some lines overheard

Alone in a world that so cold

But when I woke up this morning

Coulda sworn it was Judgement Day

Dream if you can a courtyard

Electric word life it means

Forever and that’s a mighty long time

Girls and Boys

He died without knowing forgiveness

Instead of asking how much of your time is left

Joy– oh my private joy–

Kiss

Life is just a party and parties weren’t meant to last

Maybe I’ll die young like heroes die

Now tell me what you’re gonna do

Once up a time

Paisley Park is in your heart

Questions in my life will be answered

Round and round

Sometimes it snows in April

Tell me baby where did I go wrong

U will see my point of

View– even if I have to scream

Why should you wait any longer

seX seX

You say “what have I have got to lose?”

go craZy

Read Full Post »

Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America’s Favorite Spectator Sport (Matthew Algeo)

 

“Champagne was considered a stimulant. And a lot of trainers — these guys had trainers — advised their pedestrians to drink a lot of champagne during the race.”

                        Matthew Algeo, in interview with NPR

                        April 3, 2014

 

 Edward Payson Weston was one of the most famous pedestrians of the 19th century.

People would pay 10 cents just to watch him walk in circles all day.

He would go to the roller rink and walk 100 miles

in 24 hours. O’Leary was really one of the first

famous Irish-American athletes. He was the spokesman

for a brand of salt. The Ali/Frazier of their generation.

Gambling was a big part of the allure, no doubt

You could bet on who would be the first pedestrian to drop out

They drank champagne by the bottle.

Before the safety bicycle, there were penny farthings — with

a tiny little back wheel. They weren’t very nimble

but the safety bicycle was nimble, much more

interesting to watch race around a track for six days

more interesting than the pedestrians

just walking.

Read Full Post »

Lynn Poem #9

Wants (found poem)

Woody Allen said, “the heart wants what the heart wants,”

to justify man’s ways to woman. I ask, what wants

do I contain, to justify or otherwise? I want

to ask my husband what dessert he wants,

to know chocolate ice cream, who wants?

To make up my chocolate stash, because when I want

chocolate, sweet as chocolate is I want

it.  Chocolate especially on a rainy day, I want

richest chocolate, a first passion want

to drink 12 oz of chocolate milk then run one 400m lap, want

to be able to spend more time on chocolate issues, want

the depth of my love for chocolate, want

flourless chocolate cake, for instance, really want

a “chocolate” New Orleans, want

spoonfuls of chocolate, my number wants

to make sure it’s chocolate wants

The Mama wants what the Mama wants

Read Full Post »

April 25.

;

deeply within them fundamentally within them
the comma nature,
though it is useful for many things:

to feel the link, albeit subtly; as
a sign of snobbery; in Arabic,
between two phrases, in which the first
phrase causes the second

(Ben Jonson was the first notable
English writer to use them systematically;
so now I do, too):
they have no spaces before them; however,
it is commonly used to indicate winking

a dotted comma is written inverted
when you are dealing with two sentences
that can’t keep their hands off each other;

when your commas are working overtime;
the Son of Sam was, as Jimmy Breslin wrote,
the only murderer he ever encountered

who could wield one just as well as
a revolver:  though
Americans prefer shorter sentences
and more emphatic than a comma,
more prolonged than a conjunction:

sightings in the city are unusual, period
largely jettisoned as a pretentious
anachronism:  I always feel a little bit dubious
about it

I feel I don’t understand them but am
rather attached to them

They are mysteriously connected to pausing
or merely a pretentious comma?

he would like nothing better than
to go down in posterity, he claims, as
the exterminating angel of the point-virgule and yet

The short sentence has signed
the death warrant
of the semicolon

Note: a found poem.  Consulted Wikipedia, The Guardian, the New York Times, and Vat 19.

Read Full Post »