Well, I only got one copy, but you get the idea.
Go buy your own here.
December 03, 2010
Caketrain
Look what the mailman brought me this morning:
Well, I only got one copy, but you get the idea.
Go buy your own here.
Well, I only got one copy, but you get the idea.
Go buy your own here.
November 12, 2010
Alabama Student Life
I have ten new chapbooks from Greying Ghost thanks to my winning bid at last night's Black Warrior Review auction. Good fuel for my poem-a-day sweatshoppe, which is usurping NaNoWriMo. I also have two gift certificates for whole pies from Pie Lab.
I will also be in FL next week, for the first time in a year. There is talk of visiting Hogsmeade.
I will also be in FL next week, for the first time in a year. There is talk of visiting Hogsmeade.
November 07, 2010
Double Shiny 3
The spooky Halloween Issue is belatedly out. Brandi Wells, A. Minetta Gould, Carrie Lorig, plus literally thousands of others.
November 05, 2010
October 27, 2010
Walking & Dancing
"Walking, like prose, has a definite aim. [...]movements in walking...
are abolished and, as it were, absorbed by the accomplishment of the
act, by the attainment of the goal.
The dance is quite another matter. If it pursues an object, it is only
an ideal object, a state, an enchantment, the phantom of a flower,
a smile--which forms at last on the face of the one who summoned it
from empty space.
[...]however different the dance may be from walking and utilitarian
movement, it uses the same organs, the same bones, the same muscles,
only differently co-ordinated and aroused.
This is why one should guard against reasoning about poetry as one
does about prose.
-Paul Valery
are abolished and, as it were, absorbed by the accomplishment of the
act, by the attainment of the goal.
The dance is quite another matter. If it pursues an object, it is only
an ideal object, a state, an enchantment, the phantom of a flower,
a smile--which forms at last on the face of the one who summoned it
from empty space.
[...]however different the dance may be from walking and utilitarian
movement, it uses the same organs, the same bones, the same muscles,
only differently co-ordinated and aroused.
This is why one should guard against reasoning about poetry as one
does about prose.
-Paul Valery
October 15, 2010
Caketrain 08 (AKA the Alabama Issue) is available for pre-order here. Eight measly dollars magically exchanged over interconnected computers will result in a lovely surprise in your mailbox in November.
September 26, 2010
Write my poem for me
I hate not being able to think of things. I prefer finishing things. Things being poems.
And stacks of essays still needing capital letters placed atop their jelly-stained pages.
It is still not fall in Alabama. I know you were wondering. Hoping, even. We all were.
And yet. And yet. I am distraught and unsurprised to report: Zero corn mazes.
Zero pumpkin patches. Zero hay rides. Zero leaves crunching satisfyingly beneath
my size 13 sandals.
And stacks of essays still needing capital letters placed atop their jelly-stained pages.
It is still not fall in Alabama. I know you were wondering. Hoping, even. We all were.
And yet. And yet. I am distraught and unsurprised to report: Zero corn mazes.
Zero pumpkin patches. Zero hay rides. Zero leaves crunching satisfyingly beneath
my size 13 sandals.
August 31, 2010
August 23, 2010
August
Back to School here in the South
Started a new poem. I'm using made up words, combo words, and various
other syntactical tricks. So there's that.
I also have some new poems forthcoming in Caketrain #8, which will be
out later this year. Elizabeth is finally ready to make her public debut,
after much workshopping and sweatshoppe-ing.
Started a new poem. I'm using made up words, combo words, and various
other syntactical tricks. So there's that.
I also have some new poems forthcoming in Caketrain #8, which will be
out later this year. Elizabeth is finally ready to make her public debut,
after much workshopping and sweatshoppe-ing.
August 05, 2010
Mary Todd on Her Deathbed
"I can hear them, choking on spoons, screaming / in shower stalls;
the fat are given only / a raw egg and whiskey / and those
who refuse / to eat are force-fed. The least crazy sing, /
picking scalp scabs in window seats. / One woman finds
scissors /and stabs herself / again and again. (...)"
-Julianna Baggot (BAP 2000)
So happy I finally found this poem (which is much longer than what I've quoted here)again, after much searching through various libraries. I've been wanting to write a poem (or even series of poems) on Howard Hughes near the end of his life, and this poem has stuck with me as a potential model for that project ever since I first read it several years ago.
the fat are given only / a raw egg and whiskey / and those
who refuse / to eat are force-fed. The least crazy sing, /
picking scalp scabs in window seats. / One woman finds
scissors /and stabs herself / again and again. (...)"
-Julianna Baggot (BAP 2000)
So happy I finally found this poem (which is much longer than what I've quoted here)again, after much searching through various libraries. I've been wanting to write a poem (or even series of poems) on Howard Hughes near the end of his life, and this poem has stuck with me as a potential model for that project ever since I first read it several years ago.
July 21, 2010
July 16, 2010
Currently Reading
"Marcelo, are you ready?"
I lift up my thumb. It means that I am ready.
"Okay, I'm going to wheel you in."
Then he slides me inside the tunnel of the machine. I like the feeling of being closed in. The lights are not bright enough to hurt my eyes but I close them anyway.
"Don't forget to lift your finger when you first hear the mental music." The tunnel has a speaker. Dr. Malone's voice comes out from there.
I wait for the music. It always comes. The hard part is remembering to lift my finger. There's a tiny camera that allows Dr. Malone and Toby to see me from up in the control booth.
"Marcelo, Marcelo." I hear Toby in the distance. I like Toby. He's a medical doctor just like Dr. Malone but he doesn't let me call him doctor. Once I called him doctor and he corrected me and said, 'Toby, please.' His face is covered with freckles.
"Ready for the so-called real stuff?" he asks when slides me out.
"Yes," I say to him. The "real stuff" is what he calls the music that is piped in through the speaker in the machine. The music that comes from inside my head is not considered real.
-Marcelo In the Real World (Francisco Stork)
I lift up my thumb. It means that I am ready.
"Okay, I'm going to wheel you in."
Then he slides me inside the tunnel of the machine. I like the feeling of being closed in. The lights are not bright enough to hurt my eyes but I close them anyway.
"Don't forget to lift your finger when you first hear the mental music." The tunnel has a speaker. Dr. Malone's voice comes out from there.
I wait for the music. It always comes. The hard part is remembering to lift my finger. There's a tiny camera that allows Dr. Malone and Toby to see me from up in the control booth.
"Marcelo, Marcelo." I hear Toby in the distance. I like Toby. He's a medical doctor just like Dr. Malone but he doesn't let me call him doctor. Once I called him doctor and he corrected me and said, 'Toby, please.' His face is covered with freckles.
"Ready for the so-called real stuff?" he asks when slides me out.
"Yes," I say to him. The "real stuff" is what he calls the music that is piped in through the speaker in the machine. The music that comes from inside my head is not considered real.
-Marcelo In the Real World (Francisco Stork)
July 08, 2010
Somehow It's July Already
I finally got on board the Bon Iver express this week. I'm not sure why everyone tried to turn me on to them (him?) with Skinny Love. Easily my least favorite song on the cd.
Who else is disappointed by the new Wolf Parade album, despite every online review saying it's their best so far?
Currently reading: Caketrain Issue 07
Next up: Pretty Monsters (Kelly Link)
Who else is disappointed by the new Wolf Parade album, despite every online review saying it's their best so far?
Currently reading: Caketrain Issue 07
Next up: Pretty Monsters (Kelly Link)
June 27, 2010
June 21, 2010
Elizabeth + Baus = JenMarie Davis?
"Eve best likes filling her glass in the dark, listening, within kitchen atmosphere acoustics,
for the sound water makes at capacity. Cold water colliding into glass sounds different
from hot"
"she keeps keen ears for reason. To shut out uninvited spirits and sentient beings, says
a voice. But, Eve wonders, how does a blue threshold barricade the unseen?"
Glitterpony
for the sound water makes at capacity. Cold water colliding into glass sounds different
from hot"
"she keeps keen ears for reason. To shut out uninvited spirits and sentient beings, says
a voice. But, Eve wonders, how does a blue threshold barricade the unseen?"
Glitterpony
June 19, 2010
Oh America, you make me smile in a sad sort of way
I feel confident in assuming that Debra Jackson may be a resident of Alabama.
June 13, 2010
Summer Reading is the Best Kind of Reading
"We make elaborate diagrams for one another using pink phone-message sheets. You write these words: Kissing you would be like this, and draw a picture of two butterflies being struck by lightning. I stare at it and wonder if you may be right. I do my own drawing and write, Kissing you would be like this, and draw a picture of a man made of ice kissing a woman who is actually a stove. We have made hundreds of these drawings."
"People are becoming clouds nowadays. Each time John goes to kiss his wife, Eleanor simply laughs politely into the palm of her hand and immediately turns into a puff of soft white vapor. The vapor is quite odorless and can assume various shapes. It can still understand when it is being spoken to, the vapor. It can understand whenever John begins wordlessly crying. One time, while holding hands at the airport, john, without thinking, kissed Eleanor's soft cheek and she immediately turned into a puff of charming whiteness that resembled a young pony leaping over a fence post."
"After he is acquitted, Clark Olofsson will begin a lifelong friendship with Kristin Ehnemark. On holidays and birthdays, when he is not in prison, they will exchange presents with one another. One year, for Christmas, Olofsson will give Ehnemark a white rabbit in a perforated box. It will have a blue bow around its neck. It will smell of violet perfume and will be stolen from a local pet store. It will be the best present Kristin ever receives. In her dreams, Kristin sees Clark as a hand made of ice."
(from Demons In the Spring)
"People are becoming clouds nowadays. Each time John goes to kiss his wife, Eleanor simply laughs politely into the palm of her hand and immediately turns into a puff of soft white vapor. The vapor is quite odorless and can assume various shapes. It can still understand when it is being spoken to, the vapor. It can understand whenever John begins wordlessly crying. One time, while holding hands at the airport, john, without thinking, kissed Eleanor's soft cheek and she immediately turned into a puff of charming whiteness that resembled a young pony leaping over a fence post."
"After he is acquitted, Clark Olofsson will begin a lifelong friendship with Kristin Ehnemark. On holidays and birthdays, when he is not in prison, they will exchange presents with one another. One year, for Christmas, Olofsson will give Ehnemark a white rabbit in a perforated box. It will have a blue bow around its neck. It will smell of violet perfume and will be stolen from a local pet store. It will be the best present Kristin ever receives. In her dreams, Kristin sees Clark as a hand made of ice."
(from Demons In the Spring)
June 09, 2010
June 05, 2010
Apparently being 30 equals being healthy. Whether it's the influence of some strange biological impulse or spending the last month in Madison with my culinarily gifted & semi-vegetarian girlfriend, lately I'm seeking out, cooking, and eating all kinds of things I either used to hate, thought I hated, or just never bothered to try. some of my new favorites include couscous, fruit (especially in salad form), broccoli, & bell peppers. Some old favorites getting more playing time include black beans, lentils, bread (the real kind, from a bakery), and salads.
I know you're proud.
I know you're proud.
May 23, 2010
Recent Reading List
Simone Muench - Orange Crush, knife. notebook. mentholatum.
Nick Lantz - We Don't Know We Don't Know
Julia Story - Post Moxie
Rusty Morrison - the true keeps calm biding its story
Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski - Dormia
Madeleine L'engle - A Wrinkle In Time
Lois Lowry - The Giver
Nick Lantz - We Don't Know We Don't Know
Julia Story - Post Moxie
Rusty Morrison - the true keeps calm biding its story
Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski - Dormia
Madeleine L'engle - A Wrinkle In Time
Lois Lowry - The Giver
April 28, 2010
overheard
"I Wish Donuts Had Bones"
I want a bunch of glazed donuts with bones in them set out in the middle of the conference room table so I can watch people try to navigate "serious business conversation" while stacking their pastry bones on a communal paper plate. Donut bones.
I want a bunch of glazed donuts with bones in them set out in the middle of the conference room table so I can watch people try to navigate "serious business conversation" while stacking their pastry bones on a communal paper plate. Donut bones.
April 22, 2010
The Rule
"Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don't know who the reader is, so it's like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B."
from Margaret Atwood (who of course I have never read, since I have never read anything, especially if it's fiction, which I suspect is what she writes)
also from c.t's blog , which includes 9 other, less important, but still entertaining rules.
"Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don't know who the reader is, so it's like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B."
from Margaret Atwood (who of course I have never read, since I have never read anything, especially if it's fiction, which I suspect is what she writes)
also from c.t's blog , which includes 9 other, less important, but still entertaining rules.
April 21, 2010
April 18, 2010
This Is Me Pretending To Know You
And what will you do when you come home to find your dog’s head on a pole in the front yard and a bonfire made of your bed? When you have to decide what shape your life will take next. You will not be able to decide. You will sit in your Jeep with your IPod on shuffle, wishing it would land on a good song so you could be distracted from making a decision as you dig through your purse for your phone, even though you wouldn’t beable to decide who to call. Your fingernail will click into something metallic — a quarter — and you’ll decide to let the quarter decide for you, then laugh hard and loud at the fact that you are about to flip a coin to decide what to do with your life, despite the shock and fear and sadness you are feeling, despite the fact that you hate the song that is playing right now.
And what will you do when you come home to find your dog’s head on a pole in the front yard and a bonfire made of your bed? When you have to decide what shape your life will take next. You will not be able to decide. You will sit in your Jeep with your IPod on shuffle, wishing it would land on a good song so you could be distracted from making a decision as you dig through your purse for your phone, even though you wouldn’t beable to decide who to call. Your fingernail will click into something metallic — a quarter — and you’ll decide to let the quarter decide for you, then laugh hard and loud at the fact that you are about to flip a coin to decide what to do with your life, despite the shock and fear and sadness you are feeling, despite the fact that you hate the song that is playing right now.
April 16, 2010
I miss the days of three word band names
Remember the early to mid-nineties, when bands would have a clever name that was a pop culture reference or just a memorable phrase, and their music didn’t even matter? Remember Letters to Cleo? Remember Better Than Ezra? I would rather listen to a roomful of toddlers beat pots and pans with wooden spoons than Fall Out Boy, but at least they know how good band names work. Monosyllabic rhythm in triplicate AND a Simpsons reference. Well done, androgynous Ashley Simpson marry-er/impregnator.
Bonus: I once made the F.O.B. drummer a medium soy mocha. He was tiny and sweatshirted. He tipped me $5.
End of post.
Remember the early to mid-nineties, when bands would have a clever name that was a pop culture reference or just a memorable phrase, and their music didn’t even matter? Remember Letters to Cleo? Remember Better Than Ezra? I would rather listen to a roomful of toddlers beat pots and pans with wooden spoons than Fall Out Boy, but at least they know how good band names work. Monosyllabic rhythm in triplicate AND a Simpsons reference. Well done, androgynous Ashley Simpson marry-er/impregnator.
Bonus: I once made the F.O.B. drummer a medium soy mocha. He was tiny and sweatshirted. He tipped me $5.
End of post.
April 13, 2010
Last Night I Got Shot In the Back By a Thin Man Who Resembled a TV Actor In A Vague Way
I was with an elderly couple who had adopted me. We were on a neighbor's farm, watching three men in black ski masks chase my brother into a cornfield. I was kneeling on the grass. The thin man who had stayed behind asked me my name. The elderly couple said "Mathias" in unison, and the thin man spat on the ground. When I turned towards the cornfield again I felt a warm pressure on the middle of my back. I heard gasps. I remember falling to the ground from my knees and looking up at the thin man, wondering why I hadn't heard anything. I remember being scared, and frustrated that I was about to die this way. I remember thinking of so many random names and faces, hating that I wasn't going to be able see those people or talk to them again. I remember that the thin man was wearing black, and that he had very short hair. I don't remember anything else.
I was with an elderly couple who had adopted me. We were on a neighbor's farm, watching three men in black ski masks chase my brother into a cornfield. I was kneeling on the grass. The thin man who had stayed behind asked me my name. The elderly couple said "Mathias" in unison, and the thin man spat on the ground. When I turned towards the cornfield again I felt a warm pressure on the middle of my back. I heard gasps. I remember falling to the ground from my knees and looking up at the thin man, wondering why I hadn't heard anything. I remember being scared, and frustrated that I was about to die this way. I remember thinking of so many random names and faces, hating that I wasn't going to be able see those people or talk to them again. I remember that the thin man was wearing black, and that he had very short hair. I don't remember anything else.
April 10, 2010
Some things I have read recently
- If you think of a torso as a box, you can see
how someone might want to open it with his fingers.
-We listen to the accordion players kiss the backs of each other's necks on the radio... Brunibar unscrews his wooden foot, and I gently climb inside.
-When it gets lonely, I sit by the river & read. Correction. There is no river. Mostly, I read.
-Tonight the moths are beating the shit out of themselves against the screen door.
-In danger of being understood
Too well, they gathered up
Their orthodoxies and made
For the sugar hills. A nite
Of piecemeal anathema,
Backlit by bubbling overs.
- If you think of a torso as a box, you can see
how someone might want to open it with his fingers.
-We listen to the accordion players kiss the backs of each other's necks on the radio... Brunibar unscrews his wooden foot, and I gently climb inside.
-When it gets lonely, I sit by the river & read. Correction. There is no river. Mostly, I read.
-Tonight the moths are beating the shit out of themselves against the screen door.
-In danger of being understood
Too well, they gathered up
Their orthodoxies and made
For the sugar hills. A nite
Of piecemeal anathema,
Backlit by bubbling overs.
April 02, 2010
March 30, 2010
March 20, 2010
03/20/10
Re: Your Poetry Submission
We thank you for the opportunity to read your manuscript. Unfortunately, your work does not meed our needs at this time. Because we know how much effort went into this submission, we regret the use of this form. But the volume of manuscripts we receive makes a personal reply impossible.
The Editors
We thank you for the opportunity to read your manuscript. Unfortunately, your work does not meed our needs at this time. Because we know how much effort went into this submission, we regret the use of this form. But the volume of manuscripts we receive makes a personal reply impossible.
The Editors
March 09, 2010
6:02 PM
me: what should be for dinner?
Jennifer: chips and guacamole from chipotle
me: $$$
try sunchips
and diet cherry coke
Jennifer: okay
sunchips and dccoke
me: poem
I like that chipotle has FoodInc posters
I like being "earth friendly"
but I can't afford their food
I guess i'll just eat sun chips
and drink diet coke
at home
again
then throw my sunchips bag out my window
and watch it biodegrade
over the next 2 weeks
like in that commercial
(end of poem)
6:05PM
me: what should be for dinner?
Jennifer: chips and guacamole from chipotle
me: $$$
try sunchips
and diet cherry coke
Jennifer: okay
sunchips and dccoke
me: poem
I like that chipotle has FoodInc posters
I like being "earth friendly"
but I can't afford their food
I guess i'll just eat sun chips
and drink diet coke
at home
again
then throw my sunchips bag out my window
and watch it biodegrade
over the next 2 weeks
like in that commercial
(end of poem)
6:05PM
March 08, 2010
March 03, 2010
Do you know that it's Small Press Month?
Maybe you want to go here and maybe buy a few things.
(Or feel free to peruse the offerings of your small press website of choice)
Maybe you want to go here and maybe buy a few things.
(Or feel free to peruse the offerings of your small press website of choice)
February 27, 2010
For Homework I had to write a blurb for a book that I like. My blurb is probably a little longer than the average blurb, but who's to say what the word limit for a blurb is? I'm starting to feel like when Hobbes kept saying "Smock" all through that comic strip, so I'm going to move on.
I Am In the Air Right Now
by Kathryn Regina
If this collection of poems were a person it would be the kind of attractive and intriguing person you might notice browsing in your local bookstore, or while standing in line to order a skim latte at your favorite coffee shop. Seeing them would make you wonder why you’ve never seen this person before, and you’d debate talking to them in case you never see them again. In the end, you would post a Missed Connection for them on Craigslist, and if you were very lucky, you would receive a reply that was, like Regina’s poems, filled with the strange meditations of a dedicated hot air balloonist, including musings on bears, Native Americans, boys named Pedro, puppets, and pollution.
I Am In the Air Right Now
by Kathryn Regina
If this collection of poems were a person it would be the kind of attractive and intriguing person you might notice browsing in your local bookstore, or while standing in line to order a skim latte at your favorite coffee shop. Seeing them would make you wonder why you’ve never seen this person before, and you’d debate talking to them in case you never see them again. In the end, you would post a Missed Connection for them on Craigslist, and if you were very lucky, you would receive a reply that was, like Regina’s poems, filled with the strange meditations of a dedicated hot air balloonist, including musings on bears, Native Americans, boys named Pedro, puppets, and pollution.
February 19, 2010
we quietly played
a game called
if you had to kill
everyone
in this snack car
who would go first?
ZS & EKF one-upping Rohrer & Beckman
a game called
if you had to kill
everyone
in this snack car
who would go first?
ZS & EKF one-upping Rohrer & Beckman
February 10, 2010
February 06, 2010
I need a new game for Wii. Having beaten the new Super Mario Bros twice since getting it for Christmas I have nothing to do but my homework. Maybe I'll get one for my birthday.
Oh, and Team Sad still hasn't arrived in the mail.
Oh, and Team Sad still hasn't arrived in the mail.
January 27, 2010
How can I get a job as a fortune cookie writer?
I'm working on my portfolio. I'm going for much more specific predictions
than the medium typically offers. Here's a few samples:
You will marry for love, but your spouse will marry for money.
You’ll be too in love to notice.
Lucky Numbers - 2, 7, 18
This time, everyone at work is going to notice your new haircut.
Lucky Numbers - 5, 11, 21
You will have 134 more headaches before you die.
Lucky numbers - 6, 14, 31
I'm working on my portfolio. I'm going for much more specific predictions
than the medium typically offers. Here's a few samples:
You will marry for love, but your spouse will marry for money.
You’ll be too in love to notice.
Lucky Numbers - 2, 7, 18
This time, everyone at work is going to notice your new haircut.
Lucky Numbers - 5, 11, 21
You will have 134 more headaches before you die.
Lucky numbers - 6, 14, 31
January 19, 2010
January 14, 2010
Since I joined Netfliz all I do is watch British comedies on my computer. Especially The IT Crowd.
IT Crowd - Anti Piracy - Click here for more amazing videos
IT Crowd - Anti Piracy - Click here for more amazing videos
January 11, 2010
January 08, 2010
All You Need to Know About Where I Live
Walmarts to host Bama's BCS trophy
The University of Alabama is going to display its new national championship football trophy at a place where most anyone can see it: Walmart.
The school says the Coaches' Trophy will be on display at a Walmart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and another Walmart store in Gardendale on Sunday.
Fans will be able to get their picture taken with the actual Coaches' Trophy that was presented after the BCS win over Texas. The $30,000 trophy is topped with a football made of Waterford Crystal.
The school will permanently display the trophy on campus. The Walmart stops are part of a sponsorship deal.
(from ESPN.com)
The University of Alabama is going to display its new national championship football trophy at a place where most anyone can see it: Walmart.
The school says the Coaches' Trophy will be on display at a Walmart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and another Walmart store in Gardendale on Sunday.
Fans will be able to get their picture taken with the actual Coaches' Trophy that was presented after the BCS win over Texas. The $30,000 trophy is topped with a football made of Waterford Crystal.
The school will permanently display the trophy on campus. The Walmart stops are part of a sponsorship deal.
(from ESPN.com)
January 03, 2010
Agree
Good God
Instead of casting them out of paradise,
Instead of making them labor in pain and sweat,
Instead of instilling tristesse after coitus,
Instead of giving them fire to burn their house down
And light their way into the outer world,
He could have split them, each with a memory of the other,
And put them each into a separate world.
(Mark Jarman)
Instead of casting them out of paradise,
Instead of making them labor in pain and sweat,
Instead of instilling tristesse after coitus,
Instead of giving them fire to burn their house down
And light their way into the outer world,
He could have split them, each with a memory of the other,
And put them each into a separate world.
(Mark Jarman)
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