Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

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






Monday, December 26, 2022

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. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Friday, December 16, 2022

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. 

Thursday, December 15, 2022

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

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

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



Tuesday, December 13, 2022

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.
________


Music: The Bee Gees Lamplight



Monday, December 12, 2022

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



Friday, December 9, 2022

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 





Wednesday, December 7, 2022

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


Monday, December 5, 2022

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



Friday, December 2, 2022

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.


Thursday, December 1, 2022

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