Friday, May 10, 2019

Stone Soup Croutons, 5-9-19, Blessed Guess



Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked up from poems overheard 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.

Last night's was Deta Galloway's feature. We even went into overtime a little because we were enjoying ourselves. I had to wake up and remember everything that happened before I could finish the poem. This is an attempt at a poem about getting out of one's (i.e. my) misanthropic self. Deta's performance has that affect on people. So I tried to get as much of Deta's imagery in as possible. I feel like I'm winging it more than usual, which feeds into the title. Thanks for reading.



Blessed Guess

Hide and seek is boring
after three straight seasons.
Soon you're left to find

your self, maybe out by
the last thing you half-built
before they set your shed

on fire, said was for best.
You never knew how to
find anything anyway.

You give up, save it for
the lost and found box
of your final destination.

All your prayers are like
a wedding toast, in need
of strong drink in hand.

Maybe this punishment
is just your kink. And blues
the only tune you ever

took time to learn. Time
better spent telling off
the next racist store owner,

no angry mob at your door
because most aging whites
are likely armed and loaded

up to their wicked teeth.
Who wants true fairness
in firefights? Maybe later.

Tonight, a black woman says
she loves you, that you're all
from Africa. You don't know

who you are now, so it's a start.
So alter your chicken dance
to precise,hip-tossed hymns.

Sing in new tongues alien
as your own start. This just
might also be a good ending.



Deta Rules.


The "E" in "E.S." must stand for enigmatic. Or...e-llusive? Just go with it.

Special thanks to Gawaine Ross, Lo Galluccio, Prudence Francis, Bil Lewis, E.S., Laurel Lambert and Deta Galloway.

1 comment:

Salome deta Pitts.Multi Media Artist.USA said...

Stone Soup Poetry venue and Poets reading weekly is on of the longest Literate Affair.Ginsberg.Ferlingheti.Denise Levertov..I wonder if Anne Sexton..Danny Solis.Patricia Smith.Michael Brown.Didi Delgado.deta galloway Pitts.Toni Bee Walter Clark.Joanha.Elizabeth McKim Etheridge Knight.Ifeyani.Menkiti Dexter Roberts.Laurel.Billy Barnum.James Vanloy..Bonny Buleau.JOHNATHON Sam Cornish.Margie Shaheed.The List stretches onn.When I started to go in the 80's..Jack Powers and Julie spearheaded..the memorable Places where we read.The Cantab.TT and the Bears(the Middle East..and many other Venues in Cambridge and Boston.Jack Powers.Poet Handsome gentle man.Friend.So intelligent.Julie..long standing with Jack..and sweet and kind..with a flawless beauty and ease of ways.We were in heaven.We hung together.Jack would let anyone and everyone read.He was so inspiring.He would at times read his Very short Poems... Some with Jazz and Blues overtones.And an Haiku..even a Renga insinuation.We all loved Jack dearly.I will always remember Him and Bonny Boulez..and Etheridge(Free Peoples Workshop)Sam Cornish my very good friend.Wonderful Poet.Good cook.And his Wife Florella Orowan..She..a very good writer..and a deep knower of British Lierature.Sam Published a very nice Literature Magazine..while he ran his very upscale Book store at the Brookline Arcade...
Sam was always kind to young Piets bew writers.Helping Us..giving critical advice.He write shorter Poems than me..but He would patiently lusten to all the Poems I would read him.Jack also.Etheridge too.These are Poets with some of the finest minds.When I returned to Boston in 2011 I met The Young and dedicated Chad Parenteau..standing in these tall Riding Boots of the Prestigious Stone Soup.He is caribg.dependable.a quiet but stron leader..He blesses the Spirit of the Poets I have mentioned.Kathleen Spivak..I miss you).I wished I met..Akhmatova.Swinburn.Puskin, Delmore Larry Neal,Swartz.Santayana.E.E.Cummings.I wished I met Pound.Elliot.Edmund Wilson. V.S.Pritchett.Nicholas Guillen.Ionesco.The Passion fruit of the bitter stem of Borges.Allende.
But..I met.C.L.James.Amiri Baraka, Marie Evans.June Jordan.Nikki Giovani.Angela Davis.Elaine Brown.Toni Morrison.Friedlander.Robert Hayden.M.S.Nerwin.Hayden Caruth.Galway Kinell.Sir Albert Marghai.Josephine Miles.Ken Burns.
President Carter.Etheridge Knught.Gwendolyn Brook.Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.Sand Man Sims.Billy Eckstine.Hugh Masekela.Muddy Waters
James Brown.Ms Merwin.Naomi Magett Long.Braithwaite.Martin Kilson.Chris Nteta.Bob Marley.Ernest Ranglin Hugh Masekela.Ellen Vendler Haile Selassie.. kwame Toure',Rita Dove.John Biggers..Gewndolyn Brooks.Ted Joans.Raymond Saunders.Carrie May Weems.Aaron Douglas.Bennie Andrews.Ms Coretta Scot King.Bob Mises.Mimi Jones.Sterling Brown Dudley Randall.Vincebt Ferrini(Gloucester.Mass.Book of Poems . Fish.)He took me to see Olson'grave and Resting Place.
Andy Young.Julian Bond. President Siak Stevens.(of Sierra Leone)John Lewis.Johnny Cochran.Jimmy Brezlin.and Brother Blue.
Now we are here..standing on the Shoulders of the literate and the mighty.We gotta get this Work done for our time.Art eads the Way.Thank You.Art leads the Way.Deta galloway Pitts.Multi Media Artist.(I apologize for names incorrectly spelled.I think they are a few here.)