Norman J. Olson, Maplewood, MN
—Poems, Photos and Original Artwork by Norman J. Olson
at Loew’s Hotel in Santa Monica
flunkies in white…
pacific breeze cool
like ice
melting in a McDonald’s
soda cup…
a world of echoes
and turquoise water
touching the spoiled
thighs and skinny
asses
of those on whom
the lucky god
has smiled…
santa monica beach
palm trees on stilts
walk along the
beach…
beggars in piles of rags
and shopping bags
live in the alleys and
locked doorways…
their rocking bodies and
crazy voices
raise questions of
medicine, politics
and
ethics…
a feathery contrail
drifts above the lemon
sun like the hand
of somebody’s
serene
unworried
god…
whose hand is this veined and wrinkled claw?
still… my brain seems
to be
a timeless seagull
riding waves of fresh
Pacific air… above
a sinking sun
beneath a bone white
half
moon… where the
sky is blue as angel’s hair…
on the bus ride from Marco Polo Airport to Mestre
above flowers and
green ditches,
concrete buildings moldering,
I saw the spires and roof tops
of Venice through
a misty rain… riding
the five-Euro bus
from VCE to the Mestre
bus station… later walking,
lost, the
Italian rain
felt warm
after Minnesota and
ten hours
on the airplane… I wondered
if Titian ever walked
here, back when it was
a farm field, maybe, or
a dirt road… and marveled
at the gray-white light reflected
through thinly painted
trees…
I worry about Vesuvius
65 feet up from the sea
on the deck
of a huge cruise ship… which was
like a
chandelier grown monstrously
big… I watched the volcano
near Stromboli twice
blow fire and sparks
into the clouds… the expert
said this volcano had been
continuously
erupting all through
recorded history… but
of course, that is just
an eye blink
to a volcano…
65 feet up from the sea
on the deck
of a huge cruise ship… which was
like a
chandelier grown monstrously
big… I watched the volcano
near Stromboli twice
blow fire and sparks
into the clouds… the expert
said this volcano had been
continuously
erupting all through
recorded history… but
of course, that is just
an eye blink
to a volcano…
storm near Madera in the Atlantic Ocean
the huge ship with its
cargo of
aging legs, skinny
asses and tuxedos rolled
like the whole world had
come unglued… I sat on deck
three and watched the
giant waves looking, yes, just
like enormous saw teeth
turned upside down…
the old Australian guy confided
to me that he had just
had “a bit of a chuck…” but
I chewed
another anti-seasickness tablet
and headed for the
buffet…
almost across the Atlantic
two days out of Fort Lauderdale,
we saw a cruise ship
in the distance
like a goblet of frozen lights in the blackness
of the ocean night…
later from the back of the ship,
the moon came out,
round as any balloon,
and stepped with
slippers of light
across the turquoise path
of the ship’s wake…
driving across Alabama
after a month out
of the USA, driving from FLL
to MEM in the middle of the
night, it was good to
see familiar lights
and advertising signs… even
McDonald’s… I stopped and
got a soda…
the only rental car available
was a huge Mercury… so I drove
while the others slept
and thought how American
is this, driving an enormous,
poorly engineered gas
guzzler
through the warm woodsmoke
of an Alabama night… contentment
sitting in
my fat American
belly like a Moon Pie
and two Big Macs…
Today’s LittleNip:
birthday poem
—norman j. olson
in the hotel window
I see thinning grey hair
cropped short
and fading green/blue
eyes…
Norman w/Self-Portraits
Welcome to the Kitchen to artist/poet/travel writer Norman J. Olson, who writes: I am a 71-year-old small press poet and non-commercial artist who published my first poem in 1984 after many years of regular submission and rejection. I have now published hundreds of poems and artworks all over the world... my one and only book of poetry, Forty-Four Image Poems, published by Urtica, 2018 (French poet and editor Walter Ruhlmann in English), is available at: www.lulu.com/shop/norman-j-olson/forty-four-image-poems/paperback/product-23723310.html/. My website is normanjolson.com, and see also a blog by Cristina Deptula, entitled Synchronized Chaos; some excerpts from that can be seen at:
•••synchchaos.com/travel-vignette-from-norman-j-olson-2
•••synchchaos.com/travel-vignette-from-norman-j-olson
•••synchchaos.com/travel-vignette-from-norman-olson
And you can see more of Norman's art at: www.facebook.com/norman.olson.12/media_set?set=a.104373629582355&type=3/.
Thanks again, Norman, and don’t be a stranger!
And don’t forget Sac. Poetry Center’s free MarieWriters Generative Writing Workshop on Friday's as well as Wednesdays through April, in honor of National Poetry Month. That's tonight at 6pm. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa (Celebrate Poetry!)
And you can see more of Norman's art at: www.facebook.com/norman.olson.12/media_set?set=a.104373629582355&type=3/.
Thanks again, Norman, and don’t be a stranger!
And don’t forget Sac. Poetry Center’s free MarieWriters Generative Writing Workshop on Friday's as well as Wednesdays through April, in honor of National Poetry Month. That's tonight at 6pm. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa (Celebrate Poetry!)
All hands on deck—with Norman!
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
