[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

Shop Talk (a continuing series)

From The First 21 by Nikki Sixx 

“Early on [with Motley Crue] I would insist on rehearsing whole sets, playing backward from the encore, then forward again, building our intros, breaking every song down, remaking it, breaking it back down one more time. It was relentless.” 

Randy Sez:

Thank you to the writers I read just before I begin my day

They inspire me, but don’t hold them responsible.

My writing is like my wrestling

Informed by Japanese and Mexican stylists

With plenty of Freddie Blassie

And The Fabulous Moolah mixed in.

But all my own doing.

Randy Sez more:

I write using a secret formula.

A messy desk has many dimensions.

References and Source Material a go go.

A random list of random things at hand:

Writers’ Thesaurus

Old Farmer’s Almanac

Dr. Bronner packaging

A People’s Guide to Los Angeles

I Will Pass Even to Acheron, by Amanda Newell, 2021

A monograph of artworks by Chaim Soutine

The King James Version of the Holy Bible

A couple of books on NW Coast Native art.

Randy Sez More Plus:

And not always, but often I’m listening to music as I write or read. Sometimes I listen just to listen:

Vivian Fung, Phillip Glass, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Roy Hargrove,

Sister Rosetta Tharpe: There Are Strange Things Happening Every Day

Koko Taylor: Whang Dang Doodle

Memphis Minnie

Luther Johnson (Snakeboy?)

Little Willie Little Willie John - Wikipedia

Ramsey Lewis Trio — Reunion - YouTube

Symphony #2 by Johannes Brahms

Les McCann, Live at the Village Vanguard, 1967

Sofia Gubaidulina - Wikipedia

Her "Fachwerk for bayan, percussion and string orchestra" is great.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

#randystarkpoet

String Theory

 

Art by Antonio Berni

I’LL TELL PEOPLE, HEY

Dream, believe, achieve.

YESTERDAY WAS BLACK ICE! 

I was terrified to drive

But not choice!!! 

YES

I want to win $1 million dollars a week for life!

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

#randystarkpoet