A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown

This one beside me in his bed of pain
(He thinks he is about to die)
Sighs all the night and fills the night with sighs,
His mouth a red purse
Spills now a coin for Cristos, now a curse,
But always the sibilant refrain:
Nurse? Nurse?
A whispered shuffle in the hall announces
A sloe-eyed painted [...]

[Read more →]

A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown
(for Tammy Meyer)
I did not come this south to north for growth,
No north roots pulled me, no, nor northern home,
No tinseled dreams seduced me from the sun.
The truth is plainly albumed here, for both
Were happy where we were and where from.
We were content enough when dawn, begun
By macaws screaming [...]

[Read more →]

A journal entry in the old style
Ah.. rested at last. Not well-rested, mind you, but some-rested, and better than the last few nights.
Friday night, trying to sleep, and the nose would not stop dripping, so every ten minutes or so I had to blow it out. Then it dried up suddenly and swelled and closed [...]

[Read more →]

A poem by Stan Raines

And why would the moon need me?
It has its orbit and I have mine.
Yet there is its call
And we light a fire from torches
And chant its name in a thousand
Songs and as many tongues.
Oh, holy sister,
Why worry your innocence?
Why shine so bright this night?
Why are you calling me?
Embers die as the [...]

[Read more →]

A poem by Stan Raines

Here is the One Who Knows
Building many mansions
For those so soon to come.
Their own longing is the spring
That will bring them to Him,
The One Who Sets Their Table.
Troubled people they are
In His Absence so long,
Their fervent prayer is “Come for me.”
“Come for me.
I’ve waited very long.
I’ve hopes, I’ve prayed,
You’ll come for [...]

[Read more →]

The Historic Cine El Rey Theatre

Cine El Rey Theatre will host

“Pangea Day”

4 hours. 24 films.
A new way to see the world.

Click here to watch a clip of Pangea Day

Saturday, May 10, 2008
Doors Open @ 12PM - Show 1PM - 4PM

Admission is Free!

To find out more log [...]

[Read more →]

A new clerihew by John Goggin
Ms. Brittany Spears
confirms our worst fears
that fame’s but a drug.
Perhaps she just needs a big old hug.

[Read more →]

A poem for Joe Godfrey by Stan
We gave up
That there was a perfect swing
There was only the connection
To the moment of the swing,
And the things of the swing,
The club, the man,
The ball, the tee,
The green grass by the yard,
The pin and cup,
Melded in a moment
Worked without mind.
The club as much a man
As a thing of [...]

[Read more →]

A fragment by Stan
Oh, the widening gyre and slouching beast–
       Who was it called them out?
Never more than twinkling eyes and ribald laugh
       With old Jane’s jokes passing over many a head,
Not heard by many outside that golden circle
       Thought seriously to be in search of a center.
Other days had their bitter tears: the odd [...]

[Read more →]

A Poem by Stan Raines
Love, Love,
The weak sister
Must wait upon
Those who would love Love
But who wait upon
The things of love-
Who draw pictures of starry nights madly swirling,
Or build fortunes on the wasting of factory towns,
Or plot the downing of an unlucky race,
Or dance till morning in maddening circles.
So Love takes a day job,
To speed the [...]

[Read more →]

A poem
Treasure
Search your trash!
You missed the one thing
of true worth.
Where are your shells
And the bones of all
You have consumed.
What odds and ends
you have in there.
Surely they glow and glitter.
And there’s a rhythm
You can keep for life
In your swing and sway.
Why, the ancient ones
Built their Gods
From oysters and broken shanks.
They raised towns
On their dead
And planted lost [...]

[Read more →]

a poem by roberto cruz jr.

There’s not much to it, this writing, really.

Just take some words out of the air,
and put them to the paper
or type them to the computer screen.

If that won’t do,
if you want to [...]

[Read more →]

a choir of leaves
makes the unseen known with soft
but forceful deep sighs
the wet, dismembered
marionettes jump up and down
on the pulled clotheslines

a herd of cotton
treks hurredly across the
blue sky darkening

a lulling dance of
blurry shadow tree limbs on
the wall leads my dreams
Poetry by Patricia A.

[Read more →]

When you hear it
Does it thunder?
Or bring that chill up your neck?
Does it whine in a key
you know is real?
Is the world split open
by its crack?
And did it begin
as a small worm in your heart
A throb that pulses your brain
and grows and throws
its shadow, too,
on the shapers of your world?
Well its power is
the breath of [...]

[Read more →]

Nothing perfects the world like darkness
There’s no quiet past the silence of the shadow.
A long moment of flight.
Pleasant songs are your whispers and sighs
And our closed eyes make for clear seeing
In this calm absence of light.
It’s now we find one true communion
As distractions of details recede
In a world at last made right.
Tumbledown and ruckus will [...]

[Read more →]

This one I wrote during the runup to the war in Iraq. It is a prayer in form and function. I sent it to the President, who is, apparently and oddly resistant to prayer. Of course, we know that poetry makes no difference in the modern fascist state.
Eden’s Shore
Let us build paradise where paradise began,
Between [...]

[Read more →]

Here is a poem from June 2004 (according to my note) about war as a function of human spirit, or rather, the defeat of human spirit.
Service
There is a mighty angel
Who always smiles at war
Who sees the quickening
Cycles of ashes and dust
And mounding rubbles of towns and bones
As fertile ground for his art.
He is loved among [...]

[Read more →]

This one is mine. I wrote it on the occasion of the first beheading in Iraq. If you are squeamish, read something else as this is fairly graphic for poetry.
Sacrifice
If you have eyes then look
At this slashing of flesh;
Wonder at the rush of life
Gushing around your boots.

[Read more →]

John Howard Raines, Sr., “Howard” to most, died early Saturday morning, March 8, 2008 at the Henry County Hospital in New Castle, Indiana.
Services will be held at the Macer-Hall Funeral Home, 600 S. Main St., with visitation on Tuesday and ceremonies on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 1:30 under the direction of the Reverend Charles [...]

[Read more →]

Dad is unconscious almost all of the time now, Mom says, and the caregivers are giving him morphine on an hourly basis now. He’s ready, Mom says. Kathy and I are planning on near immediate return to Indiana.
The web log will remain spotty for the present.
–stan

[Read more →]

Here’s a poem I wrote for my father-in-law. Bill Trenfield was powerfully interested in history and the good of society. He was a professor of education at Ball State University, a profession he chose because he believed he could help make his country a better place by helping it to become better educated. We had [...]

[Read more →]

South Padre Island, TX. Sunset was coming. The birds were active at low tide– easy pickings on the bay. One could fool oneself into believing that we were here to admire, had been given something worth adding to.

[Read more →]

I took the time Wednesday afternoon to watch a video of The Cotton Patch Gospel, a show derived from a homely re-telling of the Gospel of Matthew by a Georgia preacher, Clarence Jordan, the script by Tom Keyes, who narrates and plays most of the characters, accompanied by a singing bluegrass quartet. It’s quite a [...]

[Read more →]

The Law of Irony is merely how the Law of Karma looks when we disapprove of the results.

[Read more →]

A peculiar thing, Thursday, when I was taking my lap top in to Best Buy because the display screen was eating itself up. Best Buy has set up a queue for the technical support desk—the Geek Squad, they call it— and there I was, ten or fifteen minutes into the deal. I had chatted [...]

[Read more →]