January 2017 – Page 2 – WALKING ON THIN ICE

posterior cervical fusion today

January 12, 2017 No Comments

Going in for surgery this morning – a posterior cervical fusion. buzzed my scalp and took down most the beard to meake it easier on them.

They open the back of my neck, remove the back of two neckbones, cut off a burr bruising my spinal cord, screw two chrome & carbon rods to my neck, smear it with bone dust from my hip, sew me back up, and put my neck in a hard collar so I don’t go biting myself.

They may also being removing something from the front of my neck. Been told two different scenarios, so don’t know.

Have to do this because my arthritic neckbones are grinding against each other, bruising my spinal cord, causing my balance to be off, and leaving my fingertips about 10% numb.

Low risk operation, with recovery difficulty somewhere between the nothing of the hip replacement and the brutality of the shoulder replacement.

I already set off metal detecters.

philosophy 128-135

January 11, 2017 1 Comment

well of imagining

Philosophy 128

I figure a bunch of little nothings
add up to something.

Philosophy 129

People plop down
then build up
do things
poop a lot
eat the forest for the trees.

Philosophy 130

OK?
Whaddya mean OK?
It’s K L M N O, not O K.

Philosophy 131

New life
doesn’t replace old life
but does keep the game going.

Philosophy 132

Don’t hurt the hive,
care for the commons.

Philosophy 133

There are two times to write poems –
when the sun goes down,
and before it’s up.

Philosophy 134

Here’s to the ornamental grasses
the textures of the trees
the way of the wind
the weave of the rain
the day or the night mixed with each.

Philosophy 135

Life is a marathon
whose finish line keeps moving
down the road a piece
so you can’t win.

It’s like cutting onions for tear soup,
the recipe never ends.

– Smith, 1.11.2017

life dance

better clown than clone

January 10, 2017 No Comments

painting of Smith by Ken Motz

Self Portrait 2

Better clown than clone
better up than down

Worse with people than alone
prefer smile over frown

Self Portrait 3

Of the hour of the wolf
(3 to 5 am)
plus the hour of the ghosts
(midnight)
and the hour of the owl
(dawn and dusk)
I’m in dawn of owl

– Smith, 1.10.2017

painting of Smith by Ken Motz

sepia past oozes wet and warm

January 9, 2017 No Comments

detail of piece by Mother Dwarf Smith 1926-2005

Flow Chart

Sepia past
oozes wet and warm
through hand-colored present

Blacks turn grey
darks leak light
lets loss in again

Pain of birth
fades in time
with child’s growth

Remembered thens
infect now
in season’s intersect

Old wrong turns
map expectations
tint situational current

And so we let it all go
wait in slow grow
to know

– Smith, 1.9.2017

so here’s some candy and peeks of flesh and shiny buttons and shrieks at less

January 8, 2017 1 Comment

Divine & Conquer

And now back to our program
of stuff that doesn’t matter
and wouldn’t if it did
but keeps you removed
from could and would and should
which never will
because no thought
of ought
so here’s some candy
and peeks of flesh
and shiny buttons
and shrieks at less
we’re all abnormal
but they’re far worse
so fear your neighbor
not the rich man’s curse

And now a word from our other:
eat the rich
they taste just like chicken
(because they are)

– Smith, 1.8.2017

backyard Buddhas

January 7, 2017 1 Comment

Backyard Buddhas

Bunch of yogis on the floor
chanting chance to evermore
their legs locked in pretzels
ringing singing bowls for symbols

There’s money to be made
in seeking the serene
they’ll sunnify your shade
if you’ve got the green

Poor me I walk alone
try to fill my soul
kindness is the goal
with more goodness grown

But still I snarl and growl
snap and bite and maim
like wild wolf I howl
trying to escape your same

You claim want must be lost
desire quenched with blame
that difference is same
once choice is tossed from cost

So for better me
I must lose myself
let ego end its be
put my id on shelf

Once I lose these edges
I will flow with one
seems giving up my sum
must be my first of pledges

But both my dark and light
creates the spark of might
seasons sense of same
complicating aim

– Smith, 1.7.2017

philosophy 122-127

January 6, 2017 1 Comment

Philosophy 122

Bread is life
and life is bred.

Philosophy 123

Need a poem for yesterday
to get me through today

Philosophy 124

Dick discharge
versus hearts large.

Philosophy 125

Life’s a waiting room
you sit and wait for others
for things
for yourself.

Philosophy 126

Learn to see dead frog and rust
and thus re-see yourself.

Philosophy 127

The beast must feast
until angel finagles a better angle.

– Smith, 1.6.2017

but worth it for wife and this cup of coffee

January 5, 2017 2 Comments

Sisyphus Symphony

Go to bed weary
wake into wary

Rise to new dark
pre come of day

Two nore teeth bad
so pay people to hurt me

Same money-rock roll
up no-money hill

Wandering wear
in rounding rim of time

But worth it for wife
and this cup of coffee

– Smith, 1.5.2017

thermofolder

January 4, 2017 No Comments

Conversation with Wife 32

“Why did the French man leave the beaten path?”
No idea.
“Toulouse Lautrec.”

4:20am
You gettin’ up?
“Yeah…”
Good, I’m taking your spot of heat in bed.
“You a thermofile?”
No, I’m more of a thermofolder.
“Ugh.”
My first pun of the day…

You’re putting sugar in your coffee
“Why not, it’s New Year’s day.”
But I offered sugar this morning
and you said no.
“I have my whims.”
Your what?
“My whims, my whims, my whims.”
Is that why you’re called women?

Are your nail-polished toes going to show?
“No.”
So they’re no show toes
“Yes.”
I used to hunt noshotos in Japan
on the island
around the base of that big mountain
Kilimanjaro.

Rubbing the bristles on my cheek,
I tell Lady, you know, I’m part werewolf…
though not werewolf exactly-
more their distant cousins, the waswolves.

– Smith, 1.4.2017

13 months of Smith in Medusa’s Kitchen

January 3, 2017 No Comments

Blue Plate Special

Imagine me
amongst the upper crust.

I was in Baltimore’s Blue Book
for seven years.

Married into it,
divorced out of it.

Which more empty
before or after?

– Smith, 1.3.2017

Here are my past 13 months of Medusa’s Kitchen visits…

My first appearance in Medusa’s Kitchen was after meeting D.R. Wagner at the annual Beat Celebration poetry reading at the Barking Spider in September 2015 hosted by Dianne Borsenik. He liked my opening found Ferlinghetti poem so he included it at the end of one of his weekly Saturday features the next month, and I used that introduction to slip in the door monthly.

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2015/10/maid-of-mist.html – poems and fotos by D.R. Wagner with last poem by Smith.

Kathy Kieth is the publisher/editor, and she puts up a new post everyday… and she has a magic eye for layout.

squirrel hanging upside down trying to get birdseed