As/Is







11.30.2004


low roof

birds trellis the white. fine lithe song in vines that hold wood. photographs line inner wall. pale other than the song. elastic music. hear the mood be true. repaired by rote. the roots indigenous. plants leave sufficient air within a room. the atmosphere robust with scent, with taste. the hurt on rough skin. plain as caught plain air. trim wild place. trim light land appearing at first soft. one wanted that. one limbered up for what's to come. the smooth long water forming depths. to distinguish between one shade of blue and then another. to record what's left. there are repressed as lanky fall. leaves crushed beneath footsteps. pressed to earth. where stones. the planted whereabouts of home.

sense repeated longing moving toward a pose





multipl't









11.29.2004



her hammer
fails to strike home
so i begin
to laugh
and it strikes me









her hammer
fails to strike home
so i begin
to laugh
and it strikes me






with all the circuits of the universe
still starting at zero decide; what comes now?
where will you be in relation to
those medicine men learned in the
uses of a beating
heart and where does this
silk and crimson life you wake up in
go in between the night and another where
will we be tomorrow, with it all,
it all collapsing & alive?








11.26.2004


snow

Snow
on October 29

beautiful
and blinding

many slipped
fell

and were eaten by starving troops.










11.25.2004


Time Acts

Time acts in accordance w/poetic justice
A variable on the historical event crows
We call it "numbered war" of attribution

To act upon certain uncertain coordinates

That which we all learn from past events
That which happened tomorrow now is

Herald to the Duke's loyal regiment

A lost accord brays on Radio Free Radio
Inventory cans barbs and fences shackles
Deprecating jocose we can be players too

I say We it is I

Will run flagpoles into the ground

Mother of all brands that is or was








11.24.2004











11.23.2004


when you look into the pool how ravishing is the pool

and would you recommend it?
to whom?
is the pool smooth?
or wrinkled?
how long have you been watching?
has it changed?
and you?






Is Bush an Oulipian?

I just realised that

"Weapons of Mass Destruction"

in N+7 terms becomes

"Weaving of Master Details"

and

"Shock and Awe"

becomes

"Shooter and Axe"

and

"Department of Homeland Security"

becomes

"Deposit of Homelier Seductions".

What are they trying to tell us anyway?





Storehouses by Word on a Social Event

Whose words these are I think I know.
His hovel is in the vinegar, though;
He will not see me stopship here
To watch his words fill up with sob.

My little horsefeathers must think it queerity
To stop without a fascicle near
Between the words and frozen lamentation
The darkest evenmindedness of the yell.

He gives his harpagon bellwaver a shakeout
To ask if there is some mite.
The only other soundboxes the sweetheart
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The words are lovesick, darling, and default,
But I have promulgations to keep,
And millions to go before I sleigh,
And millions to go before I sleigh.


N+7 based on Stopping By Woods on a Snow Evening by Robert Frost





pass st o't









11.22.2004











11.18.2004


in two

I proposed

to unknow

you when

you declared

my dream

informal poverty






you
put the
hip in hypocrisy








11.17.2004


stop't spell'ng









11.16.2004


for Tom Beckett: More (Southern Flying) Squirrel


Dear Muse Team,

This problem has come to my attention:

~~Memo Exchange between Muses at Yellow Squirrel Landing Strip~~

Houston, the southern flying squirrel has landed with muses in Muzak.
Our own George BubbaWubberr has arrived with two rrs (not two lls),
a six pack of Tundrabird,
and a U-Halo
on wheels.
Our CES is ready to greet
the new Texas dignitaries.

*

Hey, BubbaWubberr, it's best to use all the parts:
iff'n you lahhk yr electronic grey skwerl
stewed wit muzak, jus click here and ask for Yolo.

*

NonononononoYolo, Yolo: man, if you want to submit
yer yellow skwerl with these other'n ones, well, do so here.

*

ACk! No: Never do it with that one, I'm crushed
garlic, Girl!--canned mushroom & bye-bye!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Team, this is sickening. Can we talk to Dick about it?

Forever Yours,
Little BubbaWubberr George
CES, Yellow Squirrel Landing Strip





1 person is here

maintain a distance of one car length at all times

consider division of the self into an adequate range of selves

each lane change unnoticed

while narcissistic whims elapse

hello southerly winds

what else is new

add one "m" to "coma" and proceed









www

I was hoping
come to think of it
the world weary Lieutenant
it did not matter
losing sky earth moon sun stars
wanna be
whatever
why the wild winning whir
coming round the side
raking in that ride
spinning through finally slowing
to a dull rhythmic beat
a fine way to meet
trying to speak hear argue know explain
understanding someone on that train
is gonna come around again
to tell me does not know why is not specific
still insisting that I listen still wagging the finger
at me vanishing into the wall does not even call
canot complain understands exactly what you mean
in a kind of abstract way- a short, twisted lesson

2.

interruption
savoir-faire

along a grated beat

stimulation
aggravation

tonight
impossible

movie dialogue
music clearer than
words

understandable
kinesthetic

no surprise
completely out of
whack

sunny like a screen
come on in

electricity
flavor of forget
taste of regret

robotic movements
steer clear
permission granted

several days ago
unbelievable

not so fast
let the cliche pass












ba by's breakfast










11.15.2004



sister's husband
my brother
sister-in-law
husband asked again
talking talking
mistress walking
husband turning
'til this
strange person
did follow
passing repeated
where death
lived
this afternoon
wild luminous
sister yes daughter





Intervening as Per Instructions

semaphore prosthesis

impermissible swastika

circumstantial theocracy

alabama cuisine

intramolecular drapery

infectious chalice

impetuous rotenone

pandemic shake

oscillatory fragmentation

cranelike hornbeam

lazybones buddhism

emphysematous compass

illusionary broccoli

olfactory prophylactic

lackadaisic influx

phosphorus pixel

spartan technetium

blackboard boomerang

cool motion

grotesque indeterminacy

arabic moustache

discrete salaam

jitterbug ipecac

terpsichorean gunman

aztec possessor

neutral autocrat

tortoiseshell fracture

glycerine stargaze

larval gyrfalcon

stolen hellfire

ethereal fusillade





on hold awaiting the principal of the school for homeless children

an obbligato beat is overcast in minor key
with darkly inlaid chimes

at intervals a woman's voice comes on
to ask who am I holding for

and then at last returns to say
they're having problems with their phones

clouds this morning don't have names
by the time one has discerned among them

each has disappeared or simply
reconfigured to another shape








11.13.2004



a male subordinates making tea on a chain link
to hype bordering on a version of largess says
man-size this is the package of the troping lope
an ache in the head is a log-jam in the carotid
but to sustain injury is not the question is it





For the unknown girl smiling at me outside Essen today

must look very serious here with my pile
of books and thick
black pen held to my fat chewed lips -
hey, man, keep it
down can't you tell I'm
thinking? - mainly,
thinking into the thick lingering cloud of
promises and dreams spoken out last
Thursday with Joe & Leon
& sweet taciturn Emily. must look
tormented with my neck bent and
bitten like this but - hey, wanna
know what happened? it was
a ferret, I can't lie, a ferret
I held like a long wriggling stinking
baby diging through my throat &
shoulders for a way
out of perplexing sunlight. I know,
there's a certain trend amongst young
inkstained writers of love and sorrow
to compare every bright thing to the
miraculous body breath & life of
a lover,
and the ferret-bitten romantic
squeezing out this teabag agrees but, praise be,
I've been baptised.
I've been born again into
stone,
I've been born again,
cold,
and miracles now restrict themselves
to the chaste acts of saints,
virgin-tight women at church fairs,
that kind of thing, yeah,
that kind.
so I don't want you to get the wrong impression,
girl smiling in my direction.
I want you to save that dear hopeful smile
for someone more lyrical,
less evangelical.

(cross-posted to my blog)








11.12.2004









One Little Bubble

one little bubble
in a plastic
tobacco lung
ruptured

billy jno hope








11.11.2004


White November

I poured a five gallon tank of invisible
ink all over my head and body, then struck
out lighting four matches before finally

I set myself ablaze at the International
Conference of L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E Poets
to get their attention and validate

the several thousand new sentences
I had written over the years without
using the first person pronoun twice.





Yetisong 1.0

GRAAAAHR! Kirinaaaaahr! Nummm Nuuuum
my bodhihaire is all smooth cars of cinnabar flame
stuffed with ethereal crane feather mantras! Greeaarh-ma
Meantraaaah Nuuum GRAAAHR! Kree wiili! Shuumm
vacuum coconuts shiver and fall from the houses built within
my loin-sheeths.. GLUUUBON. PARABON! Naachti waah...
Shub to the hutchets of grooorn, bi kallikukikali, I'm heeeled in
YETISWEAT! sheefs of eyeballtowers minister gingko bride-tongues!
glippee, trongu kirineeeee, GRAAAHR! Pom'de'granite birth witless
J , claven, king hiksterimpen pumplaaaah! joy and ecstacy in stone
bottles hauling donkey words past oeaken hamber drashers!
Graahr, re: Graaahr!






schoolmaster reign
particle protactinium
dystrophy gestalt mermaid

explosion
bombay
hanoi

vampire junky
juxtaposition transfusion
withdrawal

abysmal fiend
bedimmed typewritten

pushbutton chaos
assassin chemotherapy
epicurean desecrater
hibachi respirator

promenade proton
shinto will chivalrous
cave inanimate
sanctuary domicile
garden fortress
phosphorylate
autocorrelate
accountant

horseflesh flop
gnostic nonsensical
calculable length
transferable curve
cornea
volcanism militarism aphorism

definition
fourteenth yeah horsemen

lamb snare
beast kinky

electrify lexical
instinctual communal

verbatim articulatory
transmogrify

spinal gunk

desire imprimatur

everyone
natural manipulable
culpable

everlasting every
exhale turn
shamefaced astronomy

abolish absolve
auschwitz
formaldehyde disjunct dissension
democratic authentic apologetic

imaginary gastronomy
malarial baccalaureate
infantrymen maim
baptism battlefield
malevolent prefab wolves
grilled zombie

clean lick
genius limelight
rigorous effusive
highfalutin thesaurus

inexplicit politico

ampersand ektachrome
toy oedipus
humid marital purgatory

punk enigma
california pneumonia
boggy fleshy

brahmsian epigraph
checklist politic
latinate cortex obsolete

gutenberg source
atkinson transgression absolution
polyhedral spear relic

gibe jinx
lithography xerography typology
strawberry meridian

dactylic hijinks
psychopathic diagnoses
egocentric luminary
logistic smoke
pyrotechnic exchange
hydraulic sacrilege
prolific delirium

august breeze





boylight

differently made wings

traverse plush

distances

clouds

erase themselves

reveal muscular blue






Poachment

Look at her and match.

A fear breaks out of perspiration.

The follow-on to all that auctioned residue.

What seems practical exemplifies what appears harsh.

Would someone please stop visiting?

A video of fact reveals a modesty about decision making.

The ample kismet of redress.

Whereas each nature fortifies some greater seeming avenue.

It's the temple, stupid.








11.10.2004


reaching

these?"
wait

Bag
heart

we're

'pent

eye
'ticed

to
these

"else

n'die!"
'attoo

(Mr.

L's

an

looks
delivery

reach








11.09.2004


White November, IV

Balls, two,
  which hang so loooose and soft
in the warm summer clime.

Both of which are
  proud, always,
and dignified, tho one is
    lower than the other
most of the time.

And how they swayed!
    in the good young days
  away and out the sides

of the late 70's silky
  running shorts, sometimes
with that other thing

to cause just a wee
    bit of embarassment
  (or not).

Yeah, not really, though. It
  was too much fun.

Or how a lot of us
  in our twenties
let them show
  from the short cut
surfer's "baggies,"

    wanted
      them
  always on display.





White November, I, II, and III

Five trees, total height
  484 feet,

17 leaves. I am free

to run around
each tree, average

circumference four
    and a half yards.




After work, at
  the factory.

Day by day by
  day gone.

Every hour filled
  with nothing
remotely meaningful.

As opposed to job
  as teacher, each

minute fanatic
  to squeeze

in every idea in
  the world.




Three gods, all
  the same, Only
different in name.

None more or less
  bland than
    the others.





White November

There's a full coat of white flags all over November,
                the constant month of western New York,
                    where all the books I've ever read
                        blanket my skull with the same old
                            glory and I eat my words in private.





voice of america

it's maggot quiet

in the morning

the suburbs hang
their democracies
out to dry

over there

the rock of PsyOps
our hit parade





she is in the same room

she is in the same room drawing
to herself your tapped and untapped
store of

she is taking in attention
you are at attention
once you were replete with it

she is talking to herself not you
she is performing what she does
she is in difficulty

she wants you to help her
she wants you not to help her
she is doing what she does is talking to herself

she is extracting your attention
from the job that you were doing
she says never mind

only you mind
you try (not) to listen
you always mind her

"mind your head" is said in England
"watch out" in America
something this vague might (not) matter

sometimes we do and sometimes
you look at her as if to say or not say
what is left of me





par entin' ina faith bas'd commune'tee









11.07.2004


Mark, this...

If

I could

parse this sentence



I might live

to make

parole











If
I could
punctuate my thoughts

I might make
sense of
them.






riddle

it was about
standing still
for the sun to rise

billy jno hope catharcyst





Tropology

By turns away and toward
Call it a tonic and a day
Light stems cells abroad

As is night
As is phrase
As is bird's eye

Frequencies shutter iris
Stamen center pistols
Killing the rhetoric fore
Aft on the pointed bow
Towards what end is said

And thus repeat endlessly
A servant in love returns
Looks away looks away looks





Trollopology

As if by turning obsessively to the thing
A motion sickness is achieved in the gaps
Fingers ache shuttle amorphic candle wickes
Or needless prick stamen dust thin cookies
Surface lies alright accentuating x thrust
Smiles mucosa easing the passage to soffit
Fits but locks are gorges numbness itching








11.05.2004



i have fogotten
the towers of babylon
but i remember you

depth is uncertain

and the sullen god sings
as the boat veers off course

i am waiting as you to park

a text read and interpreted and reread

in a moment


you are my household god
and for once you are smiling









11.03.2004


be as't lo ose yes









11.02.2004


be for't gaining no