AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

a dozen days, 7 shorties

October 12, 2021 No Comments

a dozen days, 7 shorties

2021.10.1 – Wife’s working
2021.10.2 – The end of times
2021.10.2 – Good coffee
2021.10.2 – Caffeine
2021.10.5 – Sittin’ in dark
2021.10.10 – After false fire alarm
2021.10.12 – Life and time

~ ~ ~

Wife’s working
roofers are working
I sit in sun

~ ~ ~

The end of times
is just beginning
welcome to the future

~ ~ ~

Good coffee
extra face slap
from inside

~ ~ ~

Caffeine
and cannabis
holy trinity

~ ~ ~

Sittin’ in dark
rain fallin’
life livin’

The world out there
and the world way out there
whirl within

Faint rooster crow
distant train wail
hope rises

~ ~ ~

After false fire alarm
waiting in dark
watching

~ ~ ~

Life and time
a one-way dead-end street

The outside of the backside
it lingers and it grows

Tribal fire’s slight warmth
temporary light against the night

Window haze hiding city
sirens seeping through the woods

Programming on Television Earth
cold souvenir of reality

Wet whispers in the dark
hunger creeping from the heart

Sometimes you hit the mainline
sometimes you don’t

It’s the maybes that get you
they suck you from your song

doin’ the segue shuffle . . .

September 27, 2021 No Comments

doin’ the segue shuffle . . .

O Money – The Mekons
Elephant Talk – King Crimson
One Of My Kind – Concrete Blonde
Bywater Bhangra (Improv #1) – The Dead Kenny G’s
If Jesus Drove A Motor Home – Jim White w/ Aimee Mann
Your Mama Won’t Like Me – Suzi Quatro
Johnny Feelgood – Liz Phair
Mechanical Flattery – Lydia Lunch
#1 Crush (Nelle Hooper Mix) – Garbage
New Orleans Is Sinking – The Tragically Hip
I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash
What We All Want – The Dandy Warhols w/ Gang of Four
I’d Rather Be A Devil – Guadalupe Plata
Misterioso – Thelonious Monk
Thanks A Lot – Ernest Tubb
Federal Funding – Cake
I Ate Lucy – Critters Buggin
My Shits Fucked Up – Kinky Friedman

shuffle nuff . . .

September 26, 2021 No Comments

shuffle nuff . . .

Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores – Bauhaus
Teenagers – My Chemical Romance
Restin’ Bones – Primus
Chaise Longue – Wet Leg
Hoochie Woman – Tori Amos
Give Me One Reason – Tracy Chapman
I’m Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails edit) – David Bowie
The Snake and the Moon – Dead Can Dance
Egyptian Blues – Ellen McIlwaine
Pedestrian At Best – Courtney Barnett
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Bob Dylan
Bad Karma – Miley Cyrus & Joan Jett
Thanks A Lot – Ernest Tubb
War Pigs – Cake
Family Pain – Swamp Dogg
The Resignation vs The Comeback Special – Todd Snider
Backward Country Boy Blues – Duke Ellington, Mingus, Max Roach
Nuages – Willie Nelson

well dressed thieves

September 2, 2021 No Comments
Republican policy – kill people for money
Democratic policy – kill fewer people for slightly less money
Politicians’ creed – I got mine, screw you

f**k s**t b***h

August 12, 2021 No Comments

13 shuffle songs in which our A.I. Alexa won’t say certain words . . . she’ll say instead “My [silence] [silence] Up’. However Google Assistant does say the words Alexa censors.

My Shits Fucked Up – Kinky Friedman
Fuck That Guy – The Dirty Knobs
Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do – Robyn
Fuck and Run – Liz Phair
Fuck Your Acid Trip – Modest Mouse
Fuck All The Perfect People – Chip Taylor & The New Ukrainians
Fuck With Sad Girls – Bonnie Whitmore
Sex with Your Parents (Motherfucker) Part II – Lou Reed
Never Fuck A Spider On The Fly – Modest Mouse
Bitches Brew – Miles Davis
Wide Wide River (of Shit) – The Fugs
I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch – Courtney Barnett
My Shit’s Fucked Up – Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon wrote My Shit’s Fucked Up after discovering he had cancer.

from The Designated Mourner

July 30, 2021 No Comments

*If you look at the world . . . most people in it are the ones we can only refer to, rather nervously and gingerly, by means of those terribly melodramatic and almost hysterical words like “wretched,” “miserable,” “unfortunate,” “desperate,” “powerless,” “poor.” . . . And these particular people — and, you know, God knows why — well, they just don’t like us. They don’t like us. They simply don’t like us. So it’s not hard to see what will happen one day.*

– from The Designated Mourner,” a play by actor / playwright / director Wallace Shawn

shuffle humor

July 6, 2021 No Comments

sometimes shuffle has sense of humor

Walk Like An Egyptian – The Bangles
Eternal Consumption Engine – Primus
Tried to Be a Man – Rickie Lee Jones
Dig, Lazarus, Dig – Nick Cave
My Brain – Mose Allison
Johnny – Suicide
Misterioso – Thelonious Monk
Church of Anthrax – John Cale & Terry Riley
I’d Rather Be a Devil – Guadalupe Plata
Know Your Rights – The Clash
Mother Tongue – Dead Can Dance
Friction – Television
My Shit’s Fucked Up – Kinky Friedman
Walking Into Battle With The Lord – Chumbawamba

6/12-17/2021

June 17, 2021 No Comments

6/12-17/2021

~ ~ ~

Day is rock
life is hill
wife keeps me going

~ ~ ~

I know the status quo
wife above
husband below

~ ~ ~

My flesh
my bone
what’s me?

~ ~ ~

Good bad
bad good
that’s life

~ ~ ~

Lilacs
soft slow sun
park bench heaven

~ ~ ~

my May Medusa

June 7, 2021 No Comments

I quite like my May feature on Medusa’s Kitchen — 9 poems, 10 fotos.

This isn’t always the case since I submit them a month before they appear, and I’m not always happy when I read them 4 weeks later.

Publisher/editor Kathy Kieth’s blurb is much appreciated as well:

“Our thanks to Steven Smith for rocking our poetry world today with his sounds and senses (dogs piss, rocket hiss, cricket creep, frog peep)! Poetry is about the music of words, and Steven is definitely a composer who knows all about that. Thanks again, Smith, for the melodies and rhythms of your poetry and visuals.”

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2021/05/spirit-to-bone.html

68 features so far – 563 poems, 596 fotos, 32 songs.

all day I face the barren waste without the taste of water

June 7, 2021 No Comments
They’re fixing a hole gushing water in our one-block dead-end street, and turned our water off with no warning. I drove out and got 3 gallons of water, and the street was closed when I got back, so parked and walked in. It looks to be at least an all day thing. I feel helpless relying on civilization for water, food, electricity – pretty much none of which I can supply myself. Felt this way ever since Hurricane Sandy cut off our electricity mid-winter 9 years ago and we sat in cold uncertaintly for 24 hours.
“Only a pawn in their game.”
On the other hand, water and electric folk seem to be adept at getting things working again, so I’ll make myself another cup of strong coffee using store-bought water and wait, hoping the toilet holds up.