Tuesday, October 18, 2011

TC: Ticky Tacky


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File:Charles W. Bartlett - 'Surf-Riders, Honolulu'., 1919, Color woodcut, Honolulu Academy of Arts.jpg

Surf-Riders, Honolulu: Charles W. Bartlett, 1919 (Honolulu Academy of Arts)




Life should have enough arresting moments
to create at least a tropism in Xanadu

between the bamboo swizzle sticks
and the sarongs soaked in lizard spittle

revolving ceiling fans banana trees
birds of paradise and pineapple daiquiris

but little is expected by those who
dwell in the environs of the lawn bowling court

for them it is a perennial Mondo Samarkanda
a pointed tin roof above cute wood shingles

the ghost of Reagan bumbling through the palms
amid a sunset out of Papua New Guinea

like a great snork bird homing in on orange juice





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/%27Hawaii%2C_The_Surf_Rider%27%2C_woodblock_print_by_Charles_W._Bartlett%2C_1921%2C_Honolulu_Academy_of_Arts.jpg

The Surf-Rider, Hawaii: Charles W. Bartlett, 1921 (Honolulu Academy of Arts)

4 comments:

Peter Greene said...

Lizard spittle and the ghost of Reagan bumbling like a drunken juice-hungry snork bird...wow. i want a holiday to there.

TC said...

Peter, the poem was writ in Santa Barbara, during the regime -- and downhill from the ranch -- of RR. Samarkand is a neighborhood, or would one say enclave, in SB. And "Xanadu" was, or had been, just up the road a ways at San Simeon.

I love that "surf artist", an Englishman named Bartlett, classically trained as a painter, who made his way to the Far East and learned print-making at the feet of a Japanese master of the art. The good teaching "took", I do believe. He ended up in Hawaii, catching these waves.

Nin Andrews said...

Yes, the teaching "took." He really catches the waves, as does the poem.

TC said...

Thank you, Nin.

As our Ronnie used to say, even after he had forgotten all the numerals from 0 to 9, "hang ten!"