poem after manhunter [1986]

puddle of pink&blue light 

puddle 

of 

blood

what was your name

it's almost friday so let's freaking groove!

quote unquote

i think that the poet should be a specialist in communication.  humor makes contact (with the reader) easier.  remember that it's when you lose your sense of humor that you begin to reach for your pistol.

--nicanor parra

nude window/photograph

 

jonthan hayes/2024

'edible pets' by jim mccrary

'edible pets' [after jim mccrary]

 

TRYING TO WRITE MY OWN OBIT

 He died while…………………

With friends and family at bedside singing Beatles songs.

Delivering Meals on Wheels.

Making amends.

In church.

Writing  a “last poem”

Writing any poem

Mowing the lawn.

Agreeing to  become next Kansas Poet Laureate

Trying to find a parking place downtown 

With Sue on a beach in Quintana Roo.

Out back The Replay Lounge listening to MAW, Unfit Wifes, Jenna and Martin, Hello BiPlane etc.

On the Buffalo River

Writing thi……………………………….

jim mccrary, lawrence, ks

Found Haiku from a Trailer Script

 Kisses and bullets --

there are no rules. Fifty grand
-- one night's work. Hustling . . .

Mel C. Thompson, Lafayette, 8-19-2024

let us praise a famous man: alain delon

how shall we praise the beautiful alain delon who passed away today.  a breathtakingly gorgeous human being who made some of the most indelible films of the 20th C.  i recall my mother-in-law who once described delon as 'that beautiful man.'  which was & is very high praise & admiration.  & working in an industry where beauty is the standard delon stood out amongst the brightest of stars.  

the best way to praise & honor an artist is by our receiving their body of work.  so let me point out this crime caper from 1965.  once a thief is not a perfect movie.  but it features the equally gorgeous ann-margret, & the rugged craggy jack palance.  delon is a career criminal trying to go straight.  but what i dig about this movie is where this film is set, the city of San Francisco of the mid 1960s.  the city is not much in evidence in this trailer yet the movie is located right smack in the middle of the City by the Bay when it was still a fairly working-class town.  scenes are set on Fisherman's Wharf when it was still a working wharf, before it was redeveloped as a tourist destination.  

this flick is also filmed in noirish black&white.  which adds to the gritty narrative.  so go find this flick wherever you can.  even in middling fare delon is electric.  like this movie.  delon's beauty is so bright & concentrated, his art of acting is so well done, that he can make even the most jaded moviegoer gasp.  to quoth the Bard, ' his life was gentle, and the elements so mix'd in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world "this was a man!"'

it's friday nite & you wanna hear a damn good poem

afterrilke

o beauty

when i walked to work

distracted by a crow eating from a plastic bag

or was it when i stopped to tie my shoe

& noticed the line of ants from the lawn to the curb

or maybe it was when i saw that beautiful passerby with the dog

who lifted his leg to pee against a light post

as his eyes rolled from the post to me

fucking beauty

i don't know how you do it 

or where you come from

but once again you leaped out

from nowhere

& punched me right in the goddamn nose

that left me stunned & feeling alive

once more

it's friday nite & i got my loungewear on!

 

our holiday in the sun

 

for the last 11 or 12 years our family points the family truckster down the road a spell toward the Central Coast where we've been lucky to have rented a beach house in cayucos, the beach town time forgot.  travel is the art of dislocation.  get out of our comfort zone & experience newer & stranger places & sensations.  travel is often uncomfortable too.  the planning sometimes can go awry.  the destinations sometimes become out of reach.  but oftentimes these discomforts produce new pleasures we didn't know we could have.  as frost said in a poem, the best way out is thru.  how do you know what you might like if you never try it.  

& so, yes, our travels to the Central Coast has had its share of adventures.  but travel can produce a sense of home, of homecoming.  at least if you've traveled to the same house on the beach in the same beach town that is so small it really does have one blinking red traffic light in the center of town.  the delights in the ancient sound of surf churning.  the smell & feel of salt air.  whales breaching in the middle distance.  pelicans like flying dinosaurs dropping in the sea as they fish for their supper.  sea otters.  dolphins.  orcas.  all manner of sea birds.  & even a lizard or two sunning on the steps of the house leading down to the beach.

of course, cayucos is changing.  more travelers, beachcombers, surfers et al. are discovering its quiet charms.  hell, i even seen one of those pressed penny machines you find outside tourist shops in popular tourist destinations, like pier 39 in san francisco, in front of a geegaw shop in downtown cayucos. but so what.  as you can see in the photo above there is still some jank left in the town.  even moreso, that sign is wholly gone now.  just a blank space attached to a vacant storefront beside a vacant small lot that is used for a weekly farmer's market.  

but then so, the houses are all million or multimillion dollar homes.  not in a fancy mansion kind of style, tho those are there too, but because of LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.  our rented house is fine for our needs but it ain't a palace.  but it is located right on the beach!  so cha-ching!  but i remember a few years ago when i was climbing the steps from the beach.  i was soaking wet from an afternoon in the surf.  it was dusk.  everyone was already at the house.  i lingered a bit to admire the sunset.  an older couple sat on the bench at the top of the stairs.  the surf crashing behind me.  'you're welcome,' said the woman.  what?  'the sunset,' she said.  'the beach,' he said.  'we moved here 10 years ago just for this view.  we are delighted to share it with you.'  i thanked the older couple & understood the meaning of their message.  we stood in small talk for a few minutes as the salt dried in my hair & on my swimwear.  you are lucky to have got a house when you did, i told the couple.  they agreed.  because now they mightn't be able to afford one.  

& yet still, rather than dwell on the economics of viable living on the beach i turned toward the setting sun.  again.  i watched a squadron of pelicans scan the waters.  a couple of surfers were a pair of black wetsuited dots on the mild waves.  families, couples, singles, & dogs, oh the dogs love running on the sand & in the waves!, was a tableaux vivant.  it was growing colder.  the fog rolling in.  nearby the hamlet of morro bay, five miles down the beach, with its giant morro rock, & its three iconic smokestakes from a long-ago shuttered powerplant, sticking in the sky like a californian mordor, was already socked in by the fog.  it was time to go home.  to the house on the beach.  for dinner.  for a few rounds of poker with anna & nick.  then to watch the 2024 summer olympics on TV.  for a few days in cayucos, the little beach town time forgot, with my family, i was once again home.