http://www.zacharychartkoff.com poetry: a curious look at this 21st century pleasure Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:36:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "a grackle to watch over me" ZJC (2010) Officially it was a starling that saved my life but I love the way the word “grackle” sounds, plus I told everyone at the time it was a grackle and so it might as well be one. The key to telling stories is not ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/07/29/grackle/ There is a fox that visits my parent's house. This is odd because the most one might see in that part of the city are squirrels and chipmunks and rabbits. They leave a bowl of cat food out for the old tattered gray that is lost in the neighborhood. Now ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/07/18/fox-at-the-cat-bowl/ I recently read about Ecuador's seizure of a 100-foot, twin-screw submarine, intended to be used to transport illegal narcotics. As a private citizen looking to do his part in the U.S. sanctioned War Against Drugs I would gladly take the said vessel off the Ecuadorian government's hands, to be seen ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/07/05/an-open-letter-to-heather-m-hodges-us-ambassador-to-ecuador/ What has always fascinated me about John Waterhouse's Siren (1900) was the expression of the boy in the water. The Siren herself has paused, looks down at what she has created, while the sailor stares up with an expression of ... what? Longing? Need? Curiosity? It is hard to pinpoint ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/07/04/drown-in-it/ I have been working on a story about a WWII U-boat, so naturally I needed to include a simplified translation of an 11th century song about a rooster in it. The verse is from the Arabian part of ancient Spain, by Al-As'ad Ibrahim ibn Billitah. Not being able to read ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/07/02/akh-laa-my-love/ Shelby took this photo of me one morning this week. What isn't pictured is the pinched nerve in my right shoulder that is currently making my life miserable. I have tried, successfully I think, to avoid turning this blog into mere personal gossip. What with HIPAA laws and privacy of those ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/06/22/beyond-vicodin/ I speak for the trees/ for the trees have no tongues. -- The Lorax, Dr. Suess Like Patti Smith, the poet Anne Waldman holds a special place in my heart for helping me get interested in performance poets way back in my wee Zachary days. And like Smith, her work only gets better ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/06/12/1087/ On the last day in America, before we board the jet airliner to fly to India, Dharamsala, where the Tibetans wait in exile, where my daughter-to-be waits to be born, black crows will be crying, "cala, cala." Hungry ghosts fill my life. I am told I will have a daughter, Tashi, all hollows and dancing. Let the ghosts talk to Tashi. Let her know I am coming. ghosts girl girl ghost. ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/06/10/hungry-ghosts/ NPR posted a recent article about the photography of the poet Allen Ginsberg. It has such wonderful lines as: Ginsberg "never doubted he would be a great man ... and he had the feeling that all his friends were equally genius." Ho-hum, really? I recognize that the Beats have contributed to ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/05/05/in-praise-of-deplorable-names/ "rebel angel" ZJC (2010) The Beats had to be some of the saddest crackers ever: white boys acting badly, drunk and indigent. Even the smartest of them couldn't drive a car, rhymed poorly, called white women “broads” and called black women ... never mind. I'm ashamed for them. Ashamed of them. If they are kin ... http://www.zacharychartkoff.com/2010/05/01/what-the-dead-want/