I have been remiss- actually, I've been crazy-busy with the THINKSMALL show at art6 coming up in two days.

Poetry has definately taken a back seat.

BUT JUST YOU WAIT!!!

I'll be back...

The best way to prepare for a big show is to alienate and annoy your family.

Works for me anyway- I'm very self-centered right now getting ready for my "FAT LADY SINGS" Sunday night at ComedySportz at 7pm. I'm trying to get the words memorized, work on chords for "Dust in the Wind" - NO NOT THE KANSAS SONG! The one by Todd Rundgren!

It would be so nice to have peace and quiet, maybe meditation time, a hot bath, a cup of tea- instead I have to negotiate (fight) with my son about not having a friend over tomorrow night.

I can only hope it gives me that edge I need to really sing my heart out.

What was that old David Letterman tag line? Something like "I give and I give and I give, and this it thanks I get??"

yeah, that's it.

Come to the show- it'll be great, you'll have a good time- I promise.

Repent

I have ruffled petticoats older
than you, my otiose offspring,
with no one to left inculpate
but your maternal grandparents.
My, they were a pair of japes,
short-lived and filled with fluff.

There is a balm, of course
there is, a way to rise above
this square dance do-si-do
out of a turn about's fair-play
excursion into indulging you:
too much love, too long time.

It was not for me, a spindle
turned smooth by the chase
for the safer road, a grind
toward some vanishing point,
wrought wonky at their hands,
I was young and disinclined

to hear Timewise, it was jangle-
as all the addled ducks scattered,
their late parliamentary laws askew,
consistent order devalued
as this year's model driven off
the lot, new car scent gone too soon.

Please come!

THE FAT LADY SINGS!

Shann Palmer sings Broadway hits and more,
the great old songs, the ones you seldom hear!
She may throw in a poem or two!
Oct 21st at
ComedySportz Improv Theatre

7115-a Staples Mill Road

for reservations call: 266-9377
7pm (doors open at 6:15)
tickets $10
light supper menu available

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing along!

(All ticket proceeds will go to sending Shann to NYC in January to read poetry at the Cornelia Street Cafe during the AWP conference- well, that and the piano player, the waitresses, maybe a fancy dress for the show and a nice pair of shoes)

The man who wrote the screenplay to the original "Little Shop of Horrors" has died. If you've never see the original Roger Corman film (it contains a very brief appearance by a then-unknown Jack Nicholson) go rent it NOW!

It's excellent Halloween fare.

It seems to me there are more Halloween displays this year- at least here in the Lakeside area.

I wonder if I've ever written an October poem?

The endless immensity of the sea

removed for submission-

That Kind of Girl

Yes, I am,
in my mother’s silk slip
rubbing all the right places
before I was sure
which places were
right
and which places were
very right
who
was allowed
and when
it was wrong
and when
it was very wrong
becoming
that kind of girl
behind closed doors
while
on the other side
I become something
very different.

My poem "Bread n' Butter Pickles" is up over at Moondance!

Published ten years ago in the now defunct Conspire, it has always been one of my favorite poems. I particularly like the painting they have up to accompany it!

A Tuesday poem-

One Last Chance

In ten years, loyal glue
will have stuck me here
in spite of your wall,
indifferent convenience,
more than half my life.

I smell like bad cheese,
the furious stink of bitter
held in, every pedagogy
says, no- the writer is not
the story, somewhere else

the truth curls smoke
around implications,
summer porches where
nice people sit, drinking
up their creative alibis.

Is everyone half-blind?
Or is it just me, only
the lonely can make it
real, time catches flies,
waves traffic around

a stalled heart, shouts
"clear" then leaves
the room backwards
as if eye to eye combat
takes prisoners. Can I

go now? mouth set
for adventure, new
possibilities popping
in my ears, nothings
whispered at my neck.