Reading From California Beat Poetry
Reading From California Beat Poetry
https://johnbucherblog.com/2015/04/27/reading-from-california-beat-poetry/
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Ten Thousand Bees
They came in August, like an army from the north
a large droopy bundle
on a limb they held
an old man’s beard they
became full of stingers and
wings that beat
I ran out of breath to see them
like that, they pulsed, they moved
as one they did think
their center was lovely
so strong and yet weak
they gave us their nectar
we gave them our fear
The keeper came and told them to
wait, he was housing them soon:
but they did not hear
but they wanted to go
but they did not know
he was their friend
Ten thousand bees came to live
with us now, their ghost was gone
so they wouldn’t tame
so we are their camp
so they let us dine
honey and comb divine
page 19 from Western Soul by John K Bucher
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Rain On Porch
Grey clouds swollen with drops
surround a cabin deep in the woods
sitting on a
stool with coffee
he looks at as a gentle rain moves in
trying hard to forget a broken past
he raises his head and sees the lightning
cold air fills the porch
and then a chill
he goes inside to build a small fire
panes of glass the sky darkens
on the pines water pours and trickles
he sighs and thinks of his life
A banjo plays in his mind and lifts
his soul and washes away the pain
like the rain that is pouring from the sky
the orchestra beats upward and soothes
He goes back to the porch
and watches
the evening sun returning to its home
one of his dogs
raises his head and speaks
night comes very easy now and bathes him
The rain beats heavy now on the roof
from his view a transformation forms
a new determination to look forward
and never look back again
page 152-153 Cowboys and Witches by John K Bucher
From the Earth
In the Oklahoma Dust Bowl
My grandfather toiled
His back toward the sun
Diamondbacks coiled
Hard labor he knew
Even from his birth
Not destined for a bank
Or any kind of mirth
Loved to hunt and tell
Stories as he went
He looked you in the eye
Said what he meant
But the blessed earth is what
Drove him on and on
Cotton, corn and wheat
In the early dawn
The earth, plowed so
Fresh and brown
Seeds and water, till
The sun went down
Then came the harvest
The gathering, the sale
Another year of blessing
Another prayer prevails
His life from the earth
The only one he knew
He never owned a new car
Material things were few
He had to work when
He was old, still very proud
The earth he loved so much
Still spinning in the clouds
page 116-117 Cowboys and Witches by John K Bucher
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Yellow Roof
On thick clay tiles lay a man
A yellow sea in a far away land
Watching the sea he looks at the sky
A flock of birds descend and then goes high
He relaxes his thoughts reaching for a beer
The ships look tired as they draw near
He sips and shoos the buzzing of a fly
He wants a job but knows it’s a lie
The air is moist with beer and salt
A Hemingway afternoon down to a fault
On the beach two girls bathe in the surf
A man is selling fish knowing their worth
The trouble began in a much younger life
He used to have children, a home and a wife
Now only a saloon, a bed and the roof
He used to exist but now there’s no proof
But inside him there stirs a new sound
Maybe tomorrow from this roof I’ll come down
But until then I’ll drink and I’ll sleep
Yesterday’s gone and not even the angels will weep
Page 166 Cowboys and Witches by John K Bucher
Early Morning Songs
After a hard midnight hour
And all the dreams were an ugly sour
The darkness spreads inky black
Mind games spun the liquor and Prozac
A song rolls down a cobweb trail
Guitars and melody voices so frail
High notes drum a heartbeat spike
Songs to greet a heady gold strike
Early morning songs follow a path
Soaking warm like a hot steam bath
Music dance love never lands wrong
Whistling sidewalk work early morning song
Page 37 – California Beat Poetry Number Four – Dharma Angels by John K Bucher
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Motels
Writers, criminals, dharma bums, poets and lovers have always found comfort in the low down motels in the less desirable parts of cities- No lease to sign or credit to check, the brown skinned man behind the glass only wants cash and gives you a key to a hot shower and a bed – Television and heat! Away from the cold wind! Summer breezes float through the windows as do the moans from the next room over as you open a can of Spam and one more beer from the paper sack- Weeks go by and you learn some of the names who come and go with the wind and wonder how much longer with life be just these four walls? HBO and clean towels! Mini fridge full of beer!
Months march toward fall and the mirror tells your age and shaving becomes an option as does everything but a simple routine called life – motel life
Winter is gray and the windows rattle while you pack your battered boxes of stuff and get ready to move one more time as that old road calls- “Come back soon” the room calls and you do, again and again.
Page 21- 22 in California Beat Poetry Number Four Dharma Angels by John K Bucher
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The Everwinter Files:#308 – Bugglesworth
The Frolic Room Prophet – page 84
Whap!Whapwhapwhap! Then dead silence. Robbie’s old car came to a stop in the middle of Sunset Boulevard in East Hollywood. “Shit! I’ll be late to work again.” He got out after shifting into neutral. Robbie started pushing with one hand and steering toward the curb with the other. Two more men stopped, and both started pushing from the rear bumper. The car then rolled so quick it hit the curb and bounced a little. Robbie lifted the hood to see what the matter was as the helping men came to look.
“It’s there, the fan belt.” Spoke one of the men. Robbie reached down and pulled the twisted broken belt out of the pulleys and sighed. “Where are you headed?” Asked the other man.
“Work, Piggly Wiggly and I’m late now.”
“I go right by there. Jump in.”
Piggly Wiggly was busy when Robbie arrived and his boss, Red Dawson was angrier than most days. With red hair and a florid face with red freckles he chopped a woman’s order behind the glass counter at the butcher’s block stained red and brown that spoke of the volumes of meat he already cut before Robbie came in late. After wrapping the woman’s order and sliding it across the steel counter, he turned to Robbie and vented.
“Goddamnit Bugglesworth! Of all mornings to be late again, I have worked my ass off and was supposed to be at school for my son’s Pinewood Derby! My fucking wife has called me crying. crying crying Goddamnit! I missed it. Say something you bastard!”
“Im sorry. My fan belt broke. I had to hitch a ride. I’m sorry Red.”
“That damn car of yours. Buy one that works.”
“I can’t afford to, you only pay me fifty bucks a week.”
“How about I fire you and then how much you gonna make?”
“Please don’t Red. Please don’t.”
Red stormed off to go for a smoke as Robbie waited on another customer. For the rest of the long day, Red sat in a chair off to the side of the butcher counter and watched Robbie work. He refused to help when several customers were in line, even when Robbie pleaded with him. At closing time Robbie clocked out and walked down the alley into the back door of the Tick Tock Lounge, a blue collar bar that nice folks did’t frequent. The bar was busy as people were getting off work and needed a distraction from the grind of the day. Robbie Bugglesworth found an empty stool next to Fred G. Woodley. “Woody” was a drunk, although a high functioning one. He ran a part time auto repair business but closed every day at three pm, so as to sit at the Tick Tock until bedtime. His age was uncertain but looked to be somewhere between thirty and fifty. Brown as a nut and lean as a pole, he read the newspaper as Robbie drank his fresh beer.
“Woody, I need a favor.”
The Everwinter Files is available in hardback on Amazon:
The Everwinter Files
Page 70-71
Cleo Wolfe was raised on a diet of armadillos, squirrels, possums, doves, stolen eggs, RC Cola, regular beatings from his bootlegger father, and Pentecostal beliefs from his mother. Educated along the Red River in a wet Oklahoma county inside a rough schoolhouse, he completed the sixth grade, far above his siblings and parents. The Wolfe house was barely a house. Four rooms in a shotgun layout crafted from cheap lumber and unpainted so it looked a dismal gray/brown color with a sagging porch and roof. The seven dwellers got used to loud arguments and rotten smells from their unwashed father and spoiled food he brought home in a gunny sack occasionally.
Cleo was small for his age and bullied by older boys as long as he could recall. When he turned twelve his mother sent him to Charlie’s Bar to fetch his old man. His father was drinking heavily and got angry when Cleo showed up to bring him home. The old man slapped him so hard Cleo’s mouth bled, and a customer took him to the dingy toilet to wash him clean. After wiping the blood from his face, the man proceeded to lock the door with a hook and take Cleo’s pants down. Cleo fought hard and the man had been drinking all afternoon. The man tripped as Cleo rained down blows hard into his groin and fell against the filthy commode. Cleo Wolfe unhooked the door and ran out the back door. He headed for the Farm to Market Road and began to hitchhike.
A car finally pulled over and stopped after about three hours into a long dark walk for Cleo Wolfe.
“Need a ride, son?” By this time Cleo was tired, afraid, hungry and disoriented from his hasty decision to run away from home.
“Yeah, I guess.” Cleo reached for the door handle and let himself in. The car started up and took off down the Oklahoma back road into a dark night. The man was wearing a suit that looked like he slept in it but had a cheerful attitude.”Where you headed son?” The man smiled at him.
“I…I just want to head out of here, out is this country.”
The man driving the car didn’t say anything for a least five minutes. When he spoke again his tone was lower and serious.
“Running away from your folks?” Cleo felt he had no choice but to be honest.
“Yeah.”
For the next twenty minutes Cleo recounted his poor and abusive young life. A cafe came into light as Cleo finished and the man pulled the car into the gravel lot under a neon sign that blinked green “Lorene’s Good Eats.” he killed the motor and opened the driver’s door.
“Hungry?”
“Yes sir.”
“My name’s Elmer J. Johnson. I’m a preacher.” He stuck out his had and Cleo shook it.
“Cleo Wolfe, nice to meet you.”
The Everwinter Files: #308
Page 39 – The following night the weather was calm again and the boat Ambrose had hired was ready to go at 1 am. Carl Crane went with him as Jimmy McFarland agreed to wait back at the Inn. Not many local boat owners were willing to embark on a post-midnight secret mission to trespass on the feared Hollister Ranch and their armed guards. However, for triple the fee, after a rash of family setbacks, Willy Reese was hard put to turn down such a large pile of ready cash, even if the risk was high.
Ambrose and Carl brought several guns on board and gave Willy the signal they were ready to go. The thirty foot boat was old, but the engine was in good shape and roared to life and started out into the black night of the Pacific calm. The night waves were short as they glided past a group of dolphins who turned and went up the coast toward Pismo. Willy’s old fishing vessel cruised south along the shore but far enough out they would be hard to spot. Ambrose had Willy turn off the lights as they relied on Willy’s ability to captain the boat in the dark.
The trio stayed silent as they heard only the lapping of the waves as they could now see the faint lights on Hollister Ranch. The intelligence Ambrose had was the place had a night watchman at the front gate and two armed men who roamed the property randomly but only once or twice per night on the beach. It seemed that most were not foolhardy enough to try entry anyway, so the guards were usually trying to stay awake and finish their shift.
Willy guided the old boat near a small beach that adjoined the Hollister property and killed the engines. Ambrose and Carl went down a rope ladder with rifles, handguns, flashlights, and a knapsack of various supplies and dry clothes and shoes. They were waist deep in water and waded ashore. On the beach they removed their wet shoes and clothes and buried them under some rocks by a cliff. In dry footwear and pants the pair quietly slunk up the beach toward unknown danger in the dark night.
The Everwinter Files : #308 The Frolic Room Prophet is now available in hard back on Amazon.com.
