Tuesday Poem: "Hipster Cancer" by Paul E. Nelson

July 26, 2014 - Dear T. -

"bright eyes in wells

watch for the sun's assassin;"

                 - Denise Levertov

"The past can wait," she'd

say - even today where his

hipster cancer can't be hid

in his giant beard, where

a toddler only a nuisance

not a direct link to the

numinous.

                  I'd've wanted

a cannabis boutonnières at 17

 but long lapsed my High Times

subscription. Call it Skywalker

 but only yr head's in the clouds

   not yr jiwa.*

*jiwa = Indonesian for "soul" 

Paul E Nelson, June 2019, photo by Philip Brautigam

Poet & interviewer Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) & the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Since 1993, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events & 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Daphne Marlatt, Nate Mackey, George Bowering, Barry McKinnon, José Kozer, Brenda Hillman & many others. Paul’s books include A Time Before Slaughter/Pig War: & Other Songs of Cascadia (2020) American Prophets (interviews 1994-2012) (2018) American Sentences (2015) A Time Before Slaughter (2009) and Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013). Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017) and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill(2019) Make it True meets Medusario (2019), he’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, Nanaimo, Qinghai & Beijing, China, has had work translated into Spanish, Chinese & Portuguese & writes an American Sentence every day. Awarded a residency at The Lake, from the Morris Graves Foundation in Loleta, CA, he’s published work in Golden Handcuffs Review, Zen Monster, Hambone, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, he is engaged in a 20 year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia and lives in Rainier Beach, in the Cascadia bioregion’s Cedar River watershed.

 

Paul is an active member (since 2004) of the Subud spiritual community, serving as Local Helper and Rental Agent of Subud Greater Seattle, webmaster of Subud Pacific Northwest, Secretary and webmaster of the Subud International Cultural Association’s USA chapter and has many other positions in the past.

Tuesday Poem: "Ghost Town" by Andrew M. Bell

Picture Clint’s flinty-eyed stare

as he squints into the harsh sun

down an abandoned street.

Ears attuned for the chink-clink of the villain’s spurs

hear only the eerie moan of the nor’wester.

 

Silt swirling in small twisters is

flung like an insult into Clint’s eyes,

the grey, turgid liquid that spewed forth

now desiccated by the unforgiving Canterbury sun.

Cue tumbleweeds,

but the sole arrival is a family carload 

seeking the solace of the state-sanctioned sea.

Dad winces as he drives through Dodge City,

and his suspension surrenders to another pothole.

 

Dusty venetian blinds are

closed like the eyes of the dead,

the blanched grass clutches at the windows,

and weeds suffocate once proud gardens,

fissures scar the lawn

with the earth’s vengeance.

 

Clint springs like a cougar at

a shadow in his peripheral vision,

but the villain is already out of range,

running carelessly towards a life full of promise.

by Andrew M. Bell

Photo Credit: Joe Hayes

For more information about poet, Andrew M. Bell, see:

https://www.read-nz.org/writer/bell-andrew-m/

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The poet would like to acknowledge the editor of The Press in whose pages this poem was first published in 2013.

Tuesday Poem: "Forget About Healing" by Jeff Foster

Some days, you just have to forget about ‘healing’.
You have to stop trying to feel better, trying to overcome your emotional wounds, or trying to be anywhere other than where you are.
You have to embrace the day as it is.
And you have to give yourself the most sacred permission of all:
To shatter. To break. To be an ugly mess.
To lean into a place of utter humility and powerlessness in yourself.
To cry out to the heavens, “I can’t do this!”
To admit utter defeat in the loss of the life you had imagined.
To crumble to the ground, lonely and hopeless and profoundly ruined.
To want to die, even.

And there, in the darkest places, in the blackness of the underworld, you may begin to rediscover... life.
And learn to love the beginnings. A sacred reboot:
A single breath. The way the sun warms your face.
The sound of a tiny bird singing in the tree over there.
The raw simplicity of a single moment of human existence.
Hell has been transmuted, through love and patience.
You have discovered the wholeness in your brokenness.
You have given up your idea of ‘healing’, and you have uncovered something infinitely more healing:
Your authentic self.
Beautiful and true and utterly unfixable.

by Jeff Foster

For more about poet, Jeff Foster, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Foster_(spiritual_teacher)

Tuesday Poem - Song - "Common People" by Pulp

Not a poem, but a fine piece of social observation nonetheless:

She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College
That's where I
Caught her eye
She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said "In that case I'll have a rum and Coca-Cola"
She said "Fine"
And then in thirty seconds time she said

I wanna live like common people
I wanna do whatever common people do
Wanna sleep with common people
I wanna sleep with common people
Like you
What else could I do
I said "I'll, I'll see what I can do"

I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why
But I had to start it somewhere
So it started there
I said, "Pretend you've got no money"
She just laughed and said
"Oh you're so funny"
I said "Yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here?
Are you sure"

You wanna live like common people
You wanna see whatever common people see
Wanna sleep with common people
You wanna sleep with common people
Like me
But she didn't understand
She just smiled and held my hand

Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do whatever common people do
Never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
And then dance and drink and screw
Because there's nothing else to do

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along even though they're laughing at you
And the stupid things that you do
Because you think that poor is cool

Like a dog lying in a corner
They will bite you and never warn you
Look out, they'll tear your insides out
'Cause everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh
Yeah and the chip stains and grease
Will come out in the bath

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright
Whilst you can only wonder why
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah

Never live like common people
Never do what common people do
Never fail like common people
Never watch your life slide out of view
And then dance and drink and screw
Because there's nothing else to do

Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Wanna live with common people like you
Oh, la la la la
Oh, la la la la
Oh, la la la la
Oh, la la la la la la

Oh yeah

Songwriters: Candida Mary Doyle / Jarvis Branson Cocker / Nick Banks / Russell Senior / Stephen Patrick Mackey

Songwriters: Candida Mary Doyle / Jarvis Branson Cocker / Nick Banks / Russell Senior / Stephen Patrick Mackey

Common People lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., BMG Rights Management

Common People lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., BMG Rights Management