...such odd musings...
say, "arise, mejicanos! Avec solidarite, fraternite, egalite, liberte."
say, "die free! save mama!"
say, "don't tread on me! i'm too small to bail?!"
I should keep you informed:
poets need a scoop. Cochabamba? you might know already? no? well, it's rights for everything! mice, bugs, sand, soil, rocks, trees, outcasts, trolls, water (just think!) even air. the people have spoken (power to the people! all people young old past and present and as yet unborn...)
earth, mother earth, Gaia, pachamama...the unborn of the unborn of the unborn of the unborn to the nth power and to you and me and our friends relatives teams gangs states parties pets homes farms and everything we know about anything and every idea we can imagine and have forgotten and not used by busyness and the things we have kept and that which we leave behind, the trials the trails and the thrills and the failed, the freedoms found and the jailed, the church the mosque the temple and all the lost who think they're found...the bound, the downed down, the brought down clowns the beaten down brown black yellow white taking back their rights making their sound heard round their world!
This glorious cacophony.
This is the loudest cry for freedom ever not heard in the history of Us and Them as We Forever and not scared to share anymore of the things that do not matter because matter no longer matters except to material thugs who think they matter more than the insignificant immaterial matter they worship...as you'me'us'them' all are nothing but WE created hell on earth on our deaf dumb and blind paths to heaven thru death, deathness, darkness and Our (mutually regarded) ancient fears of Others.
finally: nothing is final! everything we do see think feel is starting over and lasts forever! [if Isis can last this long] as we worship life! not death. Let's deny heaven-after-death and instead bring it on down here and now, blue cow pow! where we can use it before--in the nick of time--
we forget this chance...for our nepenthes.
yeah!
On Niceness
Dear Off-the-gridders, Furry-tree-huggers, and Noble savage wannabes:
If you can make it up, you can be it!
We are on the cusp of a major re-thinking of our society and our places in the world. This letter seems to corro-berate that thought. There is a major meeting in Cochabampa, Bolivia going on. They are attempting to put that new idea, this unfailed as yet world-view (as Greenspan admitted his was) in place on paper in writing signed and vowed to by everyone in attendance. Poets should know. Poets should be on the cutting edge. We should be outcasts in fact, off-the-grid, out-lawed, shunned and beaten down, because any new idea comes from the fringes of the known and is suspenseful and greeted by xenophobia. We threaten the static quo vadis.
People laughed at every new invention. newness needs to learn to walk. at first it staggers and falls. then it gets up stronger.
Imagine! poets imagine! inventors do too, although within the boundaries of science, and regimens, and rules of scientific law.
Law is therefore half the problem.
Laws of trademark and copyright and property and property rights. we cannot attack ownership rights by attacking ownership rights so...
Today rights are being expanded in Cochabampa. Listen up!
Limitations to our empathy are backing off. Squirrels now have rights. Fish have rights. All birds. Wolves. Even the wolf at the door! Molecules have rights. Light and dark have rights. Night is equal to day! Darkness is faster--finally admitted by Thinkiers del Nuevo Edad--than the speed of light! How do we know? Because darkness is always there waiting, having arrived first...there is no end to darkness, yet it only appears to us in the light. So we think of even the universe as having limits. Ha. We just cannot see them in the darkness...which we a priori believe in ! Dud!
We do not know enough to limit any expression anywhere, not of life or word or sight or sound, nor to order silence nor to move it around. that is what the system does to us. all systems are built on hate and distrust.
Plus, any system hates it's poets first. because poets are rule-breakers. inelegant outcast freakswho upset rulers and their rule-makers, and scare the gramlinmarians. then after they die--they build statues to the dead poets. trusting they haven't left any fireballs unpublished to tear down the ruling shibboleths.
And they place them in darkness, under viaducts for the homeless trolls to stare at in wonder of how they too are not so memorialized not even by a beer and a burger to their name nor even in their name although that's not thier game. how about a Homeless Burger? Or a new fad honoring troll-wear? A faint commercial kudo for not rising up and killing us all!
i'm dropping out of politics myself. i tried and i lost. it's tearing me up. i move now instantly into philosophy, satire and the joy of curmudgeonhood. viva jimmy. and thank you all for the use of your training ground. let nobody like me anymore. no more hero worship--i crave rejection! i desire only beer bottles at my head! boos cascading down from the rafters so full of illegals waffling between work and revolution. send me hate mail! i'll know that i was heard. i down your religions, your values, your pitiful dreams, your sorrows, your lusts, your heroes...ohhh, how i loath your heroes and your cliques. your groupings, allegiances, cluster-fuckers, unities, Klans all, disgust me.
There'll be days we'll stand together, but there must be nights we sleep alone.
DO and act alone with blind faith that nothing will be done unless you do it and you will fail valiantly and love the process for your own reasons and never retire from sounding off in truth or shy away from being not sorry for trying and embracing losing. because poets know that losing shall be winning until winning matters and then it too will become losing and only the planet mama, via her Daughter Gaia will reward you for losing so valiantly and truthfully with a strong heart and a ringside seat at the Scene of the Demise.
[should anyone applaud i shall take it as a sign that i didn't say enough rightly!]
p, l, pttp,
jimmy
keep your eye on the ball for it does not know where it's rolling.
follow that.
go to the darkness.
you'll have all the light you'll need.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Angel in a Texaco Tow Truck
Angel in a Texaco Tow Truck j r hammond © 08/07
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
the highway was empty, hard snow was a-fallin’
so I was a-hugging that long yellow line.
When all of a sudden my rig started failing.
It all came to me as an ominous sign.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
White steam was a-hissin’, my pants I was a-pissin ’.
I knew that that night I would not travel far,
and that sweet girl that I longed to be huggin’ and kissin’
was sittin’ alone in some warm country bar.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
At thirty below, I was about to be frozen.
My life passed before me; I was ready to die.
I was sure that my soul God had a chosen,
when out of the darkness the Texaco tow truck came by.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
Now I ain’t a braggin’, but I’m known as a rounder.
Coming or goin’ I know what to show.
But this truck-driving angel was a three hundred pounder,
a hot-blooded drinker and raring to go.
I got out of my rig in the wind and the sleet.
She got out of the tow truck with a bottle of Jack.
She said, "You come and sit a while in my truck...in the heat,
or you ain’t a-gonna ever get back!"
Well, I’uzs schtuck late that night ‘tween Weed and Yreka.
My rig broke down; I could not find out why.
With shhh-know and the lightning..., thing could not have look bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Tess-aco tow truck came by.
Now good ol’ jack black is one of my favorites,
but I just can’t drink with a woman who reeks.
But I sure changed my mind that nite near Yreka.
She was warm, we was drunk, and she laughed like a minx.
Chorus:
(Last one...finally. Now falling down drunk.)
Wall, I wash schtuck late a night a-tween Weed and Yreka
my rig all broke down...not finout why...
Snow and lightnin’...
Ahhh...heck with it...we got married!
—all done here—
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
the highway was empty, hard snow was a-fallin’
so I was a-hugging that long yellow line.
When all of a sudden my rig started failing.
It all came to me as an ominous sign.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
White steam was a-hissin’, my pants I was a-pissin ’.
I knew that that night I would not travel far,
and that sweet girl that I longed to be huggin’ and kissin’
was sittin’ alone in some warm country bar.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
At thirty below, I was about to be frozen.
My life passed before me; I was ready to die.
I was sure that my soul God had a chosen,
when out of the darkness the Texaco tow truck came by.
I was stuck late that night between Weed and Yreka.
My rig had broke down; I could not say why.
With the snow and the lightning things could not have looked bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Texaco tow truck came by.
Now I ain’t a braggin’, but I’m known as a rounder.
Coming or goin’ I know what to show.
But this truck-driving angel was a three hundred pounder,
a hot-blooded drinker and raring to go.
I got out of my rig in the wind and the sleet.
She got out of the tow truck with a bottle of Jack.
She said, "You come and sit a while in my truck...in the heat,
or you ain’t a-gonna ever get back!"
Well, I’uzs schtuck late that night ‘tween Weed and Yreka.
My rig broke down; I could not find out why.
With shhh-know and the lightning..., thing could not have look bleaker.
"Til the Angel in the Tess-aco tow truck came by.
Now good ol’ jack black is one of my favorites,
but I just can’t drink with a woman who reeks.
But I sure changed my mind that nite near Yreka.
She was warm, we was drunk, and she laughed like a minx.
Chorus:
(Last one...finally. Now falling down drunk.)
Wall, I wash schtuck late a night a-tween Weed and Yreka
my rig all broke down...not finout why...
Snow and lightnin’...
Ahhh...heck with it...we got married!
—all done here—
red spot t-shirt
© jimmy.mankind@gmail.com 08/06
"Haight and Fillmore. Pick up."
"1-8-7."
"8-7, check."
I was driving up Haight with just a twenty to my night;
It wasn’t late but my hand was pretty tight.
Suddenly a fresh-faced blond kid, maybe twenty-some,
held up a shaky arm and signaled me to come.
He stood too long in one place for me to tell.
(There is a ritual for catchin’ cabs, y’all.)
Suddenly he reeled back into the pole,
Leaned there uncertain, not like he would chill.
He wore a pair of jeans, the uni of the night,
and a white t-shirt that looked a bit too bright...in the flourescent blue-white light.
I raised my hands to him, in the universal, Well, what?
When at that moment he sat. He fell phump!
and slid down his back against the pole.
His grrrl friend screamed at me, "Please don’t go!"
She tossed her head up, down, to and fro,
Jumpin’ at my door and jerkin’ towards her beau.
While his face turned into some angelic kinda glow,
Her screams rose as if I was something slow,
but I’d pulled over, opened up the door, all set to go.
It was he who wasn’t movin’, seemed somewhat outa flow.
When she tried to lift ‘im I could see the whole
Of a tiny spot of red to the left of center
Below the patch where ciggies go.
It started out real small like that and then began to grow.
His head fell over, the wet spot spread and white went red.
I hit the mike and screamed, "I think he’s dead!"
"I mean," I said. "Mayday! This kid gone red!"
"Corner of Haight and Steiner, send the man!"
"The kid’s been shot! He barely understands."
"Don’t worry ‘bout findin’ us. Here they come!"
Two gangs, I spose, incitin’ fightin’ without bendin’.
Ran by cross the street and veered toward downtown’s ending.
We’ll need an ambulance, two shots a ‘drenalin,
This could be the bitter pill.
He’s twenty-some, looks real ill.
Grrrlie’s screaming at me.
Her boy can’t talk.
I said, "Just hold his hand. Tell ‘im how you feel.
If he can’t hear you, I think it’s time to kneel.
They’ll be here ‘fore we could lift him up."
She turned to him–and stared–her mouth all stuck
Big red spot from clavicle to down to where he opened
She dreamed of one more chance...with any luck.
But that dream faded as the EMTs arrived.
Seconds later cops strolled ‘round to find that he was not alive.
The big red spot now filled his shirt.
His Grrrl all covered with his dryin’ stain.
Sobbin’. Lookin’ up at me like she’d been hurt.
I nodded her way. Through all her pain.
I tried to say...something any...
Way. Then the bulls walked in between. Asked, who are you?
I called it in. I called for you. So don’t play me to diss. I’m the ride he missed.
There came a squawk from my machine:
"1-8-7! You OK?"
"Yeah...," I heard me say, as I reached back to close the door. "Haight and Steiner, no ride here. 1-8-7. Free and clear."
–omtatsat–
© jimmy.mankind@gmail.com 08/06
"Haight and Fillmore. Pick up."
"1-8-7."
"8-7, check."
I was driving up Haight with just a twenty to my night;
It wasn’t late but my hand was pretty tight.
Suddenly a fresh-faced blond kid, maybe twenty-some,
held up a shaky arm and signaled me to come.
He stood too long in one place for me to tell.
(There is a ritual for catchin’ cabs, y’all.)
Suddenly he reeled back into the pole,
Leaned there uncertain, not like he would chill.
He wore a pair of jeans, the uni of the night,
and a white t-shirt that looked a bit too bright...in the flourescent blue-white light.
I raised my hands to him, in the universal, Well, what?
When at that moment he sat. He fell phump!
and slid down his back against the pole.
His grrrl friend screamed at me, "Please don’t go!"
She tossed her head up, down, to and fro,
Jumpin’ at my door and jerkin’ towards her beau.
While his face turned into some angelic kinda glow,
Her screams rose as if I was something slow,
but I’d pulled over, opened up the door, all set to go.
It was he who wasn’t movin’, seemed somewhat outa flow.
When she tried to lift ‘im I could see the whole
Of a tiny spot of red to the left of center
Below the patch where ciggies go.
It started out real small like that and then began to grow.
His head fell over, the wet spot spread and white went red.
I hit the mike and screamed, "I think he’s dead!"
"I mean," I said. "Mayday! This kid gone red!"
"Corner of Haight and Steiner, send the man!"
"The kid’s been shot! He barely understands."
"Don’t worry ‘bout findin’ us. Here they come!"
Two gangs, I spose, incitin’ fightin’ without bendin’.
Ran by cross the street and veered toward downtown’s ending.
We’ll need an ambulance, two shots a ‘drenalin,
This could be the bitter pill.
He’s twenty-some, looks real ill.
Grrrlie’s screaming at me.
Her boy can’t talk.
I said, "Just hold his hand. Tell ‘im how you feel.
If he can’t hear you, I think it’s time to kneel.
They’ll be here ‘fore we could lift him up."
She turned to him–and stared–her mouth all stuck
Big red spot from clavicle to down to where he opened
She dreamed of one more chance...with any luck.
But that dream faded as the EMTs arrived.
Seconds later cops strolled ‘round to find that he was not alive.
The big red spot now filled his shirt.
His Grrrl all covered with his dryin’ stain.
Sobbin’. Lookin’ up at me like she’d been hurt.
I nodded her way. Through all her pain.
I tried to say...something any...
Way. Then the bulls walked in between. Asked, who are you?
I called it in. I called for you. So don’t play me to diss. I’m the ride he missed.
There came a squawk from my machine:
"1-8-7! You OK?"
"Yeah...," I heard me say, as I reached back to close the door. "Haight and Steiner, no ride here. 1-8-7. Free and clear."
–omtatsat–
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
in the face of murder
in the face of murder
by jimmy.mankind@gmail.com 3-23-10
i can't be funny unless someone laughs at my jokes. it upsets my sense of humor when there is someone in the room and i'm the only one laughing. or speaking. or warning. or making suggestions for reparations to the daughters of the slave gender or for re-invigorating our dead plastic soil so drenched in disappearing oil.
it's kinda like writing a note to someone and not getting one back.
poetry police have struck me down.
the answer is not here. there are gremlins in the woodwork. between the walls of wills and wishes. waving little flags of futility and fruitlessness.
[Do we poets lack the alacrity required to be the leaders of the losers? The difference is, when the Establishment loses with its anachronistic shibboleths, its worn excuses for the con-job of Greed Forever, we lose the planet. If poets lose the Upper Ten Thousand get soap. So we poets are worth saving.]
poetry police have married me against my wishes to the outcasts of the outcast mob of the outcasts.
i am the maverick of poetry which is the out-casting of writers who are the outcasts of culture.
i have no hope for established venues, methods, masters of pedigreeds, of ever rising above their training--they're too proud of their cavil to become uncivil...in the face of murder.
i have no hope for any of this. in like two days or two weeks, two months or two years, we will have passed nature's tipping point and ripped Gaia's patience out of her gut...and she will begin the great puking of the human species from her shores. Head for the high ground folks, and hope you can plant up there. and that the rain falls gently in the hot months, for you'll be living closer to the sun.
i have seen the armies of the poor and ironically they are fighting for the rich.
i have been inside the gilded meeting rooms, my head upon their walnut desks, and i have heard their evil orders flying through the veins of loathing. i have mumbled through their oaths, so secret and unopposed. venal. no deal that we'd have closed.
the deal is cast upon the steppes and down into the seas.
up-wells the cunning meth to make lost hot memories of youandme.
we'd most likely join them if we could...pretty grrrls form lines to enter into the house of maidens, so ripe for sexy offers. *
men with callouses stand over there...by the buses.
soon to be led to voluntary slaughters.
[The abattoir has surely gotten smarter.]
Now they have a choke-hold upon things we used to barter,
preferring to make of us more oil than working harder.
If your body contains six quarts of gasoline, some ash for N, P, and K, and water,
you’re worth more dead to them than what you may think you oughta. **
–economics has become religion–
–religion has become a business–
and when capital has won there will be nothing left for sale.
whatever spoils remain will be theirs only for the taking.
—o—
* Pretty is in the eye of beholders, because it’s only skin deep. Yet pretty is thoroughly embedded into the minds of its holders, those self-conscious little air-heads on cell phones.
Addictively Waiting for their beeps. Read Alwater’s Handmaiden’s Tale.
** One and ½ gallons of gas would be about 6 bucks as I breathe and write this. They would have to support you, with a steady dose of room and board, and oh yeah, health care, while you remained what Kissinger so aptly termed-out as "useless eaters." You can see they’ve reached this conclusion some time ago. That quote came while Sukarno ruled Indonesia–a bad man, evil, in fact. But one of our evils. One of our lives in a way. A keeper, because of the way he did so much that is "useful."
by jimmy.mankind@gmail.com 3-23-10
i can't be funny unless someone laughs at my jokes. it upsets my sense of humor when there is someone in the room and i'm the only one laughing. or speaking. or warning. or making suggestions for reparations to the daughters of the slave gender or for re-invigorating our dead plastic soil so drenched in disappearing oil.
it's kinda like writing a note to someone and not getting one back.
poetry police have struck me down.
the answer is not here. there are gremlins in the woodwork. between the walls of wills and wishes. waving little flags of futility and fruitlessness.
[Do we poets lack the alacrity required to be the leaders of the losers? The difference is, when the Establishment loses with its anachronistic shibboleths, its worn excuses for the con-job of Greed Forever, we lose the planet. If poets lose the Upper Ten Thousand get soap. So we poets are worth saving.]
poetry police have married me against my wishes to the outcasts of the outcast mob of the outcasts.
i am the maverick of poetry which is the out-casting of writers who are the outcasts of culture.
i have no hope for established venues, methods, masters of pedigreeds, of ever rising above their training--they're too proud of their cavil to become uncivil...in the face of murder.
i have no hope for any of this. in like two days or two weeks, two months or two years, we will have passed nature's tipping point and ripped Gaia's patience out of her gut...and she will begin the great puking of the human species from her shores. Head for the high ground folks, and hope you can plant up there. and that the rain falls gently in the hot months, for you'll be living closer to the sun.
i have seen the armies of the poor and ironically they are fighting for the rich.
i have been inside the gilded meeting rooms, my head upon their walnut desks, and i have heard their evil orders flying through the veins of loathing. i have mumbled through their oaths, so secret and unopposed. venal. no deal that we'd have closed.
the deal is cast upon the steppes and down into the seas.
up-wells the cunning meth to make lost hot memories of youandme.
we'd most likely join them if we could...pretty grrrls form lines to enter into the house of maidens, so ripe for sexy offers. *
men with callouses stand over there...by the buses.
soon to be led to voluntary slaughters.
[The abattoir has surely gotten smarter.]
Now they have a choke-hold upon things we used to barter,
preferring to make of us more oil than working harder.
If your body contains six quarts of gasoline, some ash for N, P, and K, and water,
you’re worth more dead to them than what you may think you oughta. **
–economics has become religion–
–religion has become a business–
and when capital has won there will be nothing left for sale.
whatever spoils remain will be theirs only for the taking.
—o—
* Pretty is in the eye of beholders, because it’s only skin deep. Yet pretty is thoroughly embedded into the minds of its holders, those self-conscious little air-heads on cell phones.
Addictively Waiting for their beeps. Read Alwater’s Handmaiden’s Tale.
** One and ½ gallons of gas would be about 6 bucks as I breathe and write this. They would have to support you, with a steady dose of room and board, and oh yeah, health care, while you remained what Kissinger so aptly termed-out as "useless eaters." You can see they’ve reached this conclusion some time ago. That quote came while Sukarno ruled Indonesia–a bad man, evil, in fact. But one of our evils. One of our lives in a way. A keeper, because of the way he did so much that is "useful."
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