Thursday, February 26, 2015

Sunday, February 22, 2015

The grass and cows and wind from the southwest—poem

This appeared in THE HAT (a great poetry journal) way back in 2005:

 
The grass and cows and wind from the southwest

The grass and cows and wind from the southwest
still cold around the hills blows plastic bags
from distant roads into barbed wire fence chest
high and a red tailed hawk flies low and lags
a bit to watch the windmill creak and shake
no longer pumping water its well dry
the metal trough with bullet holes
                                                      a snake
may live there or may not but there’s a thigh
bone of a cow or horse half buried in
the dirt
             a plane flies east the vapor trail
thin crossed with long thick clouds
                                                        that start to drift
cows eat and shit the windmill blades still spin
a wooden fence post falls with rusty nails
the cows look up the wind begins to shift


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Information Doesn't Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow

My review of Information Doesn't Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow, now up at ENTROPY. Click on pic to go:

http://entropymag.org/information-doesnt-want-to-be-free-laws-for-the-internet-age/

Writer's Cramp: Comics From An Innocent Man

My review of Byron Case's comics strip, written from prison, Writer's Cramp. Up now at COMICS BULLETIN. Click on pick to go.


http://comicsbulletin.com/writers-cramp-comics-innocent-man/

To read more about Byron Case wrongful imprisonment, check out the Free Byron Case Website.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Hemingway—poem

"Hemingway" appeared in the poetry journal BELLOWING ARK in 2010.
 
Hemingway

I know it’s not popular
or even politically correct
to (still) like him
but  when my father’s great ambitions
were to have enough time on saturdays
to mow the lawn
and watch college football
Hemingway gave me men
who left conservative America
for adventure
because of course it couldn’t be found there
and causes they actually believed in
fighting the ultimate father figures
trying to protect countries and people

they went alone
were comfortable with that
didn’t talk a lot
though spoke fluent italian spanish and french
and always met beautiful interesting women
trying to do what was right
even if it was also for themselves
but that was possible
and if they came back wounded
disillusioned
or not at all
that seemed to be a given
even to them

and things were things
a big fish was a big fish
Kilimanjaro was Kilimanjaro
the hills in Spain were not like white elephants
what was important
was what was felt under the surface
and unlike my father
he trusted me
to be intelligent enough
to figure that out myself



and if ultimately it wasn’t all real
(and I didn’t care for the great white hunter phase)
enough of it was
and if Hemingway had his weaknesses
and if maybe he gave up without a fight
(though if you knew your mind was going
what would you do?)
he had a good run
and was maybe no more worse
and much more interesting