poetry: incense + prayer
There is only so much incense can do
once mustiness has set in. I lit it
anyway prayed that I could continue
in that partnership simply because it
was easier than not simply because
it was easier to light incense then
to get flames going where there had never
really been a fire easier until
I met my match flame struck fire leapt and I
burned elsewhere
I wrote the first draft of this poem in Danika Dinsmore’s Poetry BootCamp during Ojai WordFest. In this case, the speaker in the poem (the “I”) is not really me, the poet writer of the poem.
For more of my poetry and other news from my part of the world, please subscribe to this blog in the upper right hand corner! You can also check out my new collection 3:15 experiment poetry Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press 2011). Read sample poems here. Read a review by Robert Peake here.
I will be reading poems from my new book on Wednesday May 4 in the 11am hour on KKZZ 1400AM; it will also air at the same time online so please listen and call in!
For more poetry by bloggers from all over the world, catch the Monday Poetry Train!
This weekend, The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” a documentary film by Thom Zimny, will be shown around LA with 50% of ticket sales going to bicycle education and advocacy. Just purchase your ticket at the door or online and 50% of all sales will benefit the only County-wide bicycle advocacy nonprofit that works to make LA County a more bike-able place: LACBC!
And you should go see it! And not just because it is a good cause, near and dear to this Art Predator’s heart!
You see, last November 2010, Bruce Springsteen released Darkness on the Edge of Town a 5 cd box set that includes 2 cds of extra material that were written back then and never released–or material given away like the Patti Smith success “Because The Night.”
In this Bruce Springsteen obsessed household (and blog!), it was a red letter day–marked on the calendar and with a daily countdown with as much fanfare as if it was opening day for the baseball season!
Why? Because this is a box set like no other–especially for Springsteen fans! And a huge reason is the documentary film, The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”
The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” offers a concert film, unreleased material, a documentary and more related to making of an album that was never released until now–the title comes from one of the songs from these sessions. People who heard it on bootleg or in concert wondered why it was never relesead. Most people never even heard it because he didn’t play it a lot.
The film shows his struggles in making Darkness on the Edge of Town Read more…
Tonight Dengue Fever will show up at Soho, a groovy intimate upstairs joint with an outdoor balcony just off State Street in Santa Barbara to play their wild psychedelic surf rock take on world music, particularly the Cambodian pop sounds of the 60s. As the LA Times put it, Dengue Fever offers “world music for the cool kids.” While I’m writing up this post, I’m listening to their brand new release Cannibal Courtship which they posted on youtube in early April:
Dengue Fever and this new album has everything I want in a band: lots of fat sax (ahh, memories of Morphine), great lyrics (ok, the ones in English, I can’t speak about the ones in Khmer, the language of Cambodia), and you ca
n even dance to much of it! Which you’d expect if you know the pedigree of the band: rumor has it many members are LA studio musicians and vocals are by Chhom Nimol (pictured on the album cover), well-known in Cambodia as a singer before she came to the US. The band was started in 2001 by brothers Zac Holtzman and Ethan Holtzman. They’re joined by Senon Williams, David Ralicke (who was also in one of my favorite LA bands, Brazzaville and gave that band and this one its distinctive horn sound) and Paul Smith.
At about 10 minutes into the video–or into the album, just when you least expect it, Read more…
The Dalai Lama is almost here! And Ventura Buddhist Study Center is doing a retreat this weekend too!
According to an article in Saturday’s LA Times, The InsightLA meditation center is bringing Robert Thurman to the Broad Stage in Santa Monica on April 30 for an evening of guided meditation, teaching and conversation.
Starting Sunday May 1, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give a number of public talks in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Irvine over several days before he moves on to other states. Locally these include: Read more…
Poetry: Three Stories From a Stranger
Three Stories From a Stranger
At 17 fresh in California from Chicago
at the Pacific she walks the flat rocks along the low tide
with her former best friend, her former boyfriend.
It’s her first ocean and what she remembers most
is the big sky—it’s vast and blue, reflects her eyes
stretches out forever like her limbs.
She carries with her everywhere in her imagination
her baby seal with cat ears.
He’s piglike too: with his wings he can fly.
On her lap, he purrs his violin song.
When he’s hungry he sounds his horn
calling for peblets, for apples, for leftovers.
She wants to go to a cathedral in Ireland
to see something so precise and big
to stand in the doorway
to just be there on a gloomy day.
Grey skies blend in with her nubby wool sweater;
green hills roll a cotton scarf across her shoulders.
I wrote the first draft of this poem in Danika Dinsmore’s “Poetry BookCamp” writing workshop during Ojai’s WordFest. It came out of an exercise where we interviewed a partner. I wanted to add a final stanza but it kept sounding like I was “telling” about her and I thought the poem already “showed” what I was telling so I gave up and post it now as is.
Many thanks to Danika for a wonderful workshop, to my partner for sharing her stories with me and to Sequoia Hamilton for organizing the Master Classes during WordFest.
For more poetry by bloggers from all over the world, catch the Monday Poetry Train!
I took the accompanying photo above with my iPhone February 2011. For more of my poetry, please check out my new collection 3:15 experiment poetry Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press 2011). Read sample poems here. Read a review by Robert Peake here.
Are you about to head somewhere to enjoy Easter dinner? Are you in a quandry about what wine to bring? Here are some ideas including reds, whites, roses, and sparkling!
Plus here’s a link to Kosher wines from Herzog for Passover.
via Wine Predator
Earth Day: 5 Tips for “green” wine & more
What can you do to “green” your red wine consumption–beyond recycling your empties? Read on and learn! Plus videos from a documentary on “natural” wine and photos from our recent trip to Zion!
Yes it all ties in together–Happy Earth Day!
Here’s 2010’s Earth Day post with more tips: How NOT to Celebrate Earth Day Today
And here’s 2008’s Earth Day Post with tips and actions.
PS The original full sized and full color body print currently hangs at Kama Sutra Closet in the El Jardin Courtyard, downtown Ventura. I’ll be there next First Friday May 6 around 7pm!
via Wine Predator
When my friend Ron Wells speaks, I listen. And I post what he writes. I hadn’t heard about this film when he sent his review to me a few weeks ago, but I figured it was worthy of his praise. Take a look at this trailer and read his review and I bet, you, like me, will put this film high on your “to do” list.
To be Thomas McCarthy right now must be an overwhelmingly wonderful experience. Among his many roles and projects, he’s been a TV actor (The Wire), a movie actor (Michael Clayton, The Lovely Bones), and even more importantly, a unique and dynamic writer and director.
McCarthy has now written and directed his third film, Win Win, after previously giving audiences the unique and offbeat Station Agent, and the quietly powerful The Visitor. Like these two other independent gems, Win Win is a film filled with humor and drama that stems from real situations and interesting characters who invite the audience to enter their very relatable world.
Thank God, Win Win is not in any way a blockbuster of a movie. Instead it deals with characters who are quirky, intriguing, and most importantly, real. McCarthy has the amazing ability to put widely divergent people in situations that allow the audience to just sit back and care about the people on screen as they interact with each other in ways that are not always predictable. No one is larger than life, and most are somewhat flawed, or at least very human, in their actions.
Because of his unique and insightful writing ability, Read more…
Last Saturday offered lots of National Poetry month fun in Ventura County! I made it out to Carol Henry’s Gallery where a few of her friends read their own work plus Pablo Neruda in English and in Spanish and I read some of my poetry from too including this Easter lily poem for Horace Bristol and Taxes. Then we went over to Art City where Kevin Carman’s poetry is literally painted on the walls as well as on more portable artworks.
There’s still time to celebrate National Poetry Month!
For Allen Ginsberg by Dottie Grossman
Among other things,
thanks for explaining
how the generous death
of old trees
forms
the red powdered floor
of the forest.
Tonight, Tuesday April 19, I’m looking forward to tonight’s performance at the Ventura Artists Union Gallery by poet Dottie Grossman with musical improv responses by Michael Vlatkovich. It’s free but they pass the hat; an open mic follows. You can read a few examples of Dottie’s poetry below.
Tomorrow I’ll be Cynthia Killion’s guest on KKZZ 1400 radio in the 11 o’clock hour Read more…
a poem for an 8th anniversary
Today is our 8th wedding anniversary.
Eight years ago today, we married
exchanged vows and then some
up at my grandmother’s house on the hill.
Today the books say we celebrate
with electrical appliances.
But we’ve always done things are own way:
I bought us a 1969 blue Schwinn tandem bicycle;
he bought us season passes for skiing at Mammoth.
We are gearing up for more adventures.
Today we go to the beach
to barbecue by our van
make dinner of oysters
strawberry salads
and salmon.
Today in the sunshine
by the sea
we are
blessed again.
Happy Anniversary to my “fungi/funguy”! The flowers in the photo up top are the ones he gave me when I got home from work; I gave him that card–pleae click on it to make it big enough to read then read the words to this post you will understand why we’re married…
I took the accompanying photos with my iPhone April 18, 2011 along the Pacific Coast Highway between LA and Santa Barbara.
For more of my poetry, please check out my new collection 3:15 experiment poetry Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son (en theos press 2011). Read sample poems here. Read a review by Robert Peake here. For more poetry by bloggers from all over the world, catch the Monday Poetry Train!
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