outlaw poetry and free jazz network

Sunday, February 1st, 2009...10:49 pm

john macker | january 20, 2009

January 20, 2009

The wind chill was beyond caring.
The family was headed out the back door,
stagecoach bound for Texas. I could
feel the country reel under my feet &
the focused,
icy breeze from the Potomac
made everyone look cherubic &
full of love.

Ought-nine had a different ring to it
after eight years of
mind out of time,
we welcomed the Chinese acrobats,
the Kenyon dancers,
the dissident poets,
Aretha acappella on the
Capitol steps.

We welcomed the fresh, rebellious colors
of dawn splashed fervidly
onto the canvas of darkness.
We welcomed all of the vulnerable,
sprawling neighborhoods of the world
brought forth from the wilderness by
a common
planet dream. The
gardens smelled robust, fecund again, the
aaacherry blossoms

bloomed mischievously all over
the winter earth.

John Macker

lives in Northern New Mexico with his wife in an old roadhouse on the Santa Fe Trail. Books and broadsides of poetry include For The Few, The First Gangster, Burroughs At Santo Domingo, 2 +2=1, among others. In 2001, won the James Ryan Morris Memorial “Tombstone” Award for poetry. Has given public readings with writers such as S.A. Griffin, Frank Rios, Tony Scibella, Gregory Corso, Andy Clausen, Ed Dorn, Linda Hogan among others. Has had essays and poems published in journals and magazines throughout the U.S. including, most recently, Manzanita Quarterly, Sin Fronteras (Writers Without Borders), Pitchfork, Black Ace Book 7, Mercury Reader, A People’s Ecology: Explorations In Sustainable Living and a large section from a new manuscript Adventures In The Gun Trade (considered to be a seminal Outlaw text), was featured in Mad Blood #2, October 2003. In Colorado, in the early-mid 90’s edited the award-winning literary arts journal, Harp, which featured interviews and poetry by Robert Bly, Gregory Corso, Charles Bukowski,Tony Scibella, Diane DiPrima and many others. Has two dogs and when time permits, listens to the wind.

John Macker’s most recent book of poetry is Las Montanas de Santa Fe with woodcuts by Colorado artist Leon Loughridge. He is also the author of Woman of the Disturbed Earth, (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2007), among others. He has recorded 2 spoken word cd’s: black/wing w/John Knoll and Reading at Acequia Booksellers. He is the editor of Desert Shovel Review and was co-editor (with S.A. Griffin and Marsha Getzler) of Black Ace Book 8, a tribute to the late L.A. poet Tony Scibella. His work is currently included in Mile High Underground, an exhibit of art & literature at the Evans/Byers Mansion, Denver, Colorado, sponsored by the Colorado Historical Society.