PHOENIX POEM 

I feel a long poem coming on,

Might need three-shot mochas to get through it.

Not right: I’m cozy in a coffee shop, bright and chattery 

While our bombs 

Drop on Iran against our will. We’re powerless against

The billionaires playing games with lives and money

And the water we drink

And the air we breathe,

As thousands like me run out our pens writing words like these.

Trains flow by on Lake Street. Long flat freightcars 

Over an elevated bridge

Slightly above my line of sight. There is talk of sun…

Chicago Crickets at the Equinox, 2025

September

Is Chicago’s month

Of 80 degree eves

And outdoor bars.

But it won’t last long.

Seep, seep, seep

Go crickets in grass and trees.

Swish, swish

Go the newly falling leaves

The intoxicating balm

is temporary.

Cops caught a couple of really bad guys

But on another block a gang reigns drugs and death.

Behind a caged helmet

One of Da Bears grins post-touchdown,

Now they give up the ball and their owners

Plot a move to the suburbs.

A Metra train roars by

Defying reports of mass cuts…

Something told me, that morning in May 2021, I shouldn't have gone out for a third trip on the bike. The boy's bicycle with a straight bar was intended to fit my partner, not me. With my gimpy right hip, I could barely swing my leg over the bar, and my body was saying “Tired. Take a rest.” 

I want to go, I said. I pulled my leg over the bar and started down the street. To stop, I braked and put my left foot down. But now I couldn't lift my weary right leg over the bar, nor lean on it to lift my left leg…

After a lifetime of writing, I'm now helping other writers edit their work. Email me if you want me to take a look at your memoir, essay, short story, novel-- even  your bio and how you present yourself. (No porn or extreme violent material--enough of that!)  Rates are $25-35 an hour, based on word counts, total job quoted before we start. How does editing work? See this: What's an Editor Do?

CLICK and read FURTHER to see recommendations from people who've found that my editing services helped them in their…

In March 2021, , Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced plans to redevelop the historic Laramie Citizens Bank building at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Laramie. It will offer housing, business and culture through the neighborhood program Invest South and West. An easy ride on Bus 66 along the designated Chicago Avenue “Soul City” business corridor, this striking popular landmark can draw both locals and visitors. If carried out in a thoughtful and inclusive manner, the Laramie bank project can truly…

Barrelhouse Bonni's continuing education continues!  For 2020-21 she's digging into books on anti-racism, humanity and nature.  Read some of her reviews via Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/87884768-bonni-mckeown

A  big THANK YOU to everyone who donated in 2020 to keep the boogie going . thanks to you I'm on track to have my novel  edited (see "Chicago Blues Plantation" below,  and be ready for musical opportunities.  Read my year end report /fundraiser to catch up  HERE

DELTA SONG

A Novel under construction by Bonni McKeown 

Chapter 1: Two Brothers 

Marcus Sr., Mississippi Delta, October 1948 

Saturdays in October, the cotton bosses paid off. Marcus Manning and his younger brother Luther, guitars strapped across their backs, headed to Rendell to cash in. Just in their teens, the Manning brothers had built a musical reputation around the Delta. People pointed them out—Marcus, the tall, dark and rangy one; Luther, shorter, more rounded, a little lighter. 

“Sure easier to…

Local neighborhood papers these days are rare, but since I've had the privilege of writing a blog and news articles for the Austin Weekly News. Mainly I write about  people, arts and culture of the West Side of Chicago.  Austin is located on the far west of the West Side.  It turned very quickly from a white working class area into a Black neighborhood in 1970, right as the Great Migration era was ending and jobs were beginning to leave the city.  People here have survived in a slow economy ever since. The…

Three years ago in 2017, I spearheaded, with West Side  travel agent Crystal Dyer, a series of community talks on West Side blues and culture.

This was after a Crain's Business article showed the city is losing millions for failure to promote its local music.

In 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched "Year of Chicago Music" and spent thousands of dollars on a cute logo, "Music in the Key of Chicago."  The program was set to highlight 18 days of downtown festivals of various genres, which arenow in question due…