the michelle mana special

a.

i'm afraid there's some
bad news, sweety

your stomach is
no longer with us

if it would make
you feel better

we could have a
ceremony

in the back yard
and bury it

next to the
dead goldfish

then we can try
to build you

a new one

b.

the wrath of a small person
is bigger than you'd think

when she wants pancakes,
stay out of her way.

c.

she makes it with her hands
and it has no eyes.

she names it bunny
but it looks like a rabbit.

d.

long day grrrr
short day uurg

in a little pink coat
and big black hair

with keys to her desk
the boss messes it up

she would fire him
if not for the soy

that sooths her

eukaphite

a.

if i bury you here
if i could

i would forget
the shape of your feet

and the way you look
smug at me

b.

i could be your anchor
your emotional anchor

c.

you hurt the ground one more time
and i'll...

you hurt me one more time
and i'll..

if i can't stop loving you
at least i can bury you here

if i could

where have i been?

everywhere but here.

i miss this place... but i don't have any poetry in me at the moment... haven't for... what? months?

maybe over the next week... since i have a few days off. but no promises. you might just get more pictures of rowdy and jack.

i drew a picture...

it happened last night...



those shoes look like potatoes with hair. like dragon potatoes with hair.

hockey time

ryan and i went to see the boston bruins play the canadiENS last night with a group of people from ryan's work. the bruins won 3-1 *yay!*

there were a *ton* of canadians there all loud and red and shouty. they came down in bus loads from montreal to support their team in a make or break match-up. i felt for them, having sat on a bus for 7 hours to watch their team lose to the most chilled out sports fans i've ever come across (the bruins fans ohhed and aahhed but were relatively quiet, at least compared to the canadians and every british person to ever go to a football match (soccer) and my parents and me when i watch wrestling).

i don't usually watch hockey... i don't watch hockey ever. but, it got pretty exciting. and they broke out into quite a few brawls. lots of players got put into time out. it was something like 7 canadiENS and 3 bruins by the end of the game.

sausage is sacred

jack the cat looks like a real sweetheart, doesn't he? so you wouldn't have guessed he'd gone mad over sausage...


the other night ryan made jambalya for dinner. rice, sausage, spices, etc. we'd eaten our fill and put the plate we'd been eating off together on the floor so that the kitties could have a sniff and have a bit of what was left if they liked.

jack got there first. he got a peice of sausage in his mouth... it was sticking out mostly (because he's a kitty and he's got a little mouth). rowdy approached, and all of a sudden jack takes a defensive stance. his but was in the air, his front legs set to pounce and his tail got all fluffy.

then we hear...
ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
gggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
ggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrr.

rowdy backs off. i would have too... if i wasn't so busy laughing.

jack *really* likes sausage. so much so that he doesn't want anyone else to ever have any ever.

eventually... after he was sure no one would follow him or else he'd bite their toes off, he rushed to the kitchen (we were eating in the living room) and chowed down on his sdelicious sausage.

a kitten's life

we got the kittens' paper work the other day and found out Rowdy's birthday, which is November 13th! we practically share a birthday. and Jack's birthday is still a mystery, but we're going to celebrate him in July, like, all July.
they had their first visit to the vet too, this week past. Rowdy's taken some medicine for his booger-mania sneeze-inducing infection. Jack's got a clean bill of health, but really dirty ears ^_^ enjoy the pictures!

Yuckelbel's List

finding poets, we're hunting for a stone
the one that will save us from the touch

the silence can't take us back
the third or the west in the road

and a man, honest and lost in black
the vertigo of wars and shining

our warrior at the ark, beyond the empire
anticipates the falcon and the rain




source poem: from Russell's List

te amo lucha libre

ryan and i are currently watching AAA and it is teh most freakin' awesomest thing on television ever. i love mexican wrestlers. they are completely mad. and they have "mini stars"!!!! we watched one of the mini luchadores break his neck (well, it looked like he broke his neck anyway).

here's some glorious pictures from the *official* aaa website

how can you not love them after just seeing their pictures? imagine how much you'd like them if you actually saw them in action? will find youtubage later on... something for you to look forward to ^_^

chicken police

the chickens of vienna
wear their blues with pride



thank you youtube, for all the silly things.

movie meme

am wasting time here, because it's friday and i want to.

craig, yep, him again, tagged me with this meme.

the objective: to list my top 15 fav films in no particular order.

here it is:

1. slither
2. GMK (Godzilla, Mothera and KingGadora)
3. the fog (carpenter original with kurtis and atkins)
4. alien
5. clerks 2
6. goonies
7. day of the dead
8. the happiness of the katakuris
9. eraserhead
10. space mutiny (MST3K version)
11. shark attack 3: megaladon (!!!!!!!)
12. fong sai-yuk (I and II, 'cause his mom is awesome!)
13. phantasm (which one had the pink herse? 3?)
14. dellamorte dellamore
15. hitchhicker's guide to the galaxy

as for tagging... michelle, you up for a meme? ashraf? russell? glenn? kate? memes are fun. ^_^ see!

the pinkerton bird song

this for a damsel
but forgiving the distress

for a motive
but the lack

of a blue feather
stitched to her side

in the wake
of green murder

and of a mother's final
ambition crushed

by the pinkerton bird
and a passing mail train

9(.24)

craig and i have been translating since, oh, early november (i think the first actual translation happened for halloween). craig's been awesome about trying to get the translations out via online zines and such. the first success comes by way of a little press called zafusy. the poem is craig's 9(.24). like i told him, i'm proud of him. he's been doing all the leg work, so he deserves the spot and a pat on the back. he's a fabulous poet and fabulous person, so go check out his work!

jack & rowdy

ryan and i went to a place just over the bridge (otherside of the cape cod canal) to look at some kitties. we'd both been feeling the want and need for a new friend, especially after losing maxerodenfoe (who we have back now, in his little cedar box, he had some orange bones). so we go to this place, a no-kill shelter (which means they never kill a cat because of an illness) and filled out an adoption application. these papers usually take 3-4 days to process--the idea is to make sure that the people adopting won't let the cats outside or have them de-clawed or do anything mean to them.

we thought we'd just go look at a few, see what they had for little kitties. we didn't have anything in mind really.

we saw one little guy in particular that we liked, but he needs a friend because he gets scared when he's left alone. there were two other kitties we liked, so we opted for two--whichever would be a better match for the little fella we liked most.

we left, went to subway for some lunch and got a call from the lady at the shelter about 20 minutes after we'd left to say that we'd been approved and that this one particular kitty with a sensitive eye (who we liked a lot) would make a good partner for the previously mentioned little guy.

we went home and got the house kitty-ready (food out, litter boxes filled, etc), picked up the carrier and made sure it was alright with ryan's parents that we get two kittens instead of the planned one and off we went back to the shelter.

the lady said that she knew from the moment we walked in that we'd be good for any of the cats and that she'd called her supervisor and told her that she didn't want to lose us and wanted us to have these two kitties (we'd told her all about max and his struggle, so she knew we'd do anything for our pets, and i think that was the most important attribute in a pet owner as far as this shelter was concerned). they were really nice people who really care about putting these saved cats in good homes where they will be safe and happy.

and so... i introduce to you jack and rowdy:

jack (7mnths), with squidgy right eye (he needs medicine for it when it gets inflamed) and loves to be picked up and cuddled



and rowdy (5mnths), a little pudgy and a lot rowdy; doesn't like to be left alone and doesn't like to be carried around or held too much

we've been having a good time getting to know them. they make me think of max a lot... they're both mostly orange... completely unplanned, but it's hard not to be reminded of max when i see them. they're so different and lovable. it's a happy place here again. oh, and i have three catfish too, who seem to be doing alright ^_^

at the width

(and without concern)

some beauty at the pin-fold
or a subtle remark

at the dinner table
after the proliferates

have been served and banked
to us as the markers

of a function or code
or warrant for the return

of modernity and the birth
of annotated desire.

of my golden right

my heart around this golden charm
her affection, my pomegranate foundation

her superstitions protocol fastened
to my front, a beacon to her waving

of my golden age, to begin here
at the base of a twine knot at my back

where she pinched, the gentle touch
and my need to cry and laugh and purge.


thank you dina

bottle caps, by ashraf
because when he couldn't write it, i stepped in.
he's done the same for me in this difficult moment.
thank you so much dear.

*****

tribute, by danielle
thank you bella, for the picture and the comments.
for the smile your memories offered me.
you're a sweetheart.

the legacy of maxerodenfoe

yep, the only not-quite-ten-months-old kitten with a legacy; that's our max.

today, at 5pm, we brought our little orange kitten to the vet for his very last visit. he hissed and growled as usual. we told him before we went that he was allowed to put up a fight and that we'd be proud of him if he did. so he did. ryan has a brand new little cut on his left hand.

we also showed him the box that my dog denny lives in so he could see what he'll look like when he comes back home in a few days. as of tomorrow some one from an organization called Angel will come pick him up from the vet and he'll be cremated and stored in a nice little wooden box.

we're sad. there's a void on the sofa behind me where, if he were well enough, max would have been sat waiting to walk over the keyboard and bring up the internet explorer help window or make the search bar disappear. he was very skilled at computer ness. did i ever tell you about his google search for mining equipment? yeah. he opened the browser window himself and everything. of course, we couldn't afford the $97,000.00 water purifying pump he wanted.


we're sad, yes. but we're also (at least i am, i guess i shouldn't speak for ryan) happy. happy that we had the pleasure of knowing max. for his affection. and for being given the opportunity to add two awesome months to his way-too-short life. ryan said, and it might sound corny but it made me smile, how could a light that burned so brightly have lasted any longer?

that's our max. the brightest bulb on the tree. (not because he ate all the other bulbs either... although he did eat one....)

we're really going to miss him. my blog might even miss him. hardyf had told me, not too long ago in fact, that he felt as though max were sitting next to him at his computer because there are so many pictures of him up here. sorry if i bogged you down with them, but i was so proud to have him as a best friend for as long as i did. he kept me company on the days i spent home alone or even just the few hours between when i would get home from work and ryan. he was always around to chat with and full of fun and surprises.

hopefully, though, there will be a new addition to the acheson family home. his name will be Rowdy (after wrestler and legend Rowdy Roddy Piper--who had the same cancer as max, in fact, and was diagnosed within the same month--as a way of honoring max and a legend ryan and i are both rather fond up and hopefully meeting in march when we go to texas for a convention thing).


we don't know what rowdy will be like. we're not expecting anything of him either. ah, except we hope he's rowdy. ryan says he wants him to break stuff. all kittens break something. max chewed through ryan's $30 headset cable, for example.

so... this is max's last post. maybe not the last time you hear me go on about max (but i'm not going to do a whole post about the box max comes home in), because he's had that great an impact on both ryan and i.

but this is the last post with max in the tag i think.

with the most love i can offer, to maxerodenfoe, my sweet little orange demon, i love you, i'll miss you, but most of all i'll always remember you with a smile.


.

bad timing

it isn't as if i don't have enough on my mind at the moment... trying to learn 50 students' names, my freakin' phone's screen doesn't work so i can't do anything but answer it and dial old fashioned stylee (all my contacts are written on a piece of paper), and what with max as sick as he is...

as you can imagine, i'm a bit of a mess right now.

then, on top of all that, mr beeblebrox has to kick the proverbial bucket. we flushed him from the upstairs toilet because it's way too cold to go out and bury him next to wibble.

so now the fish tank is empty and the filter is off and it's too quiet here. i have no idea how i managed to lose one of the most hardy fish on the planet...

'tis not a good day in katy land.

the lasting max

max and i had a sad visit with the vet on friday. instead of having his regular chemo treatment, he had some blood drawn and a new xray taken. his xray looks exactly the same as the one taken two and a half months earlier when he was first diagnosed with lymphoma--except for the fact that he's about twice the size now as he was then, incredibly enough.

the thought is, that, perhaps he had that other kind of cancer that's untreatable, since the spot in his chest is still there. if that's the case, then we're curious as to how he got as better as he did and so quickly.

the vet was choked up and near to tears when she told me that she wished she had some good news for me.

max is not taking any more medicine. he doesn't need to, because it's not working any more.

i asked the vet if he's in any pain. she assured me that, no, he is not. but as soon as he takes a turn from the worst... starts vomiting or gasping for breathe, then we need to take him in to have him put to rest.

i was told, "maybe weeks". i don't think he's going to last that long though... he's not had anything to eat or drink since yesterday morning when he shared some honey nut cheerios with me.

we knew when we started his treatment in late november that he would not last forever. i was hoping he'd have made it all the way through his treatment (another 12 weeks), but we weren't even certain the chemo would do anything for him.

in the end, we are so grateful for the 2 full, healthy, happy months we were able to add onto his too-short little life. if he makes it until feb 12th, he'll be a full ten months old.

no, we'll never get to see how big he would have gotten (i think he would have been a big cat, what with his loooong legs and looooonger tourso and tail, and those big ears and really big eyes). but other than that, ryan and i have been through so much with max. so many memorable moments and little life lessons... as many as any life time, as long or as short, could wish for.

he helped us build our kitchen over the summer. he ate strange things, and i will think of him every time i open a bottle of water. he, even now, is lying down a kitty arm's reach away from one of his many bottle caps. it's going to be really hard to pick them all up... i'm not sure what i'll do with them all.

for all of you who have been with max since we got him, since he was diagnosed... it's couple hundred times harder for us right now. but, we're okay.

max is sleeping, resting. he's pawing his bottle cap and watching my little brother play super mario on the tv. he's been following me to bed and then downstairs for the day. he even meowed once this morning.

... i guess the next post with max in the title will be the last...

(((((maxerodenfoe)))))

wish upon

i wish i could put this cd of pictures
___in the player in my car

and listen to what you look like.

our max

michelle took some beautiful pictures of maxerodenfoe a few weekends back and has put one, as well as a little tribute, up on her blog.
thanks michelle!

i guess an update on max's cancer condition is about due...

he's been doing really really well. we had, as you have seen, a wonderful christmas. unfortunately for our little orange wonder he's started to get sick again. the vet called yesterday to check up on him... from his blood test results she fears that his lymphoma may be coming out of remission. he's eating and drinking, but he's not been playful the past few days. he's sleeping a lot and not jumping around... a lot like when he got sick the first time around... before we knew what was wrong.

i'm hoping, after his xray and blood work and maybe chemo on friday afternoon, we'll know more and have a new path for his treatment.

here's hoping for the best.

((((max))))

adventure time!

still ringing

thanks billy!!

on the way to the heart

let her be
the thorn in your side

the tundra
and your decline

fall asleep
in the jungle

with your shoelaces
dutifully untied

and her hair
unraveling your dreams

to a kiss
of such magnitude

of such
a repugnant dissonance

or a riddle
you heard the answer to first

when she asks you
for the perfect question

a message from Nate @ H_NGM_N

Boys & Girls—

H_NGM_N #6 goes live today!

http://www.h-ngm-n.com

Featuring:

Poems from Katy Acheson • Anonymous • Robyn Art • Daniel Borzutzky • Jessica Bozek • Michael Broder • Laura Cherry • Evan Commander • Mark DeCarteret • Neil de la Flor & Maureen Seaton • Darcie Dennigan • Julie Doxsee • Elisa Gabbert • Matt Hart • Anne Heide • Dan Hoy • Michael Jauchen • Robert Krut • Justin Marks • Clay Matthews • John Pursley III • Mathias Svalina • Joshua Marie Wilkinson • William D. Waltz • Wynn Yarbrough

A special section –THANK YOU, STEVE ORLEN – featuring 2 new poems from
the man, a review of his New & Selected & other contributions by Adrian
Blevins, Laura Cherry, Tony Hoagland, David Rivard & Martha Zweig.

Selection from longer works by Jim Goar, Viola Lee, Brent Pallas & Chris Rizzo.

2 new EP Poets – Philip Jenks & Danielle Pafunda.

Fiction by traci o connor, Jason Ockert & Magdalen Powers.

&

essays & reviews: Tom Dvorske on Anthony McCann • Justin Marks on
Christopher Salerno • Gina Myers on 3 chapbooks • Brett Price on
Richard Meier • Clay Matthews on Ron Padgett & the Postmodern Sublime

All this plus a portfolio of artist Joey Slaughter’s work & some comix
by
Sommer Browning!

http://www.h-ngm-n.com

*

Also today – the launch of COMBATIVES Vol. 1 #3 – a series of exquisite
corpses written by Sarah Lilius & Erin M. Bertram.

http://hngmn.squarespace.com/combatives/

As always, place one paypal order for Vol. 1 #3 & receive 3 copies of the issue.

Because we like you lots & lots.


Thanks,

Nate Pritts, EIC.
H_NGM_N.

got tagged

by craig

rules of this tag is to list 5 unknown factoids about yourself...

1) i watch danger mouse while having breakfast whenever possible.

2) i rock my belt buckle on my left hip instead of front-on 'cause i'm cooler than you and have been since highschool (no offense, you're still pretty cool).

3) i won fourth place in a dog show when i was 9 or 10 or something like that, with my dog denny--a mega-big chocolate lab--who's ashes i have in a cedar box in our living room.

4) i road my bike into a boat (it was parked near the road, not in water) when i was little. i got a black eye and a lollypop shaped like a thumb. ^_^

5) i put holes in socks like it's my job. seriously. ryan doesn't like it when i wear his socks any more.

i tag michelle, ashraf, ozy the man diaz, billy the man mayor of poets101 and russell to the r.

am going on holiday

on my holiday. yes. to Florida for a few days.

if you have a few spare moments, please do indulge in the current issue of the onion union. it's worth a read through at least once. am particularly fond of Ant Sleep, myself.

we could make plans

we could make plans
- and we should -

to visit our neighbors
west of singapore

or build a fort out of
red and blue plastic cups

if you lived

if you lived, a sensible man
with refined, insensible hair

to match and a favorite coat
with not one, but two collars

if you lived, sensible man
i would share my closet with you.

a cup of tea

if you lived in a cup of tea
my meat milk sugar daddy

with heat resistant shorts
and cattle's brands on mugs

pour honey up from outer space
to catch rocket ship sailors

if you lived in a cup of tea
with me and my silver spoon

grains of sugar for teeth
and big pekoe leaf eyes

live happily ever after breakfast
and have a brew before bed

*squee*

i emailed pics of my new bag to ashraf (because he asked and i was going on about it over the weekend) and michelle (because she has one too ^_^ ). i didn't go posting them up here because... well, you probably don't care. ah, but michelle went and put the pics up on her bloggeroo so i might as well lavish in the selfishness of blogdom and *link* to her blog.

How to Give a Cat a Pill

(by ElwoodBluesUK of SAMC2)
this is a response to my telling my friend el, in england, about the episode my mom and max shared. i found it quite funny and thought i'd share with all...

1.. Pick up cat and cradle it in left arm as if holding a baby.
Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and
gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As
cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and
swallow.

2.. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat and
repeat process.

3.. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw soggy pill away.

4.. Take new pill from foil wrap. Cradle cat, holding rear paws
tightly with left hand . Force jaws open and push pill to back of
mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5.. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe.
Call in spouse.

6.. Kneel on floor with cat wedged between knees, hold front and rear
paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head with
one hand while forcing wooden ruler in mouth. Drop pill down ruler
and rub cat's throat.

7.. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap.
Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep
shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side.

8.. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head
just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw,
force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

9.. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans, drink
glass of water to take taste away. Apply plaster to spouse's forearm
and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10.. Retrieve cat from neighbour's shed. Get another pill. Get cat
into cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force
mouth open with a desert spoon. Flick down throat with an elastic
band.

11.. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on
hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for last
tetanus jab. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one.

12.. Ring fire brigade to retrieve cat from tree across the road.
Apologise to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid
cat. Open last pill.

13.. Tie the cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind
tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from
shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak.
Hold head vertically and pour two pints of water down throat to wash
pill down.

14.. Get spouse to drive you to Emergency Room. Sit quietly while
doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pills remnants from
right eye. Call furniture shop on way home. Order new table.

15.. Arrange for RSPCA to collect cat and ring pet shop to see if
they have any hamsters.



How to give a dog a pill:

1.. Wrap it in bacon.

mr.beeblebrox

distant relative to zephod.

mr.beeblebrox is the newest member of the acheson family. he's a three inch pleco with cool stripe effect - they come and go, i haven't worked out what triggers them yet, possibly just camouflage.
am planning on acquiring four tiger barbs a week from today to join mr.beeblebrox in the tank. and am planning on calling them -collectively- the A team ^_^ geekdom all around, i know.

t-rexosaurus

the local waste station
is being protected, don't worry.

the security is tight. with
a mouth full, you can still hear

the growl of the mighty t-rex
as you roll in - in your dilapidated

red pick-up truck - to dispose
of empty paper orange juice boxes and

plastic and styrofoam left overs
from the christmas packages

that you got in the mail by order
thanks to credit cards and santa claus.

rest assured, your junk mail is safe
and your empty whine bottles too -

protected by the meanest looking
foot-tall rubber roto-mold tyrannosaurus

with a deep sea diver between his
mighty paint-chipped jaws of destruction.

spin the bottle

fifteen and you think you know
exactly what you want is her

so you move the bottle after
it's stopped and protested

when called out for cheating
by the one you want to kiss

the one the bottle points to
you said you didn't want to kiss ian

and she believed you and kissed
you almost perfectly with

her perfect lips and her hair
brushing against the side of your face.

peek-a-boo

you can just make out his nose poking out from under the carpet...

the max effect

ryan and i went to philly this weekend past to see ashraf read some of his mighty poetry. we had a fabulous time (thank you dear!!) and got to meet the adorable foxy (ashraf & wojtek's new lady dog friend). it was a rather eventful weekend actually... snuffy caught two mice. one ashraf found dead and one that i took out of snuffy's mouth while it was still wriggling and trying to get away (i think it will be alright). ryan and i had our first taste of proper geno's cheesesteak and tastykakes as well. we visited the new rocky statue...


and saw the Child of Man (with Clive Owen, recommend it). i ate *a ton* and slept lots and overall feel pretty relaxed for having gone away for a few days (despite the 6hr drive there and 6hrs home; thankfully my back hasn't ached at all like i feared it might with all the driving around).

but,

because we were gone for a few days i needed someone to come administer a pill to max. that person was my mom.

unfortunately for both my mom and max, the encounter resulted in my mom having to go to the doctor and is now on antibiotics from the bite max inflicted. they brawled. and max won.

i feel awful that my mom got hurt and that max was so shaken up by it all. my mom took some pictures of the damage... you can't see the swelling, but you can see at least that he drew blood in several places...

so this... a public apology to my mommy (like i said, i really feel terrible for catalyzing the whole thing), to max who i should have known better than to think he'd take anything from someone other than me or ryan, and a thank you to ashraf for a lovely weekend away from it all, for the food and the bed and the fresh set of memories.

the clementine yoyo effect

the clementine yoyo effect


::part one::

a legend begins under our tongues
as we pass flags of nations we trust

(although it was a bit gusty
in morocco today):

the park closes at 1pm -but how?- you muse,
and you conclude,

they must cover it in a blanket -
a death blanket! - you say, and if

one is careless enough to visit after 1pm
they will be cursed by the death blanket.

the curse is death foot,
wherein if the infected kick someone

just the right way, in just the right spot,
just below the nose

then the infected will bring death
to the someone they kick.


::part two::

large girls in black, reading poems.
i am wearing brown.

i am medium and i will not read you my poems.
i will let you read them.

you can imagine them on the green wall
that she brought to our attention.

meanwhile i will wonder
which part you laughed at

and which line
made you smile just so.


::part three::

let's pretend i met you at an art show,
or an exhibit

where your art was hanging
all around us.

you would offer me a clementine
and i would ask you for a sharpie

to write your name and number on
the small orange fruit

for safe keeping or a late night snack.
and on it, because you are the artist -remember-

you write, 'would like to feed you
pekoe tea and german gummi bears some time'.

cat in a bag

max likes sleeping in his newbury comics bag... with his favorite orange ribbon, and you can see two of his almost 40 bottle caps (he collects them)

traded for

can i have a page from your favorite book,
so that i might carry it with me to the top?

and in return i'll give you the flag
that i pluck from the rock of the peek of the mountain.

forgiven

we walked together through midnight
in the cold of january on the coast

and you told me that you liked me and sorry
for making the cat sick by feeding him nutri-grain bars

and sorry for making me kiss you in front of your boss
and for hitting the shopping cart with my car and not telling me

and could you buy me an ice cream to make up for it all?
while holding my hands and keeping me warm and smiling.

couple's dream

we continue to dream
in a network of small blankets

that fail in regular rotation
to hid the odd pair of feet -

the two lefts - hanging
over the edge of the queen bed.

girl's dream

she imagined how he'd imagined her
in a sweater and neon band-aids

trying to picture the landscape
in wool and plastic and cogs

and tried to see past the horizon
where he said the river lay

where he saw her in his own eyes
and fell in love with her

but her dreams are not compatible
and she did not see herself

but her mother and her grandmother
in the place of the plastic water

his heart stitched back in wool
and knots throbbed in pain

she wanted to believe him
and dream in his beautiful way

but she could not believe in his fantasy
or swim across his plastic river

so she asked him if they couldn't be
together under a real life tree

boy's dream

let me take you, he said
softly, whispering sweetly

a gentle boy with messy hair
and electric shoes on both feet

to the place
where my dreams often go

so i can show you the river
where i saw you

in my own reflection
before we met

so you can believe me
and love me then

he held his heart
bleeding and pink in his hand

he held it out to me
to take and keep

he said, keep it,
it's yours

if you don't want it
then neither do i

i put it back inside him
and took his cleaner hand

show me your reflection
and then i will decide

kitty's first crimbo

crunchy christmas blessings

so i'm sitting here, filling out a couple happy crimbo cards
when all of a sudden
**cRuNcH!**
i look over at max
to see him chewing on a little green christmas light!!!
now, they must be plastic, right?
he wasn't bleeding or anything,
and he was totally after having another one once that one went down.
he's part demon i think.
what cat eats chrismas lights!?!

gomez video

not christmassy, but ryan and i did spend christmas in england last year. we stayed in manchester for a few days before heading to derby to see his family. it's a lovely city.
i sort of wish we were going again this year... but i'm also glad we're getting to spend time with my family this holiday.

and, it's a cute video.

max says:

C v’-;
™®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®™

bring on the holiday spirit

i dare you. pogues and all.



above: one of, if not *the* best holiday song of all time ever.
and... i love kristy mccoll to pieces!

treble

new post/poem on {pilot-eye}
click on title above for enjoyment

max's new doo

he had a long visit with the vet this friday gone past. they had to give him some drugs intravenously and had to put him asleep to do so. what they also had to do was give him this new hair cut...




poor little fella looks completely pathetic.

the good news is, max is doing great. he's into the whole catnip scene and has been playing and meowing and jumping and doing all sorts of max things ^_^ so even though he looks a bit silly, we're very very happy with how he's doing.

nizlopi

craig's been posting all sorts of videos on his blog. i'm a copy cat. and i am liking nizlopi lots (they did the jcb song). and so here's something "extraordinary"...

she comes to me
un-inordinate and simple

a present

and though i least suspected her then
i welcomed her and kept her openly



(i'm supposed to be writing a paper, not poems. erg.)

broken twig

our mind branches out

pigeons on separate journeys
to the same location

the flesh on our chests
dissimilar in shape -
in volume -
but dedicated to the same want

for that touching moment
when it's okay this time
to erect a nipple
or make lips bleed fresh blood

this is all for the wanting
the sucking and sticking and smelling

we just have different ways
of going about the asking

auntie katy

^_^ my sister is gonna be a mommy!
which means i'm gonna be an auntie ^_^

brown thumbs

when i water flowers in real life
they don't spring back to life in an instant,

but in video games
they do.

subject: cement smelling

there is Portuguese on the white-board
that reads 'i do not speak Portuguese'
and a piano in the center of the room

chairs and stands surrounding it and me

and so i hide in the pit

for a while - accidentally
scratching the cut on my shin

in this moment i bleed and cradle the scab
like an orphan would on the cushion of my ring-finger

where the nail has grown too long

now, in the same color as Portuguese
i write 'marie survived john's death in Portuguese'

and fail better at playing the halloween theme
on the sullen piano in the cement room

swarm with me

experimental gameplay project is a remarkable website with lots of downloadable (.exe type files) and easy to enjoy game projects such as the swarm.

what's so magnificent about the swarm is that a)you get to swoop little people up into the air and watch them splat - this provokes a primal sense of gratification and b) the music is lovely, soothing, ahh.

perfect for a quick play, especially when feeling stressed.

if you click on the image, it should prompt you to download the exe file, once this is downloaded you're ready to run and play!

168.0 is my top splatter velocity. what's yours?

lethargy

i resort to mine -
a cup of tea and leonard cohen
____on the

and off agian -

happy birthday Ashraf!!

bah humbug already?

it's december. which, it seems, most people interpret as "it's christmas".

december DOES NOT EQUAL christmas

am already feeling holiday pressure, and none of the holiday spirit. don't want to listen to carols, don't want to go shopping, don't want to rake the yard before it snows.

besides, december is full of holidays that come before chirstmas... like International Ashraf Day and My Mom's Birthday, and My Sister's Birthday and i think the corgi has his birthday this month too. oye, that's just the immediate family... my twin cousins celebrate their birth in december, so do two of my grandad's. why is jesus's birthday so special, eh? i don't even know him >__<

so in honor of december, but not christmas; here's something not at all christmassy in nature...

ah, yeah, you, shhhh. they don't need to know it was "christmas number one" last year on the brit charts.

the strawberry plant

a man and woman
his wife

argued

until the woman
plunged through the door

under threat of violence

and wept as she ran
through the surrounding forest

guilt ridden

and soon concerned
he followed her trail

guided

by strawberry plants
in the shapes of footprints

left in her wake

and when he found her
he apologized


and so today we keep a strawberry plant in our home

as a reminder and charm
and we do not fight.

ringing in the 23rd

no need to be coy or clever here. today, sincerity is better served. this is the 3rd time i've hosted the ringing of the bards on somethingkaty. i also orchestrated the wet ringing of the bards not very long ago. i'm not new at this. nevertheless, i am still inspired by the poets who write and submit for these weekly gatherings. i've come to appreciate the ringing of the bards as though it were the blogosphere equivalent of sunday dinner at my mom's house.

considering, too, how near to thanksgiving this ringing comes (albeit a bit late), and considering how much i am truly grateful for right now, let's have ourselves a little feast. this one's not got any turkey though (i'm sure, no matter how much you like turkey, you've had enough by now); instead, let's fill up on poetry!

to start, i had emailed a few of my favorite poets in regards to this particular bards once our mayor billy confirmed my position as bardess (thanks for that title, brian, i love it!). in my email i mentioned the recent drama involving my lovely little kitten (all of 7 months old) Max and his new struggle with cancer. it's been all i've talked about here on somethingkaty the past few weeks, so there's no need for me to detail it again. i would, however, like to ask anyone reading this bards to take a moment and appreciate, with a little more care, the life surrounding them. if you have a pet cat, a dog, a fish, a turtle, or you like to bird watch; take a moment to admire all the joy and beauty in the small living creatures surrounding you. that's my gift to you. what max gave to me. every time i look at him, curled up on the sofa or playing with a bottle cap, i take a moment to appriciate the mere fact that i can see his chest fill and empty evenly with air. just knowing that he's well and playful as a kitten ought to be. and i get to appreciate how much joy and wonder he brings me every moment he's near me.

may sound sappy, but hell, we're poets!!

and now, on with the theivery (oh the what? i thought we were supposed to give thanks?)

i stole a poem from ashraf's blog, but i don't really think he'll mind. he's in france at the moment, having a well deserved holiday with his ummi. (am looking forward to having you back, dear!)

the poem of ashraf's that i borrowed for the carnival is called The Space Below Us. in keeping with the theme of thankfulness, ashraf is one of my favorite people and has influenced my views on poetry, on blogging and on the world. thank you dear. shukran.

next is a special delivery from brian boutwell; another blogging poet who's bond with me reaches beyond the blogosphere. (his blog is extinct now, save for one story; it's a shame if you missed it, but i'm in negotiations with the southern poet to put his work on paper):

FOR L.N. AND L.Z.
Sterling 17 jewels
Illinois pocket
watch, 1926:
____only ticks
if kept wound.

waves come in threes. so do good poets.
and so below are three fine poets with three poems each. three boys who go above and beyond the call of duty.

first in the wave is craig s perez writing out of berkeley. another poet, ah yes, another one, who i've gotten to know and admire. thanks, most graciously, to the lovely yasmin for introducing us both into the wet family.

c.s. sent me 3 poems. don't know if he intended for me to include all three, but here they are (they're not posted on his blog; therefore, the poems appear here at full length. they will be available via chap sooner or later, right craig?)

from "The Ghost of The Harvest Madonna"

1.

Tears of the Madonna, the Hunger and Other Stories: a boy with an allergy to ghosts has trouble with too-logical teachers who say ghosts don’t exist. To celebrate the autumn harvest, the boy claims he had seen his real father’s ghost. When the grains had been collected, the harvest was stored in the silo, but I am saying your vitriol towards Madonna seems out of control. “Madonna Rescues Malawian Child – only 12 Million to Go.” Shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky, I ain’t had no lovin’ since January. What the hell is up with the political testimony: the history of how the Sanctuary was built. Ghost nights; God visited his garden; Machine harvest; for what I am and what I harvest through my suffering. Madonna of the Ridge Road. Machines seize the soil.

2.

I’ve got you walking with a ghost. Not tonight, let it be. On Monday Monday Monday. I shall have to quickly immerse myself in an orgy of Madonna listening, much like a harvest festival really. Ghost of Perdition. According to tradition, every night the ghost in the statue of the Madonna is decorated with precious dresses. It might be OK to show Madonna hanging on a mirrored cross, in vernacular tantrums. Halfway through the soup course, the boy recognized the Ghost and invited him to sit and help out with the harvest season on the moisture farm.

3.

In a nutshell, the Harvest plays like grand theft auto: playfulness (‘blanket-vision’ or the godawful-creepy) fell flat. The Harvest as the sultry blonde who likes to dance. When you think about it, Madonna is the most ridiculous lawmaker. “The boy wants to shoot Madonna into space.” BEST. HEADLINE. EVER. Hell, I'd even contribute to the slush fund, provided they agree not to bring to mind ‘trans-humanist identity experience’. Special gratitude is offered to the boy.

the second wave in the pack is made of stone. a strictly mysterious fella with a warm heart and a soft spot for kittens, he's sent me three poems about cats in honor of max and this particular ringing of the bards.

Twelve Cats

Coal-eyed Friend

& Our Wanderer Returns about stone's little kitten Blinky who, it would seem, had quite the adventure just the other day!

and the third wave is from none other than our man Russell Ragsdale of Yuckelbel's Canon. much like his poems, every encounter with Russell is an enjoyable moment. and you're always an eager and willing participant for my ringings, aren't you Russell? ^_^

Brighter and Wiser

Somnambulist

& Recriminations

the wave is over, but we still have three poets to be thankful for...

Keith of When I Wax provides me with an appropriately titled Host Meditation (also called "Breadchewing"). Keith brings the bread and musings to compliment. a perfect piece for a poetic feast, without a doubt.

next, the man who makes this whole party possible, Billy! without his dedication and enthusiasm for bringing poets together, there'd be no ringing and no call for celebrating one another's work. i certainly am, and i'm sure everyone else within our blogging poet community feels similar if not the same, truly grateful for everything you do for us and everything you do for the art.

our mayor Billy the Blogging Poet supplies a seg-way in to the up-coming holiday season with Christmas, Stuck on Red. and as always, billy amuses to no end.

last but certainly not least... i don't know if you noticed, but there's nothing but male bodies around the table... until Shirley steps up!
unfortunately though, the link she sent me in her email required a password, so i'm not sure exactly which poem she meant for me to host here. instead of just one then, and to help balance this party out a little, here are 3 (it's a thematic number, at this point) of Shirley's most recent poems!

Ocean View

Warm Thoughts

& Giving Thanks

and before i leave you to the next host (by the way, there is no next host lined up, so if you want to play, billy at idleblogs (at) yahoo.com), i just want to say thank you. thank you for reading, for submitting, for caring.

affectionately yours. bardess.


addendum: the last day by shirley of housemouse. this is the poem she had intended for the ringing. thank you shirley!

last call

am taking sudmissions for the 23rd ringing of the bards all night

-

the ringing will be rung tomorrow morning

(whenever i happen to roll out of bed)

TWENTY THREE

i will be hosting the up-and-coming ringing of the bards: episode 23!

please email your submissions to:
kaacheson @ yahoo . co . uk (less the spaces)

ryan got his today

po'et'ship: latest post.

if it's not one thing, it's the other

a brief update on max's condition and other things pertaining:

he's doing alright. we were a bit worried monday when we woke up to a few separate piles of kitty throw up, and he was acting very tired again. the vet told us not to worry when i spoke to her, and he went in for some more fluids this afternoon. we're being very cautious with him, obviously. every move he makes we watch. both out of concern and gratitude for still having him. we want anything but to take him granted; especially now.

while max is on the slow and bumpy road to getting well, ryan is all sorts of aching and ouchy. he's in bed now, trying to sleep and had to take the day off work. i hope he doesn't have anything like what he had in february. that was a miserable month for him, and for me.

hugs for both my boyos (((max))) & (((ryan)))

as for me, i just have a little head cold - nothing that's going to stop me or even really slow me down.

and have been reading the lovely mina loy and some past simple.

read coconut poetry for fun

coconut poetry

plentiful on sweet

lance of 3by3by3 emailed me a few weeks ago (was it even that long ago?) and introduced me to his little project wherein poets write one poem consisting of 3 stanzas 3 lines each and composed of (in terms of content) 3 news articles from google news on any one day. and so, i participated.

the poem is up and can be reached by clicking the title to this post. do enjoy.

yes, more about max

today he's been eating both his wet food and his dry food (yay). he didn't put up too much resistance to the pill he has to have shoved down his throat once every day. he's been a bit more active today than yesterday still. he's sleeping a bit less and seems more interested in ryan and my activities. right now he is being cute, playing with a little spring i found in the basement.
he's looking a lot less scraggly and scruffy too, which is great. he's such a handsome kitty. no pictures for this post, although i took a couple of cute ones of max and ryan watching an old bond film. i'll post those some other time.
'tis all. he's still doing well, and our spirits are high.

in other news, ryan bought the last three wii-motes from bestbuy today. wii seems more popular than nintendo anticipated? or just the retailers? i'm very much looking forward to fishing in the new zelda and bowling ^_^

kitty =^_^= update

happy saturday all. yesterday max spent 6 hours at the vet's. he got his first full dose of chemo, some more fluids, and ryan and i got given some pills to give him once a day for the rest of the week. max will be going in again on wednesday for some blood work and again on friday for his next full dose of chemo.

max doesn't has have leukemia according to the blood work done. he might have it in his bone marrow, but if that's then case (and we're hoping it's not) than there's nothing we'd be able to do for him because you can only treat the leukemia or the lymphoma, not both. just diagnosis for bone marrow leukemia is about $300, which we're not keen on having done to beginning with, so we're going with the lymphoma treatment full on and praying for the best.

also, found out that he weighs 5lbs9oz - he's so little.

when we brought him home last night he was sticky and smelly and tired and feeble. i was nervous about his condition. he was the epitome of pathetic. ryan and i just let him sleep though, and went to see my dad for his birthday. we came home and he was still sleeping.

at some point in the night max must have gotten up and ate some of his canned food, which is great. as ryan and i started getting out of bed, max came out from under the bed too. he stretched and we could tell right away that he was looking better. he seemed to have cleaned himself over night too. he'd been looking really scruffy. he looks a little scruffy still, but much less so.


max ate more food when he got up. he followed us down stairs and even had some cheese with me this morning.

he's looking pretty good. he seems well. definatly not any worse at least.


i'll continue to keep everyone updated via my blog.

as of right now, max is playing with an ant.

p.s. for poetry, go to piloteye

more on max

so my blog's turned into a journal about max, almost like a "normal" blog. this is partially due to the fact that i haven't been writing very much along the lines of poetry, so i haven't anything to post. i can't force myself to write in extremely emotional movements. i don't write poetry for therapy and i don't write good poetry when i'm sad or upset or anxious. i did write two rather unhappy poems on piloteye a few days ago. and there's still buttons up at the wet. also, for poetry-related reading, c.s. has been revealing the recidivist manifesto over the past few days... part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4 (with more to come).

nothing as really changed with max over the past few days. yesterday i took him to the vet so they could do some blood work. they're testing him for leukemia again. i'm not sure how much will change for our situation if he does have leukemia, but i know that it will change things; there'll be that one other thing to fix.

he's quiet, tired, a little bit scruffy and he's unfriendly towards anyone but ryan and i. my sister meg was over last night along with her boyo chris and my brother mike to celebrate my birthday. when meg went to pet max he hissed at her and wet upstairs under the bed.

he is going to the bathroom regularly, which is important. he's eating. he even had some of his dry food last night. he is still spitting up a lot though, which is causing him to be dehydrated. yesterday at the vet they had to give him some liquids via injection. he's not drinking water to compensate for the spitting up. i tried to mix some chicken broth to his water, but that didn't seem to interest him one bit. maybe later i'll try beef broth. he's not like a child who we could verbally force to drink anything. max just doesn't want to drink his water, no matter what flavor it is.

so today i am to drop him off at the vet's at noon time, and he's going to get his first dose of chemo. they're going to keep him there fore a few hours to watch for any reactions (positive or negative). and so i guess i'll let you all know later today if he has leukemia or not. other than that, i don't think much is going to change right away.

lymphoma was the good news

okay, where do i start?

the end i guess... maxerodenfoe has kitty cancer.

on friday i took him to the vet to be neutered. i mentioned over the phone a few days prior that he didn't seem to be feeling very well. he'd been spitting up clear colorless bile and seemed to be sleeping a lot. because of this, instead of being neutered, the vet saw him for an exam. the first assumption was that he may have eaten something he shouldn't have... like string or a hair elastic like the one that had recently gone missing. so an x ray was needed.

i waited around, nervous as ever over max's little tummy.

once the x rays came back the vet started explaining the x ray to me. his tummy and intestines were perfectly fine. but in his upper chest there was white where there was meant to be black - fluid where there was meant to be air. at least... she thought it was fluid.

assuming what was in max was fluid the vet asked to keep max for the morning into the afternoon to take a sample from his chest to see if it was internal bleeding or if perhaps max had this awful thing called f.i.p.. i called ryan, all choked up and he came right home from work. at that moment is when we both began thinking max might have to be put down, and at such a young age (he's only just turned 7 months old). we waited impatiently, nervously, for the vet's reply by phone. more than anything we wanted to bring max home and have him with us.

my phone rang at a little before 3pm. the vet told me that she was "mystified" by max. the white in his chest was not fluid, it is a hard mass.

we went to pick max up at 4. the vet had had to shave a couple square inches of fur of either side of him just behind his front legs. he was tired, his tail was flared. he was not a happy kitty. we were so pleased to have him home though, even though we didn't know what was going on.



the vet said she would take his x rays to a clinic near by and send the small fluid sample she got out of max to a pathology lab.

on saturday morning the vet called us. she's dedicated so much to figuring out what's wrong with our little orange kitten. i already owe he so much gratitude. she called to let us know that she'd spoken to another vet. between the two of them, and having had a look at the fluid sample, they thought, despite his young age, that max might have one of two types of cancer. one of them was lymphoma. this is treat-able by drug treatments and costs only $1000 (or less) over the course of a full year and has considerably high success rates for putting the cancer into remission so that the animal can live a regular life, albeit short. the second kind was one that required radiation treatment and would cost a considerable amount more, never mind the fact that our lovely vet had never dealt with this second kind of kitty cancer.

she said, on saturday that we'd hear something on tuesday. we did. the pathology exam came back positive for lymphoma. the pathologist made a note, though, to test max for leukemia to confirm the diagnosis. it is extremely rare for a cat of max's age to have such a significant amount of cancer in his chest at such a young age, or even to get this type of cancer.

she called to find out from me if ryan and i were interested in trying the drug treatment and i told her defiantly yes.

so she's going to do some research, some talking around, and will have a word with the pathologist and give me a call back tomorrow.

max is going to start his treatment on friday as well as get his leukemia test (again... he cleared it at his first visit, but these tests ate 100% accurate).

max, right now, is sleeping nearly all of the day. he's eating, but only a tiny bit at a time. he's been taking antibiotics as a precaution against any infection that may have been introduced during his vet visit last friday where some fluid sample was extracted. he's so tired though... and loosing a little weight on account of not playing and not eating as much. he responds to being called, he comes downstairs to be with us when he has the energy, and he cuddles with us when he can.

we're hoping and praying that he responds to the treatment. it's so hard for both of us to see him like this. at lest today though, we know what he has and we know that we can do something for him.

anyone that's talked to me over the past few days knows how upset i've been and how stressed i've been over this.

... wibble passing away was even harder for me to take on account of everything that's gone on with our darling little kitten.

so your happy wishes are appreciated. just keep max in the back of your mind. he needs all the happy warm kitty vibes he can get right now.






and ryan gave this to me tonight, which i forwarded to some of you already... it made me laugh so hard i cried. and it's been a while since i laughed.
cats

elegy

there's a shallow euphony
where the sound of bubbles
and life once resonated

we buried him out back
with the daffodil bulbs

brief update

wibble is really really sick
max is really really sick
and i have these two papers started that i can't concentrate on enough to get past the first page of either.

will give everyone the details on max's situation tuesday, once we know better what's actually going on and maybe what's going to happen.

(buttons)

po'et'ship

NEW POST ON THE 'SHIP
W/ BONUS LEONARD COHEN POEM!!!!

thank you so much, ashraf dear!

i'll email you later in the day

max is sick
wibble is sick
and i have to go to class

(-_-)

for blog's sake

am entangled in two separate and equally interesting papers at the moment. nothing monumental. one is a response to a couple of articles concerning the relationship between colonialism and the rise of English language as a dominant, global commodity. the other is a reaction to a wretched triangle; to which i am proposing a more intricate and optical approach to teaching writing and rhetoric to freshmen college students.

and because i'm entangled, i have not had the functionability(tm) to 'think poetry'. instead, my blog, for a short while, will be reduced to katy ramblings and the potential show-case of at least one of the previously mentioned papers.

because i am unable to produce for you an original work, and hate to leave you writhing... below is a poem by the incomprehensibly magnific Albert Mobilio...

Ground Swell

They threw in the towel, they burnt
the notes. The chairs were folded up, the microphone

unplugged. After the questionnairs were collected,
we mopped the linoleum floor--the sickening smears

were rubbed into ever-thinning arcs. I watched
from behind the bandstand as the Pinnacle kids

draped the Contact Mirror that hours before
had shivered under the assault of

one thousand flashlights. Another root worked
into the soil; the encirclement's nearly done.

Outside, the men smoked as their exhalations
thickened under the awning. Everywhere, the salt

smell of bodies revved up, ready to flare. Voices,
hoarse and sated, rode a damp breeze. When the stick

is crooked, someone said. Our sting will then
be felt, I sang back, each word familiar

as the sore in my mouth my tongue can't leave
alone. Cars started, headlights bit

into the gloom at this, the furthest verge,
where a cure will soon take hold.

from Me With Animal Towering

"feathers"

thank you scott!!!

feathers by scott glassman of 30 Days: poems.

post craze

because i've been posting all day, i thought hey, why not another one?

this one has three points:

1: happy birthday lauren!!!

2: thanks for the lovely conversation, brian. we shall definitely again.

3: saw Borat with a big crowd. laughed lots. go see it.

an indefinable moment

in the darkest corner
of the living room

where the goldfish
wakes and forgets us

for all but a feeding
the warm air swells up

with pregnancy and urgency
in every unread book

and i abandoned them
for you and the sunlight

for that stubborn cat
sleeping in the laundry

or the broken down
curtains i have yet to repair

and as i lay in the square
of the orange autumn wealth

the family of geese
on the coast of the bog

keep you awake beside me
and unprotected

from the impatience to move
towards the top button of my blouse

and

thank you for this article, ashraf my dear.

bookmark

chance operations


lately and without noticing, i have been inclined towards a more violent, coarse kind of poetry. this violence and toughness is not necessarily a bad quality. i had been drawn to the raw, the ripe, the uninhibited, the passionate. to the overindulgence of animal behavior. not just sex either. to the sensations of deep internal pain, love, confusion, dirt, dry rain and other non-refined goods.

to the surprising turns within a poem. i had been engaged in this spike and thrash of poetry.

what i woke up to find today was myself un-drugged for the first time in what feels like far too long and the "chance operations". i read it silently, without moving my lips. [i often read poetry with my lips, not just my eyes; i prefer to sound it out.]

it reads fluently, one poem to the next. the audio files are charming and the images warm and fluid.

the zen aesthetic.

part of the charm, is in the poets that participate. there's something untouchable. the poets do not push against one another, do not play off one another, do not change each other, do not compete with one another. instead, there's an ebb and flow of translation, transition and fluid communication. they're like a school of monks [/poets] scattered throughout a beautiful garden [/blog]. as you stroll [/scroll] you find them hiding behind the big rocks and under the cherry trees.

radclyff's secret

on pilot eye

September Cohen

a few things: one, he's one handsome canadian.

i love both the female interviewers in these videos. i don't know if it was the zeitgeist or if it's to do with the superiority of canadian television or if it's a reflection on leonard's character that both the women are asking such motivated and challenging questions. whatever the variable though, the mere fact that they were discussion poetry in a mass-medium is heartwarming for me.

also, part of the reason why i think leonard takes the criticism on Beautiful Losers so lightly is because he knew that they were all short-sighted. the book has seen its second cover design and been translated into several languages--among them chinese. it's an astounding piece of literature, in my opinion, and i recommend everyone read it. as for it being pornographic, yes. no question. but, it's so human in context and so genuinely emotive.

the muddened bird

a meditation for a wednesday

a single pomegranate seed
tethered to its beak

at the moment of most credulity
an owl finch landed -

__one weak foot
___in the mud -

at the side of the road -
the one i limped in on

at the morning's call -
for neutrality or passion
i cried him into staying
that extra minute

and it was worth it
(our new mythology)

loosing the secret
to a friend

- the smell of the hemiptera
or the taste of medicine -

my tea factory
my affect - ness

refusing to disguise the lines
from what they really are

the bird's red cheeks
stained or blushed

from fruit or from honesty
still has one foot stuck in the ground