Watched: Secret Mall Apartment

Friends had long recommended we watch Secret Mall Apartment, a documentary now on Netflix that explores a small art collective in Providence, Rhode Island, that created a hidden space within a large commercial mall, and then used that space for years to plan community art projects. The documentary was great and it was more than the apartment they created — it was how artists bring their works into the world.

More about the movie here.

Peace (and place),
Kevin

Poetry: A Sonnet For Bird

The first prompt for July’s Open Write was a challenge. It was about writing a sonnet (a form I have not tackled in quite some time) and Glenda suggested a double-consciousness theme, where the poet grapples with something contradictory (I think that’s what it is about). I’m not sure I did that with my sonnet to Charlie Parker but I enjoyed the constraints this morning.

A Sonnet For Charlie Parker

A Bird of free range flying through the night
wrapped in chords of compositional scratches
and tangled like roses, thorns as sharp as flight;
yet within noise, the melody flashes

I am an earbud audience, in awe
of the way the sound moves in near motion
so that when I close my eyes — not a flaw –
only quick winds and waves on the ocean

Yet he remains a complicated man,
a puzzle of complexity, a wire
who could channel beauty on the bandstand
while nearly losing himself to the fire

Some music that’s played becomes a life, lost,
and listeners often forget the cost

Peace (in the muse),
Kevin

Poetry: Bike Mechanic

Bike Mechanic

Twisted fingers stretch
inside the white metal frame,
turning nuts and screws
and parts with odd, exotic names
and then the moment of success,
as the part clicks into place:
a jump and shout of “yes”! –
such joy on the mechanic’s face

I’ve started a part-time job at a community e-bike share, and I am learning the ropes. Yesterday, I shadowed a young bike mechanic as he worked on bikes, observing his perseverance and how every problem was really a puzzle to be solved. I wrote this poem for him.

Peace (and puzzles),
Kevin

Daily Create: The Unknown Awaits

The Unknown Awaits

The prompt for the Daily Create was to make a pile of books to be read, choose a random page number, grab a word from that page from each book and then write a poem. I cheated a bit, since we’ve been getting rid of so many of our books. Instead, I took a pile of books from our shelves that I have read and went through the activity. The BOLD words are from the books.

Each ADVENTURE like this
starts COLD, like stars
dangling on metal wires
in a PLANETARIUM, fixed
before motion, and UNDISTURBED,
until the moment a curious hand
sets the story forward,
CROSSING-THE-RIVER in a raft
of WONDERFUL imagination;
Where the ROADS lead, no one knows,
but pull the THREAD, anyway —
the unknown awaits

Peace (and poems),
Kevin

Daily Create: A Box of Lucky Charms

Lucky Charm

The prompt for this morning’s Daily Create was to create a charm for our friend, Alan, as he tries to coax colleagues to join us in the morning creative efforts. I went to an old favorite of mine — Frinkiac, which uses The Simpsons as source material for memes and gifs — and realized they had added a comic strip feature. So I gave it whirl.

Peace (in the box),
Kevin