Robin Hislop reads Amparo Arróspide´s Poem Can´t All Poets. Arrangement by Dave Jackson. Guitar Andy Derryberry

 

 
 

* A poem by Amparo Arróspide, from “En el oído del viento” (Baile del Sol, 2016). 
Hers and Robin Ouzman´s translation.

***
Can't all poets 
get a PhD in synesthesia
by the University of Columba in New York?

Can´t they harvest medallions under the moon?

Can´t they work as professors of Punic Sciences?
As kindergarten teachers, can´t they work?
Can´t they translate their 14th century Chinese 
concubine colleagues?

Can´t they afford to pay for
their third self-published volume? 

Can´t all poets live on air?

Can't they rummage, deconstruct , snoop
build for themselves a submerged house
inhabit a crystal palace?

Can´t they repeat over and over the unsaid
incite questions of ethical and aesthetic weight
dismantle and fragment reality?


Can´t they receive writing 
from a yearning and swift
void?
From a primordial nothingness?

Can´t they mortgage their crystal palace 
their submerged house?
Can´t they rebelliously peddle little stars?

Can´t all poor poets steal books?
Can´t they read so
the complete works by Samuel and Ezra and John
by Juana Inés, Alejandra and Gabriela
by Anne and  Margaret and Stevie
by Wallace and Edgar and Charles
by Arthur and Paul and Vladimir
by Dulce and Marina and Marosa?

And etcetera and etcetera and etcetera and etcetera?

Can´t all poets
add more beauty to beauty
and more horror to horror?

Can´t they draw maps and routes
of the invisible, futuristic city
foretold by their dreams?

Can´t they pursue the intangible
Move towards permanence
so that a poem
becomes a closed and completed vehicle
to treasure a present without behind or beyond?

Can't they unfold and transmigrate
can't they achieve mindfulness 
Can´t they stammer forever
into everlasting silence? 

**

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This is a Blog and This is a Post Poem

This is a blog
and this is a post
and this is a poem about a post
stuck in the ground
without roots
to hold a wire
that sends this poem
to be a post
in this
blog.
Time is woven with words
about planets
and suns
and is stretched across this canvas with
paint made of light.
This post
this poem
this blog
must
move
like that temporary sun
in that temporary sky
and this explosion of a single
fire cracker
called the universe.

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How to Grow Vegetables


how to grow common vegetables

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And You and I | A Poem for Heroes

 

and you and I

we kicked Mussolini out

on his ass

on his fat rotten keister, mister!

We rose up one at a time and said that’s enough Buster Brown

Get outta town.

In one glorious moment we rose up

one at a time

and got in line.

Remember the heroes of that day,

you and me.

 

….david michael jackson

 

 

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Righteous Speech. A Poem by Gary Beck. Excerpt from Learning Curve Collected Poems

We removed Saddam Hussein
because he was an evil man
gassing his people,
developing nuclear weapons,
a threat to world peace.

So elected leaders
of the good old U.S.A.,
self-appointed
international policeman,
decided arbitrarily,
against some sensible advice
that state building
replacing tyranny
with democracy
is a difficult task
in an alien land
without due process,
or civil rights,
and a fanatic clergy
opposed to Western ways.

But our elected leaders
ignored warning signs
and decided.
Saddam must go.

So we invaded Iraq,
crushed feeble resistance,
a super power
flexing its military,
and we excavated Saddam
from his hiding hole
and swift justice followed.

So we helped install
a new government
that didn’t know how to govern,
in a land divided
by race, religion, tribe.
And we proclaimed to the world
democracy was born.

 


 

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his published books include 26 poetry collections, 10 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays and 1 collection of one-act plays. Published poetry books include: Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations, Rude Awakenings, The Remission of Order, Contusions and Desperate Seeker (Winter Goose Publishing. Forthcoming: Learning Curve and Ignition Point). Earth Links, Too Harsh For Pastels, Severance, Redemption Value and Fractional Disorder (Cyberwit Publishing). His novels include a series ‘Stand to Arms, Marines’: Call to Valor, Crumbling Ramparts and Raise High the Walls (Gnome on Pig Productions) and Extreme Change (Winter Goose Publishing). Wavelength (Cyberwit Publishing). His short story collections include: A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing) and Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories (Wordcatcher Publishing). The Republic of Dreams and other essays (Gnome on Pig Productions). The Big Match and other one act plays (Wordcatcher Publishing). Collected Plays of Gary Beck Volume 1 (Cyberwit Publishing. Forthcoming: Plays of Aristophanes translated, then directed by Gary Beck). Gary lives in New York City. https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGaryBeck
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include
 
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
 
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

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Presenting The You Tube Poets

Description
We are a group of poets making a TV pilot for a documentary about presenting our poetry on YouTube. We hope to approach a mainstream TV channel with the finished pilot, and may upload a complete documentary after the first few versions have been added here. This channel will be shared with participating poets and those poets who wish to submit work for consideration to be added to the documentary. The poet in the inset photo is Nordette Adams. I am Sara Russell, aka pinkyandrexa, and I will be editing the different versions of The YouTube Poets video until we have a final version that everyone is happy with. Please visit the link below the video to subscribe and send us your on You Tube Poems
 

 
You Tube Poets Channel see also YouTube Poets http://www.twitter.com/PoetsTube to follow

 
 
 
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times at Artvilla.com ; his publications include
 
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals and Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
 
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

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