Ribbon of Intonations

Hokah-Hey

2012-01-23T00:27:00.001-05:00

As my buddy Ernie would
say. Busy but must do
some subs.
"..the dogs bark, the wagons move on.."

Aha: the Grey Courts got me

2012-01-17T11:29:00.002-05:00

Video of "Rain at the T&N",
from the Frost Hoot event.
The restaurant acoustics are tricky.
I'll be trying out an improved
performance shell I made at the next hoot.

and from the other end...

2012-01-16T08:58:00.003-05:00

Something from the less-sense approach..

-------------

Each Day Lessens

eager and unharmed
on those afternoons,
it was amnesty for the disgusted
to tip toward you

perhaps life surged in your ear,
a mouth appeared two haves apart,
speaking to the carsick city within,
still a friend, told and laden
with each secret, every small contempt

de acuerdo contigo, he says she said;
and you share with the phalanx
its silent sensual shadows
but sweet mercy never comes

each day lessens
the newsprint on the skin

for some risen treasure,
to the skies when ever an instant
is tanned is touched upon

the floor-spare troves:
clean sheets and paper pads,
paragraphs as strange as
marigolds by the sickbed

all told, the card had
feet the clay touched to the day
neverward snatched
from rain's windows, for
the moist machines prevail
in lost daydreams
prevail from the shadows

From "Tahki" (at blurb)

2012-01-15T20:09:00.002-05:00

Tahki is full-length review
(ie, you can read it free) at blurb.

----------------------------
If I do meter, it wants to gallop hard..
I have many vox but I'm not sure if I have
a muse. So I did a want ad:

-------------------------------------

Want Ad For a Muse

Say little, love, but say it well:
In my left ear, in this hotel.
In distant dreams,
In different states,
On mountain spruce beds,
Cardboard boxes,
Subway grates.

Speak slowly,
But seek my fire.
Find hidden nerves,
Shy needs, and great desires,

And when you stop,
Smile down on me, demure.
Know what you found
May be all that I know for sure.

that's where you found yourself

2012-01-12T01:07:00.001-05:00

...says to me

Reading

2012-01-11T23:25:00.003-05:00

The reading at Cafe Azteca went well,
and psyching up the Grey Courts went
even better. Pilar Quintana tells me
the anthology will be available near
January's end.
Some awesome characters there.

Mark Schorr (Director, Frost Foundation)
did a little trick the Beats used to do..
..we put our books in a free raffle, along
with Bob Muldoon's Hockey Comedy fiction
that's actually based on real experience
with the Hartford Whalers.
("Brass Bonanza Plays Again", with
Bob's wall-to-wall riot style)

The person
getting "Tahki" and "Nighthawks" was
thrilled. A relief...I worried someone
who thought "meh" would get them.

If you do a free-raffle, you need to
scissor up numbered tickets, two for each
serial number, one to the taker and
one for the pot. Here's a thing you
can cut, paste, print, and scissor:

------------------------------------------------
| 0001 | 0001 x 0002 | 0002 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0003 | 0003 x 0004 | 0004 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0005 | 0005 x 0006 | 0006 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0007 | 0007 x 0008 | 0008 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0009 | 0009 x 0010 | 0010 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0011 | 0011 x 0012 | 0012 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0013 | 0013 x 0014 | 0014 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0015 | 0015 x 0016 | 0016 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0017 | 0017 x 0018 | 0018 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0019 | 0019 x 0020 | 0020 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0021 | 0021 x 0022 | 0022 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0023 | 0023 x 0024 | 0024 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0025 | 0025 x 0026 | 0026 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0027 | 0027 x 0028 | 0028 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0029 | 0029 x 0030 | 0030 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0031 | 0031 x 0032 | 0032 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0033 | 0033 x 0034 | 0034 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0035 | 0035 x 0036 | 0036 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0037 | 0037 x 0038 | 0038 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0039 | 0039 x 0040 | 0040 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0041 | 0041 x 0042 | 0042 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0043 | 0043 x 0044 | 0044 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0045 | 0045 x 0046 | 0046 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0047 | 0047 x 0048 | 0048 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0049 | 0049 x 0050 | 0050 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0051 | 0051 x 0052 | 0052 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0053 | 0053 x 0054 | 0054 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0055 | 0055 x 0056 | 0056 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0057 | 0057 x 0058 | 0058 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0059 | 0059 x 0060 | 0060 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0061 | 0061 x 0062 | 0062 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0063 | 0063 x 0064 | 0064 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0065 | 0065 x 0066 | 0066 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0067 | 0067 x 0068 | 0068 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0069 | 0069 x 0070 | 0070 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0071 | 0071 x 0072 | 0072 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0073 | 0073 x 0074 | 0074 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0075 | 0075 x 0076 | 0076 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0077 | 0077 x 0078 | 0078 |
------------------------------------------------
| 0079 | 0079 x 0080 | 0080 |
------------------------------------------------

There are sites that do raffle tickets for
you but they download stuff and gunk you up
with obligations or get your address.
So enjoy, no obligation. If you're a big-time
famer (like maybe Jessie? heh) you can ask and I'll
send you bigger quantity. Or if Pearl is
MC'ing a multi-way author reading... up in
the big city in the big woods.

Technique

2012-01-10T23:15:00.006-05:00

Casting shadows.

grubbing out

2012-01-10T11:04:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been distracted..been culling
the book mountain, cleaning things up, pondering
the next steps in crafting, doing some work for
the Frost Foundation.
The first hoot is tonight at Cafe Azteca.
Books and an art piece will be raffled.
--------------------------------

Here's a little thing
that will show up sometime
in the Grey Court anthology:

The Witness

Undone by
their afterthoughts,
two pronouns stare morosely
at each other
across the worn formica
of a diner table
in a corner of town
that could be ours.

Around them,
other pronouns sit,
with their fuzzy faces,
some smiling,
some staring sadly
into coffee,
some bustling by, working.
Some are answering calls,
and others are finding callings.
Either way,
something shakes
when the call comes in.

I could be any of them,
depending.

Sometimes it seems
I am all of them,
but still alone.

Old Elm

2012-01-01T20:40:00.011-05:00

Things get gnarled
after a few hundred years.

2011-12-31T15:10:00.003-05:00

Awesome showing for Jessie in 2011:

JESSIE_CARTY_2011_index

As they say in hockey,
nobody hits the boards more.
A quality producer and a submission phenom.

Hey Rick, there it is...

2011-12-31T14:58:00.004-05:00

Yes!
I found Andre Cold Duck.
Five bucks a bottle...
It's a Saturnalia miracle.

Merry Xmas from the country cousins

2011-12-31T11:17:00.003-05:00

Hahaa..
Oops, almost forgot this one.
Reminds me of one Christmas at
our country cousins' house.

There was a lot of bean-dip
and Bud and Beam, Salem Lights
and show-dancing. There were
green and red plastic tree bits
in the aquarium. The fish looked
woozy. Uncle hadn't ever finished
a porch over the lake, but he had
a door to nowhere, and it wasn't
nailed shut. I swung out 8 feet
over the rocks, and clung to the
doorknob like death on fire.

And the folks inside all
had a chuckle. Um...yeah.
I can laugh now. This vid's
for you, Dickie.

A Galaxy Far Away

2011-12-29T19:35:00.002-05:00

Little taste of my NewYear's 1977/78...heh.
Doing the bump to James Brown with Cold Duck,
back in the day, up in the woods.
Hey, it was fun.

On Manuscripts

2011-12-21T10:06:00.002-05:00

"
A journey of a thousand miles
begins under your feet.
"
--Lao Tzu

This is often recalled as "...with one footstep".
That's not quite it: the idea is the action comes
from inaction by what is there. So, yeah, bit
by bit, but start looking and let the ground
you're on suggest the course.

The Most Horrific Holiday Special Ever

2011-12-20T11:54:00.001-05:00

Yikes..
Hehee..."how could you, Mrs. Dinky?"

Well Enough To Breathe

2011-12-18T14:45:00.002-05:00

These Days

These days?
Well, I can't complain.
What I mean is...
I wouldn't dare.

These days.

season's greetings

2011-12-17T18:56:00.003-05:00

cut up , with attitude riffs

2011-12-17T00:04:00.006-05:00

Fun!

DONNA_KUHN

Not many actual experimental poets
with flavor out there. Found word/phrases
but composed tropes/themes.
I like sly.

Arts + Sciences + Invention

2011-12-08T12:58:00.002-05:00

I do some tech projects and
art and personal fixit work as well.

I wanted to combine some of my
art thinking and some invention with
my obsession with magnifiers, and came up
with this dandy desk toy. It's pretty handy
for fine print and teeny icons and it has
architectural themes and my veined-paint
technique. A friend has a PC-controlled
machine tool at home: thus the lovely
rendition of the elliptical handle.
The lens is sliced for a nice wide view
without the bulk of the circle.

I made a bunch.
Hoping to finding some shop.
If I add a few more curios,
maybe I can do a craft table someday.

A Reading In January

2011-12-07T16:22:00.004-05:00

The Frost Foundation "Hoot" season
begins January 10 at Cafe Azteca
in Lawrence, Mass., home to the best
real Mexican cuisine in hundreds of
miles. Even the Poblano is the real
deal.

FROST_HOOT_AT_AZTECA

I will be reading from "TAHKI" there,
and Mark Schoor (the director) will
be reading from his "Recovery Renga".
Mark's been on a roll sharpening his
lines the past few years and building
a collection of books at Lulu POD.
I've been scanning through different
types at Blurb, two books so far.
I pick special side-veins that would
take a long time to get into their
niche groups and journals. My main
collection is still amassing.
Maybe we're ahead of our time.

The Grey Court Poets will be featured
too. I hope they'll have their anthology
there, but it may take a little longer.
I can't wait for that collection...
..such a mix of poets, all the styles
and personalities. It's quite something
to go to the meetings in Methuen.
Que sabor.

Bits-n-pieces

2011-12-03T12:27:00.004-05:00

HUGO_TRAILER

--We went to see the movie "Hugo"..
it goes way beyond the trailer and the
age group in terms of relevance for me.
It has elements of:
writing, film buffs, existentialism,
invention, magic, surrealism,
and being an artist. I dig all those.
So many moments could have been
spread too thick, but Martin Scorsese
didn't overwork much. He isn't just a
great director, he has spent years
obsessing over other movies and those
pivotal moments between people.
Awesome stuff.

--Checked out the book liquidation at a
former Border's, and found bits of the
poetry section.
I got the 2009 BAP (which is not bad as BAPs go),
and some others..

A couple cool finds:

---Anna Akhmatova, mostly rhymed but intense
and precise language. Swing and sting to it.
Epic subjects and lengths.

---Amber Tamblyn, who has a sort of street-beat style,
uses every trick, but usually has this great
surreal-simile/synchopation/vehemance wit thing going on.
It's funny; her intro has some breathtaking moments
to it. I was checking...hah..she is an actress known
from the soaps. In the fame-n-po vein, it's funny to
compare this to Jewel's poetry: this is orders of
magnitude more striking. There's some real genius
in this. Inspiring. I add this to my "I can learn
something from it" category. Really.

---Galway Kinnell, "Strong Is Your Hold": Gets a little
over-cooked in spots, but there's master craft in there
that jumps out of the background. He coins words..that's
pretty bold territory. I just coin phrases. I could learn
from it, though I have to bear with some topical blandness
in spots. I like the attention to inner personal detail
in other people. A very insightful person. Philosophy
points awarded.

The Drag

2011-12-02T15:22:00.007-05:00

Last week,
about 9 months after a submission,
5 months after the "please allow" time,
and 3 months after I had sent word
I was withdrawing the submission,
I got a no-thankyou SASE back.
The words about "we have decided.."
ring a tad disingenuous, though,
given the delay and the unsealed flap.
When you copy words, you still
are saying them.
I can't see it's likely the
package was ever read,
or that there was a 'we' plurality
involved. Yeah, we should understand
and not crab, but it gets pretty
callous sometimes.

I'm not pointing, per se,
but let's just say, well
I will not walk that...
boulevard
again.

---rant truncated--- ;-)

Pushing On A String

2011-11-30T15:18:00.008-05:00

The cat's been missing Katie
since she headed back to RIT.
I went to the master BR to fetch him
for bed, and he was staring from
the nightstand. He shoved a clock
and I took it away. Then he pawed the phone
until it fell off-hook on the table.
He meowed.

All I can think is...he hears her voice on the
phone like a premonition whenever she comes home,
whether it's from Uni. or a day out, so maybe he
figured I could hail his missing pal.
Whatever the trickster is up to, it's amazing.

All I can say is...I'm sorry Mister T.,
people come and go, and sometimes they can't stay.
Hang on for the holidays.

Promo Stuff

2011-11-29T13:49:00.004-05:00

Mark Schorr asked me for a promo
picture and text for "TAHKI".
I wrote the text into the picture..
it's easy, with Irfanview or even
MS-Paint (the freebie on your PC).

Tada...a short, stout-hearted collection
of rhyming poems. The shop address...
that's it.

Should make nice cards too.

invocation for the existential season

2011-11-29T08:25:00.003-05:00

--Seems like a good time to declare
it's started, poet's existential season
...around Black Friday / Cyber Monday,
though the web dearth began 2-3 weeks ago.
Too much of a downer to call it
November/December. December plus a dite.

OK, something to add the mulled spice of
romantic stoicism to our gothic silence:

------
Hold On

Hold on,
like a stray winter leaf,
alone on a limb.

Hiss at the wind,
even dead,
still remembered.

------

(from "Nighthawks")

exploring

2011-11-21T13:19:00.008-05:00

even recent
is past now
so i let go
and go

i say
the zero
is no brake shoe
but a matchhead

so i vector towards
an uncontained continent
rising into a long-armed stare

why be sour
i put the horse away now
and proceed on wings

everyone
starved a bit
on the way to
the new world

almost more than life itself

2011-11-19T00:44:00.005-05:00

buffalo super-cheddar hayride fondu

--triscuits
--helluva good extra sharp cheddar
--frank's red hot sauce
--toothpick

omg omg omg omg

be thankful

Just Be Thankful

2011-11-18T23:54:00.007-05:00

"You may not have a car at all,
but remember, brothers and sisters,
you can still stand tall.
Just be thankful for what you got..."
---William DeVaughn

Most of my life, I thought the
'just be thankful' was sort of a
chill-out of your frustrations.
But there's more there.
When you list what you're thankful for,
you start to realize some good things
fell on you too, and you put back the
value you forgot about. Add up what you
got and your thanks for it, and you
start to see something to be proud of.
You don't need that extra loan
for that extra thing. Brush the dust
off what you have.

Maybe I was dense all along, but it's true:
when you're thankful for things, you can be
proud of them coming in. And when you are
thankful of people, you feel their support
for...you. Must be something about you,
at least for your friends. You're not
where you want to be, but you can be proud
of what you are.

Be thankful...therefore, be proud.
Thank you, William DeVaughn.

A Goof

2011-11-10T20:06:00.002-05:00

The new extra channels on (free) DTV
are just like the old UHF. Some wacky
junkfood. The original stations have
extra subchannels for movies and olde repeats.
I saw "A Very Brady Sequel"
finally....hehe..it was a rush. They
even had the horrible groovy song'n'dance
numbers. Shelley Long was very, very, very
Brady...hahaa. Then a lot of schlocky
insurance ads for seniors. And an amazing
smoothie maker! Yup, UHF is back! You groan
at cable but you can laugh at/with HDTV.
You just need a
bowtie-on-the-bbq-grille antenna outside.
We dropped the cable. We do movies via
Netflix/Roku/Fios anyhow. The PBS is
better than ever. Channel 44 split into
3 decent channels.

fool on the hill

2011-11-04T18:52:00.005-05:00

...hmmm...the original copyright holder
blocked the first post, a fuzzy b+w
with Brazil 66. not sure that serves their
interest, but...oh well..

I think more refs, would sell the excellent
old performances, though the video is mussed..

fool on the hill

how many times
has the world
turned its face
to the sun
and then away
since i was small?

many thousands,
i suppose

and how long
did it take
to understand
that we mostly
spin in place?

well, too long

but it's never
too late
to see
what's always been there

The Attitude Of The Poet

2011-10-18T12:08:00.009-05:00

Stand straight, Cleopatra.
Act the part.

This rip by Pearl is interesting THIS_REALLY_HAPPENED

The tone and attitude a poet should have in
presenting the poem. That is, you don't just
have license to take liberties, you have an
obligation not to apologize or introduce excessively.
Your audiences expects poetry.

I added the issue some have with using "like",
but there are probably other particulars about
the "attitude becoming a poet". Please add any
if you got 'em. It's an overdue project I
have wanted to look into for a while.

a world beside itself

2011-10-14T01:03:00.005-05:00

i know we can't live in movies,
in pictures, or in stories

but they do live in us
a little, weedy greens
rising from a sidewalk crack

that gives us a bit more life
than is meted out to us in this world,

makes up a little of the difference
between the brochure and what's there

'Tis The Season

2011-10-12T20:52:00.006-05:00

The Existential Season

I was Xmas shopping
with my wife a few years back.
The downtown was roped off,
and they kept the stores open late.
There were twinkling lights and
jolly music.

I saw a cute plaque in a gift shop.
Words to the effect that aiming for
the Moon and missing lands you
among the stars.

I said not really...
you would suffocate and freeze solid
and drift for millions of years.
You would rotate slowly and beautifully,
unnoticed, and plunge into a Sun
somewhere far away, and burn to ash.
Still in complete anonymity,
of course.

She said the analogy doesn't go that far.
I said...you don't know many poets.

Heh..

mazzy

2011-10-06T22:27:00.007-05:00

drifting waif
scarf falling
through
the night air

Tea Trivia/Research

2011-10-03T12:10:00.002-05:00

"London Cuppa" is about the most powerful black tea.
Milk+sugar are almost mandatory.

Lipton is potent cheap tea. Astringent but
leafy-straw underneath. Two bags are very similar
to one bag of London cuppa.

A constant bit of folklore is that microwaving
the water ruins the taste by stripping the oxygen.
The workaround is:
--microwave your vessel once until it
just boils a little.
--Note the actual time taken.
--Next time: same vessel, same water, 10 seconds less.
This leaves you with something
this is actually better than the stovetop boiled water.

A plate lid over a Pyrex meas. cup works
fine as a "brown betty", and it's already
hot from the microwave...no 'scalding' needed.

Tetley is dull. Twinings is awesome.
Lipton is good on day 1. After that, keep
it in a washed-out peanut butter jar. It takes
a week after washing for the PB to fade in the seal.
Pickle jars never fade the taste.

--------

The above should make decent tea quickly.
It's good for aging hair and such: it knocks
down the amount of DHT in your blood.

The Oddity Of Real Life

2011-09-27T06:22:00.003-05:00

Pomade And Home Lunch

Because of the baclava surprise
in the break room, I hustled through
a light lunch. After venting world gripes
with my work-from-home missus,
I lay on the love seat for a nap.

The cat came to lick my scalp;
to remind me it was time for an oven mit
fight. He got carried away with the
scalp-licking, perhaps due to an
accidental excess of pomade on my hair.

We (the wife and I, but not the cat)
had a laugh about what might be in the stuff.
Then I got up to read the pomade ingredients.
The font was barely legible. I fetched a magnifier
with white LEDs. It was strangely dim. I fetched
a battery tester and pulled batts. Results,
one good, one so-so. I put in new batteries.
There was more light, but it was still weak.
Flaky batteries? Light circuit wonky?
Both, I think. And that after China bought
copper ripped out of abandoned California
houses and worked so hard some
of them threw themselves off bridges.
Ah, well. I read the ingredients
from 3 inches away ...four kinds of oils
plus a dozen very complicated names
of gel-making polymer thingies,
some preservatives, a few herbs,
and a spice. Yummy.

The cat wandered off to the base
of the scratching post, stared at it
absent-mindedly, and slumped into a nap.
Just not up for "Bite Club" anymore.
Oh dear.

Then it was time to go back to work.

Stay Cool

2011-09-25T01:12:00.004-05:00

I got the album for 50-cents at a
K-Mart cutout bin. Lost it to a brother
or sister...nobody will own up.
It's been sampled a lot.
It's Detroit plus-plus. The album cover
is awesome too. Fun to find it on youtube.
Next time you lose your cool, talk a few
bars of this. And put on your shades.

Now, That's Amazing...

2011-09-21T07:34:00.008-05:00

Two poets getting good money
for their troubles.
Kay Ryan and AE Stallings,
MacArthur grants, 100K per year
for 5 years, no strings.
Wow. Congrats.

++++++++++++
Here's a doodle from my noodle,
to Kay Ryan, and to her partner,
who got her rolling on submissions:
+++++++++++++

When Stuck

Shift gears and rock;
No one can sue Old Eden
For all this swirling mess,
And now the scientists say Eden
Was a giant bomb, I guess.
Somehow that boom rings true.
Anyway, the clutch, like you,
Must be, at first, depressed
To send the best
Advantage to your muddy wheels.

Oh, I know how it feels,
Stepping in waist-high,
Re-rigging horses in mid-stream,
But if this were all a dream,
There'd be no mud between the toes,
Or beach sand either;
That's the deal,
the how of a life that goes.

Meanwhile, we're in the muck:
Shift your gears and rock,
Because your hinayana's out of luck.

--(J.Knowles, 2011)

(Hinayana is the term for an ancient Indian
Buddhist caste know as 'the minor vehicle'.
It is also sounds like 'heiny', your butt-end)

++++++++++++++++
The one book that magnetized me right away at the
Dodge book tent was Kay's "Flamingo Watching",
which strikes at first almost like the simple
fun of a kid's book, but soaks in as a mix
of cognitive wit and philosophy. I saw Kay
carrying that slim tome to her readings.

Ah Well

2011-09-17T11:54:00.004-05:00

..
Thank for puttin' up w'me.
..
Went to a cable-TV poetry show taping this
morning. It was fun. The stolid poets were
knocked out by the flavor of the Grey Courts.
..
Got some results back..(no win this time)...
I always check out the winners and re-edit
the returning squad to send out again.
The edit went really well, though one was
a mess. I find it hard day to day to say
which poem is good and what's a mess.
Depends on the you-then talking to the
you-now. Looking at the winners I noticed
a trend to "hyper-eloquence" I've seen elsewhere.
I don't mind some wit and airs, but when
it messes with the cred. and truth beneath,
I wince. I caught the names on the council
(of this shall-not-name Jl.)...I know the
players a bit they have sort of a my-story-flat-prose
background, then advanced education. Seems like
that's where the fluting and baroque filigree
came in. Which is not to say these programs cause
that damage, or the royale-with-extra-random
damage some acquire at post-av schools. I think
this just happens when the heart of things is drifty
in the first place. Jessie Carty never stopped being Jessie
for one second with the MFA, just shined the magic
wand nicely. Of course, she still experiments.
I want to say others aren't so lucky,
but actually, it's probably more a matter
of how you have to have
clear spirit going into it all or you end up
hokey. That's true at art school and buddhist
monk training and music, too..

Reminds me of a Missisppi blues guy talking about
how these British kids came calling because they
wantes "to play the blues real bad", and so they
did..."play the blues real bad"..heh. Eric Clapton
was one who kept trying, so I guess you can recover
from an over-wrought condition. He had to do a lot
of self-crit to suvive more serious problems.
The heart hatched, though.

So I guess that sort of edges me towards an opinion.
Having surveyed the wreckage, I'd say if you have a
knack and a clear view to your heart, advance work
makes you a finer thing, but if you like the idea
of an art without feeling it speak to you from
your blood, the cooking's going to come out odd.
If you don't go into some program,
I think the years and continued curiosity
will move you along. At least, that's my scheme
for now. Just stay open-eyed and open-minded.
And take Alanis' advice when you can,
in the song "I Learn". Nobody gets good on
a bike without falling down, and if someone
cops an attitude for some little thing you
said, that's good for you: more time to find
real friends who hug your warts as you
would hug theirs. I have friends that like me
for my inner nougat. I like their inner nougat,
even the buggy-surface ones.
That was clear at the taping today. All the flavor.

I'm probably telling you things
you already know.

--Peace

Panda Bear with fan vid

2011-09-13T00:04:00.005-05:00

Do not operate motor vehicle
for 30 minutes after watching.

To Whoever

2011-09-11T11:11:00.003-05:00

Whoever

Whoever you are,
that is,
if there's
some return address
for the intentions
behind the
accidents and incidents
of this world,
some entity
bounded enough
to be a 'who'...

why are you
so hard on us
as to make us
so hard on
each other?

There are Contests and There Are Contests

2011-09-08T15:08:00.003-05:00

I was looking at the latest Existential
wailing walls on publishing book numbers,
publishers, MFAs, and so on, and I noticed
a certain wild-eyed vehemance about contests,
what an evil money scheme they were,
and so on. I was thinking..hey, c'mon,
a couple poems, a few months, a subscription
for your money in many contests, and faster
turnaround than typical submissions..
..and the important factor of getting through
the schmooze/service/clique/style walls out there.

But poem contests aren't the source of
most the rage. Or..they get cobbled into
the real itch,
which is: Manuscript contests.
I forgot that most of the contests are
for WHOLE BOOKS or chaps, not 1-5 poems.
Not only that, the consideration periods
are longer for those.

I forgot because...I wrote manuscript contests
off a long time ago, figuring I wanted at least
journal cred. or poem prize cred.

I thought sending away 25 or 50 or 100 best poems,
chasing them with money, and waiting a long time
is tying up a lot of poems for a long time when
it's likely they were sent to the wrong niche,
which can shift with judge/committee.

When the smoke clears on a book, most have
a circulation in the single digits or low dozens,
very few hit the hundreds, and the tiniest percentage
hit the thousands...ever.

I'm hoping I get some buzz before I do a serious
book, and if the buzz is big it provides
the marketing heat on a POD that even publishers
can't come up with now.

I don't want to chuck an opus
into a tsunami. I realize I'm overreacting
in that way, but hey...the numbers, y'know?

In the meantime I've got
the back room trove in the 'pipeline'...
I don't have the spare time some have
for sweeping tours and such. Those who
do tours often talk about the cash drain..
so that's a net loss.

some phrase tuning

2011-09-07T21:37:00.002-05:00

I've often thought about
tuning into people's thoughts on the Web
the way you tune a radio. The clutter can be
higher than even a radio, though, so I look
for phrases that signal someone's natural
thought and personal writing or comments.

One measure I'm trying is "P15-PC",
which is short for "page 15 (of Google results),
personal comments". I go to page 15 to skip a lot
of the maneuvering and list-topping tricks that
grab anything you type to toss ads/sites in
your face. And..at page 15 (which has 10 excerpts)
I toss out common things like advertising, slogans,
lyrics, and official stuff. What's left is
someone talking fairly naturally.
You can combine that 'natural' no-subject tag
with a topic to tune into personal thoughts, hopefully.

So, anyway, some phrases and their page-15-personal-counts:


PHRASE                         P15-PC

"what i didn't know"            6
"what i meant to say"           2
"don't know who"                1
"i can't tell"                  4
"i was about to"                4
"so i called"                   7
"i didn't want"                 9
"knew we needed"                8
"when i realized"               9

So, these phrases aren't tags of the subject,
they are tags of personal directness.

Fancy Titles

2011-09-07T08:15:00.002-05:00

Narwhal of Norprene,
Makum of Scene,
Duke du Van Hornswoggle,
Grand Shaka Preen.

Rasher de Baconette,
Scylla MacRib.
Pants De Leon
and the Right Mister Pibb.

Awesome tribute

2011-09-05T14:43:00.005-05:00

Paging Mr. Richard Lopez:
Pris Campbell posted a link to something
pretty epic:

GRIFFITH_WANNBERG

Since you are an aficionado of what I might
loosely call the "realpoetik", a though this
would be of special interest.

Rock the Soul

2011-09-04T07:42:00.004-05:00

"
It is absurd to think that the only way
to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait
and see if it lasts. The right reader
of a good poem can tell the moment it
strikes him that he has taken
an immortal wound —
that he will never get over it.
"
--Robert Frost

I'm sure you've read a few
that hit you like that.

It could be our mission
to make sure everyone has.

Let's Take a Holiday

2011-09-01T21:41:00.002-05:00

In the ice-glazed high-velocity
Lefortovo "Tunnel of Death"
under Moscow,
whilst listening to the dance
techno of "Juliet".

Persistence In The Face Of...

2011-08-28T22:47:00.007-05:00

Just so you know, there's a pond a half-mile
wide beyond that Tonka. But when you're young,
you don't pay much attention to problems like
futility. You do it, whatever it is, because
you want to feel the doing of it. Imagination
scales the result to whatever suits your pride,
gives you guiding stars and cheers. May as well:
you're not in control of much anyhow, then.
That doesn't change a lot, of course.

So you dig in, turn the muck into a jetty,
turn the mud into a pie, turn the reeds
into a mat, stain them with an Indian
paintbrush dipped in water, smushed into
the mat for a red and gold crest.

The practice is worth it. There's something
beyond it, too, always: the putting together
of things along the line of intent.

So we come to now, with the world of everything
that's ever been done before shining into your
face from a giant web, or maybe from a gassy
heap. It seems to say 'why bother'. There are
a trillion words in the lake, and your pen
is dipped in the shallow end. But walking away
from your Tonka brings rust, solitude, and the
cognitive stunting of not being forced to compose
your thoughts to fit on paper...or on a disk:
same thing.

So, just for yourself and a few friends for now,
pick up your toy and dig. The practice is worth it,
and there's always something beyond it.

Brimful of Asha

2011-08-28T10:43:00.006-05:00

Thought I'd never find this number.

When you serve up a good slice,
there is something new, but the new thing
has a door on it for your reader.
The spice of new on familiar.
A kind of leadership.
That resolves the same-old vs. arcane
conflict. People do want to explore.

Thanks to the amazing ear of
Alex Patsavas, the musical supervisor
for the show "Chuck". Her choices are
uncanny in that show. It's an awesome show.

And of course, Cornershop!

Flotsam

2011-08-24T12:24:00.011-05:00

(haha...got carried away
commenting on Richard's blog..:
I don't know what I'm doing,
but I'm doing it anyway. )

-----------------------

It is the age of flotsam all around.
They say marginalization addled
the tower burners. It addles
the resentments of the tea-radio
screamers. Perhaps we buried
the future on the Moon. Our future
was a trapeze
too far
to jump
for.
Wiley E. Coyote took out equity loans
and filched OPM for 30 years,
before looking down to the canyon
floor in 2006.

Oopsie.

On a brighter note, methinks the
Po flotsam signals the retreat
of the Po tsunami several years
back, though only dropping contest
submissons and MFA entrances are
afoot. Maybe the magazine contents
I saw recently, the blend of jade
and loud scarves, was a rescue flare
from authors and editors alike.
Don't panic. Ask yourself: 5 yrs from
now, will this still taste good?
To other people?
If so, burp the lid and don't look back.
If not, to the fixit pile.

You and I, meanwhile, float on
the Sargasso Sea. It is publicly
visible, though, albeit from the
window of a Coast Guard plane.
As opposed to the private comfort
of friends at Facebook. More like
being in a nursing home. It's
warm, but the food is dull and
everyone has the same problems
as you. That would be the life
of Jetsam rather than flotsam.
Jetsam is intentionally cast off.
Doesn't feel like that, but that
is the effect. Job networking can
have similar consequences: people
re-investing in the same dwindling
tidepools when they must brave
the vastness for other pools.
Not that you can't do both,
but I prefer not to let the
presence of the similarly afflicted
substitute for the missing public,
the 500-lb gorilla who left the
room when the raisins ran out
decades ago. Do you have to sing
and dance for the public? No.
You have to lead, a foot in the
old soul and a foot in the new.
Inspire, rattle the cage.

Flotsam explores, like the Nikes
drifting the sea from the
container ship sinkage. I suppose
I would be a fiddler crab visiting
your shoe. Maybe you have something
interesting in on your shoe.

Persist, explore,
and think of spells to cast.
We are meant for wider things.

The word

2011-08-24T06:27:00.003-05:00

the
word,
and/or the
combinations
thereof,
the love for
these phantoms:
how they work,
rework the
point of view,
the point of it all,
the thinnest instruments,
abstractions on abstractions

to tow
the inner eye
into some new place
with just shaped stains,
letters pressed together

to a word, now letters
are gone, something
steps out from the
team portrait

to phrases, magic
little formations,
articulating toys
that buzz from both ends

to sentences,
movie clips of intention,
but what are sentences
in the middle
of a
flow

this is our sideshow,
this carnival of vapors
with no sound or motion
save for
the way we dip an oar
into the mind

contemplatives

2011-08-21T11:00:00.003-05:00

I can't settle down to meditate.
Or...I can, sort of, but I like
to have abstracts and natural processes
to focus on. Helps prompt poetry ideas,
or ideas in general.

Some people draw mandalas. I couldn't settle
into that, but there are 'found mandalas',
like the red cabbage I was slicing yesterday.

smugness gets my eyes

2011-08-18T06:54:00.008-05:00

sometimes i open some thick emporium
and my mood slumps page by page
*(name of the thing and names of the pieces witheld)

-memories enriched
with excess icing and embroidery

-the blur of a grand pile of
little speeches that say you think you
know everyone

-using inanimate animation as some damn
signet ring of sovereignty

-nutty, hypertrophic prose

-mentionings on mentionings, not realizing
this is now incantation (yes, you get out
of the house...this does not make you buddha)
..if you want lessons on fun companionable
rhetoric and artifice, check out vonnegut

-explosions of typecastings, like a charm-bracelet
of priness waves ... no, you don't know, your grace..

-manufactured pathos or hot-sauce

To the florishers: it doesn't have to be true,
but it better ring true.

To paraphrase Nietzsche:
Sometimes you master language,
and sometimes it masters you back.
Mr. Sulu, post a warning beacon on that journal.

Sorry...venting a bit.

Beachcombing

2011-08-12T09:16:00.004-05:00

The "whiskey dino".
From a consignment store in Dennisport.
The Loch Ness monster with a tam on top,
once loaded with scotch.

My folks won a week / a house on the Cape.
One mile to a big beach. A fine time had by all.

The Tao of Bob Ross

2011-08-02T23:17:00.004-05:00

knowing
the how of things,
the dance of matter
that makes other things;

knowing how
things echo each other
through their ways

you act
without instance in mind,
so the instance arrives
through your way,
through its way,
without the effort of detail,
which shows itself

this is knowing
your way, knowing The Way

Home and Community

2011-07-24T15:21:00.004-05:00

Midsummer seems to bring a lot of family and community this year.

--Thursday I made it to the Grey Court Poets again.
What a varied and awesome crew. Expect more news about them.
An ensemble team,with a lot of quirks and individual flavor.
It's just a good time to hang out with the Greys.

--Saw Mark Schorr (director, Frost Foundation) at
his backyard "yard sale dress rehersal" Saturday.
He's getting over a second operation since his
sudden aortic dissection weeks ago, but the mind is
clicking like a well-oiled machine. I was asking for
help with a chunk of Rilke an old family friend is
lording over me. He found a few gems just flicking
(the S.Mitchell translation is good), and asked to
swap with his Goethe for a week. Hey, why not?

--Friday my youngest had a day of service at a soup
kitchen in Lawrence. Amazing. 180 people for breakfast,
way up from last year. 80 children, arriving there
without parents! Way, way up. They turn nobody down.
They have to divert extra help for security over
the kids. It's amazing how quietly the hard times
happen.

--Sunday, today: went to the MFA w/family,
used all my improv. skills to avoid major disruption
on the road and parking and transit. Stood in
line a long time for the Gihuly exhibit. From the
POV of 10 years ago, Gihuly has gotten so radically
advanced from even where he was. It's hard to conceive
a human making some of it...amazing. I thnk this is
very important art to inform society on complexity
science, oddly enough. The how of the stuff leads to
the what of the art. It seemed like I was looking at
the art of 100 civilizations over a million years.
The highest goal of art is to alter our thoughts
in all realms, so we can move beyond our issues now.
If the need for the "how" to move us past the problems
of the "what" (stymied modernism and specialization)
is key, Gihuly, like Manuel Delanda, is pointing a
lantern way into the future.
The other art was great. Their coverage of modern art
was...meh.. but the MFA is a huge place. I appreciate
the modern art at the Addison Gallery more now.
That will be back online in a few months.

---I'm holding off on the sonnets project a bit.
The concept of hand-made chaps sold a la consignment
somewhere I still like. I like the idea of small but
exquisite things over large and good. Must ponder
more, though...

A Walk In The Park

2011-07-18T01:09:00.001-05:00

Beach House...Love 'Em..

time and chains

2011-07-13T20:33:00.003-05:00

I have a practice
when a set comes back untaken.
I remove the journal's search tag
from each one, and I review every line.
It can be hard after months. Sometimes
it's embarassing. But sometimes it looks great,
and a few tweeks in it looks far better.
I don't put all the chains in the way,
but the lowering of ego helps me find
the chains I own. Somehow, printing them
on paper reveals the subtle hazing and cracks
better. We all worry a lot about getting
the next idea out, using prompts to keep
rolling. This is a prompt for
revisions, if you can bear it.

It hurts the next day.
Just look forward. If you're prouder of
today's version and a bit embarrassed by
yesterday's, you're walking forward.

trespassers william : different stars

2011-07-06T00:13:00.006-05:00

Losses

You've seen the slow-motion show,
as the drop starts to rise again,
as the crown of the splash
in the pool dies.

The drop tries,
but it stretches,
held back by a shared skin,
and it tears apart
at the neck to make
two quivering droplets
that fall together
into the rings,
into the waves that fade,
turn time into distance.

On the human side
of the simile,
sometimes memory
will freeze
the droplets
in that last
moment
forever.

rooting around

2011-07-04T10:45:00.003-05:00

(Image: Pulled root of a bittersweet vine)

A family poke-around for the 4th weekend.
Connecticut. Friday was the trip down, the
Pequot museum, some Anthropology at the Foxwoods
casino (I'm still a bit tired and depressed from
looking at the eyes there..I give up), and even
some knocking about at Mystic Seaport and dinner
at Mystic Pizza.

Saturday was steam-train, ferry boat,
a short hike, Gillette Castle (very nice: love the
raffia-cushioned walls and secret passage),
a hike down, the ferry, train again, Russian family
reunion folks, a riverboat (I skipped that one
and napped in a pavilion in the Conn. River),
train again, and back to the old-style motel unit
(cheaper, but it works).
Home...now I can relax..and transcribe, transcribe.

There was a great (and busy) Border's in Waterford,
and Panera breakfasts a short bop down the road.
It was alright. Strangers are open and friendly,
generally, in Conn. It's a bit like Maine. After
seeing the small-town general stores with Moxie
and Diet Moxie, home-made goodies at the checkout
and decent tea I have to admit it's really
part of New England. I really liked the Sandy Hook
Diner and the folks there when I went to Manhattanville
College last year. Sort of a crisp, well-spoken, but
eager to help and chat feeling. More open
than Maine folk, actually. I need to befriend
a Conn. city on the train track to NYC sometime.

OK...more transcription. Editing after the health soup.

Resolution

2011-06-27T11:31:00.005-05:00

----------------

Time to lay this to rest.

I am interpreting an empty SASE,
marked as received 3 months after it was actually sent,
in response to a solicitation, as:
"opened after 3 months, can't read it, not interested"

I know it's possible I haven't interpreted something
correctly, but any slip of paper would make it all clear,
like [got it] [no thanks] [great, stand by]

cleanup

2011-06-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

...done

Rummaging for inspiring minds

2011-06-20T12:42:00.006-05:00

When I say I like this or that
poetry, I do, and you (or a hundred more you's)
might not. And when I put something on my
learning shelf, it isn't just because it's great:
it's stuff I have a chance to actually absorb from
and do a bit. My fingertips can touch it, can
imagine making something like that if I stand on
my toes. I have a good time with some poetry
that I can't figure out how to write. I just
enjoy. It has to ring inside in places I can
tap for me to study it carefully. Fingerholds
and toeholds in cliff-climbing.

So what's that mean?
Just like there can't be
a 'best' as long as this is art,
my most-instructive collectibles
aren't isn't going to be yours
(not always, certainly). To love a piece I have
to feel that "wow!" or be bitten for life.
A poem you "never quite get over", as Frost said
(or similar words). To learn from a piece I also
need the "craft-aha!", the epiphany of a cool
scheme I can see inside.

This comes to a silver lining
of the current "poet tsunami":
Browsing through a good-sized list of
poets that are a sort of a local 'best of'
and looking for that 'aha' for your next
self-improvement is handy. One such list is the
PSH "Poet of the Week" list:

PSH_POET_OF_THE_WEEK

All will be at least very good,
some will blow you away,
and a few will leave you saying, "damn, I get it".

I found Liz Minette there
(and in a rather stunning contest submission set).
The attitude/language play was awesome.
I hope she gets a book out there someday.
I'd take any kind of chap.

You can't be all things, but you can be a few,
and you should become more of "what you are"
as you go, not get your personality washed out.

--------------------------------
Here's another side of Web poetry:

For a look at "the good, the bad, and the ugly", check out
Poetry Corner:

POETRY_CORNER

That's everyone....from wows to groans...who ran out
to paste something up right away. There is good stuff.
Really. But....well...other stuff, too.

It's free to post there.
It COSTS to be taken down.
I call that a brilliant scheme.

I came close, and I probably would
have paid to remove the ick. I saw
a friend's stuff ,"stewing in its juices",
as he put it, (he could not bear the thought
of ransom) and ... well,
I learned something!

Wild Roses

2011-06-17T21:46:00.005-05:00

Wild roses
thrive this year,
arc and sprawl at the tree lines
by the ponds, highways, fields,
and yards.

I want to walk into
a cloud of scent
before the dew burns off.
I need to pick and eat
the rosehip rinds in August.
This is their year,
and I want a taste
of what a good year
is like.

Don't know what it means

2011-06-16T11:30:00.006-05:00

I sent a salvo to a journal March 26.
I got the SASE,
stamped [RECEIVED JUN 1 3 2011] today.
Took a deep breath...opened it up.
Nothing! Nothing inside.

Does anyone know what an empty SASE marked
as received 3 mos. later could possibly mean?

All I can think is:
1) Rejected, but not putting the energy
into a yay or nay
2) Opened 3 months later by an intern, stamped
as just received, will say y or n later.

Does an empty SASE mean anything I'm not hip to?
(other than making the ghost of Emily Post
do a spit-take)

The most charitable scenario is...
...we'd better at least let you know
it's here to avoid a hailstorm of withdrawals.
The tea-leaves are a
dite blanched on this suckah, though.

dang: pencil notes

2011-06-15T12:01:00.008-05:00

I wish I could use a pencil for po notes
sometimes, since the pages smudge
when squished into each other
in the pocket.

One of my 'there oughtta be an invention'
things was a fixative for pencil (that
did not involve spraying stuff).
I tried rubbing wax paper onto the
writing with a nickel. It works!
Works best on a hard backing.
Basically it works two ways: it
plucks loose wandery graphite off,
and puts down a wax layer to seal
the not-penciled paper a bit.
(harder to rewrite after that).

But it's dirt cheap and easy to DIY,
so...no magical invention riches.
This blurb makes it public domain.

It works best when you hold the wax
paper from wandering while you rub.
Sorta like an anti-carbon-paper.

Between Places

2011-06-12T14:33:00.007-05:00

A place
between places.
Wires and water,
silent currents
crossing.

Fun Ride

2011-06-11T12:46:00.007-05:00

---
I got Pearl Pirie's "Between Stations" a little
while ago via the Poetry Giveaway prize thing..
It's short works of observation and imaged riffing
set on a train. The theme means there is
an entraining structure (the trip, the people),
and there is a desire for stylisitic surprise (Pearl and
the need for anti-sense)...and some memory pieces.
The result is a lot of tasty re-examinations
of things you know.
From "seat neighbor's washroom visit":
"
K would say she's got some skin
on her bones, appreciably,
back of knees have cleavage.
more to hold.

he'd have licked his lips,
she grunts down with the sway-swing
lumbering of the over-rounded

a corseting bra grooves train tracks
across her back,
...
"

Following subjects and images around
provides a strong continuity, but
Pearl's chafing restlessness and vast grasp
of technique make everything flap in
the wind along the subject line.
I really like that combination,
that daydream riffing along the real
track. "rested and restless" has so many
little cut-glass moments:
"
...
still his breath even

across the aisle, she bites her lip at this madness
holds a book
pink-tipped,

white-knuckled to the syllables
her nose laughs
...
"

The method of using the missing and
the off-use as evoking the image here..

This is one of those little tomes
you want to pop open at a spot now and then,
so you can check the show in progress.
It's like opening and shutting the train doors.
Maybe closing them before you have it figured
out yet, to seeal out second impressions.
The fresh take, with sketching.
It's a buffered way to take your Pearl,
what with these scenes, like minnows
quavering beneath the waves.

--------------

Pearl also enclosed a copy of
"The Dusty Owl", and commented on how
the grouping was 'tight', all friends.
But 'friends' includes dozens
of characters up there. Despite the
tightness, there is a big variety of
talents and styles around Ottawa.
It's not 'tight' in terms of philosophy.
(at least compared with othere scenes)

That reminds me a lot of Worcester, MA,
which is a super-busy poetry scene
(there are 5 campuses there and open
mics most days of the year) with great
variety and (consequently?) a lot of
distinctive personality in the work.
Looking at "The Dusty Owl Quarterly"
somehow brought me back to the
Frank O'Hara Award readers in Worcester,
perhaps with even wider variety.

do the right thing

2011-06-08T19:54:00.001-05:00

Always bring a pad.

Versions

2011-06-02T20:10:00.005-05:00

It is said
that in Vancouver,
Bono hitchhikes
in the rain.

Or...

Gilbert Brule
gave Bono
a ride when Bono
was caught out
in the rain.

I think I
prefer the first version.

It Feels Good, Yeah

2011-05-28T10:39:00.002-05:00

Feels good...yeah.
Been so distracted. A big submission dropped
from the bomb hatch today. I only had time
to tweak and print, but the candidate poems
looked reeeeal good. Granted, my internal
reaction goes from gold to junk, and this was
an up attitude morning, but ...damn, some of em
hit the mark, philosophically. The final edits
suggested themselves brilliantly, so the pieces
have been stewing in the subconscious well.

It's a monster windmill to tilt with,
but what the hey. This squadron of 5 will
stick together through a few more sorties
if this doesn't pay out. And they can only get
sharper on the return and refit!

Tony! Toni! Tone! really gets lost in it, I think.
One of the most sampled pieces about.

Keep it loose, kids. Look for the flow.

Should

2011-05-26T14:17:00.004-05:00

Should is another slowcore/postrock find.
I like the 'almost' feel,
the intensity of
what-is-not.

---------------
....reminds me of something:
---------------

Orbit

We speak carefully.
Otherwise we would
complete a bridge,
and then we would
have to cross it.

We turn aside from our affinity,
so as we pull toward each other,
our surfaces roll away
just fast enough that we don't
fall into each other.
We can't fall,
or we would burn.

So you must live in
the corner of my eye
when we are near
each other.

Slipping away as much
as falling into: that's
how an orbit works.

An orbit is the falling
that goes on forever,
a dance beyond a touch.

---JK, (c)2009
(from the chapbook "Us")

What a World

2011-05-22T13:21:00.005-05:00

just a lark:

---------
The Episode

The episode where:

the chef elopes with a killer bee,
bubblegum is made sentient,
Lois and a hip-hop choreographer
eat something toxic,
a fashion model commits
epi-cide with apricot scrub,
where Mark and Shania sing
"Never the Twain",

where a majestic and stately butler
clears his thoat and says "Buttafuoco",
a Texas ranger kicks a door
off the hinge for "This Old House",

and a Japanese tourist
in a bike helmet
eats buttered insects
from an aquarium
to celebrate
"reality" shows.

--------------------------

Well, the judgement day was the 21st.
I guess the verdict is: "not guilty".

--------------------------

I have got to get to revising!!
There's a big windmill to tilt at
(submission target),
and my 'new stuff' directory is a huge
yard sale of transcriptions.
Given the weather and chores and day,
all I wanna do is nap after mowing
weeds in a pollen storm.

apologies

2011-05-16T21:57:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't been around much
blog-wise lately...some projects
have been rolling through. Tonight
was second stage for a Lawrence
Public Library project. It was complicated
by rain and a lack of a big vehicle.
I dulled a few snap-knife blades dicing
a big thing on the way to the car,
did some back-stretching after, and
got dusty in the garage.

And other stuff for family
creative endeavors.

Laura Veirs:Spelunking

2011-05-10T22:23:00.004-05:00

Re: Spelunking

I'm not sure
if she was talking about
what was, or just...
what was wished after.

They say
the Universe is mostly
dark matter,
that which is but cannot
be touched by us.

Last Rays

2011-05-07T15:37:00.010-05:00

Somewhere
near Monterey
today, they'll walk
the edge of red and blue
and watch the crease
of night and day
as it forms.

Early on,
under the orange sky,
they'll be apart and move alone.
As the indigo surrounds them,
they'll come back together,
and walk the edge
of the water,
going home.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-05T20:16:00.004-05:00


             I
      asked an alien
           child

     to finger-paint
     his mom.

     I don't know 
         how
     he did it,
                  exactly,

     or why the
               f l u o r e s c e n t  
       lights
                were flickering,
           but
                that's not important
     right now.

Domething came of today..I Won!

2011-05-01T18:22:00.004-05:00

---a book drawing, that is:

I have a copy of Tawnysha Greene's
"The Lost Atlas of Desire" coming.

This was not a productive day,
so it was good to come home to this news.
It was a great day to be outside, though.

(the photo isn't here...it's Monterey, 2008)

Try To Sleep

2011-05-01T12:30:00.004-05:00

(By Low)
"..you try to sleep, cause there's never enough..."
Discovery cred. the 88.1/WMBR show "Slow + Unsteady".

It's slightly ponderous and melodram, but the
theme resonates. A rich mood-noir wallow.

Wheels Turning

2011-04-30T09:03:00.005-05:00

The time comes.
The last of April is on us now,
so I'm closing entries to my book
giveaway early (10am Eastern STD),
and pulling the winners out of a hat,
or more like...an aluminum collander.

----posted live-----as it happens------------

And, now, the
Linda Benninghoff prize bowl [drum roll]:

"ANDREW" Will get "Whose Cries Are Not Music"
...I have your email on the ticket, Andrew.
I'll send for your addy soon.

and

"VALERIE" comes up for "Departures".
...I have Valerie's email, too.
Stand by, Valerie. This is the copy I
referred to for a while on my shelf.
The contents are included in my copy of
"Whose Cries..." these days.

---------------next drawing in 5 minutes-------------

OK, Next drawing...

"Evelyn" will receive a copy of "Nighthawks"
with the bird laminated on the cover.
...I have an email addy on the ticket.

and

"Rumplestilkin", aka Al Kleiman, will get
a copy of "Nighthawks" with a plain cover.
Hopefullly I can fish up the contact info.

-------------------------------------

Thanks to all for entering, and
to many for your contest pages.

Kay Ryan

2011-04-18T21:08:00.004-05:00

A tipoff from January O'Neil: Kay has the Pulitzer!

Quite the individual.
KAY_GOES_TO_AWP
I was hoping this would shake loose some video
of her workshop lecture from the Dodge Festival,
but nothing yet. It was awesome.

A little saaawng

2011-04-07T00:37:00.001-05:00

Aaaw...

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-02T11:58:00.003-05:00

I am cleaning out some so-so poems today.
There are too many poems total
and the clutter is a drag. There are pieces
that go flat overall, but have nice little
bits in them. Thus no deletion. I collect
a bunch in a 'crushbox' directory, and
make a piece with all the sparkly bits
as I delete. The hard part is now:
finding the duds with nice bits.
It gets a little more fun later,
the making of the conglomerate piece.
The distraction of seeing edits to do
really drags this phase out.

A poem is marked for demolition
by typing in 'crushbox' at the bottom.
A search later on then sweeps them all up.

some found art

2011-03-27T23:16:00.014-05:00

Spent Rake

After the melt,
a plow-mangled rake,
fingers cutting the sun.

Great Poetry Giveaway: I'm in!

2011-03-26T16:29:00.005-05:00

OK.... Let's see if I can make this work.

I am planning on giving away two copies
of my recent short poetry book, "Nighthawks".

I am also planning on giving away a copy
of Linda Benninghoff's "Departures", which
is near and dear. I wrote the intro to her
new book "Whose Cries Are not Music", which
contains (and thus frees up for me) the former
work, which is still a beautiful piece in
that nice "slim tome" profile you can take
on vacation.

Now,,,,let's see if I can complete the instructions.

Just let me know, in the comments, which book you want
to go for, either or both, and I will have a hat drawing
at the appointed time, (the end of April?)...

For more info, check out the giveaway site:

POETRY_GIVEAWAY_LINK

So...according to Kelli's rules, I am open for
requests...now!

And...The Cult

2011-03-26T10:31:00.002-05:00

Little something to clear the palate.
Got a packet out today.

This week's slow/minimal find

2011-03-18T17:34:00.002-05:00

I scanned the "Slow+Unsteady" show
from WMBR, and Rocky Votolato stood out.
Definitely a minimal folk sound.
Very clever lyrics, bobbed phrases,
and coinings. Nice harmonies.
Excellent greyday rambling.

After a while in the slow/minimal
vein I'll need some more intense
stuff, though.

Bookshelf Improv, in Lucite

2011-03-18T14:07:00.005-05:00

Strange how the design of things
misses the mark so often.

There are all those clean-looking
acrylic book-holders and napkin-holders
and so on. They seem so perfect in
the catalogs and store shelves.
But then you see them in a lot
of discount shelves. Then they crop up
at yard sales, for 50 cents or a dollar.

So I bought some at the yard sales.
Somehow they kept falling short.
Before I tossed 3 of them on the curb,
(for $1.50, down from $45 total...heh)
I pondered what was wrong, got the adhesive
and a brick, and made something that
actually works for all those odd-sized books.

Just though it would be appropriate
for a po blog.

Jessica Lea Mayfield

2011-03-14T19:01:00.012-05:00

I played Villa Venus a lot, but it
left me with a problem: spoiled me
for the other slowcore music.

So..back to the well..scanning the
"Slow and Unsteady" show on 88.1 / MIT.
One act stood out. She's seeing a lot
of touring exposure. The beautiful tragedies
of Jessica Lea Mayfield. A country/slowcore
cross of sorts. Shades of those Seattle
Western-movie-riff rock types, but brought back
Southeast. The vocal stylings are absolutely
deadnut in note and warble, and the guitar
has a shoegaze-goes-to-Nashville thing
that's awesome.

Time for the Hammer 'n' Tongs Speech

2011-03-07T08:58:00.004-05:00

You might be good at writing.
In fact, spontaneous reactions
to some of your work may give you
a clue you can be great.
You are a natural at this, it seems,
while you 'aren't looking'.

But...given the odds and
subjectivities, you work harder and
harder to overcome the rejections.
And that 'beginner's luck' seems to
slip away. Maybe it's not so much
beginner's luck as the 'flow' you
had all along. Handle it carefully.
Your originality is that last spice.

The John Ashbery "Hammer and Tongs"
aphorism says it best for me:

HAMMER_N_TONGS

(right side, next to the picture)

Ideas....they shy from the hammer 'n' tongs.
Stay cool, don't panic in writing.
Let that cat come to you. Parts of your mind
will work on their own. This is related to
Kaye Ryan's talk about just tossing a word
out so others come to it. Easy for her to say,
right? Well, maybe it's a little serene
self-confidence, patience. In the quiet,
maybe your subconscious cat will come to you.
Don't forget to play with it.

(IMO)

The Universe Budges

2011-03-06T21:40:00.004-05:00

I got out 2 squadrons
of submissions today!
Maybe it was the walks
and the thawing weather.

Everyone wants 'your best'.
From prize-fighting, I know:
MY version of best and
YOUR version of best are
hardly ever the same.
In reviewing, judging, or editing
(if it ever comes to that), I promise
I shall never commit the vanity of
thinking what I love is 'the best'
for everyone else. This is an ART!

Speaking of which, I got to the
Addison Gallery today. I gotta warm
up my art machine again. I saw the
"On Bit Symphony": awesome:

1_BIT_SYMPHONY

Check out the video/audio....nice!

Sweet piece of design, art, music, programming...

Got a check for $9 in profits
from some t-shirt art so old
I can't find the password to my
shop anymore...heh.

Sunday Brunch

2011-03-06T10:45:00.005-05:00

Yankee pantry cooking...

--Cajun/Thai Channa Masala
(goya chickpeas, minced garlic, cumin
olive-oil/flour roux, celery seed, cayenne,
lemon juice, basil flakes, chili powder,
chicken bullion cubes, water, no-salt, trace
fish sauce, turmeric)
--oven-dried ripped crusty roll
--microwave-foamed frozen cherries
(del-monte frozen cherries, timing)
--double-tea, Yorkshire Gold and Twinings black/orange
..a little New-Amsterdam 'n' OJ

Ready to walk out into the thaw.

Motivational Coaches

2011-02-28T07:34:00.002-05:00

The Feb. moratorium nears the finish line.

In my imagination (more afforable that way),
I'm hiring several motivational coaches,
the toughest of the nails. From several
East-Block Olympic programs of backintheday,
I contracted:

--Kika Yuras
and
--Offya Duff

"Dick" is a riot.

2011-02-26T14:18:00.003-05:00

haha!
Te typical comedy movie made up
of 20 skits, but the skits were all a gas,
and the timing and editing were sharp
as a tack. The girls are bumbling-brilliant,
sorta Pink Panther style. The historical
inserts were like the best minutes of
Forrest Gump, but not dragged out.

the way the groovy music is wound
into the historical farce is great

More Cheese Puffs: Haiku

2011-02-22T17:14:00.003-05:00

Cheese Puff Eggs

When the aliens

Seek justice for their eggs:

Hey, I didn't know.

I've been translated...cool

2011-02-18T01:37:00.004-05:00

While visiting a new grandchild in Denmark,
Mark Schorr of the Frost Foundation met the
Danish poet Niels Kjaer at a jazz/poetry event,
and Niels checked out my short poetry. He was
sent the book later. He wrote a little book
on Danish short poetry and included my
poem "Surgeon" as an example, along with
Frost's "A Dust of Snow", and a poem Mark
whipped up at the jazz/coffee house. I may
not move many copies, but a few have them
have moved a long distance..

There's a typo, but I think it's cool, too.

The Thermals

2011-02-13T09:58:00.002-05:00

Some punk used to be a good time.
Well, the fun punk is back.

Going Places: Villa Venus

2011-02-12T14:31:00.005-05:00

I seem to be sniffing out music
as I round the final bend on my
study period.

I love the campus radio scene here.
The lower FM is jammed with quirky stuff
(I see from Boston to UNH New Hampshire
from here).
The other night there was a whole show
at 88.1 (out of MIT) with this more
sparse and angsty kind of style that
the 'shoegaze' sounds of the early
1990s turned into now. Less fuzz-wall guitar
(though I do like the Kevin shields thing),
more lyrics visibility and crystal-clear
multi-guitar rumination.

I rummaged lyrics and found a great
little group out of Brooklyn, "Villa Venus":
Check it:
VILLA_VENUS_SAMPLES
Definitely awesome cathartic/philosophical
shoegaze stuff.

I downloaded the album and spent
an hour trying to figure out if I could
pay. Hopefully I can some day. For now,
it seems they are looking for buzz and engagements.
I would go to a show here. The sound is
incredible.

Tanita Tikaram

2011-02-11T01:13:00.003-05:00

Intensity, insight,
the new and the ancient,
those steely eyes, that burning heart,
the voice: smoke trails in the wind.
Some art haunts forever.

Tropical

2011-02-05T14:59:00.002-05:00

No, no,
that's not snow, man...
it's sand!

Ah, the land of make-believe.
I'm 10 again, stepping out of
a DC-8 into a wave of humidity,
still holding half a birthday bag of
smokehouse almonds from the stewardess,
and a steady wind is raking the tarmac,
taking the fumes away, bringing the sea smell,
and the electric doors open
to a steel drum band
mustered out to meet the charter.
They say the conch in lime is a bit rubbery,
a little spicy. I think it's amazing.