Posted on by waxyandpoetic

An Ekphrastic piece, sort of…

From somewhere in the depths of my memory, I recalled watching a black and white movie of Picasso painting on a piece of glass, the camera filming his every assured stroke and wink and grin. I couldn’t tell you whether I first saw this on PBS, or in a darkened classroom at some out-of-pocket moment in my childhood. The repeated flashing of this memory, in some (day)dreams and at the end of my pen, led me to finding “Visite à Picasso” [“A Visit with Picasso”] by Paul Haesaerts, a Belgian filmmaker, artist, and historian. Here’s the poem that memory and film inspired, and then after, the actual documentary for your consideration.

Filming Picasso Paint Backwards on a Sheet of Glass


But does he really? It only seems so
	as we gaze through the looking glass
		the assured movements of the man
whose brush dips into paint and knows
exactly where to begin, a single
	stroke zipping up one side of the
		plexi, then languidly down the
	other. thin lines of acrylic or oil
quickly form a bird, then 
	another--an owl? a falcon? a swallow?
see the camera jump and the glass is
		clear again, blank as canvas
	and now vase, and flowers--chrysanthemums? lilies?--
feels like home. see the pastoral scene
	the goat and the shepherd, fluting and idling
		beneath the tree, a nymph floating
	and dancing
in the glassy spring air, bright
	and so crisp. we see him
		peck and wink, that giveaway grin
	giving himself away
in what might be hide-and-
	seek studio peek-
		a-boo
	and now see how there
are bulls, and next
	a windexed doorway or full-length
		mirror. long lingering strokes pattern
	a nude, tall and leggy before us,
churns and whirls of breasts, tresses freshly brushed/fleshed
	out, a paint-stroke smile, and finally 
a tulip substitution that plants
		everything in the imagination,
	the blossom and bloom
of a flickering black-and-white
	movie magic

*****

©David Siller – 2021

A brief, helpful article about this film can be found here

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

NOT a #100Days100Poems post, but a new poem all the same

After a much needed break from the pace of the 100 Days 100 Poems project, we return with something new and, to steal a phrase from the Pythons, with something completely different. Thank you for joining us.

Code Switching #13

In English we have the humble
to fart, the simple fart, the straightforward fart
a short sharp sound that, when silent,
is deadly
and that four-letter, one-syllable word
doesn’t do much more than that,
though sometimes we fart around
which, luckily for bystanders,
isn’t often accompanied by the 
burst of intestinal gas that can be
quite noxious, and sometimes
we talk about the old farts,
geriatric friends and not noxious fumes
aged like a sulfuric wine.
But in French,
oh the French,
you can péter or you can
faire un pet--imagine doing or making a fart
like a special project,
and in accomplishing it
you can be so full of yourself
that you’ll fart higher than your own ass
péter plus haut que son cul
and should that project,
in the greatest Franco-American GI liberation collaboration,
create a capitalist’s dream
you could péter dans la soie,
roll in money while you fart in silk
and péter, too, can mean
to blow up or to break
like we break wind
or blow it out our asses
and if our project above falls through
then notre projet de faire un pet pète dans nos mains
falls, no wafts, straight through our hands.
And should we get enraged
at the failed fart project
or the police farting around with people’s lives
then it’s a perfect time to
péter la gueule à eux, tu vois
smash their faces in, you see,
which means we’ve probably 
pété des flammes, turned nasty they say,
which farting flames might do
and in so doing
we would péter les plombs
or péter un boulon
losing it like
nous avons pété un câble
gone off the rails because farting wire rope,
well, you know, a cable,
is the opposite of bursting with health
you know, péter la sante
and with all this farting around it’s hard to imagine we don’t end here
not trying to smash someone’s face in
but here, instead,
où on se pète la gueule
where we do smash our own faces-- 
with bottles of Bordeaux and cognac
and armagnac and champagne
because here at least we find the switch,
where getting smashed means the same thing:
a hearty Baudelairean call
to get drunk.

*****

©David Siller – 2021

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 100 There’s Still Work To Do

This poem, like our status quo, is a work in progress. I’m certain this draft will change as time and space and wisdom allow. As for the bigger picture, it’s only been 100 days, and there is still work to do. We will always be asking What’s Next!?, and will continue do the necessary work , until we get it right. Thank you for joining us for these past 100 days. Stay tuned for more poetry.

What’s Next!?

“America is on the move again.
Turning peril into possibility.
Crises into opportunity.
Setback into strength.” -- Joe Biden

And this, then, is the ever-repeating goal
broken record-like to the ear
but a mantra to the soul.
When it’s asked

What’s Next!?

we must always be on the move.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be another Vegas
and another Pulse;
another Sandy Hook & King Soopers.
There will be more Atlantas
and Indianapolises.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be more Floyds and Taylors,
Wrights and Toledos.

What’s Next!?

We must seek
dignity over dereliction of duty
justice over knee-jerk incompetence.
We must turn the peril
of traffic stops & grocery shops
into the possibility
of going on green
and making it home
to cook a new recipe.

What’s Next!?

We must
feed brainstorms over superstorms
and contain our rising coastal tides.
We must flood our borders with compassion
and climb out of the climate crisis--
invent and innovate the opportunities
to meet tomorrow 
and the next
and the next tomorrow
and the next.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be more Sandys & Katrinas & Harveys
more fire warnings & wildfires
more tornado breakouts & droughts & t-storm washouts.

What’s Next!?

Algebra and calculus. 
We must flip the fractions
that have long divided us.
Now is the time for the new maths
of people over profits
and workers over CEOs
healthcare over wealthcare.
Let us place the 99
over the 1
the greatest good for the greatest number
above the greediest plunder.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
we must undo the brainwashing
and whitewashing.
Decriminalize homelessness
and stigmatize heartlessness.
We must take wrenches to the systems
that set us back
as if clocks or calendars
to the 1950s
or the 1850s
or the 1750s.

We must disassemble the machinations,
bring down the termite-ridden timbers
of bygone eras;
strip the shackles and salve the wounds.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
we must 
burn it all down
tear it all apart
blow it all up
raze the rotted corrupted hole
and build the stronger better whole
until we get it right.

What’s Next!?
We must keep reinventing language
and learning new pronouns and names for 
peoples, places, and things.
We must keep rewriting language
until truths are out and the full
unabridged
(our)story is told,
even, but especially,
the bleakest and darkest chapters.
Until we get it right.

What’s Next!?
We must keep reinventing ourselves
until we get it right
until we mean united and not contiguous.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 99 Almost there!

Presented without commentary.

Performance Review Coming Up!

Performance reviews
are essential tools for all
employees. Biden--

employee number
46--has not been per-
fect, but has not per-

verted the office
or perturbed the role of the
government, which must

take action when things
fall apart. His performance
is persistently

pursuing progress
not perfection. New goals will
answer new crises

and he will persist,
quietly doing the work
others will neglect.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 98 #HeadlineCento

Presented without commentary. Headlines and headline clippings taken from the New York Times 4/27/2021 Edition.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 97

presented without commentary.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 96

Presented without commentary.

And the Oscar Goes To…

Darnella Frazier
whose documentary showed 
the world what many 

have already seen
and known. Her realist vision
captured attention

and enabled real
accountability at
long last for one of

the many monsters
who haunt our friends, neighbors,
and communities.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 95 #TransLivesMatter

This is more a first-draft rant than anything. It should be sent through the edit-o-meter many times, but needs must and all. Thank goodness we have a president in office that knows Trans Lives Matter.

The GOP is Obsessed With Genitalia

Remember when they wanted to know what you served
so they could ban you from trying to serve?

And now they want to see your equipment
so they can tell you what sport to play.
And they want to know how you pee
so they can tell you where to pee.

And they want to deny you meds and care
when you and your doctors know what meds and care
you need.

And they want to know how you procreate
so than can decide whether you will be forced to procreate

And if they know what you’re working with
(and you’re a straight white male)
they will work with you when you mess up
or worse

They are so pro-life they wish upon you
misery and worse
if the life you want and know 
doesn’t fit their myopia.
They will protect you from yourself
so they can do the harm

They are so obsessed with deregulation
they will jump to regulate your junk.
They are so vigilant about freedom
they will tell you who you are.

So when they ask you how you pee,
tell them to piss off.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 94 #HeadlineCento

A tad late, but presented without commentary. Headlines taken from the New York Times 4/23/2021 Edition.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 93

Presented without commentary.

How Do You Write A Poem When

the first line might trumpet “Guilty as charged!”
but the second reminds you that
three -- Thao, Lane, Kueng -- of the
four have yet to be tried?
And when there are no rhymes
for Daunte, Ma’Khia, Toledo
is free verse a dishonor
to those with liberty and life no longer?
Does it risk being con-
fused as celebration for the bad
crabapples who
with qualified immunity
and no consequences
roam unimpeded among the young
and vulnerable? How
do you determine line

breaks or stanza breaks

in a system so broken
no one believes the math
that counts up 
the individual incidents 
that show the fractured bones
of the haunting skeletal hole?

Where do you end a verse
when police shooting unarmed people
and armed people shooting unarmed people
pedal the news cycle
in a perpetual motion exercise
burning not calories but lives
going nowhere but here
clips loading and unloading
and unloading and loading
in the parodic parade
of end-of-childhood fever nightmares

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !