Poets Theater at its finest. Made in Oakland, CA:)
METAL aka WIND
- Zhuangzi
EARTH
NI PENA NI MIEDO
Without Pain or Fear
- Raúl Zurita
'Bout A Thing*
midnight blue
wild lilac bloom
a bowl to eat
swollen root inner
bark ripe fruit
recline nearly
naked sunshine
heart easy
in stream near
mountain meet sea
spring meadow
Don't You Worry
'Bout A Thing
'Bout A Thing
cycles of leaf
fall where
your songs
nourish
mouth and
warm eyes
touch luscious
FIRE
you are all in those spaces
that stretch
that stretch
and intend
toward change
- Fiona Templeton, from CELL 8, in Cells of Release
door- ways
to roof-
less
shrine of
fire
breath
hold
more
heat
quench
our
love- ly
bodies
WOOD
She opened up and fell apart
and from her parts sprouted
and from her parts sprouted
sleeping thoughts
of love, livid
in love, living
out of love
- Cecilia Vicuña, from Palabrarmas
twist
re-
lease
moss
lichen
on oak
trunk for
fern and
acorn
gather
fern and
acorn
gather
warmth
WATER
The thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth...
- Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck
Before humming bird
gets fire, water is
every where. Eagle
calls hawk to
calls hawk to
mountain since they
miss us. Curled up
and sleeping, they
dream the Ohlone stories.
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.
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
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
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
-------------
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.
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
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
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
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
on bridge
under
railing
human
hand
warm
railing
human
hand
warm
whisper
tall on this earth
wave of fog
done by up-
welling ocean's
dance
moon
phase
star
phase
star
move-
ments
tall on this earth
atmosphere ex-
pansive with
sentient
hills of
coastal
grass
hills of
coastal
grass
bush
lupine
head- lands
lupine
head- lands
tall on this earth
sun vitamin
lagoon
feathers
west winds
track
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.
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.
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:
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