For Street Musicians

Play on street musician

Enter your plea against the city’s noisy parade
Spread you vibes into the lonely crowds,
Their hurried pace
Their groaning eyes.

Huddle “the misfits” around you
Safe in your umbrella of sounds
Secure in your universal language
They understand

As I do

That you are a reminder that the city, somehow, will survive

You are the Sirens of sanity,
The Pied Pipers of hope.

Play on street musicians,
Play on

Your voices are being heard
By those who walk-by
Too.

R. Lippin
4/78

Arts-Medicine

Great and strong bridges

Span vast and old wounds

Finally, we have all come home

R. Lippin
9 October 1993
Tokyo, Japan

RX

Take thou

The correct words

The words that connect you to yourself

And you to others

Take thou
The beautiful words
The truthful words
The words that heal and make you whole

Take thou
These words
Today
Tonight
Now at the hour of sleep
And forever.

R. Lippin

THE ALCHEMIST'S DANCE*

We hope

We pray

We eat

We fast

We sometimes take a stance

But most of all we dance

Come,come whoever you are

Wanderer, worshiper,

Lover of leaving, seeker of profit

Come join our dance with me

Ours is not a dance macabre

Nor a caravan of despair

We'll not lure you into the sea

Or singe your wings in air

We'll not let you fall through the cracks

Or extract a lethal fee

We hear our music clearly

And trust its balanced sound

We dance directed forward

One foot solid on the ground

So embrace your chance

And join our dance

Our dance of alchemy

Where dreams and fears

And pain and years

Dissolve in synergy

Thus golden Art is born in many forms

Our heart doth sing with swollen pride

For beauty without age

But, humbly, truth lies just aside awaiting in the wings

Yet come again, yet come again!

Lest you be labeled late

Whoever you are, wherever you are

Our magic dance doth wait

*Dedicated to all creative therapists with apologies to the Sufi poet Rumi.

Richard A.Lippin, M.D.

Founder & President,

American Physicians' Poetry Association

1980