WALKING ON THIN ICE

Smith is in the Kitchen today

Rolling Up Those Hours

My monthly feature on Medusa’s Kitchen (9 poems, 10 fotos).

“Smith is in the Kitchen today, and welcome back to him and his way-cool poetry and visuals! Steven Smith suffered a bad fall recently, with multiple injuries, and he’s having to work his way through it with not-a-little pain. Fortunately, recent arm surgery was completed with success. Hang in there, Big Guy! Joy, love, coffee and weed…” – Kathy Kieth, edited and published Medusa’s Kitchen.

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2022/10/rolling-up-those-hours.html

new dozen added to old shuffle pool

new dozen added to old shuffle pool

310 – Industrial Disease – Dire Straits
311 – abcdefu – Gayle
312 – Atemporal – Lucrecia Dalt
313 – Everything Goes To Hell – Tom Waits
314 – God’s Away On Business – Tom Waits
315 – Colossus – Idles
316 – Cool Dry Place – The Traveling Wilburys
317 – Black Diamond Bay – Bob Dylan
318 – Senor Blues – Horace Silver
319 – Blue Haze – Miles Davis Quartet, Horace Silver, Percy Heath & Art Blakey
320 – Israelites – Desmond Dekker
321 – Genesis – Otyken

my morning almost dental cleaning

27 songs surviving

3 years ago I had a 500-song-past-100-years playlist I was culturally quite happy with . . . unfortunately it didn’t make good shuffle music — I mean, how many times can one enjoy Happy Trails by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (song #500)?

Since then I’ve deleted all but 27 of them, added more (up to 318 now), and in the process moved 1,606 to my deleted file (which makes a fascinating read).

Here’re the survivors.

001 – Everybody Knows – Leonard Cohen
002 – Everything Is Broken – Bob Dylan
003 – It’s My Way – Buffy Sainte-Marie
004 – Frank Sinatra – Cake
005 – I’m Waiting for the Man – Velvet Underground
006 – Mean Mama Blues – Ernest Tubb
007 – God & the FBI – Janis Ian
008 – Misterioso – Thelonious Monk
009 – Walking in the Rain (album version) – Grace Jones
010 – Run, The Darkness Will Pass – Shabaka and the Ancestors
011 – Desolation Row – Bob Dylan
012 – Epistrophy – Thelonious Monk
013 – Open All Night – Bruce Springsteen
014 – I Feel So Bad – Elvis Presley
015 – Send My Love (To Your New Lover) – I’m With Her w/ Paul Kowert
016 – If Jesus Drove a Motor Home – Jim White & Aimee Mann
017 – Walk Like an Egyptian – The Bangles
018 – Backward Country Boy Blues – Duke Ellington, Mingus, Max Roach
019 – Letter from Abroad – John Cale
020 – For a Ride – John Cale
021 – Criminal (radio edit) – Fiona Apple
022 – Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’ – Bonnie Raitt / Steve Freund
023 – Hendershot – Les Claypool & The Holy Mackerel
024 – Breaking Point – The Specials
025 – Hell on Heels – Pistol Annies
026 – Only Happy When It Rains – Garbage
027 – Vitamin C – CAN

Word harvest 1-31 2022

Word harvest 1-31 2022

2022.1.1 – The siren of flashing lights
2022.1.5 – Seems I’m inclined
2022.1.5 – Think I’ll toke this town
2022.1.7 – I’ll huff
2022.1.8 – Dead Man’s Curve
2022.1.12 – Coffee in
2022.1.13 – Sunday Sermon
2022.1.14 – We speak half truth at best
2022.1.15 – Grey sky
2022.1.17 – Ground white
2022.1.18 – 56th year of weed
2022.1.19 – There’s these Texas rabbits
2022.1.25 – Did two armed robberies 1970
2022.1.25 – I’m thinking
2022.1.25 – Digging bones
2022.1.26 – Old bones
2022.1.27 – The 4 C’s
2022.1.30 – The trouble with subtlety

~ ~ ~

The siren of flashing lights
race across the bridge
in fog
playing hide and seek
with empty trees

No coyote howls
in silent harmony

~ ~ ~

Seems I’m inclined
to work the word mines
for the weird mind

~ ~ ~

Think I’ll toke this town
stone by stone
it’s 4:20 somewhere

~ ~ ~

I’ll huff
and I’ll puff
and I’ll toke this joint down

~ ~ ~

Dead Man’s Curve
tells me all I need to know
about life

~ ~ ~

Coffee in
coffee out
weariness continues

Writing words
across the sky
for the underground

Twixt nothing’s something
and now’s then
tomorrow’s sorrow

As for mirrors
I choose the edges
of the bevels

~ ~ ~

Sunday Sermon

God & the FBI – Janis Ian
Hell on Heels – Pistol Annies
Nasty Gnostic – Critters Buggin
Bad Karma – Miley Cyrus & Joan Jett
Devil’s Got Your Boyfriend – Tracy Bonham
Dig, Lazarus, Dig – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
If Jesus Drove a Motor Home – Jim White & Aimee Mann
Walking Into Battle With The Lord – Chumbawamba
The Snake and the Moon – Dead Can Dance
Ritual Fire Dance – Manuel De Falla
Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo
Holy Ghost – Violent Femmes
Soul Kitchen – Patti Smith
God’s Back Pocket – Hellwood
Beezlebub – Beats Antique w/ Les Claypool
Nice ‘N’ Sleazy – The Stranglers
Karmacoma – Massive Attack
Wide Wide River (Of Shit) live – The Fugs
Sinner! – Jim White & The Packway Handle Band
Jesus Was A Social Drinker – Chuck Prophet
Sex And The Church – David Bowie
Heaven And Hell – Willie Nelson
Female Jesus – Johnny Dowd
I’m Clean – Priests
Bark Like A God – Sloppy Jane
Get Right With God – Lucinda Williams
Holy Mackerel – Les Claypool & The Holy Mackerel
Slow Steady Salvation – The Grassy Knoll
Doubter Out Of Jesus – Chuck Prophet
Devil’s Radio – George Harrison
To Zion (Radio Edit) – Digital Underground
God Was Drunk When He Made Me – Jim White
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
Necessary Evil – Debbie Harry
Thank You Lord – Hellwood

~ ~ ~

We speak half truth at best
knot not
quirk quest

We’re born little
keep crawling
to Big Nap

~ ~ ~

Grey sky
cold wind
hard ground
one more rock
one more hill
in run round sun

~ ~ ~

Ground white
heart dark
where light?

~ ~ ~

56th year of weed
30 years 9 months no alcohol
22 years no speed, cocaine, needles

~ ~ ~

There’s these Texas rabbits
that breed like rabbits
till too many per square footage
whereupon nature steps in
and they develop a nervous condition
start doing strange stuff
dying off
until there’s not enough rabbits per acre
and they heal
and they breed
and . . . well, you know

Been looking around
see a lot of rabbit ears lately

~ ~ ~

Did two armed robberies 1970
got $64 in first
10.5 months in second

~ ~ ~

I’m thinking
all the saucepans of the world
come from Sausalito

~ ~ ~

Digging bones
in the boneyard
giving up on finding flesh

It takes songbird
and the songbird’s shit
for song to sing

~ ~ ~

Old bones
lowered in hot tub
pure pleasure

Descabbing wounds
while soaking battered body
in salt bath

~ ~ ~

The 4 C’s . . .
cardiac, cars, cancer, Covid
life uneverlasting

~ ~ ~

The trouble with subtlety
is they don’t hear
the fuck you

low hustle shuffle . . .

low hustle shuffle . . .

Let X=X – Laurie Anderson
Sundirtwater – The Waifs
Wet Dream – Wet Leg
Clean – The Priests
Better In My Day – NYX & Gazelle Twin
Assassin – Bill Laswell
Birther Blues – The Dead Kenny G’s
Backlash Blues – Nina Simone
Like Ceasar Needs a Brutus – Anita Lane
Sinner! – Jim White & The Packway Handle Band
The Resignation vs The Comeback Special – Todd Snider
The Snake and the Moon – Dead Can Dance
Diamonds And Rust – Joan Baez
Kiss Kiss Kiss – Yoko Ono
El Cerrito – Cracker
Chase – Spindle Ensemble
The Hanging Garden – The Cure
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Bob Dylan
Caravan – Duke Eliington, Mingus, Max Roach

word harvest 12.16 thru 12.31 2021

word harvest 12.16 thru 12.31 2021

2021.12.17 – Just to be clear
2021.12.18 – Greylight morning
2021.12.18 – Gotta get high
2021.12.19 – Many lips
2021.12.21 – The mind
2021.12.22 – You die
2021.12.22 – Go fast
2021.12.27 – Half moon in sky
2021.12.28 – New water
2021.12.30 – A dragon’s blood, myrrh, copal
2021.12.31 – Want . . . need
2021.12.31 – New year

~ ~ ~

Just to be clear —
when you cheat, it’s business
when we cheat, it’s a crime

~ ~ ~

Greylight morning
wife asleep in chair
cat asleep on mantel
dog asleep on floor
fire dance
slow rain on roof
caffeine in hand
cannabis in pipe
peaceful
quiet
solitude
rain soothe
forsooth

~ ~ ~

Gotta get high
so I can drive to Heinen’s
in our hybrid

~ ~ ~

Many lips
multiple tongues
endless lies to go

Forget GPS and fuel level
lots living life
in rearview mirror

Rain on road brings worm
money-in-hand grab
dead dog denial

Sirens and flashing lights
gun shots, bum lives
welcome to the nose dive

Blood eating
nightmare now
riding edge of thrum

~ ~ ~

The mind
it’s dark in there
don’t want to go down that hole

~ ~ ~

You die
your body rots
your name fades

~ ~ ~

Go fast
stop slow
leave a reasonable likeness

~ ~ ~

Half moon in sky
one bird flying
it never ends

~ ~ ~

New water
old fish
same current

~ ~ ~

A dragon’s blood, myrrh, copal, frankincense day
so far . . .
a top a 2 deer dogwalk morning

~ ~ ~

Want . . . need
flesh . . . blood
constant compromise

~ ~ ~

New year
old year
mirror fears

Lady’s latest

Lady’s new poem . . .

The draped length of the boa constrictor – behold
It has swallowed a chain of chicken eggs
Hold its leathery neck
And feel each egg individually

Massaging coughs them up

An egg has a beak that pecks of its own accord
Something made it, it hatches, it pecks of its own accord
And we are glad of this
for children will be alright
And imprints are made
On their fresh hatched clay

Mercury is a river in the fingers’ sieve,
Mercurial is the mind
But the knobby hand of a divining stick delivers
Revered is the pot which is mended
With gold and we know ourselves
Trophies of remorse

Aspirations wobble on new borne deer
Works are choreographed puppetry
on our own traveled feet
One in front of the other the patient horse
That has to go regardless of the snake’s
Labyrinth this is why, it has to, for what else is there
Other than one in front of the other
And a chain left behind
The left and right hand watches
The arbiter, the eyes

The feet patient and beautiful
Horse hooves plod like thoughtful rain
The body a reservoir of what
Has been felt, a dividend
Holy innocent ground
The stomach which would open to enclose
A womb to protect the world
From that mercurial mind
The hand holding that divining rod
Like a flag on Mount Everest
Claiming an inch every time I can
Here’s how far the oxygen got me
Here is the mindfulness of my foothold
The scaling of the mountains with my hands
I have hands and the dangling feet below
I have the dizzying heights and the dream’s missive
Of paper wings that do not follow the laws of physics
The observer can watch
The tumult of the indecisive tentacles
The spiked labia of a dog’s jowls
Writhing in the lagoon of our downed airplane dream
The wardrobe we push through in the cabin
To enter from an exit
Pecking
Lost in the shopping mall
Lost in the doctors’ offices
Naked in the high school hallway
Late for class
Missed appointment
Big hairy foot nigh
But never here thank God
Just hovering like a joke

no muffle shuffle on . . .

no muffle shuffle on . . .

Give The Drummer Some – Can
Take Five -Dave Brubeck
Pleasure And Pain – Divinyls
Whitey On The Moon – Gil Scott-Heron
Take What I Can Get – Halle & The Jilt
Trillium – Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band
Fine And Mellow – Hurray For The Riff Raff
Strong Feelings – Dry Cleaning
Infra-Red – Placebo
Ice Age – The Bizarros
God & The FBI – Janis Ian
Democracy – Leonard Cohen
Repo Man – Meteors
Brandenburg Concerto No.2 In F Major – Bach
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry – Carolyn Wonderland & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Switch Blade (Alternate Take) – Duke Ellington, Mingus, Max Roach
What We All Want – The Dandy Warhols w/ Gang of Four
Bad Kitty – Liz Phair
1961 – The Grassy Knoll
In C – Orchestra Nihilistica