Snap Opera

2/17

2010-02-17T19:11:00.003-07:00

Some say your eyes are charcoal Georgia

some say siren some djinn

I don't say Georgia

it isn't for me

I don't have a bone in my body

the unquick have a habit of loitering Georgia

a bad one I willn't say otherwise

it seems to get them through alright

don't know what they see in it

as if they're awake what is wakefulness Georgia

with the silencer on what is silence Georgia

someone around here will know Georgia

somebody ought to know something

The house next door has gone tattletale gray

its chimney a jigsaw of mortar and frost

threadbare nay barren

crash tested Georgia

rapunzeling up on a fidgety draft

the pine straw to flicker and parry

and the eglantine to wither Georgia

and snowflakes tatter the shutters Georgia

like flak from a showdown in Kelvin air

"L'attente commence quand il n'y a..." Georgia

"...plus rien a attendre, ni meme la fin de l'attente"

that nothing come between us Georgia

but me

and you

and the hollow between

I prune your buds

unbutton my ribs

pot you inside like a bonsai Georgia

buddha napping in tiny shade

buddha at rest with an almsgiving bowl

it's ailment vs. ailment Georgia

I won't let you go it alone

you and your poor man's briar patch

and your ne'er-do-well well well

Heat lightning daubs the collodion hills

and a howling

and how close

how close to the bone does it get Georgia

-Andrew Zawacki
Petals of Zero
Petals of One

(buy this book)

2/13

2010-02-13T20:30:00.002-07:00

If Not, Not

They tell each other stories,
lies composed as dreams and
always in the colors of
dreams: rust, chrome yellow, coral,
chemical green. Of the dying
figures, loosely assembled, by a
riverbank. The gatehouse. A journey
by train through beautiful countryside,
indescribable countryside. I was there
cut in half, only to
survive. A young dancer, standing
at the third-floor window. Cobalt
blue, argentine, bone white. What
we called that hour in
those days. He means to
say that on that same
hill Goethe and Eckermann would
sometimes walk. "Always the old
story, always the old bed
of the sea!" He means
to say, The music of
moths, the small lamps. She
stares from the window on
the third floor, toward the
square below. He says, These
are yellow-hammers and sparrows, but
there are no larks. Come
Whitsuntide, the mockingbird and the
yellow thrush will arrive. Here
at the heart, a small
pond, stagnant in the shadow
of smoke. The late flowers.

-Michael Palmer

1/15/10

2010-02-02T22:09:00.003-07:00

the metronome of a plank

fallen house

on top of Walt Whitman trail

wanting to go to a body of water

I stub my toe on a door knob

you have to think

people’s bodies spread

out by root growth

medium sized evergreen

proof of some abandonment occurring

much like this pond

can’t get through to us

moving water couldn’t be louder

7/5-8/16

2009-09-04T22:47:00.004-06:00

7/4

2009-08-30T23:02:00.002-06:00

7/3

2009-08-27T22:40:00.002-06:00

7/1

2009-08-27T22:39:00.002-06:00

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2009-06-27T10:48:00.002-06:00

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2009-06-27T10:46:00.001-06:00

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2009-06-27T09:59:00.002-06:00

6/20

2009-06-26T15:47:00.002-06:00

6/19

2009-06-23T01:18:00.003-06:00

6/12

2009-06-23T01:17:00.003-06:00

The ethics of dust

to think I have written this poem before
to think to say the reason I came here
sound of yard bird, clinking lightbulb

to think the world has lasted this long

what were we hoping to say:
ailanthus, rosebud, gable
saturnalia, moonglow, remember

I am on the other side now
have crossed the river, have
through much difficulty
come to you from a dormer closet
head full of dark
my voice in what you say

at this moment you say
wind through stone, through teeth
through falling sheets, flapping geese

every thing is poetry here

a vast blank fronting the eyes
more sparkling than sun on brick
October's crossing-guard orange

6/10

2009-06-23T01:16:00.003-06:00

6/5

2009-06-23T01:14:00.001-06:00

5/31

2009-06-01T11:15:00.003-06:00

I have a poem in this young, supple issue of Jellyfish. Other highlights include everyone.

5/12

2009-05-13T09:19:00.002-06:00

5/6

2009-05-13T09:18:00.002-06:00

5/4

2009-05-04T13:05:00.003-06:00

My Grandmother's Love Letters

There are no stars to-night
But those of memory.
Yet how much room for memory there is
In the loose girdle of soft rain.

There is even room enough
For the letters of my mother's mother,
Elizabeth,
That have been pressed so long
Into a corner of the roof
That they are brown and soft,
And liable to melt as snow.

Over the greatness of such space
Steps must be gentle.
It is all hung by an invisible white hair.
It trembles as birch limbs webbing the air.

And I ask myself:

"Are your fingers long enough to play
Old keys that are but echoes:
Is the silence strong enough
To carry back the music to its source
And back to you again
As though to her?"

Yet I would lead my grandmother by the hand
Through much of what she would not understand;
And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roof
With such a sound of gently pitying laughter.

-Hart Crane

4/12

2009-04-13T13:26:00.002-06:00

4/10

2009-04-11T14:15:00.003-06:00

I have a poem featured this weekend on Ink Node. Check it out, friends!

4/3

2009-04-11T14:14:00.002-06:00

3/18

2009-04-11T14:13:00.001-06:00

3/12

2009-03-12T21:30:00.002-06:00

2/22

2009-02-22T13:13:00.002-07:00

2/15

2009-02-16T21:47:00.005-07:00

2/14

2009-02-16T21:47:00.002-07:00

2/12

2009-02-16T21:46:00.002-07:00

2/10

2009-02-16T21:45:00.001-07:00

1/29

2009-01-30T20:11:00.002-07:00

Check out Tom "Candy Store" Raworth. He reads fast as huckleberry hard rock candy!

1/19

2009-01-21T23:54:00.003-07:00

"The Incredible Beauty of the Physical World." Repeat to
dissolve. Repeat: "I did not see any color that resembled."
Mean: I did not see, not I, I wasn't the one. You could
watch. The sky has no color now but balances and some-
one dives off a bridge so gracefully. Suddenly. It's night.
He or she surfaces, the buoyancy of the body, brilliantly,
it flickers and shines, it practically flies and it's all back
together again. You wouldn't have survived. You'd have
choked on your own shock and ruined everything.

-Cole Swensen

1/15

2009-01-21T23:52:00.005-07:00

1/7

2009-01-21T23:52:00.002-07:00

1/1

2009-01-21T23:47:00.003-07:00

12/30

2009-01-21T23:46:00.002-07:00

12/25

2009-01-21T23:45:00.002-07:00

12/15

2009-01-21T23:44:00.005-07:00

12/3

2009-01-21T23:44:00.002-07:00

12/2

2008-12-02T00:27:00.002-07:00

11/30

2008-12-02T00:20:00.003-07:00

The Emperor of Ice Cream

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal.
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

11/25

2008-12-02T00:19:00.002-07:00

11/22

2008-12-02T00:18:00.002-07:00

11/16

2008-11-16T16:18:00.004-07:00

Thank you, I'm preparing a cyclone
to make my girlfriend's eyes laugh.
It's easy for her to fear nothing
you have to scare her
to not be afraid...
Under normal circumstances
I go dog hunting
in the plains
where the prairie crabs
have stopped going to mass!
My girlfriend spits on the ground
and that's all there is to it.

from I Am A Beautiful Monster by Francis Picabia

11/1

2008-11-02T21:15:00.014-07:00

O what's the weather in a Beard?
It's windy there, and rather weird,
And when you think the sky has cleared

-- Why, there is Dirty Dinky.

Suppose you walk out in a Storm,
With nothing on to keep you warm,
And then step barefoot on a Worm

-- Of course, it's Dirty Dinky.

As I was crossing a hot hot Plain,
I saw a sight that caused me pain,
You asked me before, I'll tell you again:

-- It looked like Dirty Dinky.

Last night you lay a-sleeping?
No! The room was thirty-five below;
The sheets and blankets turned to snow.

-- He'd got in: Dirty Dinky.

You'd better watch the things you do,
You'd better watch the things you do.
You're part of him; he's part of you

-- You may be Dirty Dinky.

10/23

2008-10-23T22:11:00.002-06:00

It's the end of October! Beans is coming tomorrow! I feel like the Great Bambino!

10/17

2008-10-23T21:29:00.003-06:00

Finding the time for many receipt, as, consolidating many to one, times harden. That is difficult. Compose, be calm. Theft takes a steady hand, and patience. How many are you, hear me?

Neverminding what's said, is intransitive implies you. Take my advice. Questions, toasts, confessions, suggestions...lead. To me. Look at it from my point of view. From consensus hums like a house, or other pleasant-sounding logic, always plain. Get by the neck and think it.

Remember my days in what show fluid. I anticipate yours, suggest a beat. Look at yourself. An agreement we rewrite. My currency in yours, grace.

We are concerned
each
with you on your flight
art accustomed to one moment
only me. That you have committed
act independently,
redundantly to yourself.

Strength
a prayer work fecundate
alone, a footprint, two
won't hear. We send
slip into an envelope conceived
outside our text's
necessary reference.

Photo by G.G. Bain and from Gil Ott's Public Domain

10/4

2008-10-04T22:52:00.015-06:00

You ask of my Companions Hills--Sir--and the Sundown--and a Dog--large as myself, that my Father bought me--They are better than Beings--because they know--but do not tell--and the noise in the Pool, at Noon--excels my Piano. I have a Brother and Sister--My Mother does not care for thought--and Father, too busy with his Briefs--to notice what we do--He buys me many Books--but begs me not to read them--because he fears they joggle the Mind. They are religious--except me--and address an Eclipse, every morning--whom they call their "Father." But I fear my story fatigues you--I would like to learn--Could you tell me how to grow--or is it unconveyed--like Melody--or Witchcraft?

10/1

2008-09-29T15:15:00.002-06:00

9/30

2008-09-29T15:14:00.002-06:00

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9/23

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9/22

2008-09-23T15:05:00.002-06:00

Whistlepig of the yard, Huitzilopochtli

9/21

2008-09-23T14:59:00.001-06:00

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2008-09-22T22:29:00.002-06:00

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2008-07-15T21:07:00.001-06:00

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2008-07-15T16:37:00.001-06:00

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2008-06-08T23:34:00.002-06:00

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2008-06-08T23:33:00.002-06:00

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2008-05-12T18:06:00.002-06:00

5/12

2008-05-08T18:09:00.004-06:00

Well Again

5/11

2008-05-08T18:09:00.002-06:00

5/10

2008-05-08T18:08:00.003-06:00

5/9

2008-05-08T18:06:00.003-06:00

5/8

2008-05-08T14:02:00.001-06:00

2/27

2008-02-26T19:56:00.001-07:00