i’m likely to post a few poems here and there. pretty much unavoidable.
Footage taken on my iPhone.
This was a great gig, we hit max capacity on that stage!
Todd Clouser, Guitar.
Andrew Foreman. Upright Bass
Bryan Nichols. Keys
Pete “The Boss” Hennig. Kit
Adam Meckler. Trumpet
Guests: Lisa Brimmer and Evan Montgomery. Guitar
Keep the truth, Be the peace.
Word,
-2speakease
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on September 29, 2011
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/love-electric-and-2speakease-nomadpubmpls-8711/
All There Is
For Z.
Just another
fancy Nabokov Champion of
the underdog.
I create objects with
little or no
objective.
It’s a hard thing to love
a cold woman when
she don’t even have a
poem to give you
(give you
If that’s all there is, love is
fleeting– if that’s all there is. . .
(give me
a poem. Undo this beard
of five pound cinder block font
dripping from my chin.
Letters: Just a head heavy with language
which buckles at the neck like
some new
humanity.
Take it away from me.
Fake it till you make it but,
don’t break it on my chest plate.
He say he won’t lead me,
But that I’m still his street queen
named desire.
Tennessee Style. Wrap
me up in ribbons don’t forget to bow my
tongue.
Heaven is a precious thing.
Men.
A swan song, but perhaps too
far away for you. be charitable with those
chariot kisses, Lover.
Forever is a long time.
Did you ever once think of the horrible
mess to be made around these parts?
It’s obvious.
That is, I’m expected to fill this space with what
could happen– and I’m a simple walking example
of what can.
I bruise easy.
Look at these knees. And not just because
you touch me.
I feel myself grow older and also hear the feet upstairs.
Ours is a hot oven. Ours is a kitchen chair.
To me you look like an almost sunset I’m just not
ready for. Don’t get caught with your hand in the
Honey Pot, Sugar. You’ve been warned.
Don’t get hoodwinked out of the fine china.
Who needs the cow when the milk is free?
Who needs the cow?
Monkey see, monkey do reminds me too much
of home and
you can’t seem to keep your
hands to your pretty little self.
your Pretty Little Lips smile thank yous
in kisses on my neck. None of this means
anything unless you
stay for morning coffee.
You playing for keeps now, Bang Bang? n
I was never a tragedy to begin with. I just make
the headlines.
Believe you me, love is a simple fiction.
Believe you me, I’ve never loved at all.
(4/20/11), 8yrsl8r
©2011
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on August 4, 2011
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/all-there-is/
It’s poetry month.
I’m posting this here because I want to and I’m like that.
A Ballad for a/m
Those shining eyes
know the difference
between can and
can not.
Roll on up here,
Charlie Boy.
I got the golden ticket I
got the only ticket for
The Love Supreme.
A Croesus!
Maddening.—
The E V O L that is amongst
us and makes us
even
gentle
men.
My father said,
I’m the one
who came before you and showed
you how to be like
me.
Then those simple cats,
in they took soots, they zoot
suits. They walk in here
all tar
and pigeon feather, arm in
lugubrious arm with the whole
establish ) those
eyes ( meant
something other than
to just wait for spring.
Simply forget your meandering
heart here while I watch
you playing in the dusky
advantages of
the silver spun moonlight.
I call devotion out on its heels.
Toes up, Mother Fucker-
Decline. Comment.
Bumble over all the high
yella hootenanny and bullshit.
It ain’t right, Amigo,
I say to Raul.
He nods.
Clear the air, Mon Frere.
As your chest rises and falls
(Pitfalls)
over the ashes that extend
to show their
burdensome apathy
in the dark green pursuit
of a moral gesture: I look
for something better.
Go on boy,
get it.
Don’t take no prisoners. Don’t
hold no bars. Don’t wait for it
to watch you.
Even on the inside, child,
times get tough.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on April 7, 2011
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/a-ballad/
Come one, Come all! Friday July 30th- 8pm.
Nathan Hanson and the Fantastic Merlins have invited me down to Fantastic Fridays at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar for an awesome night of really great jazz and some original words by yours truly.
I’m very very excited!
Here is the Facebook invite.
Come out if you can,
The Fantastic Merlins and Lisa Brimmer would like to invite you to the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar for a night of jazz and spoken word.
Friday July 30th 8pm-11pm.
No cover as always, so stop in for an exciting night of music and poetry. It is bound to be a whole lot of fun.
Fantastic Merlins
-Nathan Hanson-saxophone
-Rahjta Ren- Keys
-maybe more!
Please follow @Fantasticmerlins facebook page.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on July 26, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/fantastic-merlins-and-lisa-brimmer-at-the-black-dog-cafe/
and realized, quickly, that everything I wanted to write I had already written.
June 25, 2008 : from my earlybloglove– blueplatespecial
One of my favorite poets, James Tate, has a poem entitled “Prose Poem” from a collection of poetry entitled “The Oblivion Ha- Ha”–released circa 1970 with the line
I am surrounded by the pieces of this huge
puzzle–it follows that Tate’s speaker, reduces his life to puzzle pieces that are immense and interconnected and yet wholly unrelated, describing different opposite parts of a whole.
And it is true.
past and future have their pieces, now and never-their own as well… each person, each empty apartment and future apartment, and discarded mattress and future park bench… pieces…
we wrestle, we are tormented somehow by these pieces but we are always present, always somehow manipulating them into order. we connect the blue and the blue-white and the white of the sky. connecting the brown of the road with the green of the grass and as we connect earth and sky and the red truck with the pond…we are somehow making it happen…
It seems that we are actively arranging these pieces that have been somehow already been splayed out for us.I miss my old life and am grappling to create a new one. a new comfortable setting.
I can call this piece work and this one minneapolis and this one art and this one Adam and the other Eve, but they will change. Oh, will they change.another line…
My head cocked toward the sky,
I cannot get off the ground,
and , you, passing over again,fast, perfect, and unwilling
to tell me that you are doing
well, or that it was mistakethat placed you in this world
and me in this; or that misfortune
placed these worlds in us.it seems at first so sad- but it is sooo hopeful and at once relieving. to rely on someone else for fault at love’s lessons. to rely on Mistake and proper Misfortune for fault at life’s regressions, this is poetry. this is understanding the past as a happening neither good or bad but as something that did happen once. as humans we are unable to say it did. we can only say they, me , i –is it a language problem?
we don’t know.I expect Simi to still be reading. Maybe just searching for her name (her piece/peace).
I needed to muse- I think I mused pretty hard here…
I just wanted to tell you
I remember you even now;
Goodbye, goodbye. Here come the cows.
and Oh, how they come.
Moo.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on May 29, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/i-sat-down-to-write/
The spring edition of Ishmael Reed’s Konch Magazine is now published to his website. This is very exciting considering the inclusion of Givens Griots Valerie Deus, Shannon Gibney, Lisa Brimmer, Colnese Hendon, Stephani Maari Booker, Deborah A. Torraine and Arleta Little.
Check it out!
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on May 6, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/konch-magazine-publication/
The Saint Paul Almanac’s monthly Lowertown Reading Jam series continues in May with an evening showcasing what it means to be a Cultural Worker and the power of using the arts to heal, create and build community. (This is what we’ve been talking about here!)
Your host ( and also curator) for the evening will be Ms. Deborah Torraine at the Black Dog Cafe in St. Paul’s Lowertown.
This place has been a favorite for years. Pretty great wine selection and always local artists. Monday nights they even have drink specials. And hell, you’ll get to hear some damn good (free) work too.
Here’s the lineup,
Deborah A. Torraine, Louis Alemayehu, Lisa Brimmer, Claire DeCoster, Lenora Harris, Lynette Harris, Michael Haynes, Quentin “Q” Moore and Leonard Wilkes.
Action starts at 7:00 pm and is free to the public.
The Lowertown Reading Jam Series continues at the Black Dog Café on the first Monday of the month
through July. Each session is hosted by a well-known writer or spoken word artist, and Saint Paul artist
Lara Hanson interprets the readings through drawings using Japanese ink brushes. Free hors d’oeuvres
are served, and the Black Dog Café offers its “Monday Madness” special featuring a large pizza and
bottle of wine or a large pizza and four Summit beer taps for just $20. All Reading Jams are American
Sign Language (ASL) interpreted.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on April 22, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/black-dog-reading-may-3-2010/
say at this time:
I knew what was happening
and I didn’t let that stop me.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on January 15, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/what%e2%80%99s-the-worst-thing-i-could/
unititled
Listening to this song makes
me question whether your
eyes should be quick or not.
Your hand on my throat is
almost as nasty as what your
other hand is doing. I am alone
in a room of letters, my thighs
hold me behind a closed door to
a hallway where you are standing,
singing. Damn thighs. Damn skin.
Damn song. If you leave me I will
tell myself I never loved you anyway.
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on January 9, 2010
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/a-poem/
I am hearkening back to that old familiar tune…
“he’s gone away, for to stay a little while, but he’s coming back, if he goes ten thousand miles.” Sang it in High School.
I don’t know if it is a combination of my post GRE beers, (better than blues, I must say”) or has something to do with something Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks sd about Good Men Leave, or has nothing to do with any of this. I have a few good friends that serve and know a few great army wives and girlfriends with husbands and boyfriends overseas. November 11 is Veteran’s day, formerly Armistice Day.
So give a Vet a hug or a pat on the back or if you see an ID come your way, offer ’em more than just a discount on a sweater, how about a thank you?They participate in a difficult lifestyle for an optimistic future for all of us (idealistically, and in my mind- for the overall greater good).
KV’s birthday is tomorrow- that’s right folks-so Ladies- pick up some MOTHER NIGHT and Fella’s I can usually hook you with some CAT’s CRADLE. All are available through your local bookseller (*Micawber’s either has it or will order it for you, and Mager’s and Quinn is in the know).
Posted by Lisa Brimmer on November 10, 2009
https://2speakeaseblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/hes-gone-away/
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