A podcast of poetry and politics, music and words, fighting the disenchantment of a byzantine system and fleeting world.
My son managed to be potty trained by his fourth birthday, so - for his fourth birthday, I present to you a poem I wrote about him about potty training.
1) Down to Georgia 2) The Most 3) Coyote 4) Tempest 5) We're All the Same 6) When the Melody Arrives 7) A Material Rain
Track list: 1) Weed Whackin' 2) Bad Revolution 3) The Moon as a Ball in the Sky 4) Petrostate Blues 5) The Long Day 6) Sustainability Blues 7) As America Continues on/That Little Thing 8) All There is to Know 9) Nuclear Love
"We must be visionaries. / We must / plant trees / beyond our lifetimes. / We must / seize the means / from these angels / of corruption, / then dance / like dingledodies / down the platform."
The official audio for my new manuscript of poems, entitled, A Material Rain. Beginning last summer with the biggest protest in the history of this country, after George Floyd, and in the middle of a pandemic, with a political establishment unable to respond - the last hope vanquished as Bernie Sanders went down. . . we confront our nation's hubris, look for humility in the form of work, and remember where our fealty lies.
The last section of my new poetry manuscript, A Material Rain. John Coltrane assisting.
A retrospective of my podcast and early pandemic times, and what hopefully amounts to the audio version of the first section of a book of poetry.
Justice is a long day. A riff from the first song turns into a plea behind the second poem, spliced in with Bernie Sanders' wisdom in his 2020 campaign suspension address. We end with camping, the perfect dark, behind part 1: Acknowledgement, from John Coltrane's Love Supreme.
There is something unsustainable about the repressive forces of our current capitalistic society, and it shows itself in a dishonest media. What happens if science itself started the pandemic? It's cicada season. Walk with me into this tree of heaven.
A book of poems I wrote when I was 26. I was chaste in New York City, Atlanta, and Long Beach, CA. The title is ironic, but true.
Psalm by John Coltrane from A Love Supreme plays over a hymn I wrote for the Palestinian struggle. We can't capitalist our way out of racism. Racism is the perfect tool for a system that thrives on inequality. Work, jobs, are the answer. A vital working class opposes the inequality, oppression, and violence of capitalism.
Populism is the solution, not the problem. Power to the people.
These pandemic days - thoughts on the insurrection at the capital. We can't even bring a popular universal health care policy idea to the floor for a vote during a once in a century public health crisis. Say the words: Medicare for All! I'm afraid we can't just shame these white supremacists away. Never seen someone leave a gang by being told they're wrong. The title goes to my son, who called the moon a ball the other day.
Memory kind of takes on a life of its own. Especially during a pandemic. Music by The Hold Steady and Sixto Rodriguez, and some strummin' by yours truly. Merry Christmas!
The lonely politician here to keep you awake too late. Check your pronunciation of "inchoate." I was a kid / in California. . .
Featuring - at the very end - an original song sung, played, composed, and written by me. My first song ever. Poems and prose and my thoughts on Defund the Police and Stimulus Checks. Van Morrison.
Happy birthday to my endless muse, and rock. Mason's guitar belongs on here.
Don't piss on me, and call it rain. The times they are a-changing.
Once the Democrats don't have to win the suburbs anymore, we might have a chance. Or maybe we do. On the weekend before the 2020 election in the United States of America, I think I finally figured it out. "The Capitalist Blues" and "Money is King" by Leyla McCalla featured. Your love could take down empires.
A flower blooms. The Lonely Politician here to hopefully help with the apathy, with some empathy.
The blues is empathy. The blues is a superpower. The blues is a birthright, born out of so-called law and order, by design - so that won't cure it, ever. Only justice will. Music by Chaotic Melodix, album entitled Quarantine Jazz.
Music by Mike Bloomfield. Album entitled Blues, Gospel and Ragtime Guitar Instrumentals. 2005. I read one of my most personal stories, and add a new ending. Call it an interlude. Call it a seat at the table.
A little electoral politics reflection, and some fiction. Then a story by Raymond Carver, with a soundtrack by Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to rush you out of the bar.
"Playing it safe is going to get us all killed" - Ryan Grim, We've Got People
My take on "Cancel Culture." I wrote a little something in the middle, read the recent Harper's piece, and read a "cancelled" essay by Junot Diaz, played over a Fugees loop.
A few thoughts and poems and songs about having kids. I turn to my heroes. Melissa Etheridge, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan each wrote a song about it. Springsteen wrote some great stuff in his memoir too. I fancy myself in the pantheon. Miles flip!
On this summer night, from the middle of my backyard, I read Sonny's Blues, by James Baldwin, to the sounds of Miles Davis and others. We hear from Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel West in the wake of George Floyd's killing, and I write a little something of my own at the beginning.
The Lonely Politician reads some of his prose over instrumental Bruce Springsteen by an artist named Piano Dreamers. Call it an interlude. Call it an end to American Exceptionalism. Call it a seat at the table.
In this episode, I examine who Joe Biden is and also the nature of his victory in the Democratic primaries. He will indeed be our candidate this fall, and he is also willing to take a fall for the one percent - who, even if he loses, will be better off with Trump then they would've been with Bernie.
In this episode I read a short story by Andre Dubus, entitled, Killings (music from Leonard Cohen's Ten New Songs in the background), hoping to comment on the civility that is killing us through its placating of real facts, and its - like some kind of guilt trip - tranquilizing effect on our personal and political discourse. From the recent rehabilitation of George W. Bush by Barack Obama to what we have to look forward to in Joe Biden.
The Lonely Politician, a book of poems that will hopefully set the context for this podcast. Clarence Clemons' solo album, Peacemaker, in the background. Published in 1995 by Zoo Entertainment. Let's fight the disenchantment of a byzantine system.
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