It might be what gives us life. Did you read my Fantasies: The VOLCANO...That's YOU!