Liquidity by Hank Kalet

LIQUIDITY
by Hank Kalet

We see them standing
on highway's soft shoulder
in parkas, ski hats, cold rain
like tears soaking to their weary bones,
an economy in signs, the placards
that pop up at traffic lights
in all weather, these men
paid to stand out there
as advertisements,
as signposts literally
corner after corner
of closed storefronts,
a furniture store,
shoe warehouse, placards
announcing available space
in strip mall
after strip mall,
empty lots pockmarked
with potholes
slick from the drizzle,
but I'm dry thank god
or whomever
inside this humming Toyota
with Gene Pitney singing
through the speakers as we
sit in an empty
parking lot of empty
lighting store on
overcast Sunday,
drizzle of rain falling
like housing prices.

Tuesday Poetry Podcast: Joyride (for Bob Nutter)

Today's podcast features my poem "Joyride (for Bob Nutter)," about a trip Bob and I took more than 26 years ago after a night drinking tequila (etc.).

The Sick Rose William Blake

I want to start the week with something from a dead white guy, a visionary who has influenced numerous poets over the last 200-plus years.

The Sick Rose

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

-- William Blake

From Songs of Innocence, 1789

Sonnet of the Everyday (Hopper's "Nighthawks") By Hank Kalet

This is part of a larger group of poems called Sonnets of the Everyday:

Sonnet of the Everyday
(Hopper’s "Nighthawks")

By Hank Kalet

Staring into the faces –
what is that blank stare,
cracked from the face
frozen behind the glass?
What is that distance
that keeps the smile buried
beneath a sullen non-committance?
What is that late night,
weary scowl,
permanent like a water mark
on the table top,
soaked into the linoleum
of the loneliest
of counters?

Poems on podcast

I kicked off a new podcast two weeks ago called Hank Kalet's Tuesday Poetry Podcast.

Check it out by clicking here or going to iTunes.

To submit audio to this podcast, please send mp3 files here.