AN ARTIST WRITES
By
Mark A. Chapman
Excerpts
Contents of An Artist Writes
MUSINGS
GOING DOWN THE VALLEY
PRISON POEMS
LOVE, SEX, AND OTHER FOIBLES
TRAVEL
LAST CHAPTER
Excerpt from MUSINGS
DOWNSIZED by Mark A. Chapman
Speeding through a Kansas winter night
I stop at a lonely spot to peer at
the jet black canopy pierced by untold daggers.
The dark vista,
cleansed by a chilly breeze
Stops time...
And I get very small.
At that moonless moment there are no
atheists on the prairie.
Dedicated to Leo and Irene Chapman
January 30, 1992
Excerpt from MUSINGS
LUDDITE'S LAMENT by Mark A. Chapman
Technology is rendering me obsolete
Rapidly falling behind with every new innovation
Never comfortable with a system that uses "start" for "off"
Logic stumbling by a different mindset
pathetic me: I even questioned an oversized box of air
designed to give heft without substance
foolishly I thought we'd already perfected the "on" button
but that was so yesteryear
now served by a sliver of black plastic surrounded by black
cleverly recessed for ease of misuse - Braille, anyone?
A nice leap backwards to grab the future
Totally dependent on an erratic, fragile science
Beseeched by psychotic hackers bent on anarchy, ill gotten gains
invited into your home with the flick of a switch
I looked in the mirror - I wasn't there
Someone stole my identity
Even mealtime threatened: "Waiter, there's a worm in my Apple."
iPods able to destroy hearing quicker
than a speeding rock band
more powerful than a shotgun blast
Now playing: invasion of the privacy snatchers - cell phones
A nation hooked on jibber-jabber
Intimate, animated calls in the next toilet stall
OMG TMI
Two calls to minister during Christmas service
Do you hear what I hear?
Emails a crushing burden of modern day chain letters
Overwhelming crap - a demand for response
A full life grounded on an internet shoal
Maybe I will retire and do email full-time
You can order anything from home
No need for contact with these pesky humans
They're probably on a cell phone anyway
Vacations Blackberried, leaving discarded seeds of fatigued connection
'Text' a bare bones link to another soul
Yes, I exist and so do you
More dangerous than DWI
A joy to watch a lovely couple on a date, texting away
concentrating on the romantic glow of a screen
Wait, maybe they're texting each other!
Excerpt from PRISON POEMS
BLINDSIDED by Mark A. Chapman
Today I got blindsided by
an emotion so strong, my knees buckled.
A friend referred to my mention of a son
"I didn't know - what does he do?"
I said he does prison.
As my spirit "augered in"
he edged toward the exit,
his sensitive antennae picking up an ill wind.
Could I hold back the landslide of emotions
from the worst day of my life
with a smoke screen of small talk
I maintained until we both found
refuge in our SUV's?
May 2009
DOWNSIZED by Mark A. Chapman
Speeding through a Kansas winter night
I stop at a lonely spot to peer at
the jet black canopy pierced by untold daggers.
The dark vista,
cleansed by a chilly breeze
Stops time...
And I get very small.
At that moonless moment there are no
atheists on the prairie.
Dedicated to Leo and Irene Chapman
January 30, 1992
Excerpt from MUSINGS
LUDDITE'S LAMENT by Mark A. Chapman
Technology is rendering me obsolete
Rapidly falling behind with every new innovation
Never comfortable with a system that uses "start" for "off"
Logic stumbling by a different mindset
pathetic me: I even questioned an oversized box of air
designed to give heft without substance
foolishly I thought we'd already perfected the "on" button
but that was so yesteryear
now served by a sliver of black plastic surrounded by black
cleverly recessed for ease of misuse - Braille, anyone?
A nice leap backwards to grab the future
Totally dependent on an erratic, fragile science
Beseeched by psychotic hackers bent on anarchy, ill gotten gains
invited into your home with the flick of a switch
I looked in the mirror - I wasn't there
Someone stole my identity
Even mealtime threatened: "Waiter, there's a worm in my Apple."
iPods able to destroy hearing quicker
than a speeding rock band
more powerful than a shotgun blast
Now playing: invasion of the privacy snatchers - cell phones
A nation hooked on jibber-jabber
Intimate, animated calls in the next toilet stall
OMG TMI
Two calls to minister during Christmas service
Do you hear what I hear?
Emails a crushing burden of modern day chain letters
Overwhelming crap - a demand for response
A full life grounded on an internet shoal
Maybe I will retire and do email full-time
You can order anything from home
No need for contact with these pesky humans
They're probably on a cell phone anyway
Vacations Blackberried, leaving discarded seeds of fatigued connection
'Text' a bare bones link to another soul
Yes, I exist and so do you
More dangerous than DWI
A joy to watch a lovely couple on a date, texting away
concentrating on the romantic glow of a screen
Wait, maybe they're texting each other!
Excerpt from PRISON POEMS
BLINDSIDED by Mark A. Chapman
Today I got blindsided by
an emotion so strong, my knees buckled.
A friend referred to my mention of a son
"I didn't know - what does he do?"
I said he does prison.
As my spirit "augered in"
he edged toward the exit,
his sensitive antennae picking up an ill wind.
Could I hold back the landslide of emotions
from the worst day of my life
with a smoke screen of small talk
I maintained until we both found
refuge in our SUV's?
May 2009
