New Poem: VARIATION ON MELLENCAMP’S SMALL TOWN

 grain elevator, giant oil derrick, red/brown brick streets

 train station which became Boy Scouts facility

 elementary school that felt ultramodern in the 1960s

 large and small churches teaching different versions of Jesus’s teachings 

 car races which some classmates never survived

 drive-in eateries and motels which tried to survive the freeway bypass

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 newspaper ad said help save our town, buy at home

 but the next city was just a half-hour away by car

 some migrated there, others to other small Texas towns

 only a few dared move out of state

 to see if neutrality healed wounds and strengthened bonds

 

 

New Poem: KEN BURNS AT BOHEMIAN GROVE

WELL. WHY SHOULDN’T I GO THERE?

because old (mostly white) boys still run the world

and I make long TV shows

about old (mostly white) boys

with occasional girls in support

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please don’t ask me about Jann Wenner

Summing up Jann Wenner’s Boomer-centric racist/sexist comments.

David Marchese of THE NEW YORK TIMES got ROLLING STONE co-founder Jann Wenner to admit that there is no place for Black and female artists in the Wenner pantheon because of “articulation.”  So Joni Mitchell, Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Otis Redding were relegated to nevers or also-rans.

Regarding Jann Wenner’s criteria for Caucasian male rock star myth/legend status: there are people who want to be mythic and pursue validation by someone Important (Bono, Bruce Springsteen).  And then there’s Jann chasing already mythic Dylan, Lennon and Jagger with the hunger to be validated by them.  

And here’s Wenner’s part-apology, part don’t cause my book to be pulled statement:

In a statement issued late Saturday by a representative for Little, Brown and Company, the publisher of his book, Mr. Wenner said: “In my interview with The New York Times I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks.

“‘The Masters’ is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years,” he continued, “that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock ’n’ roll’s impact on my world; they were not meant to represent the whole of music and its diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career. They don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live. I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences.”

New Poem: RECURRING DREAM MOTIFS 2023

 looking for clothes

 trying to pack a suitcase

 can’t find clothes

 clothes apparently lost or stolen

 look all over for missing clothes

 find a bunch of concert T-shirts on a table

 all the shirts are too small

UCLA Medical and its mask-optional policy for staff (including oncolgy)

At the end of this post isa letter I sent to an oncologist whose department saved my life in the summer of 2021 at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Hospital (I had a bone marrow transplant to treat multiple myeloma).

Sadly, 2023 is not the pandemic summer of 2021 and UCLA has recently changed to please restive, mask-averse, mask-optional staff when administering infusions of anti-cancer medication.  God help us if this becomes future hospital policy.

Sent this to [local oncologist] last night: After last Tuesday at the UCLA Porter Ranch medical center, I feel I must say that I am not comfortable with staff being maskless around me during the process of dispensing medication, administering IVs and the Darzalex infusion itself. If this change in policy keeps happening, then please transfer me to a different location. UCLA may give medical staff freedom of choice as to whether or not to mask. I’d like to not risk being home bound or hospitalized due to their actions.

 

After sending the above, received a voicemail at 8:14 a.m. from Porter Ranch (replied this afternoon) essentially telling me that [local oncologist] can mask and (presumably) the nurse or nurses attending to me will—but policy will be the same wherever I go within the UCLA system.

 

Given the recent rise in Covid-19 infections and the likelihood of further vaccine hesitancy, I find it very saddening that your colleagues and peers approve mask-optional policy in oncology treatment areas.

TRUMP MUGSHOT POEM

 lower that granite unlearned head

 glare harder than a junkyard dog

 put it on X Twitter to thank Elon

 believe no MAGA faithful will run away

 fear more swing voters looking for refuge

New Poem: POEM FOR SINEAD O’CONNOR

 forgive us because we didn’t think

 didn’t want to find out why you did it

 instead we went along with the crowd’s anger

 over how dare you question infallibility 

 >

 some of us (myself included) were such cowards

 returned your albums to used music stores

 didn’t want to be reminded of non-music discourse 

 not realizing disturbing peace was vital to you and your art

 

New Poem: UP AND DOWN THE HILL

the 15-year-old boy with heightened emotions 

now the 63-year-old man calmly seeing an oncologist 

infused, injected, transplanted, revived

taking medication, getting sleepy, hoping for days outdoors

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looking back at the girl I thought I loved at 15

lying to myself about how I could have been her ideal

imagining all sorts of happy alternate universes

in this one: didn’t listen, never gained her trust, never was a confidant

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taught to fear, warned to avoid, harangued to PAY ATTENTION 

in spite of this, eventually thought for myself,

and was blessed/burned by consequences 

at 63, want more years before affairs must become ordered