Desolation

are there really angels dancing on the peaks? can you carry your own weight? what journey starts with a single step? is someone alone if there are others on the same trail? why are there differences between tourists?

Running

with scissors
with the devil
with the wind at your back
with a finger up your ass
off at the mouth
off with the milkman
on empty
on and on
on auxiliary power
out
out of time
out on the family
an errand
a racket
a race
for fun
for the hell of it
for the health of it
for president
for public office
for your life
for the finish line

What's so funny about

Afixed a giant peace sign to the front of the house. Alit it with holiday lights. Awaiting and awaiting. Ahoping.

Input (i)

Reading: Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller. Poetry as Insurgent Art by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Testimony: The United States (1891-1900) by Charles Reznikoff.

DVD: The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965.

Download: Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.

Begat (2)

Credits at the end of Jem Cohen film on Fugazi begat Thank you to Mark Andersen begat flashback to basement post-closing-time punk record critiques with the Montana punk begat Dance of Days by Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins begat Fugazi continued to try to destroy barriers between band and audience (p. 300) begat the distance between us begat

Tacoma reading Saturday, Nov. 3

One of a dozen poets reading at the Tacoma Word Lit Fest this Saturday, Nov. 3 at FREIGHTHOUSE SQUARE.

Poetry reading and open mic -- 5 PM to 8 PM.

Jed Myers will be aplayin guitar and harmonica and I'll be areadin poetry. Lots of fun.

FREIGHTHOUSE 2501 East D Street Tacoma, WA
(2 blocks North of the Tacoma Dome!)
Plenty of FREE parking

Begat (1)

Todd S. at work begat guitarist with Drunken Boat 90s NYC punk band begat rereading Rimbaud begat I have dreamed of the green night of the dazzled snows ... begat YouTube videos of Drunken Boat at CBGBs 1991 shot by Jem Cohen begat hearing poem read by Drunken Boat singer Todd Colby in The Good Boys YouTube upload begat Todd S. at work begat gifted copy of Riot in the Charm Factory Todd Colby poems begat You should learn to pay attention--someday you may be hit by a car and I'll be the punk driving it begat acknowledgments that Riot cover was a Jem Cohen photo begat adding Fugazi a film by Jem Cohen to NetFlicks queue begat

Fall input

Readings: Novels in Three Lines - Feneon / On the Road - the scroll edition - Kerouac. Recent downloads: The Watson Twins / Into the Wild - soundtrack - Eddie Vedder / Current DVD: Twin Peaks - Season 2

Add a verse to HOMELAND SECURITY

Call to action! Add a verse by posting a comment to this post. Feel free to read it at open mics, gatherings, happenings, etc. Peace.--jb

Homeland Security

Bring me swing me
do that thing you do to me
Homeland Security

Beat me then talk sweet to me
you know how to treat me
Homeland Security

Handcuff me act tough with me
I love it when you're rough with me
Homeland Security

Report me deport me
stop the import of more like me
Homeland Security

You found me now impound me
go ahead round up all like me
Homeland Security

Shoot me loot me blindfold
& gag me to mute me
Homeland Security

Inundate me sedate me make me
believe only update TV gives me
Homeland Security

Alarm me disarm me
just don't let them harm me
Homeland Security

Wiretap me cause a flap
until nerves finally snap on me
Homeland Security

Lie to me spy on me
Better keep your eye on me
Homeland Security

Your verse(s) here!

One-minute reading Oct. 25

The Ballard Library (5614 22nd Ave. N.W., Seattle) hosts a marathon poetry reading -- One Minute / One Poet -- with each of about 25 poets reading a one-minute poem. This event takes place on Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m. Don't be late or you'll miss a bunch of us!

Chicago haiku (but who's counting)

America's middle
all its muzak
the blues

fog rolls in from the north
early a.m. flight to Chicago
still on time

how slow they walk on Michigan Avenue
I pass everyone on my way to Portillo's
Chicago dog

maybe it's the Cub apparel
maybe the Tribune building
but this is a beer town

dogwood in white bloom
dark and a bit too quiet
Chicago River

end-of-day workers
jaywalk Wacker Drive
where's the wind

Chicago humor
robbing a bank in drag
ketchup on a Twins' dog

"I want to be a lion not
an alligator" "I don't need him
Monday morning" "whaddafuck"

northside/southside
haves/havenots either way
city ends at the lake

"show me another city
so glad to be alive"
Carl - O sweet Carl!

2007.05.8-10

This morning I stood

at the back door waving goodbye to my cousins when they took off for school and there was Mount Rainier so close. Although I'd been there for days, I never saw it until that moment. Somehow my personal daily experience had taken on more meaning; somehow transcended that mundane moment. I thought of William Stafford taking an insignificant personal moment or chance encounter (perhaps with a mountain) and make it significantly poetic. The everyday charged with deeper meaning. This formula has been imitated so often in this region's poetry that it has become tiresome and predictable (even moreso than the new formalism which at least has fun with meter and rhyme). Then I thought of the formalism of haiku and how -- at its best-- it captures and then transcends "the moment" in a few syllables. An American haiku of this morning's experience may go like this:

waving to the boys
on their way to school
Mount Rainier

But there's still too much going on -- waving, going, the mountain. So wouldn't it be better just to write:

I saw Mount Rainier this morning

But even that has too much going on -- the self, the mountain, the morning. So I finally ended up with this poem:

Mt. Rainier!

Using punctuation to carry the familiar and the surprise I first experienced when I saw how close the mountain was this morning.

@Sumner, WA

It's about

time and space. about the debate. mfa or self-disciplined. about cognac and lincoln on his knees. about sewing pages together. about nose hairs and all the young punks. about a new formalism. about rhyming and timing. about the distance between the podium and the audience. about decaf or hi test. about binghamton and goose hunting on xmas morning. about being busy or staying busy. about about about.

Friday night at the chai lounge

and the bongo band packed up and hit the Ave leaving the barrista-fueled crazed audience on its own with the poets who grabbed the microphone (is anyone using this -- is this thing on -- can you hear me) from the bedtime storyteller who almost had the kids asleep before Father came home smoking and reeking of beer -- again -- causing the storyteller to skip ahead in the story to address the audience who was reading fiction and carving initials in treebark tabletops and now the poets distracted taking down each other's phone numbers and so it goes ...

Mummies

wrapped in the smoke of cigarettes walk the streets of Broadway where curtains are pulled back and fans blow on high. Mummies drink wine to a city paralyzed at 27 degrees. Mummies can't get a taxi. Mummies find the runway to be long on going nowhere. Mummies gather in the public space of public buildings mill around until Robert's Rules of Order send a gavel crashing to the table and things unravel into a snowy pile of guaze.

In preparation

for the potluck he would buy a bag of cubed ice and mixers -- 7-UP, Tonic, Club Soda, Coca-Cola, Orange Juice. He would also remember at the last minute lemons and limes. He wondered what pairings, what conversations, would result from the mixings -- what squeezings, what wonderful concoctions ...