Poetry

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=99 BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="HSIDES" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 27 WIDTH="75"><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="J. Michael Walker"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 27 WIDTH="75"><div> <A HREF="tableofcontentsforjmichaelwalkerwebsite.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Table of Contents and Index"><U><B>Index</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="900" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1716 ><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="838" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 206 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="J. Michael Walker"><U><IMG SRC="4d13fca0.jpg" border=0 width="575" height="202" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 43 WIDTH="822"><div> Poetry</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="822"><div> by Los Angeles-based author and artist J. Michael Walker</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 27 WIDTH="822"><div> <IMG SRC="2cfbc020.png" border=0 width="444" height="2" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="837" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1335 WIDTH="9"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1335" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="9" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="381" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="373"><div> Three Driving Poems</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 59 ><NOBR><bR> <div> Late-night driving, like poetry, is best pursued alone.</div> <bR> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="373"><div> "Right Turn"</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 274 WIDTH="373"><bR> <div> Dragging east along Hollywood</div> <div> Big chunk of moon hanging low </div> <div> Under the Bronson Street sign.</div> <div> It was:</div> <div> Take the moon or take the freeway.</div> <div> I hooked a quick right onto the 101</div> <div> Under a falling star home to my baby, </div> <div> Who fell into dreams</div> <div> Praying I would land home safe.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="373"><div> "All the Long"</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 386 WIDTH="373"><bR> <div> Tonight</div> <div> All the long 101 way home:</div> <div> Old man moon rides with me,</div> <div> Drinking it in, riding shotgun.</div> <div>  </div> <div> We pull into the driveway, </div> <div> Windows down, never speak, </div> <div> And head our separate ways. </div> <bR> <div> Behind silhouette trees</div> <div> A horned owl asserts herself, </div> <div> Hooting her four-note verses -</div> <div> Unhurried, soft - </div> <div> An aeoline stop on the Night Organ</div> <div> Against the freeway's wild wash.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 ><NOBR><div> "Riverside East to Figueroa"</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 182 WIDTH="373"><bR> <div> Driving home tonight - </div> <div> Raccoons, drunkards, </div> <div> Taco trucks and silent streets -- </div> <div> Someday, </div> <div> One day,</div> <div> I shall miss this world </div> <div> So much....</div> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="9"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1335" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="9" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="3" WIDTH="378" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#C0C0C0" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="370"><div> Santa Ana Boulevard</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 ><NOBR><div> from<A HREF="id156.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All the Saints Book"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id156.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All the Saints Book"><U><B><U>All the Saints of the City of the Angels</U></B></U></A><A HREF="id156.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All the Saints Book"><U>,</U></A> </div> <div> (Heyday 2008)</div> <div> <I>Note: Santa Ana is a small street in Watts</I></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1197 WIDTH="370"><div> Like it was a scene in some Romare Bearden painting</div> <div> The mother of the mother of God lives </div> <div> Over by the railroad tracks </div> <div> Making do on</div> <div> Just under seven thousand dollars a year,</div> <div> Holding her family together with heart-sewn threads</div> <div> Prayer-lit candles</div> <div> Serious black-eyed peas and <I>menudo</I>.</div> <bR> <div> The mother of the mother of God </div> <div> Probably didn't finish high school,</div> <div> Certainly didn't get a degree,</div> <div> Likely speaks Spanish</div> <div> And definitely expects you to finish your homework</div> <div> And let her know </div> <div> Where you're going, </div> <div> Who with, </div> <div> And how long you're going to be there.</div> <bR> <div> The mother of the mother of God </div> <div> Recognizes injustice and long odds</div> <div> And keeps these things hidden in her heart</div> <div>  - until she's ready to speak her mind.</div> <div>  </div> <div> She enfolded Simon Rodia in the crook of her arm</div> <div> “Clad in tattered overalls and a dusty fedora”</div> <div> As he, like her, made life out of nothing - </div> <div> <I>just workin' with the scraps you was given - </I></div> <div> Twisted railroad ties, pottery shards, glass marbles </div> <div> and poetry:</div> <div> a veritable vertical midden of the century's first half, a </div> <div> “jazz cathedral” to all things unseen, possible and imagined.</div> <bR> <div> His towers rising majestic into the big empty sky</div> <div> Pointing the only way out of dire circumstance:</div> <div> Hard work and dedication, open heart and imagination.</div> <bR> <div> Santa Ana Boulevard, the mother of the mother of God,</div> <div> Tires of her neighborhood's “concentrated poverty” and </div> <div> Maybe even more, </div> <div> Tires of the endless studies and news reports about it </div> <div> That don't <I><U>do</U></I> anything about it while she</div> <div> Works odd jobs in the “informal economy”</div> <div> <I>comin' home after work late - </I></div> <div> Just another boulevard, nothing much you'd think twice about,</div> <div> Just one more black or brown mother with </div> <div> Eyes withdrawn while she </div> <div> Worries about the rent and the </div> <div> Children getting home safe </div> <bR> <div> And the </div> <div> Children nothing much Los Angeles thinks about either</div> <div> But, you know?</div> <div> Simon Rodia was nothing much you'd think about:</div> <div> Think about <I><U>that</U></I>.</div> <div> And that Boulevard? Santa Ana?</div> <div> She turns around and lets wail a full-throttle throaty saxophone trail </div> <div> You never know <I>who</I> will turn out to be </div> <div> the mother </div> <div> of the mother </div> <div> of God</div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="17"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1335" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="17" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 24 WIDTH="886"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="886" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>