Modern poetry collection by contemporary Cleveland poet Steven B. Smith
reading room #13
2 oops rues news blues - 01.22.2005 / as the world turns 01.27.2005 / holy water 02.20.2005 the right others 03.11.2005 / i'm for falling - 02.27.2005 / to the mad poet - 03.18.2005 bye buy - 03.27.2005 / to one eye love - 08.01.2004 / lady jane - 04.07.2005 in the temple of the echo - 04.10.2005 / answer - 04.13.05 brother grim - 04.20.2005
Do Be Done
I know your scent
O yellow phantom
O red shell
O stolen flag becoming Buddha
O transvestite Greek girl in YMCA tears
Oops
Deep Freud
Cut and dried driving time
The V-ness controls the penis
Womb server
Wee Willie wiser
In new morning
Both the doing
And the doing done
Humid being
Wet with symbol solution
Peel feel from ground
Walk wailing evening
Commotion strange
Cleft of ages
Tally whore in freak amore
I name your secret sin
xmas morning paper 2004.12.25
(in this case, the cleveland pain dealer, but newspaper / city / county / country time period / planet / universe / galaxy don't make no difference) . . .
honduras
gangs protesting the reinstatement of the death penalty shot to death 22 adults and 6 children.
killing the innocent to keep the guilty alive. wow. what an amazing concept. why didn't the i.r.a. or the nazis or the israelis or the palestinians or the ku klux klan or the christians or the c.e.o.s of the cigarette/pharmaceutical companies or george w bush think of that?
birds for war
migratory bird population in kashmir has increased from 25,000 in 1992 to around 400,000 today the poachers who were killing them off are now afraid to hunt in the india/pakastani war zone because they get shot by both sides. the birds were initially disturbed by recurring gunfire and explosions, but now are used to it and barely move during battles.
even blood caked cloud has slivered lining.
proud poppas
more than 24,000,000 american children live in fatherless homes a number 300% higher than in 1960. 75% of these will experience poverty before age 11. 72% of adolescent murderers and 70% of long term prison inmates grew up with no fathers.
fatherless kids fathering fatherless kids fathering fatherless kids f f k f f k ...
speak english
the 'sh' sound has 19 american spellings including 'ss' in issue 'sc' in crescendo 'ch' in chute 'ce' in ocean 't' in negotiate . . . rain rein reign poor pour pore four forty rough ruffian hark hearken speak speech tear tear lead lead read read refuse refuse from which in 1968 i made "ref use re fusing our naked nothing".
poor mouths
latrell sprewell (whom i'm told is a basketball player) making $14,600,000 this year, demanded they extend his salary because "i've got my family to feed" then got suspended for yelling a sexual vulgarity at a female fan
. . . a week after signing a 6 year $84 million contract extension zach randolph, evidently another basketball player, missed his team's flight
guess they aren't paying these guys enough to be polite, professional, or prompt.
bizarro cartoon panel
mary says to the 3 wise men kneeling in the manger before her, joseph & baby jesus "and remember, the main point of this whole thing is to promote shopping."
we need to put the x back in xmas
today's horrorscope
pisces (feb.19-march 20) * * * * stay close to home and family. others adore being around you. when you venture out or visit an older relative or boss you might be greeted with flak. why bother? be where you are cared about. tonight: say thank you to a loved one.
that's a 4-star day? give me a break. hate to see a 1-star day. thank the godless it's a thin paper day, otherwise i'd still be moaning.
speaking of which i'm reading michael moore's "stupid white men" so the news from this end isn't going to improve. i'm a news person, read widely and deeply, so thot i knew most of the bush theft of the 2001 presidency but i had no idea how much deeper, earlier, cynical, pervasive, & open it was. for moore to be able to say such things in print and not be sued in court is proof enough of their dastardly deeds, though moore documents it all anyway. i can neither understand nor condone the silence of the press since 2000. good lap dogs.
piss on earth, good wealth to all
artcrimes smith
Go thee, and suffer less
The Church of Not Quite So Much Pain & Suffering
Slant the shade
Dim the blight
Dampen shame
Skim the light
Play the game
Place your blame
It's best to screw
Your partner right
No need to kiss
Or cuddle coo
Ain't making love
We gonna screw
Screw the good
Screw the weak
Screw the hood
Screw the meek
No good guy here
No humble geek
I do you ill
You touch my cheek
No turn of head
For second blow
I knee you now
I lay you low
I lay your life
I lay your wife
I lay your dog
I go hole hog
Don't mess with me
For don't you see
It's how I'm made
I don't work right
This step aside
For weaker scum
It ain't my stride
I'm different drum
I'm psycho cur
I'm whiskey fun
It don't occur
I'm making some
I do my do
I deal my deal
You slow my pace
Ain't no appeal
No human race
Can help you heal
For once I done
I be done deal
So no more nice
Call me ice
Pick to the heart
The darkened part
As I lie reading
'Tao Te Ching' drops in bathtub
I soak in Tao juice
02.19.2005
must be true since is true since book did drop in my bath & after getting out i did write my first
haiku -- (wrote hidden joke haiku once but only reynolds caught it) Tao Te Ching: The Book of Meaning and Life - Lao Tzu
Whining want weeps
Its winning way
From fool tool TV
Via too much tit
And botoxed brain
Showing shallow twits
In xeroxed pain
Damn little give
Whole lotta take
Turning from sun
To burning lake
I'm for falling
Falling down
Falling through air
Calling cloud
Free from err
Free from want
From wanting more
Free of lust
Of money whore
Free to trust
The ever more
Just keep it up
You serial poem-ist
Far faster pome-lemic
Probably problematic
Used to fool moon sent you
And in subsequent shame
Wordless weeks wallowed
Till rising flame burst wordage again
Pains main stain
Remains
Heats faster come
Great gasps gasm
Daily / hrly
(I say son, you gonna hurt that thing)
And at your trial
I'll chatter yea or nay
Depends who pays
Principal sums matter
Bling bling sorts things
The me in mine
The my in I
The I I mean
When I in team
Just so you know
I limbic low
And what low low wants
Moolah gets
I fold for flax
Hide the fax ma'am
And glad I am
I know no spine
Where green inclines
No morals to quarrel
No lame sense of shame
There gotta be fee
For I gotta be me
Gotta lotta tomorrow
A wee bit of sorrow
Bone marrow's little arrows
Tiny sparrow Xmas carols
Lying pharaohs flying narrow
Pearled worlds frying squirrels
With bits of William Burroughs
Taped in pain and spam
Green things what am
Near here hero
For I double o zero
And I licensed to lie
To asunder
Passers by
The Man keeps knocking
Down my front door
Wants to sell me some
Sorta social spore
Says grits & groceries
Ain’t enough
In the modern life
You need much more stuff
Made me want to crow
And flap my thing
Chase the hole
Outside wedding ring
So I cut my hair
De-furred my face
Gave the Man a chance
To show a better place
Where the air was clear
The water free
The fair folk there
Accepting me
But when they pursed my lips
To kiss an ugly place
The Man above unzipped below
I said sorry sir I gotta go
Get out of my face
You can keep your fairs
Your free fatted Fraus
The lure of your lair
Is lacking in now
I’ll take the stair
It’s quicker somehow
Cleaner too
Thanks to no you
You can unstab my back
Cuz you’ll need your knife
Rat back to the pack
That leads your life
It’s hit the road Jack
Be ass and back
Or tap taps brutal bell
I bye buy’s black burden
I lay down your load
You ain’t no at
For this gone cat
As for is
You’re due your due
You can go to Hell
Be your own fondue
Drink dropping lake
Eat rising grape
Work rolling rock returning
Dirt burning
Well I got a little lady
Maybe she a shady gray
But when I lap her lapidary
She the only way
She make me sweet begonia
She jolly up my jam
She make me sweat petunia
She amp my is with am
I want to be her front door man
O lady let me light your darkness
Won't you lead me late to sin
Let wicked lie be my harness
And my whip lip on lip
In the Temple of the Echo
In the moment of the mind
In the error of the airwaves
In the arrows of the kind
Lies a hurting healing
Taking pleasure to the tried
From forgotten shadows
On the ladders of the blind
O take me to your leader
To the maker of the slime
And at their feet I'll wallow
Worshiping the awful
Waste their shallow taste
Brings life's kine
Sheep sadly settled
Grazing government gray
Cheap sadly saddled
Approved payments pay
In first born chattel
Less than cattle
TV screen mental
Televise mime
Breaking elemental
Rights of mine
Mind to mind
Scamper little bunny
Run for cover fast
Protect your carrots
Forget the nest
The fox is hungry
The wolf he wants
Bunny tummy
Plus all the rest
Of the critters
Of forest
Far larger than you
Are looking
For cooking
Material too
So run funny bunny
My money's on you
George Bush is too stupid
To ever catch you
Said the souls of the slaughtered
To the living few
Said the souls of the slaughtered
To the living few
