Two poems

EVERY SO OFTEN

The Stop Requested voice

From the bus

And the No Lifeguard On Duty sign

At the beach

Get together.

It’s lit.

The party, the shoes.

Bomb-ass music.

THIS MORNING IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN

What’s your name?

When I told him

He started to walk away

But then stopped, turned, and looked at me

Like the page had been refreshed

And he was seeing me anew.

I repeated myself.

That’s my name I said.

He took a step away. Stopped.

Looked at me. He wasn’t quite sure

Where he stood in the universe.

His body wanted to flee, but his feet were steadfast.

He removed his hat.

He took a knee.

My Lord.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

This poem inspired me early on; it still does:

Recuerdo

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,

We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;

And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;

And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,

From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;

And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,

And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,

And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;

And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,

And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

[The city breaks in houses to the sea, uneasy with waves,]

(by Charles Reznikoff) 

The city breaks in houses to the sea, uneasy with waves,
And the lonely sun clashes like brass cymbals.

In the streets truck-horses, muscles sliding under the steaming hides,
Pound the sparks flying about their hooves;
And fires, those gorgeous beasts, squirm in the furnaces,
Under the looms weaving us.

At evening by cellars cold with air of rivers at night,
We, whose lives are only a few words,

Watch the young moon leaning over the baby at her breast
And the stars small to our littleness.

The slender trees stand alone in the fields
Between the roofs of the far town
And the wood far away like a low hill.

In the vast open
The birds are faintly overheard.

Expressive Activities

 

It’s Spring and Mabel Mercer singing Cole Porter songs.

 

I just finished reading Swan Dive, a 2021 memoir (and some funny behind the scenes observations) by NYCB dancer Georgina Pazcoguin.

 

Among the topics she covers is an issue I’ve long wondered about: “The success of The Nutcracker as a revered tradition in the United States is baffling,” she writes.  “The US is the only country that regularly performs a ballet that everyone else in the world considers unwatchable.”

 

Another pithy comment concerns a different ballet and a role she was apparently dissatisfied with: “The part was so incredibly mindnumbing,” she writes “that while sitting in the wings I was able to do my taxes.”

 

And speaking of wings and Spring and birds and things, Dorothy Parker was having none of it:  “Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off .”

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

#randystarkpoet

 

Hop-On Hop-Off

Preview

Hop-On Hop-Off - Kindle edition by Stark, Randy. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

In case you missed it

 Black Lives Matter Releases Statement on Biden's 2022 Budget - Black Lives Matter

 

 

"There is a saying that says a budget is a statement of priorities. If that is true, then Biden’s budget is showing Black people that he couldn’t care less about saving Black lives."---from the statement above.

Stickin' It to Putin

STICKIN’ IT TO PUTIN

Made with non-Russian vodka.

One after another.

After another.

After another.

Stickin’ it to Putin.

You do that enough

And it starts to have an effect.

 © 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

#randystarkpoet