Tossing It In Tucson

On my birthday, 10.28.06

2011-06-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

breasts are luminous

I grab them exaggerate their orbs

loaves of heaven

nutmeg-flecked, exuding light

Frank

10.28.06

First Video: Music & Poetry

2011-05-07T04:37:00.001-07:00

http://frankshome.org/YouTube-1.html

“Movie Music-Improvisation” by The Electric Flag, Dec. 1967

The POEMS:
1. old time religion
2. the whole dream
3. a mantra means
4. from Frank's Home: Part II
5. Language
6. My daughter enters
7. words go out
8. A Convertible Galaxy
9. red blooms on yellow
10. O My Words
11. Chorus Through My Veins

All poems copyright 2011 Frank Parker.

using dashes, same color as background, as spacers

2011-04-07T05:29:00.002-07:00

Moon Flowers Sky

sparrow
----------clouds
--------------------dust
bowls
---------breasts
-------------------step
gate
--------hinges
------------------grain
spiral
-------lightning
------------------rain

Frank Parker
from Win Po: a work in progress

Audio of our reading now available!

2011-03-29T08:05:00.001-07:00

GEORGE MATTINGLY / FRANK PARKER with LYON LEIFER

Saturday, March 26, 8 PM @ the Drawing Studio
33 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721

Audio of our reading is now available for your listening pleasure on POG Sound! George Mattingly’s poetry is brilliant. His delivery immaculate. Lyon Leifer’s ragas on the bansuri are masterful. One person said to me afterward, “Finally! The way your poetry should be heard.”

a night of poetry and music

2011-03-16T01:39:00.004-07:00

GEORGE MATTINGLY / FRANK PARKER with LYON LEIFER

Saturday, March 26, 8 PM @ the Drawing Studio
33 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721
$5 General, $3 Students

George Mattingly is a book designer, writer of fiction, essays and poetry, photographer, and one-time letterpress printer and typographer. He has been a columnist for msnbc.com and taught publishing at The New College of California, San Francisco. He edited the literary magazine Search for Tomorrow (1969–1974) and founded Blue Wind Press (1970–). His books are Darling-Bender(1970), Breathing Space (1975) and the forthcoming new & selected, a while (2011).

born

into a

world

I

would not

could not

know

•

gravity

waves

hello

— George Mattingly

Frank Parker is the author of three books of poetry, Heart Shaped Blossoms: 1993-2007, zig-zag journeys (2009), and Win Po: a work in progress (2011), all from his Obscure Press. He edits the online journal Frank's Home: An Active Anthology of Verse and publishes widely on the web. He’s on the Board of Directors of POG and is the sound technician for POG and Chax Press readings. Frank maintains the web sites for POG and POG Sound.

Frank will collaborate with Lyon Leifer, bansuri master, for this reading.

O My Words
for Luis Garcia

a flute, a reed

cut from roots

a ring of bone

everyday air

skinny bird song

Palo Verde limbs

cats walk up and down

adobe yellow wall

— Frank Parker
from Win Po

Lyon Leifer is recognized in Europe, the Americas, China and India as a master flutist who performs both on western flutes and on the bansuri (north Indian keyless bamboo flute). After early studies in Chicago with Emil Eck and Walfrid Kujala, Mr. Leifer attended the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Julius Baker. After graduating, he became a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Pursuing an interest in improvised raga music and flute playing in India, he then accepted a Fulbright Grant to study there with Devendra Murdeshwar, the inheritor of the legacy of the great Pannalal Ghosh. Remaining in India for five years, Mr. Leifer won the praise of Indian audiences and critics for his authentic renditions of raga melodies.
Lyon Leifer's web site

POG Directors Group Reading

2010-09-22T05:00:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow, THURSDAY, Sept. 23rd! - POG Directors Group Reading - 7 PM, Club Congress at Hotel Congres, 311 E. Congress, Tucson. Most POG Board Members and, new this year, the POG Assistants will delight all with their literary talents. $5 General, $3 Student.

Samuel Ace
Charles Alexander
Lisa Cooper Anderson
Laynie Browne
*Whitney DeVos
Tony Luebbermann
Cynthia Miller
*Sean Munroe
Tenney Nathanson
Frank Parker

A Review of "Win Po" by KEN BULLOCK

2010-07-31T02:20:00.004-07:00

Three poems into his chapbook, Win Po, and three lines into "O My Words," Frank Parker invokes long-gone poet Lew Welch: "a ring of bone," from the title of a touchstone lyric by Lew, and of his posthumous Collected Poems.

The last line is in diction Lew would've dug: "adobe yellow wall"

But its not just little homages that make the poem. Line by line, in any case, Frank makes 'em fit together, with a touch light enough it seems careless at times, part of his humor: "a flute, a reed/cut from roots/a ring of bone/everyday air/skinny bird song/Palo Verde limbs/cats walk up and down/adobe yellow wall"

That's it. It's dedicated to Luis Garcia, another humorous, spare poet, but Lu's gone out on a different sort of limb: living to sing about it.

Frank Parker sings about it from living, breezily sometimes, the lines directed to this or that friend, family member ... some of them poets.

David Gitin, poet and Frank's longtime Monterey neighbor--a crosstown neighbor--and frequent presence on frankshome.org, a website hosting a community of poems and poets, is dedicatee of "Letters from Tucson," where Frank's corresponding from, now: "when I wake it's dark/light coming soon//see you then//your friend"

Another poet, Michael McClure, is recipient of "Song": "breathe deep/blue sky//feathered edge/of nitrogen"

Finally, "Mirror in a Garden," for his daughter: "I reach for my cup/and the birds scatter."

Eleven poems, an odd number, with the qualifier, "a work in progress."

It's progress, in the sense of moving through the landscape, one he came to late, where he's seen much, once settled in.

What's exhilarating in Win Po is that rare sense of somebody finding himself, his voice--both at once--yet taking another step, and another, not stopping.

These are perceptions on the move, not snapshots so much, like the often-faded imitations of Imagism. No scent of the workshop; more like witch hazel. Bracing.

Frank's book's from Obscure Press, 34 1/2W. Kennedy St., Tucson, AZ. 85701-2202. If you get it, ask for it signed--and get him to initial the colophon, too: Frank's the printer.

A Pleasent Surprise from Heather Nagami

2010-07-20T10:21:00.009-07:00

A surprise email regarding Win Po from Heather Nagami:

"Frank, thanks for sending me the link to your work. Wow, I really enjoyed reading it. I'm so impressed. I love the cover, too--the beautiful colors and texture. The poems themselves are so beautifully "textured" too in their layers of sound and meaning. I enjoy your subtle rhymes, the consonance, and the sparseness of the lines in terms of the number of words, but the fullness in terms of the feeling and image that is created. I think "Mirror in a Garden" struck me the most, esp. "the hundred wounded sparrows/ fly like arrows," but really all of it. It seems like a technical masterpiece--how the images next to each other create something new and how they seem to elegantly carve out such emotional depth, but then I feel bad talking about it like it's just a technical endeavor because it seems full of such pain, so I'm sorry if that's offensive. I just am in awe." -Heather Nagami (Tucson poet and web designer)

Updates over at frankshome.org

2010-05-14T07:20:00.003-07:00

Win Po - a work-in-progress, by Frank Parker. Poems written since December 2009. I'm excited to see where this journey will go over the course of 2010!

From "This Tiniest of Fish", audio of parts 1, 2, and 3 read by the author, Kristina Erny. From her bio note:

"Kristina Erny grew up in Asia, & has lived in West Africa, as well as Kentucky, Indiana, and Arizona. She is interested in dialect, storytelling, language acquisition, spirituality & community (insiders vs. outsiders). In 2010, she completed her MFA from The University of Arizona. She currently lives in South Korea with her husband and son."

I appreciate Kristina's efforts and the cooperation of the U of A Poetry Center to record this outstanding young poet before she moved to South Korea!

Recorded 12 May 2010 by Frank Parker at the University of Arizona Poetry Center to whom we extend our gratitude.

2009 @ frankshome.org

2009-12-30T06:04:00.003-07:00

Five Poems - Gloria Avner

Gloria Avner lives in Bar Harbor, Maine in the summer where she writes, paints, and tends her gallery of art from other cultures. In the winter she teaches, writes, and paints in Key Largo, Florida. Gloria is a new member of the frankshome.org family and we are delighted to host her poetry!

Greek Islands - Joan Cofrancesco

Joan enjoys hiking, reading poetry, visiting art museums, and traveling. Her recent trips to Greece and Italy have inspired many new poems. We are just thrilled to host her Greek islands series. This is Joan’s second set of poems to find a home with us. We couldn’t be happier!

3 Songs from the '70s - David Gitin

Performances of his poems are often in collaboration with musicians, including Leonard Paschini (electric guitar), Preston Houser (shakuhachi), John Tchicai (saxophone), Laszlo Gardony (piano), and John Cortes (saxophone). Here are 3 rare poems from June 1977 in which his lyric interests are clearly stated. David is one of the first poets frankshome.org ever hosted! (Thank you for believing in us all along, David!)

Nine Poems - Luis Garcia

“I listened to a lot of jazz,” Garcia continued, “the notions of improvisation, of the transformation of notes—hitting them in a different way—of inflection and intonation influenced my style, one of brevity and lyricism,” and we welcome this selection of Luis Garcia’s poetry to frankshome.org by standing up on our chairs, clapping and shouting, “BRAVO!”

Sunday Suite - Frank Parker

The poems begin Heart Shaped Blossoms: 1993-2007, and comprise the Monterey, CA, section of my first book. The reading is from October 27, 2007, at the Stone Ave. Gallery, Tucson, AZ, sponsored by POG. Here each one of the three parts is set to music.

3 Poems, December 2009 - Frank Parker

The first two weeks of December 2009 found me in a groove with the word and these three poems are the result, the first of which became our holiday poem for 2009.

Zig-Zag Journeys - Frank Parker

Completed in June of 2009, Zig-Zag Journeys seems so distant now. Yet it was the basis of multiple memorable performances and a chapbook I’m very happy with no matter the year!

2009-11-11T07:24:00.003-07:00

Rites by David Gitin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Like the music of Miles Davis or Thelonious Monk, silence is as important as choosing just the right notes, or words in this case, to play. David Gitin's words, or notes, grace the space that surrounds them. If grace is an economy of motion, and I think it is, the dance of these poems compliments the air in which they are staged. To paraphrase George Oppen, "this is the level of art, there are other levels, but this is the level of art". One minute in the presence of art can impact the meaning of a life more than a career bent to mundane purpose. In fact, such an encounter is healing. I find myself renewed in the company of this master's art.

View all my reviews >>

2009-09-26T04:05:00.002-07:00

Modern American poetry begins with the determination to find the image, the thing encountered, the thing seen each day whose meaning has become the meaning and the color of the POG Directors Group Reading, September 26, 2009 - 7 PM, The Drawing Studio, 33 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson (map)!

Potluck to follow at Barbara Henning's, 1940 E. 2nd St., Apt. #2 (map). Bring a dish and join the celebration! (I hear martinis will be mixed!!!)

POG Poetry in September!

2009-08-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 17, 2009 - Norma Cole & Charles Alexander / Chax 25th Birthday - 6:30 PM, Club Congress at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St, Tucson. Poetry Reading & Celebration co-sponsored by POG.

September 26, 2009 - POG Board of Directors Group Reading - 7 PM, The Drawing Studio, 33 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson (map). The members of the POG Board of Directors present their work in what promises to be an electric evening of poetry, art, and performance! This will be one of those events talked about long after it's over. Don't be left out of the conversation!

POG Benefit Potluck and Open Mic!

2009-08-12T16:09:00.001-07:00

August 15, 2009 - Pot Luck and Open Mic - 7 PM at Sue Carnahan's house, 3425 E. 3rd Street, Tucson. Click the link for details Map and directions. $10 door, $5.00 Students.

Please join us for a casual evening of good company, food, and poetry. Bring a dish or beverage and your favorite poems (your own or a favorite poet's) and share in a special benefit evening for POG!

This is an opportunity to support POG's ongoing programs and share in some fun and food, some poetry and comradery. Click here for our Collectors Edition Flyer!

Larry Eigner at Light and Dust Poets

2009-07-27T13:34:00.006-07:00

Air the Trees
by Larry Eigner

According to the blurb at the bottom of the web page, “Air the Trees” by Larry Eigner was “Originally published by Black Sparrow Press. Long out of print, the text presented here complete. The original edition contained a suite of drawings by Bobbie Creeley.” While we miss out on the drawings by Bobbie Creeley we do have the pleasure of reading this out of print work by a twentieth century savant.

Once again I am reminded of what matters to me in verse, what engaged me in Larry’s work to begin with, that pure observation, that naming of his world. In the glut of rococo-language passing off as poetry these days, Larry’s sharp focus on the facts at hand/eye are a refreshing return to what matters, the materials of a life sketched in verse.

I can understand why some people ignore or write Larry’s work off anymore. To be as plain in vision and simple in verse is hard, really hard work! Few are up to the challenge.

My thanks go out to Light and Dust Poets for reprinting Larry Eigner’s “Air the Trees”.

Zig-Zag Journeys

2009-06-16T11:33:00.002-07:00

Just out. Produced just to my left on the old HP, hand sewn and folded. If you’d care for a copy email your address to me:

frank AT frankshome DOT org

8.5 X 5.5
12 pages
100% rag cover (honest!)

Fascinating stuff…

toot-toot-cha-boogie

2009-06-01T10:16:00.003-07:00

Newly minted work over at my web site, Frank's Home. And, oh yeah, it's by me, Zig-Zag Journeys. Many thanks go out to Barbara Henning and Charles Alexander for their astute feedback which helped smooth the rough spots.

2009-05-25T05:09:00.005-07:00

daylight
on the bed
spread

Sonoran Desert: Winter ‘09

2009-01-11T17:35:00.003-07:00

A full moon in the birdbath, a perfect circle of ice blunting sparrow beaks. Cold stings the first knuckle of each finger breaking small pieces of bread from a slice now half its original size. I laugh out loud at the morning headlines, "St. Francis of Tucson, Bread Man to the birds, found wanting for nothing ever again, a freeze in the cactus garden of the Tucson basin."

•

Facebook

a plum, happy lungs, a radio in touch

Frank is . . .

a hungry ghost gripping the wheel
old man saguaro, the hum of blood, the sun, a glow
pajama sleeves, morning's radiance, unspeakable things
the compass in my pocket, whatever
the wheel, fallen leaves

-- Frank Parker

Books in the Mail

2008-12-09T06:20:00.011-07:00

I love going to the mail box and being surprised by a package containing a new book by a friend. I've received two books over the past few days:

a
l
l

s
a
i
n
t
s

...by John Martone, self-published

"String Parade"...by Jordan Stempleman, BlazeVOX [books]

"all saints" is a small, 4.25 X 5.5, handmade chapbook of light green Cambric Linen 65 lb. cover with black tape neatly covering the stapled spine. The inside ends pieces are delicate lavender handmade Japanese paper. The inside pages 24 lb. Cambric Linen Natural. The tactile experience coincides with the delicate poetry of a writer who has disciplined mind and spirit to note only what is essential in a poem. John Martone's work is one of those secret finds I could only hope for prior to getting acquainted. Light falls from the pages of his book.

all these old couples
out for a walk
& me

the elderly
couples walk

the young ones
lie down
under maples

- John Martone, from "all saints"

"String Parade" by Jordan Stempleman is a BlazeVOX [books] production, 6 X 9, four color process, acquias coated, C1S cover. I'm assuming the cover is a Geoffrey Gatza design, the books is, I don't see a credit otherwise. Anyway, all hail BlazeVOX [books] for kicking and screaming and surviving the economy (the best revenge is to do well and Geoffrey certainly is). I love the cover design. "String Parade" is maroon (you want the PMS number?) PenultimateLight typeface on a 1.25 inch black background above a half inch white bar bearing Jordan's name margin-right above the cover photo: a headless mannequin sitting on a crystal looking construction, in a hot pink, short gown clasping her hands together, her white 'skin' in contrast to the hot pink and Op-art design on the wall behind her (the colors on the wall match the book title).
Why do I bother with all that description? Well, it's the first hint of what's inside, a well crafted book of poems with a view of language as surprising as a well dressed, headless mannequin.

Copied Mist
for Charles

the weather
and the weather

as it comes
and goes

as it seems
able and nowhere

after holidays
taken from towns

beside towns
unlived in

for some time
unheard of

until picked up
and sent

where others live
and announce

where they go
by leaving

and moving in
above all

Each of the 38 poems is dedicated to a person. I'm left wondering if each dedication is Jordan's nod to the people he knows or a riff on dedicating poems in general. Could be both knowing Jordan. Anyway, I've only just begun to read his book which arrived today. I expect a rocking good time.

2008-12-03T08:06:00.003-07:00

3 December 2008

a plum, happy lungs, a radio in touch
evidence, restrained desire, syntax with a view

Frank is . . .

a hungry ghost gripping the wheel
an apple's nipple into cider-bearing sentences
paleontological stretches, a few moles, pines, transversely ridged
old man saguaro, the hum of blood, the sun, a glow
pajama sleeves, morning's radiance, unspeakable things
the compass in my pocket, whatever I can picture
the wheel, fallen leaves, the road ahead

Frank Parker
© 2008

I wrote a friend this morning

2008-11-05T06:05:00.001-07:00

Whatever we do today is full of hope. Whatever we do today is new. I am thrilled to have lived long enough to see the dream come true. From my first question as a kid in Petersburg, VA, "Mom, why are those people wearing those signs? Who is Jim Crow and why do they care if he's dead?" to the excitement of the election of Barack Obama, my faith , so severely challenged these many years, has been let loose in a flood of joyful tears. Whatever we do this day, dear Deborah, is flooded with light. We are all here for the first time. We are all baptized by grace.

POG Group Reading: Splash into Fall!

2008-08-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

splash into fall!
Group Poetry Reading
with 8 of Tucson’s finest poets

@ THE DRAWING STUDIO
33 S. 6th Ave, Tucson
7pm Saturday, September 13

$5 general admission, $3 students

Renee Angle works for the University of Arizona Poetry Center. She holds an MFA from George Mason University, where she was editor of the journal So to Speak. Her poems have appeared in Practice: New Writing + Art and Diagram.

Sue Carnahan has an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her chapbook "Auto Repair" won the 2004 Weldon Kees Award and was published by the Backwaters Press. She lives in Santa Cruz County and works as a speech-language pathologist.

Jefferson Carter's most recent book of poems, "Sentimental Blue" (Chax Press), has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He teaches poetry writing and developmental composition at the Downtown Campus of Pima College. Currently, he's the Writing Department Chair.

Mildred Lachman Chapin came to poetry through her painting. She published “Reverberations: Mothers and Daughters”, a book of her paintings, prints and poetry. (This is where the poetry began). She will read from one poem done in Joni Wallace's class while she worked on a painting about it at the same time ( painting will be shown). She has spent many years as an art therapist. Her last teaching job was in the graduate art therapy program of the Art Institute of Chicago and, more recently, at Prescott College. Her Visual Haiku paintings and accompanying poetry Haikus have been hanging at the Poetry center since May.

Carlos Gallego is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Arizona. His interests include 20th century American literature, Chicano/a studies, philosophy and critical theory. He is currently working on a book manuscript examining the transcendence of identity thinking in Chicano/a literature.

Annie Guthrie is a writer, jeweler and artist. She received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson and is Associate Marketing Specialist at the Poetry Center. She is currently working on a novel.

Tony Luebbermann is retired from the City of Tucson and currently serves on the boards of Chax Press, POG, the Tucson Poetry Festival, and represents the College of Humanities on the University of Arizona Alumni Association. He is a member of the Poetry Center Development Committee and is an active volunteer. Currently, Tony is pursuing a low residency MFA in Poetry at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Bonnie Jean Michalski lives, works, writes, and plays in both Tucson and Tempe, Arizona. Her work appears in online journals including mid)rib and APOCRYPHALTEXT, and she has three poems forthcoming in a publication from her hometown--Madison, Wisconsin--called Cannot Exist. She has three cats, one dog, and one husband-to-be.

POG events are supported in part by the Tucson Pima Arts Council and by the Arizona Commission on the Arts with funding from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts. POG also benefits from the continuing support of The Drawing Studio, The University of Arizona Poetry Center, the Arizona Quarterly, Chax Press, and The University of Arizona Department of English.

For further information contact POG: 791-7451 (Frank Parker),
pog@gopog.org or frank@frankshome.org and visit http://www.gopog.org

POG Sound - new!

2008-05-24T05:23:00.002-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I've been recording poetry readings for POG and Chax Press here in Tucson for a couple of years now. While I missed a few events due to my medical ordeals I still managed to amass quite a collection. This week Charles Alexander, Tenney Nathanson and I put our heads together and hatched the idea and means to create a web site dedicated to the recordings. As a joint project of POG and Chax Press, Charles set up a new domain and I developed the web site POG Sound. What you'll see is a beginning. Links to other audio-poetry sites will come.

We are all really excited that Tucson, AZ, finally has an online archive of selected events. Please visit POG Sound and let us know what you think.

Cheers,
Frank

2008-03-29T10:50:00.003-07:00

83°F / 4:03 am

a peak a narrow window a length of clouds

“it's only a paper moon”

zig zag journeys the sunny south a salsa bar

2008-03-03T15:34:00.007-07:00

36 Hours in New Mexico

saddle up a fine cream-colored mule

an unimaginable mystery

eager to be abroad in its

startling white church, its clustered town and its acacia trees

clumps of wild pumpkin

a great colony of gray-green lizards

petrified rock, “yellow as ocher”

ancient juniper trees

jutting upward 700 feet from the sandy plain

2008-01-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Like the full moon filling the birdbath, a perfect circle of ice blunts the sparrows' beaks. The skin on the first knuckle of each finger of my right hand stings with cold. My brittle fingers break small pieces of bread from the slice now half its original size. I laugh out loud at the headlines, "St. Francis of Tucson, Bread Man to the birds, found wanting for nothing ever again, a freeze in the cactus garden of the Tucson basin."

Sunday morning . . .

2007-12-30T08:40:00.001-07:00

Christmas card from a friend

2007-12-24T04:52:00.001-07:00

the tree we will not share

is in the forest there

free of our ornaments

- Jim Wilson

2007-12-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

What matters on any level of human engagement is underscored by this 5,000 to 6,000 year old embrace. As these bones bear witness so do we. Art, in all its forms, is a sacred embrace. Our ancestors speak from the grave even as we go to the mountain. The living stones cry out even as I weep to get hold of. As my days are various, I choose to count my blessings, I choose beauty, I choose wonder.

Happy Holidays

New audio at Frank's Home

2007-11-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone. The reading at Stone Avenue Gallery came off well. It was a blast reading with my friend, David Gitin. We hadn't read together in sixteen years!

My son, David, took up my usual post at area readings and sat in as audio technician. Thanks, David!

I've posted the audio of my reading, Heart Shaped Blossoms, to my web site if you care to give a listen.

Cheers...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

2007-10-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

Poets

David Gitin

Frank Parker

October 27

7 pm

Stone Ave. Gallery

2007 N. Stone Avenue.

Tucson, Arizona
Admission $5; Students $3

Rothenberg/Meltzer reading brilliant

2007-10-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Michael Rothenberg and David Meltzer's reading was brilliant. Michael stood on each word, enunciating the rhythm of each line like he was pushing off a diving board, whipping up the shape of his poems with his hands and mouth. It really was splendid. David Meltzer had the audience in the palm of his hand as if he were Santa Claus in A Christmas Carol. His rosy cheeks blew out song that sparkled like his eyes. He was far more animated than his frail frame led to believe. I can say his poetry danced. Last night was one of those magical moments when verse split the veil and spirit spread out like fireworks. Left everyone breathless.

(Michael Rothenberg and David Meltzer read last night at the historic Z-Mansion in Tucson, Arizona)

Poetry reading!

2007-10-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

Poets

David Gitin

Frank Parker

October 27

7 pm

Stone Ave. Gallery

2007 N. Stone Avenue.

Tucson, Arizona
Admission $5; Students $3

The wisdom of Ornette

2007-09-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

"They weren't playing movements, they were playing changes. I was playing ideas, changes and non-transposed notes."

"I didn't know that you had to learn to play, I thought you had to play to play. And I still think that.

"If I have found a way to share what I do, to inspire people to go even further than what I don't know yet - that idea is the most supreme form of expression in culture."

- Ornette Coleman

2007-08-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

Carmen

Almost out of the sky, half of the moon
It makes a cross of mourning between my eyes
Oh to follow the road that leads away from everything

Your breast is enough for my heart
I have said that you sang in the wind
You gather things to you like an old road

I have gone marking the atlas of your body
Stories to tell you on the shore of evening
I who live in a harbor between the lips and the voice

2007-06-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

(take III on these lines...)

what wind blows the Mexican Palo Verde
the cactus wren

my footsteps confess
no special talent

one sneaker follows the other
into a brilliant make believe I know I know

Mother Father Sun and Moon
Hi O Silver and Away

2007-06-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Poetry Lessons

“I write and rewrite until it looks like I wrote it all at once.”
Philip Whalen

“The result is a luminous record of a life, a family & a community.”
Ron Silliman, May 15, 2007 review of WALKING THEORY

“Empathy, the walk walking down hill and up, in-take and out, each
step, one after another—the conical eye, the turned measure—a
breath, a prayer.”
Stephen Vincent, WALKING THEORY

Stephen Vincent’s new book:

Evocations. Farm hollers. “muted red and orange beets, the vigorous and tender leaves.” Getting out what’s in. Stride piano. Monk. On a roll as sweet. Language realized the corners of life and death. “Sunday playground, blue, yellow and white structures.” WALKING
THEORY. I’m reading a book I will read for the rest of my life.

Kudos to Mark Weiss who is Junction Press, publisher of WALKING THEORY. Both making history with poetry schooled in its own consul “Left house at 21^st near Dolores,”

2007-05-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

(with gratitude to Tim & Charles)

the book was a gift among a gift of books
I'd read them all later maybe if and when
I am desperate to know the names what wind
blows the Mexican Palo Verde, the cactus wren

my footsteps confess no special talent
one sneaker follows the other into a
brilliant make believe I know I know

my karma bankrupt Mother Father Sun and Moon
giddy-up the worst of me that got the better
Hi O Silver and away

2007-05-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

The Morning Sun

I've been a mean son of a bitch
and I'm sorry

2007-05-10T07:57:00.001-07:00

I got great news at my oncologist's yesterday. There are no cancer tumors in my body! My colon, liver, lungs and all other soft tissue scans show that the tumors are gone! I still have to continue with chemotherapy though. The good results does not mean I am cancer free. On the probability that even one cancer cell is floating around somewhere looking for a home we have to continue treatment. But that is far better than having terminal cancer in my liver, etc.! Good times...

2007-04-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

Music, birds, sunshine after the rain, clean air, sitting in the garden, cuppa joe day today.

2007-04-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Easter

Do you hear the morning dove? Tehano xylophone (sweet) pouring through the palm fronds from the Spanish church on the corner from my house? Getting together with family this afternoon. Ham and kids. Yum!

Love

Barbara Henning

2007-04-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Added poet Barbara Henning sound files to Frank's Home today. Barbara moved to Tucson last Spring from New York City via Santa Fe, NM. She's an awesome addition to the local poetry scene here in Tucson. She sits on the board of POG (Poetry Organization) as do I. She teaches online poetry courses including one for Naropa this coming Fall.

I took the liberty of choosing a group of poems from her reading (with her assistance) at Dinnerware Gallery, November 18, 2006 and adding musical snippets to some of her poems. I think I kept the experience tasteful. This is definitely a group of prose poems that gathers steam to a rolling conclusion!

2007-04-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

A bowl a day
(for Ben Franklin, fellow printer)

What's going on
going gone

3 New Entries @ Frank's Home.org

2007-04-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hey! I have three terrific new entries up at Frank's Home: An Active Anthology of Verse:
1) Tucson Blues: a new poem sequence by my own fine self.
2) A PDF eBook and four Mp3's by George Mattingly. The eBook is the text (38 poems) of a reading George gave at Moe's Bookstore in Berkeley, CA, May 1, 2006. The Mp3's are taken from a reading George gave along with David Gitin at the Seaside Library, Seaside, CA, October 2005.
3) Fifteen Mp3's by David Gitin extracted from the reading he gave with George Mattingly at the Seaside Library, Seaside, CA, October 2005.

2007-03-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

my daughter enters
the room and finds me

on the edge of my bed

What can be funnier
than this, she said

I’m not ready for school

2007-02-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Tucson Blues

when I slide into the blue car
bleeding wires
where Sachdev’s flute used to sing

2007-02-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Soledad *

prison
walls
the wind

exits
all covered

in time

* Soledad Correctional Training Facility is a California State prison. I taught commercial printing there for a time. "The Correctional Training Facility is a three-facility complex, each functions independently of the others." The shop I worked in, my class, was in Central Facility. All my guys were from maximum security, some just booted down from San Quentin. Today Soledad houses:

South Facility: 1,125 in a space designed for 510
Central Facility: 3,030 in a space designed for 1,391
North Facility: 2,871 in a space designed for 1,400

TOTAL: 7,026 inmates in a facility designed for 3,301

2007-02-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

the tide
sunrise in our eyes

we lean out and look upon the open
shiny black roads bordering the sand

2007-02-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

p o s t c a r d

There are hills trees roads and townships
gossip is time loving the visit, thinking
- all

2007-02-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

someone coughs

bring the hoe inside

door locks

4:30 in the morning

02.23.2007

The Blue Oracle Band

2007-02-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

The Blue Oracle Band, a Tucson original, has a page at MySpace with four songs you can hear. I think I've only ever heard them play two cover tunes, everything else is penned by lead singer Phil "Whinin' Boy" Mills and lead guitarist David "Chick'n Pick'n" Parker. Drums are handled by Mark "Spooner" Buenger and Rick "The Relic" Guetter holds the bottom on bass. Their CD has gone through the final mix and is awaiting an angel to press it for distribution. Until then a friend might shoot me an email. Their sound is hard to peg. You might call it tight, southwestern blues-rock. One thing is for sure, you find yourself listening, paying attention, your soul dances while your body may wonder how to follow your feet already in the groove.

2007-02-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

Chemo and Response:

charlie parker rides with a farmhand
...voxxi

David tells me about song

I read Paul Blackburn
how “hands move earth
feeling earth”

moment to moment
to monument in time
blue and polished stone

Frank Parker
02.14.07