Archive for May, 2010

May 28, 2010

that’s the way the glue sticks

by jhon baker

I’ve been staring at the screen for over an hour thinking of something to say that isn’t this, well, it is now. I considered writing a letter to the reader, sort of a ‘dear reader’ thing but that idea faltered as it wrote itself and had it not been on the computer it would have been hung up at the range and shot. 
I would just put out a poem or the completed versions of one’s published earlier this week but it’s too late for that as I am already writing. 
one of the greatest moments of my life was the discovery that two of my favorite creative people bonded over an album – Tom Waits and Bill Burroughs, The Black Rider. I listen to that now and it is distracting as I am trying to think of what I am doing here without making it sound like a letter, I think I may be failing.
When you get a perfect sight picture and squeeze back the trigger you have a tendency to miss but it can be assured that the bullet went exactly where the gun was pointed when the hammer went down. Nerves, anticipation of recoil, squeezing the grip incorrectly, and other all lead to a fraction of an degree barrel displacement and that gets compounded over the distance to the target. 
I drink coffee and write myself into a sort of stupor where I wander around the rest of the day with a blank slate and a stupid grin on my face, it has been pointed out that I abuse the wrong tipple for stupefaction but I cannot stand what I write when in an inebriated stupor.
I think later today I ought to weld something, anything really as long as it’s metal and not one of my typewriters that works properly. 

open window
the cat sits
undisturbed

one of these days

One of these days, I am going to die.
and leave behind all of my sorrow,
joy, and anger.
All the love, I’ll take if allowed.
ascend into the kingdom of exile
as a poet, lover, and sometimes madman.

death shall never rear its distortions
to me, but, it’s beauty shall be mine.
Its touch to offer warmth in solitude.
death shall, inadvertently, immortalize
the memories of this self
and bring with that – comforts to you.
You,
who, in life, had always been my companion
and brought me all it’s renderings
you,
who in my death shall have no place
and in your own shall leave no place
for me. In death, we shall not remember
the names of our dead.

 – Hoc Scripsi

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May 27, 2010

my second award!

by jhon baker
This award is is just simply cool and I am honored to receive it. Thank you Patrick Tillett for this honorific!
I can only hope now that my blog continues to live up to this.
fingers crossed and oh yeah,
no flash photography please.
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May 27, 2010

I am beautiful

by jhon baker

je suis beau!
I am a revolutionary
je suis beau!
I hear the morning song
     of morning song birds.
je suis beau!
drinking coffee black
but not in coffee shops
     where the coffeehouse
     revolutionaries sit and talk
     and talk and drink coffee
     starting no revolutions.
je suis beau!
on the front steps on the
     art institute
je suis beau!
driving to gas stations
je suis beau!
in the fruit supermarkets
je suis beau!

… unfinished  – Hoc Scripsi

May 26, 2010

cowboys and a bitches brew

by jhon baker

Happy postmortem birthday to Miles Davis and John Wayne.
I have an appointment for a casual breakfast an hour away so there are only fifteen more minutes to complete this post before I must be going.
He wanted to meet at ten, a far more sensible time.
The reception dinner at my wedding played Sketches of Spain, to this day my favorite jazz album although once involved in marriage you begin to understand Bitches Brew quite well.
one thing has nothing to do with the other.
Hemingway wrote a book with short sentences, I long to write one with long sentences and short paragraphs about a fish fighting for it’s life in the sea only to be caught by some old bastard who shoots himself eventually.
it will not be autobiographical.
My thesaurus doesn’t have an entry for masturbation which was never really needed but interesting to look up (found the info on the net).
I’m considering not getting an omelet for breakfast, but french toast instead.
last year I would have just gotten both but I’m older now.

maybe I’ll just get both despite my advancing years.

POEM

uncom
             mon
                       inciden
                                     t.
noting
             move
                       ment a
                                    nd colour
my
       eyes
                  watchi
                               ng
                                      when
there’
           s nothin
                          g to
                                  see,
but s
         hade i
                     nto
                            shade
creati
           ng f
                  orm.
                            so I
driv
        e on
                 knowin
                               g ther
                                           e’s
nothi
          ng t
                 o see.

 –  Hoc Scripsi