Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Follow up to yesterday's posted poem.
On Facebook, I posted the poem LEARN TO CRY DRY TEARS, based on something which happened at a poetry venue last night. Here is a response by a long-running Major Figure in Los Angeles poetry:
Suzanne Lummis But does writing and reading poetry make you happy? At least half the time? If it doesn't, why not seek out something that does? As the expression goes, "life is too short..."
My response: Writing and reading poetry makes me happy. But there are plenty of mean boys and girls in our community.
In short, please don't say to me, "it's not us, it's you.". Things aren't that clearcut.
New poem LEARN TO CRY DRY TEARS
Wary is as wary does
Seven years isn't enough
To change certain minds
Don't raise your voice
Above the rafters
Don't show the back of your hand
Don't show the front of your fist
Don't give anyone cause to say:
SEE, HE'LL NEVER CHANGE!
Just wait for the right moment
To slip away with dignity
And self-regard intact
As the Carnival of Verbal Arts
Carries on regardless.
Seven years isn't enough
To change certain minds
Don't raise your voice
Above the rafters
Don't show the back of your hand
Don't show the front of your fist
Don't give anyone cause to say:
SEE, HE'LL NEVER CHANGE!
Just wait for the right moment
To slip away with dignity
And self-regard intact
As the Carnival of Verbal Arts
Carries on regardless.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten not a fan of AMERICAN IDOL and THE VOICE.
Remembering an interview Bill Maher once gave where he voiced his strong dislike of contestant-elimination reality shows ("You're off the island!")
Now, here's John Lydon (who recently resurrected his seminal post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd) with a similar-to-Maher take on THE VOICE and AMERICAN IDOL:
http://www.nme.com/news/sex-pistols/64031?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fanpage-nmenews-johnlydon
Now, here's John Lydon (who recently resurrected his seminal post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd) with a similar-to-Maher take on THE VOICE and AMERICAN IDOL:
http://www.nme.com/news/sex-pistols/64031?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fanpage-nmenews-johnlydon
Monday, May 28, 2012
New poem: NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY SERENADE
Don't believe the stereotype.
The NY Underground was good to me.
Bought a Donna Summer live album
At the record store in the station
Below Times Square.
Experienced the a Capella quartet
While waiting for the Q train.
On the way to the Village,
There was the 12-year-old who
Moonwalked across our car
To the tune of Michael Jackson's
Black Or White.
And finally,
Going across the Manhattan Bridge,
There was the tall New Wave girl in black,
With blonde, pink-highlighted hair,
Who gently kissed her male teenage friend
On the top of his head.
Don't believe the preconceived notions.
Rays of light can be found everywhere.
The NY Underground was good to me.
Bought a Donna Summer live album
At the record store in the station
Below Times Square.
Experienced the a Capella quartet
While waiting for the Q train.
On the way to the Village,
There was the 12-year-old who
Moonwalked across our car
To the tune of Michael Jackson's
Black Or White.
And finally,
Going across the Manhattan Bridge,
There was the tall New Wave girl in black,
With blonde, pink-highlighted hair,
Who gently kissed her male teenage friend
On the top of his head.
Don't believe the preconceived notions.
Rays of light can be found everywhere.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Another blue period before a burst of activity.
For me, the beginning of summer has become increasingly bittersweet in recent years.
My wife and I have usually taken our annual vacation by the beginning of June--and there's the post-vacation letdown as I face the prospect of re-entering what's known as "the poetry community."
Although I've told plenty of tales-out-of-school on this blog, there are times when I wish I had the survival instinct of most community members to shut up, suck it up, pull in the metaphorical stomach and not venture unwanted/unwelcome opinions about how/why things are done (plus the sometimes arbitrary forms of literary Darwinism practiced). I will acknowledge that lots of poets--even those I may not care for personally/aesthetically--work very hard at what they do, even if some feel they have to perform steps A-B-C (usually spelled M-F-A) to get their work taken seriously by academia/publishers/literary agents.
So, as this summer begins, I'm going to resist the temptation to hibernate artistically and resume work on a project which began eleven summers ago.
That project is called HOLLYWOOD POETRY; two chapbooks self-published in 2001 and 2004 were its initial form. In recent years, I've combined the best of the chapbooks into one volume of poetry and have occasionally made it available as an e-book.
Now begins the process of finding someone to publish HOLLYWOOD POETRY. It's likely, at this point, that I'll have to resort to self-funding a print-on-demand version through a pay-to-play publisher such as, say, Trafford. It would be nice to have it published by a local small press, but I fear that HOLLYWOOD POETRY doesn't meet the standards of what is considered "real" poetry.
On the plane from NYC to L.A. earlier this week, I read some of Robert Frost's NORTH OF BOSTON. HOLLYWOOD POETRY could best be described as a group of stories-in-verse a la Frost's famous "The Death of the Hired Man"--though more humorous.
The odds may be against me, but I'd like to think that HOLLYWOOD POETRY, once it finds it's way into the world as a "proper" print volume/e-book, might find an appreciative audience of poets and nonpoets alike.
Asking those who read this to wish me well. I'm crossing fingers that the book can be ready by this fall or early 2013.
My wife and I have usually taken our annual vacation by the beginning of June--and there's the post-vacation letdown as I face the prospect of re-entering what's known as "the poetry community."
Although I've told plenty of tales-out-of-school on this blog, there are times when I wish I had the survival instinct of most community members to shut up, suck it up, pull in the metaphorical stomach and not venture unwanted/unwelcome opinions about how/why things are done (plus the sometimes arbitrary forms of literary Darwinism practiced). I will acknowledge that lots of poets--even those I may not care for personally/aesthetically--work very hard at what they do, even if some feel they have to perform steps A-B-C (usually spelled M-F-A) to get their work taken seriously by academia/publishers/literary agents.
So, as this summer begins, I'm going to resist the temptation to hibernate artistically and resume work on a project which began eleven summers ago.
That project is called HOLLYWOOD POETRY; two chapbooks self-published in 2001 and 2004 were its initial form. In recent years, I've combined the best of the chapbooks into one volume of poetry and have occasionally made it available as an e-book.
Now begins the process of finding someone to publish HOLLYWOOD POETRY. It's likely, at this point, that I'll have to resort to self-funding a print-on-demand version through a pay-to-play publisher such as, say, Trafford. It would be nice to have it published by a local small press, but I fear that HOLLYWOOD POETRY doesn't meet the standards of what is considered "real" poetry.
On the plane from NYC to L.A. earlier this week, I read some of Robert Frost's NORTH OF BOSTON. HOLLYWOOD POETRY could best be described as a group of stories-in-verse a la Frost's famous "The Death of the Hired Man"--though more humorous.
The odds may be against me, but I'd like to think that HOLLYWOOD POETRY, once it finds it's way into the world as a "proper" print volume/e-book, might find an appreciative audience of poets and nonpoets alike.
Asking those who read this to wish me well. I'm crossing fingers that the book can be ready by this fall or early 2013.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
New poem THE BALLAD OF CORY BOOKER
New poem about Newark NJ mayor Cory Booker's promotion of Cory Booker on MEET THE PRESS:
There's no such thing as nuance
On the Presidential campaign trail.
Surrogates can't go off-script
Any more than corporate employees
Or even some of us who produce
Commerce-flavored Art.
You can't say you don't agree with 100 %
Of what your party's candidate says.
Otherwise you invite party officials
And cable news pundits
To transform into CGI werewolves
That will bite and claw you to political death
If you don't walk back your heresy
By reading the exact talking point script
You should have done
One news cycle ago.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Kelly Ripa doen't like Occupy Chicago.
So I'm watching LIVE WITH KELLY with Kelly Ripa and guest co-host Taye Diggs--and it's the opening of the show where current events get discussed along with the usual personal anecdotes. And Kelly mentions a bride coming out of a wedding in Chicago who got upset because Occupy Chicago happened to be nearby. Essentially, Kelly served up this story up with the not-so-subtle dig at the Occupy movement for being annoying eyesores--now, I eagerly await Kelly Ripa dissing Occupy's message on CNN's ERIN BURNETT OUT FRONT.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
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