MAR VISTA SHADORMAS

Mar Vista Shadormas


Origin-
aly named Ocean
Park Heights, des-
pues, trite, Barnes.
The post office established
1925.

Dubious
statue-cage, Myrna
Loy, silent
movie act-
ress, graduate Venice High,
mascot, Gondoliers!

Vintage fight-
er jet crashed into home
on Wade Street
North of Stew-
art, west of Sepulveda,
retardant foam spill.

Scattergood
Steam Plant, bare hands fish-
ing in grand
Ballona
Creek, Centinela Improve-
ment Corporation.

Savages
vandalize “Venus”
though headless,
in a cage,
Van Orden gallops through surf
spraycan “L.A.’s Best.”

Union troops
from close Camp Latham
used camels
and not mules
sentinel Catalina
from Mar Vista Hill.


(Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database)


Mar Vista Shadormas


Pepy’s Gal-
ley, Mitsuwa Mall,
soft ball gar-
dens, mansions
down Inglewood and Palms,
shiny commuters.

Zapotec
spoken here, Oaxaq-
ueños rule
this beach hamlet.
Se visten niños dioses,
popular placard.

Beach bum wake
walks Venice, Ocean.
Lounge under
four-o-five,
ten-lane shadow embankment.
Plant flag in sidewalk.

Mar Vista
Gardens, el Super
South of Cul-
ver, grass walk-
way, Ballona Creek Bike Path,
Sawtelle to Del Rey.

Detour through
Horrid 4-way stops
Sixty miles
An hour, through
Studio executive
hills, plots of ranch shelves.

U-S-A
Donuts, Sabor de
Oaxaca
library
Mar Vista Branch used to be
douchebag bookstore front.


(Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database)

Mar Vista Shadormas


Back-door screen,
portal construction.
Workers ham-
mering riv-
ets into pomo vigas,
indivisible.

Laundromats,
retirement pods.
Cadillac
Semper Rome.
Infernal bus, drive-thru crowd:
the cue at Menchis!!!!

New comic-
Bookstore on Old Ball-
ona gas
station turned
norm-core curiosity,
Geek Charcuterie.

Well Baby
Center, Douche Johnson—
signed-copy jail—
Post Office
on Grandview, city’s first planned
community, gated.

The softball
stinky, burnt, trashpits,
when Grandview
stopped at Palms.
The saline air in alleys
making ravens green.

Print shop spores,
in the maw, typewriters,
piñatas
of Sponge Bob
alongside los niños dioses,
child divinities.

HIGHLAND PARK SHADORMAS

(Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database)

Highland Park Shadormas


Nestled
between Debs and Ox-
y College,
South Pass-Uh
and Mount Wash.,
Highland Park plug-and-plays
dry corridor-living.

San Rafa
Hills of nooks and shelves.
Brown Craftsmen,
Mission-style
section 8—Lummis from O-
hi-O, pioneer.

Land of Tramps—
bars spill out York. Fig.
gallops gin.
These channels
exceed most tread of bunga-
lows—stowaway toes.

Masonic
Chicken Boy, U.S.
Office Ma-
chine Arts, Crafts
exiles from city entre temps:
highest densities.

Shadormas
for your Spanish genes
for your burnt
sleep cycles
for blinds slicing white-hot shade
from another din.

2 council
votes distort our girth
mordida
collusion
rampant under Renewal,
both ways before led (this time.)


(Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database)

Highland Park Shadormas


Rancho San
Rafael fissures
for the rent
the rent split
between family and
threat of friends,
abandoned couches.

Annexed and
annexed and taken
from the Spanish
from Mexkins
even Martians. Spoil the rod:
barrio bounty.

Why so man-
y hits and runs? Why
not slow down--
brake pads grind
brake pads shouldn’t save more lives
than bright bike corrals.

Christmas on
York proves barrios
feed themselves
choicest cuts.
The loam I cut is tender—
water-cut, old roads.

Doing the
wash on damn day off,
pyramid
dirty dishes
let’s hope el virus no me catch
unawares y que?

Elephant
Figueroa bones,
street horse trough,
Sycamore
Grove public bowling green lawn,
Sparklett’s oasis.


(Los Angeles Public Library Photo Database)


Highland Park Shadormas


Let’s move in!
City’s first suburb
north of smog
arroyos
invaden tus neighborhoods
bien lomos.

Elephant
Figueroa bones,
street horse trough,
Sycamore
Grove public bowling green lawn,
Sparklett’s Oasis.

Arroyo
Street pole erection
Origin-
Al Libra-
ry, railroad tracks in flood sod,
detonated books.

Judson Art
School in Garvanza,
stained-glass shop
three brothers
regulated with fifteen
craftsmen at a time

Glassell Park
Hughes Aircraft, Chrysler
Air Raid Si-
ren, Optimist Home for Boys,
mud seeping through wall.

Patio
of grand Lummis Home
El Alisal
eon home-
stead to last a thousand years,
built by looking back.

GHAZAL FOR JAMES FOLEY

“Mr. [James] Foley converted to Islam soon after his capture and adopted the name Abu Hamza”—Oct. 25, 2014 N.Y. Times article, “The Horror Before the Beheadings”

 

 Hard for me to believe Jimbo didn’t convert under duress.

Although, I have always known him spiritually curious.

Easier to believe he proved syrup at fangs of alien vampires

intent on making him pay, leaving us lot spiritually curious.

Jimbo adopts name Abu Hamza because Hamza’s famous

for riding into Battle of Badir with an ostrich feather in his turban.
(how spiritually curious of him, no doubt!).

Hamza was late convert to Islam; Jimbo came to journalism a seasoned teacher.

Both proved paladin interlopers, distinguished ball-busters of spirit: curious.

También, the manner in which both are cut down early in life, apenitas

after egress of civilians on H.D.M.I. proves too easy, of little spiritual curiosity.

Tell me Abu, how does an Abyssinian slave gamble on their manumission

by chucking a javelin into the abdomen of an O.G.-General, spiritually curious?

How does one roam into a sitch so egregiously far from Lake Winnipesaukee?

How does one prevent their liver from turning into jewelry of spiritual curiosities?

Jimbo picks Moe’s right-hand man (I’m talking about Hamza here) because Jimbo knows Gabriel only shows himself to deniers of emerald escalators, not the spiritually curious.

Tell me Abu, why should I forgive the rabid—the rabbled, wracked with graphic cabals?

Estos matadores en balaclavas tyranny the Just, pimp Justice, and claim spiritual curiousity.

Torture ain’t stop Jimbo programming: specialist lectures, tournaments of Risk, faux

wrestling matches between the captives. For what? Morale, and to not lose spirit and curiosity.

Abu is kindness performed with militance; Jimbo is witness subsumed with service.

Quizas, juntos, as adjuncts they eradicate flags, shatter cisterns, dissuade countries to stand behind their spiritual curiosity.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY JAIL SONNETS 11 & 12

This is one is based on a little segment I did with KCRW's Sonic Trace called "Use Big Words." You can listen to the segment, here.

In this one I am speaking directly with the ghost of Frederick Douglass, and directly to my students inside the L.A. County Jail.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY JAIL SONNET #8

No. 8 in a series. Heavily told me that a series is called a corona, and I have yet to confirm that but Heavily knows his shit so it's more than highly probable. I have No. 9 and No. 10 in the register of my typewriter. in this corona, the speaker is teaching "Life of Frederick Douglass," to English classes of women inmates at CRDF and male inmates at TTCF in the Los Angeles County Jail.

COPA POETICA INTRODUCTION ROUGH DRAFT

HNDP MUSIC & DIGITAL ARTS TRUCK KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

 

There are several worthy charities in Los Angeles; the city of Angels purports a great amount of wealth and affluence, but there are also deep pockets of poverty and criminality. Hard N Da Paint is an organization that has been running programs in Los Angeles for the past 5 years through Self Help Graphics & Art in East Los Angeles.

The students and facilitators have made incredible gains over these past five years; it’s time to take HNDP to the next level. Over this time, HNDP affected thousands of youth with their popular open-mic series, and have individually mentored hundreds through the group's intensive music development workshops. The good people at Hard N Da Paint are giving teen Angelenos an alternative to institutionalized lives of poverty, low-expectations, and criminality.

Their programs give adolescents the confidence they need to value the things they dream; therefore, would you please consider donating to this amazing organization and spreading the word so that this group raises the monies they so desperately desire to become mobile and affect a greater outreach of their efforts, knowledge capital, and know-how.

Kickstarter campaign: here

GRAND ROUNDS @ GRAND PARK

6/17/14

Dear Elana & Camilo

I wanted to write something to help you document the impact “Grand Rounds” had on my life as a working-class denizen of Los Angeles; at the same time, I wanted to create a response to your project that labored against the projected impermanence of your project. While the objective of your project was certainly not to record the “proceedings,” I thought I might write something that recorded the proceedings as my closed-circuit televisions system interpreted them. This letter are those thoughts; or more importantly, the letters of this letter comprise that letter which is itself a cipher for something larger than what it refers to (and cue the etcetera barges, etc.).

First off, I need for you to know that it was a pain in the ass to get to “Grand Rounds," an informal discussion (and free, brown-bag lunch) at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles (courtesy of Elana Mann and Camilo Cruz) because I had to take the Long Beach line in to Hope and 7^th Avenue. At the same time, the fact that I was able to get to Grand Park through Los Angeles Metro should be noted as a civic victory, wouldn’t you agree? I especially think this in a city where car manufacturers and highway developers colluded so egregiously to eradicate public transportation. In addition, I walked to Grand Park from the terminus of the Expo Line (again, Hope and 7^th), which gave me a good ten minutes of flâneuring. And, it was a super-nice day; I half expected there was going to be an earthquake because the day was so super-freakishly nice. But, as a pain-in-the-ass east-coaster, half of my operating directive (charm) is to refuse the impulse to own a car; the other half is spent complaining about the public transportation I do utilize. You and I both know we need me to tell everyone why they’re doing it wrong.

I accepted Camilo’s invite because I was interested in the admixture of city, county, and non-profit overlords that were scheduled to participate in “Grand Rounds" on that particular day. I figured at the very worst, it was going to be like a super-awkward interview, and at the very best it was going to be like talking to the supervisors of all the agents and telephone associates that put me on hold for inordinate amounts of time. However, once the free lunches started getting passed around, people let down their guards and opened up a little. I enjoyed participating in “Grand Rounds," because I felt like the ship I run as an English teacher in the L.A. County Jail is the same ship being steered in other public-service sectors of Los Angeles city and county cliques. As a patient of psychotherapy, I’ve learned the aim of talking to a psychologist is to get yourself to enunciate your ailment, and declare your prowess for change; in much the same way, “Grand Rounds," allowed me to talk to people (people just like me) who do too much with too little; and, we got to enunciate our ailments, diagnose our better practices, and share an authentic brown-bag lunch at high noon in Grand Park.

Thank You Immensely!

Yago S. Cura

ONE DAY BEFORE THE CUP

Mata, martial chipper, finisher, PhD in Double-Tap
Striking Viking
James Rodriguez, Monaco buzzflap, scalpel incubator,
Colombian Dolomite
Matty Ryan, General in Yellow, Sergeant of Arms of Arms,
Flipping Booter
Aissa Mandi, wizard of dribbling, he springs goals from
their penitentiaries
Jo, daddy long legs, works the box like a boxing bag with
Sine Loco jabs
Aguero, el Kun, B Boy Big Kahuna, face musher,
hockey body checker
Neyman, smirker, Dirk Diggler juggling most fluorescent
tennis ball
Dempsey, goofball, Howitzer technician, shoots from
outside the Possible
Boateng, floater, cumulous bombardier, galloping
cloud seeder sans spurs
Podolski, femur blaster, leg munitionist, Germany’s
Roiling Rockette
Forlan, tiny witch, hand-to-hand crone spanking
the snot out the balon

FORTRESS HANGAR

HINCHAS #13: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: WORLD CUP ISSUE

The digital codex of contemporary pan-American writing, Hinchas de Poesia is currently seeking submissions of poetry, fiction, and criticism for their thirteenth issue, which will be published simultaneously with the onslaught of the 2014 World Cup in June.

We are not seeking literature about fútbol per se; your piece's virtuosity and verve might be enough for readers to connect it to the world of fútbol. But, do not let us stop you from constructing original poems in traditional forms that define, delineate, or further deconstruct fútbol.

We are interested in the intersection between lyrical prowess and the religious cult of Fútbol. The beautiful game is not only a religious phenomenon, it has severe, geopolitical repercussions. We are interested in fútbol, as it is played in the mind, and on the field. If you have anything like this, please send it to us so we can share it with our audience.

HINCHAS TWELVE/HINCHAS DOCE

Hinchas de Poesía (www.hinchasdepoesia.com) is pleased to introduce Mo Fowler, Lauren Hawley & Ghada Seiffadine. Other poets include Laura Jensen, Pamela Stewart, Nancy Aidé González, & Amalia Ortiz. They also feature fiction by Donna Vitucci & review new books by Chip Livingston, Roberto Bolaño & James Cervantes.
This is their 12th issue. Their next issue will cover the World Cup and celebrate five years of publishing writing (poetry, fiction, and criticism) from the Americas. They don't sell advertising so you might say their model is a little off, but it's obvious to all that Hinchas is a labor of love and driven by passion. Please linger on their new issue and tell me what you think.

READING: FEB 08, 14: TAG GALLERY: REYNALDO MACIAS, JESSICA CEBALLOS, LUIVETTE RESTO, & YAGO S. CURA