"Welcome to the Stage Upstairs. West Coast Writers .. do they speak? Record their performances? Maybe they'll step forward. Maybe they won't .. ooooo ... that wouldn't work. The stage waits. Robert Sward, coming soon, and then .. who knows? Patchen, maybe even Jeffers."
"You might be wondering about this feather. It's my sanity feather. And I want to talk about feathers before I turn the stage over to Robert Sward. First, feathers are confusing. And because of that I got this particular feather from a therapist after my run-in with some birds when I was a young man."
Feathers
When the Green man began to hum
The mockingbirds complained and flew.
But then he screamed,
"You've hurt me and I am undone!"
And they thanked him for a song they knew.
He's quite certain now, he'll never understand.
Spends his time meandering ...
Green man pandering ...
Rearranging rented cubicles
And puzzling scraps of paper
into different fitful views.
"No, that's not the way it was ..."
"How was it then ... more twisted?"
"God knows! I don't ... nor do I know why
Those mockers keep on squawking."
"Stay! Stay! On the ground little hummingbird,
You're much too small to fly!" -blue
You can watch the video here. But only if you have high speed access.
"And now, as I promised, a west coast poet, an internet pioneer, and my friend, Robert Sward. He's going to perform 'A Man Needs a Place to Stand', from his book, 'God is in the Cracks'. "
Yep. A man needs a place to stand. Something our fathers taught us.
But you should be prepared for claim jumpers. They'll come to say you haven't the right to some spot you've claimed. And they're everywhere, I tell ya, and they're greedy and belligerent. That's why I always bring marines with me when I choose a place to stand. Marines always come in handy when dealing with claim jumpers. And there are so many really nice places to take a stand, too. Like Paris. My friend Al Young, a Poet Laureate of California, was once in Paris. He's going to take the stage in a minute and perform 'April in Paris'. Sometime fairly soon you'll be hearing from Cat Townsend, too.
This is a semi-reality show called 'Animated Poets on the Stage Upstairs' and mostly we're west coast poets, but every now and then someone from Ohio or Pennsylvania or even New York will show up. Now, don't forget to tip the waitresses when they bring your drinks and sit back and relax, the music's in the words and the words are right here to entertain you.
"Ladies and gentlemen, another west coast poet, a friend of mine, former Poet Laureate of California, Al Young."
"It's always good to find a solid place to stand when dealing with a beautiful woman. And those women don't always believe you're serious about your stand. 'Specially when jazz is also involved.
Take the case of Cat Townsend and Darryl Levy. Ohioans. I told you that occasionally an Ohioan would show up on the Stage Upstairs, right? Cat Townsend. With the Pointless Orchestra, lamenting 'D.A. Levy's Perfect Cup of Coffee' is next up."
"Cat Townsend is a very talented poet. She once owned a bookstore in Kent, Ohio.I was introduced to her more than a decade ago by a close friend, Michael McNeilley. She is, in a single word, unique. A photographer, an artist and a jazz poet." Take a look at this video - made by animating one of her photos to a cut from her CD, 'Under Moons'. To watch the video - click play -
"Meanwhile, down on the street outside the cafe."
"Tell me again, Nicky, why are we meeting here?"
"Don't worry, these people are so captivated by their own words they can't hear
anything being said around them. It's a perfect place to plot."
"Plotting? In the middle of a pack of poets reading?"
"Think of them as an encampment of narcissists in a group therapy session."
"Or as an ensemble of eccentrics competing for a 'weirdest human' award."
"We have three more west coast writers coming up yet, Lois Jones, from LA, and teaming up
with Pablo Picasso, no less .. also CE Chaffin, from Mendocino's Lost Coast, and Mort Marcus from Santa Cruz." "But before we hear from them - we have another east coaster, from Maryland, to present."
"This is a portrait of Cheryl Snell, done by her sister, Janet Snell. The sisters have a
blog on blogspot.com and an online chapbook, called 'Multiverse', at issuu.com."
"This is Cheryl Snell's - Eating Beauty" To watch the video click play
"Nicky's worked out all the details .."
"According to his projections - what with his original investment, his overhead costs, the vacation days left of the distributors .."
" .. back taxes he owes and the latest ruling
on his third wife's alimony payments, the cost of each copy of the book should be
$127.65."
"That's a little high for poetry, huh?"
"We have Mort Marcus coming soon .. something about the Tooth Fairy,"
"But next up is Lois P. Jones. She's from Southern California. In virtual space she hangs at Wild Poetry Forum."
"I'm told she's a fan of Poetry LA's website. Now this .. is a pic of a painting by Pablo Picasso. It's called 'Margot' and he painted it in 1907. "
"Ms. Jones poem 'Picasso's Garden' and Pablo's image made this animation, naturally. A wonderful match. Imagine, sharing eyes with Picasso so intimately." To watch the video - click play -
"This is my copy of CE Chaffin's latest book, 'Unexpected Light',
published by Diminuendo Press of Saginaw, Texas. Craig's going
to do a love poem from this book, 'to Kathleen Lenore', which
appears on page 130."
"In all, there's 143 pages of selected poems from 1998 to 2008. This copy has a hard cover, but the book comes
in soft cover too."
"Ladies and gentlemen, a west coast poet from northern California, my friend C.E. Chaffin."
"We're going to end tonight's performances with a video we made last year. It's called 'The Tooth Fairy' by Mort Marcus. It is Mort Marcus at his very best.
I want to thank you all for showing up and I hope you'll all come back real soon.
Good Night and good luck, be careful and stay out of trouble."
