Phillysound on FANZINE

There is a Phillysound feature on FANZINE out. It is curated by CA Conrad and hosted by Thom Donovan. I think FANZINE is a really super site and Conrad and Thom have done an amazing job on the feature.

Here are my poems in the section. The first poem can be found in my chapbook, Tourmaline, put out recently by the great Transmission Press.

Tourmalines are very important to me. Sometimes I think about and look endlessly at pictures of watermelon tourmalines online. I have a necklace of them too, but I never wear it. I don't know why, but it is something about it being too powerful. Because tourmalines can come in so many colors, there is no way to ever get one clear, singular view of a piece of one and thus, in its raw forms, it is forever an image of simultaneity, in some ways too duality. To me, God and the world, the self and the world, are always in a state of togetherness and simultaneity. Even nothingness is always in state of oneness with somethingness, which is why people who believe in complete nothingness are wrong. The world is futile always just as it is meaningful, and so forth--spirit and object consistently and constantly circling one being (see quotations and poem below, and also the grey cat video). Of all the magical rocks in the universe, tourmalines might be my favorite.

Anyway, I digress, but I do hope you will check out the great Phillysound poems up on FANZINE today. I don't think any of them have to do with tourmalines.

Duality, outside and in

"Word's a sentence before it's a word."
--Ron Silliman

"What in this world
Keep us from tearing apart
No matter where I go I hear
The beating of your heart
I think about you
When the night is cold and dark
No one can move me
The way that you do
Nothing erases the feeling between me and you"
--Cyndi Lauper

"“Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them”
--L.S. Vygotsky

“He who gets nearer the sun is leader, the aristocrat of aristocrats, or he who, like Dostoievsky, gets nearest the moon of our non-being.”
--D.H. Lawrence

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them

--D.H. Lawrence

Duslo falls asleep

Skin

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SKIN!"
--Bhanu Kapil

"And there was a booming above you
That night, black airplanes flew over the sea
And they were lowing and shifting like
Beached whales
Shelled snails
As you strained and you squinted to see
The retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry

You froze in your sand shoal
Prayed for your poor soul
Sky was a bread roll, soaking in a milk-bowl
And when the bread broke, fell in bricks of wet smoke
My sleeping heart woke, and my waking heart spoke

Then there was a silence you took to mean something:
Mean, run, sing
For alive you will evermore be
And the plague of the greasy black engines a-skulkin'
Has gone east
While you're left to explain them to me
Released from their hairless and blind cavalry

With your hands in your pockets, stubbily running
To where I'm unfresh, undressed and yawning
Well, what is this craziness? This crazy talking?
You caught some small death when you were sleepwalking

It was a dark dream, darlin', it's over
The firebreather is beneath the clover
Beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever
A toothless hound-dog choking on a feather

But I took my fishingpole (fearing your fever)
Down to the swimminghole, where there grows bitter herb
That blooms but one day a year by the riverside - I'd bring it here:
Apply it gently
To the love you've lent me

While the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed
And the string sobbed, as it cut through the hustling breeze
And I watched how the water was kneading so neatly
Gone treacly
Nearly slowed to a stop in this heat
- frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath

Press on me: we are restless things
Webs of seaweed are swaddling
You call upon the dusk
Of the musk of a squid
Shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib

Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes
I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it!
Smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened
Smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking

And when the fire moves away
Fire moves away, son
Why would you say
I was the last one?

Scrape your knee; it is only skin
Makes the sound of violins
When you cut my hair, and leave the birds the trimmings
I am the happiest woman among all women"

--Joanna Newsom, "Only Skin"

$10 student rate to adopt an endangered sloth!

The evercaring Jason Z. just told me about an agency that rescues endangered sloths. For just $10 (a student rate) you can adopt a sloth! Here is the information: Save a Sloth

So, for $10, this is what you get in addition to saving a sloth:

"Package includes:
* 8X10 color photo of the sloth you will be adopting.
* Color information card about the type, and a personal history of your sloth.
* 8X111/2 Sloth Adoption Certificate.
* Annual issue of the 'Buttercup Newsletter'.
* individual wallet size photo cards of adoptive sloth with student's name."

Sloths are pretty fucking awesome in my view. If you don't believe me, then watch this video:

Cool baby sloth

Isn't it great how they put their arms over and under like that?

And then look at this video: Another cool baby sloth video

I love the sloth named Taz in that one.

This video made me sad when I watched it, especially for the first 40 seconds: Swimming sloth video

I don't think that sloth meant to be swimming. I think he was lost. He looked like me when I haven't eaten all day and am wandering around H&M. Anyway, it is nice when they save the sloth and bring him to a tree. (Sorry to give it away if you haven't watched the whole thing yet.)

Anyway, everyone should adopt a sloth.

Look What I Can Do Animals

This is my favorite toy artist of all time: Look What I Can Do

This is her Etsy shop: Browse and buy beautiful animals

And this is her great blog

I found out about her through looking at the pics from one of my favorite blogs ever: Bits and Bobbins

Oh, I am so glad I found out about her.

I am going to go look at her creatures now and dream of a room filled with them. Now that would be a great room for a poetry reading.

None of it matters

None of it matters, lost one
In the world
None of it matters
I went from water to waterfall
Green world to red world
I went from a world full of deer
To a world full of bears
The tissued world
To a world that was off set
I set the curtains
They said, Set the curtains
So I set the curtains
I spent August in bed
In the same clothes
I kept on the same clothes
For ten weeks
I changed my outfits
Five times a day
And no one listened
I got lost, I got found again
I was always lost
I will always be lost
I will never win at this game
I will never
Be the speaking thing they made me to be
I am not pronouns
Nor am I all of them
I am no I
I wander
And it doesn’t matter
I stay the course
I am a star-filled night
Among the unforgivable
I live within a grey world
Within a pretty one
Within one they made for me
I help you find your books
I made the books
I made them, world I held within me
It was no help
I looked at the world with dark eyes
In front of a grey house
I was always lost
In that house
I was always lost, a zero
Am I lost for good?
Shoot I don’t know
Mathematical laundress
Of the forgotten egret
I am
Glue me to ten sheets of paper
So that my skin sticks upon them
Write six blue letters upon my skin
I am all object
Throw me around the sky
And I will glisten, a red ball
Floating over buildings and boats
And the sun itself
Hang me on the moon
I am funny-shaped so far away
Stick me where the bunnies go
Let me lay there with them
And those awful ears upon me
Who knows within them
The secrets I will tell

Fight the Smears site

This is a great site: Obama's Fight the Smears site.

Check it out and spread the word.

I love these pandas

I love this story

This is so beautiful: picture of a long love
Another picture of them

Article on Poets on Painters

There is a great new article on Travis Nichols and Katie Geha's Poets on Painters project out today.

Click here to read the article.

Cast embedments in Clear Resin

I could watch this all day.

Leonard Cohen Hallelujah (Style is joy!)

Hey, hey, hey:
Style is joy!

"You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"

Kate Bush-Wuthering Heights

"Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away."

Kate Bush - Sat in Your Lap

"Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap.
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho-ho.

I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a scholar.
But I really can't be bothered.
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!

Some say that knowledge is ho ho ho.
Some say that knowledge is ho ho ho.
Some say that heaven is hell.
Some say that hell is heaven.

I must admit, just when I think I'm king,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit,
(I just begin.)
Just when I think everything's going great,
(I just begin,)
Hey, I get the break,
Hey, I'm gonna take it all--
(I just begin.)
When I'm king--
(-- just begin.)"

Stevie Nicks - Rooms On Fire

Always, this will always be my favorite song.

"Lovestoned," Justin Timberlake

Those flashing lights come from everywhere
The way they hit her I just stop and stare
She's got me love stoned
I think I'm love stoned
She's got me love stoned

I think that she knows, think that she knows, oh, oh
I think that she knows, think that she knows, oh, oh


Those flashing lights come from everywhere
The way they hit her I just stop and stare
I'm love stoned from everywhere and she knows
I think that she knows
Think that she knows, oh, oh

And now I walk around without a care
She's got me hooked
It just ain't fair, but I...
I'm love stoned and I could swear
That she knows
Think that she knows, oh, oh
She knows, she knows, oh, oh

CAConrad's (Soma)tic Poetry Exercises

CA Conrad's new Wolf Recording exercise on his (Soma)tic Poetry exercises page is just amazing! Check it out: Conrad's poetry exercises

Within the exercise, he asks the following questions of us: "How do you fit into the world you see? How you do not fit into the world? Wolves worry about such things all the time, making certain to understand where they fit."
These are really important questions to answer while you are writing a poem.

Also, I think the instincts and ideas behind his creation of the page are wondrous--to give exercises "free to everyone who want to write some poetry." There needs to be more pages like this. And until there are, I am so glad that CA Conrad continues to do his great and generous work. It is just what this world needs.

Also, I love this song: Lovestoned
Whenever I get to 3:30 in the song, I think of a woman all dressed up like a black butterfly gracefully dancing through Justin Timberlake's city streets.

Weird Deer has Deadpan today

Check out Weird Deer today for some of my Deadpan collaboration with Thom Donovan.

Memorizing things

I am working on an ongoing poetry/dance collaboration with Kathryn TeBordo, the most recent iteration of which will be a duet poetry/dance duet this Saturday in Philadelphia. Anyway, yesterday we were working on the thing and especially practicing memorizing the poems, so that we could say them in unison while dancing. And while memorizing with her, I realized that it has been a long time since I have memorized anything. Long ago, in 9th grade Latin class, I memorized declension endings with a kind of urgent passion I can still remember. I like to memorize things, like poems and lyrics to songs, because to me knowing means truly knowing if there is a drive to do so. The act of memorizing the poems with Kathryn made me think about how in schools it used to be quite customary for students to memorize poems and how this is basically a practice out of favor now (or one that has no space in most struggling public schools). Still, the experiential act of memorizing the constructed words of the poems yesterday was especially magical to me and worth noting here. In a poem, there is a space (and I mean space, as there are spatial relations in a poem's syntax) that one can walk through while reading. It is a deliberate space, as any piece of writing is. But more so than any other writing, a poem makes most obvious the object relations of words to themselves and to the world around them. When one puts in the work of memorizing poems, they become more in tune with the material state of words, their specific and magical states within specific poems. This is good. Schools should do more of this, but not in the way that they do so now. Now so, schools test memory by simple binary relationships of questions to right answers (I am thinking of NCLB testing most specifically). The right answer is simply the construction of things that are beautiful. Once you begin to know that, you can know anything. Or more so, you are well on your way to knowing.

Now memorize this song: I Just Want to Love You video because it is good.

Can I Get A...