the druthers
for my brothers in the art & in this life jonathan hayes & john b-r

to paraphrase dylan thomas, i'd rather be a small press poet powered by beer, kindness, love, family, friendship, a brother to all who claim the same in life & in art, & one who makes his duchampian homemade poetics from any thing & any material he can find whatever their worth

for what it's worth

one of my professor's told me a story about w.h. auden
when he was an undergrad
auden went to one of his professors
asked him how can he become a poet
you must read english, said the professor
but i want to be a great poet, answered auden

today really tested my buddha nature
not that i can put my finger

on what but nearly everything
that happened

happened as if i were wily e coyote
chasing after the road runner

after maxing out my credit cards
on ACME products purchased

to outsmart that critter
but instead to find me

in the middle of
running off the cliff

suspended in that moment
of discovery that nothing

is stopping me
from hitting the ground

i don't want to write like raul zurita
i want to read like raul zurita

 

yep, that's right, say it, say it loud, 'love sacramento'

poetics: 11:40 PM

it's a simple question

this is your only life
what the fuck will you do with it

don nicanor parra circa 1991

 

clair de lune

 

didactic poem

you can do anything you want to

anything

but don't be an asshole

about it or because of it

the creation of art

how long should it take the poet
to make a poem

i don't know
but i heard the artist julian schnabel

say that for the completion of the creative act
one should take the number of years

of your life
& add 5 minutes

book covers

the paperback book cover i remember is the one
that scared the shit out of me
it was my maternal grandmother's book
in a stack of paperbacks
a history of the salem witch trials
the cover art: a pair of soldiers
each grasped the arms
of an older woman
as she stood before a judge
in court
the way the scene was drawn
the isolation of the woman
in court
& the isolation of the book
among the other paperbacks
illustrated the great crimes
of humanity
how i wish i remembered the name
of the author
or the artist who brought
that scene alive to me
it's frightening here-now-this

kiwi poet bob orr



i love this poet.  orr is a wonderfully unfashionable writer.  he is a lyric poet par excellence.  eschewing contemporary technology like computers, orr composes his poems on a typewriter.  he did not go to university, nor does he teach, except for a recent stint as a visiting poet at a local university accepted after he retired from his dayjob as harbor master in aukland.  by all accouunts the poet is a gracious, cool, generous man who refused writing grants & fellowships by reasoning that he already had a job so someone else deserves them more than he.

so please, if you don't know bob orr already, please click here for a smattering of poems & an interview, and click here for an excellent profile of the poet published in 2000.  & set your preferred search engine to stun to find more work by the terrific new zealand poet bob orr.

let us now praise a famous woman: julie adams

i learned yesterday that actor julie [aka julia & betty] adams passed away at the age of 92.  adams had a long & varied career in movies & television roles.  she was a recurring character, realtor eve simpson, in Murder She Wrote, starring angela lansbury as the erstwhile mystery writer & PI.  but for me adams will always be the beauty to the beast in The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Creature is one of my very favorite of favorites monster movies.  in the early 2000s Universal released a series of DVD box sets of its classic movie monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, &, of course, the Creature.  each box set had not only the original flick but the sequels too.  all fine, but for me the Universal monster that i had to have was the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  it is not only a frightening film, but a perfect flick for a summer matinee, or evening at the drive-ins.  & there is the very lovely julie [julia as she billed herself in this movie] adams.  did/do i have/had a crush on ms. adams?  how large is the human heart.  how could you not fall in love with her swimming in the lagoon with the creature below adams stroke for stroke in a ballet of desire, horror, beauty & grief.  it is gorgeous cinema & revolutionary too for the filmmakers', director jack arnold & company, technical flair of filming underwater.  adams embraced her famous role in her most known movie & was a regular on the sci fi/horror convention circuit.  she even co-wrote a book with her son about her life titled, The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections From The Black Lagoon.  adams lived a pretty long life & lived it well.  we should all be so lucky.  so gaze upon the beauty & the beast doing their water dance below.

 

dance in your nightmare



as a comment about this video said, sometimes the algorithms get it right.  i've been on a youtube jag these past several nights, watching/listening to music, theoretical physicists, poetry readings etc etc. & last night this song/video was the next up in my feed.  i've watched this video several times in a row, each time i've gone to youtube.  i love the haunting depression of the music, these deeply alienating synths, the slow thump of the beat.  there is a dreamlike quality, nay, a nightmare of horror of the images.  would it were like death perhaps we could accept our oblivion with more grace?  fuck me.  these dancers, their movements, their choreography, are deeply in synch with the sadness of the tune.  i know i'm late to the game.  this song/video is about 5 years old, but damn!  this is art for our present age.  i'm enthralled, in love, and in horror of this work.  for once the algorithms did get it right, i fucking love this piece.