Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Poet bre@ks f@st

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

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

unsatisfied

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)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

JACK (Cheny) Griffith LONDON, Socialist

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.]


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The BASICS

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

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Santa Clara (isn't) Santa Cruz

My daughter Maya (in Putney VT bordering NH), left me
a panicky message thinking I’m on the tsunami-battered
CA Pacific coast; but I’m 20 mi. inland, tsunami-safe
on the other side of the Santa Cruz mtns; 50 mi. S,
in Santa Cruz harbor, 18 boats were bashed & sunk,
but up in Santa Clara, I'm just 6 mi.inland from the S tip
of S.F. Bay @ Alviso where a new cement small-boat
& kayak launching dock, & newly cleared marsh-channel
access S. S.F. Bay. (Most small boats here are stored on
boat-trailers in driveways; there's no harbor tsunami surge,
just gradually intermittent rain.