Geek-A-Rama

July 3, 2014
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The Urban Dictionary’s #1 definition of Geek is “The people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult.” The kids I drew on this page are still being picked on, but they know they rock.

Here are the words to the triple acrostic:

Good LORD–feel that enthusiasm–each a superstar
Enjoy our radiation: safe enough for Gramp & Gamma
EnDANGERment is mocked–we use a Death’s-head-grin alarm
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds court within our diorama

Note also the hidden message via blacked-up letters: “THUS–ugh–Death holds our wit.”

Speaking of the awesome, starring-in-AIRPLANE! Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who just wrote a guest column about racism in a major publication, long ago I made up this riddle about him:

Q: What should you sing if Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has his thumb in your coffee cup as he’s handing it to you?

A: “You’re the Kareem in my Coffee…”

Yes, I’m a Joke Geek. And vice versa.

Picasso was a Jerk

July 2, 2014
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Recently TIME Magazine profiled a retrospective of Jeff Koons. Mr. Koons is a good four months younger than I am, yet he’s seen work of his sold for a cool 58.4 million dollars. Once I sold a piece of mine for $250.00, but then the gallery took its 20%. Sigh.

It reminded me of this page, of a pioneer of not only Art but of an artist’s self-promotion:

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Here are the words to the acrostic sonnet, with apologies for the clumsiness of Line 5:

What Picasso Had

Well, Pablo had a round head–that’s for starters;
His Bald and Bulbous Noggin was a Moon;
A gorgeous Harem–Demoiselles & Martyrs;
The cheek to make a napkin-drawn cartoon

Pay for three demoiselles’ Euro-Vacation;
Intensity of Focus . . . FEAR of Death . . .
Chicago’s streets to sculpt a Big Sensation;
A knack for Marketing with Every Breath.
Some envy his long life, his wealth, his Women,
Success like that some Art aspirants strive for;
Oh, nothing’s wrong with Fame to smile & swim in,

However, it’s unseemly to connive for.
Ahhh–I’ll not judge him. ART’ll; FATE’ll; GOD’ll;
Don’t know–but I won’t use him as a Model.

(Of behavior, that is. He was a real and true Jerk. See SURVIVING PICASSO for a taste of his Jerkiness, not to mention a stellar performance by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Quoth Wikipedia: “Picasso is shown as often not caring about other people’s feelings, firing his driver after a long period of service, and as a womanizer, saying that he can sleep with whomever he wants.”)

 

boys of summer (for socorro olsen)

July 1, 2014
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A dear and as yet unmet in person friend of mine, Socorro Olsen, created and conducts a poetry group in Facebook. Every Tuesday I contribute a thread called “Title Tuesday.” I offer five titles for fellow poets to hang their poems on. I also invite more titles. Today, this Tuesday, Socorro offered “Boys of Summer.” She thus catalyzed my poem below.

boys of summer

some boys of summer are gloved and batted and capped
on fields of dirt and grass
chasing a hidecovered stitchedup ball
and their gloves and the dirt and the wood of the bats
mix spoors with the sweet smell of cutgrass
and the smell is pure baseball

some boys of summer are after girls
and yet not being dorkily shy
and they sidle and longingly eye
the pretty gigglers
the breathtakingly mousy librarianesques
the stately tall ones the smiley plump ones
and the boys wish for fate to intervene
and get them the hand of a girl to hold
and yet no need on their part
to put their boy-egos on the line
to profess like much less love
the boys dream
though they walk awake

some boys of summer build en garage
some boys of summer hike and camp
some read and read and read
and some alas throw bricks through windows

but
when summer winks out with the equinox
it leaves a little firefly in some of the boys
and some of the girls
and some of the grownups

Stricken, Then & Now

July 1, 2014
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Today I finished a remake of something I’d first done more than five years ago. I used stroke victim John Updike to create a sort of public-service announcement, giving the warning signs of stroke and also some preventive measures. I am no stranger to the Soapbox, you see.

Here is what I did in the wee hours this morning:

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And here is the original, finished in late January 2009:

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You’d think the latest would reflect five solid years of practice between late January 2009 and early July 2014, but the new one is not all that much better than the old. Reason is I didn’t take the time I should have.

Here are the words:

Stroke: a random Maniac
Twinge devolving to Attack
Rawly, aftermaths illumine
It’s a CRAPSHOOT being Human.

Involvements

June 30, 2014
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Here is another finally-finished page.

The words to the single-word double acrostic are these:

Index cards & social meme
Novice hack or reader’s dream
Voices shrill can drill to bone
Orders strict tell despot’s notion
Lavish love creates its quotient
Vortex waves have force of oceans

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The meaning to this one is less elusive if you think of the words with the image as not describing a universal truth, but one person’s relationship/maturation journey, and that person someone you’re just getting to know.

grasp of air/Three With Background

June 25, 2014
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Double Feature day, Friends! First a poem:

grasp of air

the air touches and pushes against my hand
but will not be held by it
eludes my desperate grasp

and the same odd silly desperation obtains
when i try to hold time stiller than one second per second
time pushes against and touches my life
but will not be held by it

instead it mocks with the irony
that i was drooling
and dazed and clueless
a few weeks out of the starting gate
and will be drooling
and dazed and cashing in my last clue
a few weeks before the finish line

it is sixtwentytwofourteen twelvefiftyfourayem
it is sixtwentytwofourteen twelvefiftyfiveayem

seize the day? good luck with that

forge memories? yes you can
some of them will mock you with their irrepetition
some of them will sting you with a new context
some of them will settle you down
some of them will undissolve you

don’t grasp air with your hand
grasp it with your lungs

make memories your art form
your mind the lungs that grasp time

it is sixtwentytwofourteen oneohtwoayem
over but not out for it is and isn’t was

Completing the double feature is the image “Three With Background”:

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