Sal Marici: Documented in Vinyl

After they struck
the last chord of “Long Tall Sally”
on 29 August 1966 at Candlestick
they ceased pretending to play music
teenagers’ screams deadened.

During 129 days
in the Abbey Road Studios

strings, brass, woodwinds, sitar
recruitments
of electronic devices:
wah-wah pedal, fuzz box
and a Leslie speaker rotating
low and high frequencies,
trick sound

layered with lyrics
about life’s complexities
our parents did not hear
big bands sing.

April 10th Prompt

Today's prompt asks you to look into the past again.

Write a poem to your past self. What things would you want to say to yourself? Is there anything you would want to warn yourself about? Any life lessons to give? What perspectives on the world can you offer yourself?

Today's poem comes to us from Sal Marici and is entitled Documented in Vinyl. Sal writes about the poem, "I saw the jacket John Lennon wore for the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band album. The display pumped goose bumps. The Beatles’ creations, especially those from the studio years, replay in my mind like the first time I dropped needles in new, circling grooves. Their impacts echo today."

Thomas Jenks: Untitled

I am the great shapeshifter
Shapeshifter of not body
Body, no. Person, yes.
Yes, I am. No, I am not.
Not an echo of me, no you, something different, not me.
Me, who is that?
That is whomever I wake up as.
As oscilating as a pendulum,
A pendulum swaying from one extreme
Extreme to extreme
Extremes never echoing one another, never between.
Between the extremes of a pendulum built,
Built poorly tuned,
Tuned highly sensitive.
Sensitive not to hot and cold, but
But to the hot and cold of humanity.
Humanity, the very thing I am.
Am at all times and none.
None other than I and Me.
Me, the one shapeshifting.
Shapeshifting not into Me, but into Me.
Me, the eternal question.
Question, inquiry, who is Me?
Me is not me then minutes past.
Past me is not me now.
Now me is a different me, a different mood.
Mood, the determinator of me.
Me, a collection of moods, moody.
Moody, they would describe me.
Me, the most frustrating question of all time.
Time and mood, the determiners of me.
Me, crazy, depressed, creative, dull.
Dull to myself, often suicidal.
Suicidal not of Me, but of Me's from all time.
Time, the difference between Me and Me.
Me, always hiding.
Hiding me, trying, afriad.
Afraid to trust, expose my reality.
Reality being always changing.
Changing such that there is no core.
Core poersonality, core drive, no.
No core desires.
Desire to live the same way,
Way, meaning, purpose.
Purpose always changing.
Changing from one me to another.
Another dream, another Me
Me, never the same, no connection
Connection to the past, no echo
Echo of another Me
Me, not another
Another, that is who I was
Was and is
Is and will be.
Be an emotional, hidden, poorly understood mess.
Mess to me, and others, a large mess.
Mess of moods, personalities, me's.
Me's, the many me.
Me, who is Me?
Me knows not who is Me.
Me, the great shapeshifter.

April 9th Prompt

Today's prompt asks you to stretch your perception to see if you can see from someone else's eyes.

Write from the point of view of someone else. What are your thoughts? What are your concerns? What are things like from this different perspective? What does this new perspective want to communicate with the rest of the world? Sometimes seeing from other points of view is difficult, but poetry allows us to see things from new angles - there's more than one way to revise with poetry.

Today's poem comes to us from Thomas Jenks. He writes about the multiple perspectives which can be found residing within one person.

April Jennifer Choi: Life's Love

They walk together hand in hand, and hope never to part.

The Lovers are bound eternally, both in mind and in heart.

Life travels lightning fast, when wrapped in each other's arms.

Blinded from sadness, by just the sight of the others charms.

Love grows stronger, and gives the breath of Life to both.

Forced to age in time, but maturing graceful is their growth.

Learning from each other, both Live twice the Life they would,

They know they both are needed, to be there and understood.

Neither look to the future, and grasp tightly to what is now.

For the future will come soon enough, faster than they allow.

Life becomes what he will, but as long as love is there,

Life will survive the future, and do so without despair.

Love is welcome by Life, though she may cause some pain,

But no matter the hurt, there is always much more to gain.

Love puts a handle on Life, but she will break time to time.

Life then gives back to Live, and will feel in their prime.

Loves comes deeply into life, just as life comes into Love,

Both seem to come from nowhere, springing out from above.

To break up this pair is a tragedy, but seen in eyes every day.

"Please, reunite these two Lovers." are the words I shall pray.

The great Love of your Life, is a Life you Love gratefully.

Do so kindly, and they will kindly return the favor.

April 8th Prompt

Today's prompt will be very specific:

Write a "List Poem." A list poem is typically where you write a list of things then expand on their significance. They can take many, many shapes, but have fun with it whatever you do!

A poem comes to us today from April Jennifer Choi and is entitled Life's Love. The poem comes from a personal place and gives us a wonderful personification of how life and love coexist.

Mike Bayles: Old Botany

When a foot steps on a wooden floor
another chamber stirs.
I listen to the ways the building speaks
to the many parts of me,
the room where I take Intro to Psychology,
and the hallway where samples of seedlings
in wire cages break ground, as I.
Cubicles cluster around a common area
where subjects offer psyches
for graduate student grades.
On second, a maze winds its way
to teaching assistant offices,
painted in neon colors,
where I ponder trials of life.
Stories linger about third floor,
a place some say is abandoned,
unable to bear the weight of other lives,
unseen and left to wonder.
A step outside shows the aging face
observant of a verdant Central Campus
while I shadow its incarnations.