USELESS KNOWLEDGE (After Mei Yao Chen)
by George Freek
As wind rattles the branches,
and snow descends like ashes,
I make incoherent notes.
Like the freezing birds,
my life is descending from
one condition to a lower.
I was smothered by dreams
as insubstantial as smoke.
I believed some cunning god
said we’d live forever.
He lied. My wife died.
I watch a squirrel dash
from his denuded tree,
seeking food futilely
under a foot of snow.
Tears sting my eyes.
My bacon is burning.
My tea is turning cold.
I feel like a tree in a forest,
unheard, as it is falling.
IN THE GARDEN IS A MOCKINGBIRD (After Lu Yu)
by George Freek
Three evenings, with long
afternoons and a way
of forgetting words,
which, perhaps, should
never be heard.
But the thoughts, yes,
I remember those & a drink
called something pink.
At its bottom, tomorrow
stretched and curled
like a cat, toying on
a lazy afternoon.
The shades were blue,
and the roof pinged.
And when you
touched your ear-ring,
it rained. I think
the days were too long.
And there were
other people there.
Something was always wrong.
WINTER IS NOW UPON ME (After Su Tung Po)
by George Freek
The atmosphere is thick.
Things of the dark
crawl from their holes.
A dead leaf blows in the wind
like a petal from a rose.
The moon defies the sky.
But I will take no notice
of the moon. The stars
are distant mysteries.
They’re as dim
as the paper lanterns
in my unkempt garden.
They hang like ornaments
in a paper tree.
They are useless.
and they light no way for me.
Janet Kuypers’ “South-by Set” 3/15/18 of music during SXSW @ Recycled Reads
March 15th 2018 marked a 1.5-hour music show (with no breaks) during Austin’s SXSW music week from Janet & John!
See 4 videos below from 3/15/18 of Janet Kuypers with John Yotko on guitar in their 1-hour 45-minute “South-by Set” of music at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (one of the venues hosting 2018 SXSW events in Austin). In this set, she sang Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome”, Depeche Mode’s “the Bottom Line” (both Janet and John singing, with altered chorus lyrics), her poem/John’s song “Made any Difference ”, the Queen song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, George Michael’s “Waiting”, Feedback’s “Devotion”, Leonard Cohen’s “Coming Back to You”, Ani DiFranco’s “I am not a Pretty Girl”, Janet & John’s blues song “Tight Rope Affair ”, Hank Williams’ “I’m Free At Last”, Paul Simon’s “Slip Sliding Away”, the Beatles song “Yesterday”, and her song “In Love I Abide”. Then (waiting for John to switch from guitar to mandolin) Janet acoustically sang the beginning of her song “Why”; then she sang the R.E.M. song “You are the Everything” with John playing his mandolin. Going back to John playing his acoustic guitar, Janet then sang the Eurythmics’ “I Need You”, The The’s “Love is Stronger than Death”, George Michael’s “Waiting for that Day”, MFV’s “What We Need In Life”, Peter Gabriel’s “Washing of the Water”, Feedback’s “Vintage Wine”, MFV’s “My Love for You will Stay the Same”, Sinead O’Connor’s “Black Boys on Mopeds”, Don McLean’s “American Pie”, and they closed with the Smiths’ “Ask” (with books for bombs lyrics changes).
See YouTube video (From a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera & given a Threshold filter.)
See YouTube video (From a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera & given a Posterize filter.)
See YouTube video (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera & w/ an Edge Detection filter.)
See 4 videos below from 3/15/18 of Janet Kuypers with John Yotko on guitar in their 1-hour 45-minute “South-by Set” of music at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (one of the venues hosting 2018 SXSW events in Austin). In this set, she sang Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome”, Depeche Mode’s “the Bottom Line” (joined w/ John vocals), her poem/John’s song “Made any Difference”, the Queen “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, George Michael’s “Waiting”, Feedback’s “Devotion”, Leonard Cohen’s “Coming Back to You”, and Ani DiFranco’s “I am not a Pretty Girl”.
See YouTube video (this cut off video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
See YouTube video (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera w/ a Threshold filter).
See YouTube video (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera w/ a Posterize filter).
See YouTube video (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Edge Detection filter).
“Where’s them-thar eatin’ irons?” I asked Lisa at her party.
“Over there,” she nodded. “Top drawer.”
Always the top drawer, I thought,
can they not survive elsewhere?
All laid in their open graves,
knives to the right, spoons to the left,
the forks as ever in the middle.
Teaspoons, of course, across the bottom,
dainty-silly, tomb-lid dogs at their feet.
Knives are the quick-clever things, or so they think,
erect prophets to be respected or feared,
carvers of truths, pleasure and, it has to be said, wounds.
Spoons; things of face-cupping and reflection,
bosoms, smooth-softness and love. Strength.
Feminine, if this is sayable still.
But the forks? And their smile of tines?
Well, they’re just getting on with it.
Aren’t we all?
Knives, forks, spoons.
Bridges
Stung useless by remorse,
life’s canyon edges
we feel our way along,
before us always
the sheer drop.
Why is it so hard to say sorry,
admit our wrong?
And the bridges we do build
we throw ourselves from.
“1 Lodge Moor
It remains unprocessed, forty years now and counting.
Took a lad, not twenty, to the spinal unit.
Been riding in the boot of a car for a laugh
on the way home from a dinner session
when it crashed
along with his life.
Painful as it is, I have to tell you
he cried all the miles there.
I watched.
Nothing I could say mattered.
We both knew.
The hospital on the edge of the hiking moors,
the ward a flat row of beds filled with the numbed,
watching from the mirrors angled above them.
Back in the Arms tonight his friends
raise their glasses.
Here’s to Billy! See you soon mucker!
Beers are on us when you get home!
I imagine the dark, silent ward,
the dim light from the nurse’s desk,
the ogre of her shadow on the wall behind
captured in the mirrors.
And the boy quietly weeping.
I continue to walk on his behalf when I remember to,
each and every step a respect.
What else can you do?
Tony’s Bio
After having what little education thrashed into me by nuns caned out of me by grammar school, I kept a promise to himself to begin writing when I finished doing tedious stuff like working full time. After a wander through psychiatric nursing, the Met Police and almost thirty years as a frontline paramedic the time seemed about right. I still work now and again in Primary Care somewhere in South Wales and live happily on the Gower indulging in writing, reading, talking, drinking beer and floating in the sea with my wife Elaine.
To date I have had three novels and a collection of short stories published.
My verse is, of course, shaped by my experience. Hopefully reader, you will find it insightful, sad, funny, truthful, profane and everything in between but always accessible.
Happy to answer any questions. Like the truth, I’m out there. Somewhere. Get in touch.
I saw the sign on the pole.
Missing sofa—
please call.
I envisioned some grand settee,
off
on a journey.
Its wooden legs
taking it cross town.
Had it been unhappy at home?
If they’d known,
would therapy have helped?
Perhaps a furniture intervention.
Psychologists would say,
re-upholstering
could bolster the ego.
It’s sad
when furniture
suddenly goes
astray.
