Month: September 2013

Self Portrait by Chris Carmichael

by
self portrait Chris Carmichael

self portrait Chris Carmichael

Actually a good likeness. Talented people seem to have a Midas touch and this minimalist effort shows that Chris can be very expressive in any media.
We have been the home of our Chris Carmichael pages since 2000. Chris’ discography grows so fast it’s hard to keep track of it. For Chris, ‘lately it’s movie soundtracks, adding strings to George Strait, Buddy Guy and, it seems, every name in music. Chris is also Artvilla’s friend. He’s that friend who “went and got famous”, and we don’t brag about him nearly enough. We are going to change that because his work touches so many artists that it can suggest music that delights if we just pay attention.

If we are special at all,
it’s because of the friends we’ve made.
If our lives matter at all
it’s because of the love we’ve shared.
If our time is well spent,
it’s well spent together.
and if we are to be remembered
it’s because of whom we helped
and who helped us.

Chris Carmichael

david michael jackson

Poets Lament

by

clouds and grass

 

 

 

A post hole digger

at best

at best some irises ,

at best

the wind making waves in the grass

at the very least

death

making waves in time

there could be no other way

there could be no other way

type it out each time

type it twice

No more whiskey of the mind.

See the grass between the toes?

See the cloud?

That’s Wordsworth’s cloud.

That’s Whitman’s grass.

Yours truly

An obscure poet in an anonymous  place

singing songs of grass and clouds.

Rattle your chains.

Bang the pots and pans and slam the cabinet doors.

Rattle your chains

Pick at the lock

Do not go

quietly below the clouds and grass

 

 

david michael jackson

Declaration Of Love For Nobody by Maria Marachowska

by

maria

Maria’s minimal approach and slow beat causes the listener to pause, to reflect, to imagine.

Her profile says
Marachowska has created an entirely new music style.Its strength lies precisely in the slowness, intellectual value and profoundness. In her music and the soft timbre of her deep singing voice, this blue haze, that is Blues,

I see the wind in the trees
and the rise of steam from the coffee
I see the clouds slowly move over the horizon
She raises a cigarette to her lips
She exhales and the leaves rustle
It is a black and white world
except for the red
of the single rose on the table.

She leans forward,
“Where would you like to go?”

The cobblestones glisten in the moonlight.

I answer quietly,
“To Berlin.”

 

 

david michael jackson

Cadmium, “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

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Cadmium

Janet Kuypers

from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#048, Cd)
(stemming from “You’ve Already Paid for This”, written 09/14/09)
3/28/13

The battered woman
entered the all-night
gas station/grocery store.
The attendant sees
the man waiting in the car.
He looks
tense and angry.

The attendant looks at the woman.

“Marlboros,”
is all she said.
The attendant glances at the car,
then looks at the rows of cigarettes
over the counter.
The woman says,
“it’s for my husband.”

The attendant asks,
“Which kind?”
The woman absent-mindedly says
“Red.”

The attendant
reaches for the package.

The attendant thinks
that even though there is more
of the poisonous Cadmium
in the food we eat,
the Cadmium’s easily absorbed
when you breathe it in
through these smokes.

Studies have even found links
between Cadmium and cancer,
the attendant thinks.

So the attendant looks at the woman
hands her the cancer sticks,
and thinks,
“you’ve probably
already
paid for this.”
Even though Cadmium
is used for pigments,
or nickel Cadmium batteries,
smokers get four to five times
more Cadmium in their blood,
and two to three times
more Cadmium in their kidneys.

The woman closes her purse.
The attendant closes the register.
Give it time,
was all
the attendant thought
as the woman left.