Please Feel Sorry for Yourself

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Such

a tedious rebuke. Often followed

by words about gratitude or

comparative well being. 

I encourage you to feel sorry

for yourself. Feel sorry for other

people, too, but save some for yourself.

Properly calibrated, self-sympathy

dulls disappointment's edge. It can

soothe depression when you're lying

there staring into your mind like it was

a dark, fishless aquarium. 

The pleasure of self-pity

is under-rated. Indeed I think

some people try to shame you

out of it because they think

you might be enjoying it.

I feel sorry for them. 

hans ostrom 

Thanks for Coming

Thanks for coming. 

I was delighted to play

a role in your arrival,

at which point you

uttered words with no

definition but much

meaning. I'm reminded

how pleasant it is to witness

someone's pleasure,

to be brought into it, to

hold it in your hands,

as it were, like a shivering

bird about to be released.

Thanks for coming.

hans ostrom 2020

Grateful for Grasshoppers

Just realized I'd yet to compliment

Life on providing grasshoppers

in the field buttressed by

Sierra Nevada peaks. They

launched themselves, those

bugs, with catapult back legs,

and tried to stay aloft with weighty

art deco wings. The theater 

of tall grass and weeds featured

jazz parabolas, careening leaps,

and caroms off my legs and chest

and cheeks. A festival, a rite!

Bug ballet, nothing like it.

Butterflies applauded. Thank you. 

hans ostrom 2020

Interview with Lolly Vegas of Redbone

 First the universe came into being, then the Earth cooled, and finally the 1970s happened. The best-selling pop/rock song in the U.S. in 1974, I am told, was "Come and Get Your Love," by a Native American group called Redbone, headed up by Lolly and Pat Vegas, who were from a town near Fresno, California. The version of the song from "Midnight Special" on Youtube is pretty good, I think. I always liked the funkiness of the song. 

In 2006 Lolly Vegas was interviewed. Good to hear his history of his music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klShZ7iYUOg

Rest in Peace, Lolly Vegas.

"The Garden," by Jacques Prévert

 Video/reading of a short poem by Prévert (1900-1977), translated by Alastair Campbell--grateful acknowledgement to him: 

Link:

 Prévert

"Sky Song," by Robert Desnos

 Video/reading of a lovely, whimsical love poem by Robert Desnos, translated from the French:

link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPqht2HE7jY

My Journey of Self-Discovery: Postponed

 Once more I've had

to postpone my journey

of self-discovery. Just

too many other things

to do. Cooking, cleaning,

sleeping, reading. In

theory, sex. Plus there's

the old, yet to be solved

problem: what would 

I do at the end of my 

journey of self-discovery?

Write a report? Say

"Nice to meet you"?

I think it would be very

awkward to converse

with my self-discovered self. 

hans ostrom 2020

The Novel of Your Life

The novel of life

goes along and then

the letters, words,

sentences, and paragraphs

start slipping off the page

until finally, all blank 

pages. It's the novel

only you get to read 

all the way through,

through to the end.

It's your favorite 

novel because no one

wrote it, not even you.

hans ostrom 2020

From a Diary of the Plague Year (18)

 (housebound)

the cat looks out a window I

look at the cat, which looks

at its paw and then at the woman

who looks at the cat and then

looks at me, who is looking out

a window and then looking at

the woman, who says "why

are you looking at me that

way?" and I say "what way?"

and she shakes her head 

and looks at the cat and

the cat looks out a window

hans ostrom 2020

Avocado

And here we have 

a globular gem

encased in a clear

sunrise over bright

green hills. All is 

finished in fine,

pebbled leather

that ages toward black.

The name became

hybridized, starting

as the native plant

ahuacatl, shifting into

aguacate, settling

into avocado, 

which resonates

with the sound 

of a secret and just

society.

After disassembling

and devouring one,

we always wish to do

something with the hard

sphere surviving--

perhaps invent a sport

around it, such as

avocado billiards

or symbolic soccer.

But we feel a bit 

lethargic after ingesting

yellow and green.

Waking from a nap,

we notice once again

that the little brown

planet has left our

solar system. 

hans ostrom 2020

"Autumn," by Guillaume Apollinaire

 Reading/video of a short autumn poem by the French Modernist Apollinaire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2caHsh8ZVk

Ten Commandments for Artists

 Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral wrote "Decalogue of the Artist," a poem that sets some high standards for art. A reading/video:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdQCfuTgDx4

"Lana Turner Has Collapsed," by Frank O'Hara

 An amusing poem (in my opinion) by Frank O'Hara--reading/video:

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzADH7ME10s