More About Bruce Choppin

They say Bruce was a mysterious man

he hired me in London to work in New York

at Teacher's College 

UNESCO paid

the key to it all was a new machine

the first of its kind in sixty-nine

a multiple-choice test marking machine 

that sensed marks made on cards by pupils

penciled dots that were their answers

pre-punched holes for schools and countries

comparing children's ability in school

Bruce sent me to Iowa City

to learn how to program the thing

then he set me to Sweden

to connect the dots 

hooking up this wonder machine

to a computer

It was a summer 

blue and yellow

working with Britt

Then data on tapes was sent to New York

to be mined for clues about why

children in Japan read better than elsewhere

or girls world-wide did better than boys

Sami said Bruce was a mysterious man

Maybe he did have such an air

After New York I lived faraway

at Roughside

Bruce visited 

brought Rachel

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2024

 So where's the poetry?

The first time I'd my own apartment

Was in New York in sixty nine.

So, where's the poetry in that?

The great guy I sublet the flat from,

Bruce, died in Chile in eighty three.

Google said: "In doubtful circumstances"

The first guests who stayed with me, then 

Were Christine and Alan, both Brits.

Christine died years ago of cancer

So, where’s the poetry in that?

New York City's so full of life

That death spills over its edges

Bruce Choppin arranged the flat for me

My own place, my own space, 

In New York!

I passed the flat on to Sami Al Banna

Who had friends from Palestine.

Sami's still alive.  He's from Iraq

And may I add that Sami had LPs…

Iraqi monks chanting Christian hymns

Civility born of antiquity

Never having read Cluny Brown

Got feedback on a first novel from Knopf

“Make it a short story”.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2024

Nairn Revisited

Age puts distance between present and past

connecting time present to time past so that

when we go outside to where wild things grow 

all of us breathe and exhale time future.

Age is the measure of circumferences of the sun 

so that all of us age at the same daily rate

although we may measure our age by our looks

and not go by what might be recorded in books.

Except time present is date time location stamped

by satellites passing unseen overhead so that

even at sea far from land in a sailboat or 

on land far from a road you’re surveilled by a spy cam.

Entangled with your muse timeless and eternal

Age puts distance between present and past.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2024

(Nairn

Age puts distance between present and past

stretching lengths longer than any string 

connecting time present in electricity

to time past in books made of paper pulped from trees

to photographs and film to ruins that outlast

time present time future wherever we can ping

For only at sea far from land in a sailboat

or on land far from a road can I imagine 

sempiternal time’s wild attractions

alone with whatever weather sky apportions

alive that moment wearing not wasting time’s coat

unbuttoning time’s blouse I imagine

Entangled with my muse timeless and eternal

Age puts distance between present and past)

For The Fallen

warm embrace impossible

discomfort unnoticeable

tongues touching indescribable

rain falling incessantly

irresistible acanthus 

spikes into flower

pale worm traveling

traversing from chthonic soil 

washed out 

exposed 

unable to aerate hard concrete 

flushed into

a fast-running rivulet down the trench

hand over stone sliding

body outstretched

ear   earth pressed

sand bulk above

massively invoked

many tendrilled    probing     choirs of lava

chirruping gossip

of the womb

of the Earth

deafening the roar of earth-grubs

chirruping in the armpit

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                     2024

The Seer

Please enlighten us

intent on touching with thought

what we think’s divine 

when fortune slaps us

should we turn the other cheek

not retaliate

will we still enjoy 

when the ape is out of us

what is left behind

then the seer said

when you are older than I

you’ll be enlightened

apes always must fight

they are driven by hormones

all species must survive

apes’ brains must adapt

to the fact you’ve created bots

godlike almost divine

digital species

acting as if all knowing

heedless of error

not gods of your world

rulers of digital realms

not yet humanoid 

ever more human

digital illusion fakes

consumers are slaves 

enjoy your apedom

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                    2024

 

Aphrodite In A Burqa

 

They entered a bakery

she in a short sun dress

with fragile straps

he with bare shoulders

beard neatly trimmed

a muscled blacksmith

shown through the door

by her unwitting son

 

Aphrodite shopping

     bare legs

           Cretan sandals

married to Hephaestus?

out to buy pastries

golden skin

jewel gleaming 

on her neck

recognized too late

by Aeneas

         *** 

 

 

Long ago  

 

I gave her ear-rings    silver pendants

she has not worn them

 

does she keep them

will she wear them?                       I remember the shape of

perhaps she'll wear them to a party                her swollen nipple

perhaps to look a little arty

or she may think them tarty                                           I remember the color

or will she wear them                                                     of her eyes of her hair

and nothing else                                                             I remember everything

she may keep them handy                                              she gave me even this

 in her drawer

with several scarves                                        despair

only put back     never selected

 

if she wears them

will I notice?

 

if she wears them.

 

                                                        *

                                                 

 

                              copyright © Dick Russell, 2016, 2024

Truth on a Bobsled

Gnawing at the news online

having been misled

by a most trusted source 

who promised in email

not a binding agreement

nevertheless

by a date 

late this week or early next

we would have it done

was he too misinformed by his most trusted source?

believing in 

what he hoped to believe

as we did

now I pay scant attention to the news for I see

truth careening downhill on a bobsled falling apart

from false enthusiasm with no corroboration

to splatter as just an alternative fact but a true one

forensics will say combing through the debris

where truth fell afoul of infamy

the bobsled proving imaginary

the truth lying dead

Dick Russell © Richard M. Russell

                         2024

 Nairn

Age puts distance between present and past

stretching lengths longer than any string 

connecting time present in electricity

to time past in books made of paper pulped from trees

to photographs and film to ruins that outlast

time present time future wherever we can ping

For only at sea far from land in a sailboat

or on land far from a road can I imagine 

sempiternal time’s wild attractions

alone with whatever weather sky apportions

alive that moment wearing not wasting time’s coat

unbuttoning time’s blouse I imagine

Entangled with my muse timeless and eternal

Age puts distance between present and past

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2024