Bob Holman

 

The Minnesota Activist Series #1
General Burps

I ruffruffruffruff [coughs]
beg on my goddamn knees to differ How?
and How come? and
Why! as the Wi-i-i-se Womanwomanwoman
useta saysaysay

The Stand Up
The Sit Down
The Walk and Folks, guaranteed,
that’s about it
(although sometimes The Walk is known as “Walk the Walk”)
Thank you and Good!
Night! [blackout]

The Stand Up
The Sit Down
The Walk and Folks, guaranteed,
that’s about it
(although sometimes The Walk is known as “Walk the Walk”)
Thank you and Good!
Night! [blackout]

Still, …. [41 second Pauze][That is a German pause]

Once the Body BECOMERS the Body Politic [Burp]

and viceievicieversey [taunts]

Once the Body Politic BECOMERS the Body [Faux Burp]

you say

I Will HOP To Work

you say

you always say

I WILL LIE DOWN ON THE JOB

you will say Hopping and Lying

down

            down                down

These are my jobs as  human

To Evolve!

To Evolve and to Kill the Tyrant!!

 

The Minnesota Activist Series #4  
The Opening of the Big Museum

It was big, you were lost, the art leads you sure, but you are lost
In the art
There were colors, all friends & shades, & escalators, saying see
You later
At the top, there is so much space, blink your eyes reopen, leap
Into space
Remarkably attenuated, yet forcefully blank, there was nothing you could do
About it
Many’s the time you were forced to draw the blinds behind & stare solely
At the art
Wandering drifts so many mazed passages & treats of eye flash that you’d stop
At nothing
Just to see everything was the trick of the day, carousing conflicts of mind &
Memory
At just the right moment the helicopter would land offering to whisk you up
& away
You wave it on over the edge’s horizon and keep on searching for what is right
Before you
The Museum is opening, continually opening, waves opening you, waves
Opening you

 

The Minnesota Activist Series #5
The Impossible Rap (The Other Thought)

Last night just as I was passing into sleep
One final thought began to race me to the dream
Intercepting the sweet powers of Morpheus
Pressing me to wakefulness and purpose

I drew my pen and prepared to set down this marvel,
Final thought of my existence  so it seemed
The thought itself panting, near Death, as I
Retrieved it: it called itself, The Other Thought

What? A thought appearing in my mind that was not of my
Thinking? A thought I thought I'd exiled that thought,
Banished it as not of me, not me enough, then urging
Me to please shut up, The Other Thought continued:

"Do not dwell upon the political implications inherent in your
Inability to entertain any but your own precious thoughts, Buddy.
Rather, amend your ways to allow Other Thought's existence.
Write not The Poem; write, The Other Poem!" 'Tis impossible!

I countered, for by so doing, by giving vent to The Other,
Am I not precluding the very basis of my own existence, essence
Of me? At that, the thought became a shiver that coursed
My spine, and I find myself engaged in application:

To rap the rap with the truest groove
There's no stop gap from the first remove
This either/or thing
Is just one more thing
A touch too much
A tad too bad
A bit to wit
A might too tight
Explode in your mind, a tiny grenade
Leaving the impression The Other Thought made
I never thought
I never thought
I never thought The Other Thought

Hey, wait a second
Wait a second second
This is Impossible!

The Impossible Rap
Is ready to appear
Is it possible that
You are ready to hear
It has something to do
With what you just said
It's the thought you can't remember
In the back of your head
It's the dream you won't surrender
When you get out of bed
Just Return to Sender
Think The Other Thought instead
The Other Thought   The Other Thought
The Other Thought's gonna get you
The Other Thought's gonna get you

If you say rapping is just scratching on the surface
I think I know what's making you so nervous
You say you don't understand the beat?
Put your ears to the ground and listen to your feet

It's Impossible!
But undeniable
It's ubiquitous
Don't hold me liable
It's always behind you
When you turn around
Just out of sight
Just underground

I never thought   I never thought
I never thought The Other Thought
I never thought The Other Thought
Might as well go to bed
Chill that hot‑thought head
Good night! Sleep tight.
Twixt waking & sleeping
That Other Thought is seeping
Creeping & leaping into place
Right before your face
With a certain grace
Well, in that case:
Is it Impossible?
Sine qua known!
It's a itsy‑bitsy schizy
Other Thought's on the phone
It's so humiliating when your brain is on call waiting
It's so humiliating when your brain is on call waiting

Back back back
Back before you said it
Back back back
Back before you thought
You were there too
How do you do?
Is your thinking on the blink
What is it to you
Can't tell what from...what‑not?
That's what The Other Thought's Thought thought
That's real clear
You can take your tongue out of my ear
Another Other Thought is surfacing
While the surface disappears

Caramba! (Take a number)
Caramba! (Take a number)
Get in line with your mind
Get in line with your mind

I'm in with the Out Crowd
The Other Thought's cryin' out loud

Take the alternate take the alternate take the alternate take

The rush to resolution is not a solution

The Impossible Rap
Is ready to appear
Is it possible that
You are ready to hear
It has something to do
With what you just said
It's the thought you can't remember
In the back of your head
It's the dream you won't surrender
When you get out of bed
Just Return to Sender
Think The Other Thought instead

                         TRANSCEND
                               THE END

   

The Minnesota Activist Series #7 (on DVD)
Whatever I Was Thinking Of

What could I have been thinking of!
Thought. I was a-thinking thought. All
I was was thought and I needed to get “it”
Out.  It rhymed. It was a story, an image
Slugs your face like a lost skylark, timed

Like a suicide, the Thought countered.
Hey wait, I am the thought! But inner
Workings, well, who’s to know till “it”
Gets out. Even a Poem turned to the wall
You can read shadow, it is pre-writing….

It is, as Prof. Ong says, “nested in
Sound.” Where does the ong come from?
From song. Wrong strong gong daylong
Dipthong. Playing ping pong with King Kong.
Sigh. How much terror can one life hold?

The way you held me, that death smell.
Can the idea of thought keep Death out?
I thought you were dead but it was me.
My father, the suicider, and then my step-
Father followed and as ever, yours, father-

Less. I always feel like a fatherless child.
It took vowels to develop analytic thought,
They go cheek to jowl. Like the saying,
A picture is worth a thousand words, why
Is it a saying? You aughta be a picture

Of a man crying with a child crying beside
Him and an unspeakable wind, idiot,
A fog with two lights sticking out of it.
Sure they go up too far, illuminating
Nothing and they are in the wrong place

Too, but what would you have us do?
Now we are us, we are all thinking about
Every skylark, accident after accident
Until the horrible truth finally dawns: it’s
Dawn and you are still awake and the streets

Are long and lonely and dark and Mr. Ong’s
Guitar gently weeps. I think I want Mr. Ong
To be my father. That thought rapidly passing
The other way a fireman heading up the stairway
Looking for the fire while the bodies fall

All around. Apples. Gravity. The Afterlife. Suddenly
Praise poems are obituaries, Papa Susso taught me that.
If you listen, the walls will speak the Poetry. Writing
Is Death. So busy remembering everything he forgot
To do anything worth remembering. Get milk.

A singalong, passed on and on generationally till
It loops into an epic. Read that back. Dadotdit. Thought
Is sound. A brilliant collapse, what I’m saying
Through corpse: Thought reinvigorating. It’s
Agonizing Everso. The Year of the Grandson. Hello.

End of Final Message. I’m happy, why did I say
That? Contained, under the hat, universe condenses
Into single image, image of song, song of a
Painting, painting of dance, a dancing poem.



The Minnesota Activist Series #7
Do Not Delete! Two Found Poems Rescued From Spam  

Don't Forget
it's free popcorn chicken day at kfc

: Would you like some Extra income?

I'm not talking about getting rich.
I'm talking about a few hundred a week.
All you have to do is sit in front of your computer
for a couple hours a day!

#1  General Burps: is a world premiere, created for the Symposium. It's a Bush 2 World, and what can we do about it?

#2  Pasta Mon -- Perhaps the major problem facing the world is how white yuppie guys can take over reggae. Pasta Mon (Vibration) offers one solution. (I have done this w/ a live band, so if one is available I'd be happy to go Broadway.)

#3  14 Things To Do Before Friday - another World Premiere. The main thing to do with a to do list is hope it reminds you to look at the Top Do List.

#4  The Opening of the Big Museum - oh my God, another world premiere! There WAS a big museum opening in NYC recently, and it gives one hope. This is actually a noncynical piece. Could this be the start of a trend?

#5  The Impossible Rap (The Other Thought) -- An exposition of How Fascism begins at home! How blocked, to always think the thought you are thinking. Think the Other Thought!

#6  Whatever I Was Thinking Of - Orality, literacy and 9/11.

#7  Two Found Poems -- The contemporary poet must have the courage to actually open spam messages! Who knows what poetry might lurk there. Two examples.

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