Happy 80th Birthday Brian Wilson: 20 Favorite Songs

 1. The Warmth Of The Sun 2. Guess I'm Dumb (Brian wrote and produced this for pre-stardom Glen Campbell; this is the prototype for PET SOUNDS) 3. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times 4. I Know There's An Answer 5. This Whole World 6. Add Some Music To Your Day 7. Surf's Up 8. Heroes And Villains 9. Still I Dream Of It 10. Johnny Carson 11. Solar System 12. Cabinessence 13. Love And Mercy 14. Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long 15. Rio Grande 16. Soul Searchin (track with Brian and Carl) 17. Your Imagination 18. Til I Die 19. Pacific Coast Highway 20. It’s OK (LONG PROMISED ROAD soundtrack)

Happy 80th Birthday Paul McCartney: 28 Favorite Deep Cuts

 Beyond the big hits of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, here's a playlist of lesser-known gems: 1. Junk 2. Tomorrow 3. Dear Boy 4. Back Seat Of My Car 5. Mamumia 6. Mrs. Vanderbilt 7. Bluebird 8. Waterfalls 9. Take It Away 10. Here Today 11. Ballroom Dancing 12. No Values 13. Footprints 14. This One 15. Put It There 16. Calico Skies 17. Little Willow 18. Somedays 19. Only Mama Knows 20. End Of The End 21. Jenny Wren 22. Friends To Go 23. On My Way To Work 24. Early Days 25. Summer of 59 26. Frank Sinatra’s Party 27. Find My Way 28. Winter Bird/When Winter Comes

Plug for a new poetry anthology (POETRY OF MOVIES) I’m in

Turning the floor over to poet/editor Don Kingfisher Campbell: 

Buy a printed copy of Scenes of Southern California, Vol. 3: Poetry of Movies for $15 a copy (includes   shipping) until July 14th, 2022. Please use FB Pay (Don Kingfisher Campbell), Venmo (@don-campbell-82), or Zelle (donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com) to pay. Or snail mail a check to Don Campbell, 1313  Edgewood Dr, Alhambra, CA 91803-1909.

Old poem about another mass shooting

UNEXPLAINED TORNADOES JUST KEEP TOUCHING DOWN

woman interviewed by MSNBC says:

we’ll just have to lock our doors now

bring our car keys in

sleep with a rifle next to the bed

>

nothing on Earth will convince her

and millions of others

to put faith and trust in alternatives

>

no banning AR-15s

no background checks

pray for unstable killers

to never cross your path

>

it’s the deceptively simple price

of supporting the right of the militia-minded individual

to keep, bear and use arms

whenever and wherever

anger and sadism trump reason

POEM ABOUT GUN MASSACRES AND THEIR PERPETRATORS

 we act shocked 

 at something we didn’t foresee 

 offer thoughts and prayers

 and do nothing after this one

 repeating this broken cycle

 too many times

 in too many lifetimes

 of victims, families and survivors 

Poem About The Supreme Court

 Roe V Wade was settled law until it wasn’t 

 the Federalists got what they lobbied for

 the Fundamentalists rejoicing over Alito

 as he, with his team of ideological vandals,

 used pickaxes and jackhammers 

 to remove over 50 years of asphalt

 forcing women to walk barefoot on cobblestones 

 

Poem For The White House Correspondents Dinner

 the nerd prom apparently isn’t smart enough

 to install new air filters to purge aerosols

 and it chose not to use ultraviolet Covid killing light

 maybe the organizers didn’t want people 

 to have a chance at better mass gathering health

 as they laugh at Trevor Noah’s safe jokes

 before he ascends to James Corden’s throne

Before National Poetry Month ends

 Only five days remaining in National Poetry Month, and here’s my small contribution—a reading of Martin Espada’s “Death Rides the Elevator in Brooklyn” from his book FLOATERS pic.twitter.com/igCe8aH34n

Thanks to Michael Grover, a colleague from two decades past, for introducing me to Martin Espada’s poetry.