May 4, 1970, Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming.........

On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The shootings have certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.


Below is a poem by Jim Kelly

Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming.........

Wild Wild West

My son wants a lava lamp
for his birthday
He was born on May 4^th
I got my first lava lamp
when I was in the sixth grade
May 4^th was a memorable day that year too
Four students were shot and killed at Kent State

I can remember my teacher
telling us how she was at a gas station
in Akron, Ohio
and the car next to her had some kids filling up with gas
they said they were heading for Kent
she could see rifles in their backseat
The day after the shootings
my brother was walking
across the his college campus
early in the morning
carrying a briefcase
Two plain clothed cops ambushed him
knocked him down
and confiscated
the briefcase
His almost completed term paper was never seen again

Back home at the dinner table
my dad said Kent
looked like the wild, wild west
He also said
He wished he hadn’t gotten up that morning

My son
just got a new puppy
his dog had just died
He named it Cowboy

-James Kelly 2003

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X6Vy4Tq-5a8
click above to watch "ohio"....so intense!

Video Killed the Radio Star

above is a picture of Lou Reed....You know that song sweet Jane?
I love that song. click below to hear it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uc26EFI1_nw

Below is a poem written by my friend Jim Kelly. I met Jim Kelly at Ohio State when I was 18years old. Mark and he came to visit. It ended up being a coincidence that he lived next door to my friend Michelle from highschool. He lived in this party house with his friend Vince. Jim was our bestman in our wedding. For Mark's bachlor party, he hired a stripper....Mark got to take the garter off with his teeth.....that was just before the stripper took off his shirt and he had a hairy chest and Mark found out it was really a guy.
There are a million words to describe Jim and all of them would be true.
I guess if I had to pick only four words to describe him, they would be as follows:
MYSTERIOUS, ADVENTUROUS, VERY GIVING, and HIDDEN ARTIST (sorry that is really six words.....)
anyway read the poem below.
Love,
Michele

Video Killed the Radio Star.........

FM

With our little Westinghouse transistor radios
That we got for Christmas
Under our pillows at night
We entered a new world
FM
We were loyal subjects
And we rewarded our kings and queens
By seeing their shows
And buying their records
We really knew the music scene
But didn’t know we knew it
The radio just played the songs
And didn’t tell us why we should listen to it
So we did
And on hot summer nights
In our postered bedrooms
Lou Reed
Rocked us gently to sleep

- James Kelly from Black Light Gin Circus (a collection of poems)