Ghislain’s Blog

Break-up Poem for America
              (with apologies to Walt Whitman)

Oh America, you sad failed experiment,
lt was lovely while it lasted.

People tried to warn me
They said that you were faithless
Professing everything
Remembering nothing
Fueled by lust and self interest
Always afraid of commitment

They said you were heartless
At your worst, you were violent
Your sweetest words coming
Just after the black eyes and broken jaws

But I loved you anyway. Yes
I thought they were jealous of us, America
You were young and impulsive
This time it would be different I imagined

Because I could see the wild beauty
In your grain fields and skyscrapers
Your railroads and ballot boxes
Plates of hominy and cowboy boots
Even your corruption

I remember the good times
Shay's rebellion and the Liberty Tree
Seneca Falls Convention
The New Deal   Woodstock
You were the cool rebel
But I knew you would protect me

I dreamed we could go anywhere together.

We did have our moments
Even as the fire hoses tumbled blacks
Marching for a seat at the front of the bus
You told me about the view from the mountain top
And I could see it then

It's been tough between us, America
But I always believed your promises
That you would settle down to your responsibilities
As you got older and wiser
Try to love your huddled masses
And it is hard to contain multitudes

I told myself ...

But it's been bad for so long
Chicago’68  Kent State
Watergate  Iran-Contra
Exxon Valdez  Somalia  Waco
Florida  Ohio  Abu Ghraib
Katrina  Guantanamo

Now there's nothing left to believe in,

You've watered the tree of liberty
With the blood of so many innocents
The soil can't hold the roots
And it's a truism:
The ones who can't keep plants alive
Make lousy marriage material

I have to finally admit
It’s over between us
I tried, America
I really did
But in the end, it just didn't work out
And I don't think we can still be friends

because it's not me; it's you.

                            --TRAVIS KOPLOW  Fb Friend

Word Girl

TK

Early Exene Cervenka with X

Raised in Chicago, Illinois and Florida, Cervenka moved to Los Angeles in 1976, and X was formed the following year. In 1977 she met musician John Doe at a poetry workshop at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California, and founded X. They released their debut album,Los Angeles, in 1980 and, over the next six years, five more critically acclaimed albums. Today she continues her musical career with X as well as in solo performances and participation in bands such as The

Johny Hit and Run Paulene

 Knitters, Auntie Christ and The Original Sinners. One of her solo songs, "Leave Heaven Alone" (on the album Old Wives' Tales), condemned militarism and environmental destruction.

In 1982 Cervenka published her first in a series of four books, Adulterer's Anonymous, in collaboration with artist Lydia Lunch. She has also performed and recorded solo work doing spoken word.

Unheard Music

In 2005, her journals and mixed media collages were exhibited in a one-person exhibition titled America the Beautiful at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The exhibit was curated by Kristine McKenna and Michael Duncan. An expanded version of the exhibition traveled to DCKT Contemporary in New York in January 2006. The exhibition featured a selection of journals from the collection of approximately 100 that Cervenka has completed over the past 30+ years, as well as 18 collages.

Prime Exene

Cervenka's journals combine rough drafts of songs and personal reflections rendered in a baroque calligraphic script with photographs, drawings and scraps of ephemera found while traveling as a musician. Similarly, the collages are created from found materials to form an interpretative composite portrait of the country she's come to know through her life experiences on the road. DCKT Contemporary continues to represent her artwork.

Exene recently

And her books

On June 2, 2009, Cervenka released the following statement:

Exene