Stuffing


 (Retro 90s #1)


An  old  man  Jack  said

This   Is   Not   Poetry.

I responded    It     Is.



Shortly   there-  after

he  left  his  barstool

and growled out the door.


I figured later  that  night

his   dreams   were   scary

because he  lost  the  gold.



I   told   him    Yeah,   Jack,

You got the sly and witty words

But the beanstalk is no escape.


I said   Yeah, This Poem Is

  bro-  ken    beer    bottles,

   grease       and        tar.


Vine -ing   sweet    peas

are  bloom -ing  purple  

on   the   back     stoop


And  this  is  Stuffing

for  turkey  or  chicken:


Add  a  ton  of  onions 

peeled,  chopped  and 

sautéd    until     soft.


Stir in thyme, sage, pepper,

car-a-way  seed  and   salt.

Mix with bread and potatoes.


W h a t-    e v e r,

I’m  not   a  cook 

but that’s Stuffing.




A poem of mine circa 1995-96 when my crew was bike messengers & punk musicians.

Rising Tides


Nas featuring Lauryn Hill - If I Ruled The World

bus commute aka don't feed the animals

traffic horns full backpacks elbow designer bag standing with cour-
tesy cover the mouth quit memory cough remember not and don't
feed the animals headphones face-book youtube search google pandora 
games ebooks news emoji text instagram updates every day twitter
packed bus to downtown times two times five times four comes to forty
hours is two thousand four hundred minutes in four work weeks and each
season to deaden numb dull suppress

                  ------------

the old-growth's gone 2nd or 3rd for marbled murrelet that's an issue
but minor compared to human im- pact food add corvids times nine
I'll circle and spiral with hands near hips lean back same as wild goose
twice a day in preparation for winter when I itch and crave coffee since
I still don't know how to sit still my heart beats like a reptile waits for
just the exact moment escaping two thousand four hundred minutes
of the deaden numb dull suppress

                  -------------

holiday shoppers next to police with batons and guns in Union Square
a helicopter over protesters' chants that Black Lives Matter in today's
America of colonial rule where my bus took two hours to get home 
today quadruple the typical time of two thousand four hundred minutes 
or ninety six hundred a month grows movements after Ferguson why 
wonder why the mockingbird is singing at nine-thirty tonight in this weather
of almost winter?

    Photo credit: Tim Hussin, special to SF Chronicle 12/16/14

Queen Ix Yohl Ikʻnal


In recognition of Indigenous People's Day


Heart of the Wind Place




I saw your granddaughter
              
                   in the laundromat. 
                                    

                She is


a grandmother herself with
                
         two long, parallel braids.
                                 

                  She has


the same prominent nose,
                   
             earthy complexion
                              
      
            and smile.


I watched her and him 
                           
     in pleasant exchange 
                                            

         regard-  ing 


 the  shape of her shoe. 

                                 
 How I did not know  
                                       

                 what



was coming of her regal

               
         walk out the door to curb
                               
          
       no quest-  ion  


 of   roots   and    ground.

                   
       Oceans      and     storm     tides 
 
                                          
      eat     cities.



How  the  jungle  ate  your
                
   Pal- enque.    One   thousand  years
  
                                           
     of   cedar,


mahogany  and   sapodilla  trees  
                       
    at  Usu- ma-  cinta  River,
                        
                 
         Chia- pas.



Heart  of  the  Wind   Place: 

                   
        you   ran   with  the   moon
 
                                     
            to  here?!




Come on Do it Uh huh


  Ladies All the ladies Louder now 
 He's grumbling and I grow concerned. 

 Help me out  Come on  All the ladies
Rants to himself about not getting it, again.

LET'S TALK  ABOUT SEX Alright ladies
I consider my defenses, whether my provisions 

All the ladies Louder now Help me out
suffice and that he won't get a hold of a gun

Come on  All the ladies  LET'S TALK 
because he hates women now won't listen  

   ABOUT  SEX  Alright
about mutual respect and love, how to 

Ladies All the ladies Louder now 
tell her she's beautiful. He blames equality 

Help me out  Come on  All the ladies
for his unfortunate predicament. I rely on  

LET'S TALK  ABOUT SEX Alright ladies
luck + street smarts to get across town at night. 

All the ladies Louder now Help me out
I wanted this to be about hot consensual sex

Come on  All the ladies  LET'S TALK 
but it's about a confused man on the bus
  
   ABOUT  SEX  Alright
 and how to get home safe.



*italics are lyrics of Salt-N-Pepa's song Let's Talk About Sex.


I intended to write a sexy poem in dedication to the annual women's tracking gathering/not-a-conference this year. We got loud and kind of raunchy on Friday night at the Bodega Dunes campground...

Credit goes to poet Patricia Spears Jones and her posting at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2014/09/lets-talk-about-the-midnight-ramble/

Hats off and deep bows to Salt-N-Pepa.

tall on this earth



"Sometimes all I really want to feel is loved"

                           - Modest Mouse lyrics,
                             from edit the sad parts



http://youtu.be/49Gz0Jfp-jI



tall on this earth


hold flailing
                 hearts
on bridge
                 under
                 railing       
human      
hand         
                 warm
                 whisper
tall on this earth

wave of fog 
done by up-
welling       ocean's
                  dance
moon 
phase 
                 star
                 move-
                 ments          
tall on this earth

atmosphere  ex-
pansive      with
                  sentient
                  hills of
coastal
grass
                  bush        
                  lupine
head-         lands                  
tall on this earth                      

sun            vitamin
lagoon       
                  feathers
west          winds
                  track
                  wild-
                  ness    
warm        
whisper
                   human
                   hand
tall on this earth


A Butterfly for Oakland, 1974


 


Forgive me for forgetting you. 

You were meant to be forgotten.

"...not in the MoMA, the Whitney, 

the Met, Art Institute of Chicago, 

National Gallery of Art, Tate Modern,

Centre Pompidou, and others."*


"In major museums, women artists are

only 3 - 5% of permanent collections." **

Your fiery butterfly transformed in 


seventeen minutes of pyrotechnics

retrospective now at ten places.** 



Freedom and flight, ephemeral art,

messenger of the moment: If life is 

a dance then get up and move. Pro-

vocative artist, not drawn at gender

lines what we learn in four decades.

I'm remembering to remember you.




Judy Chicago in 1974 preparing A Butterfly for Oakland. In the background is the Alameda County courthouse aka Moby Dick (via the Black Panthers -  the building's belly has a jail)


Hello Children

Part I
Parental Guidance 


This is the place they say people come 
Reports of San Francisco’s demise have been 

from far, far, far away to find their dreams
greatly exaggerated* news this month that

Chasin' down these meteors and comets
monoculture matters not just for the loss of the

(chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em down)
unexpected or the creative, but because it rises 

Called dreams, in the sky of life
alongside the forced displacement of people.* 

(chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em down
Living off a heart of nuclear fire we unravel with-

Chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em) 
out understanding the sun and how the children

They say this is the place stars are born
of cosmos can come to know each other, how

This is the place where it can happen for you
we are all made of star stuff said Carl Sagan in 

(for you, for you, for you)
1981** (and he got arrested for protesting nuclear 

California knows how to make dreams sweet
bombs) because the cosmic perspective of ex-

California knows how to-
pansive supernova explosions mean catastrophe 

Whisper in your ear and tell ya you're a star
birthed the remainder of elements of us here 

You're a star, you're a star, you're a star, 
now me and you/us and them and nothing. 

You're a star and you keep on shinin'
Punished for no good reason - right?!

California knows how to make me smile 
I wanted to love you but everyone can't 

sometime yes they do (woo) yes they do
get together could be the tech buses the

California knows how to do what they do
illegal eviction notices that force out kids 

when they do what they do when they do 
and single mothers move to the central val-

what they do to me and you too, hey-ay-
ley desert shanty towns and levied slums,

California-how-hey-ay-ay (phenomenon, 
their men are locked down or shot dead.

phenomenon) worldwide original style (indeed)
Reports justify murder and occupation for-

It's everything they say, it's everything they say
getting our cosmic connection with the stars.

It's everything they say
It's everything they say.


all italics are lyrics from Mos Def's song Kalifornia (his version of Tupac Shakur's song)

*from article by Rachel Brahinsky, with Rebecca Solnit's monoculture appropriation, 
in Boom: A Journal of California, Summer 2014, Vol. 4, No. 2.

**I'm guessing around 1981 was when Carl Sagan said we are made of star stuff.


- - - - - - -
Part II 
I dedicate this one right here

To all my homies out there grinding.
You know what I'm saying? Legally and illegally...
You know what I'm talking about?
So, check it out:
-Lupe Fiasco's Kick Push 

http://youtu.be/Gl83mI69nX4


This part II is still in the works.


- - - - -
Part III
I'm the earth, wind, fire & the thunder



TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
an un-epithalamia 

GOLDEN FEET in 4 parts


Part I
Monarch The Grizzly 
===============
Stay tuned, there’s a new part of GOLDEN FEET in the making, about the bear grotto in SF's Golden Gate Park where Monarch lived after he was captured by a posse funded by William Randolph Hearst. This is a photo of him below.




----------------------------------------
GOLDEN FEET part 2
----------------------------------------


Return from the Bear Hunt, 1882
William Hahn (1829-87)

carcass of female California grizzly

GOLDEN FEET part 2


Her cubs are hiding there on the other side of that ridge. They heard her fight to the end, killed on that day when eleven horses and a dead buck came with nine men, five dogs, two boys, whips, ropes, and revolving rifles surrounded her. Golden Feet your cubs could live on without you. 


Extirpated fear for what, mother of honey? What did you do to her? The pain became too much for this Oakland girl, Filipina artist took her own life on Sunday. Seventeen and couldn't find a way out of the grief and despair. She'd taught us how to draw a cat, how to use color and how to put on a brave face for a while. Her shadow was not there then

Last Sunday nobody could save her. Honey paw, pride of the woodlands, what did we do?!


R.I.P. Alex Foronda 6/22/14

California grizzly (Ursus arctos californicus) extinct subspecies since August 1922 or 1924 or so they say...

---------------------------
GOLDEN FEET part 3
---------------------------

                 Bear effigy, ca. 1870, Haida 



          GOLDEN FEET part 3


   Lured to earth metamorphic-

 ly. Sticky and sweet, raw some-

  times sun sometimes shaman,

  strong grounding vibrant force.

  Golden Feet, you've got incre-

   dible teeth. Can I touch your

     body, groom out pests and 

     ugly things for another life-

   time? Will you return to the

     sea and docks, take after 

      cousins? Wood and bone

    inspired by your courage

    alone in light and shadows

   to observe quietly, resting.

    Inlaid and painted to last 

   another century and a half.

   I need your wild medicine,

   Golden Feet in my dreams

   with huckleberry, salmon

    from the ancient stories.

   Can I know your secrets,

  would you willingly, friend

 of fen and forest, honey paw,

  effigy shining in front of me?




-----------------------
GOLDEN FEET part 4

E51 intention of bone 







E51 intention of bone 


Wide cheek bones    Breathe exhale
predatory teeth      empty the belly
brain cavity lower     find calm from
no sagittal crest        today's afflictions
significantly round     do sun salutations
nose hole larger      float in water

Could I request my body   Come near
burn in a seated position        nearer
sent to sea on a homemade    expansion
raft please not frozen then in    transfigure
glass as an example flesh     destruction
beetles work nor 3rd grade    discover
science experiment inflating      unknown
pieces of lung maybe it was      realms of
not a curable disease they      imagination
visit sinister or shy place    comprehend
the horrors of mass      skulls found
extinction human violence   E51 is what
flesh is gone eaten by    one man not

several animals   on the beach
ignore and deny    Frantz Fanon
not of core belief       dissonance
do not listen    bone intention
bone chewed    licked bone
action     of heady 
  
ash    feeds tomorrow
--------------------

Part 1: Monarch the grizzly who was the model for the California flag.
The photo of the grizzly is Monarch.

Part 2 photo of painting from natural sciences gallery of Oakland Museum of California http://www.museumca.org

Part 3 photo of skull from California Academy of Sciences


Part 4 photo of bear effigy from de Young Museum