splainglish for duh Nile
while witches cast spells
in wishing well
that wee might bees
More Likes Manatees
Which Hunt
which witch on a which hunt?
witch author it he said
may she rest in pieces
she was knot a witch
after all just a b*tch
it ain't easy bee ing a witch
which know won says
egg cysts
April is Poetry Month for me too…
In celebration of Poetry Month I’ve been invited by the Greenville Library and the Greenville Jazz Collective to combine my poetic lines and rhymes with the musical lines and rhythms of Shannon Hoover on bass and Matt Dingledine on guitar.
We’ll be having all this fun on:
Thursday April 18 from 6:30-7:30 pm at the Five Forks branch in Simpsonville.
Greenville County Library – Five Forks
104 Sunnydale Dr, Simpsonville, SC 29681, United States
Phone# 864-234-4904
I’ll be heading down to the jam session tonight at Chicora Alley to dip my toes in the flow of music and work out some of my kinks…
Live at the Fundbureau now available in digital and streaming formats
It’s eighteen years later. I know that because I was eight months pregnant at the time and now my son is eighteen. Ralph Kessler, a brilliant software engineer, was there to record it, and the band and dj’s I’d been collaborating with for about five years. I should have known that it was the end of an era in my life…
I hope that you enjoy this unedited live performance at the Fundbureau in Germany. It was mixed and mastered also by Ralph at his Pinguin Studios. You can buy the album, download single tracks or search for it on Spotify or wherever you like to listen to streaming music…
Little Texas
Tony Mims speaks at the unveiling of the Little Texas historical marker at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville SC during the Little Texas Reunion on August 12, 2017.
Little Texas
by Tony Mims
If you don’t honor your history,
you won’t respect your future.
If you only live in the now
you can get lost in the many illusions
that will only feed the pitfalls
of your own personal confusion.
That’s why the memories of your home
should be a force of the positive and the strong.
It’s the roots of positive experience of growing up
that help your vision stay focused on what is real
and gives you solid meaning to how you should feel
in a world that sometimes gives life very little meaning.
The history of Little Texas goes way back.
About twenty years after they had to let the slaves free
this black downtown neighborhood
was Greenville’s first black working class community. Continue reading “Little Texas”
Word Anthology Now for Sale
Octogenarian Steve Cannon told me that Word is the last book he will publish. It is a thank you to all the people who contributed to “A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine” in various ways. He published fourteen print issues packed with poetry, essays, reviews and art.
Aside from doing some grant writing in his office, I was involved in several issues of the magazine, first as an associate editor, then editor, and also as a contributor of interviews and poetry. My time spent at Tribes, then located in Steve’s home on East Third Street in the East Village of NYC, was well invested. I learned a lot about literature and publishing literature from Steve. I also met hundreds of people of all stripes who came through the door daily, hourly…
It’s an honor to have a few of my note poems in this volume. Personally, it brought tears to my eyes as I read through it. That’s because some of the contributors have passed on, and so have the times that we all intersected with each other under the blessing of Steve’s hospitality.
I’ll have to leave the critical reviews of this book to others. But I will tell you that it is in glossy full color and contains as much art as it does poetry. Please take a look and consider adding this beautiful book to your collection.
The Party is Here
Book Release Party for Word: An Anthology
Steve Cannon has been the engine behind A Gathering of the Tribes the magazine, gallery, performance series, community gathering that is Tribes, for decades. Word, An Anthology is a collection of works by some of the cast of characters who passed through and left something while they were there. It would probably be impossible to include everyone, but I am happy to say that I have a few of my note poems in there. I haven’t laid my hands on it or even seen the cover yet, but I can’t wait to read through every page.
I wish that I could be there for this event, which would be nostalgic for me if I did go. If you’re in the NYC area on April Fool’s day, please get to this HOWL! Happening in Loisaida, a reading and book release party. While you’re there say hello to everyone for me and tell them I sent you!
Cuntry Grab
in the mirror
made in China
what is behind me
is before me
i see
buffalo no roam
truces trails nooses nails
slaves paths paved
fathers founding free
ejacular college lock her rooms
dark sons dark daughters dark secrets
times three over five equals
ours tis of thee of me
steel bars
beer bars
code bars
prison bars
greasing grinding greed
far away from here
from there
from where
Protect Water Protectors
Will your children drink when the supply
of plastic bottles runs dry
and floats in a dead sea,
devolved from you, me
and the idea of private property?