LOOK AW@Y

LOOK AW@Y

“The Republican Party is living through the late-mannerist phase of that (Reagan) revolution, fuelled less by ideas than by resentments.”

- David Remnick: Annals of the Presidency: GOING THE DISTANCE,

On and off the road with Barack Obama (New Yorker, Jan. 27, 2014, p.41)

Still wrapped within the Land o' Cotton,

striking its long-ago struck heroic pose,

standing tall for family values petrified

in grey stone in the postbellum South,

their grey slacks sharp, their golden

codpieces bursting with pride, their

thin smiles rise to sneers held highly

above lushly blooming womanhoods.

Look away! Look away! Way away.

(03 FEB 14, Santa Clara CA) v5

Wither CA We@ther?

As we suffer the lack of substantial rain here in CA, I recall my naieve new-to-CA weather expectations: CA is always sunny (never cloudy), doesn't rain, never snows. 
 
TV& movie fantasies apply only (if at all) to Socal/L.A. &; desert points-east (bordering AZ.) The 56mi. L.A. River is more than just a trickle in an urban cement channel.

Way up here in Norcal/SF Bay, it gets cold (below freezing) overnight, rains, snows (on mountain peaks, rarely down in the valley.) Rain supports agriculture & increasingly populous cities. Microclimates (S.F., the central coast, etc.) reduce weather zones to smaller regions than I 'd ever imagined & certainly never heard of 'back east'. Drought - which I thought was perennial all over CA - except the coast -  is not only regional but macro-cyclical. (We're currently in the 7th-year of the latest.)
 
For me, it's all become unexpectedly informative (so far.)

OVERFLOWING MOON

We walk back to your apt., & pause

to gaze @ the full Moon in Cancer

overflowing like I've never seen before.

(14 JAN 14, V V Santa Clara CA) v.4

A WESTERN LATINIST

A WESTERN LATINIST

Last nite I dreamt of a tall, thin denim-clad Western poet praising the Spanish language's descent from Latin, without admitting the imperial imposition that entailed, proud of the continuity of cultures. (An English poet's praising its descent from French & French's descent from Latin would be even more tendentious by his conspicuous omission of Saxon becoming Anglo-Saxon.) The poet read his poems to a small group of fans in an assembly room of a bookstore. After he read, he complained of his being an obscure writer; actually, he was very well-known for his many translations (from Spanish, etc.) into English.

(05 JAN 2013 VV Santa Clara CA)v5

Welcome to MY WORLD

with Patricia Hughes

"Welcome to my world" you say,
smiling, while we sit together as
some people smile & dance @
Valley Village's Senior Center.

We quietly sing along, but you'll
dance smiling with any & all
who invite you to; timidly, I
only dare dance with you.

(03 JAN 2013, V V Santa Clara CA) v4

in media res

In media res 

Overhead, the morning gulls
cry out for more. More what?

I arrive mid Linda's sermon. Karl reads 
the responses above & behind me.

Everyone receives communion.
Everyone handily passes the Peace. 

(17 DEC 13, St. Mark's, Santa Clara CA)v.2

HALF-MOON

Half-moon., Venus, lit blue sky


with Patricia Hughes


"Look!" you say, pointing:

I turn, delighted, seeing:

the Half-moon & Venus on a lit-blue sky

as we walk you to your apt. in wintry chill...


(07 DEC 13, V.V. Santa Clara CA)v.2