Start Posting....

The other day I thought that keeping a poetry blog would be a nice project.  It's a place to preserve poems that I've written and some that have been published online and elsewhere.  I may dig up some of my very old poems.  It's also a place to post poems (with permission) that inspire me...and that I admire.

Let the songs begin.....

(This blog looks very naked without images, so I am posting a few.  I just found out that Blue Ketchup is a Filipino pop group.  Also, it's the name of a club in Sydney, Australia.  Here is a link to a music video by the Filipino group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBZnja_4V6k  )  Maybe I will listen to more once my husband heads off to work.  The video is adorable!!)

The Song is Blue Ketchup

On Sunday in Tompkins Square Park
only the hopelessly uncool wear all black.
A man in a purple kilt
walks
a white Pomeranian
with matching streaks.
You sip kale juice.

The back-up singers onstage wear nuns’ habits.
They swing their oversize
Mardi Gras bead rosaries
in time to the ska beat.
Someone’s father in a fedora
dances and plays trombone.
I sip beet juice.

Children’s music plays in the distance.
The song is blue ketchup on chicken nuggets.
The song is sneaky sips of orange soda.
The song is not you.
The song is blue ketchup.

The air is heavy with warm earth and asphalt.
You sip beet juice.
A nun in navy blue polyester
opens up her matching umbrella.
I sip kale juice.
Spring rain will start up again soon.

n  Marianne Szlyk

"The Song Is Blue Ketchup" is the first poem that I read at Performetry: Old Poems, New Poems, Your Poems.  It has also been published in Aberration Labyrinth.  See the link here:  http://issuu.com/aberrationlabyrinth/docs/al_005/3?e=5540656/1643255
It's cool to see "The Song is Blue Ketchup" in context with other poems and the magazine's artwork.

The poem was inspired by a rainy almost-summer Sunday afternoon that my husband, a friend, and I spent in Tompkins Square Park, attending the Howl festival.  This festival included not only music but also art.  I remember artists creating their work as we walked by.  The picture below is from EV Grieve, an East Village blog.  

Below is a link to a blog by an artist who participated in the festival:

http://davesstudio.wordpress.com/sculptures/howl-festival-2012/

Enjoy!