another Black Dahlia poem

HERE

"Dad's last garden"

Dad was born 90 years ago today

Mom will visit his grave at Ridge Hill then have some close friends over for dinner on Winckles.

I'll do a piece in his memory.

hola Gertrude

an elderly Hispanic woman struggld to get on the bus. she lowerd her bulk onto a seat with a sort of moan. when she arrangd her jacket I saw a flower stitchd on its side with these words sewn around its blossom:

a rose is a rose is a rose

& then I was channelchasing & came across a program abt children & poetry. & there again was the Stein line.

at Spanish Market

with Amelia Montoya Andrews (or -- as she's known on our street -- Phil's mom)

their opera is opening tonite

Kaija Saariaho



Amin Maalouf

double rainbow

went

to the noon chamber music festival concert today to hear Britten's lovely "Phantasy Quartet."

after lunching elsewhere I poppd into Plaza Cafe to secure a slab of chocolate cake for ce soir. who shd walk in but Yuja Wang looking utterly adorable in short shorts & halter. I was able to thank her for coming to Santa Fe every summer.

glorious

this is the third consecutive summer I've heard Yuja Wang. she is more than consistently brilliant. she is able to enter the space that is music & pull the listener in with her. it's transcendent.

what a good day

thx Mark

overwhelmd

my first book was publishd nearly 40 years ago. there have been a bunch of others since but only 3 or 4 reviews in that time.

last year Mark Young publishd It's All a Movie. I expectd it wd receive the same indifference all the other books have. you can imagine my surprise when Eileen Tabios sent me an e this afternoon informing me that the new issue of Galatea Resurrects includes a review. I nervously went to the link & discoverd that the review is by none other than William Allegrezza.

I thank him for his kindness & Eileen for her generosity to the community in providing this resource

walking into the

some woman wrote Shakespeare's plays
& Kenneth Koch composd a Frank O'Hara poem

Rudolph Valentino was straight
& Orson Welles slew the Black Dahlia

follow the light
& all will be explaind

Meryl Mia!

I first saw Streep in a Tennessee Williams one-act early in 1976. the buzz in theater circles was that she was someone to watch. abt a year after that I saw her do Chekhov. in a supporting role she used her hands as if they were props & was a delight. it was abt another whole year before I saw her on the big screen for the 1st time -- again in support in "Julia." over the decades she's done all manner of roles in all styles of films.

this afternoon I caught her current release. it's a trivial piece but Streep invests it with so much more than the material deserves that it becomes a joy to watch.

happy 55

to Tom Beckett



here we are at my retirement party when he was a mere 40 & I was 39

learning curve

the switch from XP to Vista hasn't been painless but I seem to be on my way. after all it hasn't been 24 hours yet. as I age I find I have zero patience.

took a penne break

(as in pasta). things are going well. before I went to bed I "found" my mail. apparently my Outlook Express files are gone & I'm now assignd Windows Mail which is working. however I must rebuild my address book so if you haven't heard from me in a while drop me a line.

also I have a camera built into my monitor. not sure which service with which to sign up. I suspect Yahoo Messenger?

new computer

up & running

but my e-mail seems to have disappeard.

Jo Stafford (1917-2008)

altho she's best rememberd as a 40s big band singer   Stafford was still a major recording star while I was in high school. we always knew when a dance was abt to end because her Columbis recording of "It's Almost Tomorrow" wd play & that wd be the close of the evening. in 2002 I sent my worn copy of that to Martha Braun as part of the piece "45s from the 50s."

ironically I saw Stafford on screen in "Ship Ahoy" just 2 nites ago. in that & "Las Vegas Nights" -- which I saw recently as well -- she stood beside Frank Sinatra in what were the first 2 films of his long screen career.

speaking of awards

I no longer believe in them. but when I was young awards meant a great deal. one of my earliest was in the interview category at the Northeasterrn Scholastic Press Association clinic in 1961 at Kent State University. I was editor of my high school paper then.



just yesterday my high school pal Charmaine Szanyi Hrusch sent me this picture which she took in the wonderful old University Auditorium. she was so far away from me that I'm unrecognizable. those clinics were a major reason I enrolld at Kent   majoring in journalism & English.

from the archives

ballerina Suzanne Farrell & I after receiving Ohioana awards in 1993

stradling a dead pinus aristata

one last image of the magnificent Cedar Breaks.

while back home we had a nite of boistrous rain. it must've turnd my arroyo into a river again because I notice that the earth at the side of the middle school field across from me has caved in.

a line from "Alex in Movieland" re-arrangd as a hay(na)ku

reads
Jack Kimball
on flight back

Hash House a GoGo

a respite

in the middle of my sultry week longtime internet bud Luca drove Durl & I to Utah to see Zion National Park. it was lovely & I did my dimes piece there. but then we drove to an even more spectacular spot. Cedar Breaks National Monument is a rich wildflower forest where Durl caught me auditioning for the bus & truck "Sunset Blvd."



then suddenly the forest ends with a dramatic cliff that falls into a miniature Grand Canyon.



& the temperature was enchantingly in the mid 70s. the place was glorious to eye & skin.

report on heat wave & the people's diva

a challenging week. weather was appalling. to wake & face 90 with the knowledge that it'll reach 112 is daunting. time with friends was good. but one day alone I sufferd a severe depression. I walkd miles & miles in the staggering heat. I walkd into neighborhoods I'm sure never see tourists. I walkd so much my toes blisterd   my calves throbbd.

but the reason I came to Las Vegas in july was to see Bette Midler. it's been 23 years since I last heard her perform live. the woman is as amazing as ever. she sings all her hits   tells the Soph jokes   reincarnates Delores Delago. backing her up are the Harlettes   14 chorus girls & a full on-stage orchestra. but it's Bette's show & she performs with ferocity temperd by tenderness. the Divine Miss M is a force of nature. altho her stellar career guarantees her a spot in the entertainment pantheon   this particular show cements her reputation as legitimate heir to the vaudeville greats of a century ago.

the trip

undone by columbine at Cedar Breaks National Monument



from my hotel window: City Center under construction on The Strip

preview of my vacation

on Darryl's blog

C # 13

mystique of multigrains pains the pope

C # 12

who put cereal in my donut?

C # 11

when I add blueberries my tongue calls my teeth names

C # 10

"rice krispies" moand the cowboy in the sling

C # 9

the tradition of whole grain wheat submits

C # 8

high fives
low fat
fortified with clerihews

C # 7

the uncle who put bacon in his oatmeal begs for a spanking

milestone

since getting Sitemeter my blog has had 60000 visitors. a pittance to many bloggers but not bad for a poet.

C # 6

I was followd to Tecolote Cafe by a food groupie

pancakes on the plaza

happy independence

when I lived in Twin Lakes in another century I had an annual 4th of july party. Billy Berger discoverd this fading slide from one of those long-ago events. that's me with my arms out.

the computer continues to chug along but I expect each day that it'll finally succumb. the new one won't arrive for at least another week. so I've pre-scheduld the C series in case I loose access. but it's so gray I wantd this tiny bit of color -- even if less than brilliant -- on the blog before I return with all the excitement of the new toy.

C # 5

why shdn't we enjoy the nurture of twigs?

General Industries

my father startd working there before the war. when he returnd he went back to GI   working from late 1945 until 1979. when I was 6 I joind Dad in a picket line in front of the entrance.

Mom calld tonite to inform me that a fire destroyd the vacant buildings of the former business. I last went past that spot just 2 weeks ago.

& it feels particularly strange to me that this happend in the month in which Dad wd've turnd 90. on that birthday I'm doing a piece in his memory which will involve the hundreds of General Industries pay stubs Dad kept for years in a can in the attic.

C # 4

breakfast is more important than sex

C # 3

she whisperd over her burrito that a cereal killer raped her pantry

C # 2

down the alley a burro carried bundles of corn to the flake factory