Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Dear Julien

sorry to respond in e-mail

and not snail
which I will, fool
me once, shame on you,
twice and you're Bob's uncle.
I read You (and what army)
twice now, first time sober
and I still liked it!
second time on puffballs
and I fell in that warm soapy bath
while shaving your only leg
not withstanding

the ecstacy coming to me
singing and babbling together
like a dead sexy monk ringing

in a pair of funky stolen pants

in the trunk

Monday, October 24, 2016

Burray for Bollywood (for Nada Gordon)

Well, petulant is loaded connotatively. I suppose there is something driving those feelings and your ability to put that into art helps to unmask the shade. So maybe it's brave at some level, a courageous way to meet insecurity. I tend to just mask most of mine, often behind art! But I've also managed to transcend most of it through sheer breathing. And while I was breathing last night we were an It Girl. Just saying.

Friday, October 14, 2016

lines from a nap

the night is full of fire.
the falling stars wed him
whom weather won't.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

I'm With Her

Why I'm with Her


I took a careful look at all the hard won
good in the world she's done

The list is long
Much longer than mine

Longer than most I'd bet-
And the bad? Fine

it's longer too; the growing pains
leaders often go through-

I suspect it's the high cost of becoming so
involved with the political status quo

Though from where else might one
more effectively plant the seeds of

a movement rooted in the love
of women and children first?

I see warmth in her laugh-
how full it is of life

And even in her anger
I sense a mother's fierce care

But most important to me, regardless
of what you may think of her

She's going to inspire confidence
in young girls everywhere.


Why I'm with Her


I took a careful look at all the hard won
good in the world she's done

The list is long
Way longer than mine

Longer than most I'd bet-
And the bad? Fine

it's longer too; the growing pains
leaders go through-

But there's warmth in her laugh-
how full it is of life

And even in her anger
I sense a mother's fierce care

And most importantly, regardless
of what anyone may think of her

She's going to inspire confidence
in young girls everywhere.

Maturation Process

the vibrations from the bass speakers
create an attraction between
the wood and the spirit.

You are in the bass trap.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

grandpa

Elegy for Grover Cleveland Franks Jr.

The moment I got the text from my mom
saying "daddy's gone"
I felt that
Somehow
In the most subtle way

Here He Is!
stronger than ever
It was as if all the spirit
that had been caged
in his infirm body
had been unbound
and was now swelling up to
it's true
and vast proportions
expanding
and reaching out to me
Reaching out to me
And speaking inside of me
(Like Obi One Kenobi
if instead of a Jedi
Obi One had been a preacher
and telephone repairman
from Southern Missouri.)
I loved Grandpa's voice
It rings in my ear
even clearer now
somehow
than before
the rhythmic booming voice
of the preacher coming through
the "telephone" wire loud and clear
I can still hear
clear as day
the lilt of his long
sonorous vowels
the way he would
caress the words
stretch them out
for emphasis
the creak of his baritone
as the cadences of his speech
rose up into a kind of song
For me Grandpa's essence
could be heard in his tones
It was even there
in his grunts
and his groans
It was there
in his sneezes
the loudest sneezes
I have ever heard
And it was there
in his explosive laughter too
But mostly it was there
in the Way he said things
He could really talk so beautifully!
I may not have always agreed
with what he was saying
but I always agreed
with the way he said it
In fact it was when
I learned to just listen to his voice
instead of argue with his words
that I learned how to love him
for who he Really was
free of the expectation
of who I thought he should be
That was such a liberating moment
Moving
from anger into love
from disagreement
into acceptance
letting go
of difference
and just listening
to the entrancing music
Of his cadence
That was when I went from
avoiding those seemingly endless sermons
To asking for them
To wanting to sit and listen for hours
hoping they would never end
I remember being
completely and utterly lulled
in the rhythms of his words
the waves of words
the emphatic Nouns
The Force of the verbs
I learned to love
the push and pull
of language
itself
the very pulse
of it
When I was really listening to him
I could sense
a transformation
in Grandpa too
He slowly began to
come through the words then
emerge from the words
When he first began talking to me
he would often begin by preaching
It was a kind of habit I think
But left alone to talk
for long enough
he eventually began
to just be in the moment
And in the moment
he would become more human
and the more human he became
it seemed to me
the more free
As he was listened to
he was released
All of the listening
I did then
helps me hear
him better now
He feels more
alive to me now
Somehow
than he did before
I love him now
Even more

Saturday, October 1, 2016

poem as business plan

 
10 Ideas

1. To write down 10 ideas.

2. To follow through on those ideas. Now there's an idea.

3. Like this one: start a Mixtape festival. A saturday matinee of a mixtape worth of videos.

4. Talk Museum of Modern Image to give me a monthly series called "Mixtape: The Movie"

5. If MOMI won't do it, go to the SculptureCenter, then PS. 1, etc.

6. Finale of each MIxtape Movie=live musicians playing an original soundtrack for a video.

7. Week one might look like this (in handwritten titles.)

     Side One

1. Luluc Small Window
2. Bon Iver, God, 29
3. Bon Iver #Stutford Apts
4. Bon Iver, Creeks
5. Visit, I Don't Want to Die
6. Bonnie Prince Billy, Quail and Dumplings

Intermission

    Side Two

1. play audio of Bonnie Prince Billy telling the story on KWFMU about showing up at Zach Galifianakis house after walking out of a Vipassana retreat and ending up in a Kanye Kanye West video
2. Kanye West (featuring Bonnie Prince Billy)
3. Kanye West (featuring Bon Iver)  
4. Kanye ballet
5. Die Antwoord, Banana
6. Die Antwoord, Freaky

   Bonus Track: Flushing Remonstrance playing live to Kenneth Anger film.

8. For season 2, Mixtape shows curated by visual artists I admire: (Thurston Moore, David Byrne, Bjork, etc.)

9. Season 2, beginning January 2018, go national by beaming Mixtape to indie theaters, think global. Why not? Make your living curating video art.

10. Share what you love and live free.