New San Diego Production

Geezers, one of my short plays (a comedy with sad notes), will be produced and staged in its  latest version at the North Park Vaudeville and Candy Shoppe at 2031 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego. It's included in the theater's Ten Minute Madness festival over three weekends, from March 11-26, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM. 

 I was honored to have one of my poems included in this show. 

Expressions2022 - ACA (addisoncenterforthearts.com) 

I've also made a recording of my reading accompanied by a slide show of nature photographs at 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhNpMZTMfV8_hJIaMF1uxenbrxFv8Q?e=k5ywxw

Forgotten. a 40-minute play reading

 

Saving Moses, a Short Play

Presentation of creative writing as a spiritual path followed by my play Saving Moses, read by great actors. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did producing it.  #creative writing #spiritual #spirituality #haiku #theater #arts #playwriting

Poetry Reading

I was joined by wonderful poets on Zoom at an event offered by Bookstore 1 in Sarasota, Florida. If you are not able to view the entire video, I read last after a short intro at 51.52 minutes with two poems. My haiku follows at 57 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvUpaQtiIs4

My poems are included in a Komechak Virtual Exhibition

Two of my ekphrastic poems can be viewed by clicking on the paintings Defender and Reckless at:

http://www.ben.edu/komechak-art-gallery/Exhibitions/new-gallery-1.cfm

There’s one typo in the Defender poem: “sole racketeers” should read “soul racketeers.”

Click on Cosmic Blueprint at http://www.ben.edu/komechak-art-to read more about the show.

#poetry #poems #ekphrastic #art

My Interview Podcast

I had an opportunity to be interviewed online today, now available by podcast linked below. Janet hosts a weekly radio broadcast on a broad range of topics with many interesting guests.
Jump forward on the audio at any time (skip commercials and other parts ) by pointing to a different part of the line graph. #law #juvenilecourt #communityservice #haiku #3lines #senryu

https://youtu.be/BudE0io-iuE

Ekphrastic Poetry and Art

Two of my poems will be displayed with art at Benedictine College in Lisle, Illinois in March, 2020 as part of an ekphrastic project of the Illinois State Poetry Society. The exhibit was previously presented at the Burning Bush Gallery in Wheaton this fall.

This is the art that inspired one of the poems below:

               Mask

See the sadness in my eyes.

I hide behind this mask

afraid to affirm

who I am

what I feel within.

My mask twists and winds

like my spirit and mind.

Will I be scorned, unloved

should I reveal myself

and all I may become?

Shall I dare be strong

even reckless to

fly free with these feathers

or stay stuck, silent and sad

beneath this mask?

Art by Yelda Akacik (on Instagram at @hiyelda
https://instagram.com/hiyelda?igshid=57bzvq30vwuz )

Poems

Several of my poems can be found at https://www.poemhunter.com/s-m-kozubek/

Mainichi Haiku Contest

Letter and plaque received last week: I've been awarded a Second Prize in the 21st Mainichi Haiku Contest International Section for: amid the stones of the soldiers' cemetery edelweiss #Haiku #3lines #poetry #POEMS

Clips from my 10-minute play Geezers at Florida Studio's Bowne's Lab

Thanks actors Ryan and John and Director Meg and, of course, Jason Cannon for a wonderful class!
#theater #comedy

New Comedy

Talented young actors performed a staged reading of my 10-minute comedy The Tow at the Florida Studios Bowne Lab in Sarasota, Florida yesterday.

New Release by Chicago Poetry Press

I am delighted to have another poem included in this year's collection:

http://chicagopoetry.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1550&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

New Book in Breaking the Cycle series

 http://amzn.com/1530580935

This is a great new volume of stories and poems, included two by yours truly. All proceeds are going to organizations that help neglected and abused children. Past recipients have included Prevent Child Abuse America and First Light Child Advocacy Center. 

Columbus Dispatch article

Our haiku in stone is featured in a Columbus Dispatch article
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/travel/2015/09/27/1-outdoor-museum-opens-with-poetic-path.html

Haiku

Enjoy reading my haiku at http://mkozubek1.wordpress.com

Tales of a Country Lawyer

Enjoy these excerpts from my upcoming book, my real-life experiences practicing law in upstate New York in the 1970's and 80's---

The criminal court judge sentences the scraggly defendant before him to twenty years for a third conviction of burglary. The defendant pleads to the judge: “I can’t serve twenty years, judge. I can’t do it!”

The judge peers over his glasses at the defendant and says:

“Just do the best you can, son. Do the best you can.”

                                               ______________________________

If a defendant is convicted of a felony, testimony is taken of prior acts of his life to determine the appropriate sentence imposed. Sometimes the testimony can exceed the need. In one case after being convicted of murder, testimony was taken of a purported theft by the defendant in his high school cafeteria. His defense counsel, had a bit of fun that day in his cross-examination sarcasm: "My God, what did he take? Could it have been a DONUT?"   

                                                ______________________________

When I served as an assistant prosecutor in upstate New York in the 1970's, each town and village had its own justice of the peace who handled all its traffic and minor criminal cases. Except for the occasional lawyer who sneaked past the nominating board, these judges were people drawn from common livelihoods-- dairy farmers, mechanics, and retired cops and military people.  I spent many evenings in courts conducted in kitchens in the winter alongside a potbelly stove and in summer in barns with cow tails swishing in front of the parties.

Many town judges had years of practical experience and often exercised more common sense and justice tempered with mercy than was practiced by their more learned brethren. One evening a young out-of-town motorist was tracked on radar in a town speed trap.  In addition to receiving a speeding ticket, he became the recipient of citations for other traffic infractions after mouthing off to the state trooper who had stopped him.  Disgruntled and peevish at being detained and delayed, the defendant demanded to see the judge immediately. After all, he watched TV lawyer shows and knew some of his rights. State Trooper Zeke was more than willing to transport the defendant for an arraignment before the town justice. 

Driving the defendant over several miles of back country roads and pulling into the driveway past scurrying chickens and one large goat which refused to budge, the trooper stopped beside a red barn and there deposited his recent catch. It was just after milking time. The dairy farmer judge limped out of the barn dressed in dirty overalls that had grazed a herd of cows during milking and stained from some of the spillage of dung and other debris removed from the barn that day. 

Removed gingerly from the patrol car and escorted to the barn by Trooper Zeke, the defendant again demanded to see the judge.

“Why, I’m the judge, son. What seems to be the problem?”

The young man scoffed at the dairy court and the judge’s dirty overalls and day’s perspiration rolling from his neck.  “You’re not a judge. I want to see a real judge!”

Personally affronted by this insult, the judge also regarded the remark as a direct assault on the entire judiciary.  He had proudly served for years on the bench, however, and knew how to return an insult.

“You want to see a real judge? All right then. I sentence you to 30 days in the county jail for contempt of court! Take the prisoner away,” the judge commanded the obliging trooper.

After the chagrined defendant spent a rather long sleepless weekend in a jail cell with only a cot and a toilet, he was brought Monday morning before a “real judge”, a state Supreme Court judge with a wry sense of humor. Reviewing the papers the old judge just shook his head and chuckled:  “30 days? Charles Manson didn’t get 30 days for contempt.” referring to the cold-blooded cult-leading killer of actress Sharon Tate.

The young man confessed he had learned his lesson and was immediately released. He quickly paid his traffic fines and hurried out of town, never to be seen again in the county. Such was the nature of country justice, sometimes crude and improvised, but it often served just fine enough in keeping peace in our small towns. 

                                                 ______________________________

Winter--the time of the year when the men-folk gather around the woodstove down at the country store to commune, commiserate, and ask one of life's eternal questions: “Get your deer yet?”

Haiku

Let's try Google together, poets. 

I have haiku published in the HSA journal Frogpond and will offer one here:   
           
            genealogy:

            the earth from

            my grandparents’ garden

My recent labor article on a case involving the firing of a pregnant employee can be read at

http://www.insidecounseldigital.com/insidecounsel/201204?#pg55

On the Course at Dawn

On the golf course at dawn:

No one but groundskeepers raking bunkers

and red-orange fox fur

reflecting a crystal sun.  

Dew dresses the greens.

After my ball glides past a hole,

Marking its path through the dew.

I am crisp and content in this

quiet, more than decent life.

More poetry can be read at http://www.authorsden.com/michaelkozubek