Hidalgo

 on my morning walk this word jumpd into my head. as far as I can remember I've never uttered this word before. I haven't seen a film or read anything recently using the word. where did it come from? why did it pop out?

I call the 3 palms

beside the pool

the Andrews Sisters 

their jive

is music

for my swim

underwater

I boogie

to their bugle

then flip over

& look up

at their shimmy

filling with the joy

that guides me

thru the day

20th anniversary

congrats to Robert Hansen who has publishd some 2000 wee books in these 2 decades. he is a poetry hero.

so do I

 on my morning walk I finishd a poem that's been rattling in my head.

after breakfast I was "organizing" piles & came across a Xerox of a journal I kept in 1968. in a summer entry written at Jean-Claude van Itallie's farm in the Berkshires I relate that after reading one of my poems Joe Chaikin told me "I hope you keep writing all your life."

2 lines from "Alex in Movieland"

sees "The Dead Don't Die" while eating kale salad

sees "I'm No Angel" while eating a brownie from Trio

another year another book

 what a wonderful way to start my day. a reader in Holland sent me a photo he'd taken of my new River Dog release Still Marching which had just arrived in the mail. it's a collection of protest poems written over a 55 year period. it continues to amaze me that magazines began publishing my poems in 1962. 

Victor Clevenger & John Dorsey did a beautiful job with this little book. I love their idea to wrap it in a band which replicates the sign I made & used in 2 protests which are subjects of 2 of the poems.

a year to remember