VERSE / Larry Piltz : Spurred by Love

Lonesome cowboy, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009. Photo by Phil Douglis / PBase.

Spurred by Love

[For Buck Ramsey, Cowboy Poet Laureate]

On his last mount
the cowboy cries
a lonesome roller
and practitioner
of the riding
roping arts
also known
as its poet
laureate supreme
one late night
saying goodbye
please stay
won't you
please

sobbing alone
one more time
to bay at the soul
of the lifeless moon
alone by the range
in the kitchen
of his exile
from the life
he'd loved
for an accident
thrown by life
from his horse
into the irony
of being the iconic
sad troubadour
of all the cowboys
lonesome yet
for a while
with no end
in sight
and poetry
to write

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
July 17, 2013

[Larry Piltz is an Austin-based writer, poet, and musician. Find more articles and poetry by Larry Piltz on The Rag Blog.]

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : Hasan's Beard

Hasan's Beard

Not one to turn the other cheek
Hasan's Beard bristled at the charges.
Not guilty by reason of inanity!
Not even accessory after the fact.
Yet military justice had Hasan's Beard by the short ones
and Hasan's Beard would ultimately take it on the chin
in this enigmatic full-grown brush with the law
with the verdict-to-be not even a close shave
nor by a whisker but a shadow of a pretext.

This is a rash prosecution of ingrown justice
wrong in so many ways even on a follicular level
the trial more of a clip joint than a court of law.

They have not seen the last of Hasan's Beard
a growing problem
even after death.

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
August 22, 2012
Indian Cove
Austin

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/judge-orders-hasans-beard-shaved-before-court-martial-2422326.html

[Larry Piltz is an Austin-based writer, poet, and musician. Find more articles and poetry by Larry Piltz on The Rag Blog.]

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Video / Larry Piltz : You Asked Us to Believe

"You Asked Us to Believe." Music, lyrics, vocal, producer: Larry Piltz; arrangement, instruments, recording enginer: Lamar Pecorino; post-production graphics and duplication: Channel 3 Video.

You Asked Us To Believe

"Fear Wins" read the headlines
on the papers on the windows
as the sun rose on the anger
of a nation at the headlines.

Where's that savior who's in favor
of the humans and all beings
and the freeing of the nation
from the bread lines and their dangers?

There's a moment in the waiting
in the hoping amid the wondering
when time turns into motion
into the surge of a mighty ocean.

Hear me now
you asked us to believe
in something more
than what we thought
we might achieve.
So we carried you
right to that open door
and we don't have to grieve
an open door.
We can do more.
Oh yes we can

It's been an eon in the making
and it's no time for fear and quaking.
Let's see what love and peace will foment
as we seize our freedom moment.

We are The People. Speak with power
in your towns up in your towers.
It's our Spring and time to flower
as we live our finest hour.

There's a champion in the headlines
in the bread lines with a lifeline
and a bright line and a deadline
but whose dream will win the byline?

Will "Love Wins" read the headlines
in the sunshine and across the fault lines?
Will it be the nation's claim to glory
when history writes our story?

Hear us now
you helped the world believe again
in something real and good
that we'd dreamt we could achieve friend.
It's time for us to stride
through that open door.
You know we don't need to grieve
an open door.
We can do more.
Oh yes we can.
You asked us to believe in something more
and yes we can.
Yes we can.
Oh yes we can.
Yes we can

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog


[Larry Piltz is an Austin based writer, poet, and musician. Find more articles and poetry by Larry Piltz on The Rag Blog.]

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : The Wound of the Gulf

The Gulf of Mexico. Photo from Nature's Portraits.

Oil is the salt in
The wound of the Gulf

By Houma Cayenne

We have saltwater in our veins
and when it pours it biblically rains
God knows we've had our losses and gains
had lots of Abels and our share of Cains
but we're open and we're warm
and we let our love be our charm
and believe in the power of first do no harm
we believe in the power of first do no harm

There's a Gulf within
and a Gulf out there
there's the Gulf my friend
and a Gulf of care
a Gulf between
what we say and do
the silent Gulf we don't mean
between me and you
the Gulf between
suffering and ease
a wide Gulf that's bridged
like the old Rigolets

Is ours a Gulf of childhood innocence
or a Gulf of lost dream penitence
or a Gulf of ambiguity
to suffer in perpetuity

A mullet slaps the waves
in the land of the wet and the brave
in a land that cannot be paved
in a land that can still be saved

A black water snake is sunning
and a shrimper's engine's gunning
as the tides just keep on running
watch us run on kindness and cunning
in a land where nothing is wanting

Along a backwater mirror glass
a nursery for life from its source to the pass
where fresh and salt make fertile mishmash
the rare conditions for life in a clash
runs a rabbit through the cordgrass
with the hope this day won't be its last
as hawk circles over the marsh
with an appetite that's harsh
but the rabbit is hungrier still
for life with her genius stubborn will
and today there'll be no kill
but for neither will time be standing still
and tomorrow will have its fill
from the rarest cougar to herds of krill
for those with lung and with sifting gill
and with claws and longing and vital quill
in this land without a rock or hill
digesting petroleum's poison pill
because of a violently negligent spill

Oil is the salt in the wound of the ocean
the salt in the womb of The Gulf in motion
the Womb of Creation not some vague notion
The Gulf a womb of sacred devotion
pierced in its side its bleeding quotient
oil is the salt in the wound of the ocean
the salt in the womb of The Gulf in motion

Huoma Cayenne
As told to Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
June 14, 2010

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : New Atlantis and Banglateche

"Earth could not answer; nor the Seas that mourn..." Illustration by Adelaide Hanscom and Blanche Cumming (1905) for “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” tr. Edward Fitzgerald / Wikimedia Commons.

New Atlantis and Banglateche

By Houma Cayenne

Here beside my breathing Bayou Teche
true lifeblood of our Acadian creche
my second sight so easily stretches
oer the realm of the fishermen's catch
and the damage caused by greed and its wretches
I mourn for the view that's meant us
for the floating early grave that's sent us
the oncoming waters of New Atlantis

I see your sea birds' desperate flailing
overwhelmed, hopes frail and lean
and our skimmers' regretful sailing
while retching toxins oer the railing
dreading more each year's new gale e'en
as I ponder night and daily
the meaning of the mighty pirates failing
as mon amis must keep on bailing

To the inland coast of Banglateche
come the lapping waves of New Atlantis
through the heaving booms of helpless mesh
by the isles of decaying detritus
carrying bodies of beings you'd have to guess
a tide of mayhem, murder, and mindless mess
witnessed by your humble Cajun Cervantes
tilting seaward like a mantis
raging with a sacred wailing
for a time of great white whaling
a catch of mighty pirates failing
their lies and sad excuses trailing
all the way to their righteous jailing
as mon amis must keep on bailing

New Atlantis and Banglateche
our refuge now becomes the depths
our solid ground eternally wet
yet wonder where to throw our nets
and how we'll throw each jour de fete
Oh Evangeline you sweet coquette
we thought we'd somehow save you yet
your marshes and heron, chenier and egret
the sheltering cypress, the saltgrass carpet
the oyster and crab and shrimp we've met
Oh all of life, we are in your debt
as heart to heart and tete to tete
we grieve for the diet of poison you'll get
for your suffering we've more than our share of regret
as the years roll by a la morte de roulette
le bon temps au revoir et allons Banglateche
we pray that somehow we can all start afresh
as out in New Atlantis the pirates keep failing
and mon amis still keep on bailing

Houma Cayenne
As told to Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
May 30, 2010

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : The Gulf

Art from illusion360.
The Gulf

"The water was fouled at once,
but they drank it none the less,
a mess of mud and blood"
- Thucydides

Oil on the water
blood on the sands
cruel and unusual
big business plans
eleven souls dying
then millions more
of fellow live beings
damn big business whores
crude in their veins
greedy slick hearts
their making a killing
rips lives apart
big oil at the table
pounds on its chest
keeps us addicted
kills all the rest
what becomes of our world
what becomes of our pride
what becomes of our lives
when death comes with the tide

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
Austin, TX
(from Back Bay,
Biloxi, MS)
May 4, 2010

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : We're Focused in Going Forward

"Piggy Banker." Painting © Zina Saunders 2009.

We're Focused In Going Forward (a song)

We're focused in going forward
hoping we're not moving backward
that our dreams are not shattered
and we're doing things that matter

We have a laser-eye view
of what we surgically need to do
but first we synchronize our attitudes
to increase the odds we're not that screwed

We'll strategize our paradigm
to turn this tanker on a dime
then magnetize our money bomb
and incentivize remaining calm

Calm, calm, calm, calm
take a powder take a balm
calm, calm, calm, calm
serenity thy name is Rahm

I yearn to actionize my sweetheart deal
get skin in the game and watch it peel
to hybridize across the board
take a flier and pull the cord

I'll morally hazard deep cramdowns
and turn the plunge team into clowns
creatively destroy the ranks
of dualistic zombie banks

I'll deconstruct the stewardship
and ride risk-free the double dip
but why I do this I won't tell
but two key words are soul and sell

soul, sell, soul, sell
I salivate at the first bell
soul, sell, soul, sell
it's later that I go to hell

We're focused in going forward
hoping we're not ass backward
that our dreams were not hackered
by some spoiled rich cracker
we're focused in going forward


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
April 20, 2010

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Larry Piltz : Richard Bowden is an Instrument for Peace

Richard Bowden, organizer of the Million Musicians March for Peace, plays with Leeann Atherton at the Rag Blog Benefit Bash and Albert Einstein 131st Birthday Party at Jovita's, Sunday, March 14, 2010. Photo by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.
Richard Bowden and a million musicians
Take to the Austin streets

By Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog / March 19, 2010

Million Musicians March for Peace in Austin, Texas, Saturday, March 20, 2010. Music/Rally at the Capitol, 12 Noon. Parade from Capitol through downtown Austin, 2 p.m. Music/Rally at Austin City Hall, 2:30-4 p.m. Be an Instrument for Peace.

Richard Bowden ain't fiddlin' at windmills.

He's not tilting either. He knows very well what he's doing and why, and will tell you his purpose straight up. It's to keep the hope for and goal of actual peace at the forefront of the hearts and minds of the people of Austin, and of people around the world, the billions who yearn for peace and desperately need peace in order to have safe, happy, productive, and healthy lives, or to even have lives at all.

Richard, a well-known and admired Texas fiddler, whose pickin’ partners make up a who’s who of major artists, instinctively understands that war robs people of the good things in life, that it steals time and resources from families and communities, and that it takes loved ones away permanently, suddenly, or changes them in ways that further strain the bonds of humanity.

Richard has also observed -- witnessing commercial journalism's utter default to deceitful jingoism in its coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War debacle -- that people are being led to war with no real reason or evidence for it, and with no real counterbalancing voices or information. Who would tell the people?

Basically no one, Richard figured. But what could he do? He wasn't a committed political activist. He's only a musician, after all...

Actually, it was the moment my Mom called me to tell me me that the twin towers had been destroyed by terrorists that I realized we were in trouble. I said, "Uh oh, Mom. They're going to try to take our democracy away." She sounded surprised and said, "Who, the terrorists?" I said, "No, Mom, the government."

When I saw my prediction coming true I knew it was my responsibility to do something, just as if I were a German citizen in the early 1930's. I wrote lots of emails to the newspaper, to friends, etc... At some point I realized that my strongest tool for reaching lots of people with challenging information was as a musician, with all my contacts and p.r. skills, and my ability to put on an event.

Then he thought about Face the Music Festival, a gathering of musicians and poets he'd helped to organize in 2002 to heighten public awareness about the draconian drug law enforcement that had resulted in the deaths of an innocent teen and a deputy sheriff within a year's time in separate Austin-area SWAT-style drug raids.

Richard Bowden with Barbara K at Rag Blog Benefit Bash. Photo by James Retherford / The Rag Blog.

"When those drug war deaths happened in the winter of '02-'03 I wasn't in the mood to be quiet," he remembers. "I see the so-called war on drugs as the necessary precursor to the so-called war on terror. The policy makes no logical sense, yet the population is afraid to speak out against it, for fear of being on 'the wrong side.'

Richard teamed with Drug Policy Forum of Texas and the ACLU -- which provided speakers at the festival -- and invited musicians and poets to help attract people to the otherwise educational event. Long story short, soon thereafter the violent middle-of the-night neighborhood drug raids ceased, and Richard had become a political organizer. (Though he always says, “I’m just a fiddle player. Everybody can be an instrument for peace.”)

This is why he founded Austin's Million Musicians March for Peace: To get the word out. To break through the conjoined barriers of information lockdown and apathy. In his words:

It was back during the time when everybody was scared to criticize the so-called war on terror for fear of being seen as unpatriotic, and I wanted to get people talking. We had to break the silence. This really was a job for musicians. It's always the musicians and artists who speak a truth first, before the general population. The artists give "permission" to the general population to try new things.

Why a musicians' march? You start with what you know. “We should all contribute what we're good at.”

Richard's first foray into musical political activism had garnered positive results. Why stop when you're on a (drum) roll?

In 2006 I was invited by Austin Against War to attend a planning meeting for the march they had organized for three years in a row since '03, the Iraq invasion. I took Bill Oliver, a fellow musician, with me. I figured it would be a huge group: the Austin peace movement! I was surprised to just see four or five people sitting around a table in a gloomy church basement. They wanted to see if I knew a musician who would play at City Hall when the march arrived.

I looked at my calendar and realized it was the Saturday of SXSW. I said, hey, lets turn the march into a musical parade for peace and invite every musician we can find to join us... The organizers asked, "Do you really think musicians would want to do that?" I looked at Bill. We nodded our heads..."They'll do it!"

We had two weeks to organize the whole thing, mostly me and Bill and Frank Meyer. We worked ourselves silly, but we pulled it off... hundreds of musicians showed up, including some of my musical heroes... in a downpouring rain!

So began the MMM, and it would be timed annually with Austin's international giant musician magnet, South by Southwest (SXSW). The word would go out, from charismatic speakers and artists at the Texas State Capitol, from what might be the world's largest marching band, playing and dancing along the Congress Avenue parade route, including musicians from many countries, and from speakers and robust performances at Austin's City Hall on Lake Lady Bird, out to the entire world.

Thousands of SXSW musicians and music apprecianados would become familiar with MMM, and many would spread the gospel. And who knows: someday MMM's might spring up in cities across the country -- across the world --- to help galvanize already existing world opinion for actual peace in our time.

Wavy Gravy leads the 2009 Million Musicians March. Photo by Mara Eurich / The Rag Blog.
Thorne Dreyer reported on last year's march in The Rag Blog:

As hundreds of locals, tourists, musicians and industry types attending South by Southwest -- the massive technology, film and music fest -- packed the streets of downtown Austin Saturday afternoon, March 21, the Million Musicians March for Peace -- with hippie legend Wavy Gravy leading the way -- snaked by in a rhythmic procession, creating its own lively soundtrack as it passed...

Marching behind a banner that said, “Be an Instrument for Peace,” more than 200 singing, chanting and dancing marchers followed a second-line type brass band from the Texas State Capitol through the busy streets of downtown Austin -- up Congress Ave. past the crowds queued up for a premiere at the Paramount Theater, then delighting the throngs along Sixth Street’s music row, and on to City Hall for a rally and concert...

About that event, Richard Bowden told The Rag Blog, “Of all the events worldwide in remembrance of the sixth anniversary of the Iraq disaster, the Million Musicians March for Peace was the only one led by musicians. He added, “I am so glad to be in Austin where we can do something like this.”

The 2008 MMM was massive, with more than 1,000 musicians and activists snaking through downtown Austin. Dreyer wrote:

Musicians, some on foot and others performing from floats, makeshift trains and art cars, played tubas and trumpets and bagpipes and drums. Groups of strolling guitarists strummed and sang, “We ain’t gonna study war no more.” Waves of demonstrators stretched for blocks -- young people and old, students and Iraq vets and old hippies, with dogs and children, carried banners, waved signs and danced in the streets. One young man carried a placard proclaiming “The Beginning is Near!”

Meanwhile Richard Bowden has as usual organized this year's MMM in the finest traditional style of fiddlers everywhere: Play your music, support the creativity and often madcap brilliance of your fellow musicians, and take the melodic lead at just the right times and in just the right ways. But above all have fun.

Sundays at Cafe Caffeine on West Mary Street became one happy energetic rehearsal for the big day (Saturday, March 20, from noon to 4 p.m., beginning at the State Capitol).

"If it's not fun, I'm going home." That's Richard's motto. But don't worry. It's always fun. For more details about this year's event, go to the Million Musicians March and Instruments for Peace websites.

The march is led by the Jericho Brass Band, a classic "second line" band first organized by Mark Rubin and friends... remembering that the walls of Jericho were brought down by the sound of trumpets!

This year, there will also be a big post parade party at Cafe Caffeine the next day, Sunday, March 21, from 2-7 p.m. with many of the musicians from MMM performing.

For all its local Austin zeitgeist and flavor, however, the MMM hasn't happened in a historical vacuum. Troubadours through the ages spread the news from town to town, and roving poets and theater groups told stories of what was really going on behind public facades. Raving poet-prophets have always tried to alert people to looming calamities caused by bad political and religious leadership. Maybe if Jeremiah and Isaiah had had horn sections (and better agents) things could have turned out ok!

Producer Gia'na Garel, former co-host of Air America's "On the Real" (with Chuck D of Public Enemy), provides an elegant reminder of this history:

During every major revolution in modern history -- there was a backbeat…The French sang and chanted through the streets with no less fervor backing their active revolt than did the Haitians or the Americans or later the civil rights era activists who learned to pump harder beats along with their fists. The very voice of activism is undercut with a pulse -- a vibration -- that catches us up and galvanizes the masses, as easily as it does one individual listening to their lone drumbeat.

It's the synergism of lone drumbeats that makes the music, that makes the group, with each lone drummer carrying the beat. Ed Ward, former Austin American-Statesman music critic and Rolling Stone contributor, who's lived and worked in Europe for many years and now lives in Montpelier, France, candidly talks about one aspect of the axis of individual artist and activism:

My guess is that most people don't know the political stances of most musicians because the musicians don't usually talk about that subject. Many musicians are smart enough to know that their opinions are essentially not very well thought out, and so they decline... The exceptions are usually people who have started in the folk tradition, where, thanks to the examples of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, there's a long lineage of people who've mixed purely artistic output with committed political output.

Will T. Massey.
One such musician, who took the time and trouble to educate himself about politics and its impact on the world, is Austin's Will T. Massey, whom the New York Daily News described as “one of the greatest storytellers since Dylan and Van Morrison," and who has been involved with the MMM for several years now.

Massey made a gradual transition to political songs, but the decision to do so wasn't easy. "It was a tough decision, something I had to think pretty hard about," says Massey. "I have about an equal number of new political songs and more traditional songs that are more about people and places. It’s certainly more challenging to take the political route; I’ve already heard from longtime fans that I should keep politics out of my music."

Massey writes about his decision in "American Prayer":

I’m advised to rein my words in tight/to take my tunes and go quietly in the night/I hope you’ll help us all to speak our minds/because the voices of the people are being left behind/tell them that we’re tragic when you get up there/and that we need some magic, my American prayer.

Massey collaborated with MMM founder Bowden on "a political record I made a few years ago.”

My involvement in the march was a natural extension of that as the record was all pro-peace. Through working on the march, I've become increasingly aware of the peace community in Austin which is affirming to my pacifist tendencies... I'm proud to be a part of such a vast group of people. I'm proud of everyone who participates.

Massey, besides being a wonderful songwriter and musician, exemplifies the merging of musician and activist, and the larger merging of musician/activist with community/audience, an accelerating trend as mass communication binds like-minded people closer in more cohesive groups.

We become less isolated and more naturally inclined to form groups, based on our interests and our beliefs. We naturally gravitate toward each other, beginning at least a partial unwinding of an almost century-long trend toward dispersal and separation. It's a democratization of information -- and groups that make better use of their cohesiveness and the flexibility that instant communications allows will usually be more successful than those that don't.

This is where partnership between artist and community/audience becomes especially important. This is one reason the MMM is such an interesting phenomenon. It has great potential to bring common purpose and coordinated action in the social and political realm.

Bobby Bridger at the 2009 Texas Book Festival. Photo © 2009 Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons.
According to former Austin musician, actor, playwright, visual artist, and general Renaissance Mountain Man Bobby Bridger:

In the olden days artists would publish a manifesto clearly stating their mission as well as the causes they supported. I did something like this for eight years with my quarterly tabloid, Hoka Hey!, which focused on American Indian concerns."

This seems to be a more simpatico state to which artists and their audiences are now gradually returning, an evolution in reverse to a more workable framework for allowing personal input and power into our lives and communities, local and otherwise.

We know who we are, who our natural allies are, and therefore can better act in concert for the greater good. In this way, we may be beginning a process of potentially returning to a more decentralized state of governance as well, with the artist-audience relationship being both bellwether and building block.

Bridger continues:

I've been involved with American Indians since the beginnings of my four decade career, so I haven't even considered them a "cause"; instead, my involvement with Indians is as intrinsic to my personal journey as is my music or my career as a visual artist or playwright. It is all integrated into "who" I am.

Bridger seamlessly describes the unity ultimately inherent in all human relationships, not only with each other individuals but also within chosen groups -- and also in our relationship with our treasure of a world.

Which brings us all the way back to a certain march for peace, with musicians, and families, and friends, and a beautiful day rain or shine.

Carolyn Wonderland, with Guy Forsyth, plays at Austin City Hall, during 2009 Million Musicians March for Peace. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.
Valerie Bowles -- who was a well-known bassist in the phenomenal Dallas and Texas at-large punk-rock world -- remembers her experience participating in the first MMM:

Steven [Harper] and I marched in the first one in the rain. There were a few less than a million. We walked alongside Billy Bragg, who in his own career has influenced a heck of a lot of people politically. The night before, we had heard him sing songs by Woody Guthrie, who had led his own movement for peace and justice.

Lydia was 15 at the time, and she marched, too. Hopefully, it will get bigger and better publicized every year, but yeah I'd definitely do it again. It kind of reminded me of one of those New Orleans funerals with the tubas and jazz players.

In Richard Bowden’s words:

WHY do we do it? Because it’s the seventh anniversary of the Iraq occupation: To remember the millions of innocent victims, and the trillions in growing U.S. debt, and warn of spreading, endless war. Because Austin is uniquely suited to using popular culture to encourage a popular movement for peace. To promote independent information media. Because knowledge IS power. Because everyone has valuable talents and skills: "Everyone can be an instrument for peace."

And, finally, we'll help you launch your own march with an email-reply poem from Thom Moon/ Thom the World Poet, M.C. at Cafe Caffeine Sundays, in answer to the question:

Why march?
well, we do not!
we walk /dance/jog /strut together -
poets,musicians,artists
down Austin streets
between Capitol performances and city Hall shows
with great joy and jubilation
Forms are improvised as we glow-
1. all are welcomed
2. every "march" is different
3. what happens this march is only partially planned
This is the best poetry on march 20 at noon
so i join the lines as they free verse swing through SXSW laminates
between APD and citizenry-for peace!
Usual petitions/placards/posters-unusually talented musicians
harmonics as role modeling-rhythm meets rhyme in public and at large
Where else can poets go except where following the Muse?
Each year ,a different eclectic mix of Austinites ask for peace
and the media/public response is positive
So every sunday we rehearse spontaneity
adding to the glow of the flow-seeking volunteers
making Paradise possible, practical and pragmatic
We are all volunteers
We are artists,poets,musicians
We are on a steep learning curve
What happens next is unknown
This is why we meet, greet and enjoy each other's company
Every sunday at cafe caffeine 909 west mary 2pm to 4.30pm
and @the Capitol saturday march 20 at high noon
Be there! Poetry meets music meets people for peace!
Yes,please!
MILLION MUSICIANS MARCH 4 PEACE"

Those participating in this year's Million Musicians March for Peace include:

Guy Forsyth, Carolyn Wonderland, Shelley King, Leeann Atherton, Barbara K [Kooyman], The Jericho Brass Band, Oliver Steck, Ryan Gould, Samantha Vanderslice, Bill Oliver, Daniel Cioper, Frank Meyer, Mo McMorrow, Jim & Sherry Patton, Karen Abrahams, Will T. Massey, Jon Emory, Thom Moon Bird, Nick Travis, Kathy Rowell, Brenda Freed & Michael D'Eath (Him an Her), Cleve Hattersly, John Jordan, Bill Johns, Edgar Pace, Bob Slaughter, Datri Bean, Minor Mishap Marching Band, Bruce Salmon, David Garza, Regan Brown, Dana McBride, Krishna Lee, Bear Beam, J.D. Finley, P.J "Cowboy Poet" Liles, Joe Carr,and Richard Bowden.

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : You Asked Us To Believe

"Library" by Bernard Zackheim, 1933. Detail from a mural at the Coit Tower in San Francisco. It was part of a series of murals produced under the auspices of the New Deal's Public Works Art Project. The massive effort stirred up controversy due to the inclusion by some of the 26 participating artists of what were interpreted as leftist images.


You Asked Us To Believe
(Oh Yes You Can)

Fear Wins read the headlines
on the papers on the windows
as the sun rose on the anger
of a nation at the headlines

Where's the savior who's in favor
of the humans and the being
and the freeing of the nation
from the bread lines and their danger

There's a moment in the waiting
in the hoping amid the wondering
when time turns into motion
into the surge of a mighty ocean

Hear me now
you asked us to believe
in something more
than what we thought we could achieve
so we carried you
right through that open door
into the sun
now please don't make us grieve
that open door
we can do more
you asked us to believe
we can do more
so hear me now
oh yes you can
oh yes we can
we can do more

It's been an eon in the making
and we're tired of fear and quaking
when time stops but for its moment
to observe just what will foment
what will you do for the people
you of the people
you by the people
will you mount up
or preach a sermon
when the people
are called vermin
cause they're hungry
and they're desperate
will your peace
be one that's separate

There's a champion in the headlines
in the bread lines in the life lines
with a deadline and a dateline
but whose dream will be the byline
will Love Wins read the headlines
in the sunshine will it be mine
and the nation's claim to glory
when history writes its story

So hear us now
you made the world believe
in something more
that it's dreamt it can achieve
we'll carry you
push right on through that door
it can be done
so help us celebrate
that open door
we can do more
oh yes you can
oh yes we can
you've helped us to believe
we can do more
Oh yes you can
Oh yes we can
right through that open door
we can do more
Oh yes we can


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
February 13, 2010

[Note: This poem is a song.
Anyone capable of helping
get it produced and recorded
please speak up in the comments.
Thanks. – L.P.]

The Rag Blog

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : The Sage, the Sophist, and Some Populists

"The Wise Man" by Jim Warren / Jim Warren Studios.

New Perfection
(The Sage, the Sophist, and Some Populists)

The sage says
the world is perfect
already arrived
yet arriving still
and drifts back
into meditation

The sophist explains
that perfection is the standard
by which we need measure
all earthly pursuits
and that if we fall short
it must be our fault
because the world is perfect
and then moves on
to scold the next town

I say perfection is a concept
by which sophists earn a living
and forego responsibility
to think deeply enough
about anything more meaningful
than their own ambitions
and that sages have it right
that what is will have to do
but could use worldly experience
to further prove their theory
and to help improve perfection
and its lagging reputation

Some populists say
don't let the perfect
be the enemy of the good
but they might should consider
making the good a reality
so as not to be the enemy
of either


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
February 3, 2010


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VERSE / Larry Piltz : A Poem of Judicial Atrocity

Corporate zombie. Photo by Ian MacLellan / MacLellan Images.

The Sniff Test
[A poem of judicial atrocity]

The corporate zombie creature
raises a misshapen nostril
out of the feudal muck,
smells air sweet enough to foul
and emerges uncontrite,
lunging onto stolid ground
the mud beneath it splattering,
on a day to be remembered
as belonging to the living dead;
the monstrous titan behemoth
is extinct no more,
its natural enemies,
the living, the free, you, me,
assigned to take its place exiled
in the stifling underground.

December 2000.
January 2010.
A locust cycle.
A plague of robes.
Fascio-Judicial Robespierres,
contorted Terror from within.
A heroic ninety-page dissent
enables a shrewd new
underground railroad
of organized outrage
and wholly natural
resistance in kind.
Justice in kind.
A corporeal response
from a body politic
with 2020 vision.
The gloves are off.


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
January 21, 2010

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Bush to Haiti : You've Got to be Kidding!

George Bush and Bill Clinton: a marriage made in Haiti.
Back to the scene of the crime:
Bush ousted Haiti's Aristide, blew it with Katrina

This is just the last straw for me with the phony baloney bipartisanship fetish.

By Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog / January 15, 2010

Is it hurricane season already? George W. Bush is bringing his Katrina and Aristide-related skills to Haiti.

This is just the last straw for me with the phony baloney bipartisanship fetish. Teaming Clinton with Bush, either going to Haiti or to front for its rescue and recovery funding efforts, just totally tears it. There is no equivalence between the two leaders. None whatsoever.

First, Clinton made an effort to restore democracy to Haiti. Bush pulled a coup d'etat in Haiti and had its President Aristide kidnapped and dumped in Africa. Bush's actions caused the murder of hundreds of innocent citizens in Haiti and tormented the island nation, not to mention leaving known human rights abusers in charge of the coup regime. Nice plan, George.

Second, under no circumstances and in no rational person's imagination could Bush represent anything but efforts at destruction and subversion, not rescue or recovery. Look around the world today. Look at Iraq -- destroyed. Look at Afghanistan -- criminal neglect and return of the Taliban. Look at Pakistan -- frighteningly dangerous deterioration in a nuclear nation's security.

Sure, the U.S. Navy helped out after the Indian Ocean tsunami, but that was because Bush had pushed us unnecessarily into war against practically the entire southern half of Asia. We happened to be there. Call it a lucky mistake.

Third, which is related to #2, look at New Orleans. Just look at it. No, it's not returned to anything near normal since the levees failed after Katrina. Not even half-normal. Bush ensured that New Orleans was ethnically cleansed, created a refugee diaspora, and ensured that people in the flood and its immediate aftermath suffered far worse than would have been necessary under Clinton's FEMA, which Bush largely dismantled through Brownie-style privatization efforts. Though just maybe Bush can claim a little bit of credit for Reggie Bush. No relation. Go Saints.

Fourth, the world's financial system collapsed under Bush, largely due to his laissez-fail ideology. Where's the money to rebuild anything? Not even Haiti. Let alone America, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Bush is no Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter. Hell, he's not Bush the Elder or even Gerald Ford. Bush gives ridiculous pep talks with that buffoon Giuliani at so-called positive thinking seminars. Bush wisecracks at a hunting convention. Bush buys the house next door to his Dallas home and tears it down, leaving it empty so he can have a bigger side yard. Next he'll be cutting ribbons at gun shows. What a guy! At least there won't be any more important memos to ignore.

Since it looks like he's going to be the new Bush in the new millenium's traveling Clinton-Bush puppet show, maybe it could be considered community service, to begin to make up for throwing the world into chaos and suffering for who knows how long. But he'll have to work it off for the rest of his life, and then pass on his debt to society to his children and grandchildren, and many more begats after that.

So cool it with the stupid obsessive-compulsive bipartisan kabuki theater, media mavens and nebbish "centrists.” Your idiotic "push me-pull you" story line never was real. Regarding Haiti, I've never met Bill Clinton, I wasn't Bill Clinton's friend, and Bill Clinton was no angel when it came to imperialism, but George W. Bush, you are no Bill Clinton, though George, you may yet get the credit you deserve for being Herbert Hoover, with a side of war crimes thrown in.

God save the people and animals of Haiti, and God save them from George W. Bush, this time.

The Rag Blog

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VERSE / Larry Piltz : From God's Lips to Yours

"A Marriage Proposal." Wood engraving by Barnard from an 1877 issue of The Illustrated London News / Old-Print.com.

From God's Lips to Yours Happy New Year!

At the calendar's turn past choice becomes clear
as our marriage strolls into its fourteenth year
that decision writ large wove a soft comfy throw
built a nimbly steered barge with its speed set at slow
with potential adversity more than offset
by inspired hilarities no doubt we'll have met
two idiosyncrasies set into stone
two radio frequencies sharing a bone
with two sets of families times two sets of friends
the occasional frenzy the holiday binge
the surfacing urges the personal dirges
skirting disasters and nursing the singe

It's someone to listen with two half-cocked ears
tears of anguish that glisten while craving some beers
the freedom of knowing our bread's always buttered
the solace each night of our bed partner's mutter
It's old faithful the geyser of love and respect
with a pool of concern if one just might defect
It's years of the same-old flow of life
that waters the hearts of each husband each wife
all deserve the chance of sharing this bliss
and to know it's street-legal to publicly kiss
in a world whose bright days are meant for all
Now good luck with whom you entangle enthrall

Either way it's expressive impulsive to care
a bit obsessive-compulsive this permanent share
a boon heart condition this terminal rendition
with pretenses that drop when you're out of ammunition
My disarming life is a moveable truce
a surrender to hope a set table a deuce
All who want it should be so blessedly mixed
to grow to enjoy that they're neutered and fixed
Though I joke and laugh I know that I'm blessed
as we learn and evolve and transform this fine mess
I wouldn't trade even a moment since my wedding
not even the sorrows nor for the hair I've been shedding
and certainly not the devotion of wedlock
especially through times of marital gridlock
For what is one egg compared to a basket's
Yes thank you I'm wedded till forced to my casket

Marriage is kindness stretched to infinity
with the marks to prove it just an amenity
no matter for whom you have an affinity
Your love is your personal God-given identity

Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog

Indian Cove
Austin, Texas
December 28, 2009

Dad and Jean in Omaha at the 2009 College World Series.
The Rag Blog

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POETRY / Larry Piltz : The Messiah is always coming

Cartoon: Jesus-ufo-nesara / mattstone.blogs.com.

The Messiah is always coming
with a wink and a constant drumming
with a fife and annoying humming
to a world that believes He'll be slumming
yes the Messiah is always coming

The Messiah is always arriving
with His seatbelt fastened and driving
to root out the dull and conniving
and to chasten the kooks and the thriving
thank God the Messiah's surviving

The Messiah is stoically faithful
and should be eternally grateful
that His world has been ever so hateful
His believers so doggedly fateful
in keeping His vengeful plate full

The Messiah is always just waiting
for a time that's a little less grating
and a world less obsessed with its mating
otherwise there'll be no hesitating
when His robes get their armor plating

The Messiah is always coming
with a wrench to look at the plumbing
to a world that is down with its dumbing
and whose rationalizations are numbing
which is why He must always be coming

The Messiah is coming to face us
and is thinking He might have to mace us
while He sorts out the Wiccans and racists
on a first come first serve basis
as He retrofits our oasis
good thing our Messiah's in stasis

The Messiah is always coming
to a world that believes He'll be slumming


Larry Piltz / The Rag Blog
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas
11/15/08

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The Fork in the Road...

old stork’s a good friend
bringing me my next of kin
girl boy scale of ten
joy hope win win

where goeth cousin toad
hopping round its damp abode
disappearing by the load
croaking as its sky erodes

every mile that we go
takes us with it in its flow
to the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

old stork’s soaring high
with driven gleam in its eye
slinging gifts across the sky
like Santa on a contact high

hear toad croaking loud
a mating call to do it proud
used to be it drew a crowd
silent now its head is bowed

every night and every day
we are pulled along the way
to the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

as stork takes the well-loved path
we all add up we are the math
floating in placenta bath
borne by flying psychopath

toad takes a different road
passing lawns too green and mowed
passing fields of poisons sowed
with its cracked genetic code

every mile we begin
takes us only further in
toward the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

stork stork who art thou
come on out and take a bow
come on out and tell us how
you become a sacred cow

listen toad and you will hear
how all of life is held so dear
just procreate and have no fear
ignore the chance your time is near

as we sit and breathe in traffic
could it really be more graphic
at the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

life is strong it will survive
says the stork in overdrive
never mind the empty hive
mutations will keep us alive

ribbit ribbit gasp and choke
is that some kind of killing joke
laugh it up you can have my toke
I’ll be in my toxic soak

as our world tumbles around
can you almost hear the sound
from the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

old stork’s not to blame
works hard for its good name
just bringing life though all the same
a vacation wouldn’t be a shame

old toad’s breathing hard
drying up in your back yard
frying in the sun like lard
flattened like a playing card

every day and every night
we are nearer to the sight
of the fork in the road
to the stork or the toad

can’t we all just get along
honk the storks in surround song
life is good it can't be wrong
and you know we all belong

tell that to toad I’d say
as it whiles its time away
as the time becomes the day
when toad becomes a memoray

as we come to the fork
to the toad or the stork
do we pause at our choice
do we ever give it voice
do we use our mental torque
or stand there like a dork

have we wondered at our plight
can we flee is there flight
do we plea or do we fight
at the fork in the road
for the stork and for the toad

our choice is more than either or
if a window shuts bust out the door
go around and break some glass
go through the roof
break through the floor
get off your ass get off your ass


By Larry Piltz, 2007, In the Year of our Toad
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas

Posted April 3, 2008 / The Rag Blog

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