_________________________
Friday, March 31, 2017
to that clusterscrew take the ankle express by Billy Cancel
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Two Poems by Richard Martin
An
Attempt at Couch
I’ve
dismissed cell phone trees as underweight
Beyond
the legal limit of height
This
is a poem with a plot
The
form of the plot is the line
The
reader understands the setting is the imagination –
The
branch of consciousness that creates the world
There
are rocks and soil in the margins of thought –
The
house of a celebrity after a mudslide
The
intention of the writer is to take an afternoon nap
With
the cat
Language
is the main character
It
precedes the starting gun of the spacetime continuum
Words
ignite stars
Being
is an ontological term not a fire extinguisher
Who
we are is a question language must address
There
are suppers and candlelight dinners for culture and exegesis
How
quaint in an era of digital takeout and restrictions on caloric absorption
Still
there are reasons to talk and rename the enterprise of being here
Words
are not fools
They
have the stomach to consider past present and future roles
Take
the rich for example
They
turn words into telecommunication companies for profit
Can you hear me now
Talking
heads multiply like fish and report on the state of the world
The
ability to record and watch 15 TV programs at once is an industry standard
I’m
feeling sleepy in the chaos of choice and debilitating action
Denouement
has me by the balls
So
the plot not of the poem but of the plot is a cast of villains
Who
controls whom for material advantage and gain
See it now on Xbox Live
See it now on Xbox Live
Side
Effects
1
All
medications
cause
depression
I may
be
in a bar
talking
with a stranger It
has
been a week of intellectuals
in
plastic bags and the karma of
retribution
The movie deal is off the table
The
summit of the powerful canceled due to the
weather
It snows on Jupiter if you believe in lies
There
are various things in my wallet I can track my
packages
by telepathic numbers open up a small restaurant with parking receipts
There
was the day you mistook my mind for a carnival I spoke
in
small boats and rabid colors Lights flickered I gave up on Thomas Edison
before
you Candy apples and Ferris wheels without a predicate There is an abandoned
mining
town
in my sentence structure In the grass a supple flag monitors the action We knew
each
other through the love beads stolen by the aristocrat I arrived at the watering
hole with
a
gold tooth and hall pass Reality stalks perception By the time I got through
high school the
author
was dead Victims of the ego clashed with victims of the ego Night pranced
across the
field of
2
sleep
_________________________________
Note: "An Attempt at Couch" appears in Martin's 2016 book Techniques in the Neighborhood of Sleep.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Further Explanation by Richard Martin
1
I
doused my poems – the ones that squeak and rust –
with
a powderpuff of sky OK next line
please By the
time I was ten I dined on pellets
of
cosmos in the pouring rain If
you
don’t mind the expression: Move over
Rover
then
quite possibly this: words often appear before
consciousness
attired in a series of holes
That
is why the Academy of ____________ (yes
fill
in the blank) came over to my house
and
punched me in the nose (or count the missing periods)
As
in tools of grammar or rocks Ouch!
I
was on my way out with the outs (or in) to begin with
Centripetal
or Centrifugal – Connotative or Denotative
Guess
which hand I suppose I wanted a paragraph
of
further explanation – one that tied things up
with
a nice little bow Tidied is more likely
Things?
For the record, I love them Squirrels
in
the treetops
the passing eyes of a
stranger
The
goulash of objects in the prime of their
radiant colors
2
A
man walked down a street of lemon pastries
What
happened to my Nehru suit
the
guru of atomic clocks inquired of the genie
in
the bell jar of telecommunications or let’s ride
the
dark horse into a blaze of adjectives
My
lips soured unto yours as the saying goes
Quite
rightly extend the play the hobo of
myth-
making
barked at the empty theater
That’s
when we found the Book of
Semi-Consciousness
in
the viral mailbox Loose strings
were
everywhere vibrating with
the
passion of ancestors and unbalanced equations
for
geniuses of swank and diddly-squat…bow bow bow
Man the torpedoes seemed like an
appropriate phrase
to
insist upon after a brunch of vigorous vegetables
“It’s
time for my scenario,” you said.
3
“And
the Pulitzer for Narcolepsy goes to
The
man in the grey flannel underwear.
No
kidding…Just kidding. Welcome to
The
Netherworld of Sleep. And boy, do we
Have
the right mattress for your aching
Head.
Just look at this baby; it comes with
One
hundred and fifty settings for getting
The
most out of long and short bouts of
Sleep.
You like it hard and she likes it soft;
You
like it soft and she likes it hard.
O
the gradations between hard and
Soft
are fun to discover! Now turn
Your
attention to the HD TV consoles
Built
into footboards, headboards and
Side
railings. Plus, each pillow in this
Baby
has its own separate pocket sleeves
For
iPhone, iPad, and laptop for
Convenient
use between REM periods
Of
sleep. Communicate with your boss,
friends,
wife, husband, and lovers like
Never
before. Never feel disconnected
From
your waking life. Even as you
Ponder
or solve the conundrums of
Dreams
and associated flak from the
Unconscious,
you’ll be able to text your
Friends…better
yet keep up with mundane
Office
tasks and current global crises.
Look,
we’ve even installed a no shut
Down
button so that your personal
Communication
devices will stay on
Even
when you don’t want them to.
And
right now, at no extra cost,
If
you purchase one of our BIG CRY-
BABY
CRY mattresses we’re offering
Free
installation of a microchip in your
Head
that will coordinate the whole process
Of now I lay me down to
sleep.
Tell me
How
can you beat a deal like this?”
4
I
burrowed deep into a night of traffic and lipstick
It
was raining
An
old man was snoring
Sound
familiar
Check
out the contusion on my forehead
You
called it an egg
Yes,
the “you” of whomever in the linguistic landscape
There
weren’t adequate resources to investigate the cause of the injury
Somnambulism
Vertigo
Inebriation
Hallucination
It
was dark as I remember
As
if the lights in the apartment went out in a storm
You
kissed my cheek
I
had aged in the hue of your lips
In
the street cars continued to honk at each other
I
thought of the price of eggs
Canada
geese in flight across a starless sky
The
egg glowed like a miner’s light
I
kept digging
Made
by way to bed by morning
Wouldn’t
get up
On
Saturday
_________________________________________
Saturday, March 25, 2017
rockaBILLY whole world gone CANCELed by Billy Cancel
Two versions of this poem: video poetry and visual poetry
________________________________
Thursday, March 23, 2017
‘Round Midnight in Ameriker by Dan Ryan
grinning blood moon
bloated
blond haired
buffoon
gloating Hitler-like
white
messiah
another midnight
for the
moral world
here in ameriker
tendency of the powerful
to view
human beings as pins
on a
map presumed
entitlement to
control
with
insult and abuse
motives of
greed and spite
rule society,
politics & politicians
ultimate corruption
of men & women
here in ameriker
winds & whims
of
political storms
shift quickly
kids
going off to war
and death again
that tired old
song playin
on the
national radio
here in ameriker
i’d like to ask God what it’s all for
but there’s nobody home
no
answers there
it’s just not
fair yet
I sense no
revolution
in the
air
no revolution anywhere
here in ameriker
January
2016
___________________________
Dan Ryan is still a dedicated Zen slacker drifting between Olympia, WA and Minneapolis, MN. And also still groov'n on Kerouac, Ginsberg and Snyder.
___________________________
Dan Ryan is still a dedicated Zen slacker drifting between Olympia, WA and Minneapolis, MN. And also still groov'n on Kerouac, Ginsberg and Snyder.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Three From "89-90" Series by Joel Chace
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Joel Chace has published work in print and electronic magazines such as, The Tip of the Knife, Counterexample Poetics, OR, Country Music, Infinity's Kitchen, and Jacket. Most recent collections include Sharpsburg, from Cy Gist Press, Blake's Tree, from Blue & Yellow Dog Press, Whole Cloth, from Avantacular Press, Red Power, from Quarter After Press, Kansoz, from Knives, Forks, and Spoons Press, Web Too, from Tonerworks, War, and After, from BlazeVOX [books], and Scorpions, from Unlikely Books.
And here are some links to some sites that feature both visual and textual
work --