What is it to meet
the aging dentist who
seeks to thrive in electronica?
Maybe Michal Menert and
absolutely Kris Moon.
I’ll see you at the Badlander
probably
sometime soon.
But first tonight
in this yard behind a home
in Kalispell
at a table eating both
chicken legs and brisket
with mashed potatoes
and their skins. Continue reading
Even when I tell you
I just want you to listen,
you just don’t know how
to shut the fuck up. Continue reading
Where did the word go?
I can barely muster prose.
I know, I know,
that’s just how it goes.
I don’t want to force it though.
There’s no poet without the poetry,
I suppose. Continue reading
I teach a creative writing course. I tasked my class with writing Pantoums or “found” poetry, where you lines from other people’s work to recompose a piece. I wrote two myself, using both prompts together. They suck, so they get to get posted here.
The Back Ups
When my mind is uncertain, my body decides
I laugh till I cry, I party all of the time
I’ve got them bad boy blues, baby
I need a spiritual cleansing.
I laugh till I cry, I party all of the time,
I don’t know what I’m gonna do
I need a spiritual cleansing
I like the in-betweens.
I don’t know what I’m gonna do
And there is someone out there just like me.
like the in-betweens,
I wanna contribute to the chaos.
There is someone out there just like me,
With them bad boy blues,
Wanting to contribute to the chaos.
And when my mind is uncertain, my body decides.
Shaky
Take a chance, roll them bones
Yeah, try to make a dollar from the grave
To fame and fire, to dame and dandy
I’ve got nothing on my mind but you
Try to make a dollar from the grave,
I know you can see it in my eyes
I’ve got nothing on my mind but you
One-track mind, one-way street
I know you can see it in my eyes
Who knew a man’s fate was such a hard thing to find
One-track mind, one-way street
Here I come, bored and lazy, here I come, no dignity
Who knew a man’s fate was such a hard thing to find
To fame and fire, to dame and dandy,
Here I come, bored and lazy, here I come, no dignity,
Yea, take a chance, roll them bones.
A piece from this time last year. Little Halloween history poem for y’all…
The Marriage of Samhain and Pomona
I stumbled through all that fall foliage
To perform my duty as the last druid
And wed them before the full moon.
Ceremony aside, I aimed to find
A vampyre or witch to lie with
And send up magick sparks
Next to all those escaping bonfires.
Goal in mind, I was rather taken back
When asked to proceed to the bedding
And assist in some manner personal.
Samhain, brute he be
Wrapped me in his crimson arms
And asked this favor of me,
Bed Pomona in place of he.
She was too foreign a taste
A bitter little drink,
not what he wanted in a wife.
For her part, Samhain told me
This was her idea,
She did not want his stains on her robe
Nor the wild in her.
Thrice I declined, and thrice
They pushed and pulled,
Groping hands moving in waves
The moans of our lovemaking
Sent the beasts into a frenzy,
Such divinations I’ve never seen
As when Samhain forced Pomona on me.
They stuck an apple in my mouth
And a spit through my back,
Let a fire take the mattress
What a feast, at the midnight wedding
What beasts, my vampyre and witch
What release, this consumption of my flesh
What an end to the last druid priest.
Do you remember that summer
On the coast
When we walked on grey pebbles
And you didn’t ever wear shoes
Preferring to develop calluses and wounds
And leak blood into the Pacific
Do you remember that summer we spent
Washing whale bones
And you tried to teach me
Arabic phrases?
I know your secret now
All those stolen tongues
We stood in place We ran into each wave
Watching the sunrise and I held you under
Watching the sunset The current for too long
And when it vanished we cause I never learned to say no
Dug up the shoreline and you called it refreshing,
To see what it left behind offered to do the same for me
Do you remember how the car
Choked and coughed
When we forced it up that hill
The one with overgrown firs
And all the turnouts
To catch a glimpse of bathing deities
Do you remember that look on your father’s face
When I brought you home late
Smelling of beer and raspberry stains
In your hair, our only excuse
Was that we were both Leos
Do you remember that summer
We stood in place
Smelling of beer and raspberry stained
And you didn’t wear shoes
And made me say things like
Ana Bahebak Ya Amar
Cause I never learned to say no.
What’s all the hoopla?
Appaloosas and strawberry roans
roam in beauty while
water vixens transform
but live only in the Puget Sound. Continue reading
Tea for you and coffee for me
before we slouched up the street and
discovered boots and parasol
by the Greek Orthodox Church
on Sixth Street. Continue reading
For the second group poem, we had the same rules as the first time but we passed the piece of paper around twice instead of just once. At the end, we recorded Nate reading it. I’d recommend listening to it as you read it. 🙂 Continue reading
I had a poetry reading at my house last night and someone suggested that we play a game where we would write a group poem. We folded up some paper and passed it around the circle. Each person was able to see the line that was written before them and then they wrote their own line. Once each person had written a line, I read the result. Check it out: Continue reading
