Neutering Exercise (Spring 2005)
Neutralizing Exercises have been posted in the order in which they were received. 
In several cases, original formatting has been lost, and texts get a little messy.   Sorry!

-Emily Dickinson, Poem 199 (Christi Healan)
-Wordsworth, "The Idiot Boy" (tsupon21@comcast.net)
-Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel" (Heather Glover)
-Sylvia Plath, "Tulips" (Pamela Melton)
-Shakespeare, excerpt from King Henry V (Arthur Tanney)
-E. A. Poe, "The Raven" (Shelley Rhodes)

-Jim Morrison, "Ghost Song" (Oakley Julian)
-Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (Kirstin Mullis)
-Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art" (Alicia Ferrell)
-Avril Lavigne, "I'm with You" (Robtheringwraith@aol.com)
-The Pixies, "Nimrod's Son" (Patrice Beavers)

-"Mary Had a Little Lamb" (Kasey Ray)
-Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" (Katie Sanders)
-Incubus, "Drive" (Dee Dee Coursey)

-John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale" (Chris McCormick)
-REO Speedwagon, "Can't Fight This Feeling" (Kelley Sanders)
-Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 (Jolene Burge)
-William Blake, "The Tyger" (Chris Shirley)
-Darrell Orrell, "Baptism" (Ariana Siennick)

_____________________________

Kirsten Mullis 

Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” (Original)

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside
darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me

You can hide `neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” (Neutered)

The see-through door bangs

Mary’s clothing moves

Like a mirage she moves across the porch

While the radio is on
A singer sings about lonely people

I’m lonely, so I want you

Don’t make me go home by myself again

I don’t want to be alone

Don’t go back into the house

Term of endearment, you know why I’m here

I know you’re afraid because

we are no longer young

Have some confidence, the night is supernatural

You’re not pretty, but you’ll do

I’m fine with that

You can cower under your blanket

And dwell on your wounds

Make figures from your paramours

Toss flowers in the precipitation

Throw away your whole summer begging for nothing

For a rescuer to emerge from the road

I’m not a champion

Everybody knows that

The only salvation I can give you

Is inside my car

With the opportunity to do things correctly

Hey, is there anything else we can do

The only thing to do is open the glass portal

And let the breeze make your tresses fly backwards

Well, even though it’s nighttime it is still early

The two sides on the highway will take us where we want to go

We only have one more try to get together

To give up our things in the air for something on the ground

Get into the car

Bliss is just down the road a piece

Hold my palm and five fingers

We are driving tonight so we can see Heaven

Oh oh Rumble Path, Rumble Path

Oh Rumble Path

Flattened out there like a murderer in the flaming gasball

I’m aware that it’s late but we can get there if we’re fast

Oh Rumble Path, hold on for a second, grab onto me

Rumble Path
_________________________________________

Alicia Ferrell 

“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident

the art of losing's not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. 

Neutered Version

It isn’t hard to get good at losing things.

Some things are meant to be lost

so it’s no big deal to lose them.

You should lose something everyday.  Get used

to losing your keys your time

because then you will be used to losing things.

Then practice losing bigger things, and more often

locations faces, and where you were going

it will not be as bad as you think.

I lost something important to me.  See!

I even lost a house I loved.

It wasn’t as hard as you might think.

I lost some really big items, like cities.  And bigger

things as well.  Rivers, two actually, and a continent.

I would like them back, but it was not that bad.

--I even lost you (your sense of humor, the

way you blow your nose) I cannot lie.  It is obvious

it’s easy to get used to losing things.

Even though it looks bad, it is not the end of the world.

________________________________________

Robtheringwraith@aol.com

AVRIL LAVIGNE

I'm With You Lyrics

I'm standing on a bridge
I'm waiting in the dark
I thought that you'd be here by now
There's nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I'm listening but there's no sound

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Wont you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

I'm looking for a place
Searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
'Cause nothing's going right
And everythigns a mess
And no one likes to be alone

Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Wont you take me by the hand
take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Oh why is everything so confusing
Maybe I'm just out of my mind
Yea yea yea

It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand
take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

Take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you
I'm with you...

The Song Undone

I feel very alone, I’m bored, and I’m depressed.  I thought a friend would come to help me but I guess I was wrong.

Chorus:

Is there anyone who cares about me?  Is there anyone that can help me?  I don’t know what to do.  I wish I could go away with a stranger.

I’m thinking and looking for someone I know that can help me get my life back on track because I can’t do it on my own.  Nobody is coming to my mind, though.

Chorus

Why can’t I figure this out?  I feel like I am going crazy.

Chorus
________________________________________________________

Patrice Beavers

Neutered Version by Patrice Beavers

I was speeding on my motorcycle in the desert.

I crashed.   My friends and family thought I was going to die, so my sister decided to tell me that I was conceived under scandalous circumstances.

I have to take a breather while I tell this story.

I was shocked and so was everyone else. The family secret was out.

Everything was cool until I found this out.

I want to die and get as far away as I possibly can from these degenerates.

Can you believe this because I can’t?

So I didn’t die, and my motorcycle was fixed from the previous wreck.  Unfortunately, a new light has been shed on my life.  My physical scars are now replaced with emotional scars.

The bad news I was given on my believed death bed keeps ringing in my ear.

I have to take a breather while I tell this story

Now I don’t think about it.  I cover my past up with a neat life, a nice house, and normal children who have not been affected genetically by my lineage.

Life is acceptable now, but I still have a questionable family background.

I wish I would have died in that accident.

But I didn’t and that sucks.

Can you believe that this is my life?

Neutering Exercise (2005) continues here.
Neutering Exercise (2005) begins here.