Day 15: Jackie Sheeler Praise Day

I was saddened to learn yesterday of the late March passing of Lineup and Five-Two contributor Jackie Sheeler.

Today the Bowery Poetry Club is hosting Jackie Sheeler Praise Day. Allow me to join in virtually with Jackie's January 30, 2012 Five-Two poem, "Lt. Machine".

Also, Jackie memorably read two poems for the second Lineup episode of Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV podcast:



Here is the full 30 Days of The Five-Two schedule.

—Gerald So

Day 17: Poetry in Performance

A sixth-grade field trip to a high school performance of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", complete with sound effects, showed me words could jump off the page. In moving from The Lineup print chapbook series to a website, I took advantage of the Web's sound and video capacity to present poetry in ways I couldn't in print. Most weeks, I create videos incorporating poets' or performers' voices, but The 5-2 is also open to videos by the poets themselves.

For Day 17 of 30 Days of The 5-2, check out The 5-2's best contributed videos, by Jackie Sheeler and Lola Koundakjian.

30 Days of The 5-2 - Day 4: In Reference to Murder

2012 Derringer-winning fiction writer and poet B.V. Lawson discusses Jackie Sheeler's Occupy Wall Street poem, "Lt. Machine".

See the full 30 Days of The 5-2 schedule.

Jackie Sheeler

LT. MACHINE

He neither smiles nor frowns, the attack
passionless, casual

imprecise.
When casting scarlet clouds at motionless targets

precision is superfluous.
Vicinity, proximity,

downwind: sufficient.
He makes a second pass across the line

just in case. Filling in the blanks, you might say.
He neither smiles nor frowns,

flourishes the canister
arms-length, like a cardsharp shooting his cuffs

before the deal. Winning is inevitable.
If he smiled.

If one tooth
glinted under the rusty bush of his mustache.

If his eyes narrowed or his plump
chest heaved,

if he screamed
I got your education right here you little pricks!

while all hell spurted out the silver cannon dangling
from his long blue sleeve,

he might appear to be alive.
But no. Silent, he neither smiles nor frowns.


Jackie's video for "Lt. Machine":



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Jackie confesses: Anonymous made me do it. When they posted that piker's six-figure salary and home address online, I looked at his beautiful house on Google maps, sent him a pizza and started to write. Or. Well. Maybe it wasn't Anonymous. It was the memes. Yes, definitely, the memes. He pepper-sprayed the Last Supper! And the holy bush of Marilyn Monroe, her white skirt airlifted by a passing subway. Entrapment. I had no choice. Guilty as charged.

JACKIE SHEELER's latest collection, Earthquake Came to Harlem, was a finalist for the 2011 Paterson Poetry Prize. She is presently working on a memoir, teaching in prison, and occupying Wall Street.

CrimeWAV 55: The Lineup Returns

Episode 55 is live!

Seth Harwood and I introduce The Lineup's second CrimeWAV podcast. Lineup 3 contributors Carrie McGath, James M. McGowan, and Jackie Sheeler read with Richie Narvaez and me.

Listen to CrimeWAV #55: The Lineup Returns.

Carrie reads her poem, "The Crimes of Cat-Calling".

Jackie reads her poems, "Anthony Baez" and "Another Hallway Altar in the Projects".

James reads his poem, "Running For Home".

Richie reads "Ride-along" and "Tuesday A.M." by Sarah Cortez, "Community Service" by David Hernandez, and "Other Conclusions" by James Sallis.

Finally, I read "Takeout (as we roll)" by Henry Chang, "Certain Methods" by David S. Pointer, and "Independence Day, 1976" by Wallace Stroby.

If you enjoy poems from this episode, you can buy The Lineup 3 in print, Kindle, or Nook format.

Huge thanks again to Seth, the contributors, and performers.

Jackie Sheeler

Jackie is a poet, performer, blogger, and producer with one full-length CD and three books in print. Once named the Poet Laureate of Riker’s Island, she is currently recording a second wordrock album and blogging at www.getangrywithme.com.