Buttons

Click on the Submit button.

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Button up.
Leave the top button unbuttoned.
Never button the bottom button.

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He has his finger on the button.
The red button.

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She hit the return right on the button.

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If you could just, if you could just
unbutton it a little bit and oh
a little bit more.

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Yes, right there. That's
it right there. Oh. Oh yes.

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I never thought I'd miss
the metal buttons on Levi
jeans. I don't. Except now
that I made myself think
of them, I do. I see myself
buttoning up. The first
button down there, not easy.
And if a woman were
to unbutton those jeans
buttons, well . . . .

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Under the trees, yes,
the button mushrooms arose
like blobs of ghostly paint.

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Many dolls and sociopaths
have buttons for eyes.

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For some reason, as she waited
for the bus, she thought
of all the lost buttons
in the world, sinking
into soil or stuck
in cracks of pavement,
wood, and concrete.

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The extra buttons
sewn on a garment wait
like tiny moons in reserve
for a sky that might need them.

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When I am invited
to unbutton a woman's blouse
or dress, I feel like a primate,
and I wait for the inevitable
giggle. Eventually, we get there.

Politics at the Carnival

A political scientist once recommended the book, Constructing the Political Spectacle, by Murray Edelman (1988). It seems to be a book that constantly applies. 

Oh, the problems

over there in that city

where buildings sag

and people collide,

stuporous from toil

and streaming their lives. 

Here at the carnival,

all lights and salt and sugar,

our leaders and those who

would replace them

have slathered on

the clown makeup.

They ride the wheels

and loops above. They

shout, "We'll save the city!"

We don't believe them

but we cheer.

hans ostrom 2022

One by Neruda

 "Leaning Into the Afternoon," by Pablo Neruda, master of the surrealist love poem--reading and video, short poem:

"Leaning into the Afternoon"

Annie Moon

 Song--Roger Illsley composed the music for some lyrics I wrote & performed & recorded the song for youtube. Kind of a throw-back, first-love ballad. We had fun with it. 

Annie Moon

Quotation from "A Man For All Seasons," a play by Robert Bolt

 “If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that /needs/ no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we /must/ stand fast a little --even at the risk of being heroes.”

― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons

Richard Eberhart's "The Eclipse"

 Fine six-line poem from Richard Eberhart--"The Eclipse." Recorded reading and video:

"The Eclipse"

A Poem About House Guests

 It's by Marianne Moore and conveys her father's philosophy toward visitors to his home.  Short--reading and video:

Marianne Moore poem

Garbage Mountain

 A man drives a long yellow tractor

across a mountain of garbage,

kneading the sickly sweet heap

all day. White gulls fall upon the feast

in shifts. What things have shown

themselves from the churning dream

& surprised the driver over the years

of riding the groaning diesel dinosaur?

Since we throw everything away,

anything could be inside

the writhing, slippery loaf

that cooks in sun heat and cools

in rain. Anything.

A Fine Poem by James Wright

 A short mystical poem by James Wright (1927-1980). One of those poems just to enjoy without pressing too hard for an explication. Text from allpoetry.com. Short video + reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SeCuSrtmA