Posts Tagged ‘richard krech’
My dad hangs out with rockstars and does things like this
Saturday, February 9th, 2008Happy Birthday
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006Today is my dad‘s birthday. These are some of his poems.
. . .
What I Did On My Summer Vacation
I have accomplished several remarkable
feats in poetry, I thought,
after coming off a 25-year line break.
I wrote a poem about the vibrate mode
of a cell phone;
another about Valerie Solanis
and Enver Hoxha.
I saw old friends and made new ones.
I found out that my spelling
has improved.
. . .
The Bodhisattva of the Public Defenders Office
the advocate strides into the hell-worlds of the steel bars,
of the squeezing tongues and hungry ghosts.
battles enslavers, judges, addictions and monsters
in this dharma one is armed not with a sword
but a word; a mindful & concentrated intellect connected thereto.
the practice has the chance to gain freedom
to diminish suffering
this right livelihood
surely is on the path to liberation
. . .
Ecological Hegemony
The morning glory
would take over the world if you let it,
she said
I failed to see
any downside
to that proposition
& resolved not to stand
in its way.
. . .
Hand to Hand Combat
It comes down to things
you can hold in your hand.
Your head, for example
or the objects you encounter
in your daily routines.
“You should know that concept
like a room you know
with its furniture
& be comfortable with it” she said.
Making things personal
so we can pick them up
understand them and move our lives
in the direction of progress we want.
Using objects to get beyond them,
the constancy of change & movement
the only fixed star.
The horizon approaching.
Familial Poetry
Monday, May 22nd, 2006My father Richard Krech recently went in for a major back surgery. The outcome has been overwhelmingly positive, better it seems than was anticipated. I spent some time in California with the rest of my family and him. We talked of many things and spent the better part of an afternoon going over much of his writing. He is a lawyer by profession but also and before that, a poet.
The ‘Preface’ to his 1976 The Incompleat Works of Richard Krech reads
you must think of it as a dance
the Way the Players move
from table to tablethe Way they take each other home.
learning survival
.the cool world outside our fingertips
just shot away . . .the tape recorder, hypodermic needle
just end-points of a culture
blasted by technology.find the Real path out of the jungle,
miss neither forest nor trees.
leave no fingerprints
at the scene of the crime,fly safely
and take care of your brother.your sister is waiting on the bed
or the bar stool.for your rough hands and soft mouth.
the pull of gravity affecting tides.
civilizations lose their grip
as years pass.the 8 ball heading towards the pocket
After a ’25 year line break’ he returned to writing poetry on the 18th of March 2001 with this
The statue with no face and broken legs
no longer stares out at the long green valley.The frightened men have shattered their own
image. They
diminish themselves as they step beyond
their banal legacy of oppression
and turn to destroying the very history of the world.The statue no longer stares out at Bamiyan valley.
The enlightened gaze takes in the reflection
still.
From a small chapbook published in 2005 he includes a number of his more recent poems including Ecological Hegemony
The morning glory
would take over the world if you let it,
she saidI failed to see
any downside
to that proposition
& resolved not to stand
in its way.
