to the moon & back

i am enchanted by the artemiss ii crew.  i watched its livestreams & am astonished by their cool, their composure, their gifts that living so tightly for 9 days in a very serious mission how they expressed such joy. 

yes, i've been an avid watcher of these livestreams.  saw the launch.  watched their touchdown.  seen them as they worked & lived in such a tiny space.  it was a delight for me here in CA to see the best of our human species working together for a greater understanding of our place in the universe/solar system.  but also, the very technologies we use to harm each other, i.e rockets used either to deliver bombs or lift us out of earth's gravity well.  

well then anyway, color me stoked.  but when i see the images taken by the crew i think perhaps the mission needs a poet.  because some of these images, such as the solar eclipse via the moon, is fucking next level shit.  how to put those images those scenes, that human conscious into words.  i am reminded of jodie foster's character in Contact [1997], ellie, who is whisked along an ancient alien highway of wormholes to arrive at the star system of Vega.  ellie said, of the awesome voyage, they should have sent a poet.

i recall too, james dickey wrote a poem about the first moon landing.  which was pretty cool.  but dickey never rode aboard any of the apollo missions.  but to have a poet on these missions to place into words, into context, into the universe, the wildness of space exploration.

perhaps they could train a poet to become an astronaut?  maybe.  but if they asked me i'd be the laziest motherfucking astronaut ever!  i'd want to drink beer & look out the window at the moon, the stars, the cosmos, & the earth & make notes for poems on my phone.  not sure if astronauts are cleared to drink booze during the mission.  okay, i know it is uncool to be a poet who likes drinking but sue me!  as benjamin franklin said, beer is proof that god love us. 

but even so, the artemis ii crew did well in their expressions of their mission. & it is a great pleasure to have seen this crew in real time fly to the moon & back.  the thing is, when we look toward the stars we always look to ourselves.  recall Earth Day was founded after the pic Earthrise 1969.  the first picture of our planet.  that pic jolted us.  we saw for the first time how fragile our home planet really is.  so we founded Earth Day in 1970.

maybe for a future mission they might send a poet into the cosmos.  perhaps.  but by then maybe space travel becomes as common as boarding a plane to your next town.  in the meantime, i will dig the astronauts, these exquisite human beings, the best of the best, who are forging paths to the stars.  

song with a bullet

for an ordinary day in april 

a hit of sunshine

on the king's lead hat

quote unquote

 

                                           --nicanor parra

you know you want to!

 

april is the cruelest month

naw!  but we do live in a bizarro world.  it's crazy indeed.  surreal, even?  depends, i suppose.  but even so, good shit happens.  like today was the launch of ARTEMIS II.  our return trip to the moon.  this mission is proof that our human being can fuck up shit pretty good.  but we can also do god-like things as well.  & i so look forward to seeing, in a few days, live video of the moon as ARTEMIS slings by it.  

we live in astonishing days filled with rancor, stupidity, base action, but also grace, cooperation, & even kindness.  we possess technologies that are so freaking wonderful & wild it might seem like magic.  so then, dare i eat a peach, as eliot asked?  fuck yes, & its pit too! 

keeping going until all the goddamn wheels fall off for what else can one do.  & as i age, i think of nicanor parra said in a poem, 'old age is good time for fighting for what is just.' it is also a good time for poetry & movies & music & sexytime & & & etc etc.  come up with your own definitions & reasons for being!  i bet they are solid!  

i watched ARTEMIS II launch via a livestream on youtube.  the whole mission will be livestreamed.  it is being livestreamed now!  it blows my freaking mind!  & yes, the spacecraft took off like a poem with fire & sound & science & magic.  fuckingamazing!  

poetry is everywhere & all around us.  poetry is even in the telemetry of a moon mission livestreamed on the internet.  like a post-duchampian poetics readymade for the poet to assemble.  to the moon, alice!  

after a long heatwave the weather broke yesterday & today with cooler temps & rain.  a perfect swedish summer day!  & now, it is april.  poetry month.  but every month is poetry month. so no, april is not the cruelest month.  the world we live in is fucked.  the world we live in is breathtakingly beautiful.      

writers in movies

there are plenty of writers who have done cameos in movies or was given parts in films.  hell, i remember when i was goo-goo-ga-ga over the mid-20th C poet robert lowell.  i remember a lovely evening i spent walking alone in The Haight in SF when i bought a copy of the lowell bio penned by ian hamilton.  that was a thick tome & i carried that with me up & down the neighborhood for a few hours as i ducked into this shop & that bar.  but i recall reading in that bio when lowell won i think the pulitzer he was contacted by a hollywood agent who asked if lowell would be interested in the movies.  well, sure, why not, after all lowell was the author of a few well-received plays.  he can try his hand at screenwriting.  no, said the agent, would the poet want to act in films.  lowell was a handsome man with a large head & his author photos were mighty things that triggered the interest of at least one hollywood agent.

now, writers don't need to have large heads or have commanding author photos.  but sometimes a writer can indeed command a few minutes of screentime.  hell, i remember renting VHS copies of murder by death [1976] at the local mom&pop video store because it featured truman capote who is magnificent in this murder mystery penned by neil simon.  capote is playing an exaggerated version of himself, i gather, but he is funny as hell in this pic.

but my two favorite writers in movies right now, at this moment, are the hard-boiled detective novelist jim thompson & poet/novelist james dickey.  both writers acted in but one film.  for dickey his acting is superb.  for thompson, who is quite good in the limited time onscreen, it is just cool to see him in a movie.

i confess, i recently watched farewell, my lovely [1975] directed by dick richards & based on the novel of the same name by, you know it, raymond chandler & didn't know that that was jim thompson.  tuff guy extraordinaire robert mitchum is philip marlowe who is chasing leads into the underbelly of LA.  this is a neo-noir flick where marlowe keeps his cynical wit as he navigates a gritty labyrinth of glamor & grime.  but i didn't know that that was jim thompson in a scene when we are introduced to the femme fatale played by charlotte rampling.  thompson plays rampling's husband, a powerful judge in LA but a feckless & impotent man in regard to his marriage.  thompson's face & his expressions are just right for his role.  

here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqGm7dQSIl8. 

poet james dickey is a long favorite of mine.  still is.  & i think dickey & allen ginsberg, radically different poets stylistically, have a lot in common spiritually.  i say that because both were explorers of a kind of fleshly mysticism.  they were members of the same generation.  & both died within a couple of years of each other.  plus, i was a reader of both poets.  & find more in common with each than i do their differences.  but then again, that could be just me, my own poet biases.  & i recall dickey was quite caustic of the beats, & ginsberg in particular.  

at any rate, dickey penned the novel deliverance that was made into a movie helmed by john boorman that not only was successful as a box office draw but has entered the popular culture in ways like the beatles & shakespeare have.  quite a claim, sure, but you don't have to have seen the pic to know its references.  such as the banjo theme.  just like you don't have to know what play is penned by shakespeare with the line let's slip the dog's of war!    

dickey was given the small role of sheriff bullard of the doomed town of aintry.  the poet is a natural in this role.  so good, so menacing & so dangerous is he that he held his own with two veteran actors, jon voight & ned beatty.  

here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gh5B_Uezmk.

i don't think either writer, thompson & dickey, ever acted in another movie.  still, they are both, in their respective films, iconic.  i'm not sure what kind of role robert lowell would have played.  he was an old-blood new englander from the upper-class.  but he did enjoy his drink, which was milk & vodka, if my memory serves, & smoked like a chimney so lowell could have had roles portraying both the upper echelons of society, & perhaps its subterranean levels too.  but i dunno!  at least i can watch jim thompson & james dickey who were in a feature if but for a minute or two.  

launch into low earth orbit wash