Welcome to Alan Britt!

Longer ago than I care to admit Alan Britt sent me some poems that I'd like to post tonight.  I'm happy to see that his first poem references various bluesmen born in the 1940s, most of whom are new to the contest.  Alan, by the way, was also in Resurrection of a Sunflower.  I am always thrilled to publish someone from Catfish and Marc's anthology!

USING THE BLUES AS A MEAT TENDERIZER

Sprinkle in Eric’s falsetto and you’ve really got

something—a sprig of Mayall, Jack Bruce, Stevie

Winwood—rolling rock on its ear, as if rock’n’roll

had an ear according to swingsters cartwheeling

their way across Nazi ballrooms.

A pinch of Derek Trucks for good measure,  

just enough to tenderize what many preachers

call porterhouse love affairs on the verge,

on the verge, on the verge of what some poor

exhausted praying bastard might say if only

he had a love affair.

So, forget the verge; better he doesn’t know;

easier that way. & with your alchemical harp,

Mick, take us out . . . take us out. 

This next poem is surprisingly timely!

LEAVES

Leaves fall through hard black shadows.

Banana-bitten leaves

with ink stains of infant green

& brown spots tattooing

their oval bodies.

November wind, with a walnut walking

stick, churns their chilly graves.         

WINTER BREAK

I've already forgotten which day

it was I've forgotten!

 CREVASSE

I understand how it feels to be tangled in monofilament line 

cast from a corporate yacht by its captain donning a white 

fabric black-brimmed cap that features a braided yellow trim 

slip-knotted at both ends with gold embroidered ships wheel 

& anchor on a black background.

Wrapped in monofilament line beneath irrational undertow. 

I understand that certain sentiments when threatened 

erupt like Mount Tambora.

But like Helen Keller lost in a blizzard, I developed tentacles 

disguised as Spanish dancer sea slugs trawling a reef off 

East Timor while performing flamenco among cauliflower 

coral that’s survived seventy zillion evolutions.

Enough or too much, William poses the eternal question? 

So, how much is enough? 

 AS APRIL YAWNS, I ENTER

Crow squawks resemble high heels scraping

a sidewalk between two clapboard houses framed

by budding birches, elderly elms, & Japanese maples.

Mail truck over blue gravel rattles like ice

cubes clattering an icemaker’s throat.

Butterfly wings of radiant rust clip the clover,

braise wild onion, & tumble like flakes of amber

over forsythia singeing a split-rail fence.

Algae, like waves staining beach sand, bruises

the torso of a whitewashed shed.

Palomino dog beside wrought iron railing pants

on patio steps that eviscerate TV voices revealing

windows in the flesh, daffodil’s wilted yellow star,

tomato vines reduced to shoestrings by a renegade  

winter, & catbird cries like russet gears inside magnolia

blossoms that resemble artichoke leaves dipped

below garlic & melted butter dreams.

               *                  *   

Like lava, pollen migrates from barbaric verbs

to feral nouns one breath at a time.

 STRAYING THE COURSE

Tyger dragonflies—her hair after

a gust during 3^rd grade recess.

Then in bed dreaming of rescuing preschool

crush’s hair like wet tobacco while riding

a bareback granite stallion

that requires no maintenance,

no oats, no hay, no excuses.

Initial commands sketchy

when nuclear weapons

entered the conversation,

head beneath Florida desktop,

body curled like armadillo

scale by scale, link by link,

into the vault, a dream of sorts,

but vault all the same,

accountants disappearing in quicksand,

rulers on roller skates behind Plexiglas,

behind the advertising cartel all smiles

ripe for orthodontic ads—reminds

me of lavender-dipped-in-opium

perfume intoxicating the rail-splitter

in me—I had two cows, maybe,

six goats, & three mangy dogs,

for sure—I had some chickens

won in a euchre contest—feathers

flew, eggs hard to come by—but

I inherited something cherished

by primordial DNA—I found love,

or it found me—either way, from

this day forward I’ll spread

poetry like Johnny Apple

spread his seeds. 

Alan Britt has published over 3,000 poems nationally and internationally in such places as Agni, Bitter Oleander, Bloomsbury Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Christian Science Monitor, Confrontation, English Journal, Epoch, Flint Hills Review, Gallerie International (India), Kansas Quarterly, Letras (Chile), Magyar Naplo (Hungary), Minnesota Review, Missouri Review, New Letters, Northwest Review, Osiris, Pedrada Zurda (Ecuador), Poet’s Market, Queen’s Quarterly (Canada), Revista/Review Interamericana (Puerto Rico), Revista Solar (Mexico), Roanoke Review, Steaua (Romania), Sunstone, Tulane Review, Wasafiri (UK), and The Writer’s Journal. His interview at The Library of Congress for The Poet and the Poem aired on Pacifica Radio, January 2013. He has published 16 books of poetry. He teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.

ALAN BRITT: Library of Congress Interview:

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/media/avfiles/poet-poem-alan-britt.mp3

I hope that the link to the interview with Grace Cavalieri works!

 Tonight I'd like to post some videos of Michael Brecker, another musician born in the 1940s.  His Don't Try This at Home was the first jazz CD I bought.  "Itsbynne Reel" started off the CD:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL_DoqyKXJQ

"Suspone" is another song from that CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTvej7KRiU  It sounds like a song from another place and time.

Let's add to my collection of "Night in Tunisia" with Chaka Khan on vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZMIQMw3F2E

Here is Michael and Randy Brecker's "Some Skunk Funk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLEv8w1QwAA

I'll finish with their "Strap-Hangin'": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o_GiajAzVQ

Enjoy!

Tad Richards, Douglas Malan, and the Other Side of Midterms!

Photo from Max Pixel

This past summer Tad Richards sent me a non-driving poem, which I am going to publish tonight.  Although the non-driving contest was last season, I am always happy to post poems in that vein as both my husband and I do not drive.

AN AUTOMOBILE ATTACKS

It dances on little
scraps of rubber
to your tune
for now but you know
it’s going to make a move

you won’t see it
behind you
make a crossover
slidestep for the guardrail
there before you

or it turns
doubles back on you
glares at you with its
brights
red as bats’ eyes
now it’s mad

you’re still behind the
wheel but it doesn’t care
now it’s got you in its sights
forget your seatbelt

it’ll go through its own
windshield to get
at you now
it can smell your bones
it will eat itself whole

-- Tad Richards

1956 - ALLEN FREED AT THE TIMES SQUARE PARAMOUNT

It was the first time I ever saw

a Fender bass, and the first I ever saw

a guy put his hand down a girl’s pants.

It was Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

The guy was in the seat in front of me.

The girl was wearing black toreadors,

tight, so she had to squirm and help

for him to get all the way down.

They left halfway through the set.

My first rock and roll show

(I’d been to New York alone before,

to see the Dodgers at Ebbets Field),

I guessed I would have done what he did,

given the chance, but it would have been

a tough call. The Cleftones

were still on the bill, and the Moonglows,

Thurston Harris and the Charts,

Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

-- Tad Richards

Douglas Malan also sent me a Halloween poem.  Enjoy!

Photo by Jorge Gonzalez

Hand Me Down 
For lunch,
I drank more tequila
than typical on a Monday in October,
and decided I needed a Halloween costume
in Dia de los Muertos style.

I floated toward the cavernous thrift store
by the greasy Chinese take-out joint
in the depressed 1960s Florida strip mall
that sheds aluminum siding
like metallic dandruff off a balding head.

Sweat trickled down my back,
pounded out of my pores by a molten afternoon sun
with no breeze under a damp mohair blanket of air.
The thrift store’s cold mustiness embraced me.

The few people shuffled across filthy industrial tiles
in a slow-motion, fluorescent fog
with faces frozen by pain, resignation or drudgery
made functional by the use or abuse
of various substances, manmade and otherwise.

At the front,
the smudged-dusty glass cases showed off
decorative plates
depicting landmarks of Libertyville, or
thin tin signs championing creamy root beer, or
old jewelry that once was worn only on the most special occasions,
all positioned in a neat jumble of past-life detritus.

Moth-balled racks of clothes hung languidly
off broken-down hangers.
The creaky PA system leaked out
some familiar chorus,
Alllllll byyyyyy myyyyyself,
don’t wanna be
alllll byyyy myyyyyyself.

I drifted across the grungy floor
to the “Halloween section” that was
a handful of sad, mopey costumes on a rolling rack.
and would have worked for me in another time and place
I was fortunate to leave.

Tequila and curiosity
destroyed my structure and sense of direction,
causing me to turn right instead of left,
back into the racks
of what others call odious rags.

When I emerged,
into heat too harsh for October,
I had achieved my goal, even when I hadn’t,
by walking out with a bag
of dead men’s clothes.

-- Douglas Malan

Friday night my husband and I went to a fantastic concert by Lila Downs, so I'll post a few of her songs.  I can't find the one I really want, but I will start with "Peligrosa":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_AhbM5WSYA

She sang one song about the teacher and the spider being punished for their negligence.  Not sure if it is out yet.

This video of "Zapata Se Queda" is a little spooky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beuRgIqxTnY

Here she is singing "Arbor de la Vida": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip28PDAjF9k

I'll finish with her singing at Hollywood Forever Cemetery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPajVXWehg

Enjoy!

Welcome to Mendes Biondo!

Painting by Vincent Van Gogh is in the Kroller-Muller Museum

This morning I have the honor to present some poems by Mendes Biondo, a fellow contributor to Resurrection of a Sunflower.  Mendes, by the way, is also the editor of Ramingo!. 

The wheat came in sunny days

An old sunburned man

with wrinkled hands

throws seeds on ground

his smile like a sickle

awaiting for the harvest

in the sunny days

it will come the storm

said his children

let it come

said him to them

it will come the winter

and crows will eat seeds

said his children

let them come

said him sowing

and he continued

year after year

sowing and reaping

the fruit of the wheat

and every year storms

and winter and crows

came with the cry of children

but the mill has not stopped

his slow slow work

and the wheat came

every year

in the sunny days

This painting, too, is by Van Gogh.

Willie Mcbride's Last Bravado

last night I stole

twenty red poppies

as a morning gift for you

the roses

you know

            they cost so much

and the tulips

            they are out of my possibilities

but that big field outside and far

it's full of red poppies in may

so I stole twenty poppies

because I could not bring more

My Tongue Is Like An Old Man

my tongue is like an old man

when I speak

when I write

when I think

in another language

as an old man

my tongue needs

an always-ready crouch

a chair or a sofa

where to lay its body

my tongue it's like a young lover

burning with desire

to discover the beloved body

as the hand of a young lover

my tongue moves itself

through creases and

shapes and

tastes and

smells

of the beloved body

my tongue is like a spectacle lens

that needs papers and letters

to lay on

as the lens

my tongue changes

the words

the worlds

I speak

I don't think I've played Gary Bartz' music for a while.  He is a favorite of ours, and my husband even ran up to him for an autograph.  (He doesn't do that very often.)

Let's go back to 1976 for "JuJu Man": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lifGqtiHdQg

"I've Known Rivers" is even earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WCFQzznC4

"Peace and Love" is from the same album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSoXKNH2JA

"On a Misty Night" takes us to 1990: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTq-nZbWOM4