Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tim W. Brown

Heart
is a Drum

Tim W. Brown


"I
want I want I want"
is
a refrain you will hear
if
you listen close enough.
Its
source is the heart:
a
beat is heard as blood
reverberates
in ears, pulse
is
felt inside the wrist.
It's
a two-step rhythm that
everyone,
even the unmusical,
has
a feel for, vibrations
propelling
us on a march
in
this parade called life.
It
echoes and resonates
through
the chest cavity,
attuning
the listener with
just
how big and hollow,
like
a bass drum, we are,
how
much we ache to fill
the
world with our noise.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season

Monday, April 29, 2013

Narges Rothermel

Don’t Give Up On Me

Narges Rothermel
 
I heard you say, I am not worthy of your time
I heard you say, “Wasting the space is a crime”
I heard you say, you are giving up on me
Don’t, I am on a crossroad of survival, you see
My father has not given up trying
My mother still hoping, she still is trying
The land I am born in struggling to open her heart
Acceptance by my countrymen is still, very hard
Not quite welcome at all desirable sites
Being different, repels so many God given rights
I’ve heard God created man in his image
I’ve heard a million forms of this message
Mom told me Jesus’ skin had a shade of brown
He became Jesus for every country and each town,
He became Jesus for every race, yellow red or brown
even for the ones with fair-skin and golden crown
Mom told me I’m also a child of God
when I’m among his other children, I hear the silent shout
Being poor and different makes me stand alone, and stand Out
Its odd that many still don’t see me as a child of The Only God
Like God’s other children I need to fit in. I need to survive
I too, yearn to exist. I too, need to dream I too, need to thrive
My dear teacher, I know you find it hard to cope
But you and this class are the only roads to my Hope
Invest in my future now, so you and your child
don’t have to face me when anger makes me wild
so, you don’t have to house me in windowless cells,
so you don’t have to buy iron-doors, alarms, and the bells
Perhaps spending some of your time, is the key
So, you don’t have to cage my child or me
in the other side of barbed-wire-fences
Please, try to see me with a pair of new lenses
My teacher, don’t condemn me and how I behave
Help me to be Brave in the Land of the Brave
Help me to feel Free in the Land of the Free
My dear teacher, Please, don’t Give Up On Me! 
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season  
 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Vicki Iorio

Brooklyn Invaded, 1969
 
When the astronauts took the moon
Nonna, broken by English,
heard the radio announcer say
the man in the moon landed in Brooklyn.
 
Windows were shut on that hot July day.
Hiding in the closet, Nonna breathed in
the musk of her dead husband
and said prayers for capture.
 
Granddaughter, dripping chlorine on the rug,
took Nonna's hand, sat her down on the ancient bed,
laughed piano keys and explained America.
 
Vicki Iorio

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Roberta A. McQueen

Three Haiku:

CHERRY TREE BLOSSOMS

Daybreak
cherry blossoms
in the pouring rain

FOR THE BIRDS HAIKU

Nests destroyed outdoors
rare redheaded woodpecker
eats peanuts I throw

SPRING TIME HAIKU

paper napkin used
recycled from cherry tree
poetry blossoms

Roberta A. McQueen

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Kate Boning Dickson

Pointillism
Spring reveals itself
in tiny articulations
artistic renderings -
dandelion dots
stipples of raindrops
and pinpoint variations
on the theme of green.
From birds
little marbles of song
roll along the street
with confetti
in tender pinks and whites
and tassels of pre-leaves -
all those dappled remains
of the birthday parties of trees.

Kate Boning Dickson
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!
 

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Ron Scott

THE OLD MAN AND HIS CHAIR
 
The old man appears comfortable in his chair,
Fireplace aglow in the crowded parlor,
His demeanor simulating an almost sleep.
Removed from his reverie by the sound of his name.
He ascends the podium to mild applause.
 
Papers in hand, his props.
Stories told a hundred times
In poetry and prose
Submit to memory
Refusing to be contained.
 
Each rendition given new life.
Peaks and valleys
Released on new horizons.
Awaiting the canvass
About to be displayed.
 
Captain, he takes his passengers on a journey
To heights above the clouds
The air clean and inviting
Ripe for proclamations
About to flow.
 
That pleasure is fleeting and singular
Pain is indelible and shared by all.
That a closed door cannot prevent love from entering
Hate enters only by invitation.
That “over the top” has a place“under the table”
Final destination – “out the door.”
That quality of life is a perception not exclusive to the wealthy
Less than have a rightful claim.
That man who knows not himself
Has no home.
That to have loved and lost
Belongs to another poet.
That a little humor makes a rough road smoother
Than no humor at all.
 
With that, the old man relinquishes the floor
Measuring success by the nod of heads
Rather than obligatory applause.
He retreats to the comfort of his chair
Ready and willing for the next journey.
 
Ron Scott
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Patricia Mansfield Phelan

The Kite
I found it this noon:
a stranger to all who had missed
its sun-drenched sailing, then surrender,
a death marker dangling in the cold.

One sighting gave me back the toy:
the shape and the glory and the laughing
of the pure hour
before its breaking.

Patricia Mansfield Phelan

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Barbara Novack

HUMAN FORM WITH LIGHT

We are
skin shell and bone
structured to articulate
and retain shape,
holding all the parts
in place;
this dwells in darkness
I cannot know.
And we are
sparks flying upward
synapses firing
electrons jumping,
and Edison creates incandescence
and Einstein’s e
flies light speed relatives
and we are
lanterns and lighthouses
and could be Christmas trees
if we but
allowed the joy.

Barbara Novack

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Peter Bové

My American Dream
 
I would like perfectly smooth hands and bright white teeth
Two girlfriends that don't know each other and a hat that looks right
None of these things do I currently possess
A lonely moment of realization told me so just the other day
But I'm working real hard to obtain them as we speak
Come to think of it, a dozen sunny days in a row
A white Cadillac, from the nineteen fifties or sixties
Whichever one is right
A Hi Def Entertainment Center
Some Native American stuff to be cool with
Like moccasins or something
A big swimming pool behind my big Stanford White house
Several Armani suits, a third girlfriend in another State
Wyoming maybe or L.A. and uh... some money to play with
...And a career in the movies
Yes, like Bogart or Ted Turner or Sly Stallone
Or even a new guy like Ben Affleck…
Somehow, I've got to get some of this stuff
I mean, things are not looking that great at the moment
Sometimes I think about my American Dream
Maybe soon...
Maybe sometime real soon
It will all make sense.

Peter Bové

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Roxanne Hoffman


HOW WE MEDITATE
for Jack Kerouac
Airborne
bird(like)brain
cloud
dances
erase, erase, erase
f a d e o u t
glide .
hummingly
inward ...
J O Y
kicking
like
Momma’s
newborn:
Ouch! Poof!
peaceful
quiet
rain’s
steady shh-ing …
till temple-dwellers upstairs:
upbeat
voices
warbling ...
Welcome world!
waking wiser
x-factor?
* Y O U *
you, yourself, you're
Zen
;-)

Roxanne Hoffman

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Cliff Kretkowski

Before My Helpless Sight
“Our distant rest,” was Owens song,
as marching soldiers trudged along;
to the place of the scene of imagined hope – the possible
pause from the refrain of war.

Rest is distant and far for some
and can spoil the journey to where we long
for our deepest, remotest, broken hearts - where a silent
belief of what’s to come.

In the trenches of my desperate life
where “drowning” and “flound’ring” had become
my norm. I begged for rest and there to find - the dream
of where I knew I could lie.

Cliff Kretkowski

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Friday, April 19, 2013

George Guida

White Vinyl Fence

I’m not thinking of Frost when he says from his yard, White vinyl fence:
one, two, three, four, five
sections. I’m hundreds of miles away, near the wife of country youth.
I’ll only see her
and those spaces again in the dreams beyond age. He has me by twenty
years, but I have no more
manly strength to tell him what I think of polyvinyl chloride, white.
His jowls are the face of the dog
I loved, the one who vomited through a snowy night before dying on cold
steel as I watched.
Surfaces shape our cares. How can I explain? standing in a berry patch
by rotting planks the dull shade
of home. He is right to believe the vinyl will last after children come
back to say our gardens
have gone to seed. Does he see in the depthless sum of colors there the
room they’ll plant him in?
Instead of a wife’s voice from a back porch, does he hear the broadcast
dinner tone and think,
while staring at vertical blinds, how desires always end in an argument
you lose?

George Guida

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Karen Jakubowski

Phenomenon of Wonder
We are born creatures of why
flush with heightened awareness
plump with inquisitiveness encased in new flesh.
In our nakedness we explore the world with instinct.
Our tiny hands reach,
learn to cling to the resonance of another
first grip around our guardian’s finger
flexing then tightening our grasp
never wanting to release the connection.
 
Our eyes meet their’s, hold the stare
we have yet to learn to turn away.
 
We memorize our mother’s milky scent
before our eyes adjust to more
than swirls of shape and shadow
before facial recognition comes into focus.
 
We are charmed by curiosity
welcome anything that we can scoop
and pull to our drool glistened lips
tasting life with the ripeness of early existence.
 
We are pure wonder
but then cognition occurs
and the walls begin to form.
 
Karen Jakubowski
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Patricia Carragon

Dance Before Dawn

It hurts
Lifting these legs
After that
Unexpected turn.
I can’t see minutes
Pirouette with time,
But life still flows
After the tempest.
My legs rise slowly
As moonlight disappears
Into the river,
Just before
Dawn crosses the sky.

Patricia Carragon 

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Peter V. Dugan

On Pens and Needles
Between the body art and caffeine, poets
unveil a wired vat anthem of misnomer
ear candy epaulets filled with alien slang sarcasm,
a melodrama of cynicism and hedonism.
 
They wield their pens like rapiers in the hands
of swordsmen slashing and stabbing, hacking
and slicing through the jungle and jumble
resonant in the mediocrity of middle-class life.
 
They open woe, open wounds and peel away
the scabby scars of society.
 
At night, you can hear them howl, creating
a cacophony of natural and unnatural sounds
flowing into the jazz like euphony of existence,
with words that are raw, flawed and unpolished.
 
A primal scream, a rap on life, a static noise
that echoes eloquent, powerful words ready to burst
into a spectrum of colors, images and stories
painted in the pastels of nature and imagination. 
 
They write for the outlaws, the outcasts and
the outlandish, while they sip coffee and ponder
poems not yet put to paper.
 
They know Jesus never rode a Harley, but it is
Walt Whitman who is tattooed by the poets
reading at the Skin Deep Ink and Cafe.
 
Peter V. Dugan
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Louisa Calio

Body of Joy
My body is
a living instrument
of the divine.
My body is the music
of angel choruses and choirs
chants by Krishna Das
the cords and strings of Liebert’s guitar
Pavarotti's arias,
My body is
la luna negra …
pure grace unfolding
a billion whirling dervishes
the universe of stars,
My body is
rhythmic swells and sways
tender to the touch
playful rainbows
cherubim who love too much,
My body is the pure bliss
of consciousness,
ecstatic love holding laughter,
moonbeams, sunshine, dolphin smiles,
And my face is a poem.
 
Louisa Calio
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Lloyd Abrams

upstaged in oceanside
a breezy muggy monday
the last night of the summer readings
at the oceanside gazebo

i usually bring my dog who’s almost twelve
perhaps jimmy doesn’t relate to poetry
but he loves the attention
especially the crumb cake
… at the fourth of july barbecue
jimmy’s in doggie nirvana

there’s an open read scheduled
on this late august evening
perhaps several scheduled readers had bailed out
i sign the sheet
slot number two is free

tony calls the first four of us up
tells us to read just one short piece
herb goes first
i’m next
as i fiddle with the microphone
jimmy steps off the platform
sniffs a rose bush
lifts his legs
starts piddling
and piddles
and piddles
and piddles some more
he takes the longest pee i can remember

when he’s done
when he’s finally done
i say
thank you very muchget laughter and a round of applause

only then is it my turn
to read a poem entitled
old fart

Lloyd Abrams

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Herb Siegel

FIVE CARD HOLD ‘EM
 (Hurricane Sandy, October-November 2012)

Bathed in the harsh night light,
streams on green table tops,
life’s chips stacked on station,
each pile from different pots.

“Sandy” with wind and brimstone,
stripped all of house and home,
displaced people, heat, gas,
her wrath a fury unknown.

Until a snow storm came
for added misery,
on our Election Day,
and anniversary (57th).

Joan, Jon, Steph, and Dana
shone their light on other’s pain
with tender, loving care
sheltered from snow and rain.

The storm of the century
vs. care of family, friends,
and America to
survive assuredly.

Like a five-card hold ‘em game,
everybody’s all in.
Somber, anxious players.
The pot, we shared a win.

--Herb Siegel Dedicated to Joan, Jon, Steph, and Dana Mori

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Reed Farrel Coleman

The Sad Wife
A man stares at the face of his wife in a
photograph.
A man knows her somehow.
A man stares at the face of his watch
imagining gears, sprockets, a mainspring--
Somehow even ticking.
There are no mainsprings
behind the face of his wife
nor pictures ticking.
--Reed Farrel Coleman
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

J R Turek

Dragonfly on The Green
enticed by versified lines
you circle circle overhead
circle to absorb metaphors
natural as an August breeze
across Schoolhouse Green
 
hovering so low, I blink
against your blue black wings
that ruffle my hair at your passage
your stanza song hovers in my ear
plays replays plays like kids at recess
I went downtown to see Mr Brown
 
but you’re here on The Green
for poetry, the reader treats us to a sonnet
as sun floats lower in the sky, tiny ribbons
of light ignite your iridescence, liquid gold
veins on wings pulse an iambic beat,
your span wider than my hand, which
I hold out as a restful refuge for you
 
but you continue to circle free form
as free verse and I imagine you taking notes
as I do, my pen in hand, your song in my head
o beautiful you, wing’ed poetry
my muse on this dusklit evening
~ J R Turek
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Deborah Hauser

I Wanted the Moon
She set the glass of Tang down
in front of my brother,
wiped her hands on her apron.
I wanted Tang,
wanted to fly to the moon.
She set her fists on her hips,
sighed, shook her head.
I wanted Tang.
I wanted the moon.
She made me drink daisies instead.
Deborah Hauser
 
The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Barbara Reiher-Meyers

The Accident
 
I wanted my Mommy to come
and soothe away this dream
this crunch and thunk of ribs
and jarring bones.

I wanted to be in shock
because they say
it takes the pain away
but, no such luck

I stood upon the brakes until
they gave an angry sigh which said
I should have taken care
I cried, “Oh, God!, oh God!, oh,God!”

And He was there.
 
Barbara Reiher-Meyers

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Our First Poem-a-Day: Richard Vetere

In Reach
 
In reach was all that once was treasured
nameless in the fear least often measured
in that place of neither death, star or earth
where a life is valued more than it's worth.
 
Despite the years much is left unlearned
harbored in twilight only to be returned
to a murky dawn etched on a lonely face:
a tarnished remnant from an old embrace.
 
from The Other Colors in a Snow Storm by Richard Vetere (Bordighera Press 2012).


Richard Vetere

The Summer Gazebo Readings are held each Monday evening at 7pm in June, July & August. Each evening 4-5 authors and poets share their work from our Gazebo on Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY. SGR is produced by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside. Funds raised through sponsorships help send underprivileged kids to Kamp Kiwanis each summer. This summer marks our 7th season!