The Homosexual Agenda and Weather

 [re-posting one from a long while back]

"Defend and Proclaim the Faith Ministries' Founder and Pastor John McTernan has blamed Hurricane Sandy on homosexuals and President Obama," reports Gay Star News [October 29, 2012]"

I see where a pastor opined

that a big tropical storm

arose because of the homosexual

agenda, which I gather

goes as follows:

1. Call to Order

2. Approve gay minutes from the previous homosexual meeting.

3. Old Business: continuing to be who we are.

4. New Business: affecting the weather.

5. Adjournment.

Copyright 2012 Hans Ostrom

Four Questions About the Future

 

I think my favorite song by Mickey Newbury is the 3/4 tempo ballad, "The Future's Not What It Used to Be"

Anyway, here's a reading/video of a revised poem of mine posted a few years ago:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSwamvN0pRs

Rainbow Matters: the Well Lit Time

 So it's morning or afternoon

and there's an invisible cone

lying prone, see, with you

at the narrow end and a curtain

of mist droplets at the wide

end. The sun's behind you,

working hard as usual, low

enough to tip the cone to

a 42 degree angle. Now

the droplets confer. They

get in prism formation so

the conical curvature in the mist

blushes variously red orange

yellow green blue indigo violet. 

At this crucial juncture,

the mist sings to the sun,

although you can't hear

the song. But you sure

can see it, yes you're in the right

place at the well lit time.

hans ostrom 2020

After Eating at that Swiss Place

 After eating at a cheap Swiss

place, you two walked

around Paris, which wants

to be walked around. 

Back at the hotel, modest

except for big windows,

you got in bed and later

slept the civilized sleep of 

food and wine and sex. 

Woke to gray light,

to rain bothering glass.

Embraced under covers

to ward off chill. Desired

coffee. Fell back asleep,

back into the many privileges

afforded at the moment. 

Noise of traffic, of work,

rose outside.

hans ostrom 2020

"Monet's Water Lilies," by Robert Hayden

 Reading/video of a poem by Robert Hayden:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4UY5wIRyhg

"Working Out," by Charles Bukowski

 Reading/video of a poem by Mr. Bukowski; the poem is not about working out, I should add.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrmBZFdqx5Q

"Time Passing, Beloved," by Donald Davie

 reading/video of a poem by Donald Davie, British poet, scholar, and professor--he taught in the U.S. at Stanford and Vanderbilt:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTG7Pyy5m28

the real artists

the real artists assemble mother-boards,

sports shoes, clothes, and purses.

the real art is the art

of re-assembling the world

every day.

the real artists go where

they're ordered to go when

they put on the uniform, whatever

uniform it is.

the real artists, they

change old people's diapers,

teach five-year-olds to read,

serve eggs to smirking

college students, empty

professors' trash cans,

sweep the floors

of art galleries, change

light-bulbs in auditoriums,

breast-feed, cook, clean,

get groceries, carry water,

look after grandchildren.

the real artists manage

crews, staff shifts, order

raw material, stack lumber,

run bureaus, process forms,

maintain websites, take

complaints, withstand

verbal abuse.

they mix cocktails, dance nude,

look for food in dumpsters,

rant from the caverns

of mental illness.

they protect children.

they haul freight.

they haul people.

they wash clothes.

they pick up bodies

lying on highways.

they wash corpses.

they mourn the dead,

help the maimed recover,

grieve with the bereaved.

they migrate away

from the smoking rubble

left by bombs

they keep their families

alive on a long hike

out of a country wrecked

by demonic dictators

they negotiate their way

around insane shouting racists

and people waving guns

the real artists know how

to add and subtract.

they walk or stand til

their legs and backs ache.

they show up on time and

kill vermin. they plant crops

and then wait, watching

the pale blue ceramic

sky of drought.

hans ostrom

2012/2020

And Overview of Younger African Poets

 Here's a link to the Poetry Society of America's overview (with poems) of 10 younger poets from the continent of Africa (good stuff):

https://poetrysociety.org/features/in-their-own-words/ten-new-generation-african-poets

A Slam-Poetry Take on the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

 A latter-day rendition of Boss Chaucer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-ozgjZfjQ

"Ice Hockey," by Hans Ostrom

 Reading/video of my small contribution to the literature of ice hockey:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPNbp5Yw2uM

"Peace," by Sara Teasdale

 Reading/video of a poem by the Pulitzer-Prize winner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-02VY-RGXsI

"The Ever Patient Woman" by Andrée Chedid

 Reading/video of a poem by Andrée Chedid, whose given name was  Andrée Saab Khoury. She was born in Egypt to parents whose background was Lebanese Christian and Greek (Orthodox Christian). She settled in France and became a renowned writer of prose and poetry, and among her honors was the Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honor.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOnNZsJRRhI

"Jazzanatomy," by James Emanuel

 A poem by poet, scholar, and professor James Emanuel (1921-2013). Reading/video:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNd4hncy9vo

"Dusk," by Gabriela Mistral

 Reading/video of a short poem by the Nobel-Prize-winning Chilean poet:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fou7HSjIp9M

"maggie and milly and molly and may," by e.e. cummings

 One by cummings from later in his career, reading and video:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8Frf5FHNA

A Song about Regrets

 For your listening pleasure (maybe!), a song about regrets, music and recording by Roger Illsley, lyrics by Hans Ostrom (who he?) and Roger Illsley:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqbzQlMw3XU

Poem by Borges

 "I Ask Myself," better known as "Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf," by Jorge Luis Borges--reading and video:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW6wVeG6Uj8

"Meeting Poets," by Eunice de Souza

de Souza was a well known Indian poet, fiction writer, and professor who taught at Xavier University in India. She earned an M.A. from Marquette University and a Ph.D. from the University of Mumbai. This is a wry little poem. 

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENcQ7YFEYNE

"Words," by Kamala Das

A good poem from the renowned Indian poet, Kamala Das, whose family name was Surayya. Reading/video, short:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te64fmXRimQ

From a Diary of the Plague Year (17)

I'm not supposed to leave the house.

So while you're out,

could you pick up one

of the 49 copies of the Gutenberg Bible?

(It can be a partial copy.)

Thanks. Also, I need a feather

from the small golden-crowned

manakin from the Amazon rain forest.

(It's a hybrid bird.) If you have

time, you might bring  back

the original arrangement 

for Duke Ellington's "Warm Valley."

And some bread and apples.

I'll be here all day! So

take your time. 

hans ostrom 2020

New Stuff

my favorite river

kept running from me

as if I were a drought.

my favorite birds

migrate with the rest

and send impostors back

the next year.

yes, and my favorite hammer

became a pacifist,

refuses to clobber nails.

also, I forgot where my

favorite tree stands in

the forest. that's embarrassing

and hurtful to the tree,

I'm sure. I need some new stuff

to admire.

hans ostrom 2020

"Tawny," by Carl Sandburg

Reading/video of a very short poem by Carl Sandburg concerning a color category, a season, and a memory of a face. From his book Smoke and Steel (1922).

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-7M088exA