short poem

77°

birdsong crashing into my skull
backyard
77°
arms burned from reading in noonday.
now,
that star buries deep into the west,
casting shadow over greening grass.

- Hoc Scripsi

also: don’t forget to go to here and download your own FREE copy of ark and other poems
It will print as a letter size but can be had as a normal chapbook if you would like. Simply contact me with your desire (at jhonbaker@att.net) and I can lead you to the promised low price ($6USD) chap which comes with a copy of gypsy bars chap – both with art by Micael Chadwick and poetry by yours truly.

ark and other poems

A new chapbook that is ripe for the reading! Available for free download at the following link

ark and other poems

you can always get a hard copy if you do desire by contacting me with your request. To cover most of the costs I will charge 6 even and accept payment via paypal. All hard copies will include a hard copy of 'gypsy bars, back alleys and one way streets' as well.

I do recommend the free copy because it is free. Also, gypsy bars is a free copy at the link provided.

and lastly as a reminder - my normal blog can be found at willfulresemblance.com

 - Jhon

if you are engulfed in flames

attention please - there will be a silencing of the fire alarm system - please call 5555 to report a fire.

If you are engulfed in flames we will understand if you do not comply immediately but please, at your earliest convenience dial 5555 to report.

Attention please - there will be a silencing of the alarm system - please call 5555 to report a fire.

and I'm still tired. Bukowski suggested that one ought to take a three day nap every now and again to recharge the batteries, being a father and husband does not allow such naps but would I ever indulge if there could be a way.
Two links - you might recognize them from yesterday but then again, you might not..

Take it to the streets
Conjectural Figments

These are both truly good issues put out by two very good publishers containing poetry by good poets and of course - myself - the first has one and arguably two poems depending on how you read them - I wrote it as one and a half so there it is. The second features me as a poet and contains three poems- both contain a lot of good writing besides mine and should be read a few times through for affect/effect.
 - Just for updates sake - Yesterday my truck was broken and my diagnosis was spot on. Now it is fixed and waiting for the next coil to go.
Yesterday I wrote nothing after the blog post and today I think I am going to scribd something - my new years sort of poem.
Writing will become the object of today after I take a shower when I get home from the hospital where my MIL is receiving today's infusion and tomorrow morning will be more of the same while the afternoon finds me in a tattoo parlor getting the design finalized for the next portion of the left arm half sleeve.

my truck is broken

Sitting in the Hospital now with my MIL getting her daily infusion of antibiotics I am reminded that I am going to give up a vice soon. Smoking. We will see how that goes as my commitment is only to the money I'll save and the example I'll set for my boy. Problem being that I like to smoke, enjoy it most of the time but winter makes it hard to enjoy as we do not smoke inside the house out of respect for our son and cats - they've opted to not smoke so why should we be damaging their lungs - we are already corrupting them mentally and emotionally - why physically as well?
I am also thinking of my Ford F150 is not running correctly - badly in fact. Pretty sure that I've blown another coil, maybe two and that this will cost me a few hundred dollars at least and be a complete pain in the ass for the next day or so. I've been thinking of getting a newer vehicle, something lower to the ground and better on the pocketbook in terms of fueling costs and the truck isn't making it easy for me to keep it. Is it a sign? probably no, if anything it is a sign that the feelings of the truck are hurt by my indecision about replacing it - mostly on the side of drive it into the ground but I don't like it when they start to cost money for repairs.

a link: poetry Another link: more than just poetry but my poetry

go to that link - read a bit, fall in love with my poem and others - print out a few copies and hand them out to complete strangers for nothing but the joy of force feeding people the beauty that exists around them always.

Where was I? In hospital, thinking of my truck and health in general, and then poetry always comes at odd times and sometimes like an erection in church, unwelcome and possibly improper. But for this we are thankful which is what makes it the most odd - thankful that poetry in the mind is like the massive erection in church or the day you decided to not wear underwear in jr high and had to go to the blackboard after rubbing the wrong/right way, laughter ensues and the pink never leaves your cheeks again so you grow a beard in your freshman year and learn to tolerate or kill, at least maim a little.
but that never happened to me.
I saw it on television which is as good as a memory of your own.
this post has no direction.
My MIL has been stripped half naked in the infusion lab for an impromptu change of her wound dressing because her wound vac wouldn't shut up which is because it wasn't actually working - only pretending. Poor woman.
time to go smoke.

a new 2012 and the year of the Dragon to boot

live with abandon
love freely
hate no-one for it uses up energy that can be used for other things
try something new -
try something old -
try things -

try everything, and if you are really into it - try it twice.
make no resolutions - for they are set-ups for failure
if it needs changing - change it regardless of what time of year it is.

party wildly and in some unorthodox way.

dance.
don't wait for them to come to you, they might not.
if you still hold out hope - don't abandon it but accept its fruition may never come to pass.
don't look for Atlantis, Plato made it up and says as much, create your own Atlantis.
challenge the irrational laws - challenge the rational ones too.
start a swear jar to enable you to travel somewhere exotic you've never been.
swear a lot.
drink, smoke, fuck wildly and with abandon but only the one you love and that loves you.
don't be "that guy".
remember there will only be one 2012 and be thankful that there was only one 2011.
wish to be only the person that time and experience will make of you.
support a charity, I can easily suggest NRA or HRC - they both get shit done.
ignore the bastards (except me!), most of them will never help you but hinder.
sing.
sing in crowded places as if you were alone in the shower where the acoustics make a Pavarotti out of all of us.
but just sing.
make mistakes.
remember that most people have forgotten the mistakes you've made and most people will forget the ones you will inevitably make this year.
so do not be concerned with them.
those who do remember all your mistakes aren't good people to have around unless they are smart and kind enough to have pretended to forget them.
keep a journal or diary. it will be invaluable to your grandchildren or another generation - and if not at least it helped you organize your thoughts of the day and will help you to sleep better.
those who love you are Holy, keep them in your pocket at all times.
also keep spare change to feed expired meters.
time and space are one - so broken watches tell time just as well as others.
remember that.

for auld lang syne. - me