Harvest Blade

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Harvest Blade

Hockey players in uniform float
down a river enlarged
by a massive ice-melt far away.

They hold their sticks high,
rudders without boats. Look, now:
they're followed by last year's

Queen of the Adrenalin Parade,
dressed in a gown of
acetylene blue-and-white.

She rides on a raft made
of synthetic whale-bones.
Violinists from broken

orchestras line the river-bank,
serenading all things that pass
on floods.  In shallows,

fish hear strings' vibrations, shimmer;
and shiver. And the glare from the sun
is a blade. It is a harvest blade.

Copyright 2011

Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady

This short video is amusing--Neal Cassady seems to perplex Allen Ginsberg as Cassady speaks of Armageddon and "extremists," which probably include Ginsberg:

Ginsberg and Cassady

Questions for Republican Candidates

Some questions I'd like to hear asked of the Republican presidential candidates--or any candidates [Congress, President Obama, e.g.]--in debates:

1. Do you have any close friends who live at, below, or near the poverty-line?


2. What manual-labor jobs have you held--what kind, when, and for how long?


3. Would you explain why the trickling in a "trickle-down" economy is a good thing for those being trickled upon?

4. According to generally accepted economic theory, what is the greater source of economic growth, consumer-demand (from, for example, the middle class) or very rich people?


5. Who is your favorite American poet, and why?



6. Do you have any close friends who are gay or lesbian?


7. What is a favorite novel of yours not published by an American?


8. Why do you think the budget deficit increased during the Reagan years?


9. Who is or was one of your favorite blues performers, and why?


10. In your view, does humanity face an environmental crisis?  If not, please say why.  If so, please provide a few details about that crisis.


11. What is one of your favorite comic feature-films, and why?


12. What is one of your favorite foreign feature-films, and why?

Traveling Through the Dark

William Stafford reads Scars

A MUST SEE FOR EVERY AMERICAN - A Powerful Interview

"Friends Who Have Failed," by Alan Williamson

"Down Where I Am," by Langston Hughes

"Herman Melville in Dreams, Moby Dick in Reality," by Richard Brautigan

"sorrows," by Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)

"at home," by Carter Monroe

"Henry River Poem 13," by Tim Peeler

Zen Golf

re-posting one from a while ago

Zen Golf


Bow to the ball. Apologize
in advance for striking it.
Hit it with your favorite
club in any direction.
It's all a Hole out there--
the course, the world,
reality. Therefore, you

can't not hit a hole in one.
Going dualistic for a moment,
the bad news is that no one
keeps score. Even if someone
did count the strokes, there's
nothing to win. Good news
on the dualistic scale: You're

outside, the club in your hand
gleams, a bird craps on a
rich man's head, and....


Copyright 2011 Hans Ostrom