Striking Slaves, Stinging Bees
You might not know it, but here in America we’re nearly one full month into a prison workers’ strike that began on September 9 on the anniversary of the Attica Uprising. I say you may not know it because the mainstream media doesn’t recognize detainees as human beings, and doesn’t think to illuminate the fact [...]
Celebrating Frank O'Hara
Frank O’Hara would’ve turned 87 in March if he hadn’t been hit by a dune buggy on Fire Island in 1966. O’Hara was a category straddling artist who wouldn’t be boxed-in by the preconceived boundaries that separated – and continue to separate – artists and the people who organize and comment on their work. O’Hara [...]
Michael McClure Reads Poetry to Lions
I’ve written about 2nd generation Beat poet Michael McClure on this here slate of light before. McClure joined up with Ginsberg and Kerouac when the New Yorkers made their way to San Fransisco, setting off a poetry renaissance and a worldwide youth movement upon arrival. It’s easy to look back at the ’60′s with rainbow-colored [...]
Bus Poem #3
Little Queenie On the bus there’s no rush in the waiting or the riding. We have this bus just to us and the cool of the day is at our backs. All the lights go green on a grey Wednesday and Route 23 always cuts the corners. We pass the polar bears on 12th Avenue, [...]
Occupy This Poem
Hey, y’all. Here is a poem I wrote during one of the last days of the Occupy Nashville encampment at Legislative Plaza. I was unsuccessfully trying to meet up with the last camper for an interview. I committed to wait for 45 minutes as I’d already made the trip and the beautiful, Saturday afternoon light [...]
Genius in their Hatred
Hey! I recently watched the great Charles Bukowski documentary Bukowski: Born Into This again. It’s available from a number of sources online right now. Forgot this little gem: Stay awake! Watch this performance of my OccupySong at Occupy Congress in DC! Stream or download my brand new OccupySong right here!
Bus Poem #2
Good day, As promised, here is another poem I wrote on the bus on my way downtown this morning: Camouflage Everyone is in camouflage and I’m in blaze orange. On this morning bus a devil’s food cupcake in a tigerstripe parka says, “It needs one more paint o’ coat” into a phone with no name. [...]
Download OccupySong!
What up, peeps? Happy New Year to you one and all. Those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter and Coincidence Control Network may already be hip to this jive, but I’ve become fairly occupied with OWS/OccupyNashville in the past several months. I’ve attended numerous GA’s and have joined in with the People’s [...]
Bob Dylan Goes Back To College
Here is a recent music review I was asked to write. That’s the kind of thing I do every now and then. Gun for hire. King’s magician. Doodler of small words… The first track on Bob Dylan in Concert: Brandeis University 1963 is an incomplete recording of “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance” (Henry [...]
Pretty Girls
All the Pretty Girls The pretty girls gather around cameras and small dogs; fat-faced babies and graceful grandpas. I’ve seen them crowd around crudites. I’ve seen them dance with only themselves – the whirling wonder of it all. All the pretty girls dream in color and plot their days by those breeze blown banners that [...]
