the outlaw poetry network

Weapons

Watching people shop
in the local gun store
trying on various handguns for size
Can be a sobering experience
A lot of these people don’t look very smart
to know that they will be armed soon
Is a frightening thought!
Of course I’m right there in the store with them
But I’m different
I don’t have the same expression on my face
that they have
That looking for an answer look
all over so many of the faces
They think that gun
is going to do it for them
They never see
that the most potent weapons
the mind ………empathy
Political awareness ………….social consciousness
have been defused
and de-activated long ago
By the biggest brainwashing machine
in the history of mankind
The whole world shown through
a single corporate-military glass
the world their way
Repeated over and over
on every media imaginable
Most of the facts bent, twisted and muddied
Until any awareness,
Consciousness or compassion
Is slowly shrunken and shriveled
Atrophied and decayed
Until the mind
The most potent weapon of all
Has been rendered nearly useless
Social consciousness on life support
political awareness in the america
Reduced to a kind of living death
Like being trapped inside a body you can’t control
As it runs amok and destroys everything in its path
Powerlessness the main vibe
No matter what they say
That’s where the average citizen stands in america today
Powerless and unrepresented
It explains the looks on the faces
of the people in the gun stores
it explains the nature
of hearts and minds
of guns and bullets
Of weapons.

Ken Greenley

is a writer who lives in Denver, Colorado. The number of places he’s lived is only exceeded by the number of job’s he’s had. Greenley likes to explore the themes of class division (in a supposedly classless country), the struggle to stay spiritual in the modern world, and the growth episodes that occur in childhood. He thinks art, particularly writing, should combat media brainwashing, and should examine the clash between what we’re told and what really happens. He tries to make his material as fuuny as possible, because he finds it hard to make modern life seriously, and considers it his mission “to make people laugh and think at the same time.”

Much more on Ken Greenley can be found by clicking here… and here…

Kell Robertson Memorial Show

Friends of the late great Kell Robertson have organized a memorial show for the old poet/picker/prophet/pendejo next month at The Mine Shaft Tavern in Madrid, N.M.

The show, scheduled for 7 pm Feb. 11 will feature Kell’s poems and songs performed by poets Bill Nevins, Argos MacCallum, Kendall McCook, Lisa Gill,Tony Moffeit, Lynne Robinson , Gary Brower , Mary Mier, Brian Dickson, Don McIver, Martha Straba, and Penny Read, Kell’s daughter from San Francisco.

Kell’s songs will be performed by Mike Good, Tom Irwin,and Kevin Hayes, formerly of the Old Crow Medicine Show.

This shindig is free. Organizers say “The Mine Shaft is a family friendly restaurant offering a full delicious menu.” — Steve Terrell

Much more on Kell Robertson can be found on his tribute web page by clicking here…

GERALD LOCKLIN | YOU NEED NEVER LOOK OUT A WINDOW

Directed by Eric Minh Swenson

Coagula Publications presents our FIRST hardcover book release: YOU NEED NEVER LOOK OUT A WINDOW: The Complete Coagula Poems by GERALD LOCKLIN. …Despite scores of published poetry collections, Gerald Locklin remains as his friend Charles Bukowski described him: “one of the great undiscovered talents of our time”. Well, Coagula Art Journal discovered his insightful works about looking at art and responding to pictures throughout history and began publishing his observational masterpieces about masterpieces in a regular appearing section “LiterArture” in 1999.

Volume 1 of this collection is a chronology through art history from King Tut to DeKooning, over 80 poems. The paperback was released last month on Amazon. Coagula Publications is releasing a limited edition 100 hardcover books signed by the author and including a limited edition print by artist Sharon Suhovy of her artwork “Pleasure” which is featured on the cover of the Amazon Paperback. The mounted print is suitable for framing and is signed and numbered by the artist.

Since Locklin has a long association with critical writing about Ernest Hemmingway and the writer’s time in Cuba, the book release will be at PERICO’S CUBAN Gourmet Restaurant in Huntington Park where a traditional PIGROAST will take place. Come enjoy a delicious plate of LECHON, meet Gerald Locklin and Sharon Suhovy and pick up a limited edition hardcover, or bring your Amazon paperback for an autograph by this living legend.

Poet Gerald Locklin was a regular feature in Coagula Art Journal for more than a decade with poetry devoted exclusively to the subject of specific art and artworks. Volume One of his complete Coagula Poems reproduces these poems in chronological order (instead of the order they appeared in the magazine) beginning with ancient Egypt, quickly working through the Dutch painters into the Impressionists and others before arriving at the halfway point of his coverage, abstract painting at the end of the 1950s. Locklin is a self-effacing anti-formalist and not aligned with any school of art writing – his poetry is about life and the reflections on these artists and their art reflect his views on life free of the jargon of the art academies. The Print edition of Coagula Art Journal was founded in 1992 as an antidote to the theory-addled and fashion-driven forces in the world of contemporary art.

Directed by Eric Minh Swenson. For more info on Eric Minh Swenson or project inquiries visit his website www.thuvanarts.com |  ART SERIES: www.thuvanarts.com | MUSIC VIDEOS: www.thuvanarts.com