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Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian
Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Sunday, January 22, 2017

"Welcome to Life, Motherfucker" a collage poem by Christopher Luna

On January 2, 2017, at Tiffany Burba's featured reading at Tony's Tavern in Portland, OR, I dedicated this poem to my friend and teacher David Meltzer, who passed away on December 31, 2016. I would also like to thank Dennis McBride for inspiring the poem, and for his continued support. Much love and much respect to Tommy Gaffney, the emcee for The Ol' Tony's Talkin' To. Finally, thanks to Tiffany Burba for this video:


Welcome to Life, Motherfucker
with love for my fellow poets

appalled by the enormity
of my self regard
there’s got to be more to this
tradition of transmission
than elitism and intellectual circle jerk

the tyranny of intentionality
visions of a glamorous hell
with bags full of havoc

like Bobby and Joanie
walkin’ the festival grounds
cracking a bullwhip:    superstars in our thinking
where you swim, she drowns

The whole impossibility of actually seeing something.
I think that now that’s a very difficult process to navigate.
There’s so much to cut through. It’s a very complicated terrain.

the solid marrying the liquid
that curious, lurking something

It’s up to us to find
their breath in the fog

to quietly float
is a huge challenge

To get people to use their eyes
and to get them to notice the things
they don’t pay attention to 

Everybody does look,
it’s just a question of
how hard.

Williams modeled brevity and precision
Duncan invited us to return to the field
Ginsberg recommended candor
Nikki reminded us to stand up

I am constantly voraciously reading medical texts until four or five in the morning. I want more energy, I want more vitality, I want more hair. I wanna snuff around and eavesdrop on people. I want to go further, transcending time.

Life breaks all of us. Capitalism enters our central nervous systems and gives us many levels of sickness. The antidote: Spermy poetic language. Explosive and ejaculatory. A new way to communicate, to participate, a new spiritual condition. If you’re open to infinity, you have a chance to regenerate yourself, and once all these circles, these circular temples, regenerate themselves, they’re the same old world but with a fresh new morning exhalation. 
  
I’ll always be your friend, and even your poet laureate. I am not a revolutionary, yet I feel I have something of value to say. I do overshare. It's my way of trying to understand myself.... It creates community when you talk about private things. It’s sort of a hobby of mine, the truth. The truth is not needed, but something is. I have spent aeons sitting here. Right here. I have been to hell and back. And let me tell you it was wonderful. One moment equals eternity. That tranquility is right at the edge of the chaos.

words are sigils for the
unutterable incomprehensible
ineffable energy coursing
through all life forms
poetic pictograms
guttural grunts toward meaning
phenomenological symbology
grand and finally, inadequate

Welcome to life, motherfucker. Cola Rum
tyranny of intentionality. Tod Marshall
Visions of a glamorous hell. George Kuchar on the films of Jack Smith
Where you swim, she drowns. Carl Jung to James Joyce, about his schizophrenic daughter.
The whole impossibility of actually seeing something. I think that now that’s a very difficult process to navigate. There’s so much to cut through. It’s a very complicated terrain. Gillian Conoley, interviewed by Tod Marshall for Range of the Possible, page 37.
The solid marrying the liquid, that curious, lurking something. Walt Whitman, “Specimen Days”
It’s up to us to find their breath in the fog. Edee Lemonier
to quietly float is a huge challenge Toni Lumbrazo Luna
It’s the job of the artist to get people to use their eyes and to get them to notice the things they don’t pay attention to. John Baldessari, in Interview Magazine 
Everybody does look, it’s just a question of how hard. David Hockney, as interviewed in the documentary Hockney.
That’s what I wanna do. I wanna snuff around and eavesdrop on people. Albert King, in conversation with Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Life breaks all of us. Lily Yeh
A new way to communicate, to participate, a new spiritual condition.  Ai Wei Wei
If you’re open to infinity…. a fresh new morning exhalation. I am not a revolutionary, yet I feel I have something of value to say. Capitalism enters our central nervous systems and gives us many levels of sickness. Spermy poetic language. Explosive and ejaculatory. Matthew Shipp
I’ll always be your friend, and even your poet laureate. Abel Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man. 
I do overshare. It's my way of trying to understand myself. ... It creates community when you talk about private things. Carrie Fisher, interviewed by NPR not long before her death. www.npr.org/2016/11/28/503580112/carrie-fisher-opens-up-about-star-wars-the-gold-bikini-and-her-on-set-affair
It’s sort of a hobby of mine, the truth. Dialogue spoken by John Robie (Cary Grant) in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief.
The truth is not needed, but something is. Dennis McBride

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