WIPERWILL – 19 track album by Ben Bennett

LISTEN HERE

and then buy the CD for just $6

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Sr. Martha Simon, SCMM aka Martha Mary Mehrl

 

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I said to my husband, after hearing someone on PBS radio this morning, “It’s just ridiculous! Sad! The religious upbringing of people in this country is inhibiting their appreciation and enjoyment of poetry. The only exposure they have to poetry is what they hear or conceive of in the form of prayer or the generic crap that is found in greeting cards.” If it is not connected in some form to an institution, then it is not normal. Minds shut down in the face of tremendous possibilities available in not only poetry, but in contemporary art, music, theatre, etc.

Our parents were devout Catholics-I’m the second oldest in family of ten children-and my father still attends daily mass at the age of 89. My father, all of my brothers, and some of my sisters make no attempt to appreciate contemporary poetry. There is one sister, born on the same day I was born, only four years later, who was able to approach a visual poem that Leslie Scott Holmes and I did together at his studio in Minneapolis-in between my “Dad care” stints in NE Iowa-so it was right that I gifted it to her for Christmas. The main subject, for me anyway, was our elderly father with dementia and my relationship with him… a subject that could easily result in sappy poetry. I was able to express it via the less subjective collage flash card approach that Scott had set up for us.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day 2012, I returned to my small home town in NE Iowa with my visual poetry books, thinking that I could exchange them as gifts. I was able to give two away to my cousins in Dubuque, the larger city 45 minutes away from my small home town of Cascade. My father was raised as the eldestin Dubuque, with one sister and three brothers. All my cousins were raised as Catholics, but the female cousins in Dubuque are more open-minded then the males. We have a famous aunt in common, on my father’s side. Martha Mehrl joined the convent in 1951 and became Sr. Martha Simon SCMM. In 1958, Sr. Simon was one of two of the first women to graduate with a doctorate in dentistry- cum laude-from Georgetown University in Washington. I have the speech she gave as valedictorian. She was an early feminist role model for us, and possibly could not have managed that route (educational expenses and world travel) had she not joined the convent. She went on to command a mobile dentist office in Africa, where she practiced her dentistry on the impoverished population, supported as a missionary by the Catholic Church and in many ways by her family and home parish-Sacred Heart Parish-in Dubuque, IA. My uncle passed on three boxes of old family photos, including Martha’s letters and photos, to me and my cousins. I’ll be cleaning up the mildew, archiving into an acid free environment, and scanning photos, documents, and letters from my aunt in Africa and Pakistan before passing the boxes on to other cousins. The photo of Martha playing the cowhide drum is a favorite– and I’m the owner of that drum now, too! The hair has come off much of the surface since this photo, though. Expect a few blogs about Sr. Martha Simon, accompanied by photos, in the future!

So, you see, I’ve come full circle- beginning with anti-institutional sentiments and ending with a story about my aunt, who, like her brothers who joined the army-navy or navy-airforce, was able to make her way professionally and travel the world with the aid of institutions.  Life is full of contradictions.

LUNA BISONTE PRODS at lulu.com

HERE  (Yes, click on that BIG H to the left!)

is a link to LBP book covers

at LunaBisonteProds P.O.D. WEBSITE

LUNA BISONTE PRODS

Publisher of the World’s

Most Innovative and Startling

Literatures and Language Arts

Since 1974

Visit our Website at: http://www.johnmbennett.net

Print-on-demand site is: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/lunabisonteprods

CMB album of vispo – old and new

HERE

is link to DROPBOX album.

Just view full pages of thumbnail size images (3 pages to forward thru)

and enlarge by clicking on what image interests you OR

Click first image and then either hit arrow key to forward OR

Click on UL command for slideshow function

(after you’ve clicked on first image, then you will see slideshow command at UL).

DROPBOX is free software if you only use 2 megabytes of storage

- easy to edit off-line – easy to share on-line link to your album.

BUT don’t share anyone else’s images this way because of copyright.

There is a “download” command when viewing each image so anyone

can download from your album! I’ve only loaded low-resolution images

and don’t mind if someone downloads and shares with others but just

know that I still hold copyright to the images – so credit me please, and

DO NOT use for print purposes.

How to write a CINQUAIN POEM

A cinquain is composed of five lines and each line has a set number of syllables. In this regard it has similarities to a haiku and is fair game for play. I’ve been using this form as a vehicle for collaborations with other people. The following cinquain are all I’ve done so far - unedited. The syllable requirements are listed with the first example in which, well, we were just getting warmed up! The first TWO cinquain below were composed with Tom and Dawn Cassidy on Nov. 2nd, just this past Tuesday, after Dawn won a very brief Yahtzee game:

(2 syllables)  collar

(4 syllables) burglar jail cell

(6 syllables) do the fish laughter sigh

(8 syllables) Mormons remarry their X’s

(2 syllables) olive

 

twist’ems

oh those bastards

pom pom pool ball jump jump

red pom blue pool yellow ball jump

Go Bob!

 

Here are more that were authored last month by John M. Bennett and myself. The capitalization remains as originally written down:

EAT IT

SANDWICH IN HEAT

FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET

BAG OF SOGGY WHITE BREAD AND MEAT

GAG OFF

 

TWIN GOOP

SAVES YOUR SUNSET

SAND BAR WITH BURNING HUT

My Foot Stinks like Rotting Hot Dog

FOOT PRINTS

 

NOSTRIL

ON THE PINK SHELF

PEARLS BOUNCING OFF THE EDGE

ELASTIC EARS AND TWINKLING EYES

FORK CLOCK

 

SPANKY

MY FRUITY SHIRT

IT’S SLEEVES ARE TICKLING YOU

Blindly Crawling Under the Bed

Naked

 

SHOOT WALL

PRIMARY DOTS

STRUNG UPON THE WINDOW

SPATTERING MILK and CHEERIOS

HOT DAMN!

 

LATER

COUGHING TUNA

AND YOU ARE IN THE TRUNK

Kicking the lid thinking Sandwich

cell phone

 

 

Occupy N,S,E,W,NW,NE,SE,SW,MW Wall Street

Sent to an Iowa City mail artist for http://occupyallthethings.blogspot.com/

Look at this Flickr slideshow for really great photos that are tagged with “Occupy Wall Street”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/occupywallstreet/interesting/show/

LINT HEAD – Dedicated to Mark Bloch – Hack by Al Ackerman of C. Mehrl Bennett’s Lint Event

A. Dry a load of green clothes and then gather lint from the dryer vent filter. Carry the lint into a movie theater and when the feature comes on cover your head with glue and glue the lint to your head. Then tie on a blindfold and stumble through the theater making weird sounds and doing your best to find B and C.
B. Dry a load of blue clothes and then gather lint from the dryer vent filter. Carry the lint into a movie theater and when the feature comes on cover your head with glue and glue the lint to your head. Then tie on a blindfold and stumble through the theater making weird sounds and doing your best to find A and C.
C. Dry a load of red clothes and then gather lint from the dryer vent filter. Carry the lint into a movie theater and when the feature comes on cover your head with glue and glue the lint to your head. Then tie on a blindfold and stumble through the theater making weird sounds and doing your best to find A and B.
When the ushers come give the name C. Mehrl Bennett.

My Name is BAWA

SIX PIECES STOLEN AND TRANSFORMED FROM C. MEHRL BENNETT BY BLASTER AL

1. Stand in back of a class room full of first graders and scream out your name, as in “My name is BAWA “ Get out of there before anyone can grab you.

2. Get all dressed up for the sock hop. Walk across town to the tennis court where the dance is being held. Stand behind the fence and scream out” My name is Bawa!” until authorities drive you away.

3. BAWA CONTEST FOR TWO PEOPLE: You sit propped up in bed reading a book but also facing the other person, who sits in a chair staring at you questioningly. Every few seconds glance up from your book and shout “BAWA!” Do this until the other person complains that you are in his room without being invited.

4. Hold open front door so that only your forearm and hand get wet, as it is raining outside. Stay there for a long time in that position, shouting BAWA, until you catch a bad cold.

5. At an art gallery with a display of small press chapbooks, leave a small press chapbook with a cover that says VENGENCE OF BAWA; when no one is looking start setting fire to the other chapbooks.

6. In jail for arson, pull out a piece of pumpkin pie you have brought with you under your clothes and say to the guards, “This is Bawa, my little one. Is he not beautiful?” Before anyone can respond, smash the pie against the wall, wet your pants, and cry out “Murdering devils!”

Today’s Digital Beats

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Asemic Strip

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