AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

Last Chance Salon


Spirit Catcher by Mother Dwarf Smith, 2000 – foto Lady K

The Smithsonian Experience by Lady K, 2010 – foto Smith

Paper Work by Mother Dwarf Smith, 2003 – foto Smith


The Validity of Relationships, 1987 – assemblegae & foto Smith

XXXOOO, 1998 – assemblage & foto Smith


Clean Slate, 2003 – assemblage & foto Smith


On the Road, 2003 – assemblage & foto Smith

The Republic, 1994 – assemblage & foto Smith

Lady Godiva, 1999
48-star American flag shirt by Mother Dwarf, early 1980s
assemblage & foto Smith

Last chance to see 64 pieces of art
from 4 Smiths over a 44 year period

Sacred Pulp
Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths
featuring
Mother Dwarf Smith, 1926 – 2005
Cat Smith, 1957 – 1987
Lady K. Smith, 1972 – ?
Steven B. Smith, 1946 – ?

Mastroianni Arts
2688 W 14th St, Cleveland, OH 44113
(in Tremont, 2 blocks south of Lincoln Park)

For 10 large photos of the more 64 pieces in the show, go to
MastroianniArts.com.

Sacred Pulp poems


Shadow Smith – foto Lady K

Poet Ms. Blayne who caught our Sacred Pulp poetry reading Saturday mailed this comment: “What a fantastic reading! My cheeks still hurt just thinking about it. :)”

Mine too. I grinned ear to ear two hours.

Here’s my portion of it. It’s an odd creature.

~ ~ ~

X (solve for) =

I get up in the morning
and I know nothing.
I do bad during the day
and learn from my mistake
do bad again, learn again
bad, learn
bad, learn
bad, learn
and by the time I go to bed at night
I’m wiser
I’ve learned stuff
I know things
I know how to do tomorrow better.
I go to sleep.
I forget.
I wake.
I know nothing.

~ ~ ~

Chairman of the Bored

Don’t call us
we won’t call you

The system’s not broke
it’s fixed

It’s always been fixed
in favor of the few

Who with fear and force
control the course

Sometimes you just got to bite the bully
and carry on

No glory without grief

~ ~ ~

Wheel Deal

There’s something wrong with this world
I mean I wash the dishes
and more dirty dishes appear
I clean the cat box
of clayed shit and clumped piss
and more’s magically there
every day I defecate
yet defecate the next
dedicated to rerelease I guess
I eat in morning
noon evening in-between
again and again
I drink water piss it out drink it in
again and again
in never ending script
get up
run the rat wheel
walk the rat wheel
sit the rat wheel
be the rat wheel
resolve to better
fall to fail
it gets cold I put on sweater
it gets hot I put on sweat
is there a seek in cycle
or learning in loop
something actually done
accomplished
improved
or are they just waiting for me to see the light
I’ve already seen in previous scene
done played
paid
replayed
repaid
is this but screen test
or something real
I mean what’s the deal?

~ ~ ~

A Crooked Man

There was a crooked man
not politician or banker
nor CEO or priest or moral shanker
(though all fine crooks in each their way)
but a simple guy with crooked sight
who thought fair meant fair
and right meant right
no matter how rich or big or tall
the same truths applied to all
if A were rule for man with penny
A must abide for man with many
if B is wrong for one with naught
it’s just as wrong for one with lots
as poor pay tax and serve and fight
so should rich add their might
and give to keep this going going
this very world they seem to be whoring
using lawyers politicians guns and money
not to mention TV and honey
to dull our minds to take our score
demanding we must pay far more
so wealth in growth can glow galore
they say less more than we deserve
think we’d be happy we’re not tempted
by all they buy with money exempted
and they’re probably right
in Zen light
for stuff is trouble
stuff takes space
stuff grows like fungus in dark dank place
stuff needs storage stuff needs safe
stuff sucks storer stuff takes place
stuff becomes bad bit breath
stuff stiffs stuff
stuff self-smit
so bet on tortoise
forget the hare
stuff is rigor mortis
stufflessness free air
winning is failing
failing success
oh the meek shall inherit
one hell of a mess

~ ~ ~

The Owl & the Pussycat Have Sex

Such a strange love this fowl and feline
this bond between cat and bird
in waters deep beyond their reach
a heck of a hoot
in their catbird heat
with a fine feathered furring for each.

Except that
this part here
won’t fit that part there
and just where does what enter what
and if they do
and these things merge
must their children
their egg-fur future share?

Or if bird and cat
choose even stranger loon
in catbird bop
perhaps they’ll do it doggie style
howling, hooting
meowing at the moon.

~ ~ ~

Closed Shop

I used to have dilemmas
a whole herd of them
until I sold them for a pack of solutions
but I was better at holding dilemmas
than hustling solutions
so lost them all
but at least the dilemmas are gone

~ ~ ~

Mexico Way

The high water rustle of wind
in palm tree leaves
hanging in pre-rain sky
soothe as I walk
toward cloud shroud mountain
mañana and morrow
mixing in my mind

~ ~ ~

I, Robot

I get up same time each morning
pee, pop pill
brush, gargle
pick up cat
carry her purr to living room
Lady pets cat
I kiss Lady
make pan cowboy coffee
feed cat
sit in broken chair
sip black coffee
blog
my first forty minutes of day
daily day in day out
some say robot rut
but pleasures peek
from wake to blog:
first light, first purr, first kiss, first sip

~ ~ ~

Two Truths in Want of Fiction

There’s a ghost of a chicken’s squawk
In the small dog yap penned across the way
Been barking two years now
Guess it’s got nowhere to go

There’s an urgency beating at me
Beating at me beating at me
An urgency beating at me
And I ain’t no drum

~ ~ ~

What’s In It for Me?

Can’t count on reason
Can’t count on intention
Can’t count on destination
Can’t count on accumulation
Can’t count on actualization
So it’s the living
The life along the way
Friends, family, feline
That makes or breaks
The bank

~ ~ ~

One-More Smith

My younger brother called me One-more Smith
He said
“Every time we get ready to leave
You say
One more toke
One more line
One more glass of wine.”

Now I’m 20 years sober
And he’s 24 years dead.

~ ~ ~

Me, Myself and Lie

There’re three mes in me:
skin, brain, and bone.
and none of them will leave me alone.

~ ~ ~

So Ain’t Necessary So

Slowly the talk changes
as we realize
the way we live
will be the death of us all.

Artists poets writers
need hurry this conversation
and coming conversion along,
before it’s too late.

If it ain’t already so.

You must sew what you rip.
Since you reap what you sow.

~ ~ ~

Fallen sparrow tracks
In the snow lead nowhere
Follow anyway

~ ~ ~

Mom Pop Shop

This this is where I am
the dead are dead
their just desserts undelivered
and regret a nasty beast
with no heart to pierce with truth

~ ~ ~


Now where – foto Smith

But this morning! Wow!


Occupy Cleveland anti-foreclosure action 3.5.2012 – foto Smith

I physically hurt big time and am chinging along inside like I’m on one hundred cups of coffee, but my faith in the Occupy Cleveland movement just received a huge boost in the admiration and respect department, with an added dash of hope for dessert.

Outside of two non-violent direct actions where Occupy Cleveland camped in the front yards of houses to prevent foreclosure evictions (one successful, one not) and a couple mass public parties full of family, folk, friends and children, Occupy Cleveland has for me been reduced to Lady and I going downtown every morning to bring breakfast to the cold overnight occupiers in the Info Tent on Public Square, which is a worthy act in and of itself — both for their stamina in enduring the cold and cops for the rest of us, and our four months of feeding them breakfast (which seriously hurts our limited income existence).

I mean I’ve gone on a couple marches, but it all seemed sort of like masturbation in that we made a lot of noise and pleased ourselves but it didn’t seem to DO anything . . . although we were certainly raising public awareness, so maybe I’m being too impatient, harsh, and judgmental.

But this morning! Wow!

Since tomorrow is the big Super Tuesday 3-card Monte shell game election, they planned a major anti-foreclosure march and (unknownst to almost all of us) a non-violent anti-foreclosure direct action . . . the direct actioneers kept their plans secret from the rest of us because of the police and DHS and FBI and authority-only-knows what other multi-lettered government agency moles, plants, spies and traitors to the Constitution they’ve slipped into our group to monitor what we do.

It was 27 degrees Fahrenheit this morning with snow (feeling like 17 according to weather.com) when we arrived at the almost empty tent which had promised free breakfast to all the marchers. We found three people and boxes of so-so donuts. My heart sank, but I understood because of the lousy weather. But over the next half hour, maybe 40 people arrived, and four gallons of free coffee, and warm muffins, and bagels, and signs, and drums, and banners, and American flags from across time, and a level of excitement which was totally contagious.

I gave up coffee 8 days ago because it was spiking my anxiety levels, but unfortunately due to being so cold, I drank a free cup -for the heat – bad move.

While we all gathered to march to the (in)Justice Center to stand below the window where they were auctioning off foreclosed houses to the capitalistic vultures, four of our members entered the auction room and disrupted it, trying to stop it. Of course they were “taken upstairs” by the police and the auction continued, so we banged on drums and shouted slogans and waved flags for another hour outside in support. They were still going at it when Lady and I left after two hours due to my pain.

My mistake was in carrying a huge Betsy Ross American flag and waving it all over the place, which destroyed my arthritic hands so much I’m typing right now with two painful clumps of agony.

The Sheriff department showed up immediately of course and six of them moved us from the (in)Justice steps back down to the public sidewalk while they stood above us and watched our protest.

I was aware we were in a potentially dangerous situation where we could have been illegally arrested or abused — had we been in Oakland California, we would have been beaten bloody by their police — but I have to say the Cleveland police were extremely respectful, gentle, patient, even understanding. One cop walking by actually raised his clenched fist in solidarity. Several protestors moved to the middle of the street with their 12 foot banner and disrupted traffic and all the head Sheriff did was walk out and calmly ask them to move back to the sidewalk, which they did. There were no arrests or altercations or harsh words outside. I’ve no idea what happened inside the foreclosure auction.

I was also impressed by the marchers because when the police came out and told us we the public were trespassing on public property and had to leave the public steps of a public building which we own because we paid for it with our taxes (just as we pay their police salaries with our taxes so they technically should be working for us instead of the corporations) we all smiled, said okay and immediately complied.

Non-violence and non-hate are powerful tools, even when they don’t work (like in Oakland, NYC, Boston, Washington D.C. etc).

I don’t know the status of the four non-violent direct action occupiers “taken upstairs,” but will pass the word along in a later blog.

A word of warning – Congress is in the process of passing a new bill that makes it illegal for anyone to protest or even be in any area the Government says is a temporary non-protest area; and they can define any area at any time they choose without telling the rest of us. This essentially eviscerates the U.S. Constitution which says Congress may pass NO laws which abridge our right of free speech. This new law is because they’re afraid of what the Occupy movement has already accomplished and they’re frightened to death of the 50,000 protesters planning on making their voices heard at the upcoming 38th G8 summit in Chicago May 15-22.

The rich are running scared, so they’re changing their own laws in order to silence the rest of us before the G8 summit where the rich gather to decide how to treat the rest of us, thus making it easier to lock us up. In fact, there’s another law in the works in Congress which will allow them to literally take away an American’s citizenship. Can you believe this? They are planning a law which says the rich can decide who is an American and who is not, and those not are to be given over to the military for indefinite detention without recourse to either lawyer or trial — indefinitely.

There are dark dangerous clouds sweeping toward us, but today’s exuberant non-violent cheerful respectful Occupy Cleveland march shows me there’s still a chance We The People will stand up and say to our so-called elite masters that NO, Enough Is Enough — We Are The People And You Work For Us . . . We Pay Your Salaries And We Own These Public Buildings And We Are Tired Of Your Pigging Out At The Trough While Trashing What’s Good And Right And Moral And Just And Fair For The Rest Of Us Who Are The 99%.

If I were an “elite,” I’d start listening. It’s in their own best interest because “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Our numbers are growing rapidly; pretty soon there will be too many of us for them to make us “disappear” in the night into the depths of their military prisons.

Peace and justice and respect to all, in spite of our many differences and paths and beliefs and desires.

May we all listen, and learn.

If nothing else, Mother Earth deserves it.

Nay, demands it.













Occupy Cleveland anti-foreclosure action 3.5.2012 – fotos Smith

PS – I know I’m doing the government’s work for them by posting what I post, but they’ve had a file on me since 1968 and they’re going to do whatever they want to do anyway and I for one refuse to live in fear and bow down to their lies.

Dood duty done well


Poets & artists everywhere – foto Smith

Putting on a poetry reading is always a crap shoot, especially in this town where there’s always multiple worthy cultural events going on any day you schedule.

People joke about Cleveland but in our 31 months of travel and reading in cities like London England and Krakow Poland and Oaxaca Mexico we never found a scene as edgy and vital as here . . . of course that could simply be because we know this scene intimately; but we did hit the cream of London’s poetry scene thanks to meeting poet John Clarke who’s also known as the Jazzman for his predilection to the Beats.

There are a lot of ways of weighing the success of a poetry reading: quality of audience, quantity of audience, quality of performers, quality of poems read, quality of the open mic sign-up sheet, quality and quantity of comments afterward.

By all those standards, yesterday was magic, amazing, perhaps the best reading I’ve attended. I am honored, grateful, and relieved . . . especially since it was only my third time in 49 years of poetry being the MC. My cheek muscles were aching from 2 hours of constant grinning.

I feel high and happy because something I planned worked well, yet this morning after am sort of down and depleted because something I looked forward to and worried about for so long is now over. Go figure.



Poets & artists everywhere – fotos Smith

Come one, Come all



Please don’t make me go to that poetry reading, Brer Fox – fotos Smith

Come One Come All to the Sacred Pulp 5-Feature Poetry Word Fest With Backing Music By Strawman & Open Mic TODAY 2 P.M. At The Mastroianni Gallery In Tremont (Cleveland) Ohio.

Sacred Pulp poetry reading Saturday March 3rd 2-4pm
with
Kate Sopko, Cavana Faithwalker, Wendy Shaffer, Lady K and Smith
Plus music by Strawman and open mic

Wendy Shaffer will be selling her new poetry book “22 YEARS

Poet order: Smith, Lady K, Kate Sopko, Cavana Faithwalker, Wendy Shaffer, open mic . . . all backed with music by Strawman.

Mastroianni Arts
2688 W 14th St, Cleveland, OH 44113
(in Tremont, 2 blocks south of Lincoln Park)


3 ladies reading today with 2 guys – foto Smith

The reading will be surrounded by 44 years of Smith family art — 64 pieces from 1969 thru 2012. There will be one more chance to see the show after today during next Friday’s Tremont Art Walk.

Sacred Pulp
Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths
featuring
Mother Dwarf Smith, 1926 – 2005
Cat Smith, 1957 – 1987
Lady K. Smith, 1972 – ?
Steven B. Smith, 1946 – ?

March 9, 2012, 6 to 10 p.m.
Mastroianni Arts
2688 W 14th St, Cleveland, OH 44113

For 10 large photos of the more 64 pieces in the show, go to
MastroianniArts.com.

“A splendid time is guaranteed for all”


Children welcome – foto Smith

Polyurethane sun set







Setting sun 3.1.2012 Cleveland Ohio USA – Smith fotos

TOMORROW
Sacred Pulp poetry reading 2-4 p.m. Saturday March 3rd
featuring
Kate Sopko, Cavana Faithwalker, Wendy Shaffer, Lady K and Smith
backed with music by Strawman
followed by open mic

Wendy Shaffer will be selling her new poetry book “22 YEARS
published by Lady K’s The City Poetry Press

Mastroianni Arts
2688 W 14th St, Cleveland, OH 44113
(in Tremont, 2 blocks south of Lincoln Park)

Reading will be surrounded by 64 pieces of art from 1969-2012
by four Smiths — two dead, two alive.

Sacred Pulp
Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths

featuring
Mother Dwarf Smith, 1926 – 2005
Cat Smith, 1957 – 1987
Lady K. Smith, 1972 – ?
Steven B. Smith, 1946 – ?

Final showing will be during the Tremont Art Walk March 9, 2012
(my 66th birthday)

For 10 large photos of the art, go to MastroianniArts.com.

Sometimes the words disappear


Half Smith – foto Smith

Sometimes the words disappear.


Space available – Smith foto of a Cavana Faithwalker foto

Sacred Pulp Poetry reading Saturday March 3rd 2-4pm
with
Kate Sopko, Cavana Faithwalker, Wendy Shaffer, Lady K and Smith
Plus music by Strawman and open mic

Wendy Shaffer will be selling her new poetry book “22 YEARS