songanddancegirl

MALCOLM X

MALCOLM    X

I have a friend who quoted Woody   one day

25 yrs. ago    He said:  80% of life is just   showing up

I answer now:  And the remaining 20% involves:

kicking & screaming 

scraping & purring

sturm & drang                                       &  goodbyes

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Fall  2012

MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING

MORE     AFFORDABLE  HOUSING

The abattoir down the road   is pumping out

pig smell today    The air is heavy with a sweet

gone rancid stink from hell    But this is   West

Queen West     The fabulous  Art & Design District

So all the hipsters sublimate their  shit   and out the

other end   comes beauty    Personally I prefer breathing

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Fall  2012

DON’T LET THE CABRÓNES

DON’T  LET  THE  CABRÓNES      GET  YOU  DOWN

Frida glowering   with flowers in her hair

Diego a shambling  giant    The woman

beside me  at the A.G.O. leaned in   and

whispered:

He had so many women!       Must have been the charisma –

Frida’s mouth is just so   fuck you –

Especially  in front of  the  Rockefeller Mural

where  Comrade Lenin   features large

Did Mr. Rockefeller think he could buy

the giant sized Communist    with mucho

gringo dineros?      VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN

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*inspired by   Frida And Diego   Passion, Politics &  Painting    A.G.O.

Fall  2012

DON’T TELL ME

DON’T  TELL  ME  WHAT  THE  POETS    ARE  SAYING

John Ashbery says:  There are no rewards in this world for

pissing your life away even if it means you get to see forgotten

icebergs      He has won the Pulitzer   studied at Harvard & Columbia

That is a bit like The Hip crooning:  No one’s interested in something

you didn’t do      And since such sentiments make mere mortals feel like

has beens   you would all be better off gazing at the moon   or contemplating

the Aztecs   who prophesy  that the world will end   unbelievably    soon

So   Come  Poet    Shut  Up

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* inspired by   John Ashbery    The Tragically Hip    Allen Ginsberg

Fall  2012

LET THERE BE

LET  THERE    BE

He is a 1 armed photographer   He looks pretty

grizzled  and 1/2 mad    gazing at the sky  as though

he can force the light to co-operate    Or maybe a

wizened old magician who makes the light  happen

One eye often closed   Silverhaired cyclops  carrying

his camera through the woods   for 60 yrs.

He said:  Either you see it   or you don’t

I say:  Either you hear it    or you don’t    

The sound of words    falling from    the tortured mouth     of the muse

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Fall  2012  A.G.O.  Joseph Sudek   The Legacy Of A Deeper Vision

IF YOU DO NOT GO THERE

IF YOU DO NOT GO THERE    FATE WILL TAKE YOU KICKING & SCREAMING*

It would be so much easier to take photographs

Capture the essence in a click      There.   Ah.   Yes.   Done.

My heart flutters with excitement     I could put down this

wretched pen   and not have to dredge up  words   ever again

O the pulling dragging wrenching digging    clenching of teeth   

Or perhaps I should just confine myself to    appropriation?

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*C.G. Jung

Fall  2012

I SEE YOU’VE GOT A HUSBAND

I  SEE  YOU’VE  GOT  A  HUSBAND   NOW

I call out her name   but she does not answer

We stand  3 feet apart    An exact replica of her

only frumpy & ill conceived    16yrs. ago   gave me

 the finger  in an Indian resto    I am still not certain

if it is her      Have  I  fallen into a chasm between                       space & time?

Or does this confirm her as a borderline?

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Fall  2012

THE HANDRAIL PIERCED ME

THE   HANDRAIL  PIERCED  ME   AS     THE  SWORD  PIERCES  THE  BULL

Diego’s womb’s are full   of plump babies &  flowers    The cornucopia

While Frida’s are showers of  blood   &  empty     He had abandoned

2 families  before he wed her    &  was only  able to conceive of  the womb

theoretically     And as for me    I haven’t been reduced to keeping dolls

and monkeys      yet

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*Frida Kahlo  &  Diego Rivera   A.G.O.  Fall  2012

BY THIS POEM I SAT DOWN

BY THIS POEM    I  SAT  DOWN  AND  WEPT

If I didn’t write a poem today I’d

have thrown myself   under a  train?

Sitting here in a draughty    hallway

the light fading fast   buildings turning

to Aztec totem poles  dinosaurs creeping

along in the grey     Black puddle  gleaming

in empty urban pond    I am transported to

snow covered suburban driveway   glistening

in blue moonlight   at 10    Dreaming about a

different life    here  downtown    44 yrs. later

on the day I was saved    from the underbelly      of a train

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Winter 2012

YOU ARE A LIGHTWEIGHT

YOU  ARE  A  LIGHTWEIGHT    IN  A  HEAVYHITTER’S  WORLD

The magazine I bought today  calls to me

from the back seat of my car   Kate Moss

adorns the cover   This summer she will

marry Jamie Hince  my favourite rock star

While  I sit here in  draughty hallways at my

alma mater   writing luminous poems on mud

grey  early Spring  days   Jamie is in The Kills

and has an  Oliver Twist face

Allison  his riot girrrl bandmate said: He will make  the sweetest of husbands

I know all of this because I spend more time

reading glossy mags than  chasing after that

oh so illusive Can Lit gravy train   Truth is  at

this stage of the game I’d rather be a rock star

than a 2 bit  Can Lit poseur     for sure –

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Spring 2012