Wednesday, December 1, 2010

"Notes on the 1860s," by Lars Gustafsson, trans. C. Middleton

"A Thanksgiving," by W.H. Auden

"After Auden," by Hans Ostrom

"The Day-Labourer," by Jay Macpherson

"The Fly" by Karl Shapiro (poetry reading)

"The Humanities Building," by Karl Shapiro

"Double-Consciousness," by W.E.B. DuBois

"The Rose That Grew From Concrete," by Tupac Shakur

"Blue Monday," by Langston Hughes

"Permission to Treat the Witness as Hostile," by Hans Ostrom

"Welcome," by John Davies

"The Want of Peace," by Wendell Berry

"The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot (poetry reading)

"Nut Tree," by Mother Goose

Blue in Green by. Miles Davis

Sunday, November 21, 2010

When You Are Naked

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When You Are Naked

When you're naked, I feel like celebrating,
except when you are ill and I take care of you.
When you are naked, I feel like celebrating,
and I want to take my clothes off, too.

When you're naked, you sometimes
don't want to be bothered by adoration,
curiosity, or lust, as when you step out
of the shower before getting ready
to go to work.  I respect your wishes
then, but I celebrate in secret still.
Restraint is not negation.

When you are naked, sometimes
sirens go off in my head, and the red
lights of police cars whirl, and the cars
lead a motorcade of my desires to
a high-level meeting downtown, where
my libido and I will hold serious talks.

When you are naked and starting
to get dressed, I like to watch how
you assemble the ensemble on
your body. It is you and your body
dressing your body. I watch your
hands dress your body. I watch
your body.

When I am naked, and you look
at me, I feel like an old battleship
that's drifted into a harbor after
many an abrasive voyage, and
you're waiting there to get me
into dry-dock and make repairs.
You're wearing a red beret, and
I'm a battered thing with a cheerful
captain on the bridge.

When you are naked and lying
in bed, I sometimes like to sniff
you--slowly--like a cat, not
manically like a dog.  I like to
sample the odors and aromas.
Like then to stop and lick
your navel, to hear you giggle.
Of such small moments, the good
of a good life is largely composed.


Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom

"Oh Lady Moon," by Christina Rossetti

Saturday, November 20, 2010

NSFW In San Francisco: Library Vixen

I've been intrigued lately by the several endeavors of a digital librarian in San Francisco who goes by the nom-de-blog, Library Vixen.  In addition to being a librarian and doing graduate work in information sciences, she is a photographer, writer, poet, blogger, and student of culture. 

Warning: Not Safe For Work.  I only recently ran across this term (I hear Obama's the President, too!) and immediately thought about people who work at nuclear power plants and missile silos, and in fireworks factories, or in mines--or on BP oil rigs.  They'll show you Not Safe For Work.

At any rate, one of LV's blogs--the one called Library Vixen, as it happens--is a sex blog, so read no further if you're likely to be put off for any reason.  The LV refers to the subject matter variously as sex, smut, porn.  What makes it different from other sites? I'm glad you asked. The LV deliberately blurs lines between autobiography and fiction, erotica and porn, art and reportage, private and public, love and desire, making art and living life.  And/or works with existing blurs. I like the project(s) she's undertaken, including this blog; she also photographs "fugitive art" in San Francisco, and she writes about cutting-edge library stuff.  She's smart.

One thing many feminists on the Left and many moralists (I didn't say moralizers) on the Right seem to agree on is that all porn is bad, although I guess first they agree that all porn is porn.  Yes, there's an exploitative, industrialized aspect to much if not most mass-produced porn, but that's not the LV's project.  Moreover, the boundaries of what's acceptable do shift even if they don't and shouldn't disappear altogether.  Remember that Joyce's Ulysses was once labeled "obscene."   I just happen to have gone to a Picasso exhibit today (they're renovating the museum in Paris, so they took the show on the road), and his art was once called junk, etc.

I do concede that it's easier for me to keep an open mind because I seem to have been born with one. For example, I liked "The Missouri Breaks," and when I told a chum that in graduate school, he looked at me as if I'd just thrown up on his lapel. (I hadn't, by the way.)  My tastes are so broad in music, I reckon they've ceased to be tastes.  If you suffer similarly you might like parts, some, or all of the LV's blog; or not. No worries.....

.....I like to write sonnets about the darnedest things--good for me, bad for the form (arguably).  So I wrote one for the LV but not about her, so do remember that the "LV" in the poem is not the real LV--heavens, don't blame my poem on her.   The poem is sadly far too tame for the LV, alas. Not to mention alack.

Sonnet For the Library Vixen


You always knew she kept more than the keys
To information. And you sensed the cool
And stern affect and skirts beyond the knees
Hid sexuality. Of course, only a fool
Would underestimate this vixen's power--
The holdings and the indices, the hair
Unpinned, a tryst after the aching hour
Of closing time, commingling truth and dare.
Imagine this: she keeps the glasses on
But nothing else. She shushes you, and then
Instructs you how to do the search--keyword:
Libido. Once--and then again--
Insatiable. Oh, no--it's not absurd.
Librarian-as-vixen: perfect sense.
Sheer force of smarts and lust: it is immense.


Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom

Monday, November 15, 2010

"dreaming," by Charles Bukowski

Re-Posting "Fresh Poem for Anyone"

I thought it might be a good time to re-post "Fresh Poem for Anyone." As my late mother used to say to me, "And don't ask me why."

Fresh Poem For Anyone

by Hans Ostrom

Here's a fresh poem for you. It snaps
crisply like a cold carrot just pulled
out of hard ground. It shocks like the time
the politician simply told the truth. It
loves like a woman sailing on a voyage
of her beauty. It's awkward and generous--
a large barn of a poem. It's a knock-kneed,
unsophisticated singer a crowd stayed
late to hear. It's a scar left by a dog's tooth,
the stench of a rattlesnake-den, a
satisfaction long denied, a time after
weeping, the thing you've known for sure
all along, and the words you were hoping
to hear. It explodes right here
into the poem you need to write, to read,
and to remember. Take it. It's fresh
and it's yours and it's free. It belongs to
you now. Start writing it, keep going, and hold on.

Copyright 2007 Hans Ostrom

Sunday, November 14, 2010

And So You Live Your Life

And So You Live Your Life

And so you live your life, fulfill some plans,
Are changed by accidents of whim or fate,
And wake one day, let's say, with toes in sands,
And--still hypothesis--it has grown late--
Late in the day, not early in your life.
In fact you tell yourself this day, "I'm old."
Should you stop striving, surrender strife?
That is the question that pops up as cold
Now comes into the picture of the day.
What more is there to do that can be done?
Are you a spectator who's in the way?
A body simply blocking light from sun?
Precisely how to live the rest of it
Is what you ask, unsettled where you sit.


Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

"L'Art," by Frederick Feirstein

Stephen Fry Sonnet

In The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within and elsewhere, British actor, director, and writer Stephen Fry has argued for the enduring power of conventional poetic forms and has claimed that free-verse has led to laziness. It's hard to argue against either point, although I might just add that conventional forms can lead to laziness, too, perhaps of a different kind; for instance, there's something "automatic" about Wordsworth's later sonnets. Anyway, I thought I should write a sonnet with Stephen Fry's name all over it, and perhaps in so doing I'll even support my claim that conventional forms may elicit laziness, too, although I think frivolity is the more prominent quality.


Stephen Fry Sonnet


Hans Ostrom


I've heard it said that Mr. Stephen Fry
Would like more formal poems to be made.
I'm happy to oblige; moreover, I,
As you are witness to, have not delayed,
Have lept into this sonnet form with zest,
Alluding-to, as sonnets do, the glib,
Bright, talented tall man, the best
Portrayer of both Jeeves and Wilde. A squib?
Well, I suppose you could call this poem that.
But there's no rule that says one can't write fast
And pounce upon a formal poem: iambic cat.
Well, as you know, the couplet's what comes last.
Let cups be raised, then, to one Stephen Fry,
Who likes his poems in form and has said why.


I note that I cheated, in a way, by asking the reader to pronounce "poems" in two syllables in line 2 but only in one syllable ("pomes") in line 14. Sonneteers are such cheaters. And makers of terrible puns: note "Let cups" in line 13--couplets/Let cups--oh, the horror, made worse by my being pleased.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"White Currants," by Amy Lowell

Racism Precedes "Hard Times"

This morning Tacoma News Tribune features an article about a walk of reconciliation that will commemorate the time in Tacoma's early history when Chinese immigrants were driven out. A sidebar piece asserts that "hard time" drove the white residents to uproot, abuse, and expel their Chinese neighbors.

The pieces are informative, but in my opinion, racism preceded the "hard times." We're living in comparatively hard times now, and they have certainly influenced the racism and other kinds of over-reaction, especially to President Obama and to immigration-issues. But if the pre-existing conditions of racism and xenophobia weren't already alive, many people would react differently to the hard times, and they'd be less likely to take the bait of cynical right-wing political manipulators like Karl Rove. People might be more tempted to focus, for example, on the chasm between rich and poor in the country--a chasm that isn't the fault of immigrants, or the health-care reforms, etc.

The News Tribune recently endorsed Republican incumbent Representative Dave Reichart. Reichart's offered to concrete solution to the chronic and acute health-care crisis, and he has sat quietly as his party slides further right and as it exploits fear and racism. Reichart was also sitting next to Rep. Joe Wilson when Wilson shouted, "You lie!" during President Obama's State of the Union message. Wilson wouldn't have shouted that if he hadn't had a pre-existing arrogant and resentful attitude toward the President and if, deep down, he felt licensed to shout because Obama is Black. Reichart sat and accepted his colleague's behavior.

Yes, times are tough, and stressed people over-react. But, regardless of their politics, more media need to speak out against the hatred, race-baiting, and fear-mongering. The Democrats are no day at the beach, and all politicians play on emotions, but it's the Republican Party--once it was Eisenhower's Party, if you can believe that--that's become a repository of hate, racism, and despotism. The News Tribune and other media can do something now, or at least say something now, about vicious pre-existing conditions similar to those that drove people to drive out the Chinese. Moderate Republicans also need to break ranks and speak out against Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Karl Rove; after all, Rove wasn't the least bit reticent to savage a fellow Republican, John McCain, when McCain was running against Bush. And the tactic was the same: exploit fear and hatred.

What would Edward R. Murrow say and do? And did any reasonable people think that Murrow student up to McCarthy because of Party politics? I doubt it. They understood Murrow was standing up to McCarthy because of what McCarthy was doing, how he was exploiting fear and hatred, and where he was taking government and politics.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Everybody Fails

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Everybody Fails


Everybody fails, no exceptions. Some
get the hang of it earlier than others.
Some get trapped in it soon by
implacable circumstances. Many
arrive late at understanding failure.
Delusion drops these off at the curb.

And then there are those who get
a lot of help along the way from
people who envy and hate, who
are desperate for others to fail.

Rarer are people who help people
to succeed before, inevitably,
they fail. These helpers are otherwise
known as good people. They fail, too.
But not before they succeed
at being good.


Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom

"Scorn Not the Sonnet," by William Wordsworth

Monday, October 18, 2010

Topics StumbleUpon Should Include

I've just started virtual "stumbling," although in real life I've been stumbling (and bumbling!) for quite some time.

StumbleUpon is another "social medium," in case you don't know. You can get a "blog" there, but usually the "blogs" consist of posted links to videos or sites. You can follow other "stumblers" and also make "friends." All of these words are in quotation marks because their meaning changes in Cyberspace.

To stumble in this context is to let whatever computer/server is in charge take you in any direction. So let's say you visit a site on gardening and then hit "stumble": it could take you to an interview with Charles Manson.

When you post or re-post something--let's say from Youtube--you will get either the prompt "Like It," and then the item becomes one of your "favorites, or a prompt that invites you to provide more information. When the latter prompt comes up, you are invited to choose topics related to the post; you choose from a pre-existing list, one that I think needs some crucial additions. To be fair, you may also add "tags," in which case you may provide your own terms and not use just StumbleUpon's.

At any rate, here are some topics that are missing from StumbleUpon's pre-set list of topics and that I think deserve to be there (no particular order):

Love
Media [and their problems/issues, including ownership--implicitly; and how odd that StumbleUpon wouldn't include this topic]
Racism
Poverty
Hunger
Fact-Check
Philanthropy [other related topics are charity and non-profit or not-for-profit--that sector of the economy]
Fascism [it includes anarchism, socialism, and capitalism already]
Nuclear Proliferation [it includes "Nuclear Science" already)
Class-Status [or Social Class]
Peace
War
Civil Rights [it includes Disabilities already--but nothing, for example, about Disability Rights]
Asian Americans [it includes already, as it should, African Americans]
Latino or Hispanic Americans (or another--perhaps more appropriate--term; see above regarding Asian Americans)

Interestingly, it includes "Latin Music" already but not one on Latino-Americans or Hispanic Americans

Okay, that's all for now.

Put a Little Love in Your Heart - Annie Lennox & Al Green

"Service," by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Sunday, October 17, 2010

"Dunbar," by Anne Spencer

George Orwell rolls in his grave.

"Motet XXVIII," by Eugenio Montale

"Double-Consciousness," by W.E.B. DuBois

Top Rated Video So Far

In case anyone asks, my top-rated poetry-video on Youtube is...

"Morphine"

I've been making "videos," really slide-shows, that accompany my reading of poems, mostly poems by famous writers, a few by be. "Morphine" happens to be one of mine. The most viewed video by far is "Giantess," by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Fowlie. Reality forces me to admit, however, that the gold-standard Youtube recording is by "Tom O'Bedlam" at the Spoken Verse channel--link at right.

I've been recording for about three months, and I am just now getting the hang of it. A new microphone and lots of practice helped. I'm using an AT2020 USB.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Cold Poet

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Cold Poet



Her poems featured
no people, and people
awarded her poetry
the Noblitzer Prize.

There was a photo
of her face, thin
and wan like a wax
candle, against
a backdrop of
a blackberry patch,
representing nature,
which her poems featured.
They featured her in nature.
In later years, she had
dried up like a golden raisin.

After she died, they laid
her in a tiny jeweler's box
for burial. They put a few
of her poems in anthologies
with titles like Vault,
Tomb, and Sarcophagus.

The people she'd left out
of her poems lived their
lives as if her poems
didn't exist. If you've
gone outside on a sunny
morning and been shocked
momentarily by how cold
the wind is, then you know
what it's like to read
one of her poems.


Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom