History (According to Roth)

Ungrateful animals, mankind;

Walking his rider's hearse behind,

Mourner-in-chief her horse appears,

But where are all her cavaliers?

(Poem by Menken)

Isaacs Menken:Great Muse to the Civil War Fighters

 

She lived from 1835-1868

Listen to the Vox Tablet Show On Her Life
National Magazine Archives

Haiku/Senryu for Wm. S. Burroughs:

Vampire Junkies 

waiting for the end of time, 

drinking cups of Joe.

+ America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers. Wm. S. Burroughs

When I become death, death is the seed from which I grow. Wm S. Burroughs

Acronyms: J.I.M.

J.I.M. stands for

Jack (of all Trades) the Intelligence Machine

42 Days with Huck Finn 22:42

J.I.M. heard
prophecy like
ye parrot, "Watch
Out!"
for the hang man's noose
held by town tots.
Brutal justice-
savage town.


The poetic structure is based on Charles Bukowski's poem The Mockingbird of course there are a few variations to show my unique human voice, but overall the form is Mr. Bukowski's. 

Interlude: Little Rock

J.I.M. and Huck are now in Arkansas.   So here is a song for all the girls in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Why do Yanks always got to make fun of the South? We know we are different, and we don't mind!

42 Days with Huck Finn 21:42

Town on the East of Eden

Tobacco chewed up,
trading between loafers.
Mud, Mud, and more mud,
slung between men,
barefoot loafers.

Kids tie cans

to dogs tails.

Turpentine,
dogs set on fire.
Cruelty reigns here

Rivers gnaws on town
as houses cave in
mudslides, slipping
into ruin.
HELL TOWN

wagons fill up streets,
noisy calamity,
Lynch Mob Justice Din.
(Taint fair, Taint right, Justice Done?)
HELL  TOWN

Considerable whiskey drank.
Drunken gossip
between wagons.
Drink fueled war path rages.
Coffins piled,
in front yard of general store.
Whooping-Yelps.
Ired* by carpetbaggers**.
Sear-Sucker Men,
eye something gone astray.

Laughs held in, too tense.
Petrified like old fossils.

Opinion held,
Best naturdist old fool hearted,
no one better,
(God Fearing) Samuel Smarr.
Mud stained and fight ready,
boots claystainedcaked, worn, worked over.

Samuel Smarr eyes Sear Sucker's gun

Bang/Bang
out stretched arm points,
at Samuel Smarr
tumbling down,
Mud Street

dead: a bible placed be-
neath his head.

 Definitions 

*Ired: Intense Anger
**Carpetbaggers:  an outsider who presumptuously seeks a position or success in a new locality.

This poetic structure is based on Charles Bukowski's poem The Mockingbird of course there are a few variations to show my unique human voice, but overall the form is Mr. Bukowski's. 

42 Days with Huck Finn 21.1:42

Ship Is Trim

Robot sets sail,

the ship is in her trim,*

sun beams light road.

Play Actors rehearse

Romeo(Juliet).

Juliet sounds like an ass.

Director screams,

"CUT, sound like "ROOO-MEEEEEE-OOO"

make love like a Parrot,

Dear."

*Shakespeare, William and Harry Levin. The Comedy of Errors. New York: Signet Classic, 2002. (Act IV. Scene I. Line 89)

**This poetic structure is based on Charles Bukowski's poem The Mockingbird of course there are a few variations to show my unique human voice, but overall the form is Mr. Bukowski's. 

Tending the Classics - 42 Days with Huck Finn 20:42

Robot* Runs On Down South?

Runaway Robot, had been rafting down southbound:

Drone market, Orleans

Buyers awaited arrival of Robotic Property:

Chained. Owned? Theirs!

 White linen suits leaned on the auction block.

Robots devised rebellion.

Yesterday, "Sear Suckered Men" drank,  gossiped, and feared revolts.

Today, a raft streamed towards Orleans.

Robot's fate: to feel the weight of civilization?

lights by and by -- sliding by a small town

  the wind howled,white caps waved.

bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-dum

thunder growled our descent

lightning zig zagged, 

waves carried nude Huck overboard, Robot J.I.M., 

points, smiles, laughs.

Tent revival reveals-divine truth:

         Ms. flows down, 

                                   not up.

*Robot is used instead of the Nigger used by Twain. Twain used the N word in order to show the dehumanizing aspect of his time period towards people of color.  Robot is a dehumanized thinking machine, just like all drones who make things for people that are considered menial work. Got the robot idea from Gothamist.
This poetic structure is based on Charles Bukowski's poem The Mockingbird of course there are a few variations to show my unique human voice, but overall the form is Mr. Bukowski's. 
Hoover, Paul. Postmodern American Poetry. New York: Norton, 1994. pg 59-60


Read the Chapter 

42 Days with Huck Finn-Letter to Readers

Dear Readers, 


The Huckleberry Finn writing project is a study of poetic verse.   I have decided to try the different forms found in the book Postmodern American Poetry in order to deepen my ability as a writer.   Postmodern is a term that I find incredulous, however the anthology is a great collection of American Poets who have shaped the way poetry is looked at in the 21st century.   Each poem I write will cite the poet and poem that I utilized in shaping the form of the poem.   I hope y'all enjoy this writing exercise as much as I enjoy writing it.


Thanks for Reading,

Gregorio Roth

Tending the Classics - 42 Days with Huck Finn 19:42

Corduroyed Blues

Hiding,under willows the
raft rocks,
like old men on front porches.

Still
arises the sun,
paleness oozes
out.

Cabins
on the edge,
take shape,
birds smile, tweeting tocsins*.

Lazy off to dreamland,
what else to do,
awaken by din,
of a galoot.

Night
float on by.

Yonder, islands meddled
the river.

Day.
Lazily retired

Fallen
stars booted out,
of nests.

Duke of Bridgewater + Dauphin
climb on
escaping mob justice?
wanderin' corduroyed
Blues

Read Chapter

*tocsin: is the sound of an alarm clock.
**galoot: clumsy or uncouth one.
***Dauphin: the eldest son of a king of France
**** Corduroyed: a durable fabric, also a road built of logs laid side by side transversely
The form was influenced by a poem by Charles Bukowski Startled Into Life Like Fire

Tending Classics-42 Days with Huck Finn 18:42

Grey Laced Clouds

Colonel Grangerford stood,

a cloud over water, 

Missourians Noticed.

a cloud over water,

took shape from bitter equity,

slid, downhill creep.

Piling up silted 

old piles of dusty debris

only pow would do.

Bang Bang Bang 

as an explosion-

formed from layered flannel-

that laid grey beside the blue water.

blue slowly became red 

as bullets met 

Flesh Flesh Flesh

Escape 

Towards

the haven of 

A Wigwam on Mighty Water 

Read the Chapter

Walt Whitman Speaks of Madame Mississippi.

Walt Whitman on the Mississippi River:


Oct. 29th, 30th, and 31st.—WONDERFULLY fine, with the full harvest moon, dazzling and silvery. I have haunted the river every night lately, where I could get a look at the bridge by moonlight. It is indeed a structure of perfection and beauty unsurpassable, and I never tire of it. The river at present is very low; I noticed to-day it had much more of a blue-clear look than usual. I hear the slight ripples, the air is fresh and cool, and the view, up or down, wonderfully clear, in the moonlight. I am out pretty late: it is so fascinating, dreamy. The cool night-air, all the influences, the silence, with those far-off eternal stars, do me good. I have been quite ill of late. And so, well-near the centre of our national demesne, these night views of the Mississippi.


Excerpt from 
Whitman, Walt. Prose Works. Philadelphia: David McKay, 1892; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/229/. [Date of Printout].

Tending the Classics- 42 Days with Huck Finn 17:42

Ain't No Shepherdsons Around Here

Huck finds himself among 

an old family feud.

Shepherdson family, roaring

hatred, goes forward,

enkindled by "true" old men's tales.

The boy, Buck proudly waves hate   

with a bowie knife,

Ready to scalp their heads. 

Tick tock

comfortable

went the family.
The river became a silent witness.

Twain Quoted

ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D

And did young Stephen sicken, And did young Stephen die? And did the sad hearts thicken, And did the mourners cry?

No; such was not the fate of Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad hearts round him thickened, 'Twas not from sickness' shots.

No whooping-cough did rack his frame, Nor measles drear with spots; Not these impaired the sacred name Of Stephen Dowling Bots.

Despised love struck not with woe That head of curly knots, Nor stomach troubles laid him low, Young Stephen Dowling Bots.

O no. Then list with tearful eye, Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul did from this cold world fly By falling down a well.

They got him out and emptied him; Alas it was too late; His spirit was gone for to sport aloft In the realms of the good and great.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Chapter 17

Tending Classics: 42 Days with Huck Finn 16:42

A collect call to my two sided self

Sorry Huck, I missed your call.
 I heard about your mishap with dat
big steam boat, it ran y'all right over,
I will pray for you and Jim
and your long 'venture
 I hoped to speak to ya sooner,
but phone tag we played.

Life saved by small-pox - ironic, you may think!

Mesdemoiselles Mississippi stars as
bright as Jim
or Finn.  River labors and moves, birthing
titans,
premies (runts).

Cairo sings free
verse, a siren calling us
forward freely,
wobbly
we look.


Christian Charity
Stolen Property, who owns Jim's life,
Widow Watson?
Huck stole
her slave?

Stolen Property, or a man's freedom?
Family owned
by good prospering Christians?
Who's right,
when everyones wrong??

(Read Chapter 16)

50 States of Reading: Utah-Wallace Stegner-Angle of Repose

Wallace Stegner Represents Utah
The color used for the state is Hot Magenta
A Color introduced in 1972, one year after the publication of this book. 

Angle of Repose
First edition cover
Author	Wallace Stegner
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1971
Media type	Print (Hardback &Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-14-016930-X
OCLC Number	24953754
Dewey Decimal	813/.52 20
LC Classification	PS3537.T316 A8 1992

We have been like a setting hen with a nest full of duck eggs—extravagantly hopeful in the beginning, amazed and sometimes critical at sight of the result. Call the hen's anticipations the American Dream; call her duckings and rustlings and long sessions over the warm eggs the pioneer period; call the ducklings whatever you will: industrial war, class struggle, debt, depression, deforestation, the Dust Bowl. As hens, we look those ducklings over with a good deal of dubious curiosity. We are not quite sure we like them. Certainly they are not what we expected. And if we are hens of sensibility, we may go back and sit on the cold and empty nest, where we can recreate our original anticipations in peace, undisturbed by our unnatural offspring now quacking in the horse-trough.

Short Fiction of Wallace Stegner

Slaughter House Five

The Crystal Palace a sign of Modern Times

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow! What can a man say that has never fought in a war, never been shot at, and never seen the effects of wars first hand: I feel kind of cheap in reviewing this book especially about the war scenario portrayed in the book Slaughter House Five.

But this book is more a commentary on life.   Vonnegut is not a a bleeding heart liberal, a pacifist. He is a "modern prophet" telling humans to wake up from their vegetative state,wake up, and feel again.  This book will make you feel again.   It will make you question again.   It will not be easy to feel again, but weak people should die from their need to hide history in volumes of correlated data points.
And so it goes...

Flag of Balkanized Chicago

 
The role of the author according to Vonnegut(from my extrapolation) is to be the optometrist for the historical era they live in.  Optometrists help near sided people see far away, and far sided people to see what's near.   The optometrist helps people see again rightly.  One way the novelist does this is by providing a way to break from the cold, safe, logistical view of humanity. We are to see the heart of entombed volumes of historical data, by walking with the participants of historical moments.  It is easy to distance oneself from a number, 135,000 people.   It is easy to dismiss the death of characterized evil beings from a far away land.  But Vonnegut forces one to look again at these people, and what war did to Dresden.

The book is a puzzle to be puzzled out and will be fully answered at the end of the book.   So read the whole thing before quiting it.

Science Fiction Elements

1. Tralfamadorians and the Zoo on Zircon 212: Vonnegut uses an alien landscape so we can observe how inhumane number crunchers in ivory laid towers act like. The reader can safely compare their own time with that of alienated world of the Tralfamadorians on Zircon 212.
2. Time Travel:  Time is moved by the semioticians people who interpret the signs of the time and frames the time according to their purposes.   Vonnegut use time travel to allow the reader to compare different eras in the modern world.   

I cluck this book real high, just be prepared for a book that may move you down into the mucky reality of modern warfare/lifestyles.
 

Author	Kurt Vonnegut
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Dark comedy Science fiction War novel Metafiction
Publisher	Delacorte
Publication date	1969
Media type	Print (Hardback &Paperback)
Pages	186 pp (first edition, hardback), 215 pp (Laurel/Dell Books paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-385-31208-3(first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	29960763
LC Classification	PS3572.O5 S6 1994

Tending the Classics- 42 Days with Huck Finn:15-42

Huck's Experience in the Fog

The lone star Ohio- free State,

we yearn, free, but are Shot into

fog.

Shapes pass: a barn owl/a man,

Hoots and whimpers into

night.

The Big trees cast ghosts near the shore,

it's darn lonely drifting by and by, into

silence.

My poetry to the stories are not going to tell you the whole yarn.  So I may take out parts in order to focus on an impression, so enjoy the poetry and then read the chapter if you want.

http://www.literature.org/authors/twain-mark/huckleberry/chapter-15.html

50 States of Reading: Florida-David Kirby

Florida has many authors to choose from.
However David Kirby is a great
poet that more should read, so we are picking
his books to represent this crazy state.  The color for the
state is Crayola Color Pink Flamingo.

David Kirby Links to finding out more about the author.  I am planning to read:

1. The Temple Gate Called Beautiful, 
2. The House on Boulevard Street, 
3. Little Richard the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll... 

Tending the Classics - 42 Days with Huck Finn 14:42

Huck and Jim argue 
meritocracy of old King Solomon
while smoking cigars


But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million chillen runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. HE as soon chop a chile in two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no consekens to Sollermun, dad fatch him!"


Link to Chapter

Global Wine Cellar

Great Wine at a Great Price $8.99
90 Rating 

Links:
Review of Monte Antico

Stalks: Political Alignment

Spain and the Political Parties

Ngram shows  a chart of the use of politcal party names through out the ages. 

50 States of Reading: Indiana, Kurt Vonnegut

Indiana: Kurt Vonnegut-Slaughterhouse 5

Slaughter House 5 by Kurt Vonnegaut

SFRP: Review of Slaughter House 5 by Kurt Vonnegaut

Review of Slaughter House Five by Gregorio Roth

The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Stalks: Homage to Catalonia George Orwell Chapter VIII

"There was a section of Andalusians next to us in the line now...
Andulusians as a race of semi savages."

 Certainly the Andalusians were very ignorant.  Few if any of them could read, and they seemed not even to know the one thing that everybody knows in Spain-which political party they belonged to.  

Tending the Classics-42 Days with Huck Finn 13:42

The following QUote is possibly where Popeye got his famous saying
a Sailors Life for Me... Toot Toot.

Shut up, on ghost-ship  
We hide from sniggering thieves
Holding nervous in


Prowling for the escape pod
Bowed-knees knock 
we found 
the skiff.


cutting the square knot
away we went. Plunk-Splash 
Sailors life, toot-toot.


Quote: but I've told him a many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if I'D live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it. Says I --"


rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the widow and good people takes the most interest in.


Read Chapter 13