Pedaling poetry in New Haven: Elm City Cyclists' Poetry Ride

Original Date 6/21/09

Pedaling hmm. Often I find I am sitting absolutely still as I think or meditate, so I was quite surprised to be invited to read a poem to a small group of Elm City Cyclists at a location of my choice in New Haven! I liked the idea, as long as I didn't have to pedal. ( I don't even own a bike!) To the right is poet/cyclist Lisa Siedlarz who does own a bike, and who went on this pedaling poetry journey put together by William Kurtz!

For a location I picked the New Haven spot I had driven to recently - Orange Street where I parked when I saw Buckwheat Zydeco last week. I had parked right across from Millennium Plaza where there was an odd relief sculpture with the marvelously dualistic name "Millenium Relief."

Anyway, after standing around like an loitering lunatic for almost an hour, getting quite pleasantly damp in a light rain, and fielding one polite text msg warning me the event was running behind, a group of eight or nine smiling cyclists arrived.

So on Orange Street - in the shadow of the New Haven Hall of Records I read the following poem: (click the title to read the poem)

Lady Liberty Observes....

After I read, a young guy on the tour had us all laughing with his on-the-money yet whimsical poem about boring business meetings! Then we all strolled down to the next stop which was the Bru Cafe just a few doors down which was the last stop on the tour - for more poetry and CAFFEINE!

To the left is a poet and cyclist named Paul, who frequents the Word of Mouth reading over at the Institute Library. He was sporting a multi-colored umbrella hat which he was happy to model with a big smile.

The tall multi-colored Apollo to the right is an enormous sculpture in the yard of the Bru Cafe!! It's very cool.

At the cafe a Jazz Musician/Poet who calls himself Pigman read some fabulous poems in the open mic at Bru!!! My favorite was "Do Angles Have Sex?" I only was able to stay for a few of the readers, and one cup of Sumatran. (No doubt that's why I am still awake!!!

POEM: Lady Liberty Gives Her Report

Liberty's report


I am moon to this loud sea.
Chaos or collusion -
the tide’s drawn out
by me.

From colony to nation,
with woodsmen’s maul and wedge
you divided peculiar powers;
with ink-stained sledge
But I am mirror - honest glass ‘n lead
reflecting your collective head:
freedom to speak and hear
to read any book
to believe or discount
with skeptical looks
freedom to sell and buy
to hawk and whine
freedom to sue anyone, anytime.
Free cruises for congress
on corporate boats
- freedom not to know
- not to vote.
Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Jefferson and I watch
jetsam’s apex and ebb
future flotsam in moonbath,
drunk on the web of tide.
Below, deep, the waters move.
The paper leviathan continually entwine,
create unseen vortices
flee the harpoon’s sting
with lurching expedience.
Indifferent yaghtsmen quaff their conyac.
Speedboaters toss back beer.
Innumerable row boats rise and fall,
bail and steer with hapless oar
while hungry shorebirds
sing and soar
dropping oysters
to salt- stained rocks below.

Bystanders watch for pearls.

copyright 1998 Marjorie M. Walker
(from the Metaphoratorium on http://pages.prodigy.net/mmwalker

Buckwheat Zydeco: Joy on the New Haven Green

This BuckWheat Zydeco show was the opening concert of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. It was last Saturday night and it was free. What a show! These guys have a happy lively sound and you simply cannot resist dancing! Your feet move without your will. In these empty-pocket days, the price and the mood were exactly right. An acquaintance and  I headed New Haven way late, and didn't get to the show until 8PM, an hour into the festivities. We found a parking spot on the street not far from the green and waded into the crowd as a light rain began. The rain did not dampen spirits anywhere. The band even played a ten minute encore played strait through until 10:10!

The last time I saw Buckwheat Zydeco, it was in South Portland, Maine 1989 or 1990 or there about. I was living in Cornish Maine at the time, more or less seeing an odd man, tall and thin, somewhat conservative seeming in nature but who wore Billy Idol leather gloves with no fingers, who literally spent hours combing his long hair and beard, obsessed about his outfits and shoes. My old friend Rich who I'd known for probably 20 years prior to this, came over from Battleboro, VT to Maine to visit and we all met that night at some South Portland dive where the group was featured. As they ground out their intensely happy dance music, a melodrama unfolded.

The two men shook hands and eyed each other warily. My old friend, a fan of gothic horror with a tricky sense of humor, took me aside. "Misti, you are dating Charles Manson," he said with a grin. "Come on, look at him - can't you see the resemblance?." I was abashed. Didn't see the humor in it. Then, on the dance floor, my Charles Manson-look-a-like was cold, asked probing questions about the nature of my relationship with my old friend. He seemed sure it was more than a friendship we harbored. He acted so badly I left early. We never went out again. Anyway, this past Saturday, it was nice to actually enjoy Buckwheat Zydeco without distractions!

PROPOSAL: NATIONAL REFEREMDUM STRIPPING CONGRESS AND THE SENATE OFGOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE!!!!

Let them all apply for and pay for insurance like everyone else does -- especially after they leave office and have no power..... . Right now, they have guaranteed health benefits from even one term, that will last until they die and which covers their whole family. Let them dial the numbers they give you to call when your COBRA runs out - numbers which are NEVER ANSWERED....

THIS IS DISCRIMINATION. STRIP CONGRESS AND THE SENATE OF HEALTH CARE!!! IF JOE PUBLIC DOESN'T HAVE IT - LET CONGRESS AND THE SENATE GO WITHOUT IT TOO!!! Of course then, the big health care lobbies would bribe them with primo insurance packages.

Second thought lets just break up into states and dissolve congress and the senate. (and What a really awful idea that is.. a stable system even an imperfect and irritating system that more or less works, is far better than violent chaos. So all you revolutionaries go turn yourselves in.... )

Sentator McConnell implies Ford (F) is DEAD

Unbelievable - this morning on Face the Nation Senator Mitch McConnell very casually implied that Ford Motor Company would cease to exist. (Should we check to see if he is shorting the stock?)

Senator McConnell was discussing health care options when he addressed this matter. He stated that everyone knows that when the government gets involved in private enterprise that it is so big it crowds out all the competition and that soon the competition will cease to exist. As an example of this he gave the auto industry citing the government involvement in GM and Chrysler as creating a big problem for Ford. He cited in particular the government backing for financing of GM and Chrysler cars. He said Ford couldn't complete against the government

If you back track on the reasoning: everyone knows that when the government gets involved in private enterprise that it is so big it crowds out all the competition and that soon the competition will cease to exist. He is saying that Ford will soon cease to exist.

So I guess people will be dumping their Ford stock because according to Senator McConnell, Ford is not going to exist for long...... I happen to think he is wrong in a big way. If I could afford a car, I would consider buying a Ford. It would NOT be advisable to buy stock in Senator McConnell. You could do better.

Ode to a $9 chair, cups of tea & Slambovia

The other day, I went to meet a few friends to see Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. They gave a concert as a part of the CT Film Festival - right on the Danbury Green under the sundry band shell.

As I was preparing to go to this free FREE FREE concert (did I mention it was FREE?) my mom mentioned that there was a nine dollar folding canvas chair in the garage and I ought to bring it to sit in.... I poked my head into the garage looked around, surveying various items that might be a chair sticking out of a pile of boxes or rakes or lawn mower attachments. I didn't see anything but standard lawn chairs which were hung on the wall. So I brought one of those, but then I left it in the car anyway - and it's just as well as these chairs are relics from my youth, are at least 40 years old, making them the frail elderly of lawn chairs. Their aluminum ribs are willing but the synthetic webbing is weak and frayed too.

I had parked on Main Street near Escape to the Arts. I put every quarter I could scrounge out of my purse into the parking meter (I think now I didn't need to do this as it was after hours.) I think I put in $1.75 in quarters into that meter.

As I went round the corner down White Street, a guy asked me if could spare a quarter. I said I didn't have any left. He began to berate me. "What's the matter with you? You can't reach in there and come up with just one little quarter? What kind of person are you.?" he ask indignantly. Now here I was, totally unemployed, wearing pants and shirt I got from Goodwill and a $5 hat from Walmart, having just put my last damn quarter in a parking meter. Yet this guy was absolutely sure I must have a quarter.... Sigh.

So I get to the green and finally found my friends on square blanket down front. And what a concert. I had never heard Gandolf Murphy before. They have the wackiest collection of instruments. They have the standard rhythm, lead & bass guitars and drums. But they also have an accordion, a xylophone, an electric slide mandolin, a cello, a theremin ( that spooky space music generator from old scifi flicks), bunch of shakeable gords and other items etc etc. Apparently, The New York Times called them a sort of a hillbilly-PinkFloyd. What a great sound!!!! I am a fan. Give a listen:  http://www.youtube.com/v/VAc7KWA0YKg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

So the next day, my mother felt the necessity to point me to the CHAIR the nine dollar chair. It was in a carry sack with a strap and I had assumed it was a leaf bag attachment for the lawn mower. Once it was found, I felt compelled to check it out. After all what kind of monstrosity must a nine dollar chair be? Rickety? Uncomfortable?Unsightly?

None of the above. This is most comfortable versatile and lovely chair in a handsome tweedy beigy color - an unbelievable deal for $9.99. I can drag it in front of the screen door and pretend I have a porch, or in front of the TV now that I have lost the remote again. Here I sit with complete lower lumbar support secure and comfy, a drink holder, and laptop in lap typing away in the nine dollar collapsable chair. ANd next to me on my right the dog is neatly folded up in ball on the cushion to an abandon chase lounge, to my left, the cat sits folded in ball on a footstool (really the seat of an old office chair, now a backless footstool with wheels), and next to me, on an unfolded folding tv table is tea - lushly unfolding its fragrance into the air. A free concert. A nine dollar folding chair. Life is odd, but for someone with no income, surprisingly good.

1,000 marigolds of peace - Faith's Statement

Among the plantings in Poet Faith Vicinanza's garden in Wolcott, CT are 1,000 marigolds forming the word peace in letters three feet high. It's right on the road so all who pass can see it.