for Ruth
As a poet, physical memory
awakens in me after taking
my pills: I still need the flaky,
sensual, crunchy, & realize
even a poet can enjoy eating
breakfast: so I fill a yellow
Tupperware bowl with flakes
of raisin bran & pour chocolate
soy-milk over them, spooning*
(30 MAR 11, Santa Clara CA)v4 .
PS * as an action-poem, it ends mid-spoonful, stuffing my mouth, unable to speak understandably
for Maya
Increasingly unsatisfied
by my own usual poems,
I think about writing newly,
telling you what I’ve
done that matters most.
I don’t know where to begin:
early/late, political/not.
I do know I want to write
What I will want to read.
(29 MAR 11, Santa Clara CA)
Last nite, cutting the 1st half of our usual Wed. nite Mission College adult ed class, we went to the little nearby Santa Clara Mission Branch public library for a life of Jack London (1876-1916) slide-show narrated by Ohio London scholar Dr. Daniel Dyer, Ph.D, author of "Jack London's Women"
This year The City of Santa Clara’s participating in a month-long National Endowment for the Arts multi-institutional (public college + museum + library) program THE BIG READ, this year, choosing London’s novel “The Call of the Wild” (1902) to read & discuss (probably because) studying it reveals London’s little-known adult associations with the city of Santa Clara & some of its women. See its website: http://library.santaclaraca.gov [click] The Big Read.
Born in S.F. & raised in Oakland, London began in S.F. as a local newspaper & magazine journalist (like Mark Twain), & became world-famous by writing about what he saw & did in the Klondike Gold Rush (1897~).
Then, & until the end of his life (1876-1916), he was a socialist, a member of the Socialist Labor Party (1896-1901.) Among his political works are: “The People of the Abyss” [documentary, 1903, written while living in disguise among London's poorest], "The War of the Classes" [1905], “The Iron Heel [novel, 1907; fascism takes over the USA]”, “Revolution & other Essays” [1909.]
SPLIT VOTE
In 1956, we had a mock
presidential-election
in the 5th grade.
My mother was a Republican
because Salem's Irish
Democrats rejected all Poles;
My Scottish dad was an IUE
AF of L/CIO Democrat who
was oddly about to vote for Ike.
They had always joked their votes
always cancelled each other out,
but were shocked that I was voting
for Ike & Estes Kefauver, (because
of his coonskin cap) & told me:
“You have to vote for just 1 party!”
“Why?” I rebutted, “You've voted
for both parties, so why can’t I?”
Later, at 18, I voted for 4 parties,
1 of them, the SLP (Deleonites.)
(22 MAR 11, Santa Clara CA)v3
The only valid statement now isn't that
“Everything’s become increasingly chaotic”
but that we have increasingly conflicting
versions of what we call Basic anymore.
We can’t say “The Basics & nothing more”
& be understood by spouses, families, near
neighbors, friends, closest enemies, strangers.
The measure of everything is being warped:
There's no too little, but to the Starving.
There's no enough, but to the Sated.
There's no satisfaction, but to the [Dead.]
The Basics are constantly being warped
by images of increasing magnitude. Enuf
isn't just Some+, more than just Adequate;
anyone asking for adequacy is discounted
as insufficiently addicted to Increase; while
many are addicted to Much, calling it Some.
Meanwhile, we diet our asses & bellies off.(17 MAR 11, Santa Clara, CA)v4
