Psalms of a Boomer Consumer

A psalm is a song and a poem and a prayer, all rolled into one. It can start, Thank You… or, Why can’t You…? or, Hey, You! Whatever else it does, a psalm addresses God directly - as Mother, Father, Sister, Friend, Teacher, Boss, Stranger On The Subway or maybe just that unseen presence that sidles up to us at the oddest times. Though I love the Hebrew psalms of my own tradition, their frequent references to sheep-herding do not reflect the world I live in. So I set out to write a few psalms of my own, from the standpoint of somebody who lives in an apartment and shops in grocery stores and goes to the movies and rides the subway. For weeks while I was compiling “Psalms of a Boomer Consumer,” I could never read a newspaper or magazine without a pair of scissors in my hand. I cut out advertising slogans, promises made by car dealerships, coupons to help us save, save, save - all the quasi-spiritual stuff that bombards us in our consumer society. I worked those clippings into the illustrations for each psalm, and often drew ironic inspiration from them. “Psalms of a Boomer Consumer” is interactive. It provides space for the reader to write some psalms of their own, and suggests a few phrases to help them get going. “Whatever you do,” the Introduction urges, “tell your God what’s on your mind. And don’t mince words. Your God can take it.

Counting the Ways: unsent love letters

This collection of poems was inspired by a bout of unrequited love that hit me hard in my late fifties. I gave them to a friend to read and asked him how I thought they should be presented. He said he was reminded of a bunch of old love letters somebody was keeping in a cigar box. So I printed the love poems as letters, with the title of each forming the "address." Each has a stamp - the Queen of Hearts with a single tear running down her cheek. The poems/letters can be read in any order, and they come in, not a cigar box, but an old-fashioned looking sewn felt packet fastened with an ornamental button.

Excerpts

• Onset

End Papers

End Papers is a collection of poems about - yup, the end. But don't let the shape put you off. The poems are not depressing. A couple of them are even funny.

Here's the title poem:

Excerpts

• End Papers

Poeggs

Poeggs (pronounced PEGS or PO-eggs, depending on whether you're more in the mood for a poem or an egg) is a reused plastic egg carton containing six whimsical egg-inspired poems. A perfect gift for Easter or any time.

Here's one of the poeggs:

Excerpts

• Meditation: Peeling a Boiled Egg