The Poets on Ponies Series

Click on the following pictures for a clearer, undistorted view of the poet(s):

(Imagine a photograph of Marquis de L-Mo here.)

The Picture Tells a Story

Rules for the Road

I'm jealous! I love Audrey Hepburn and cross-country trips. Though I could do without the U-Haul of baggage...
p.s. when are you going? Sure, you can take my portrait! I just went on a 4-hour kayak trip (against the wind with oncoming thunderstorms). Now would be a great time, cuz I look ravishing. Anyway, here are my tips for long road trips:

Avoid nothing. Be open to going to crazy places and take pictures of your UHaul in front of monuments.
Pack light. Bring travel sized toiletries. You can always buy more.
Bring iPod and headphones because there are gonna be times you wanna be in your own world. Lots of CDs. Lots.
Bring roll of toilet paper.
Buy water by the 2.5 gallon
Know the difference between and exit and a rest stop
Bring a cooler with ice and yummy drinks/food
Good food to pack: apples, chips, crackers/bread, peanut butter, trail mix, Beef Jerkey...
Bring a sleeping bag or blanket and a pillow just in case
Sleep on a field in Alabama
Layer
Have camera ready at all times for you may see a black bear cross the street (as I did yesterday in Jersey)
Make hotel reservations. Don't drive drowsy.
Get a good lock for the U-Haul and protective blankets.
Write the world's greatest book of travel poems.
Write travel haiku, like:

Bush bumper sticker.
Sing sexy motherfucker.
Crush your Dirty Mind.

People look like cars
you must be a limousine
the ride is so smooth

Side of the road stop
Seven-Eleven Big Gulp
Wait. I have to pee.

berries sweet mulch pies
pausing for traffic to pass
black bear looks hungry

1a) Last Monday, GMC Category A member Lothes and I saw a tiny film called Wait Until Dark. The film, starring Audrey Hepburn (was she always this cute?) and Alan Arkin, tells the story of a blind woman who is terrorized by a trio of men who are after a doll packed to the frilliest lace with baggies of heroin. (Score!)

I'll try not to ruin too many of the plot surprises for you, but let me just say that in the span of two hours, some interesting things...oh, you'll just have to see it.

1b) While the sexism in the film speaks to a certain time in the twentieth century (is it possible for a blind woman to save herself and hold off criminally-minded men intent on hurting her?), the heroine emerges victorious, overcoming any and all disabilities, while confirming the belief that, yes, there is hope for Hollywood actors/actresses past their prime.

Thanks again, Reagan!

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The GMC Album of the Week is Our Love to Admire by Interpol.

Hot Wax:

"No I in Threesome"
"The Scale"
"The Heinrich Maneuver"
"Pace Is the Trick"
"Rest My Chemistry"
"The Lighthouse"

This album is one the finest of the year, for sure--ignore it at your own peril!

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Who has ever been an extended road trip? Do you have any tips on how to make the trip a successful one? What should I avoid doing/seeing while crossing this nation in a U-Haul?

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I haven't written anything in weeks--not even a grocery list.

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All I bought today was a small iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts, which cost me a total of two dollars and sixteen cents. (For those of you who are numerically inclined, that means: $2.16.)

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Is anyone up for allowing me to take their portrait?

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Have a good week, everyone.

Blackout Poetry

Yesterday was weird to say the least. I went to the mechanic to pick up my car (which had broken down on the way here and which needed, yet again a new battery and alternator. $300. OK, reasonable). Upon driving it away, it stalled out five times. Needed another "remanufactured" alternator. I had to hitch a ride home. Starving, I went to the dining hall to catch the end of dinner. The dining hall blacked out. As I left, I encountered a squirrel emerging from a garbage can carrying an ice cream cone in his teeth. I went back to the dorm to finish my laundry. I put my wet clothes in the dryer and pushed start. The dorm blacked out. I hung up my soaking clothes all around my room. Charles Simic was scheduled to read in the lecture hall. I was looking forward to it all week. The blackout dominoed all around town, from here to Albany. Campus was dark. We mulled around, waiting. The reading resumed, with the help of lamps. It was hot and smelly. Then the lights went back on. Alix Olin read a short story about a murder. Then Charles Simic was introduced. He walked onto the stage and the lights went out. So he read poems about the dark, in the dark.

Butcher Shop by Charles Simic

Sometimes walking late at night
I stop before a closed butcher shop.
There is a single light in the store
Like the light in which the convict digs his tunnel.

An apron hangs on the hook:
The blood on it smeared into a map
Of the great continents of blood,
The great rivers and oceans of blood.

There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.

There's wooden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean--a river dried to its bed
Where I am fed,
Where deep in the night I hear a voice.