tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212320912024-02-28T00:36:51.112-08:00Poems and PoetryDescription: Poet Hugh Cook of zenvirus.com blogs in the form of poems -- poetry mostly related to his present life, a cancer survivor with an uncertain medical future.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-16413120980143018542007-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:002007-09-26T21:31:39.673-07:00Incarnated GodsChocolate,<br />Money,<br />Sunlight -<br />Three<br />Incarnated gods<br />To make a trilogy.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-57981933384096364972007-09-26T21:28:00.000-07:002007-09-26T21:29:29.588-07:00SetagayaSetagaya<br /><br />In Setagaya,<br />In metropolitan Tokyo, Japan,<br />We find a dog hotel,<br />Sumptuous,<br />A dog cafe<br />And a dog restaurant -<br />Fresh bones for Fido going walkies!<br />The eminent scholar who fled Darfur<br />Has been four years in the dusty deserts of Chad<br />Living in a hut of twigs.<br />His options, as you may imagine,<br />Are less opulent.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-53125685469269567362007-04-26T11:13:00.000-07:002007-04-26T11:15:11.719-07:00Saving VirginiaSaving Virginia<br /><br />Gun fantasy scenarios. In our gun fantasies, the righteous hero (you, me, Arnold, Dirty Harry, whoever) confronts the evildoer and deals to him (or her). But how realistic are these fantasies? This poem plays out a few scenarios.<br /> SAVING VIRGINIA<br /><br />The truth is that one concealed weapon<br />(Licensed, of course, and legal)<br />Will take down the meanest killer born.<br />As the wisdom of the Framers of the Constitution puts it,<br />"Recognizing that safety lies in firepower, the State<br />Will never constrain the liberties of the People<br />To hold arms in their possession<br />And to carry them,<br />Openly or concealed."<br />Some examples follow<br />To illustrate the wisdom of the Framers.<br />The Constitution that the Framers made<br />Is, and always will be,<br />The Ultimate Wisdom.<br />If this were not so<br />I would not have told you so.<br /><br />The family feeding problems<br />Of Caliban Cain Virginia,<br />His wife and seven kids,<br />Were resolved when the voices broadcasting to his brain from Upper Egypt<br />Asked him the vital question:<br />What would Jesus do?<br />He did it,<br />And there were many, many, many flowers at the funeral.<br /><br />Colonel Excalibur Plato Virginia's tottering marriage was saved,<br />Thank God and mercy,<br />When he with a little whiskey in him<br />Mistook his wife for a burglar,<br />And shot the bad-tempered bitch<br />Five times in the back of the head<br />In self-defense.<br /><br /><br />Saint Virginia Daycare Center was saved<br />When little Miss Muffit,<br />Age five,<br />Pulled out her Glock<br />And wasted the drunken psycho with the beer bottle grin.<br />(And, into the bargain, offed little Billy Bison,<br />Age four and three quarters,<br />With whom she had never got on.)<br />Mrs President, one day, perhaps?<br /><br />Virginia Veterans Restcare was saved<br />When Scraw Burke McScree,<br />Age 85,<br />Heavily into the Alzheimer's zone,<br />Cranked his vintage Browning out<br />And launched one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bullets<br />Into the seriously scary girl scout<br />Who had blundered into his haywire<br />When she came round selling cookies.<br />Great work, McScree!<br />(But a bit of a pity about the doctor and the nurse.)<br /><br />Virginia Tech was spared a second carnage<br />When plucky Harrietta saved the day.<br />This cherry Mayflower virgin,<br />Miss Harrietta Lucinda Potter-Brown,<br />Saw the danger posed by the queer Jew writer,<br />Screwball student poet of extremely oddball verse.<br />Her alarms fell on deaf ears, but she<br />Solved his problem quite without publicity,<br />Up close and personal in a mode of wetwork.<br />So that was the end of Allen Ginsberg,<br />Not one of us, no way,<br />A nutso weirdo, but stopped before he started.<br />Congratulations, Miss Harrietta!<br />This year's Nobel Peacemaker Prize<br />Is on its way!<br /><br />Our lesson done, sweet children, gather round<br />And let us sing our praise song:<br />God Bless America.<br /><br />********************<br />********************<br /><br />What follows is a sampling of some (not all, of course) of the "shot dead" search results for Google News as found when the time in Japan was about 1630 on Monday 23 April 2007. The search was for "shot dead" excluding any page which made any reference to Virginia Tech.<br /><br />[*] 2 shot dead at Laguna Beach resort<br />Los Angeles Times, CA - 25 minutes ago<br />Authorities are looking into several possibilities, including whether the woman shot the man — perhaps during the confrontation with police. ...<br /><br /><br />[*] Man shot dead on North Side; police seek 3 involved in fight<br />Columbus Dispatch, OH - 3 hours ago<br />A shooting at a North Side apartment complex early yesterday left one man dead and the police looking for three people. ...<br /><br />[*] Woman shot dead in her car in North Las Vegas alley<br />KSBY, CA - 12 hours ago<br />LAS VEGAS North Las Vegas police say they found a woman shot dead in her car in an alley early this morning. Police responded at about 6:30 this<br /><br />[*] KARE Teen Shot Dead On St. Paul Bus<br />WCCO, MN - 17 hours ago<br />(AP) St. Paul A teenager was shot to death on a Metro Transit bus in downtown St. Paul around midnight Saturday night, police said. ...<br />Bus Shooting Victim's Family Speaks FOX 9 News<br />all 18 news articles »<br /><br />[*] Two shot dead at NASA<br />Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - Apr 21, 2007<br />A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building at Johnson Space Centre in Houston yesterday and fatally shot a hostage before killing ...<br /><br />[*] Man Shot Dead Outside Club<br />Boston Channel.com, MA - Apr 21, 2007<br />While they were sitting in a vehicle, someone shot at them, police said. A bullet grazed the driver's arm and killed the passenger.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-15872264058440651262007-04-23T08:46:00.000-07:002007-04-23T08:47:35.042-07:00One Concealed Weapon Would Have Saved Virginia TechOne Concealed Weapon Would Have Saved Virginia Tech<br /><br /> SAVING VIRGINIA<br /><br />The truth is that one concealed weapon<br />(Licensed, of course, and legal)<br />Will take down the meanest killer born.<br />As the wisdom of the Framers of the Constitution puts it,<br />"Recognizing that safety lies in firepower, the State<br />Will never constrain the liberties of the People<br />To hold arms in their possession<br />And to carry them,<br />Openly or concealed."<br />Some examples follow<br />To illustrate the wisdom of the Framers.<br />The Constitution that the Framers made<br />Is, and always will be,<br />The Ultimate Wisdom.<br />If this were not so<br />I would not have told you so.<br /><br />The family feeding problems<br />Of Caliban Cain Virginia,<br />His wife and seven kids,<br />Were resolved when the voices broadcasting to his brain from Upper Egypt<br />Asked him the vital question:<br />What would Jesus do?<br />He did it,<br />And there were many, many, many flowers at the funeral.<br /><br />Colonel Excalibur Plato Virginia's tottering marriage was saved,<br />Thank God and mercy,<br />When he with a little whiskey in him<br />Mistook his wife for a burglar,<br />And shot the bad-tempered bitch<br />Five times in the back of the head<br />In self-defense.<br /><br /><br />Saint Virginia Daycare Center was saved<br />When little Miss Muffit,<br />Age five,<br />Pulled out her Glock<br />And wasted the drunken psycho with the beer bottle grin.<br />(And, into the bargain, offed little Billy Bison,<br />Age four and three quarters,<br />With whom she had never got on.)<br />Mrs President, one day, perhaps?<br /><br />Virginia Veterans Restcare was saved<br />When Scraw Burke McScree,<br />Age 85,<br />Heavily into the Alzheimer's zone,<br />Cranked his vintage Browning out<br />And launched one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bullets<br />Into the seriously scary girl scout<br />Who had blundered into his haywire<br />When she came round selling cookies.<br />Great work, McScree!<br />(But a bit of a pity about the doctor and the nurse.)<br /><br />Virginia Tech was spared a second carnage<br />When plucky Harrietta saved the day.<br />This cherry Mayflower virgin,<br />Miss Harrietta Lucinda Potter-Brown,<br />Saw the danger posed by the queer Jew writer,<br />Screwball student poet of extremely oddball verse.<br />Her alarms fell on deaf ears, but she<br />Solved his problem quite without publicity,<br />Up close and personal in a mode of wetwork.<br />So that was the end of Allen Ginsberg,<br />Not one of us, no way,<br />A nutso weirdo, but stopped before he started.<br />Congratulations, Miss Harrietta!<br />This year's Nobel Peacemaker Prize<br />Is on its way!<br /><br />Our lesson done, sweet children, gather round<br />And let us sing our praise song:<br />God Bless America.<br /><br />********************<br />********************<br /><br />What follows is a sampling of some (not all, of course) of the "shot dead" search results for Google News as found when the time in Japan was about 1630 on Monday 23 April 2007. The search was for "shot dead" excluding any page which made any reference to Virginia Tech.<br /><br />[*] 2 shot dead at Laguna Beach resort<br />Los Angeles Times, CA - 25 minutes ago<br />Authorities are looking into several possibilities, including whether the woman shot the man — perhaps during the confrontation with police. ...<br /><br /><br />[*] Man shot dead on North Side; police seek 3 involved in fight<br />Columbus Dispatch, OH - 3 hours ago<br />A shooting at a North Side apartment complex early yesterday left one man dead and the police looking for three people. ...<br /><br />[*] Woman shot dead in her car in North Las Vegas alley<br />KSBY, CA - 12 hours ago<br />LAS VEGAS North Las Vegas police say they found a woman shot dead in her car in an alley early this morning. Police responded at about 6:30 this<br /><br />[*] KARE Teen Shot Dead On St. Paul Bus<br />WCCO, MN - 17 hours ago<br />(AP) St. Paul A teenager was shot to death on a Metro Transit bus in downtown St. Paul around midnight Saturday night, police said. ...<br />Bus Shooting Victim's Family Speaks FOX 9 News<br />all 18 news articles »<br /><br />[*] Two shot dead at NASA<br />Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - Apr 21, 2007<br />A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building at Johnson Space Centre in Houston yesterday and fatally shot a hostage before killing ...<br /><br />[*] Man Shot Dead Outside Club<br />Boston Channel.com, MA - Apr 21, 2007<br />While they were sitting in a vehicle, someone shot at them, police said. A bullet grazed the driver's arm and killed the passenger.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-1138407554148316242006-01-27T16:17:00.000-08:002006-01-27T16:19:14.170-08:00The Cheated Daughter - sad poemSo here is a sad story, and a sad poem to go with it. The saddest poem I've written in my life, I think. And, for me, the saddest story.<br /> <br />The story is like this: a woman from Japan married a man from New Zealand, and they had a child, a daughter.<br /><br />Then, when the daughter was very, very young, her father exited her life. She ended up living in Japan while her dad spent a year -- more than a year, actually -- in New Zealand.<br /><br />Finally, she was told (and belived it to be true) that her father was coming home. Soon.<br /><br />But it wasn't.<br /><br />It was not true.<br /><br />He, the father, he was still in New Zealand, and planning to stay there until further notice, eating cherries, drinking wine and pondering (the big question now in his immediate present) just what kind of iPod to buy.<br /><br />That's the story, and here, now, is the poem about this situation. I am a man who is going to be living in New Zealand until further notice, and both the story are the poem are, to my sorrow, autobiographical.<br /><br />THE CHEATED DAUGHTER<br /><br />The cheated daughter<br />Who is not yet two years of age,<br />The cheated daughter,<br />She thinks her father,<br />Who is me,<br />Is coming home.<br />She has been told,<br />And seems, despite her youth,<br />To understand,<br />That my arrival will be very soon.<br />Will be, in fact, tomorrow.<br />But it's a lie.<br />Tonight I should be on the plane.<br />But am I?<br />No.<br />I'm taking drugs and drinking cups of wine,<br />With cherries red to finish off the meal,<br />Drinking red wine with a woman not my wife<br />And discussing not my daughter but the iPod<br />She recommends and I, persuaded,<br />Might soon buy.<br />My airline ticket I traded in for cash<br />So I could stay and gratify my urgencies,<br />Choosing to shun my home and wife and daughter<br />To enjoy the maximum from the women who are waiting.<br />My plan --<br />It's wrong, I feel, and yet my resolution --<br />Is once again to lock away my cash,<br />And, bare of funds, to go and take up residence<br />In the major house where many know me well,<br />The house with many rooms and many women.<br />My plan is books and chocolates, leisured days,<br />Meals brought bedside and, of course,<br />The women.<br />This house, a place not called the Rising Sun,<br />Stands high above the harbor on the hill.<br />The house has rooms and in the rooms are bells<br />To call the waiting women to your bed.<br />They come when beckoned and minister to your needs,<br />Smiling and gracious in the face of your demands,<br />Poised by experience, in attitude professional,<br />Unembarrassed by the necessities of your flesh.<br />They've seen it all and nothing can surprise them;<br />They've seen it all and nothing leaves them shocked.<br />They take a pride in serving as they do,<br />And, in token of that pride,<br />Are dressed in nurses' uniforms.<br />Dressed in such uniforms because<br />Nurses, by profession, is what they are,<br />Bringing me deeper needles and stronger drugs,<br />The poisons that I need to kill or cure.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-1138142207747164962006-01-24T14:35:00.000-08:002006-01-24T14:36:47.750-08:00RecidivismOne of my favorite paintings is by Salvador Dali and is called SOFT CONSTRUCTION IN BOILED BEANS: PREMONITION OF CIVIL WAR.<br /><br /><br />This painting shows a tormented human figure which is in the process of tearing itself apart. The figure is gigantic, and is inspected by a neatly dressed observer, who is diminutive in comparison with the painting. This onlooker is uninvolved in the drama. Can't be a CIA analyst, because the CIA had not been invented back then. But that kind of person. The kind of person who takes a purely technical interest in how long the scorpion venom will take to work.<br /> <br />The painting dates, I believe, from before the advent of the Spanish civil war, which Salvador Dali evidently saw coming.<br /><br /> Parenthetically, my maternal grandmother was involved in the Spanish civil war, if only as an observer. Her husband was the skipper of a tramp ship which was running guns into Spain. Don't ask me for which side, because I don't know.<br /> <br />According to a family tradition, which I believed firmly when I was younger, but which I am less certain of now, at a certain time my grandmother was ashore in a Spanish seaport which fighting broke out.<br /> <br />And, if the story can be believed, when my grandmother headed back down the street, bound for the port area and her husband's ship, the two warring sides held their fire to let her pass.<br /> <br />If she didn't get back to the ship in time, she was in trouble. On one occasion, she got back late, and found her husband had sailed without her. Some days later, when they met up in another port, possibly Gibraltar, my grandmother chided her husband for his unchivalrous attitude, but he had been unrepentant. She has been late so he had sailed, "And, besides, I knew you'd be all right".<br /><br />My grandmother had quite an interesting life, and went with the ship to, amongst other places, China and Japan.<br /><br />Late in my grandmother's life, my mother asked her where she would like to go for a holiday together. Anywhere was okay. My mother was really expecting the answer to be in the form of a request for a trip somewhere in the British isles, which was where my grandmother lived. But, no, my grandmother wanted to go to Tunisia. Tunisia? Well, she'd been everywhere else. So they went.<br /><br />My grandmother exits today's account at this point. So what is the account about? Well, it's about what I found in my notebooks.<br /> <br />Recently, I started looking through the notebooks I worked on during the months of last year, 2005, when I was receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy. I figure it's time to sort through the notebooks and throw out any stuff which isn't useful.<br /> <br />Opening one notebook, I was surprised to find, written down on the flyleaf, a list of poems which I had absolutely no recollection of having written. One of the titles was SOFT CONSTRUCTION IN BOILED BEANS: PREMONITION OF RADIOTHERAPY.<br /> <br />The title looked very promising, so I turned to the poem, and was disappointed to find that only one line of it existed, "The color red is on vacation". Where that was supposed to go I had no idea.<br /><br />Another poem I found was BUNKER BUSTERS, which is about a guy called George W., who, having warmed up by nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is itching to get going again and nuke more. But this poem was unfinished and I found I didn't have the impetus to get it done. Whoever George W. nukes next, it's unlikely to be me, and, selfish as it may seem, my own personal concerns, right at the moment, outweigh my concerns for planet Earth.<br /><br />However, in the debris of the "under construction" site which was BUNKER BUSTERS, I found a line which looked promising. Well, not a line, exactly. Just two words: "headless giraffes". And this provided me with the inspiration I needed to write a more personal poem, RECIDIVISM, the text of which I give here.<br /><br /> RECIDIVISM<br /><br />It seems I don't learn.<br />All these months,<br />I've learnt nothing.<br />The nation state<br />Incarcerated me,<br />Poured out its wealth<br />On tubes, poisons, monitors,<br />Round-the-clock vigilance<br />And hard radiation.<br />But I learnt nothing.<br />Did not,<br />In the final analysis,<br />Reform.<br />And so I'm going back<br />Where I've already been for far too long.<br />I have been too long<br />In the country of the headless giraffes.<br />There have been far<br />Far too many needles.<br />Being an apocalypse<br />Is not a smart career move.<br />Banks won't take it as collateral<br />And it's no good on your resume at all.<br />But here I am,<br />A recidivist,<br />Heading back to the cancer ward<br />Again.<br />Undeterred, it seems,<br />By the penalties:<br />Nurse Mutant raucous in the corridors at 2 a.m.,<br />And the unspeakable<br />Hospital food.<br />And capital punishment,<br />Too.<br />Might scare you<br />But it's nowhere near enough<br />To frighten off the likes of me.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232091.post-1137721782539267592006-01-19T17:35:00.000-08:002006-01-19T17:49:42.550-08:00Dying We Can Do Tomorrow<div style="text-align: center;">Dying We Can Do Tomorrow<br /></div><br />Dying we can do tomorrow.<br />Today there are the demands of<br />Chocolate,<br />Icecream,<br />Coffee<br />And my daughter's arms<br />Outflung in an amazed "All mine!":<br />Splendid with possession,<br />Rejoicing<br />In the spectacle of presents<br />At her second-ever Christmas.Hugh Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12495379222283170957noreply@blogger.com0