—Poetry by Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
MISSED IT
—Caschwa
some scientists today speculate that
early man on Earth may have gotten
help from some more advanced
culture from elsewhere in the universe
recently, archeologists in the Cradle of
Civilization found the remains of what
appeared to be a Patent Office, along
with facilities to process Trademarks
and Copyrights [citation missing]; might
the plans for the original wheel be in
those ancient remains?
Just think how many generations have
come and gone without beds to sleep in
or books of bedtime stories to help bring
on sleep, because the creators of those
ideas wouldn’t let anyone else go ahead
and enjoy them until enforceable marketing
rights were securely in place
for every wonderful museum on Earth
today, there may be many, many more
cradles of cures, remedies, useful tips,
life-saving measures, and other helpful
stuff all waiting in line for their Patent,
Trademark, or Copyright [citation missing]
THAT SPLAINS IT
—Caschwa
I don’t have a particularly
exemplary physique, but
thanks to the lexicon, I do
have a well defined “bod-y”
n., pl. -ies
AND WE STAY SILENT
—Caschwa
(Golden Shovel poetry form
based on “Miles”
by Evan Myquest, in WTF!!!
Issue #28, Winter 2016)
far from expert, apprentice jazzbo
takes little, bitty, baby
steps around the hooded devil
eager to let anyone in
who knows how to fasten a
safety pin properly on a diaper
revel in the fanfare of the horns
powerful lower brass resting on
burly shoulders, short neck, head
for the key change, which does
modulate in jolly fashion, not
ignoring the need to leave room to play
games running around the wishing well
more fun than they know what to do with
a couple of sharps, later will be others
and the band played on, until
evening passed by, now it was late
morning, time to brew coffee in
a large pot, we need a lot, coffee is life
not having enough brew brings consequences grim
like falling asleep on watch becomes murder
hard lessons learned about the manner of
keeping one’s head above water, so the status
linking coffee to mercy is strictly quid pro quo
now the score calls for 5/4 time, which is the
brighter alternative, like colored chalk
on the sidewalk to show an outline
of where your tapping foot goes
when the repeats repeat forever
LIGHTNING FROM THE MOON
—Joseph Nolan
Shall I fill our picnic basket
With lightning from the moon,
Cover with a blanket
And fill a bag with ice?
It might get warm
Under the trees
And you and I might take a nap
If we feel at ease,
On a bright, warm, sunny summer-day.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
We must bring plenty of cheese
And just enough crackers
So it won’t
Stick to our tongues
When we swallow down.
Picnics are so delicious
On late, summer mornings
And early afternoons,
Relaxing on our blanket
With lightning from the moon!
CAPTURED IN A LANDSCAPE, AS AN IMAGE OF A MAN
—Joseph Nolan
In my idle
Doldrums' daydream,
On a sofa,
In a stream,
Where leaves
About me,
On the trees,
Flutter in the breeze,
I lounge about and
Draw in sand,
Vague images,
From the water.
I sleep,
I dream.
Though called to hand,
Naught escapes
My lazy attention,
To the landscape,
Where I, myself, am captured,
As an image of a man.
IN A CRAFTSMAN BUNGALOW
—Joseph Nolan
She lived somewhere in New Jersey
Where she had disappeared,
Behind the doors
Of a craftsman bungalow
Built in ’43.
She said “Hello” to her neighbors
But didn’t let them in;
Handed out candy
On Halloween,
The smiles of children,
To win.
She was used to isolation
When the plague arrived.
She hardly noticed the difference,
But wondered how “they” could survive.
“They,” the ones
Who used to go
Off to work every day,
But now their cars sat idle
On their unused driveways.
THE SURVIVAL OF AN ARTIST
—Joseph Nolan
He was a low-life scumbag,
With an incredible gift,
He could make
Jazz new again,
With a riddle and a riff,
But if you lent him an instrument,
He would often pawn it
For another hit of smack,
When he got some jones.
He was often like that!
What can you do with an addict
When an addict is a saint,
Devoid of self-control,
Into everything he ain’t?
Angels who hang low
And go to desperation,
Where bright angels
Won’t show,
Into darker rhythms
Of prisoner-souls,
Who play like Hell
And play so well
You’d like to let them go,
So they won’t be dead
Before forty!
We don’t pay no genius
Just to stay alive.
If he wants to make the scene
He got to survive
All on his own,
Since no one gives support;
An artist is
Completely on his own!
SIMPLE COMMUNICATION
—Joseph Nolan
So much is revealed
By a grunt or a squeal,
Some utterly guttural sound!
So why do we bother
With a writer’s fine touch
When just a little grunt
Can say so much?
A grunt might say more
Than a whine or a moan,
But any such sound
Might reveal
Just how you feel!
And say too much.
And thus, we need
A writer’s fine touch
To put the right kind of
Spin
-In-.
MAKING SPACE FOR A GARDEN
—Joseph Nolan
I yonder,
I yawn,
I wonder why the people
To whom
I belong,
Yonder, yar,
Against the wind,
As though
They’d never sinned,
Searching for salvation
As sails against the wind?
Hermes was good at delivery.
Maybe we should pray to him, now,
Since we are in need
Of expediency,
To deliver us
From the howling
Of Cerberus’
Drooling jowl!
How can you manage a garden,
Simple and spaced into rows,
When chaos and weeds
Over-beckon,
Drawing in the wrath
Of overhanging trees?
Today’s LittleNip:
WHAT IS BIPOLAR DEPRESSION?
—Caschwa
bisexual polar bears
must be the loneliest creatures on Earth
no wonder they are depressed
next question
_______________________
Monday thanks to Caschwa (Carl Schwartz) and Joseph Nolan for fine poems today, and to Joseph Nolan for digging up some eye-catching photos for us!
Friends of Sacramento Poet/SnakePal David Iribarne will be saddened to learn that he passed away from COVID-19 in late September. To read more about this, go to www.facebook.com/david.iribarne/. Sac. Poetry Center will hold a memorial reading of his work on Monday, Oct. 30.
Here in our area, Sac. Poetry Center uses Zoom for weekly readings and workshops. For more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com/. SPC online poetry events this week include:
•••Mon. 7:15pm: SPC Monday Night Socially Distant Verse online, featuring Tom Hedt’s book release for his new book, Artifacts. Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/7638733462?pwd=YVltWXFFa2Rid2pZQ3pWaVordmZ5UT09; meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”); password: spcsdv2020
•••SPC Tuesday night workshop hosted by Danyen Powell. Bring a poem for critique. Contact mostoycoff@gmail.com for availability and Zoom info.
•••Wed., 6pm: MarieWriters workshop (prompts) hosted by Diane Funston: zoom.us/j/671443996
•••Thurs. (10/22), 7:30pm: SPC Literary Lectures Series presents UCD PhD candidate and morphologist Thomas Hardy: “Language Acquisition and Language Learning”. Info: www.facebook.com/groups/literarylectures/. Meeting room ID for Literary Lectures is 828 3933 9639
•••Fri., 4pm: Writing from the Inside Out workshop led by Nick LeForce. Reg. in advance at: zoom.us/meeting/register/upwkde-opjkpnyQECAVBKolY4hKCdl61uA/. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. (If you have registered before, use the same link.)
* * *
Also this week:
•••Fri., 7:30pm: Video poetry reading on Facebook by Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe at james-lee-jobe.blogspot.com/ or youtube.com/jamesleejobe/.
•••For more about El Dorado County poetry events, check Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/.
_____________________
—Medusa
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