Trumpocalypse Now!!! Let Them Eat Fake...

The latest stunning issue!!!

Please Help Holly Prado and Harry Northup!!!

Harry Northup and Holly Prado

Recently my friends and fellow Los Angeles poets Holly Prado and Harry Northup were the victims of a fire. They lost everything but miraculously somehow managed to escape unharmed. No apartment insurance, so this is a complete loss for them.

Please follow this link to the Go Fund Me page created to help them.

If you can, please help. They are wonderful people with tremendous hearts. Iconic poets, mentors and teachers. There is more information about them on the Go Fund Me page.

Thanks for doing whatever you can.

Love,

S.A.

  

Tales From the Trumpside!!!

Tales From the Trumpside

America's starving democracy chews

on the lead paint of Roman empire

while back in Twitterville

Trump Thing paints

the town red

the nation's first violin is all thumbs

tweeting from the oval office of his well appointed dump

as the flaming truth races down Pennsylvania Avenue

like a house of cards on fire screaming,

"LET THEM EAT FAKE!!" 

Thing carves his initials into

the country's smoking headlines with the

burnt ends of his pointy hair

he's such a good boy

the tipping point meets the vanishing point

birthing a flash of light that re-imagines

the stuttering sky

the earth cracks open

starts spilling blood like there's

no tomorrow

all wailing walls surrender

beneath the tremendous weight of

empty promises kept

fire and fury beyond any

normal state

power the likes of which

the world has

never seen

S.A. Griffin

8/10/17

American Crisis

the harder the conflict

the more glorious the triumph

to bind us all with unlimited power

and we have none to blame

but ourselves

a ravage superstition in secret opinion

to avoid every decent method

which wisdom could invent

how rapidly panic runs through hidden thoughts

to secure a bridge to hell

there is a cabinet of fortitude in which

we must reason together

to awaken the flame of liberty

to set bounds  to progress

with the devotion of

happy revenge

the soft resentment of a suffering people

staked to their own determined language of sorrow

draw forth the heart steeled with prejudice

determined to lay shoulders to the future world

alarmed at one common danger

the blood of children

shrinks back at the man that can

smile and grow the business of little minds

reasoning that all the treasures of the world

support murder

the absolute reason of just cause

call me a whore of swearing allegiance

shrieking to the rocks and mountains

and slain of America

where the trick is to terrify

or seduce the people

and receive the power to

fear in the chain of mutual love

that breaks the vapors

of imagination

bring reason to your ears

hold up truth to fear

know well and see the way out of

our collected ravage

recruiting fast

we have the prospect of a glorious issue

the sad choice of a future

whose fathers shall look

on this picture

and weep

and yet there remains

one thoughtless wretch

who believes it not

S.A. Griffin

8/7/17

deleted from The Crisis by Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

American Carnage

Sherman's ghost leads a scorched earth campaign to the sea

using the Constitution to set countless fires

Trump grabs Lady Liberty's pussy,

"It's HUGE," he says of himself

fiddling as Washington burns

an ungovernable bonfire

of conceits

Liberty weeps

all hail

the American

scream

S.A. Griffin

2/8/17

Love,

S.A.

New From Rose of Sharon Press: Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach!!!

Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach

New from Rose of Sharon Press, Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach!!! Above is the front cover and spine. This perfect bound baby weighs in at 6" x 9" with paper wraps containing 258 pages of world class poetry by master wordsmith Mark Hartenbach. Full color covers and full color reproductions of original art by Mark inside.

To order a copy of Lost Bastard Chronicles, please follow this link to the Create Space homepage.

"Two poets stand out in my mind as carrying on a tradition that took root in the Sixties through subsequent decades and into the new millennium. Some call it Meat, some Confessional, but those labels are not big enough to cover this breed of poetry, and so I'll leave it nameless. It's a poetry that connects more with the Beats than the Sixties, but stripped of the baggage of ideology and formalized spiritual quest that saddles much of Beat poetry; its language is lean and sharp and drills into everyday life, surfacing with nuggets of uncut truth that melt away if you try to incorporate them into something "bigger". The Mimeo Revolution was the vehicle that carried this poetry through the Sixties and early Seventies; after that, it was pretty much on its own. The poets I'm talking about are Albert Huffstickler, who died in February of 2002, and Mark Hartenbach, who carries on." John Bennett - Vagabond Press

It has been such a genuine honor and pleasure to work with Mark on this book. I hope that you will enjoy experiencing the book as much as I did helping to bring it to print.

John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Mark Hartenbach, E. Liverpool, Ohio, October 2012. Good times. Photo by Casey Rearick.

Since 1988

Love,

S.A.

Lost!!!

These started popping up on telephone poles and such around the neighborhood about a week ago. Fan mail from some flounder. Snapshots from the Copy and Distribute March on the Red House. A scene from that grave new hit movie The Red Scare, starring everyone. Check your local listings. A bold new remake from the mid 20th century. All about a right handed flying monkey who goes hard left and right again then morphs into a massive radioactive goo slobbering in the granite sunshine singing I wanna hold your hand and go back to the future with me so you can kiss my ass when you got no class. Hello, this is Kremlin the Frog, I'd like a well done thin crust future with lots of secrets on it. Heavy on the melting ice. Please copy and distribute. If we all work together, we might be able to find our Lost National Pride. Hope that the hungry coyotes or mountain lions or Agents of ICE didn't get it. Film at 11, 24/7. And what's all this about Health Hair? Who needs Health Hair, anyway.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Pity the Nation

Love,

S.A.

Crazy Cats

Lost crazy cat looking for like minded cats to find him.

My analyst told me...

Where crazy cats sing the wild blues yonder... let's go crazy!!

"Where ya goin'?" "Crazy. Wanna Go?"




Krazy Kat

Prince, let's go crazy baby... take us home!!

Crazy, mad love, S.A.

Waywords & Meansigns: Finnegans Wake Set To Music Unabridged

Honored to be included in this amazing, off the hook creative project from the wrap around genius mind of Waywords & Meansigns Derek Pyle. This entire thing needs to be heard. And just as there are those who have read it, there are those that shall hear amazing sound designs and music recorded and imagined by a who's who of alternative live wires spinning soundscape counterpoints to sections of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Ultimately Derek plans to have the entire book recorded this way. Of course, reimagining Finnegans Wake thru a small army of creative souls is an epic journey worthy of a lost city of melting gold. When Derek first contacted me about this project, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, I still don't. It's really that good. Birds speaking in tongues firing on the high wire.

Five of the tracks of the many have just popped up at half / cloth, an incredible website where you can chase down many a creative scene. Blown away that the track I recorded was invited to this magnificent tea party, for there is some seriously good stuff in this mix as laid down by Greg Nahabedian, Joel Wranning, Nigel Bryant and Layne Farmen.

So go now.

Go there and let your eyes listen

to what your blind ears hear.

Enjoy! Love, S.A.

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman by Dorsey, Griffin & Wannberg is here!!!

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman

Just in time for Earth Day, Arbor Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, mid-day, your pet cat's birthday, heyday, Sunday thru Monday and salad days...

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman

by John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg

Is she, or isn't he? After a 12 year trip thru time, our sexy space angel is back with fellow wordsmiths John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg on board laying it down for your eyes only!! Harvey Korman... is a brand spanking new title from Spartan Press, where everything's up to date in Kansas City! And of course, you too can have one of these crazy creatures for your very own. Back channel me and I will be more than glad to sign, seal and deliver one of these for $20.

Harvey Korman... by the same trio of intrepid wordsmiths that gave you 2005's Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel.

And if you like, there are still copies of this lovely object from a kinder, gentler era available as well, which I am glad to throw in for an additional $10.

John Dorsey, Scott Wannberg and S.A. Griffin. Unregulated Word, Kansas City, MO, August 2009, Prospero's Books. I have no idea who took the picture, but I would like to thank them. Scott was a happy as hell love machine and drunk as a proverbial stinking skunk that night celebrating the release of his first book on Perceval Press, Strange Movie Full of Death, and happy to be reunited after moving to Florence, Oregon a year earlier. After 20 years on the road and off, this would be our last round-up together as The Carma Bums. I would see Scott once again a year later in Los Angeles before he exited the building for good in 2011.

Harvey Korman... is dedicated to our beloved friends Scott Wannberg (1953-2011) and Marsha Getzler (1940-2015). Forever in our hearts and minds.

Marsha working her culinary magic, photo by S.A. Griffin.

Love, S.A.

But wait... there's more!!!

Coming soon during the next decade from a poetry galaxy far, far away out...

Helen Keller Helen Keller Helen Keller!!!

The Hideous Bible and Ozark Revelations by The Lost Bums

The Hideous Bible

S.A. Griffin's altered bible.

It all began in a cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks during the last week of May 2015. The Lost Tribe plus The Carma Bums, minus our late, great and dearly beloved electric brother Scott Wannberg, now, The Lost Bums. At the risk of killing one another, we four bad brothers; M. Lane Bruner, S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott and Mike M. Mollett, all decided to get together and art it up. 

Murderer's Row: Doug Knott, M. Lane Bruner, Mike M. Mollett, S.A. Griffin.

Michael Bruner created four books like the altered copy up top; all clean, yellow and empty except for random images that he had pasted into each. Our job, each of us, including Bruner, was to fill these books with random thoughts, words, poetry, etc. in response to the images we encountered in our books, what was going on around us at the time, or whatever resulted in the flashes of electricity that spark regardless.

Pages from S.A.'s altered bible.

Sitting on top of a table, the yellow book looked kind of like an old Gideon's Bible you'd find in some hotel room. Thus, our version, The Hideous Bible. Something that we too might contribute to the lost and found in some lonely hotel room where humans often find solace and religion in flickering televisions and hungry skin where insects are martyred by the light.

The Hideous Bible!

The first part of the Hideous Bible is comprised of these four books by each member respectively with words in the order they spilled forth, unedited. The second part of the book, the Prophesies, were written in response to  this experience in the Ozarks after returning home. The third part, Lost Manifestoes, was created by deleting (or erasure, as some refer to it) two of Andre Breton's surrealist manifestoes.

A genuine pocket book full of streaming sermons for this New Gilded Age of Felonious Unreason. So get with it, drop the Gestalt and get with the assault! Now you too can get with the times and assault your intelligence by owning your very own copy of this strange little book. For $15 out the door, this can be yours! Amaze your friends and confuse your dog! Impress the cat who could care less about you or this book! Grok with Spock in secret Vulcanese which has nothing to do with this book or Robert Heinlein!! But if there's time enough for love, there's time enough to read. Back channel me (or if you know them, contact any of the guys) and I will be glad to lay one of these petite beauties on ya!

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!!!!

The other sweet child that came as a result of that art-a-thon in the Ozarks was this CD, Ozark Revelations by The Lost Bums. Minted in an edition of 100, precious few left of these babies remain on our vast warehouse shelves. Recorded in Springfield, Missouri this CD is a document of The Bums laying down some classic Lost Tribe / Carma Bums material, some spontaneous stream stuff along with some good old artsy-fartsy dorking around. Hear Doug Knott soar glit-glit in canyons of bright thought! Hear Mike Mollett deride his empty chair and swear to never sit again! Hear Michael Bruner go wild with artistic abandon proclaiming the Ten Commandments of Love! Hear S.A. Griffin hesitate!

This too can be yours for yet another $15 out the door!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase, "out the door", it simply means all costs including taxes, shipping, hidden fees, etc. What you want to say to the used car salesman or the person selling you a new stereo in order to avoid sticker shock, "But I thought..." Thinking. That other sin. It's what's for dinner. So go ye now, sin and let us consume freely. Let us be practiced sinners together as we agree to disagree, thus allowing all to sin freely according to their own free will and credit scores. But just so you know, Will's fine. Talked to him yesterday at Trader Joe's. But what about free? Free, free!! Set free free again!!! I will if you will, so will, Will. Offer not good in states of delusion, confusion or exclusion. Good everywhere else this merchandise is not sold or given away.

The Whistleblower

Love,

S.A.

2002 Cartoon Network Commercial Starring Iris Berry and Scott Wannberg!

CartoonNetwork_Plane from Risa Mickenberg on Vimeo.

2002 Cartoon Network commercial written and directed by Risa Mickenberg. Starring Los Angeles poets Iris Berry and Scott Wannberg. Enjoy!

My Cafe Bustelo clock

Picked this beauty up about 20 years ago, one of my truly favorite things. I was in a thrift store here in Los Angeles poking thru the shelves and saw this keeping time on the wall. I asked the guy working there if it was for sale. He said that he didn't think so, but he'd ask his father as it was his clock. I could see them talking to one another as the son pointed my way. He told me that his father was a Cuban immigrant from many years back and wanted to know why a non-Cuban like me would be interested in such a thing. I told him that Bustelo was my favorite bean and that I had been drinking it for many years. Pleased I suppose that it would be going to a real Bustelo coffee drinker, and a businessman at heart, the kind father offered it to me for $40 because the second hand had come off. I was thrilled and thanked him profusely. When I got it home and took a look at the second hand, the fix was easy, it simply needed to be reattached to the clock by screwing it back on.

My beautiful Bustelo clock has always kept perfect time. Never missing a beat it remains in the same great condition as it was the day I brought it home and has very little wear, only a few very small paint chips missing here and there, otherwise, it is in absolutely perfect shape. I expect that this wonderful time piece will continue to keep perfect pace with me until I check out and my Bustelo clock goes to the next.

Been searching for information on this beautiful clock for many years, but to no avail. And after countless late night internet searches I have not been able to find one single image. Recently contacted the Bustelo company and even they don't have archival information on it, must be one of the rarest clocks on Earth or planet Bustelo.

As you might be able to see, the piece is white plastic cased in a gold metal frame and is powered by an electric cord, no batteries in this one. The clock appears to be from the late 1950s or early 60s and measures at a little over two feet wide, slightly over a foot high and five and half inches deep.

If anyone out there has any information on the piece, please feel free to let me know. If anyone out there has another, that would be amazing, would love to see a pic of your Cafe Bustelo timepiece!

¡Cafe Bustelo!

Cheers,

S.A.

The Official Language of Yes by Scott Wannberg!!

The language has landed!!!

The Official Language of Yes

by Scott Wannberg

Cover photo by Henry Mortensen, layout and design by Michele Perez.

After more than three years of work, and almost four years to the day after Scott's passing comes this wonderful new book for and by Scott Wannberg. The Official Language of Yes from Perceval Press is an 8.5"x11" hardbound volume with over 300 pages; a big beautiful book for a big beautiful man chock full of Scott's words, wit, wisdom, spontaneous jazz riffs and full color reproductions of original art.

Back cover. Beautiful words for Scott by Dave Alvin.

This collection includes some previously published work culled from small press anthologies, broadsides, periodicals and chapbooks with small runs; many rare and years out of print. However, by no means is this a best of or collected as close 90 per cent has never been seen in print. The Official Language of Yes is a true labor of love on the part of all involved. Edited by S.A. Griffin, the book includes a prologue by Viggo Mortensen and introduction by Henry Mortensen. Unbelievably priced at $25, this baby is the poetry deal of a lifetime!

 Order directly from Perceval Press.

The official poet of yes!!