Friday BBQ

If you are enrolled in the Greg Orr poetry workshop this weekend and available there will be a BBQ at the UMass Field Station this Friday at 6 PM.  Please e-mail me (lensir@hotmail.com) if you plan to attend and I'll send you all the details.

len

Poetry Writing Workshop With Gregory Orr

Pollen

Pollen

Slurry in the morning

Eyes red itching

Take an antihistamine

Might make you irritable

More than usual

By ten am mouth dry

Nose cracked bleeding

Sun baked membranes

Here comes the migraine

Ears ringing…

Cicadas of the cranium

Element of water

Close at hand

Therein the solution

Complete emersion

Loose the laundry

Pour in

Sluice out in the evening

Melted Styrofoam

Write this down that proves your existence

Carve it into rock leave it at the road not taken

The last sign post before the un-raveling

Once the satellites fall from your eyes

You'll see the world skewed through a whole new prism

Listen for the crickets that aren’t there anymore

As in a trance dance counter to any celestial occurrence

We know the stars are out there without any visual evidence

Warm ourselves with the refracted light past tense now

Smell the end of days roast the last meat cooked

Chart our course for tomorrow by dead reckoning wave to the camera’s no longer working

Fabric of time putrid remnants we wear on our backs

History wrinkles the map of our faces

 A fine ash cloys in our nostrils like the red clay of Texas

Nostradamus, who has the last laugh now

Len Talks Poetry with Yesterday's Island

I'd forgotten this interview and found this link and send it along to you.

http://www.yesterdaysisland.com/archives/articles/13a.php

Poetry For Memorial Day

http://poetry.about.com/od/ourpoemcollections/a/poemsofwar.htm?nl=1

Marge Piercy features May 15 Spoken Word Nantucket

What a great day of poetry.  Dr. O said it was part of the best birthday celebration she's ever had.  I'll be posting a link from Plum TV as soon as it's available.

Little Beach House – A Teachable Moment

I’m sitting in the little beach house

My writing harbor

About a half an hour

Before sunrise

On a Sunday 3 years ago

Must have been 4:30

5

A buck

Maybe a six pointer

Comes peeking out of the Spartina

Houdini in a camel hair coat

Nose in the wind

Intent on one thing

Our eyes met

In that first instant

Neither capable of reaction

Beyond release of urine

And

The ghost is gone

I make a mental note

He’ll be back and

This you can use

You’ve got students coming

It’s entirely possible

Some of them

Will think this is cool

Enough to formulate

A dream beyond the place they know

So when they arrive

And once I’ve told them this story

I hand them the keys

To the little beach house

Tell them they must sit silent

Look for movement

Be patient

Join them at breakfast

For the stories they’ll tell

And what I’ll learn

From them

H2O

There’s a old cat sleeping

On the new moon tonight

It drools

Cold

Huddle’s under bed linen

 Roused

Becomes

A moving wind break

For Sarah

Counting horseshoe crabs

High tide 3 am

With leaky chest waders

Failing flailing flashlights

Fiddlers under foot

She searches for bawdy

Body surfers

Bubbling at water’s edge

Ecstatic in the sand

Mom

I Love You!

Marge Piercy features May 15 Spoken Word Nantucket

May's show (2 pm May 15th at the Field Station) is a blockbuster featuring the acclaimed poet and novelist Marge Piercy. http://www.margepiercy.com/"

Horseshoe Crabs

If you see them great but please leave them alone.  I remember them in the 10's of thousands when I lived in Weymouth in the 70's.  It was an awe inspiring sight.

Wind Blown Dog

It was a strong north wind that blew me here
Riffles my hair
Stirs my blood

I've taken root in the sand
At Atlantic's edge
Here for a time

We all are

My First Brush with Death

Thoughts of my own  

Mortality

Come in waves

Of nausea and shortness of breath

The flu of 2011

A mix of chicken broth laced

Fruit juice hallucinations

My dear wife’s ministrations

Swegen’s sitting with me

I’m comforted

These are reasons to continue

The story

Put this in perspective

My week

Of misery

Leaves me ample time for

Reflection

Curled in a fetal position

Takes me back to Plaistow NH

My childhood home

That day in 68

The reason for the fight

The pain in my back

My constant companion of 42 years

Spencer and Robbie were the school bullies

They coveted what I had

That year’s Red Sox year book

Part of an Easter offering

Amongst the jelly beans and Peeps

I brought it to school

For show and tell

In spite of mother’s protestations

A glossy magazine

Full of the impossible dream

Bean balls, a triple crown and

A showdown with Mr. Gibson

Enough electricity to light Kenmore’s CITGO sign all summer

Quite the boo birds forever

A treasure not to be relinquished easily

We were children in the schoolyard

The three of us

Two against one

A large rock  

Ended it 

Ryk McIntyre - Yo Hamlet!

Ryk visited the Nantucket public school this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e4jV84p92M

Red Tail Hawk

This hawk took a rabbit just outside the door to the UMass dormitory.  Ate a few choice bits face, liver, etc.  She allowed me 60+ pictures and moved away to her favorite tree when she was done.

Stranding Team

(for Alex)

To begin with

We should mention

That which no longer exists

It’s only right and proper

To give praise to our elders

We’ll all get there someday

Here’s to us

Bones at an outwash

Waste nothing

Crack the bone pulverize it

Honor all the points on the compass

The 50 richest individuals

Equal in net worth

To the bottom half

Of the population

Eating the rich is not a solution

It's a dirty gerund

Free enterprise

Your future - a wood chipper

Vultures circle prefer the eyes

The spark might have been set

On Facebook

That pays the true cost

Makes reparations

finally gets it right

 

Builds casinos slash windmills

Spinning dream catching circles

With reflective sails

Pointed towards

First light

This is not a creation tale

It’s how the stranded strain

Naturally before their last breath

David and Kathy

David and Kathy Surette  visited Spoken Word Nantucket this weekend. David is one of our favorite poet friends, and Kathy says she likes my poetry, so it was an awesome weekend.  For more on David's latest book visit him at the address below.


http://www.davidsurette.com/About.htm

The Postmistress

One Book One Island 2011 Will Be Held Feb. 1 - 14

One Book One Island 2011 Will Be Held Feb. 1 - 14

The One Book One Island community reading project will kick off on Feb. 1st at 12 p.m. at the Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India Street. The book title will be unveiled at the kickoff and will be offered for free to all. Books can be picked up at public locations around town. Events, including films, book talks, and discussions, are scheduled for the first two weeks in February. For complete information check nantucketatheneum.org beginning Feb. 1st.

Red Sky Morning

light up red
portends heavy weather
ride the vomit comet
i hope not
home by Sunday
not soon enough

Field Station video -from PLUM TV Nantucket

http://www.plumtv.com/videos/nantucket-field-trip-field-station/index.html

In spite of the loss the day was a success

In spite of the loss the day was a success
(Tom Brady’s Lament)

Paul sang cowboy songs split early
Dan dropped Tam O Shanter
Beat Neil Bomb
Grokked deeply Das
Maddie popped it
Kate played and danced
Mary Ann brought her apple shine
Pitch perfect Kathy
This is why you have an open mic.
Had a hairy lamb for the feature
Turmeric the secret ingredient
Our next show
www.spokenwordnantucket.org
For a taste of what you missed
www.hairylamb.com

One Book One Island 2011 Will Be Held Feb. 1 - 14

One Book One Island 2011 Will Be Held Feb. 1 - 14

The One Book One Island community reading project will kick off on Feb. 1st at 12 p.m. at the Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India Street. The book title will be unveiled at the kickoff and will be offered for free to all. Books can be picked up at public locations around town. Events, including films, book talks, and discussions, are scheduled for the first two weeks in February. For complete information check nantucketatheneum.org beginning Feb. 1st.

All My Pretty Poems

I've been mowing wild grasses
With alliterations and
Iris contractions
Hotter than August
Slower than molasses

More important to me than you ever were

I’m clearing away
Evidence of you
Filling in the vernal pools that were your eyes
Tossing all in the dumpster of a new day

It’s spring and more than time

I’m surfing on a wave of lead
And organic matter
That’s one part anticipation
Two parts dread and
Suppurating

Because you are an invasive species
I cut you out with fervor
A  zealot’s straight razor

Writing this in cursive
My ink spittle and blood

You are dogma scraped from my shoe
I’m so happy to be done with you

But no hard feelings
I wish you well

And here am I a flagellant
Inured of the pain
Impervious to the voices
In my head
Saying
Take a moment
Reassess the situation

My wounds will be cauterized
Tears will keep the area irrigated
Enough
to let healing begin

I hope

You’re still irritated
Good
 
I won't miss you
Because you never walked
In front of my car
 
I won't remember you
I won't notice
The millions of tiny scars
You left
 
I'm not that introspective

From My Shotgun Shack

Yesterday
from my perch
over looking Folgers Marsh

I watched
with abject horror
a kite boarder
using that fragile habitat
for mindless recreation
 
Watched as he struck
a Cormorant
never missing a beat
he kept on going
 
This morning I found that bird
wing ripped and useless
 
No longer able to feed
it will be meat
certain as the
Sun comes up
 
Soon it will be Duck season

This poem is for
That Kite Boarder

All Things Considered

It was a good year
Sure we lost some friends

Scattered leaves
not

Tulips and Daffodils to them
Remembered and celebrated

Time for others to forgive
or forget

Room enough
For so much more

For Anyone Hoping To Explain Poetry to a Loved One

She thinks she’ll

Vanish viral, anoint austerity

Mendacious audacity in a sonnet or sunrise

Say’s “I don't know much Elvis”

But I could recite some Keats for her...

Coffee, tea, and Shelly

That might ford the gap

Perhaps not

In the morning

The baby needs attention

The kettle is braying

This will wait for later

This poem for a mother and daughter

Lost For a Moment

Thankfully eyes are part of the equation
Air scrubbed clean, steaming
Upright and breathing i

Took a longish walk we
SCB, the dog & LMR

Glad I didn't drink last night
Trying not to lag too far behind
Failing

I can't be lost
There's a lighthouse up ahead
I can hear Swegen

This is the path to a good morning