What Did We Know?

Vermont Snow

—Anonymous Photo

—Poems by B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA

IMPROVISATION #280
HANGING ON

With an invisibility
of shadowy flakes
over the windshield
resonant by my fast feet
moving to Mozart's
piano concerto
now going up to Vermont
we can already taste
a spinach and cheese
hot croissant
at my aunt's Bread
and Breakfast.

______________________

IMPROVISATION #283
ON SUNNY TRAILS

On sunny trails
of ski lifts
out of sight
up here in Vermont
light sifts through
on surface of the hills
in a frequented breeze
from brightness
by birds on branches
of barren trees
exiled within my words
in the morning mist.

 —Poster for Rocco and His Brothers 

(www.imdb.com/title/tt0054248)

IMPROVISATION #284
INSIDE THE FILM

Becoming myself
in the Italian film
Rocco and His Brothers
going through
with ease
of open-ended
conversations
taking us up
on the sidelines
of five sons
moving to Milan
needing work,
please.

_________________

IMPROVISATION #282
AT THE MUSEUM

At the museum
we watch so much
of the Dutch masters
even Rembrandt
then on balance
the abstract modernists
facing us by the avant gard
touching us by being
transparent in their paintings,
fact checking these:
the Bauhaus
de Stijl, Bonnard
and Matisse.

 Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld, 1918, 
in Bauhaus de Stijl 

(char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm)

IMPROVISATION #281
TALKING POINTS

Determined
at a re-doing venture
as if at a lecture
in French literature
at the Sorbonne
going on about Proust
as if the teacher
is sharing his polling
numbers of who
is really paying attention
with a rambling
of talking points
at the unfiltered hearts
in a clever gambling lesson
of a literary history
unloosed in a raw skin
of a chicken coming
to roost
as one visiting law student
slumbers at his bench
and one poet is indulgent
with rapt attention
another is in a rapture
of refreshment forever.

La Disparition d'Honoré Subrac (1960)

—Photo by Kitasono Katue

(www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/kitasono-katue-surrealist-poet)

IMPROVISATION #279
KITASONO KATUE'S HOUR
(1902-1978)

Sleeping among
a bird's nest
and statue
on the Common
resting with a daydream
asleep again
now keeping awake
among fallen branches
from a recent snowstorm
reading the dark surrealism
of Kitasono Katue
a tourist to Boston notices me
takes my photo
in the sunshine
we speak in French
then slowly reads
to me from an anthology
on my park bench
of his Japanese poetry.

 Kenji Miyazawa

 (www.kenji-world.net/english)
 

IMPROVISATION #277
KENJI MIYAZAWA'S ERA
(1896-1933)

Only the theatrical color
in eager lights of the T.V.
by this sleepwalker
reading in the early morning
your Japanese poetry
sustains my will
on a winter day
running down
the white hills.

 Reminiscence

—Photo by Yamamoto Kansuke, 1953

(www.scpr.org/blogs/offramp/2013/03/27/13065/realism-meets-surrealism-in-getty-japanese-photogr/)

IMPROVISATION #278
YAMAMOTO KANSUKE'S PHOTOS
(1914-1987)

Outside your studio
mirrors of swirling snow
by river streams
at an out-of-doors rendezvous
near the sea
as engaged for a surrealist
complexity from photos
in question marks
from a glass house reality.

____________________

IMPROVISATION #276
CONNECTIONS

We Beat poets try
to find connections
which puzzle
us into inflections
like a prospect
of a new translation
even from our passport
when I saw
on a woman's arm
who told me a child
in an accented voice
with her wrinkled smile
in a long line
at L.A.X airport
she had lived there
(as a child)
and almost died
in Germany.

__________________

Today’s LittleNip:

IMPROVISATION #275
GINSBERG'S TIME
(1926-1997)

With a new jersey on
he shouted a name
kissed a swimming figure
in the midst of deep snow
at midnight
after the Warhol show
from entangled shadows,
what did we know!

__________________

Many thanks to B.Z. Niditch for today’s reminiscences, inspirations and improvisations!

Local teacher/storyteller Mary McGrath is offering a four-week workshop (2/26, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26) on Storytelling, Sac. Poetry Center, 25th & R Sts., Sac. The series will begin this Sunday, Feb. 26, 3:30-5:30pm. Reg. (at the first session) is $100, materials included. Info: 99storytellers.blogspot.com or storytellermcgrath@yahoo.com (916-447-3557).

In addition, poetry readings will be held in conjunction with the workshops on four Thursdays (2/23, 3/23, 4/27, 5/25), beginning tonight at 7pm at the Avid Reader at Tower, 1600 Broadway, Sac. The series is called Speak Up: The Art of Storytelling and Poetry, this week featuring Sue Daly, Graciela Ramirez, and JoAnn Anglin. These readings will be coordinated by JoAnn Anglin; for info, contact her at joannpen@icloudcom/.

Also tonight, as every Thursday at 8pm: featured readers and open mic at Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento. Free, but please partake of Art Luna’s fine food and libations!

—Medusa

 Allen Ginsberg

Celebrate the arts! 

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