WALKING ON THIN ICE

alpha omega

alpha – foto by Smith

Skin, age and paper
In secret dance disabled
Raisins from the dead

omega – foto by Smith

red taillights

gasoline on water – foto by Smith

Glanced through my pocket notepad to see if there were any lines I could harvest worth cyber ink and found these odd fragments all in a row.

~ ~ ~

Smith’s Lo-Cal Diet

You want to reduce your calorie intake?

Simple;
Just name your cupcake or ice cream or rabbit or child “10 Calories”
Then you can eat the entire cone, cow, critter or cousin
And just write 10 calories
On your diet chart
It’s free form food orgy
Eat all you want
For days and days and days
After all
Who hasn’t got room for 10 calories?

~ ~ ~

Two goofs a gander make

~ ~ ~

Everybody wants
Not everybody has

~ ~ ~

Red taillights
Dusk and distance settling in

~ ~ ~

If every man’s an island,
Are all women inlets?

back of the bus – foto by Smith

the promised land of milk & honey

$2 used t-shirt from Unique Thrift – foto by Smith

The Corporate Mean

The promised land of milk and honey
Hides the men of scars and shame
Who came they say to slay their dragon
Yet slayed to stay the same

Sleep creeps like Jason’s wool
Down shelf enchanted eyes
Devolved from Mammon’s muse
These self selected wise
Inside their phantom rooms
In fairy tale castles
Devoid of viable dooms
As integrated assholes
They sway
Illusion’s lies

— Smith, 1974

Jacob’s ladder – foto by Smith

bornday blues

the United Mutations of Smith – foto by Smith

Bornday Blues

Turned 65 today
I’ve learned you get wiser
And more weary

Boogie to the blues
Then get the blues to mambo
Dance these lies away

in the land of the blind, the one-eye is king – foto by Smith

And as for tonight, Lady and I will be at Mac’s Backs to hear Minneapolis poet Chris Shillock, whom we’ll meet for the first time in a couple hours when Lady cooks him dinner.

poet Christopher Shillock from Minneapolis, MN

Two visiting poets at Mac’s this week, come out if you can!

Tonight
Wednesday, March 9th at 7 p.m. at Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry 1820 Coventry Rd. Cleveland Heights

GAYL TELLER & CHRISTOPHER SHILLOCK

Gayl Teller is the Poet Laureate of Nassau County, Long Island NY and has published five poetry collections including Inside the Embrace (Word Tech/Cherry Grove 2010).

As Poet Laureate Gayl has initiated Stray Feet, a roving poetry show and coordinated a workshop/anthology project that resulted in the publication of Toward Forgiveness, an anthology featuring ninety-nine Long Island poets. Gayl is also the founder of The Mid-Island Y JCC Poetry Reading series which has brought national and regional poets to Long Island since 1996.

She has received numerous prizes and awards including the Edgar Allen Poe prize and her poetry has been widely published and anthologized. Gayl teaches at Hofstra University.

Gayl will be joined by Minneapolis poet Christopher Shillock. Christopher Shillock was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1940. He grew up in South America and Europe where his parents served in the US Foreign Service. He has an MA in philosophy from the City University of New York. In 1972 he moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota.

During the 1980’s he was active in various Communist and Anarchist groups where an unerring instinct led him to the losing side in every factional dispute. Since then he has adopted the working hypothesis that the creative life is itself a radical act in a world dedicated to ignorance and exploitation.

Christopher has published several book and book/media collaborations, including Testament of Fear, Irregular Conjugations, An Invitiation to the Terrorist Ball and the newly released Invisible Jazz. He has read at numerous venues and festivals including the Minnesota Fringe Festival, The Powderhorn Writers Festival and the Rogue Buddha Gallery.

“Chris Shillock is almost like a poet laureate of Minneapolis, of the urban, downtown, gritty rock-and-roll/poetry/spoken word/everything scene” ~ Write on Radio KFAI 90.3

Gayl Teller – gaylteller.com/
Christopher Shillock – shillock.com
Mac’s Backs – booksite.com/mback/

poet Gayl Teller from Long Island NY

lite verse

light – foto by Smith

Lite Verse

We come from light
We go to light
But what a heavy in between

— Smith, 2005

heavy in between – foto by Smith

growl howl

signs – foto by Smith

Best way to fine-tune a new poem is to read it to an audience, see where the tongue trips, the flow flops. Posted this in January, then read it to audiences and had to lose bits and pieces. Here are the remains remixed, reposted.

Belly Back Beat Off Blues

Dancing down
the Corner Buddhist Beat Cafe.
Digging Pretty Lady
scoping Haiku Baby’s sway.
Stinky Finger
picking Pussy’s pocket.
Lockjaw John
humping rhythm and blues.

Crankman’s behind the wheel
working latest deal.
In get-away zone
Monkey Jones
jimmies Lucy’s locket
fluxing right and left
in jelly jam scam
for Uncle Sham.

Whirl Girl
does the Duze
looking to shake
her bad leaf break.
Growl howls
yet another one of his poems
as Mama Boy slurs
his sip & slip again.

All these cats
blowing their own
beat
Off Beat
Beat Off
Slippery Slope Cope
Less Than Most
Coast
On Tomorrow’s Sorrow
Blues . . .

you know, that old
“belly bump back, back bump belly
gonna go jack my jam in jelly”
jewel.

semicircus – foto by Smith

2 out of town poets reading Wednesday at Mac’s Backs

poet Gayl Teller from Long Island, NY

poet Christopher Shillock from Minneapolis, MN

Two visiting poets at Mac’s this week, come out if you can!

Wednesday, March 9th at 7 p.m. at Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry 1820 Coventry Rd. Cleveland Heights

GAYL TELLER & CHRISTOPHER SHILLOCK

Gayl Teller is the Poet Laureate of Nassau County, Long Island NY and has published five poetry collections including Inside the Embrace (Word Tech/Cherry Grove 2010).

As Poet Laureate Gayl has initiated Stray Feet, a roving poetry show and coordinated a workshop/anthology project that resulted in the publication of Toward Forgiveness, an anthology featuring ninety-nine Long Island poets. Gayl is also the founder of The Mid-Island Y JCC Poetry Reading series which has brought national and regional poets to Long Island since 1996.

She has received numerous prizes and awards including the Edgar Allen Poe prize and her poetry has been widely published and anthologized. Gayl teaches at Hofstra University.

Gayl will be joined by Minneapolis poet Christopher Shillock. Christopher Shillock was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1940. He grew up in South America and Europe where his parents served in the US Foreign Service. He has an MA in philosophy from the City University of New York. In 1972 he moved to the Twin Cities to attend the University of Minnesota.

During the 1980’s he was active in various Communist and Anarchist groups where an unerring instinct led him to the losing side in every factional dispute. Since then he has adopted the working hypothesis that the creative life is itself a radical act in a world dedicated to ignorance and exploitation.

Christopher has published several book and book/media collaborations, including Testament of Fear, Irregular Conjugations, An Invitiation to the Terrorist Ball and the newly released Invisible Jazz. He has read at numerous venues and festivals including the Minnesota Fringe Festival, The Powderhorn Writers Festival and the Rogue Buddha Gallery.

“Chris Shillock is almost like a poet laureate of Minneapolis, of the urban, downtown, gritty rock-and-roll/poetry/spoken word/everything scene” ~ Write on Radio KFAI 90.3

Gayl Teller – gaylteller.com/
Christopher Shillock – shillock.com
Mac’s Backs – booksite.com/mback/

poetry – foto by Smith