Tag: Culture

New Orleans4 Comments

Literary Tattoos

Charlotte Hamrick

I recently discovered Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos, a website that shows literary tattoos people have had inked on their bodies. A tattoo is not something I’m interested in for myself but I do find them interesting and the reasons people get them interesting. I like the one above particularly because it’s from the poem “Antilamentation” by Dorianne Laux, one of my favorite poets and poems. It’s a beautiful  and honest line and a poem all by itself.  I also like the placement of the design because I like the idea of a tattoo being hidden and only revealed to a select … Continue reading Literary Tattoos

New Orleans8 Comments

RIP Uncle Lionel

Zouxzoux

Photo by Infrogmation Varmint Someone stole Uncle Lionel’s bass drum. It was resting in the courtyard of a bar on Frenchman Street next to a palmetto palm under the moonlight . Uncle Lionel was inside slaking his thirst with a cold draft Dixie bought with tips from anonymous tourists and devoted locals. The word went out in the humid New Orleans night, wafting from bar to bar on the notes of wailing saxophones and indignant trumpets. Someone stole Uncle Lionel’s bass drum. The news hit the streets and ran on a second line of lightening, traveling on the dancing feet … Continue reading RIP Uncle Lionel

New Orleans15 Comments

Wiggle-Waggle

Zouxzoux

The dragonfly buzzes about minding its own business, iridescent wings flashing in the sunlight. Humans shuffle along the dirty sidewalk, tied down by the vitriol dripping from their mouths. _______________________________ This poem was inspired by the poetry of Ko Un which I just discovered thanks to Via Negativa and I’ve been devouring as much of his work as I can find on the internet today. I highly recommend reading Via Negativa, the website of poet Dave Bonta and contributing poet Luisa Igloria whose work I adore. Their site is on my Google reader and I read them every single day … Continue reading Wiggle-Waggle

New Orleans19 Comments

The Hordes

Zouxzoux

I’m tired of the knee-jerk uneducated and uniformed opinions splattered all over social media and the resulting mindless group exercise of the modern day witch hunt. Half-baked news spreads like typhoid infested waters with the pressing of Android thumbs and everybody’s an expert. And everybody’s opinion is as self-righteously correct as the texter’s before them and the millions to follow. We will show our solidarity, dammit, and you will know our view is right and true by the signs we hold up on the screens of YouTube or FaceBook or even on the network evening news because the media wouldn’t … Continue reading The Hordes

New Orleans6 Comments

Repetition Interrupted

Zouxzoux

It makes me anxious, reading your words. I’ve done my years of anxious, of constantly running three steps ahead of a fit. I threw that shit away in 2009 after my good altruistic intentions got slammed by a sledgehammer of entrenched mediocrity. And that was just in my work life. Friends come and go and I became caught up in a frenzy of mindless socializing, of running from event to event not of my choosing, hitting the streets in a dervish dance from bar to parade to fest to second line and guzzling the latest cocktail de jour or micro … Continue reading Repetition Interrupted