Samarkand

 

A man wearing only a sodden overcoat and one dress shoe

led a seasick stallion by a rope along the beach

slowly, so slowly

like their ship that descended the ghostly green.

He said to me, "No kiss of yours can replace deck and cabin,

keel and hold. No woman is as precious as the next breath."

Sadly, so sadly

he wandered away, wearing only one earring and a felt hat. 

I was, then, a Multilingual Sister of the Silent Bell

and led the abandoned animal through our courtyard

carefully, so carefully

so as not to disturb the stillness with the thunder of his heart.

Wearing only a sundress and carrying one rope sandal,

I know now that summer pavers are warmer than a drowning man.

Slowly, sadly, carefully,

I flowed that day like water from the stone of Samarkand.

______________

for Word Garden Word List--Keith Reid.

Music: Chantel Chamberland Temptation

An Article I Wrote On Medium

 

You can find it HERE. 

It's about 5 singers who labored in near or total obscurity in decades past but who have found a new following thanks to the internet. 

Word List Break

 No Word List this week, friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Bio

All she wanted was 

pretty horses with feather plumes,

standing balanced on their backs

as they circle the moon.

All she wanted was

Christmas morning and fruit on a plate,

candied stollen sliced and served,

rising early to start sleeping late. 

Now, visit her where

cornball Napoleons roam the rooms

spouting blather in poetry's place

while staff cup the pills and count the spoons.

______

for Word Garden Word List--Ferlighetti. 

Word Garden Word List--Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 

Hello poets and welcome to another Word List! I'm sorry to be a day late (and presumably a dollar short to complete the old saying) with this, but I had too many irons on the fire yesterday, plus I generally have no idea what day of the week it is, only whether it's a weekday or a weekend, and even that is sometimes dicey with me. 

Anyway! This week's List is taken from A Coney Island of the Mind by the late San Francisco beat poet Lawrence Ferlighetti, a strong early influence of mine. Ferlinghetti was also the owner of the famous City Lights Book Store. 

For those interested in reading something by Ferlinghetti, you can read a favorite of mine, Junkman's Obligato, HERE.

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words from the following list and use them in a new original poem of any style, length or structure, and then link up and visit others. That's it!

And now, your Word List:

addicts

blather

bottled

Christmas

cornball

demented

enormous

falcons

fruit

governments

horses

laments

larks

mandolins

peacocks

performing

poetry

risking

spoons

violin

And Now You Know.... The Rest of The Story

 

Somehow, the Modesto Mud Pigeons vault into second place in the Pacific Crust League baseball season of 1930.

A perennial doormat playing in a ramshackle firetrap of a ballpark and managed by an unstable loon called Double Hatchet MacGillicuddy, the team's fortunes changed when rookie phenom Handsome Henry Faraday arrived and slugged 42 home runs in 25 games, all while setting ladies' hearts aflutter.

Imagine then, how Double Hatchet and the soft-hearted ladies reacted when fire-balling Franco "Frank" Spizeymeatballi cracked Faraday right in the dome with a pitch! 

Down he went, and down went the Mud Pigeons with him, finishing a distant fifth as Spizeymeatballi's San Jose Hosers took the championship. :-(

Double Hatchet MacGillicuddy was last seen running amok on the Pacific island of Watyagonnadonow where he vanished into a grove of palm trees and was killed by a falling coconut.

As for our hero Handsome Henry Faraday, his head injury resulted in a new and amazing musical talent, enabling him to invent the electric piano--not popularized until some 40 years later--when his recording of a barrelhouse version of One Meat Ball unexpectedly (and posthumously) topped the charts, making Handsome Henry second only to Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin in 1970's musical importance. 

_____________

for Denise's Six Sentence Stories. Key word: "vault"

Music: Tony Pastor One Meat Ball

Lantern On A Wooden Walk

 

The lantern's body in autumn is cold

because its coat is a gift from the wind.

The lantern lies close to the wooden wet

in order to hear where the tree has been.

The lantern's handle is ever unheld

so that silence can take it further than words.

Left on the path, left ever low,

left to consider the motion of birds.

The lantern's glass is lit by flame--

its mother the match that gave and went out.

A lantern on a wooden walk--

pass by, pilgrim, with or without.

________

for Dverse Poetry "light"

Music: The Bee Gees Lamplight

Crackerjack For Lancelot

 

I set out Crackerjack for Lancelot,

candy apples for his mount--

licorice for dancing devils

too numerous to count.

I bake pie for the Lorelei

and salt water taffy for the sailors--

honey for all my winning ways

and bitter ale for my failures.

_______

for Dverse quadrille "candy"

Music: Lindi Ortega Fall Down Or Fly

There You Are, Little Sparkler

 

"You are everyone to me,"

said Caligula, and he gave me a scarf

to hide the hickeys--

when you split with a devil

it gets tricky

not to fall apart.

Spending Christmas at Joan of Arc's

with real saints, a faux fire

and presence under the tree--

I can't think exactly which to do

for truth or dare

except to keep my tail clear of the rocking chair.

Joan's guest room smells like

balsam and baguettes

and oh you crusty evergreen--

who's the fairest

of them all?

Who's so full of shyness

that she can't steal on down the hall?

That Frenchy firework, me

mais oui. 

____________

for Word Garden Word List--The Smiths. The middle section has been edited.

Music: The Smiths Ask 

Word Garden Word List--The Smiths

 

Hello poets! Today we'll be joining Mr. Peabody and Sherman as they graciously lend us the use of the Wayback Machine so that we can go back to the 1980s and listen to The Smiths!

Led by Morrissey, the Smiths were known for their irresistibly catchy melodies and sly, sardonic lyrics. I remember the first time I heard them quite clearly. The song was "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and it began

I was looking for a job and then I found a job

and Heaven knows I'm miserable now

My ears perked right up. I sensed a kindred spirit. (And for our purposes here, we'll skip over some of Morrissey's more recent bouts of foot in mouth.) Somehow these songs managed to be fatalistic and funny, edgy and vulnerable, all at once. I know, you can't imagine why they appealed to me, right? *rolls eyes*

Your word list this week is taken entirely from the lyrics of songs by The Smiths. No doubt, at some point I'll do a Morrissey solo list, but for today, it's all Smiths. Here's the lowdown: please use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in an original new poem of your own, then link up and visit others. So easy a child could do it! 

And now, your list:

bigmouth

Caligula

charmer

coma

devil

exactly

false

heavenly

humdrum

Joan of Arc

joke

miserable

panic

shoplifters

shyness

skinny

stitch

thorn

typical

verse

Lil Bruja

 

Lil Bruja rides on into Dust Flats, New Mexico on her trusty steed Viejo Loco.

It's been a long slog from the wild gold rush towns where she spent a hard year and a half, on through Gila Valley where she barely escaped old jealous Pecos Charlie and his branding iron in the middle of the night and lit out across the range in pitch darkness. 

Now, watching Viejo pick his way around rattlers and tarantulas, with her Stetson low over her eyes and the same bandana around her neck for the last 200 miles, Lil just wants a hot bath and a shot of whiskey.

Finally she hits town, leaves Viejo at the livery stable with a nosebag of hot oats, and pushes through the swinging doors of Texas Jim's Saloon, her spurs jingling with every step and what in blazes does she see but a sign over the bar that says KALE SANDWICHES, ARUGULA QUICHE, MANGO FLAVORED SPRING WATER, WINE COOLERS.

The barkeep has a man-bun and chuckles at Lil when she slaps a silver dollar on the bar, saying, 'Oh my, cash is so over!"

Lil pulls out her Colt Peacemaker, grabs the barkeep by his man-bun with one hand and with the other tucks the cold steel barrel under his chin and growls, "Gimme the veggie burger and a banana smoothie, Hefe," and he does.

__________

for Denise's Six Sentence Story ("range")

Music: Cyndi Lauper & Jewel I Wanna Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart

A Man

 

A man of some note,

wearing the planets on a chain

said,

'I can't swing a cat without hitting

a faggot or a 

whore

or a

sinner of some variety."

The birds inside my throat stayed silent

but I could feel

their wings

flutter.

I turned my shoulders to July noon

as a favor

to such small, light riders. 

A man of great learning,

with entire

alphabets lined up on the 

tip of his tongue,

kept them all like pets

and taught

each one

to balance prettily on a circus ball

while he went at them hammer and tongs

to no purpose.

Three times that season,

my eyes

became eggs

and fell to my 

throat/

nest.

Finally, flocks flew filigree patterns

all around 

my head

and a man said, "Harlot! Sapphist!"

and a man said, "Anarchist! Libertine!"

but I was an 

aviary/

melody

beyond such puny mewlings.

On The Way Home From Finishing School

 

On her way home through a deep dark wood, after studying rhyme and meter, what do you suppose should greet her but a big burly black bear. 

"You are in my woods," said the bear, "and I don't know if I should eat you or lick you."

Hands behind her back, the girl replied, "You are a very burly bear, and I don't know if I should teach you or trick you."

The bear eyed her hidden hands and pointed out that "you could be holding a pistol or a picnic basket, a treat for us or a blunderbuss." 

The girl brought out her hands and the bear's eyes grew wide, his face funny.

Then the bear said, "Oh, honey..."

_______

A bit of fun for Thursday's Six Sentence Link-Up. The required word was "meter." A bit out of my métier, I must say. ;-)

Music: The Bare Necessities