"Talk to the people about power-don't talk to power about people"

We are everywhere- indignados,15M,Occupy movements
in a viral wave of horizontal gatherings-a process of unfoldings
wherein and whereby staying open and inviting all in to conversation
becomes a journey intrinsically shared by all.No third parties,no leaders-
this is what confuses APD.Police wish to subvert via coercing or co-opting "leaders"
so that people feel headless when Kennedy ,MLK,Malcolm X ,or Robert Kennedy get shot.
Arrests are random and arbitrary.Demonstrations ongoing and continuous
Examples exist in every City Square-how to hold space and make it safe
how to engage those who are alienated by politics.
This is entirely volunteer-tapping upon energies not released since the 60's-
and this is so very different to your parent's rebellion.Social media define events now-
awareness of Egypt ,Tunisia,Libya-as well as Iran ,Yemen ,Sudan and Syria.
Throwing sop to the masses will not stop this movement
Arrests will not stop its growth,nor violence defer its peaceful purpose
We have yet to see how long and how far the 99% can occupy public space
Freedom of speech and assembly always threatened species.
On every continent,gatherings.Tea Parties amazed and jealous.
Something new is brewing here-a process of unfolding powers...

Re: All hallows Eve

i do not want to dress in costume
invoke zombies,witches,vampires,corpses
(we have enough who have left their bodies
the very thought hurts.so i sit in sunlight
dream of shadows/flitting insubstantial once with us
Faces smile(they do not know that they are ghosts
I give them names(they know their names-they left
and we are loss.For all the crowds who will stare and jostle
For me,this will be a silent night.
Of course,children will present themselves
beg for sweets in a sour world.They will receive largesse
My thoughts are in another world
Every soul i ever knew -who left before their time was due
All those who departed once /twice now remembrance creeps in
and makes a deep and serious shadow
where once the light played fast and hollow
I sit and wait for night to pass
gathering my lost from out the dark.

SYSTEM D (debrouillards)

cash economy-where cash is king.
black economy-people's equivalent to governmental "black"budgets
off the grid-connecting to peer group economics
no tax,no regulation.no licenses(also no copyright,no royalties,no bank loans)
basic recycling-as in those private trucks that pick up on trash day
or deals done between neighbors cash in hand.This is where we stand-
she sells food at Festivals-yet might never get a permit
on the fringe-where shadows live-close to gangs and criminals
slim thin lines of entrepreneurial initiatives-individual risk
Richard Branson began by selling weed in college
now he wheels and deals on international levels
Bands that sell Cds out of car trunks become gold rappers
camelos hawking food and drinks rake in black cash
This is how the poor survive-wheeling and dealing to thrive
Survival undercover among Third World hunger
someone will make a deal -for phones,cars,clothes,cash
passes between the hands of many-rough equality
"It's the black economy,stupid!"

the poetry of politics

microcosm of our madnesses-survivalist songs
swinging between eccentric Beats bongo blackclad
and rightwing Pound,fascist Stein.Immersion in times
of war and persecution might presume poets as agents of change
Logic has nothing to do with poetry-or politics
Awards go to cliques,clans cunning  cabals
rarely to those few bright lights exuding humanity's best impulses
(excluding recent Nobel awardees,and Soviet dissidents)
Cuban poets imprisoned might seek Amnesty International before PEN
Patronage secures visas faster than poems.It is who you know-
as in film,art,song-peer groups crown their own.
Mad Blake pilloried.Villon same.Bukowski defamed.
Those clinging to the petticoats of power know their names
Anonymous wrote better,and has no fame.
Posthumous is forgotten.Little lights still shine -
Huffstickler,Bright,Akers..say their names.Recite their greatest poems!

RESCUE YOU,RESCUE ME

Underneath world debt=unsupportable economies.
(Do not even mention the Federal Reserve ,nor Ron Paul's Presidency)
Combine foreclosures with job cuts and cuts to government support structures
Nothing to lose if a riot ensues.Occupy movements are polite warnings
Their miniscule withdrawals from megabanks another.Debts must\
be forgiven or covered.They cannot be ignored.Productivity is hampered by punitive taxation
(Remember "No taxation without representation"?).The tools of change are few-
strikes fail.Occupy "workins" work.Meanwhile shifting Euro deckchairs
while debtor nations sink into redline baselines threatens all aligned with them.
Forgiveness of debt was considered for Third World nations
(we are all becoming Third World Nations..)
Euro down,dollar down,yuan up.Balance budgets?
It has been done before and will be done again
Meanwhile,politicians' speeches are still"blowing in the wind"

GOLDEN ARCHES

Starbucks over London.Subway over France
Everywhere- McDonalds real estate.Expanding,competing-
demographics of intersections.One dollar items illusion recession
33,000 locations,market value $95 billion,listed on Dow Jones
What you pay to eat brings dividends,stock repurchasing
Whether Yums or Chipotle,or "Happy "meals-stocks rise
when we bite into burgers or slurp sweet smoothies.
You turn lead food in to gold by buying in twice-
once via purchasing ,next via stock purchasing.
I am too slow for fast food merchandising-
prefer home cooked organic choices.
Mass marketing is for those who believe-
my faith is in food handmade and home made.
Underneath the Arches you can drive through,make mess,
litter one world with wrapping,discard disposables
i will be writing poems for the pure
whose gardens are golden with sunshine
whose tables are fresh with individual choice

ONCE UPON A TIME(that time is now.. CUT!

we decided to mock reality by staging a version artificially
Certain words were censored,edited from common speech
Cliches pass for conversation/meaning becomes a code
agreed upon by participants ,who adopt and adapt this grammar
to fit the prevailing power structure.(Auteur Theory)
If there is a god-was it Kubrick or Kurosawa?Cecil B De Mille or David Lean?
Hitler or Mussolini?Pol Pot or Stalin?What power seeks replication in period detail
only to become a disposable,dispensable commodity?
Processing such transformations creates East Berlin/Zimbabwe/Year Zero.
Reproducing them a TRIUMPH OF THE WILL/10 Days That Shook The Earth/October
Propaganda relies upon belief.It fails when satire ,comedy or poetry punctures ego balloons
to show naked Presidents,murderous politicians ,omnivorous priests.
SECOND LIFE./Brazilia/Canberra.Gated Communities.Total Institutions.
Irving Goffman meets post -modern architecture.Square in a box.Torture Cells.
Suburbia as a myth.Homes as Obedience Centers.When you watch STAR WARS/think Reagan.
Dreamed he was President"begin bombing in 10 minutes"
Thin veneer between the OFFICIAL VERSION and religious fanaticism.
Is it belief creates clones,or fear?"Truth? You can't handle the truth!"
Blue pill or red pill?They are making a movie of your life right now
Who will play you?

FINDING THE FUTURE

Libraries are lovers-they need to let in art,and stories
Even characters ,homeless,with hats and hoodies
and ipods and ipads,open to whatever tech whiz stirs
Embrace community!Theater in the side rooms!
Performances as live as raconteurs/playing with text
to better reach an audience starved of wonder
Our local Twin Oaks is pro-active-welcoming all to meet and greet
Shelves of FREE outside community meeting rooms
designed to gather every drop of rain and inspirational text
Native gardens,shrubs and plants.Adaptive to sharp budget cuts
thriving on the energy of need.Community has resonance here
every time and chance each get the right to meet
And art is more than walls-and speech is more than talks
Each story shared is bliss participants
Theater here!and love of literature!
ebooks,ipods,computers.Adaptation is all-
our future calls in modes we market each to each
When we embrace,the love of all is learned
and is the obvious lesson we can share and teach.
 

" i arrested the stones and crushed their heads like paper"(OAKLAND

Marines came ,defending their heads.I am paid for by the 1%
i know my job.It is to defend property
the myth of the people failed at Oakland.
Banks are nervous,despite huge profits
Folk ,aware,withdraw from corridors of powers
Batons and pepper spray subsidized by masters
against the humble,the unemployed,homeless
Rules laid down by their masters broken
Is this St Petersburg,Odessa 1905?or 2011?
Horses rearing above the broken carriages
Force is applied,to break the soft and silent
Skulls crack beneath batons wielded like wheat
Anger at the insolence of servants
who strike,and will not yield,and speak
of justice bought by riches
and children who will never have a job
War deficits clouding all horizons
black as budgets and helicopters
The insecured are hiding in each other
We crack them like nuts and move them on.

IN TIME,ANONYMOUS,RUM DIARIES

Philosophy is timebound(as we are-
three score years and ten -"timed out"
certain minutes unspool until end credits roll-
so if ANON wrote Shakespeare/what matters more-
script or performances?RUM DIARIES or Hunter S Thompson's stories?
Fiction allows parables and allegories as metaphors-
writers are filmed only posthumously(to avoid contradictions)
Alive,we destroy drafts and present only polished apples
Gossip stains us when we leave the stage.
Anon wrote beautiful lies.Screenwriters expose and amplify them.
What was once a reminescence becomes a widescreen special effect
Visual joins with verbal in a love nest
You do not need to believe a dream
All that is important is that your eyes see,and your mind is enraged
Then a smile rises up like cigar smoke or a burned book.
Truth is not the issue ever-what matters most
is what you love.

EPHEMERIDA (Arias of Exultation!

Epistolarians become antique as copperplate and calligraphy
Museums of letters betray public reputations
with domestic dither and minutiae-
wars,poverty,belly-scraping difficulties amplify official texts
until letters overwhelm with legible evidence
all the Chapters of Lives passionately lived.Pages cannot contain
threads of relationships between intimates.Context contradicts
the myth of fiction.Every fact is a life stolen.
Every name has been changed/yet events resonate
as palimpset subtitling.Social media abbreviates to text
what was once flowers and gardens.Plans rather than buildings.
Script over performance.To know flesh and blood destroys distance
To be there makes lie of history,posterity,posthumous heroics.
Writers start blank,end in epitaph.Words strewn have Genesis in Exodus.
Pocket Bibles of belonging -to sustain each personal journey=journals/diaries.
These betray us.Contradict critics.Smear reputations.
Daily domestics defy heroics/deny Apollonian harmonies
They are the hard crust of scum upon the pond we drink from-
the empty well of inspiration/jars of sweat and perspiration.
Every writer has a real life.What you read is ever only one version.
To be contradicted by correspondence/later on...

SUBCARPATHIAN RUTHENIA

First definition of an independent political entity is military-
can one defend one's borders?By rigorous definition,we fail
Another is language-again,English is only a majority language (rapidly declining)
Currency is another index-cash?our dollar depreciates so fast,gold fever ensues
Politically TEA PARTIES and OCCUPY movements point out divisions on central issues-
tax,migration,wealth distribution,social services etc etc etc.We are not "UNITED"States-
one governor even toyed with the idea of seceding!What unites us?Wars?
Blood and treasure expended against imagined enemies?
What do we make that defines us?Weapons!We sell an arms race-we are Number #1!
Black budget subsidizing ineffective intelligence agencies,depleting community resources
such as schools,libraries,parks etc etc etc Our Empire illusion-
oscillating between Manifest Destiny and Fortress America
between social welfare programs and austerity budgets.
We did not learn from our Great Depression,nor our Great War(s)
We lost Vietnam,withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan.Our time is gone
Yuan over dollar,trade over wars.As for human rights?Bagram Air Force base/Guantanamo reinforce
the idea of "enhanced interrogations" as officially authorized torture.
Civilization is a wonderful idea.In the words of Leonard Cohen
"Democracy is coming...to America!"

loving a poet

it would be hard to love a librarian-
all that order,and the dust of books
Borges was blind,in Austin
beloved for his being,and his writing
Frost a grump,Ginsberg for Apollo
w c for illicit doctor's visits
poor Eliot with a mad wife
Pound editing him in to shape
little Larkin,so honest in letters
the bird of his lines apologetic
Brutal truth and honesty we demand
even when Dylan Thomas cheated everyone
The lines we follow are not the person
maybe an autograph /to ask them
the HOW and WHY of such a curious profession
with no income,always secondary lovers
and intimacy like Plath and Hughes
a movie to be made posthumously
no royalties,unless reading like Bukowski
trading stages for pages like Bly
treading smiles and adoring housewives
Reuben,Reuben blah,blah,blah
Unless some serious scandal accompanies
we leave those books upon the shelf
translate distance from another time
no sweat,nor sex with Rumi nor with Ovid
lovers long anonymous.Books remaindered
Only letters  and epistles revealing warts and teardrops
abortions,venereal disease,insecurities
This is why memoirs are marketable more than poems
gossip fuels the Buddhist fires.Up close and personal revelations
allows the comforting sight of defects-a comfortable distance
Posthumous recycled audience


(Background)

by faith sustained/...or science?

in every breath /a little death
until the last-Surprise!
(we do not know what happens next)

yet in this NOW! each grain of wood
may be analyzed/labelled/understood

Much of this world may still be seen
with a clarity distilled from dreams

i would not wait for death to take me
before i swim these mortal seas

whether coracle,kayak or canoe
there is still much rowing to do!

every voice-each different choice
a fleet of faith -propelled by hope

whispers singing in the winds-
may be Circe,Calliope,Sirens..

white holes without edges

to define is to limit-
by choice or by negation
both cage the air we breathe in
the "Noh" of "NO!" still leaves a "you"
with water inside-and air,and more
Words are boats with passengers...

7 BILLION PEOPLE

and religions that prohibit birth control!
One child families controlled by China
(usually resulting in excessive males)
Abortion as retrospective birth control in Russia
Compulsory sonograms in Texas
Reproduction control technologically possible
as are robots,clones and replicants
We can make babies to order
while children are sold and adopted
used as slaves or child soldiers
Rape is used as an instrument of war
Science can kill all of us-make a master race
Eugenics from a Hitler mind
changed from Mother Nature's time..

INDIGNADOS,BLOOMBERGVILLE

Temporary Autonomous Zones In Process and flow-
decisions by universal consensus with peacekeepers to diffuse emotionalism
Wisdom of the people processing temperatures of the mob
with specific tactics and strategies to achieve realistic goals
Nominalism when the 99% seems more like 1%
splits when factions and groups attempt to hijack agendas
Withdrawal from banks a start to autonomous lifestyles
interdependence relying upon co-operative modes of dialogue.
Every village now has a Plaza where the people can meet and talk and be
The process unfolding maps of what can be
This is living poetry.

BEING AIR

one can breathe in(deeply)-hold-then release
Being water,passing through
Being earth-connected to and grounded in
Being fire-active enough to spark response
Being part of all that is within and around,above and below
there is nothing to hide.No reason to feel vulnerable.
The well of emotions sinks deep and rises high
like a spring issuing forth clear waters
it flows away from source only to return
this is a way to be home
Writing our way home...

color changes

my early world was black and white

color cartoons splashed a dash of Disney

film noir to black and white TV ghosts

i grew from Hard Days Night to Help!

from a black and white apatheid world to color bars

widescreen epic Technicolors.Hollywood,Australia.

Vividness of blue skies and colored parrots 

Bright sunshine eternal skin cancer melanomas

Dark side of colors like Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd

Black Sabbath,Pink Fairies,the Blues on the Green

Post-Hiroshima-Light Of A Thousand Suns!

We can never be so slow again!Nagasaki,Chenobyl,Three Mile Island

The China Syndrome.Armageddon.Will we be bright by fire light

or snowed via Global warming?White Ice cracks,melts

into an ocean of plastic durables-all colors swirl in a whirlpool

of children's choices.Voices call from Dante's Inferno to Milton's Paradise(Lost)

Where is William Blake when you need him most?

Invoke Monet,Degas,Dali,Beatles,Brueghal,Botticelli,Bosch-

all the colors of these worlds a chemical soup.Ocher,mud,earth

reds,browns,blues,grays-we are green again.Growing weeds again.

Colors are here to stay.

2 the beat (of a metronome

our lives heart beat.To the beat of a pulse we move-

get in a car and strip the bare highway.Sing to a lonely moon!

Break from that spell of nuclear death(split atoms/families/heart from head-

and when the broken egg morning is omelette ready/serve in a greasy cafe

as an underdog cat burglar of illicit emotions.Bongos and black 

just soundtracks.Art splashed like stains upon canvas.Wake to the possibilities

of continuous conversation-home movies of memories made to order.Personal.One .

at a time when we are capable of extinction,we choose creation

Every science can be stolen (from Thanatos to Eros/Apollo to Dionysius

All gods and goddesses incarnate at parties round jazz midnight

India a pilgrimage to the yearning to not yearn.Zen Now!

Wake from the Sleep Of Ages into Muse that shakes 

and makes a Festival out of every Wake.Make More Now!

Unfold Your Lotus Blossoms in a Public Park.Be Naked!

Chant the many name of Silence/subtitled Mysteries (antidotes to violences

Flowers in the rifles of National Unguarded.No uniforms,no guns,no fear-

just being as clear as we can .Dream this beat .Beam this Beat Generation 

into 2012 in 2011.BEATFEST November 3-5 Bryan Texas

 

WHITE RATS

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GHOST POETS

Sounds of laughter coming from QUACKS,

FORRAYS,Cafe Solaire,Chicago House,METRO

The HIDEOUT,Spider House,Ruta Maya (4th/Lavaca)

Hyde Park Theater,Joe's Greek Cafe,Mexic-Arte Museum,Electric Lounge

Book People,Movements Gallery (on 6th Street),Victory Grill,

Vinny's Italian Cafe,Maui Wowie,ZOE's,

and every bubbling independent lover of the verbal arts-

Susan Bright,Dr Marvin Kimbrough,Floyd Freeman,

Albert Huffstickler,PASHA,Deb Akers-stars twinkling over Austin skies

beaming down upon us with twinkles in their eyes

knowing there will always be more in Poet's Heaven 

than can fit within our metaphysical memories.Stars above us,

reminding we are always at ground zero,only as brave as we dare

and their good example a call to the sleeping poet inside each of us

to be more than we thought we were capable of -through ghost venues,

ghost readings of ghost poems,unbreaking chains with bright truths

making freedoms with lines of sword concision,sharp visions to illumine dull times.

For they can no longer whisper their smiles to us shining every night

Your flaming tongues must start new fires.Your venues at your open mikes.

"What is to be done?"

OCCUPY has shown collusion between corporations

which,although allegedly competing,are affiliated and linked

in intimate ways so that when one falls,domino theories apply

We saw the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers,and the bail out of banks

The selective support of those"too big to fail"

and the collusion of lending authorities,wherein junk mortgages

created both bankruptcies and housing crises

We are all linked in this.Allowing public monies to bail private for profit enterprises

defeats the myth of "free market forces". Corporate welfare,fat cats,bonuses ,golden parachutes-

this is the language of the New Order.Now that government s,too,need bailout

the price of restoring good order and credit may be the death of public trust.

Bank of America bankrupt.Our lending status downgraded.Our dollar shredded in value.

We are not alone.Debtor nations blackmailed by their rescuers

to cut services and introduce austerity budgets lead to ineffective demonstrations

and sitins in most major population centers."They got bailed out,we got job cuts"

resonates down city streets.Yet the collusion is endemic.

Just as phonetapping and bribery were uncovered in England,then hushed up

because many of those empowering illegalities were tied to those in power

so too each economy is linked by debt and public policies to cut jobs and services

compounding the felonies.Thinktanks and linked executives oscillate between Government s and private firms.

Unless and until new ideas flush old errors,public polices will continue to act

against the best interests of you,me,everybody-o !and the economy!

FOR BERNARD MANNING

in solitary confinement ,accused but not proven

of association with bankrupt Wikileaks

Guilt by association ,trial by media,kangaroo courting

has meant he has been tortured before trial

censored,pilloried,defamed and imprisoned

Used to be innocent before proven guilty

no proof has yet been adduced except association

If i link to you,are you guilty of poetry?

Wikileaks boycotted by VISA,MASTERCARD,PAYPAL-

all corporations fearing their data might be mined

closing down public financial support/starving dissent 

so WL becomes historic,and we talk of brave leaks

while having no outlet for confidential whistle-blowing..

Corporate and governmental witch-hunts fear those leaks

that reveal to be the opposite of what they speak

Unless and until we find a release

our age will be determined by editing, redactions and censorship

i am anon

i roll on and on

sans form

sans name

others can

claim my fame

As long as i exist

you are safe

to become 

famous.Once i go-

ego returns

Fame is empty

as extinct oceans

a lesson all fish learn!

 

SURFING THE APOCALYPSE

Benign (hot )weather in a Texas drought

No more drownings on Lake Travis

No need for umbrellas in England

Sunshine all the time everywhere!

Unpredictable weather patterns mean no need for Almanacs

Weather forecasting now in the hands of local psychics

Churches boost attendance with apocalypse predictions

Every day is a hurricane surprise(New Orleans!)

Ask the Philippines about floods,then ask China

seeding clouds so needed rain must fall

We now live not in End Times as much

as beginning of the Unpredictable!

lost in YOUTUBE

started with Beatles-moved to Bukowski

they know what we love by affiliation and affinity

Every clip we ever make is posted under different names

search and you will find us-poetry by anonymous-film clips of OBVIOUS

archival footage of coffee shops long lost to us

closed like the doors of hell distractive powers

Hours get quicksanded down hollow YOUTUBE

One thing leads to another,eyes find their lovers

days go by and no end to this-the whole world 

has been filmed LIVE and posted on YOUTUBE! 

This is a love poem to the magnetic powers of images-

those that sing to us still -old as Beatles

lost like innocence,no longer replicable but accessible

via technology that did not exist in our adolescence

Like the last page of the Internet,i weave time among shadows

Labyrinths of meanings deep and alluring Siren call me back again

I will see you on YOUTUBE -GOOGLE me now

and see if you like...My latest poem

 

how did you do that, Deb?

always with us/ as a gentle presence-beside us

especially privately and personally/allied to each and every 

as if they were the one and only(and each was for their time

was yours to share and devote your skills prodigious-

editor,poet,listener,volunteer-you gave your all to each as needed

and now they each claim a part of you.See!one garden

you grew in readings,another in publications,still more in personal conversations

Each know a facet of your diamond sparkle

Each hold it precious as a fact and story

Now you are gone,it takes ten others to continue

all those projects you initiated and saw through 

We can never do it as well as you.Your art was personal-

a tale shared by those who knew you.If told to strangers,

it loses glow like coral exposed to sunlight,or lost seashells on a shelf

The ocean still sings to those who listen,but deeper for those who dive

into the mysteries of how and when ,as well as who and why..

There is an end to every one-we claim you via your investment in us

We remind those who did not know you they missed someone precious

Poems were only one part of you-yet each as true as life.

Now you are gone,we carry one.Light has changed 

from your smile and eyes to these tales of wonder

How did you do that magic?Making every moment special?

Can you come back and show us one more time?

without

Libya without Gaddaffi

Al Queda without Osama

Russia without Putin

Vietnam without Ho

England without Churchill

America without Reagan

China without Mao

Christianity without Jesus

Islam without Mohamed

Sufis without Rumi

Australia without Ned Kelly

Alaska without Sarah Palin

France without Napoleon

Vatican City without the Pope

Antartica without penguins

Flowers without bees

Trees without birds

Cities without water

You without me

Continue on.

HOW TO LOSE YOUR WAY

To Fiona

 

1.by believing there is a "way"

2.by advising others on THE way

3.by forgetting

4.by writing list poems rather than performing them

5.by certainty ,arrogance,authority,editorializing

6.by words over silences

7.by lack of good example

8.by stones displacing water,rather than re-verse

9.by distraction

10.by the unknown path

Buddha flower does not speak-

except in petal tongues,

all open to the sun

DEMOLISHING PARIS

People forget how Le Halles (famous for sets in Les Miserables)

was demolished to make way for the Pompadou Center

and how Napoleon 111 cleared streets and houses for a direct line of fire on mobs

Houses do not write poetry,and blue plaques remind us-most poets are homeless

Dylan Thomas' begging letters .Joyce's joyless Dublin tower(one night was enough!)

W B Yeats tower (now a Museum)in Connemarra,.Hendrix's house in London.

Dicken,s London home a Museum as in that Clint Eastwood film.

Wordsworth's Lake District Dove Cottage selling tourist postcards and artifacts

Bronte Museums.Harry Ransom's cult of objects associated with writers-

from D H Lawrence's slippers to Edgar Allen Poe's writing desk

None of these objects ever wrote anything.Algonquin Hotel 

as famous as the Chelsea and that White Horse Inn-by themselves

no intrinsic claim to fame.Auras live in the text and performances-

not in the costumes for GONE WITH THE WIND!

The new GLOBE far superior to Shakespeare's days-i say

DEMOLISH ALL PASTS!lest we mistake the object for the spirit 

the surviving architecture for the song,the Gutenberg Bible for Jesus

the Holy Grail for the hemlock.,the Holy Cross for the ongoing crucifixion of living Muses..

Love your living while they are here-the rest is dross..

DEMOLISHING PARIS

People forget how Le Halles (famous for sets in Les Miserables)

was demolished to make way for the Pompadou Center

and how Napoleon 111 cleared streets and houses for a direct line of fire on mobs

Houses do not write poetry,and blue plaques remind us-most poets are homeless

Dylan Thomas' begging letters .Joyce's joyless Dublin tower(one night was enough!)

W B Yeats tower (now a Museum)in Connemarra,.Hendrix's house in London.

Dicken,s London home a Museum as in that Clint Eastwood film.

Wordsworth's Lake District Dove Cottage selling tourist postcards and artifacts

Bronte Museums.Harry Ransom's cult of objects associated with writers-

from D H Lawrence's slippers to Edgar Allen Poe's writing desk

None of these objects ever wrote anything.Algonquin Hotel 

as famous as the Chelsea and that White Horse Inn-by themselves

no intrinsic claim to fame.Auras live in the text and performances-

not in the costumes for GONE WITH THE WIND!

The new GLOBE far superior to Shakespeare's days-i say

DEMOLISH ALL PASTS!lest we mistake the object for the spirit 

the surviving architecture for the song,the Gutenberg Bible for Jesus

the Holy Grail for the hemlock.,the Holy Cross for the ongoing crucifixion of living Muses..

Love your living while they are here-the rest is dross..

Escape

one of us will get away

over hills and round roadblocks

outlaw kind knows their own

shelter/sanctuary /altar/home

someone always on the run

something darker this way comes

shadows always follow light

police car or motorbike

they are armed and we are not

fatal this attractive force

that kills "only following orders"

we all want to get away

for a night,a week ,a day

what if it could be all our lives?

starting now-this afternoon-

tonight!

 

BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM

As Egypt throws out military Mubarak,substituting his family with more military Generals

As Mexico replaces corrupted police with aggressive Army violence

As Hugo Chavez nationalizes and socializes all corporations and media of dissent

As Putin reclaims his leadership despite puppet Presidents

As Turkey lurches between Islamic and military dictatorships

We seek how Bismarck led to the rise Adolph Hitler

how paternalism and selective welfare can maintain loyalty

among workers whose best interests always lie with progressives

yet whose support for dictators is legendary

"Don't cry for me,Argentina!"-Peronists seek return

Imelda Marcos still seeks return.Romanovs still seek return

Republicans still seek return."Born to rule". Blue bloods. Democracy becomes offensive

Big brother or Big Government?Some prefer the despot to the democratic

Islamic Fundamentalists employ the same stage-managing  of consent

via mass rallies,control of mass media,manipulation of the Press

and making sure sabotage occurs to anyone who dissents

This is being played out on the streets of New York as we read

of peaceful demonstrators being pepper sprayed by those

who presume all political power flows "from the barrel of a gun"

"Meet the new boss-same as the old boss.Won't get fooled again"

 

INTERIOR SUNSHINE

i watch the birds and bees store their sunshine

winging flower to flower to butterfly beauty

they absorb what is while it may be-Spring

an eternity for their feathers and wings

Autumn still finds them seeking the salient sun

flickering like the tongue of a lizard or snake

When sun gives way to lack of Light

they go slow,withdraw,close curtains,dream deep

and wait for the dawn of new life

This is the way it has always been-when life is prose

in poetry we dream...

COGNITIVE AUTARCHY

"Life is whatever you define it to be"

"Definition of a living organism is one that responds to its environment"

So if we are numb,powerless,filled with anomie,alienation ,and fear

does this make us less human?If our Universe is a probability space

are we mere projections in space-time?Can clones feel?Robots?Replicants?

Can emotions be programed?Are we changed by our smartphones/tablets?

Does information change us?Will we become as disposable as our gadgets?

Once something is learned-can it ever be forgotten?(nuclear/biological /cyber warfare)

Why do we seek robots that we program to even look like humans?(R2D2)

Is science fiction probable future fact?Are we evolving/devolving simultaneously?

Is there a scale of evolution that preserves feathers of dinosaurs in amber-

so we might replicate their DNA  and bring back what was once lost to us?

Are dreams conversations with the future?or salvaged past events?

Where is the present moment?Where does physics meet philosophy?

Is evidence merely suggestive of theories?What structures imprison us?

What thoughts empower?Are we mere energy?Is manifestation random?

Once a genetic code is sequenced,who owns that knowledge?

Are tools mere agents of owners?Is all knowledge copyright free?

Where does philosophy meet poetry?

ART. IS. T

Hold this heart-huge,red,in hospice.TOUCH ME!(and they do!

Annie Sprinkle opening her legs and supplying flashlights for audience members

Naked and having chocolate poured over her body.

Flash mobs singing in train stations,grocery stores,public squares

Tea Rooms flying the Union Jack in the heart of independent Texas

Occupy Austin with signs and placards ongoing public art

Mojos SMASH YOUR TELEVISION Annual smashing of televisions

Planet K's junked Oldsmobile filled with plants and cacti

Planet K's mural "Landscape with longhorn"

Cathedral of Junk saved from demolition

Enchanted Forest ART OUTSIDE silent disco

Phantom murals appearing ,with audiences asking HI! HOW ARE YOU?

Guitars officially endorsed glittering on every Austin street

Tattoos,noserings,horns,body art photographed ,archived

Walls of every coffee shop in town de facto galleries

Performance art bands,poets,comedians stretching the unframed

Freeform FREE ART given away by hand to hand,eyes to eyes

Your life,divided into filmed and free moments.Your photographs.

Your diary,read in public.Your dreams,recorded for stage

Your memoirs.Your autobiography.You.

 

HARD

my father's world was men-pubs,work,sweat,beer

He drove and fist fought his way through his world-

but he is dead,and his world is gone.

Sometimes,in old black and white movies,with Humphrey Bogart,i see

men smoking and drinking and fighting as he fought

Yet am i soft ,indoors,one who would run rather than war

Frontiers are for fighting,yet when settlement comes

Guess who would be the one to roost in home,writing poems

about rough days long gone-smoke and guns and beer and bongs

all swept away in this closing hours line.Gone,gone,gone,gone....

"TECHNOLOGY DETOX"(St.Vincent(Annie Clarke)

He stops in the middle of his song(cell phone rings

"Excuse me,i just have to answer this

She talks too loud in the Mall /you can overhear every detail

My email mounts up like a tax bill when neglected like a virgin bride

Texts assume sensory dominance/real estate time apportionment

More time turns virtual than eye to eye ,voice to ear

Displacement clocks  at the bottom of your PC screen/days depart sans daylight

Nights in response to generic ,collective,anonymous

stolen,borrowed clothes.You, naked,raped.

wonder where your old life went.Unplug.Now you can hear birds,see trees,sit in gardens

No one cares.They ,addicts,habituate contact with someone else.World moves on

Your song comes out of you.Stronger,clearer.Water from source.

Drink this life back in.Sing it new.Underneath all technology=you...

overweight starvation

pay,luggage man!front end beam ,two seats on SouthWest Airlines!

pay,little baby!Pay,overweight luggage!

Pay,o item guitar,surfboard,possessions

Refugee cannot afford to pay for bodyweight

Weigh each thought o Ryan Airlines!

Charge more and often o Budget Airlines!

Pay through the nose o Heritage Airlines!

Pay taxes and for your own insecurity-

pay for September 11 indefinitely

Pay for booking with a human

Pay for changes to your flight

And if you are bumped or imprisoned on tarmacs

we take no responsibility.

We have oversold your flight

There are air marshals on board

They have plastic handcuffs and pepper spray

They are watching,vigilant.Do not congregate near toilets

Do not say "bomb" nor "Terrorist".If you are ill,

you may be tackled and confined.Do not expect a service

We are all just doing our jobs.What did you expect-peanuts?

Bring out your cash and credit cards.

 

Night between two goalposts

Moon target.one landing,many orbits.Surveillance continuous

CCCTV posthumous.Crime moves in like rust and graves.

Circus supermarkets clown SPECIALS education.

CORN as a joke of a crop of one line flatliners.

Meaning collapses like a big top tent post-show

Whole waves of populations transfer allegiances.

Border corruption wraps cells with refugee languages

Digital children virtual corpses headless arguments

Mariachi amusements cross-border casualties

Rising Sur through filtered obstacles octopi claws

Eyes vigilance through long distance drone scopes

True relationship of gun caliber and requisition

Inquisition,Quislings,informants and cops

Military solutions brainwash.Grande no longer

Slap face or feet acrossings fences cut

Now a desert ,plastic,drought

Bodies feed the birds of passage

Raptors,vultures,hawks

Walk!

BURNING BORDERS BOOKSTORES

My Borders account is now registered with Barnes &Noble

now that Borders is gone,the last dinosaurs toss and struggle for market dominance

Graphic novels are a growth industry,and exclusive distribution rights offend many

Fans use a myriad of mobile devices to access their SANDMAN/DARK KNIGHT  sagas

and authors are both  civilians  and collateral damage in this free fire zone

Barnes&Noble has withdrawn all copies of superhero stories from their shelves

now that Amazon has restricted access to digital editions on their new "Fire"

e-books are astonishing in terms of market share,but this conflict serves no one

Fans are angry,Amazon is angry,Barnes&Noble are also none too happy.

Best to allow a million flowers to bloom,said Mao Tse Tung

but he was head of no hungry corporation,and his backyard furnaces failed

Which Behometh will buckle,now that high noon is here?

What superheros can save these sellers from selected content providing,

governed as it is by vested interests?Who can predict the next bankruptcy?

We await to see if the Kryptonite of commercial success will contaminate comics

And if the Dark Knight were alive-what would he do tonight?

 

FOLLOW YOUR MUSE(1950-2012)

BEATFEST November 3-5 2011 will have pilgrims who come

to celebrate a culture they recognize as their own-

the right to free expression  for every one

has a Muse,and each must listen to her demands

If she says"get in a car and drive to Bryan!"-they will

If she demands they share their visions,hallucinations and epiphanies-YES!

If open mikes spill out with imaginative exercises,collaborations and improvisations

she will have done her job well-for all of us have stories to tell

and time is required,and space,and listening ears -

this is why we find ourselves here-in a desert,in Texas,in a drought

when ideas are in short supply,and dreams have mutated to nightmares

Muse calls us all to supply this demand-for fresh and original lines 

that do more than describe our times-they CHANGE our minds

and lead us to start our own open mikes and open Festivals

so each and all and every tall story and short story might 

become a pearl poem of truth and power might be shared

among all visionaries ,poetic pilgrims and unbeaten BEATkeepers of desire..

 

JONATHON SWIFT 2012

Hungry homeless on our streets

Some suggest they might eat the rich-but they are thin and bony folk

like carp and other bottom feeders

Slicing them thin might mean some protein sandwiches

but those who have no shelter might not like their mansions!

Envy alone will not fuel change-prosperity tops austerity(again!

and there is enough for all of us to have some

without having to confiscate all  private planes and yachts

It would be good to have some public parks-and libraries

that do not have to close,and schools where children can read books

and pools where heated arguments can cool down.Before the Revolution comes,

why can't we all just get along?

BANK OF AMERICA DEFAULTING
American Airlines bankrupt 
If America is a brand name
Time to sue for copyright!

 

THERE IS A MOON BEYOND OUR VISIBLE SPECTRUM

only the blind can see it-and children.Those damaged

by too much exposure to happiness,joy,calmness and contentment.

If you speak only of what you see,how discover the new?

Each day's difference exposes us to filmed images.

Memory records a few ,and mixes them up

so when we access birthdays of others,it is with a vagueness

we blame on age or illness.Most facts don't last.Opinions change

Even the skyline.Certainty is historic-ask Columbus-or black swans.

Once they believed in philogiston,and pineal glands,and third eyes..

Many still do.More watch horror movies as prophecies.

2012 has already been filmed for them.Disaster epics likewise.

Ideas are a stone soup -nutritious!More so with more ingredients.

Our diet changes as we age.So do we.What was intolerable as children

can be assimilated as we mature.Are children savants ?Are we wise to dream beyond ourselves?

Are there worlds outside our eyes-that tempt us with intuitions of Paradise?

Can we step into the invisible/and live our dreamings?

There is a moon...

NOAM CHOMSKY,RON PAUL,BLOGOSPHERES

Blogs are for those who read blogs

Response comes from other bloggers-like "letters to the editor"

They mirror mainstream media only in their self-selecting themes and topics

They potentially allow diverse new hats to be thrown in to the arena

even when the old hats are still fighting bulls....

Fresh voices are often co-opted by media outlets to supplement existing matadors

Red flags go up when a style or topic disturbs the bull market

Rodeo clowns are allowed-light reading as preliminary bouts

When the main event begins,it is the old bulls are trotted out-

Papal Bulls with Imprimatur,not the red meat of argument

Fresh voices are often assumed to be rare,not well done

Old bulls may be burned out and lingering on reputation

When the editing starts,the audience asks for those familiar to them

Does such selection manufacture consent?

Or are vegetarian ideas @a bullfight like Ron Paul and the Federal Reserve?

This is why no third party survives the third rail of politics

Orthodoxy excludes contradictions.Noam Chomsky will always be an outsider

Ideas are marketed like bull fights.Ghandi need not apply.

This is why both Malcolm X and MLK were murdered.

Editing.

"every one of you is a poet!"(Elzy Cogswell Huston-Tillotson Poetry on the Patio Oct12

How could you know after saying that-

and reading a poem inspired by that saying

that the Registrar would be inspired to write for the very first time?

After you did your Cinderella ,she stepped up to the mike

with a short piece written on the spot

on the theme of NO REGRETS!

She examined the proposition based upon regrets

how wasted they were in terms of energies

how hope inspires trust inspires love

and how life,being limited,needs to be fully lived

How could you know,dear Elzy

that you birthed another poet in your absence-

one who loved poetry but up to now had merely memorized her faves

and recited them to praise poets of the past?

How she asked all frowns to be inverted to smiles

and stepped away from that microphone

a new person-fresh and bright and shining

and will herself be soon asking others 

to embrace their own creations...

MYTHOPHOBIA

I am the myth of myself and i steal from my own stories

I am James Brown Godfather of Soul shooting my mistress

I am the working class hero (just follow me)(with a gun...

I am Norman Mailer @the Democratic National Convention

I am Miami and the Siege of Chicago

I an Hunter S Thompson's soul in Johnny Depp's roleplay

I am the myth of Jack Kerouac(motherloving Catholic alcoholy wreck)

I am Frog Prince Ginsberg (outlasting all the genuine ones/replacing them

I am media made ,accomplice to drug/drinking culture

I blow things up and shoot in stoned deserts

I see visions and hallucinate among Republicans

I write dervish scripts for dancing minds still young

I smoke like a fire that cannot put itself out

I am consumed with this play of ostentatious consciousness

I am aware this is a fragile paper chase-i am the park ,the litter and the dog

I am the newspaper /magazine i come wrapped in

I decide when i will leave here-you cannot forget

I am larger than your life(even my own

I am Salvador Dali and Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol

Charles Bukowski,Baudelaire,Rimbaud

My time is gold and marijuana kisses

You will not see the like of me again

I left myself long ago-now this wolf moves in

imitating my Greatest Hits.

PC not for me

Ideology a head case.Bars ,windowed eyes.Having to toe the line.

There is no line that cannot be crossed(out)

Walk the line.Draw the line.Write outside the lines.

Soviet writers knew what line to take.Same in Cuba,China,Islamic States

Fatwa too high a price on lives.Easier to follow the line.Fill in the lines.

Ask permission.Am i in line?Where does the line start?Who is next in line?

Poets in prison/exile/asylum,all failed to convince the Muse

that she belongs to every body.Censorship Bowlderised Shakespeare

Movies cut for planes and TV.Heads lopped for saying things dictators did not want to hear.

Unexpurgated texts hidden .Figleafs on  nude statues.Penises chopped off.Mutilation,rape.

If you cannot say the words,you cannot escape.The prison is silence/solitary confinement

Poetry is a social language-our selves talking back to ourselves

Every word is needed to describe and dance with 

a world that requires attention,focus and empathy

These are the tools with which we sculpture silences into speech

If we cannot say this now,we will not be allowed to leave.

 

ME/MOIR

Coalface,digging.Black shadows dislodge,falling downs syndrome.

Under the lines,a spirit level.Yellow canary warnings-CAUTION!

To spill the wine of truth,one needs clearing fluid.Drink to me!

Self-sedation or sobriety?Magickal thinking ,primitive emotions.

Life and art splendor in the grass huts burning on paper.

When the Muse allows ,every target is yourselves.

Slice a random personality ,spill secrets on every stage

Plays and scripts are made of this(self-revelatory rage

Anger clouds into black lines /crowds peck at stories

Seeding rumors(how much is true?)among the gossip columns

For you have sliced your days in bread,and served all hungry

Loaves and fishes might temporarily satisfy,yet miracles have pricetags

The first is belief,the second trust,the third expectation

To meet these @midnight crossroads,one must sacrifice a child

Usually your inner one will do-yet,if greater needs prevail

What you write will be how you failed.

RECYCLED READS AND HALF-PRICE BOOKS

Dumpster diving behind Half-Price books brings poetic treasures

Chris shows me a BEAT author thrown out by BORDERS when they closed

He rescued that kitten  even when the rest of the littered was tossed 

Recycled Reads sells used Austin Library books in much the same way

If you examine Half-Price shelves carefully-there is a CLEARANCE area 

where Ovid and Sophocles vie with cooking and self-help tomes from the 70s

Garage Sales yield contemporary treasures-especially MOVING SALES!

Libraries once loved need be liberated when shelf space becomes non-existent

Most libraries have a FREE MAGAZINES stable outside awaiting your eyes

More sell of old books @$1 paperback,$2 hard cover-cheapest lovers for your eyes pleasures!

Bibliophiles rejoice when text is valued more than antique status-

when first editions are signed and in well read condition

Books are more than cults-they are doorways to other worlds

and we often return to old texts to re-acquaint ourselves 

with the Lawrences and Laings,Orwells,Hesses and Castanedas 

we grew to love,and treasured them like gifts of poetry

Rilke,Rumi,Rimbaud ring treasures on our shelves

Until ,one day,we must release them

and thereby be released...

SOCIETY FOR REDUNDANT TECHNOLOGY

Never embraced egoic "i"culture
live without ipod,iphone,ipad, i hear
Steve Jobs has to now as well
One step removed from technological innovation
my home is strewn with videos for VCR.s cassette tapes for tape recorders
exercise books for hand written poems
self-published tomes for sharing among poets
I see the digital children focused upon their gadgets
they are in a virtual universe.I live in a mobile museum.
Some friends still type their novels.Some write letters-and mail them!
We find refuge at garage sales-where last year's fashions are recycled endlessly
It took years to get a bottom line cell phone.
Do not ask when Kindle or Nook will change my paperbook reading habits
When all forests are depleted,perhaps then we will turn to the new
But by then,electricity and batteries will be redundant too!

APPLE,AMAZON,FACEBOOK,GOOGLE

Facebook begets Google+

iphone begets Android

Amazon begets icloud

Paypal begets Google Wallet

Facebook relies upon Moore's Law

iphones  link to ipads

Apple Facetime begets Google +Hangout

Patents beget jurisdictional lawsuits

Where will your apps go next?

Is there an app for happiness?

BAUDELAIRE,JEAN-PAUL SARTRE=PUBLIC PERSONAE PRIVACY

Counter-intuitive to expect privacy from those who live in public-

whose tiniest warts are exposed on YOUTUBE,TWITTER (often by themselves-

whose persona is tied to public apprehension of their crafted media identity

like Christopher Hitchens ,Roger Ebert or Ashton Kucher

Was it Norman Mailer who wrote "ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF?"

Was it Andy Warhol quoted "every person will soon have 15 minutes of fame"

Bowie/Lennon"Fame-puts you there where things are empty"

Mark Chapman using CATCHER IN THE RYE to become infamous by killing the famous

Borrowed luminosity comes from marriage to fame(Jay-Z/Beyonce- or divorce =Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor)

Fame as ephemeral as fog/sought after by gossip columnists,pop stars,journalists-

people mistaking the person for the message-buying Steve Jobs rather than an APPLE.

Illusion of FRIEND on FACEBOOK-you may never meet/greet or know these folk who claim you

and LIKE may mean less the more it is used.Baudelaire chose crowds to hide his introversion

Sartre exposed him as a voyeur.We watch the stars for falling angels-from Marilyn to Lady Ga-Ga to Amy Winehouse to Janis Joplin

We never knew then-personally,as friends.We claimed them as cannibals claim visitor-to devour rather than offer devotion

Names change-the process stays.Privacy is now FACEBOOK,gossip TWITTER

Soon you can see your mirror on YOUTUBE.15 seconds of fame,in a clip you made yourself-uploaded down

Global village needs more local clowns

 

2 of 2 SMUSHING,COMBINATORICS ,PROBABILITY THEORIES

Random you may be,but casinos cut the odds

Count your cards to predict your losses

Navier-Stokes equations make magic happen

Like atomic theories,magic is a mathematical equation

Prediction is the key,anticipation the lock

Focus upon the maths to unblock

Mysteries presented as magic that are not

Ask Paul Levy ,de Bruijn and Persi Diaconis

Each studied the Art of Random to find patterns

Digitalise the cut of cards to find attention

is distracted by the academic,rather than the entertaining..

Particle flow and the joining of opposites allow

predictive strategies that seem quite problematic

Yet when the cards are cut ,and cut again,it is no trick to predict

what card will rise up out of a counted deck

Here is where magic meets maths and both succeed

Cards are a metaphor for the meeting of minds,motives,money and meaning

BE THE AIR

that fills all lungs with song

air that adds joy and breath and oxygen

air that fills sails,balloons and kites

air that sustains us all our lives

be the water that we are all made of

the elemental womb we came out of

the waters that we drink,and share,and add love to

make water free and clear and fresh and new

be the earth we will all rest within

that patient earth that waits our planting

earth before and after us

earth as solid as your love

be the fire that animates

that changes life to art and warms our nights

that passion inciting changes towards betterment

sometimes fire burns,so new growth becomes evident

be that elemental strength that continues on-

that fills all spirit with art,poem,music,love and song!

THE ART OF GRIEVING AND OF LOSS

You may tear your hair and rent your garments

You may weep and wail and gnash your teeth

You may flagellate yourself in grief

But loss will not be impressed

You may grow cold as old bone

You may go cool,distant as the moon

You may grow silent,cease all conversation

Loss does not care

You may turn solitary and shun all company

You may go public and splash rain naked

You may do some things totally eccentric

Death will wait you out

Time alone may not cure loss

Grieving is a natural ,loving impulse

The trick is to survive the hole in your life

Fill it with joy at who you once knew

For each moment shared is illumination

Seek reasons for extending communication/celebration

is also a natural impulse calling you

to remember the best in all who have moved through..

 

KINDLE YOUR FIRE! HERE COME AMAZONS!

Size matters!Negotiations pro-active with authors

work best with large distribution and promotion

Amazon has published 122 books in a variety of formats

tailoring their market to stimulate sales.Traditional publishing

has finished.Marketing is everything.As in chain grocery stores,

where generic brand products are made and sold to replace highend items,

so,too,a plethora of memoirs and cooking books and celebrity gossip

meet the new media market more than historical novels  and traditional texts.

Text itself has been commodified into demographics-with ebooks for libraries

phasing out the paged creations of Gutenberg.We are always in transition-

between the hounds of  old publishing contracts and the wolves of new worlds.

Authors who self-publish have only republishing rights here(small fish!-fried!

Those who adapt to the Amazonians may find more than their right breast cut off in the deal

Arrows of focused marketing techniques have displaced love of literacy

Content may be random-distribution,promotion and profits are the new corporate publishing

O! and watch out! new formats will change our habits of purchasing...

 

"i will be a hummingbird"

a song with thin wings,slim to the sounds

always in motion,flitting around

even when still,above the ground

i will be a hummingbird

like she who threw a starfish into sea

saving one stranded starfish minority

it starts with the art of one/eternity

begins /one moment @a time

one step towards an unattainable goal

one line of a well remembered poem

one life/one breath/one planet /one home

it always starts with one..

so i will be what you cannot see

until every one of us is winged

with alacrity /levity will be suspended

by deep weighted ground gravity

if you hear wings within the wind

look for movements sharpening within

we are all learning new words to sing

i will be a hummingbird!

every little loss of memory(is another tiny death

the big sleep comes when we least expect.We practice and rehearse

by eliding /censoring/forgetting/mumbling over mysteries

every good story thrills long before the ending/so when

one leaves beside us/hole in space where she is no longer

(we will be gone-you will forget-this line leads into fog)

Awakening takes lifetimes.Partial sleep covers us each dreaming.

Some make a monastery of manners/excluding those beggars who tug @sleeves 

who whisper in your ear"This,too,shall pass". And when it does

how can we act so fresh surprised?When death has been with us all this shadowed life?

 

AUTUMN (AGAIN)

My favorite season-colors change/trees are blooming

even in emotional drought-teardrop rain

Green shoots tentative and thin rise up towards one sun

Before winter comes,this paler Spring-shade and light

Reflection of what was and what will be-

of the leavings the the losses-leaves tossed into compost

To be mulched for future gardens

I am these thin trees so certain of their roots

other elders chopped/gone/ghosts

I see the certainty of change

I say to all that is-i am here

you know where i live

you know my names!

"HERMES OF VERSES"

From slave chains to gold chains

From NWA to Presidential partying

From gangsta rap to bling bling

Young black males are buying lifestyles

via corporate tie-ins-walk Nike/drink Hennessey

walk Adidas/drink Courvoisier/wear Hilfiger

Corporate profiteers /priviteers/hand in Gucci glove

Jay-Z@Glastonbury-followed by Beyonce

Babies miming "Put a Ring on it" on YOUTUBE

AMERICAN GANGSTER merchandising

Little Britain responds with East End GRIME/London ROAD RAP/free DJs

I love THE STREETS with his spoken patois/

so reminescent of Brixton's LINTON KWESI JOHNSON 

as much as corporate black rap's roots in THE LAST POETS

If we are consumer cattle,our only issue is branding

If we embrace the power of rap 's expressiveness

then mysogny and dollar signs will be replaced

with continuing rhythmic conversations

And that is priceless-with no tagging...

LAWS OF EMOTION

1.Thou canst have only one emotion @a time

(mixed emotions cloud minds and paralyze responses)

2.Emotions are rarely pure

(Traces of old patternings,reactions,resentments ,expectations,projections cling )

3.Your emotions are not you

They are a form of manifestation of your influences

4.Worry does not help

It simply adds more gravity to the sinking lifeboat.

5.Detachment is robotic

Clarity is not numbness/response is all!

6.Emotions are not static

They are kinetic at all times-remember to move!

7.Let them go!

Emotions are wild horses ,feral cats-feed them all!Then release!

 

KABUKI SHAKESPEARE

Kurosawa 's RAN(King Lear). His THRONE OF BLOOD(Macbeth)

Wide screen subtitled immersion in another alien culture/land/time/style.Which transcends more?

Juta Mai-immerse yourself in foreign metaphors/lose cultural context/powers

Victor Hugo's LE MISERABLES on London stages/shortened to Le Miz and three hours

Puppets of the Bunraku Theater.Make manipulation transparent!

Adaptation of texts violates contexts.Time capsule Shakespeare language

filters Baz Lurmann's ROMEO AND JULIET less than WEST SIDE STORY's songs

Filmed MY FAIR LADY sleepwalks the politics of staged PYGMALION

Shaw's prefaces more didactic than his dramas-which script survives best?

Sermons on Sundays fall asleep on Mondays.Saturday night revels snore siesta Sundays..

Russian novels /movies as long as Russian winters.Even the snow has subtitles.

Swedish crime noir chills via alienated social class structures.Anonymous strangeness

Cultures fashion ,form ,defame their flowers for export to another stage

Blake means less than Whitman in Disneyland.Who remembers poetry?

Perhaps it seeds exported scripts Bob Dylan Live @the Budokan.

Irezumi tattoos upon San Francisco Castro bikers.Strange fruit

that falls like Edith Piaf in Hollywood adaptations,requires prefaces/subtitles

for the graphic novel to re-present verities like Death Of a Salesman

with the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller re-enacting modern marriage.