April 20, 2010

Title – a dislocation

by jhon baker

04/20/1808 Nepoleon became. 04/20/1889 Hitler became. Who would have guessed, two despots in one day.
And in 1999 I remember I was smoking a cigarette with a college friend by name of Matt, in the fire escape on building 600 on S. Michigan – up around the eighth floor when he told me about the Columbine massacre, it would be the last day I could safely wear my trench coat without wild eyed stares for about a year and a half.

Day two at Literary Tonic. Go there if you have not.

I’ve never understood liberals. Nothing has ever been liberated without the use of firearms.
I am a member of both the NRA and HRC and ACLU and various other acronyms – I see no dispute between these memberships.
I do not plan on liberating anything with my firearms – except a few bullets from their casings toward wooden and paper targets that never harmed anyone intentionally, this is no reason not to take my rage over paper cuts and splinters out on them. Both of those things hurt but not as much as compartment syndrome and while I do not shoot my leg (though I want to sometimes) I do shoot paper targets and wooden objects meant for blowing holes into.

but this has been a dislocation and I am ending it now that I have eaten breakfast. Honey Nut Cheerios with soy and vodka. Kidding of course – there was  no Honey Nut Cheerios with soy. And it was Jasper Daniels.

this is a dislocation

this is a
dislocation

a skillful assemblage of
et ceteras and
et ceteras

a cycle of soul drummers
and southern chicken sacrifices at
the front gate of Graceland

a loose impersonation of self
overlooking and
never sighting self

Our culture is jazz, blues
and poor elocution

a fragility of coffee house
poets and the war
machine

all
together-colored and successfully
uncollected disaffected ice cream eaters

 – Hoc Scripsi

of course I was joking. There was Orange juice involved.

April 19, 2010

creative drought

by jhon baker

I keep thinking that I am in the middle of an existential crisis and am existing through some kind of creative drought. Neither are true, which gives credence to the former, but even still, existentially I am already aware I am wholly responsible for all my actions. Or I should say I already understand and accept as it conveys the proper truth that simply saying ‘aware’ does not.
As for the creative or Literary drought, I can look and see the output – it is higher than any previous year except when I was a teen and early twenties when I mostly wrote crap and was going out of my mind, delusional and electrocuted. Mostly then I excelled at being an asshole – a reflection of my surroundings which the insanity was also or maybe not but probably.
It is that I want to be writing more, I want to be creating constantly, the two finished stories and one nearly so along with forty some pages of poetry and a handful in the works all go to state my creativity is high then in those moments where I am not writing I start to think that I need to be. It is that my mind used to teem with ideas and now it does not. It comes up with an idea and then dedicates it to paper and works it out.
The ideas are still there, they just no longer scream, I should have said noise instead of ideas or go back and correct it now but I am not going to.
There is little noise now, and it makes creating easier. I don’t require the chaos but thinking now that it is enjoyed to some degree. They were surprised when I said I felt I was getting better when they say most people report they cannot create on similar medications. I think that there is a genuineness behind an ability to perform while on multiple medications. I think if you cannot be creative on things that stabilize you and quiet the noise to a degree then maybe you really ought to stop trying altogether and try something else.
I was going to qualify that and am not now, it needs no explanation.

margins

   I find poems in the
margins of books I’ve read
   or tried reading
only to find them
poking out and asking
to be recognized.
                 and I may.
such as…
I run to catch up to you
tho my hair is mussed
and I’ve forgotten my glasses.

   well,
I’m left now to wonder
if I caught my presumed lover.
   I don’t know.
should it be recognized that it
may have been
someone else?

 – Hoc Scripsi

Published today at Literary Tonic. The poem – ‘dying roses are not broken promises’ – I am obviously going to support the site but I thought it was a great one before I submitted there, otherwise I wouldn’t have submitted. Go there, comment, don’t comment, light the candles, put on the incense, and give yourself a hard time.

April 17, 2010

This morning

by jhon baker
Spending the morning listening to  vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot by Sparklehorse, which was Mark Linkous, who shot himself through his heart earlier this year. See this post for more about that. But this morning I am listening and saddened that he was in so much pain that it came to that. 
Most people I admire have committed suicide or lived so dangerously/recklessly that their death might as well been considered a suicide. This makes me worry unnecessarily for the people I admire that are still alive, but there are not many I admire and saying all are suicides is misstating the truth. Some have died as old men/women though not many.
The poem was written for my son.
the sun hides
   for Jackson

the sun hides
behind clouds &
cold wind
but
   wishes
      to
shine down on
my garden
for the flowers

– Hoc Scrips

Horribly tired today. Jackson got me up before six to play and look up information on Box Jellyfish – which I have learned I should be referring to them as Box Sea Jellies now as they are not fish and this was what J really wanted to know.

April 16, 2010

one off the cuff at seven-thirty Am

by jhon baker

you can’t even laugh at your own jokes.

but I don’t know where to start.

we’re stranded on a desert island
and we only brought one thing,

it wasn’t the satellite phone.

a man crossed the road, longing
for the other side. or was
it a woman.

or a chicken.

I plan on never being as old as
my father, who is not ageless.

Miles Davis plays on the radio.

cleaning my glasses with microfiber.
abreast the impudent children.

 – Hoc Scripsi

This is my offering today. not much in it’s own regard. I am working on two much longer pieces. and they consume a lot of energy.

it is suppose to rain today, I seeded the lawn yesterday. I assume it will not rain today.