Poetry Archives | Page 9 of 28 | As in guillotine...

Me on IndieFeed

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:December 10, 2007
Post category:Personal
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My poem Prodigal Son is being featured on IndieFeed as "Part 4 of a 9 part series, celebrating the release of Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through 20 years of the New York City Poetry Slam by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz!" It's the live version from the nycSLAMS CD (2000), but it includes some great (and extremely flattering!) commentary from the host, Mongo, and Cristin, and is worth a listen even if you fast-forward past the poem itself. NOTE: Mongo's reference to "Prodigal Son II" is actually the revised version of the previously untitled "Yankeee" poem I wrote back in October after A-Rod opted…

2007 Recap Meme

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:December 6, 2007
Post category:Personal
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{meme in which one takes the first line of the first post from each month and looks at it as a summary of the year. and is a little stunned at the results. NOTE: [My Vox] blog didn't start until March so the first two months are from Comic Book Commentary.} January: In the most glaring sign yet of how much my tastes have changed over the 3.5 years since I started reading comics again, compare my Best of 2004 choices to this year's stellar roundup (below). February: I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind…

Crazy White Devil

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:December 2, 2007
Post category:Personal
Post comments:3 Comments

Crazy White Devil
for Robert Craig Knievel, Jr. (1938-2007)

Long before Christopher Reeve
and R. Kelly, we believed
a man could fly if
he was daring enough,
and crazy enough,
to risk the inevitable
crash landing.

“America’s Legendary Daredevil”,
Evel Knievel was both,
a brazen boiler room broker
arguably a bit more crazy
than daring, his biggest successes
failures, crash landings his specialty,
his refusal to die his legacy,
but “crazy white devil” doesn’t quite
have the same ring to it.

Elvis, was a hero to most,
and died a bloated object lesson
to karma’s bitchiness, an asterisk
permanently attached to his pelvis,
but Evel always knew better,
understood that he was “good
at riding a motorcycle… Not
a hero.”

(more…)

Untitled

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:October 30, 2007
Post category:Uncategorized
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I.In 1978, my daily commute on the D trainfrom the not-quite-South Bronx of 170th Streetto the not-yet-Upper West Side of 96th, found me surrounded by men andwomen in suits with blue collars.I woke up 90 minutes earlierthan my friends and would oftenfall asleep on a stranger’s shoulder,startle awake, embarrassedbut unmolested.Contrary to popular belief,I felt safer on the subwaythan on the walk home,or the walk from school,where my legs grew strongerthanks to the ever-shifting boundariesthat defined my block,and my mother’s ever-changingdefinition of home.The elementary school in Manhattanwas better than the one in our neighborhood,where years later Taft High School would bethe…

Sometimes, absence makes the heart go wander…

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:October 15, 2007
Post category:Media Personal Pop Culture
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[x-posted from PopCultureShock] What happens when the "maybe we just need a little space" trial separation makes you realize you're actually happier apart and have no interest in getting back together? Well, if you're me and writing about and reviewing comics on a semi-regular basis is what you needed a break from, you stall one more month hoping for the good feelings to return before finally acknowledging the truth and writing the requisite farewell post for the 3-5 people who might still care. In other words, it's officially "adios" for good this time! To the comics internet, at least. I'm…

On the 89th Day, I Quit

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:August 7, 2007
Post category:Personal
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ON THE 89th DAY, I QUIT I do not believe in fate or destiny or God's will or man's good intentions. Give me the capricious gods instead, Dow Jones, Starbucks, Dick Cheney so I at least know that where I stand on this stacked deck is arbitrary. I believe I am destined for greatness, if only I could get out of my own way and stop being so damn scared of it. "If a man is considered guilty 4 what goes on in his mind Then gimme the electric chair 4 all my future crimes-oh!" My kiss is a double-edged…

Party Like A Rock Star

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:July 30, 2007
Post category:Personal
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Party Like A Rock Star He heard the music most of us tune out without realizing, marched to a beat mere mortals couldn’t comprehend. A rock star, literally, Peter of the Earth conducted life-giving electricity through those he loved and strangers alike, in random bars and nightclubs and open mics and windswept beaches in the dead of winter. To know him was to question your own commitments, to understand life was meant to be lived, treated like an empty dance floor with a DJ who takes requests. To be uninhibited unrestrained unleashed. Those who can, dance. Those who can’t, write…