Poet JB Kennedy doesn’t like what he sees. Do you?
For several decades, Redondo Beach resident JB Kennedy has eyed politicians and religious fanatics with wariness and contempt, often expressed in these pages as literary commentary or biting poetry. One thing’s for sure, he won’t be lacking fuel for fire between now and November, and on into the following year. As the country dukes it out in the search of a new President, Kennedy will be watching; and chances are he’ll be shaking his head.
At the end of 2015, Kennedy wrote a poem called “The Opportunity.” It looked to the future and even contains a glimmer of hope — that is, if its message didn’t fall on deaf ears. It goes like this:
Omens of beheadings and of fear
issue in the ending of this year.
But now, a new New Year
offers crazed humanity
one more late opportunity
to spurn brutality and ferocity,
and turn to elusive sanity;
to forsake grotesque atrocity,
and embrace inclusive unity.
It offers another crucial occasion
to supplant irrational fury
with impassioned persuasion.
Now, less that three months into 2016, the opportunity seems to have been missed. Known for his “Devilnitions,” Kennedy recently penned a few more, including:
Televised debate, n.
Viewage sewage
Baccarat, n.
A casino game named for political endorsement
Foreign pallicy, n.
What guarantees full employment for coffin-carriers
(throughout the world foreign pallicies are, indeed, foreign to sanity and morality)
From James Joyce to Robinson Jeffers, Kennedy has admired some of the finest writers of the past century, but two to whom he often returns are E.M. Cioran and Octavio Paz. At the beginning of his poem “Enormity,” Kennedy quoted Paz (“History is a synonym for Fall.”) and Cioran (“Everything is in decline, and always has been. Once this diagnosis is well established, you can utter any enormity; you are even obliged to.”).
Adding a line to words taken from Shakespeare, Kennedy’s “The Poet’s Role” reads thus:
“Against the wrackful siege of batt’ring days,”
Present impactful speech that springs ablaze.
The right stuff?
Even as the field of presidential candidates dwindles, Kennedy doesn’t think much of any of them.
“One thing seems clear to me that nobody has ever mentioned that I know of,” he says; “it’s that anybody who wants to be President is insane, delusional at best, and egomaniacally crazy at least. The craving to have the responsibility of making life and death decisions for millions of people…” — what kind of person would want this? “And yet that subject never comes up during these campaigns, even when the so-called candidates expose themselves as being looney.”
All of the talk we’ve been hearing these past couple of months, he adds, “demonstrates that inciting terror is not limited to terrorists; you can look in the paper and read about these campaigns and that is terrifying enough.”
Does Kennedy find any of the current political candidates acceptable?
“As I said before,” he replies, “I think they’re all insane. Now in my middle 80s, I’ve experienced many, many, many administrations, and invariably any time that I developed a concept of hope, or optimism, I have been disappointed on every occasion. So I’ve reached a point now where since I know that they’re all insane, I keep insisting that ‘None of the Above’ be part of the ballot.
“What we should do, ideally, of course, would be to have a person be drafted — somebody who didn’t even consider being President – be drafted for the job and forced to take it. That’s the only way we’re ever going to get a decent President.”
Kennedy then recites a pithy bit of verse entitled “Ballot Humbug”:
Election fraud is again committed,
and voting one’s conscience not permitted,
when “None of the above” is omitted.
“In the upcoming elections,” Kennedy says, “any ballot listing Donald Trump should also list Donald Duck. Name recognition is just one area in which Donald Duck eclipses Donald Trump, and Donald Duck’s wardrobe does not feature incendiary trousers.”
Taking aim at Washington
“Newspapers periodically publish a list of restaurants that are going to be closed,” Kennedy says, now casting his eyes towards Capitol Hill. “Invariably one of the reasons for closing the restaurant is ‘vermin infestation.’ Now, it’s easily recognizable that both houses of the United States Congress suffer vermin infestation… and yet they are never closed down. They’ve been known to give themselves a raise in the past, even though today lobbyists make sure they don’t need a raise.”
Several of Kennedy’s recent poems have brought his concerns and his anger to light:
“A Fateful Precedent for the Insatiable 1%”
When unparalleled inequity of wealth
imperils a society’s health,
a solution for survival
is seen to be beckoning:
a revolution — and revival
of guillotine reckoning.
“Jingoism”
The ego’s imperious delusion
bestows a furious confusion.
And a resolute craving
for domination
results in depraving
a population.
“What the Hell?”
Whenever healing Sanity
threatens to appear,
demented Religious fantasies
interfear.
“Deities of Reality”
Because Mars and Mammon
are worshipped
by our human race,
hideous wars and famines
have flourished,
and are commonplace.
“Choosing Cides”
We eulogize and pay
the Unknown Soldier homage.
But pull our eyes away
from known Collateral Damage.
Lest anyone think that JB Kennedy is simply a crusty old man who loves to complain, it should be remembered that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has had no greater admirer. During the 50 years that Kennedy operated a succession of independent bookshops throughout the South Bay, he would always celebrate Mozart’s birthday with punch, cupcakes, and glorious, glorious music.
This is the poem (he writes one almost every year for the composer) he wrote for Mozart’s birthday earlier this year:
“Jan. 27. Dear Wolfgang,”
At 260 years we salute.
And again express thanks
for “The Magic Flute”.
At chamber music’s apex
your 6 astonishing String Quintets;
along with the songful radiance
of your Quintet for Piano and Winds:
your wondrous “Dissonant” quartet;
and C Major Symphony: “Linz”.
***
Immeasurably more important
Than ambitious governments
Or vicious wars,
The everlasting glory
Of your visionary scores.
- JB Kennedy
