Sunday, February 10, 2008

Today’s Forecast: Continued Warm

Now two of his ex-wives are after me, or my name isn't Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

If you outlaw tamales, only outlaws will have tamales.

It started a week ago Friday, about San Ardo, heading north on 101.
The time was 8 p.m. It was dark. Shostakovich's Tenth on the sound system, bass to the max.

Past San Lucas, paralleling the Salinas River,

King City is where we'd stop.
That was King City we just passed.
We didn't stop in King City.

We didn't stop in Greenfield.

And we didn't stop in Soledad.

We stopped on the southern edge of Salinas.

We couldn't take it any more.

Another evening in Steinbeck Country


Violence is a by-product of organization.

The ballet destroyed us,
And the last quarter of the Super Bowl
Ground up the ashes.

Monday I drove home

To Santa Barbara from San Francisco

Tuesday I voted
Super Tuesday
Mardi Gras
Fat Tuesday

Santa Barbara County made NFL history by going for Obama.
I've never been prouder of my county
Although why the polling place was at the
Methodist Church instead of the Unitarian Church
This year I don't know.

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday
And I saw a lot of
The Practicing.

That being said, Thursday was lunar New Year
I celebrated in Santa Barbara's ½-block-long Chinatown
And longed for Little Saigon.
But instead the space shuttle Atlantis launched.
Friday I was lucky to be able to walk.

"Shaking Up the Whole Game" the book should be available this spring.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Caught Between Sundance and Santa Barbara

Artists always do their best work

When a film festival is in town.

And it gives a geezer a chance

To clean up some files

Here are a few poems that accrued over the holidays:


5:15

My team's #1, I'm #1.

Next report at 5:25.


Jiggle Bells

Open Normal hours

Chrisma eve

Open 5 p.m.

Chrisma day.

Imperial showgirls.

Tri-county's classiest

2-story gentlman's club.


Coyotes shit where they eat

I've seen it.

Several days of unusually,

If anything--

If that--

Is what the client

Wants.



Sunday, January 20, 2008

Bread

It don't matter to me.
Giants or Patriots.
I had them both in the office pool.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

JESUS’ DRAFT AGENDA FOR THE SHORT MEETING FOLLOWING THE LAST SUPPER, and other poems by Randy Stark

U DID U THANG

Who am I to say
Vosotros?

CAST

And introducing
Light, as "A Feather."

ZERO DEGREES

Unh-uh.

AT THE SAN CLEMENTE TRAIN STATION

Waves crash
Trains pass
Sea glass
Kids swing
Teens sing

Toot-toot!
Toot-toot!

JESUS' DRAFT AGENDA FOR THE SHORT MEETING FOLLOWING THE LAST SUPPER

  • What worked?
  • What didn't work?
  • Lessons learned?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Zoo Stories

High winds, heavy surf

A broke heart

Kenya

Benazir

The broke-neck giraffe in the sbzoo


 

If Bill and Hillary

Are the "comeback kids"

Is Obama the "Say Hey Kid?"


 

And speaking of San Francisco

The day before the tiger

Broke free and killed a guy,

There were reports from China

About skinned and beheaded tigers,

Siberian, just like the San Francisco cat,

"Lack of funds has been blamed

For a number of macabre incidents involving tigers

In zoos in China."

"Last week, a female Siberian tiger was found dead at the zoo, with her skin, head and legs missing. Police are looking for the killers."

Coincidence?

I doubt it.

Some weird kind of payback is more like it.


 

News reports within days of each other:

The city of Seattle is designating and preserving

A Denny's restaurant

As an official cultural icon.

An explosion destroyed a Denny's restaurant in

South Lake Tahoe,California.

Coincidence?

I doubt it.

People who don't like Denny's acting out.


 

Finally,

True or False: News of the death of Sir Edmund Hillary resulted in a 2 percent sympathy vote spike for Ms. Clinton.


 


 

Friday, December 21, 2007

It Takes Three

Russian Elenas
to equal one
Mexican Elena.

People who were able
to compare said
there was no comparison

72 percent cacao!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Glad to be Back in the Dark

Two score years ago the movie theater was my second home (before multiplexes, before thumbs and scales). What I always wanted to do is direct.

Estranged from the silver screen for the past 15 years, I've recently rediscovered the youthful fervor and joy of being at the movies.

I've had to relearn how to eat popcorn in the dark; I've mistaken Frank Langella for Alan Arkin, and Daniel Day-Lewis for Sam Elliot. But I'm glad to be back in the dark.