Poet For Hire

Monday, January 20, 2020

Spion on Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day,

Nice to see this on the MBTA map on my red line train to Cambridge.

Keeping this exclusive to this blog.

Saw Toni Bee today at the Middle East. 2020 is a little better now. I should have hung with her sooner.

We talked about a big project that will hopefully see fruition in April. Some of you will hear about it before others. I'll be working on this later tonight.

I'm excited.

Walkin' the Mile

This particular stretch of Southie street always feels like it takes forever to walk down. Recently, they put a fence all around the special housing, as it's slated to be torn down and replaced with new buildings. The fence just makes the walk down the street seem that much longer and that much more brutal on a cold day.

For MLK Day

Geoffrey Fallon gives us a history lesson in this week's comic. Read "The Secrets of Skinny People" at Oddball Magazine.

From Picture to Page: Stay In

Photo in Southie. From Saturday (of course). First I did "Sit-In" for Stone Soup Croutons. Now today's title. What will be my third poem for the trifecta?

Stay In

Just keep
indoors
on snow day.

Let it
just let it
move on

I'm Supposed to Post Something, Right...?

Bill Harvey works to bring you this comic even on your day off. Thank Bill Harvey and read "The Odds" at Oddball Magazine.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Remember when people in Arizona had to fight tooth and nail to have Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day be an unpaid holiday?

Happy Monday

Here's my latest limerick for Mad Kane's latest limerick-off. You have until February 1 to join in.

Spion Has to Adapt to Survive

As any one can figure out form my regular posts, I'm always on the look for work by Spion. Last week I found him in Cambridge...partially.

This Week's Friendly Reminder

Found this graffiti outside a infamous South Boston dive (one that charges you $20 just to sit inside it on Saint Patrick's Day).

Of course, not far from it, it had this graffiti...

But no one is perfect.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Your Weekly Dose of God

This is a bit of a stretch, but hey, why not?

Went shopping in Allston. Thought about eating somewhere local. Saw this place.

I know. I know. But hey, after decades of the Our Father prayer, this place was a little too intimidating. Maybe next time.

City Haiku

Wander winter streets
try to find drawn penises
on snow-covered cars.

No Trespassing

Snow in Progress

Taken last night in Southie.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Annoying Thought of the Day

Boredom is a privilege.

Or a by-product of abuse from the privileged.

Which is yours?

Happy Birthday Rudy Rudacious

Friday, January 17, 2020

Good News I Can Share

I have a poem slated to appear in the February issue of the recently returned Boston Literary Magazine. Much thanks to Robin Stratton

You can read the new January issue here.

Now I Can (maybe) Sleep

Here's Wise Words with Bruce Wise at Oddball Magazine. Thanks for reading!

It's Time

Janet Cormier is back with Bamboozled No More! Catch it now as we near the end of this week's input at Oddball Magazine.

Stone Soup Croutons, 1-15-20, Sit-In

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked from Stone Soup's open mic readers and features. I figure out a title (and sometimes the rest of the poem) later. You can read the other ones I've done since 2015 here. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, this poem doesn't go up because it's ready, it goes up because it's Friday morning.

Terry Orlando Jones rocked the house on Wednesday night with the help of guest DJ Amina Gunn and guitarist/percussionist Joe P. I knew there was going to be too much to jot down, so I not only recorded parts of their set (including a jam with Black Byrd I wish I had gotten more of) but also took audio snippets of the open mic. It helped at least to make sure no one to left out. What to do with it all? Well, that was the challenge. It's up to you to judge if I was successful or not. That means hits, shares and all that. No, I won't be this shameless for the rest of the year.

I am so glad we had such a great night of music. Our musical guests took full advantage of our new home at the Assemblage gallery with its great acoustics. We simply have to do it again. I hope more people will come next time.

I should also mention that Terry, Amina and Joe will be performing the same set this Saturday as part of Dorchester Speaks. It starts at 2.00 PM at the Codman Square branch of the Boston Public Library.

Poem time. Thanks for reading.

Sit In

Oliver Wendell Holmes implores us:
Save the USS Constitution! For without her,

Catching Up

Finally ready to load Wednesday's Stone Soup pictures up to my Instagram.

T.G.I.F.

To recap, D.L. Polonsky said he would do a new T.G.I.F. logo if I wrote a poem about the impeachment. He was (half?) joking, but I still want to do it. Just haven't yet. Until then, we're stuck with my poor substitute.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

The Spiritual Philosophy of Pat Schneeweis

A great primer for the personal life of musician Pat Schneeweis. Lizi von Tieg's Feedback music column returns to Oddball Magazine.

Clear for Take Off

Liza Zayas is back with a very cosmic edition of The Underground Garden at Oddball Magazine.

(more and more) Tales of Terror

James Van Looy recaps the horror of 2020 as fast as anyone possibly can in the latest installment of his weekly poem column. Read It's All One Thing, up now at Oddball Magazine.

New Look

A peek at Stone Soup's old podium given a new look thanks to Ryan 'Rat" Travis.

Thanks to feature Terry Orlando Jones, his amazing musicians, and everyone who attended. Photos will go up later today.

TBT

Today is the day my sister, had she lived, would have beaten me to fifty. This is the last picture I ever took of her on my phone. It must have been in the hospital after I did my trademark joke of handing her something large like a bed remote and telling her it was her suppository. Always made her smile. Thought I lost this photo when things went pear-shaped with my iPhone last year. Wanted to put it here for safekeeping.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Soon...

I'll be off to meet friends at South Station then head to Stone Soup to host the open mic and introduce feature Terry Orlando Jones.

More New Work

Poet Liz White is the third new poet this week! Enjoy her work, along with the artwork of returning contributor Dr. Regina Valluzzi . Thank you for reading today's work at Oddball Magazine.

I Had Issues! My Old Review of Phase 7 #017

Looks like my archive project will be done by February. This is the last of the small press mini-comics reviews I did for the site before I left. I would have felt bad if I had left never coveing Alec Longstreth, a cartoonist I had discovered the previous decade when he was just getting into his Basewood story. If I'm lucky, I'll review more of his work in the future. Originally published April 1, 2013. Edited for clarity.

Hey! Ho!

It's good to welcome poet Martina Reisz Newberry to our ranks and have artist Gunjan Bhardwaj back after a small hiatus. Let's strap in for another wonderful Wednesday of poetry at Oddball Magazine.

Submissions

I'm getting nervous about our declining pile of submissions. On the one hand, it's good to catch up and publish so many new people. On the other hand, I don't want us to run out. Please consider sending us your work to Oddball Magazine today.

Crazy Day

Getting better. Slowly.