Plastic Janes 2013

31 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, birth death & in between II, circling round vanities II, circling round wrinkles Tags: , , , , ,

Plastic Janes

I’m tempted –

(but not yet corrupted)

By Jane Fonda

Fondling camera, flirty:

“Look at me, I’m seventy,

I use creation such and such”…

And aren’t I the cat’s pajamas ‘,

Just ‘too much’,

‘All that jazz’

(my daddy’s 20’s top clichés)

Skin so tight, so smooth and fine…

And then, what do I find?

She’s joined the club,

Sab-

otaged my admiration,

Turned esteem into disdain,

Become a plastic Jane;

And I go back to being plain

old wrinkling me,

Which I admit takes courage

In these sickly days of being courted

By an industry [darkly] devoted

To the most unlikely medley

Of de-wrinkling reality:

Certain, inescapable, inevitable, preordained,

Unavoidable, to be expected end, big E.

Plastic Janes 10.31.2013

Circling Round Wrinkles; Circling Round Vanities II; Birth, Death & In Between II;

Arlene Corwin

 

All Kinds Of Nasty Thoughts 2013

28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga Tags: ,

All Kinds Of Nasty Thoughts

I was med-

itating,

Standing on my head,

All kinds of thinking skating

Through it; nasty bits:

Him, her or them,

Not even realizing it.

To think, I call myself a yogi!

Only when

I sat back on

My haunches

With a wall in front,

Was I confronted

By

The nasty

Me

That thinks that she’s

A yogi

Or yogini (as the case may be) –

Holy, to boot!

What a hoot!  Hypocrisy

And self-deception!

(ruling out

the likelihood of indigestion.)

Anyway,

The aim is not to do away

With thought,

But, butt of ignorance,

The dancing

Mean, malicious ones

One’s not attentive to.

All Kinds Of Nasty Thoughts 10.10.28.2013

Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

The Best Lovers 2013

27 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round eros II, love relationships II Tags: ,

The Best Lovers

The best lovers can wait:

That’s what they’re good at.

They can take their time,

Press lightly, deeply,

Feel around, as if massaging,

Kneading muscle without passion;

Helping, waiting – for response?

Perhaps.

Most likely.

Waiting all the while,

The instant thrill

Expendable, forgotten,

As all pleasures are [and pain]

The second they are over.

Lover best is natural,

Sensitive to signals:

In touch when touching.

Touching back,

Movement ripening,

One or the other turned the other way

Up, down, even upside down;

It is there the genius of delay

Comes into play

When the best of lovers loves.

The Best Lovers 10.25.2013

Love Relationships II; Circling Round Eros II;

Arlene Corwin

Thinking On Your Feet Is 2013

23 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga, definitely didactic, vaguely about music II Tags: , , , , , ,

Thinking On Your Feet Is

Gift, art, yoga;

Leading to a

Modus operandi,

Jazz,

Invention,

A defining fun.

Creation in a flash;

Living

In a now,

No deed is left undone,

Not one day gone,

Neglected or unloved.

Thinking fleetly on your feet,

Eliminates, eradicates:

Fear of fiasco,

Worry, stress, for not one

Thing can fail you;

Neither falling on your bottom

In the middle of your show

Or whatever else you’re doing.

Trivial and valuable –

It’s all significant,

While none of it means anything at all;

The usual

Illogicality.

Years of practicing

Improvisation

Mean that

Error’s never really wrong,

So

Practice,

Use life as an etude.

Make etude of every song.

Life plays.

Thinking On Your Feet 10.10.2013

Definitely Didactic; Vaguely About Music II; Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

Voicings 2013

21 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, vaguely about music II Tags:

             Voicings

 

I used to bother with harmonic

                                       voicings.

I’ve gone back – or backwards. 

Somewhere I lost interest,

Lost the taste for

Placing notes for sake of texture.

I discovered I don’t care.

 

Central to the jazz pianist,

Voicing gives a class and status:

(More than sevenths, ninths, elevenths

thirteenths: triads

for the in-crowd)

I discovered

I’m baroque -ish

I like bass lines;

Poking ‘round the melody.

Tune against a tune,

They keep the time.

Are drum, (a kind of drum).

While I can hum, sing song,

A bass line comes along 

Enriching melody

And me

And music overall.

 

I used to be concerned with voicings.

Somewhere I lost curiosity,

The energy to search and find…

Out of my hand, out of my mind.  

Maybe I got lazy.

Maybe I got simpler.

 

Voicings 10.20.2013

Vaguely About Music II;

Arlene Corwin

 

                                                                                             

You Won’t Get Out Of It (version 2) 2013

13 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, birth death & in between II, circling round reality Tags:

You Won’t Get Out Of It

 

You’re young.

You think it lasts forever.

I don’t want to scare,

Alarm; and surely not

Upset,

It being simple fact

And not to panic;

You will not

Get out

Of it.

You can’t.

 

You Won’t Get Out Of It 10.12.2013

Birth, Death & In Between II; Circling Round Reality;

Arlene Corwin

 

You Won’t Get Out Of It 2013

12 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, birth death & in between II, circling round reality Tags:

        You Won’t Get Out Of It

 

You’re young.

You think it lasts forever.

I don’t want

To frighten,                                                                            

Scare, alarm

And surely not

Upset you.

Don’t panic.

It’s just fact.

You won’t get out of it. 

 

You Won’t Get Out Of It 10.12.2013

Birth, Death & In Between II; Circling Round Reality;

Arlene Corwin

 

Wait It Out 2013

12 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga Tags:

Still childishly delighted to see my stuff in print, Wait It Out is one of my better insights.

Arlene

Begin forwarded message:
 
 

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Wait It Out

By Arlene Corwin

You do a pose.
It feels awful, incomplete, a strain.
Wait several minutes if you can.
Shift. Modify. Shift again.
To wait it out will get you there.
To wait it out will get you where
You need to be, the pose fulfilled
But always open to refinement.
As you know, nothing is final,
Each adjustment
Leading to a bonus:
Consciousness distributed,
Continually feeling for more,
More and more,
The more resulting in the new –
A different you.

So if you’re able, wait it out.
The wait itself, wed to your nature,
Has a future unexpected;
Progress in the mind and brain;
New synapses, new power
Over limb and fears.
Wait it out. The clime of waiting
Is exciting:
Minutes, years –
It’s all the same.

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Thinking On Your Feet 2013

11 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2013, circling round yoga, definitely didactic, vaguely about music II Tags:

Thinking On Your Feet

 

Gift, art, a yoga;

Leading to

A jazz; a modus operandi

For invention.

A defining fun.  Creation

In a flash;

Living

In a now,

No deed undone,

Not one day gone:

Neglected or unloved.

 

‘Thinking

On your feet’,

Eliminates fiasco,

Worry, stress, for not one

Thing can fail you;

Falling on your bottom, foiled

By fate or filled

With shame.

For, while, and yet

No single bit of it

Means anything,

It’s all significant,

And  paradox.

The trivial, the valuable. The usual

Illogicality.

 

Practicing

Improvisation

Means that

Error’s never really wrong,

So use life as an etude.

Make an etude of each song.

Life plays.

 

Thinking On Your Feet 10.10.2013

Definitely Didactic; Vaguely About Music II; Circling Round Yoga;

Arlene Corwin

 

You Can’t Look Pretty And Concentrate 2013

07 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2003, 2013, definitely didactic, the processes creative thinking meditative, vaguely about music Tags: , ,

You Can’t Look Pretty And Concentrate

(on seeing a film of Keith Jarrett’s Tokyo concert 1996)

 

It’s either/or:

You can’t look pretty and concentrate.

It is a kind of war between

The ego and the thing,

The thing, the more important.

It’s nice if you relax,

A glass in hand, donned new pressed slacks;

To smile and see them smile too,

Eye contacting, all the while

Performing so the thing will gel,

Aiming at a phrase well done.

But skill and fun don’t fuse,

The thing demanding less than booze;

The thing demanding ears and eyes,

Pinpointed agonizings that arise

From neither glam- nor clamor.

 

Calm inward

From chord to keyboard,

There’s a sword that cuts through

The cosmetics and the art.

You can’t look smarty pants-y smart

When working at the heart of art;

Your heart.  It’s not a role

But art, combining beauty, subtle flexibility,

Intellect that doesn’t show

But steers, keeping in tow

The years it’s taken. Pretty is as pretty sees.

The job is: search and strip sans tease.

The viewer only ever sees what he is able to.

The thing has got to be continually fresh

Since flesh is weak and soon antique

But music’s thing will always speak

To souls of concentration.*

 

You Can’t Look Pretty & Concentrate .5.27.2003

The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative; Vaguely About Music; Definitely Didactic;

Arlene Corwin

*on seeing a film of Keith Jarrett’s Tokyo concert 1996

 

 

 

 

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