Join us every Monday evening for drinks at the new Kos community political poetry club. Drop by and speak your mind in rhyme or blank verse. Let’s use language to scream our passion to the world. Bongos, berets and turtle neck sweaters are optional. The keypad is mightier than the sword.
This new weekly community diary is a poetry reading, a jam, a workshop and a classroom.
Formats
• Individual hosts presenting their own politically-themed poetry
• Theme diaries; for when we have collected enough original poetry on a particular theme
• Poetry worshops, including tips on how to make poetry work, how to choose words, how to decide whether to put it in form or use free verse, how to pump the brain when there is nothing there but writer’s block, and so on
• Presentations of a favorite conscientious poet’s work in the public domain
• Other ideas for diary formats are welcome
Comments
• Poetry and verse are always welcome in the comments
Haiku! Woo hoo! Such a lovely form. So very concise. I love haiku. Even though there are other forms of haiku, I am especially fond of the 5-7-5 form. It’s like solving a little poetic puzzle.
start the poem with five
seven syllables are next
finish up with five
—
Meanwhile...
Too much disruptive noise is making me nuts. The thing about unwanted noise is that you can’t close your ears the way you can close your eyes or look in the other direction. I’m in Philadelphia at this time, so it’s definitely bothering me here. It obviously bothered me in Albuquerque as well (see comments), although, there is this quiet that overlays everything in New Mexico, even in the big city of Burque. It must have been the altitude, because it’s so much worse here in this sea-level town.
—
25 Noisy Haiku
blue jay piercing call
raspy throated summer crows
insects buzzing by
gray squirrels squawking
always scolding while they watch
feral cats fighting
clopping clip clopping
the unhappiness horses
will drag themselves on
high school drumming corps
distant rhythm background of
sound betrays quiet
back up garbage truck
dumpster dumping in the dark
wake up four a.m.
nosediving downward
helicopter fluttering
then frantic barking
fireworks gunshot
the silence before it wails
flashing blue motor
shiny waterfall
concrete barrier roaring
into yellow suds
a ragged flag is
flapping loudly in the wind
button up your coat
waiting for the bus
music amply amplified
at Broad and Erie
rumble down the tracks
subway loudspeaker dripping
liquids into puddles
screeching vibrations
the el corners undergound
as it does above
cell phone call yakking
public shows of privacy
personal yelling
terrible playlist
those earbuds leaking loudly
yesterday’s oatmeal
three babies howling
with four teenagers shouting
bus trapped in traffic
downtown gets louder
one hundred truck motors will
echo to the sky
construction crews and
jackhammer gutter spray
an earful of bruise
more urgent than you
whistle beeping back it up
he leans on the horn
with red lights blazing
sirens demand attention
get out of the way
follow false alarms
the constant voices grumble
Philadelphia
another bullhorn
the same old speechifying
often it is hate
staring at muzak
everywhere that you enter
televisions blare
lie to us in tones
of kindergarten teachers
on the local news
charity bells jar
metallic ruby echo
inside aching ears
ringing in my head
tinnitus never silent
not ever again
—
(all haiku above ©2010-2011, Alexandria Levin)