On the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

"The President's been shot," he said seriously.

We heard about it; it was what we talked about.

Brains and blood and bones in an upward curve

And his body across the woman: that's what we imagined

Though we'd be proven wrong by slow motion film

Showing his body just as if we were there with him.

But we didn't stop looking; we haven't stopped yet.

* * * *

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Forty-nine years ago today, on Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza.

The assassination and subsequent slaying of shooter Lee Harvey Oswald shocked the country. In the five decades since, the assassination continues to capture the imagination of authors, filmmakers and the public. It has sparked hundreds of conspiracy theories and studies into who — if not Oswald — was behind Kennedy’s slaying.

Robert Blakey, an attorney who served in the Justice Department in the 1960s and worked on drafting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act, served on the House Select Committee on Assassinations that was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of both Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Unlike the earlier Warren Commission, which found Oswald acted alone, the House committee concluded its two-year investigation with a report stating Kennedy’s assassination was likely the result of a conspiracy.

The Twin Killing

Anything he could have done
Would have been better than what
He did, just then, do.

* * * *

"St. Louis' Lance Lynn breaks his bat as he hits into a double play during the second inning."

Andy's Shoes

"Andy's Shoes" by Richard Avendon
Holes in shoes showing socks a reminder of impecunious days
You were pissed off back then stuck it seemed in nothing but
Shitty commercial art jobs that just barely paid the bills
A series of one-night stands with commerce not a marriage
Drawing shoes until you could cop a better gig doing your art
It's trippy to think of how well it has worked out for you
Maybe the shoes were portentous of success and not of defeat
For awhile you thought to emend those shoes from your story
But then you decided to wear these cut-up shoes like a caterwaul
To draw attention to your feet and damn the veracity

* * * * * *
[Note: Written as a continuation of an exercise introduced at a workshop called "High Art/Low Language: Experiments in Poetic Style," conducted by Eileen G'Sell at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, where Elizabeth Peyton's exhibition "Ghost" had been on display.

Participants in the workshop viewed the exhibit and picked two images to write poems about, choosing from five "high culture" and five "low culture" words that they had drawn from a hat. For this exercise, I used all of the words in the order I wrote them in my notebook.

I couldn't find an on-line image of Peyton's "Andy's Shoes (After Avendon)" so I used Avendon's original phototograph.]

Song for the South (for Bob Dylan)

So there Ezra was impounded in Pisa accused of treason
Trading tobacco now with fellow inmates forbidden to talk to him.
Colored mostly, soldiers fighting for a country

That hardly fought for them. Taken away like Louis Till after
3:00 a.m. line-ups to be hung for murder and rape.
Not even 3 weeks in the gorilla cage could keep Ezra from

Praising Il Duce in 11 lines on a piece of toilet paper
And later writing his cantos on a table made from a packing crate
By H.H. Edwards after he had gotten the charity.

Would Ezra or anyone have guessed that 10 years later
Louis Till's 14-year-old son would be brutally murdered
For the crime of whistling at a white woman in a store

In Mississippi, where the accused were acquitted?
Though, after the trial, they were happy to brag to a magazine
About what they had done as if they had done no wrong.

Distinguished Senators Stennis and Eastland looked, then, at
Louis' hanging and announced themselves satisfied that the
Same bad blood flowed in the veins of the son as the father.

Originally posted April 11, 2011.

Is That A Poem In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Glad To See Me 2012

You can pick up a FREE copy of "Poems For Your Pocket" Tuesday night (April 24) at "Poetry at the Point," a reading sponsored by the St. Louis Poetry Center and held at the Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Boulevard, in Maplewood.

I'll be reading along with my •chance operations• co-conspirator Chris Parr, Brad R. Cook, Jessica Baran, Susan Lively, and Kristin Sharp. The event is free and begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 314-973-0616.

Jane Henderson writes in the Post-Disptach:

Writing poetry has rarely been a paying gig —- not to mention organizing the events. On Tuesday at Focal Point, those who make it happen take the spotlight themselves.

"Most of the money you make goes back into promotion and other related things," says Susan "Spit-Fire" Lively. She's in charge of Open Mic @ the Inn series in Belleville.

"The biggest challenge is not overworking yourself," she says, while noting that "honoring and publicizing the artists in the events is very important."

In addition to Lively, the St. Louis Poetry Center is presenting poets/organizers from Chance Operations; Fort Gondo Poetry Series; Poems, Prose and Pints; and the St. Louis Writers Guild.

The Mayá Cafe next door to the Focal Point will donate 20 percent of dinner proceeds to the center. In other words, a burrito dinner before the event is another way to support poetry.

Dr. Benway Consults

he told his patient that
he had often cured such a mania
but that just in case
he should find
a transistor radio

[for William S. Burroughs]

[originally posted 4/23/09]