My Videos
Poem: “Trying to Drag the Beauty Out of a Flower”
Video by KaRi of The Prime Spot.
Poem: “Sunday Afternoon Ghost Town”
Video by Poetry LA
A short video profile.
Video by Kija Manhare.
Poem: “Skin Cancer”
Me in the KBeach Studio.
Video by KaRi.
TRYING TO DRAG THE BEAUTY
OUT OF A FLOWER
The rose explodes in fiery red.
I trace the silky outline of a petal,
Search for the scent, the seduction,
the mystery.
The rose disintegrates in my hand.
The news explodes in blocked out black.
The president speaks, the people tremble.
The flags seem stuck at half their mast.
The crowds shuffle, they whisper and argue
and leave blossoming bouquets behind.
My heart implodes into pools of lead.
I read, I watch, I turn away.
The television drones, while I numbly
walk out to my garden
And try to drag
the beauty out of a flower.
(Available in My Kidney Just Arrived)
SUNDAY AFTERNOON GHOST TOWN
We stroll the deserted cowboy-colored streets
searching for an open restaurant
an open museum
another body
a drink.
We caress the polished grain of a horseless hitching post
Stare down the silent train tracks
Listen our footsteps echo across hollow wooden sidewalks
Gaze through dark, dusty store windows.
Is everybody in church?
Following tradition older than the antiques
lingering behind locked doors.
We have our own traditions.
Brunch with unlimited champagne,
poetry filled coffeehouses,
and endless strolls through empty streets
Searching....
We finally find a polished counter
to hold cold beers for us
a chipper waitress
and a football game on the TV.
But when we return to the street
it is still empty.
The restaurants are still closed.
The dust still gathers in the windows,
and we find ourselves still searching.
(Available in My Kidney Just Arrived)
“YOUR KIDNEY JUST ARRIVED AT LAX”
The doctor told me as I lay in pre-op prep.
I envisioned a special chartered flight,
an entire airplane filled with organs.
Hearts with little heart shaped carry-ons.
They always watch the inflight movie
and cry all the way through.
Livers splurging on one last drink;
they don’t think they’ll be allowed
where they’re going.
The lungs eye the spot
where the oxygen masks drop.
Corneas stare out at the passing countryside;
they always get a window seat.
The spleens are always complaining
about security
about the length of the flight
about the lack of leg room
(although they have no legs).
The gall bladder always gets in line
before his row is called.
And there’s my kidney,
no doubt reading a book to pass the time
something classic: As I Lay Dying,
or Great Expectations,
or The Stranger.
All of them wondering
about the journey ahead,
about their new home,
about their new life.
(Available in My Kidney Just Arrived)
Reading at Pondwater 10/1/11.
Video by RD Armstrong.
COWS ON THE FREEWAY
Cows spilled all over the freeway
by another amusing anecdote
on the traffic report.
Cows standing, dazed,
the carcasses of their traveling companions
scattered around them
hinting at something,
something they can’t understand
yet obviously important.
While more things they can’t understand
zip by
too fast to catch
or even focus on
yet, again, obviously important.
These cows know
there is something they must do
RIGHT NOW!!
But they sure don’t know
what the hell it could be.
I can’t tell you how often
I feel like a cow
on a freeway.
(Available in Cows on the Freeway)
Anita Smith performing my poem
“The Song of Inappropriate Desire”
Oct. 25, 2011
G. Murray Thomas and RD Armstrong at the Telluride CO Library.
Reading a couple of poems about my childhood at John Macker’s Roadhouse, Nov. 4, 2011.
Video by RD Armstrong.
Reading at Blackbird Biuvette, ABQ, NM
Nov. 3, 2011.
Video by RD Armstrong.
Reading “Your Kidney Just Arrived at LAX”
at the Moonday East reading, Flintridge Bookstore.
Video by RD Armstrong
Also from the Pondwater reading:
Also from Moonday:
More videos from the fall 2011 tour of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico:
Denver CO, 10/28/11:
Pueblo CO, 10/31/11:
Several poems from My Kidney Just Arrived