"How Our Story Ends," by Roger Illsley and Hans Ostrom

William Blake, "Eternity"

"(Two) Haiku," by Etheridge Knight

"The Dragonfly," by Matso Basho

Awkwardly Social

To be socially

            awkward
is to be
    existentially
comic: or, bow slightly
while shaking the hand
of an American faux patrician
because their schtick,
like a witch, turns you

into a faux British-butler.
It's something to do with
mountain origins, your pop's
disdain for urbanity, your Cubist
collage of manners and inborn
suspicion that the most

well mannered people might
be serial killers, white supremacists,
that sort of beast, & your
       certainty
that fate set you down
beyond or between customary
                                  circles:
a question of placement. Ec-centric.

You're often outside,
on the pavement, nose to the glass,
staring at a Them, who
    Know What They Are Doing.

hans ostrom 2025

Brother Season, Sister Season

Autumn, nicknamed Fall

(and what a come-down),

will ride back into town

soon. Under a half-moon's

green-light cloack.

She'll sew dew

and cut last flowers,

stuff them in her saddle

bags to rot. The smell

of her horse will set

the dogs to barking.

She'll stuff berries

into the bloated bellies

of fattening bears. 

Again, she'll lose her temper,

yell, "To Hell with leaves,

I never liked them." 

Finally, her mature brother,

Winter, will stomp in wearing

white boots and an ice-cape.

"Get gone, Sister," he'll say,

direct and cold. "Come back

after next Summer. Drop a note

from South America. 

hans ostrom 2025

"Zen Ambulance," by Hans Ostrom

"Sigmund Freud and Babe Ruth in Heaven" by Hans Ostrom

"The Absinthe Drinker," by Arthur Symons

"Ill Luck," by Charles Baudelaire

"Portrait of a Lady," by William Carlos Williams

"Lies," by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Pro-Nazi Trumper Gets FIRED, Makes DESPERATE MOVE🚨

"On the Death of Friends in Childhood," by Donald Justice

Mehdi Hasan DEMOLISHES An Entire Room Of Conservatives

"Into My Heart An Air That Kills," by A.E. Housman

Gregg Allman, Taj Mahal and Chris Stapleton with "Statesboro Blues" from...

"Secrets of the World," by Rumi

Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - John Henry (Official Video)

"She's So Smooth and Cool," by Keith Ledbetter

Tedeschi Trucks Band & Leon Russell – “The Letter” [Feat. Susan Tedeschi]

Eezzy Beat/Eezzy Street Dance Mix Keith Ledbetter (Lyrics Hans Ostrom)

How YOU Can Make Cops STOP the U-Haul Nazis

"The Rain," by Robert Creeley

"Easy Beat," by Keith Ledbetter and Roger Illsley (lyrics: hans ostrom_

"I Like Longing," by Halina Poświatowska

"This I Know," by Keith Ledbetter and Roger Illsley

"The Fight," by Russell Edson

"At the Party," by W.H. Auden

"Self-Portrait," by A.K. Ramanujan

War is not a Joke

"I Like to See It Lap the Miles," by Emily Dickinson

Walk Away Renee (Studio Live)