Arthur, Dead

Arthur, Dead

Upon this slope of Mt. Etna

a rocky haze of black dust, lust

for life at closing time; sublime,

the baroque gesture beckoned

but trees just grow, regardless.

Every moment, after a certain age,

can either be a consummation or

a capitulation, again, to time.

I’ll never love enough to cover up

this hole Aeolus blew into my loosen-

ed Tooth—I never did make my peace

, either, with the goddess at Erice. I lost

all my emotional equilibrium

and cried and cried and cried and cried

“Don’t beat me anymore, my mommy.”

I’ve learned too many lessons now

to give it up.

10/11/2013

Etna/Catania

Catania Collective

The verve of all this black-

ened stone, dormant dome,

o’ cucchiti; lay down

thy vanity, prof.,

thy vanity of the curious

and nervous gesture to play

remembering all this stone

porous, black, and burnt,

an earth that moves through agency:

domus dominion domination,

associations of threat

and assassination, finding freedom

in a collective.

To tell the truth, the Mafia is

a fascist plague in socialist

times, a military ent-

erprise in private hands,

bankrupt

and ticking. I remember:

the ancient city below the street,

two swans, one black and one was white.

10/12/2013

Catania/Siracusa

Morpheus

"Morpheus" is a poem from my collection Sojourner set to image. Do you have your copy yet? Click here. Or buy it at Paperback Exchange in Florence or at Green Apple Books in San Francisco.

At the Stork Club

Me performing at Paul Corman-Roberts series "Crows in the Stork's Nest" at the Stork Club in Oakland, CA on August 14th, 2013.

For a full Write-up and film of the entire event see this page of the LITSEEN Blog.

Death Trap Bachelor pad

I lost you, Stella,

in icicles, overburdened,

you collapsed, hearing horns

in unheralded cold.

For you pointed North,

Pole-ward you pointed,

a five-sided arrow

of non-directional desire.

The furniture, damnit,

wants your blood;

you beat it off with a stick.

I won’t be here in the morning.

9/9/2013

Florence

An Update

It's been a long, hectic and wondrous summer focused upon publicizing, launching, and performing from my first published book of fiction and poetry, Sojourner. So much emphasis on travel and performance--and now the preparation for a second book I hope to publish this coming spring--meant not much new creative work posted here. Now that I'm back in Florence ("Tanned, rested, and ready" as Dan Aykroyd's Nixon) I should be back to my work-in-progress with new tales soon. In the meantime, I'm now writing a literary column and reflections on books for Florence News and Events, and English-language newspaper here in Italy. You can read three (count 'em, THREE!) articles by me here on page 27. As always feedback and/or suggestions welcome--what have you read about Italy lately that might interest my readers?

Also, coming up, I'll be Inaugurating The Florence Writers and St Mark's Cultural Association's first literary season with the inimitable M. Elizabeth Evans at 6:30 PM on Monday, September 16th, upstairs at St. Mark's English Church at Via Maggio, #16 in Florence, Italy. Drinks and nibbles will be served and a festive atmosphere guaranteed. Hope to see you there! (I'll be reading from Sojourner and I'll be happy to sign one for you!)

On the Radio this Sunday

This Sunday evening, Aug 11th, from 6 to 8pm, I will be featured on the hipest literary radio show ever: Frank Andrick's Pomo Literati w/ Rachel Leibrock & frank andrick performing w/ David Houston and String Theory, William S. Gainer (all live!), plus recorded rarities from Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Beth Lisick, Joey Ramone, Lee Ranaldo, and Diane di Prima. Listen in!

 Click on the text to listen to KUSF in Exile.

Reading / Book Signing

My West-Coast book promotion tour begin this coming Thursday evening at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. I will perform texts from Sojourner in the spirit of artistic anarchy with my trusty Dada drum. Come have a glass of wine, say hello, listen, shout back, sing along, and get a book signed.

Full Book Tour info here.

A Poem for the Past

Naugahyde remains, sometimes

lost childhoods retrieve

old world series victories

when we win a tough

one. The sun is enough

sometimes to spark

that Proustian reflex

Pontifically infallible

of knowing who you once

were.

6/22/2013

Spokane, WA

Performance of "Lubbock Elegy"

Captured reading "Lubbock Elegy (For Billy Boy)" from Sojourner, at the Meykadeh LibreriaCafé in Florence, Italy on April 18th 2013. 

The Neapolitan Befana

Florence

A Dream

A Valentine

 

“Her body is the shape of my hands.” –Paul Eluard

My Galatea, smooth and warm

as sandstone in her palms

and firm fingers caressing,

sculpts me each and every

day with her curved and slender

presence. Venus has no auguries

,neither pearl nor rose, to prove

if I were worthy of her chisel

against my stony heart

not yet come to the apex

of the wheel.

2/14/2011

Florence

Disquiet Memory-Suggestion

Asleep, a child
I wrestled her
once, for you --
I wrestled with you once
for what? Love?
no more wrestling
for her. No more
wrestling for me.


2/13/2013
Lisbon

After the Law

I do not see you, for I am not allowed to look at your differentiated, individual faces. Looking you in the eye is not necessary to my address and would be superfluous to my sense of decorum. By speaking, which is all that I ever do, I am making the rules. Therefore I am blindly addressing an audience of phantoms, an imaginary, undelimited mass denying the presence of any rarefied individual. In this, however, you escape me and flee; you get into trouble and you refuse to conform to my preemptive norms. For better or for worse. You escape your destiny and my mediation of your place in the crowd.

Another January poem

 

A comfortable, daily rain

undramatically dormant

cold season of drizzle

in an evocation of derailed

trains, missed appointments

and cement sandtraps.

I miss the oleanders, the eucalyptus

of the California coast, the cliffs

of a sea not worth swimming

in a city not worth destroying;

there just might be one or two

here of the just worth saving.

1/28/2013

Florence