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Thursday, May 18, 2023

Alive is Messy

 
Animal Farm
—Poetry and Visuals by Smith, 
Cleveland, OH

 

Life's like chickens feeding
it's all scratch and peck

Alive is messy, hard to hold
many mishaps
we're all saps to mystery's mold

Weak and weary worn
I keep on steppin'
rock and me mountain made

Don't have to be first
don't have to be second
just have to be

So dancing on quicksand as civilization sinks
smile by smile lie by lie by by by

 

Complicit
 

 
We live in a madness
where it's madness
to mention the madness

 

 Zigzag
 

 
I'm my own banana peel
riding in the clown car
of this circus life
 
 
 
Lost Chord

 
THE WAR BETWEEN THE ANNUALS AND
THE PERENNIALS

Cheer up
it's not all eat or be eaten
it's also eat AND be eaten

Let us prey

Sometimes I have to play music
to drown the horrors
in my head

Too many nuts, not enough squirrels
 
I sit in the dark
close my eyes
so you can't see me

Uncertainty is the only certainty we have

Enter you with me
enter me with you
it's all walrus food, but true

Doesn't seem to be much of an endgame

One second you're an egg
in a nest next to a cuckoo's
then Zap! you're a fried egg sandwich

Just another wary wander up the weary worry 


 
State of Mind

 

Siren screams across bridge
lone coyote below howls in empathy
songs of hunger
song of shudder
getting through today
to a tomorrow tied to yesterday

I howl for hazy horizons
and their lying hints of hope 

 
Building Blox
 
 

I live in Nowville
under deep fog of Then
looking for Zen

 

 Side Up
 


In my forever slog through Entropy
I keep breaking
so tape and tuck me back together
but I'm getting on
and fuck it
there's a lot less tuck it to tuck

 

5 to 1
 

Werewolves howl at night
vampires drain in the dark
capitalists suck and moan 24/7

Words from the past
crawl from the shadows
mewling with mirth

 
 
Past/Present
 


Today’s LittleNip:

White moon
purple sky
seven deer

—Smith

____________________

Steven B. Smith (Smith) is with us today, pounding out nuggets of gold about his and the human condition. Steven and his poetry-mining are always welcome in the Kitchen!

This is one of those nights were everybody in NorCal poetry seems to have an event going on. In addition to Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento at 8pm, Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis features William O’Daly and Lois P. Jones, 7pm. And Third Thursdays at the Library in Sacramento returns to meeting at noon on-site (instead of Zoom); write to Amanda Jacobs to sign up. PLUS—two early-evening workshops: Lara Gularte hosts her monthly writing workshop in Cameron Park at 5:30pm, and Nancy Gonzalez St. Clair hosts a workshop at Lodi Library, 6:30pm. Plenty to do!

____________________

—Medusa

 

 

 Plato’s Tree
—Visual by Smith



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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