6th
Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
*06.06.2009*
…there has been gambling
& dancing on the deck,
the ladies fan themselves
& still kick up their heels
…the crew’s shot fulla holes,
stoking the boilers, routing the steam,
heading to the edge of the horizon,
helmsman drunk,
1st mate mean
& stupid
…below the captain sits
at the lonely limits of his strength,
at the grey dawn of the endgame, he
tallies nearly ½ a century’s worth
of receipts
& small change
…no great sin or saving,
no possessions or progeny,
just some scattered notes on hangovers
& fever dreams stuffed into the brazier
5th
Friday, June 5th, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
*communiqué*
…we shout at each other from
atop sky scrapers in faded polaroids
of our home towns; i’m on the sears tower,
god only knows where you are,
high on drama & endorphins
…choking you, smothering me,
shivering, teeth chattering, we try some more
…smothering me, choking you,
huffing hysterics & serotonin
…screaming & waving & throwing
ropes from opposite banks of
a swollen, rushing river of gasoline;
‘…gotta match?’ we each yell into the roar,
neither hearing the other,
rolling on delirium & adrenalin
…on the far, far ends of love
4th
Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
*repair steps; 1 thru 3*
1. separate the loose thread from the rest of the weave,
be careful not to pull on it too much
2. using a sharp scissors or razor blade,
cut it off as close to the garment as you dare
3. smooth it out & hope for the best
[always resist the urge to fashion a loose thread into a noose]
3rd
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
* just daring us to*
they keep speaking to me in shades of
comfort, tho pain, is my 1st language,
crossing my eyes & peeling my heart
…understand; i am predisposed
to these knots of probability as
a flower turning to face the
sun …i could tell you
everything, but
i don’t want
to know
…mercy is in the treads,
& grace is on the grill
2nd
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
*6/2/09*
grunting when bending over,
sighs at the end of the day,
a certain amount of
pain is
our lot
…you should be grateful; yer great
great great great great great great
grandad went out to fetch some water,
& fell down a well;
dead on accounta his far sightedness,
& you got those nice glasses
…we breathe thru the fabric of
an ever present ache
…past trauma & present stress,
scar tissue souvenirs, stuffed & mounted
heads hang in the halls & wings of the
mansions of our bodies
…think of the odd pride
in a badly healed
crooked
finger
1st
Monday, June 1st, 2009 | subtle juxtapositions | No Comments
*6/1/09*
so far this morning,
we got hummingbirds on the catwalk,
& super models in the evergreens
…we got power tools & train yards underfoot,
& non-stop ambient cement noise
…we got small talk bouncing off satellites,
& sciatic nerves shooting sparks
…we got distraction at our fingertips,
& 230 new souls under the atlantic
an organization 4 creatives
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | news&Events | No Comments
introducing -this- organization:
the center for consciousness creativity
http://www.consciouscreatives.net/
in which i hold the titles;
‘poet in residence’ & ‘minister of sub-culture’, i urge
you to check out the site,
connect w/ those individuals that intrigue you,
join up if you wish,
& attend any of the events that grab you
yeah, you’re a poet, but what do you do?
Friday, March 20th, 2009 | otherStuff | No Comments
“yeah, you’re a poet, but what do you do?”
the question seems to imply that
its ask-er knows what you don’t do,
because, as everybody knows:
‘you can’t make a living writing poetry!’
“yeah, you’re a poet, but what do you do?”
…as if celebrating & chronicling the journey weren’t enough, right?
…of course it isn’t;
you can’t eat poems
…our posit:
no poet,
well, very, very few anyhow,
can get by strictly on their poetry
…now, for the sake of argument, lets say a poet is;
someone who writes stuff on a fairly regular basis that they themselves refer to as poetry, &/ or
those recognized as poets by their peers for engaging in the activities described above
…for for the purposes of our definition the poet’s stature doesn’t matter, be it major academic recognition, minor street cred, -whatever
…& lets say, based on nothing scientific whatsoever, that there are some 10million poets by this definition in the ranks of the nearly 7billion folks on the planet
…carrying on in this un-scientific manner, my guess would be that there are no more than a few thousand or so of these ‘successful’ poets, (getting by strictly on revenue generated by their poetry), on the planet
…i am willing to entertain the notion that that number could be much, much lower, but not much higher
…i happily stretch our working definition of; ’strictly’ beyond merely selling books or recordings of poems, to include giving readings & talks & paid interviews, & any $$ generating mediaPumpingPromo to -move-them- units- or generate cash thru hype or performance
…but not teaching
…nope, not teaching, or any other tenured or at-will employment scenario where the poet could get by comfortably w/out the revenue their poetry generated
…so we’re talking about those few that are buying groceries & paying the rent w/ poetry, my bet is that they’re a rare breed
…even as i espouse this viewpoint, i’d like to stress that i pass no judgment on whether one’s ability to sell stuff successfully enough to support oneself makes one a better or worse poet
-(see rod mccuen)-
…many great poets had other, non-literary full time gigs, [self-publisher poet dr. w.c.williams springs to mind]
…the funny part is that those successful, prolifically published, & materially compensated few thousand poets do not seem,
-to this very opinionated & judgmental minor, minor, minor poet-
to be creating anything necessarily better, (meaningful, valid, substantial, etc.) than any of the other 10million poets on the planet
…to be continued
new old album available on stoshMachek.com
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | news&Events | No Comments
there’s a new *old* album available on stoshMachek.com;
‘oils&minerals’ recorded in 2005(?) …O&M is a collaboration between stosh machek
& the very talented brett simons of tinyVoicesMusic.com
…the hyper-active mr. simons played, recorded, & engineered a solid groove of his own design
& slapped it onto the back of a vocal track of stosh’s reading,
finishing the whole thing off in one rainy afternoon while re-formatting his hard drive
…now this recording is available somewhere besides stosh’s feature readings
…enjoy!
new stosh machek CD: ‘a young zasu pitts’ available right here @ our webSite store
Monday, March 16th, 2009 | news&Events | No Comments
just finished recording my 4th sPokeN word CD,; ‘a young zasu pitts’ …this time w/ this JoyMonKy, as recording engineer & producer
…AYZP is now available at the webSite store you see there to the right on the page …you can order the CD, down load mp3s, even pick up a T-shirt & ringtones!
…soon there’ll be other CDs & mp3s, etc. from my other albums; ‘unicornSteak’, ‘oils&minerals’, (available NOW, see above post), & ‘L.Alienation’ added to the store
…thanx & enjoy!
