The Best American Poetry

Really good artist paints Stalin and everybody! The whole gang!

A talented young woman! She also plays the guitar!

Weaver channels Bukowski after a bad night (by Mitch Sisskind)

The great Earl Weaver, multi-championship manager of the Baltimore Orioles, riffs pure poetry!

Art for art's sake! (by Mitch Sisskind)

My friends, just look at that magnificent painting! It shows Josef Stalin drawing revolutionary conclusions in a chat with some proletarians. Can you imagine the sheer joy of having a painting like that in your home? What a turn on it would be! And what about these other magnificent works of art below, each one an inspired rendition of Josef Stalin...

There we see Maxim Gorky reading one of his great stories to Josef Stalin. And who's that on the left? Why, it's Anastas Mikoyan!

Okay, now I'm finished playing around! This has to be the all-time greatest painting of Josef Stalin! It perfectly captures Josef Stalin's love for both children and flowers. And that pig-tailed girl on Uncle Joe's right? What's she thinking about in the presence of the Georgian strongman? She's gazing at him as if he were a powerful new tractor!

Of course, paintings like these are impossible to own in this day and age. They've been snapped up by museums, or they're in the homes of wealthy capitalists. I was depressed about this for a while -- but then I asked myself a simple question: What would Stalin do? How would Stalin himself get a painting if he couldn't buy one and he couldn't steal one either? The answer is so simple! Stalin would make his own painting -- and that's what I've done also! I've made my own "Josef Stalin" works of art, and you'll be seeing them right here on this blog. And no, they're not for sale! They're just my small attempts to keep the image of Josef Stalin before the eyes of the world -- and, implicitly, to urge you to stop cursing the darkness and to start lighting some candles, as the saying goes. In fact, that was one of Josef Stalin's favorite sayings, along with, "Shmesh stol nest nostmaskovitz!" ("Cut off his cucumber!")

Hold the hot dogs!

U of Kansas' Mark Mangino is a really outstanding football coach! Maybe it's because he worked as an ambulance driver on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for ten years before starting his coaching career at the age of 34. Just by looking at Mangino, you can tell life hasn't been handed to him on a silver platter. That's why he's not afraid to go woof-woof at a player who makes a bonehead play. In the video below. Mangino speaks with a kid who got a 15 yard penalty for "hot dogging."

The Harrow School Song

It is said Churchill "wept openly" whenever he attended an event at his public school and this song was belted out by the whole gang. Is it not (sniff) only fitting that a special verse was added in Churchill's honor? You can see it -- and sing it -- at the end of this (sniff) post.

The lyrics of Forty Years On

Forty years on, when afar and asunder

Parted are those who are singing today,

When you look back, and forgetfully wonder

What you were like in your work and your play,

Then, it may be, there will often come o'er you,

Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song -

Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,

Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along,

Chorus

Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!

Till the field ring again and again,

With the tramp of the twenty-two men.

Follow up! Follow up!

Routs and discomfitures, rushes and rallies,

Bases attempted, and rescued, and won,

Strife without anger, and art without malice, -

How will it seem to you, forty years on?

Then, you will say, not a feverish minute

Strained the weak heart and the wavering knee,

Never the battle raged hottest, but in it,

Neither the last nor the faintest, were we!

Chorus

O the great days, in the distance enchanted,

Days of fresh air, in the rain and the sun,

How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted -

Hardly believable, forty years on!

How we discoursed of them, one with another,

Auguring triumph, or balancing fate,

Loved the ally with the heart of a brother,

Hated the foe with a playing at hate!

Chorus

Forty years on, growing older and older,

Shorter in wind, as in memory long,

Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder,

What will it help you that once you were strong?

God give us bases to guard or beleaguer,

Games to play out, whether earnest or fun;

Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager,

Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on!

Chorus

(written for Sir Winston Churchill's ninetieth birthday and first sung 28th November 1964)

Blazoned in honour! For each generation

You kindled courage to stand and to stay;

You led our fathers to fight for the nation,

Called "Follow up" and yourself showed the way.

We who were born in the calm after thunder

Cherish our freedom to think and to do;

If in our turn we forgetfully wonder,

Yet we'll remember we owe it to you.

Victory Day Parade in Moscow!

It's been a long time since there was a good old-fashioned military parade in Moscow's Red Square but at last the drought has been broken! This video has everything: gigantic dildo-like missiles, vintage "Bear" turboprop bombers, medal-bedecked geezers from WW2, pretty girls -- PLUS Vladimir Putin and his boy Medvedev or whatever his name is!

Taking care of business! (by Mitch Sisskind)

So many important things happening -- but first, before anything else, here's an amazing video clip! In 2006, watching the Jerry Lewis telethon, I saw Jerry sing Al Jolson's "Mammy" -- and i knew I'd seen something I would never forget. That moment stayed so clear in my memory that I never felt the need to see if it had been presented on Youtube. But the other day, just for fun....and there it was! Or rather, it wasn't -- but it was pretty close. It's actually Jerry singing "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody," also quite unforgettable. And now that I'm on the trail, I'll keep looking for "Mammy." On this same clip you can also see Jerry reacting to the larger and larger sums of money on the Muscular Dystrophy Association tote board. If you ever want to see absolute proof of that famous precept of Donatien Alphonse François de Sade ("Nothing heats up the head like large numbers"), well, here it is! So don't do anything else until you've watched this clip:

With that out of the way, it's time to respond to the vituperation of that troglodyte who accused me of having pornographic intentions with my poetic muse contest. It's funny, but as soon as I read the troglodyte's message a quote from The Song of Songs came to mind: "The voice of the turtle is heard in the land." Yes, that troglodyte reminds me of nothing so much as a great big old turtle. And the Biblical quote seems very apt, doesn't it, despite the fact that King Solomon, author of The Song of Songs, is actually referring to a turtledove rather than a box turtle, a sea turtle, a snapping turtle, or even a terrapin.

But I do take the trog's accusations very seriously. I take them seriously out to the nearest dumpster, and I say, "Honi soit qui mal y pense!" Because smut is in the eye of the beholder, as is beauty -- and when I look at our first muse candidate, pictured below, I see beauty. And if somebody doesn't see beauty, there are two possible reasons for that. Maybe they need new glasses, or maybe they need to have their head examined by a mental health professional! Honi soit qui mal y pense!

Be sure to check in tomorrow for a fascinating interview with this young woman. And as if that weren't enough, you can also read a poem composed by her in the "Imagist" tradition of Hilda Doolittle. But now -- basta por hoy!

Subscriber objects to muse contest!

Last night I received the photo and email message below from someone calling himself Fyodor Dostoyevsky, obviously a false name:

Dear Mitch Sisskind: What kind of bullshit is this!? If I want to see porn, I'll go to a porn site! But when I go to a poetry site, I want poetry! You see my wife in that picture? You see her on the phone? Who do you think she's calling, man? She's calling the police, man! Because you're trying to put porn on a poetry site where there's kids coming here to read poetry. So knock it off, man! And if I sound pissed, that's because I am pissed!

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hm. I'll have to give this some thought....

Mitch S.

We are not amused, part four (by Mitch Sisskind)

Miss Subways was such a great idea! Riding the NYC tube to work in the morning, a man could feel like a real schmuck -- but when he looked up and saw the Miss Subways display, he knew what he was fighting for. On the way home at night after a hard day at the plant he could again look up, see Miss Subways, and know that she was patiently waiting at home. Not waiting for him, but waiting for somebody. So at least there was that, and he carried on! We all carried on!

In a similar way, you can feel like a schmuck when you're writing a poem. All sorts of negative thoughts can prey upon your mind. "Is anybody every going to read this?" -- that's a very common thought, and one of the least painful. Many other thoughts are much, much worse. As I've attempted to show in earlier posts, a muse can provide a way out of this. In fact, as Robert Graves taught us, every poet (man or woman) needs a muse: a beautiful female spirit who in some miraculous way is both our voice and our listener, our instrument and our inspiration.

To fill this need, seven prospective muses will audition in this space during the next week. Each will answer a series of questions to support her candidacy, and each will also contribute an original poem. Of course, there will also be photographs of the aspirants. At the end of the week, I -- yes, I alone!!! -- will select the winner! I will certainly give due attention to the comments and suggestions of others, but ultimately I know best in matters of this kind. My selection will be accompanied by an essay explaining the reasons for my choice, along with other important information.

So please check in tomorrow evening and every evening during the next week. Because your muse is out there! She cares about you! She gives a flying fuck! She's not like the rest! No way Jose! Treat her right and you'll come up with some great poems -- and it will be easier than you ever imagined!

Ted Berrigan

I found this clip on Youtube. Ron Padgett's book about Ted describes the sheer joy they felt putting together issues of "C" magazine in the 1960s. May we who provide "content" for this blog carry on in their spirit until we retake the land that has been stolen from us and we all have swimming pools full of money like Scrooge McDuck! -- MS