Monday, September 9, 2013

Day 246 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

LET'S JUST SAY THIS IS A MIXED BAG

OR

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVEN'T GOT A FAST IDEA

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I find myself being quickly drawn back into the fold, as it were. At last Thursday's reading in the Topping Room at the Foster library in downtown Ventura, I was asked if I'd be willing to be a stand-by host for the venue. Hell, it's far less work than most other things I do. Open the door, put out some chairs, set up a simple PA system and play MC for about an hour and a half. So, sure. Why not?
 
In the meantime, I find myself the recipient of an absolute torrent of correspondence on Facebook these days. Again, not too hard to take. Most of it is informing me of this, that, or the other event or venue and, in my own self-interest, and the interest of supporting a re-awakening literary scene in Southern and Central California, again, why not? As I've quipped any number of times, I'll show up for the opening...of a can of beer. I guess I can chalk it up to the network thing.
 
Then, throw on top of this the added fuel of several short fiction and poetry submissions in the U.S. and beyond, and an attempt to find a publisher for a chapbook or, dare I dream, a full volume of poetry, and things are even busier. (Anybody know of a decent, and tolerant, publisher or small press looking for new talent?) 
 
What else could you cram in there? How about a new commitment to at least one fairly polished poem a week, along with my short fiction? Top it off with this blogging challenge, my studies through the Center for Buddhist Education in Berkeley, CA, a full time job that isn't in the arts or letters but does pay my bills, and there you have it.
 
Oh, except one other small thing (literally). I have discovered I have a gopher invading my gardens. Mind you, I can tolerate a lot of things, but I'm afraid this fellow has become a real nuisance - and a threat to my Bonsai! So I spent a fair amount of time flooding his burrow system in hopes of flushing him out. Who am I kidding, right? Ah, well, I needed something to channel my occasional angst towards. Sorry little guy - it will be you or me!
 
So, onward and upward. If I don't collapse somewhere along the way. I think I need a nap!
 
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ICONOGRAPHY
by
Dane F. Baylis

In her dark
In her convent cell
Novice Mary Michael lies on her pallet
A hand full of
Bible
Open to all the steam and corruption
Those tawdry pre-Galilean carpenter chapters
Ageless testimony
Brimming with begatters begetting and innocent loss
Condemned by the prude Leviticus
Pushed to the desperate
Guilty hours
She shoves her other hand against her habit
Filling it with
Herself
Riding a digital ticket to wide eyed dreams of
Sinewy snake muscle
Beneath sweat sheen
Swarthy skin
Long lean Moses daddy legs
Holding up a tiny - Marched all the way from Pharaoh’s Egypt - Monkey butt
With Charlton Heston’s, ‘You’ve been a naughty girl’, baritone
Crooning in the background
To her fantasy straddle, back and forth gallop
Upon a golden calf
Bearing her to the altar
Where she can be scourged like the wayward wanton
In De Sade’s agony to freedom
She wants to kneel before a Messiah
Wash his feet
Calves
Those delirious iron band thighs
Flirting her hands across his loin cloth
Yearning to be the chalice
That takes the second coming
And the bible tumbles to the bed
As her hand strains to heaven
In a hallelujah moment
Before covering her face to muffle
Sobs of guilty elation.
 
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Meanwhile...live, love, write.
 
Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the
page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.
 
Tomorrow,
 
Dane F. Baylis
Author.

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