Willkommen

2012-02-08T06:32:00.001-08:00

REVOLUTIONesque

2012-02-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is not only beautiful to look at, it's also a totally amazing read. Click to check out the third issue of esque. It's about the revolution.

I Imagine a Well-dressed and Stately Man Walking Down a Never-ending Cobblestone Street, His Fob Glinting in the Morning Sun...

2012-02-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

Good Morning

2012-02-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

Sibelius Came Over the Other Night

2012-01-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

And asked what I had to drink.
All I had to offer was
gin, rum, bourbon, and champagne,
which was luckily what he wanted.
We put on our hats and went
for a long walk in the woods.
Sibelius looked to the sky
while I watched the ground.
Neither of us said too much
but before we turned
to head back to the house
which as humans we must always do,
he turned first to me and started
to say something about his long-
lost Eighth Symphony
but I put my finger to his lips
and said, shhhh, Sibelius.
The politics of style
will always turn in your favor
just as your beloved geese
will fly together in a V,
always following the sun.

Interlude with Osmo

2012-01-31T09:39:00.000-08:00

Musical Interlude

2012-01-30T10:45:00.001-08:00

Eyeshot.net Is Pretty Streetwise and Awesome

2012-01-30T09:29:00.001-08:00

...which is why I'm deeply pleased to have a prose piece there. It's called "Mimesis in Venice"--click here to read. Many thanks and much appreciation to Lee Klein. Read through the archives too if you've not been following along with one of the older and better literary spots on the internet.

Vintage Menswear As Seen Through Vintage Mugshots

2012-01-28T08:29:00.001-08:00

Here and here.

Musical Interlude

2012-01-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

Call for Submissions at Hell Yes Press

2011-12-31T13:24:00.000-08:00

from the Hell Yes Press website:

Greetings from Hell Yes. We're reading submissions for our next project: an anthology of love poems on cassette.

Why love poems? Because they never go out of style. Your poems can be pro-, anti-, or ambivalent.

Why a cassette? Because we like art that makes you work a little bit. We like the idea of you scrounging up an old Walkman, sitting in your car, or going to the local library to listen to poets read their poems. In a time when we're all distracted, hopefully this slows us down.

The details: Email us a recording of you reading your poem(s) (via whatever options you have on your computer--e.g., GarageBand) and a copy of the text. We'll do the rest.

Soft deadline: January 16th. Then however long it takes to physically make them.

Send to: hellyespress@gmail.com

Gone Fishin'

2011-12-07T16:15:00.001-08:00

Be back sometime in the near future.

INDIGEST No. 22

2011-11-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Thanksgiving, InDigest 22 is up and ready for your consumption. It's a really cool issue this time around, with poems by Krystal Languell, Kyle McCord, Annabelle Yeeseul Yoo, Allyson Paty, Andrew Durbin, Eric Lindley, Scott Abels, an amazing broadside series by Erika Jung, and a video by Paul Legault. And that's just poetry. There are also short stories, conversations, nonfiction pieces, and photos from OWS, Fucked Up and Titus Andronicus at le poisson rouge (InDigest's NYC home), and oh my goodness so much more. Many thanks to our wonderful contributors for making this issue so good. CLICK HERE.

Poem

2011-11-18T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ever since the dawn of time humans
have had goals in life. A cave,

a pelt, sustainable agriculture
and industrial farming turning

a handsome profit. Some goals
are slightly smaller, if the heart

can be considered for a moment
a fist-sized organ and not

a rock slide burying the castle:
I will be the one you think of

when you sprint through the snow drifts,
your humid breath turning to small

sliver of ice on the fur of your hood
and you will be the one I think of

when I swim through the sewer
to emerge from a toilet to haunt

the library of a prestigious university
in London. Or somewhere just outside

of London. Really, it doesn't matter,
and I'm not sure that I care anyway.

At what point does culture bear down
and soak through individuality?

Facebook probably doesn't help.
Twitter probably is too stupid

to make much of a difference one way or the other.
I imagine Othello walking out on a dock in Cyprus.

I imagine you running through a dark forest to me.
I imagine that I shouldn't've titled this

poem as I did, but I'm going to leave it
as is because while it's true I can't

think of anything better anyway,
this school is collapsing

while our love flees to the horizon
like mice from a burning field.

Art and Politics

2011-11-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

The hip-hop media mogul
takes hypocritical sanctimony
to a whole new level.
He doesn't know a thing
about dogs barking in the cold.
He thinks that all birds
are squab. He doesn't know
money erases almost everything
in its path, that it leaves a thin trail
like a snail for others
to come sliding after it
into the empty, cold regions
of space, full of stupid,
senseless death and promises
that rise and vanish the way
water, giver of all life,
collects and disperses in a puff.
That's what I'm told, at least,
by various sacred scrolls and such,
which, if to be believed,
means I can sit back and wait
for the shiny custom-built
toasters in the sky
to pop out great pieces of toast
burnt in my likeness, wreathed by clouds
in the shapes of snakes.

New Poems

2011-11-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

Some new poems are up at The Nervous Breakdown and Scud. Check 'em out? Many thanks to those editors.

No NBA This Year

2011-11-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

LJ: "Aw, our contracts are so unfair. There's not even gonna be a season this year, that's how unfair they are!"

DW: "Hey, at least we're not working without health benefits in an auto plant in Michigan and getting forced onto an unpaid furlough, amirite?!"

LJ: "Ha, ha! That's totally true! Those people probably couldn't even afford to watch us play anyway. Hey, I think I'll just count my billions of dollars and then maybe do another commercial or two for Mickey Ds and Nike. What are you gonna do?"

DW: "Twitter!"

It's My Time

2011-11-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

Froth drips from the jaws
Of whatever animal is closing in on us
Sprinting across the ice floes
Only to catch cold in the igloo
And listen to the night's one long howl
Sunlight a punch in the face
Knowing for sure once and for all
New pop-psychedelia is the worst
I'd rather be shot in the snow

Ride the Hot Hand

2011-11-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Jay-Z makes a pile of money
selling t-shirts that are street.
We swoon, we can't
get over it but we also can't get under it.
It's a funky paradox driving our life forward
like fundamental meaning,
mysterious enough to keep us
clawing at each other
as we dimly sense somewhere
above the fray a different way
of being. We sense eyes
with arms folded over their chests.
From down here, of course,
it doesn't look like a fray.

Haiku

2011-11-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

Jay-Z to profit
from Occupy Wall St.
Um.

INDIGEST NO. 22 COMING SOON

2011-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

We're running a little behind schedule this time around, but we're wrapping up submissions and will have InDigest No. 22 ready for you soon. Apologies for the delay.

Popular on Facebook

2011-11-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

U.S. stocks sink on Europe fears
Italy promises reforms soon
More bad news for Italy--What's next?
Berlusconi acting like Caesar?

Big Emergency Alert System test today
Cain on quitting: 'Ain't going to happen'
Ticker: First accuser speaks out
Cain victim of 'character assassins'

GOP open to tax hikes; Dems skeptical
Candidates weak on Econ 101?
'Odd Couple' -- Go for big debt cut
LIVE: Hearing on postal service

Arctic 'hurricane' slams Alaska
Ex-SEAL challenges bin Laden facts
Mystery call key to Baby Lisa case?
Tot missing; mom has odd story

How to cut your risk of memory loss
Adobe abandons mobile Flash
Does the TSA favor the 1%?
Clock hits 12 for 'DWTS' Cinderella

Today in Entertainment News

2011-11-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

When playing safe
can be risky Sharp moves,

harsh talk on 'Stars' Pilot
sentenced for being drunk

Robot army runs warehouse
Today's photo: Croatia

Lennon's tooth
sold for $31,200

Nicholas Sparks calls writing 'painful'

2011-11-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

Presented without comment: Nicholas Sparks calls writing 'painful'

CNN.com

2011-11-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

What Europe makes of Greek vote
Brown: We need to work to create jobs
Biden: Increase the job pace

Andy Rooney dies weeks after retiring
Science on spanking
Cain's credibility
Musharraf on nuclear security

How inside is 'insider' bin Laden account?
Juvenile rape appeal spurs outrage

Can Germany save Greece?

2 journalists face terrorism charges
Second nun burns to death in China
Will this Hajj have Arab Spring effect?

Bank dumping days begin
'Devastating' cuts if debt committee fails
Quick vote: Who will win
college football's No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown?

Alabama
LSU
Don't care

CNN.com

2011-11-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Living on water, minus a mortgage
Online football rivalry turns violent
Finding peace in final resting place
Fall colors dazzle under snowfall
Jury mulls fate of Jackson's doctor
Soldier: I cut off fingers but did not kill
Corzine resigns from bankrupt firm
Put the elderly on ice?
Pastas you should know
Whales almost swallow surfer
Dippin' Dots files for bankruptcy
No 1. overpaid movie actor is ...
Susan Boyle: I want to adopt Bieber
Sick of turkey? Make a bacon pig
Stocking up for the big feast
Dress to flatter your figure
Do you really need a second dog?
The jobless generation
Divorced guy sues wedding photog
Who is Jon Corzine, anyway?
Voters decide if fertilized egg a person
Seeing war through toys

Pandaemonium

2011-11-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

[poem was here]

But this is pretty interesting. Rare interview with DOOM:

This Is Kind Of Cool

2011-11-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Nirvana, Live at Man Ray (Cambridge, MA), April 18, 1990
01 Live Set by Duane Bruce

"It All Went Up in Smoke" by George Oppen

2011-11-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

that smoke
would remain

the forever
savage country poem's light borrowed

light of the landscape and one's footprints praise

from distance
in the close
crowd all

that is strange the sources

the wells the poem begins

neither in word
nor meaning but the small
selves haunting

us in the stones and is less

always than that help me I am
of that people the grass

blades touch

and touch in their small

distances the poem
begins

"Pragmatist" (1985) by Edmund Conti

2011-10-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Apocalypse soon
Coming our way
Ground zero at noon
Halve a nice day.

2011-10-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

T.S. Eliot Would've Loved Hypertext!

2011-10-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Annotated and hypertext version of "The Hollow Men" here. Click.

"Images" (1916) by Richard Aldington

2011-10-25T06:32:00.000-07:00

I

Like a gondola of green scented fruits
Drifting along the dank canals of Venice,
You, O exquisite one,
Have entered into my desolate city.

II

The blue smoke leaps
Like swirling clouds of birds vanishing.
So my love leaps forth toward you,
Vanishes and is renewed.

III

A rose-yellow moon in a pale sky
When the sunset is faint vermilion
In the mist among the tree-boughs
Art thou to me, my beloved.

IV

A young beech tree on the edge of the forest
Stands still in the evening,
Yet shudders through all its leaves in the light air
And seems to fear the stars—
So are you still and so tremble.

V

The red deer are high on the mountain,
They are beyond the last pine trees.
And my desires have run with them.

VI

The flower which the wind has shaken
Is soon filled again with rain;
So does my heart fill slowly with tears,
O Foam-Driver, Wind-of-the-Vineyards,
Until you return.

The last one stand-

2011-10-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

The last one stand-
ing at the mouth
of the haunted
house in the day-
light reflects on
his good fortune;
he remembers an
old gypsy tell-
ing him cryptic
things: "You're
going on a long
trip. You're a
survivor. This
dried paw grants
you wishes. That
child is not
yours. You think
you'd be dead but
you've got blood
for blood."

Brilliant

2011-10-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Halloween is Close

2011-10-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

and I can't wait
to dance for candy and
the children

Critique of Pure Reason

2011-10-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

In between here and there is a big white space.
What to do? The protesters in the square
work on their spelling. I work on my sleep.

I'm getting a lot better. Some day I will break
the record for going to sleep and not waking up,
a thing that can be done after only a whole

lifetime of practice. In the meantime there
are a few whole multiverses to record.
I will put my hands in the air, thank you.

If You're Giving a Pledge, You Put Your Hand on Your Heart

2011-10-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

If you don't, it's
totally a scandal.

It's totally a rule
and also a raffle

for the highest
office in the land.

Here's another gesture
devoid of actual mean-

ing. Congratulations.
Now you're a CEO.

Wrong Again

2011-10-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Like everyone else I tend to think
that I'm right, the other side,
wrong. Turns out I was wrong
not only about this but also so much else.
Like how buildings sway when they get
too tall, how they must do this
if they want to stay standing. What is it
I'm trying to say, exactly, gets less
clear as the day draws to a close
but luckily people care less then too.
It's like a zoo gradually falling
to pieces then animals everywhere.
It was the wombats that led us to the river
but it was the worms that did us in.
I should've seen it coming.
I did see it coming but
it didn't matter.

4 New Poems at I Thought I Was New Here

2011-10-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

Huge thanks to Gregory Lawless. Click.

Clown Funeral

2011-10-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

This isn’t how it was supposed to go.
Supposedly the big bass riff in the sky

was to rock us out gracefully,
to our satiny and canopied end.

The mop is useless after just one use.
The broom has been broken

to make it a better weapon.
We lay this clown to rest to offer closure,

before slipping on one last banana peel
and smashing that great cream pie in the sky,

so we can grapple with each other freely
and weld our names to this crumbling city.

Candy Store

2011-10-14T08:09:00.001-07:00

There’s a gorilla working the cash register.
The mummy sorts inventory in the back.

Outside, the skies fill up with burning satellites
and a dead man comes in from outside,
wheeling his oxygen tank like a weapon.

The gorilla reads a paper, his lips moving.

We browse the shelves, the vast candy-
colored array like a sunset on another planet,
not wanting to attract attention.

Why did we come here? There must
be a reason...we only came in here
only to ask for a phone,

that’s it, our cell phones far out of range and
our car in the bottom of the river, out of gas.

Someplace not too far away, a small boy
sits in a red room, waiting for the party to start.

Shark Bite

2011-10-13T05:28:00.000-07:00

[poem was here]

Village

2011-10-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

There once was a village...
That's not right.
There's still a village.
It was poor.
Now it's poorer.
In this village the young people
are sent out into the wilderness
to get jobs and bring
wealth back
to the village
but most of the young people
are never heard from again.
Whether this means
they're rich or dead
no one in the village knows.
It's a secret, of sorts,
the kind of open secret everyone
takes to the grave.

Limo Rides

2011-10-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

I love riding in limos.
It doesn't matter where. Once

I was riding in a limo
and I got a really good idea

for a whole book about
riding in a limo. Then

I thought that that idea
might actually be lame.

Who'd want to read about that?
Who'd want to read a whole stilted,

contrived narrative about some rich guy
who just rides across a city

that used to be synonymous
with wealth and power but now

stands for nothing much
of anything? I mean,

it's not like they'd make a movie
out of it starring a young

Hollywood up and comer.
Even if they did, it's not like

I'd take a limo to the premiere.
After all I'm an important

post-war American writer.
Or if I did go I'd have to carefully

disguise myself. Maybe with
some kind of mask. But you know,

riding in a limo behind tinted glass
drinking champagne through a mask

to a premiere of a movie based
on a book you wrote based

on riding in a limo
is one of life's most

exquisite pleasures.
I think maybe

I'll write that book
after all.

Pub Crawls

2011-10-10T05:45:00.001-07:00

This past weekend my friends
went on a pub crawl,
which is a rite of passage
for mostly young adult
American males.
Pub crawls are when
a group of friends go
from bar to bar, drinking alcohol.
This is also who these
particular friends of mine are.
Young adult American males.
In their dreams
they make a lot of money.
They become light blue deer
that disappear into the woods.
Other friends of mine
are the woods
that the deer disappear into.
The woods are older than
all of time, which is one
reason why my other friends
try to get rid of them.
They fear death,
is the thing.
They don't know that pub crawls
are one way we try to stave off death.
Communal celebrations of life
in which we dim consciousness.
They know it doesn't work,
though, somewhere
deep in the back of their minds,
a place they don't often
acknowledge, except
with dim fear,
the same way they react
to the woods.
That's why they do it,
in a way. Go on pub crawls,
I mean. It's also
why we're friends,
in a way. In another,
more important, way,
though, we're not close.

Tonight!

2011-10-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

7:30 pm
The Project Lodge
817 E Johnson
Madison, WI

$3 suggested donation
BYOB, raffle, etc.

Carmen Machado
Brad Liening
Lily Brown
Claire Becker

I'm Going to Tell You a Little Bit About the Country Called Tibet

2011-10-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

I got this idea
from a dream:
the tail of a comet
above the snowy
field but doesn't
it look almost
exactly like your
face only smeared
with dust and ice
and light?

Lucky Dog

2011-10-05T10:30:00.001-07:00

This dog has a twin
Its twin is you
You're 1/2 dog twin
Which means you're
at least 1/4 dog
if my math is right
Which also means
that you'll out
last many others
at the end of days
and it's almost
2012 hey everybody

I Know a Ghost (3 Poems)

2011-10-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

As I sd to my
ghost, because I am
always talking, -- Rob, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.

*

As I sd to Rob,
which was his old,
non-dead name,

I sd, we're al-
ways haunting what are we
going to do, the light

it's inevit-
able isn't it,
and what or else,

eat a lot of can-
dy, he sd, Happy Hall-
oween

*

Danzig, I sd,
which was both his
name and not

I sd, what about the Mis-
fits, he sd, shut
up dude, I'll

punch you, I sd Mother
and he sd Mother
tell yr child-

ren not to
walk my way, yeah, not
to hear my wrds

Store

2011-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

I went into the store hoping to find something good to eat. I looked around on the shelves and didn't see anything appetizing. That's when I realized I was in a hardware store. So I bought a bunch of hardware instead and now I'm building a house. The first thing I'm making is the kitchen. Then I'll make the bedroom. Then I'll hurry and make the bathroom really fast. Later I'll make a bunch of woods because I've always wanted to live in the middle of a forest. I'll make a lake. I'll make Christmas. But first I've got to finish this kitchen. I'll make a sandwich to eat by the lake in the middle of the forest while I wait for Christmas.

Unmasking in a Distant Town

2011-10-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

What exactly are you doing
here? There can be no answer.
Gas stations straggle the outskirts,
signs clang in a deep blue haze.
Pigeons explode in the wind
whipping through the square,
riven by our puffed-up desires,
riven by indecision,
riven by obscurity,
white fluff like shreds of clouds
caught in the cold
as we desperately try to impress
each other. It’s no use.
Already we are each
suspected in turn.
I lie about my hometown
and later listen to sobs
echo down the hotel corridor
and feel the thin, damp carpet
under my chapped hands
and knees, little bits of birds
falling from my hair.

The Next Big Thing

2011-09-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

I see a man riding an ostrich
and I know that man will be mayor.

I see a river and I see a fish
and I know that someday we will die.

Poisoning, probably,
either from within or without,

those being the only choices.
these being the times

when we have to make tough decisions
like whether or not to mop the floor

with those little jerks,
those who have had it coming.

We all have it coming,
some longer than others

being the only difference I can see.
I see a bunch of angels

smoking and loitering,
playing with great flaming knives.

I see a man with a thousand beetles
for a bloodstream and know

he is a great strategist,
his intellect hot mercury,

he will lead us to winged Victory
already alighting to a new perch.

We loiter in her shadow.
A building falls downtown,

followed by many falling buildings
and I open one eye to find myself

standing in the middle of a fallen building,
framed by the empty window.

Release the Bats

2011-09-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

[poem was here]

Desert Pastoral

2011-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

This stretch of highway
littered with hawk skulls
and rocks of all sizes.
Goodnight! I’m
going to sleep for a while
and when I wake up
let us be in Las Vegas,
City of Wrecked Cars,
Mortgages, Marriages,
Great Glittery Blink,
whatever else you got!
It’s mysterious this force inside you
like a jet engine,
a deep cold pond
full of broken statuary
in the middle of a dark forest.
It’s a mysterious force
blasting us through this world,
this great desert
you call home. I see
something on the horizon
but you won’t tell me what it is.
I see some blaze in the dark but
you’re not speaking.
You’re wearing a skull
on top of your head,
A skull instead of your head
and when you speak up
it’s the small animals and bugs
tunneling through the Earth
that you talk about.
On and on and on.

The Rest is History

2011-09-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

I asked what you thought about the movie.
You asked what movie.
I said what movie indeed.
We decided at that moment
to get married and open a bed and breakfast.
It all went wonderfully
until it burned down in the middle of the night.
I said I wonder what caused that fire.
You said what fire.
And we decided to never speak again.
I moved to an island and didn't tell you
and you did the same.
Now we live on opposite ends of the same island
waiting for whatever will bring us together again
under this yellow tropical moon.

Race to the Bottom

2011-09-22T08:36:00.001-07:00

Not even the trees look quite like they’re supposed to though it’s hard to pinpoint what’s wrong. It’s like the volume has been turned down on them or something. Also the clouds are hovering way too low, like they’re moving into smothering position over the houses. Adults stay very, very late at work. The children advance on each other slowly, with child-sized weapons in their fists: baseball bats and hammers, some of the smaller axes you see at the hardware store downtown. One child loads a pillowcase with rocks and old batteries. Deer flee into the woods. Their tails look like small, vanishing white flags.

Hot Topics

2011-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Greece
National Debt
Poverty
The Fed
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Mahmoud Abbas
What are you looking at
Israel
Mexico
Iran
Libya

The New York Times

2011-09-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

I think about today's edition of the New York Times
and it is too much. I think about how goats
needs a complex system of nutrients to survive,
and I know that I cannot supply them.
This is one reason I don't have any goats.
Half a country away from me my friend
reads the New York Times and drinks coffee
before he goes out to check on the cow,
the pigs. He has no goats. Yet.
There will be some goats in the future
if things work out. That's always the catch:
if things work out. They hardly ever do,
I think, but that only makes the times when they do
work out that much sweeter. If things worked out
all the time it would be paralysis, a state of total
static being. It would be boring. It would be
Death. So instead I'm constantly grasping
at loose ends, trying to knit experience
into a comprehensive understanding of the whole
shaking world and my own probably stupid place in it.
I think about the BBC and it's too much to bear:
Yemen, Libya, my other friend who says that
politics and government at the national level
is useless and only fools vote and he's got
a degree in economics which when it comes
to local government funding and distribution
of finite resources into the community
probably trumps my poetry education.
But maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'm just
the person for the job. I mean,
goats can eat practically anything.
Someday my friend will have goats
flocking over the misty hills
where he lives. They'll
be fruitful, happy,
and you couldn't
stop them even
if you tried.

True Story

2011-09-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

I ordered your book off of the internet
and when it came in the mail
I turned the brown envelope
over in my hands.
It was sealed with shiny silver tape.
I tried to open it and a sharp edge
from either the brown envelope
or the shiny silver tape
cut my thumb painfully.
But the book looked good
smeared with my blood
and I wondered for the millionth time
whether you order something
off of, from, or through the internet.
But the point is, I got blood on your book
before I could read a single word
and I may not even know
what the internet really is.

CNN Explains Your World

2011-09-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

World's most amazing hotel pools
Signs of a good restaurant

Alleged Gumby bandit turns self in
Struggling to define "Chinese" style

Women, swearing and the workplace
Sofia Vergara: I look like a transsexual

Hot cars from Frankfurt Motor Show
Dumbest question in the universe

CNN: The Race to 2012

2011-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Poll: More trust Obama on economy
Cafferty: Should Obama reconsider run?

5 things to know about HPV debate
Bachmann's HPV claims disputed

Ticker: Ron Paul's health care defense
Opinion: Enough candidate God talk

CO² blamed in McDonald's death
Fat guy strips to break into eatery

My Greatest Fear

2011-09-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

A poem of mine called "My Greatest Fear" went up last night at Phantom Kangaroo. Huge thanks to Claudia Lamar!

A silent movie star is reborn: Pola Negri's lost Mania is found

2011-09-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

"The rediscovery and restoration of silent film Mania: The History of a Cigarette Factory Worker gives modern audiences the chance to be mesmerised by the melodrama of its Polish star"

"A Hero's Legend and a Stolen Skull..."

2011-09-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

Click

POST #900

2011-09-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

WOW.

Hey, also, please go check out The Bad Futurist, a new online literary journal. I have a prose piece over there called "The Other Plague". Many thanks to the editors.

2011-09-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

2011-09-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

I Grew Up Near a Forest

2011-08-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

Back when we were infants my brother and I would take turns trying to stab each other in the heart or the eyes. It was a game meant to prepare us for the real world. Have we been well prepared? Our parents won't say. Having raised us they then fled into the dark forest and have yet to reemerge. We imagine them shivering in the forest, leaves in their hair. We imagine them being attacked by great eagles and bears. I imagine a bear trying to stab me in the eyes. My brother and I are professors of philosophy and have taught most recently at the Sorbonne. My newest book will interest academics and laypeople alike. Who knows about my brother.

Moe ist ein Poet!

2011-08-30T15:14:00.001-07:00

Freedom for Yvonne

2011-08-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

"A week ago, in the dead of night, one intrepid tracker crept into the woods to stalk her. She appeared out of the mist, and stared him straight in the eyes. She walked off before he could fire a dart at her. He reported that she now looks more like a buffalo than a cow, and has evidently turned into a wild animal in her months on the run."

Old 98 vs. OSU, 1940

2011-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

What Happened When I Was Walking Through a Meadow One Day with My Brother

2011-08-29T13:18:00.001-07:00

When I was forty-eight and my brother was two we fell down an abandoned mine. I held my brother as we tumbled down through the darkness. My brother was very scared and I was not a little scared, too. I thought about how my blood was darkly rushing through my veins and arteries, and how it was rushing through my brother's small body, and how we were both in turn rushing down darkly through the tunnel, which was created by people looking for valuable things, who chipped away at the walls and so made the walls they chipped away at, and blew up at earth to get at the valuable things. What kind of valuable things the miners were looking for, I wish I knew. Then I could better determine whether our accident was terrible or comic or merely tragic.

1 Week Till Michigan Football

2011-08-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

Dead or Alive

2011-08-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I used to ride the bus to school. On the radio a lot was Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive," which was a big hit at the time. I would listen to the song and imagine what was happening to the singer, who I imagined to be a cowboy, because he said he was. He also said that he rode on a steel horse. I thought that he rode on an actual horse made of steel, like a larger-than-life one. It probably breathed fire.

It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I realized he was probably talking about a motorcycle, or at least a car.

Anyway, this past summer I saw the movie Thor. In this movie the ultimate weapon of the Norse gods is a giant, empty suit of spiky armor that breathes fire. It's, like, eight feet tall and practically indestructible. I watched this movie, which wasn't very good, and thought about how if that suit of armor met the steel horse from "Dead or Alive" that I'd imagined, and how they'd probably be inseparable best friends. Bon Jovi, who I now consider something of a poseur and nothing at all like a weathered cowboy, would be left bleeding in the dust if he tried to stop them. Or he'd be a pile of ashes if that suit of armor from Thor breathed fire on him.

All I know is if I saw a giant suit of spiky armor breathing fire riding a steel horse breathing fire, I'd probably faint.

CNN

2011-08-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

Granderson: Panic over kids' education
Kardashian wedding report hijacked by kid

White House answers iReporters
12 red hot SUVs

Goldman Sachs CEO lawyers up
IPad = iPod: Apple's market forever?

Black women, hair and the gym
The death of the text message

CNN Eatocracy

2011-08-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

A knack for finding a message in a bottle
Uproar over lingerie for young girls
Comedian Jefferies on getting robbed
Tips for training a well-mannered dog
America's 5 least religious colleges
Your hopes and outrage set to music
Burger King dethroned

CNN Explains Your World

2011-08-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

MTV to debut plus-size reality star
Depardieu sorry for peeing on plane

You really love Betty White

Will reality TV ever change?
The 'heart attack proof' diet?

Burger King mascot dethroned
Ornish: Changes for a longer life

Bill Clinton's vegan embrace

ADHD diagnoses on the rise, CDC says
TEDMED: Inside the world of viruses

Does taking acid cause brain damage?

CNN

2011-08-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

N.M. hero is undocumented immigrant
North Korean leader arrives in Russia
L.A. sheriff's office in civil rights probe

Tropical Storm Harvey forms
Anthony's car crushed in junkyard
Activist vows to fast until bill passes

Ticker: Palin's shocking praise
Opinion: O'Donnell's reaction 'bizarre'
Catholic nuns do 'the wave'

CNN Sonnet

2011-08-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

Nivea apologizes for 're-civilize' ad
What happened to Robyn Gardner?
25 best places to find rich singles
Army: Ballistic boxers OK, but cups ...

NY crash 'like a Bruce Willis movie'
Police fighting flash mob mayhem
Classic Porsche gets green makeover
Wonder which iReports went viral?

How not to walk out on interview
Is charity sex better than no sex?
Blaming others can ruin your health
From twins to mustard & pirates!

Recession is inevitable
Bachmann: I'll bring back $2-a-gallon gas

CNN

2011-08-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

Team gets presidential pep talk
Make the perfect meatball

CNN: BREAKING NEWS

2011-08-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

Facebook debuts first biblical game
Painful spanking 'a gift from God'

Don't let your cell phone get hacked
Ranking top 100 players in NBA

Europe's debt solution? Work longer
Pakistan on the brink

Britney's ex welcomes 5th child
Matchmaker tip: Pick looks or loot

CNN: LATEST NEWS

2011-08-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Obama to talks jobs with Iowa farmers
Wal-Mart U.S. sales still hurting

James Murdoch may testify again
BART shuts, opens doors to foil protest

Ticker: Bill Clinton's GOP crush
Bachmann ducks gay questions

Suspect in Aruba to be transferred
Australian bomb suspect to be in court

Girl spanked to death in the name of God
Police: Father admits decapitating son

Hulk Hogan, daughter show skin
This Just In: CNN's news blog

CNN HEALTH 2

2011-08-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

Autism raises risk for later siblings
9 pediatric emergency essentials
Can melatonin prevent jet lag?
Doctors rock out in the OR
Vampire bat virus implicated in death

CNN HEALTH

2011-08-14T17:06:00.001-07:00

HypnoBirthing: Relax during labor?
'Easy birth' - One mother's story
Court rules against parts of health law
The top power foods for you
Breaking in your FiveFinger shoes
Why do I always think about food?
Quiz: The downside of antibacterials

Saturday Morning Cartoons

2011-08-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

It was a sunny day in California
It was a beautiful morning on the moon

It was a dark storm in the glen
Water flooding our tunnels

It was a a zap gun malfunction
In zero gravity and atmosphere

Bouncing spheres of electrical discharge
scorched our heads our white eyes blinking

It was a race to the death
Like yesterday's race to the death

When the gun wouldn't work
We looked straight down its barrel

The gun went off right in our face
scorched our heads our white eyes blinking

We dressed up as barbers
Riding trains into the Old West

We dressed in drag and sang opera
Our enemies wanted to marry us

CNN EDITION: U.S. INTERNATIONAL MÉXICO Set edition preference

2011-08-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

Injured man helped, then robbed
'Love Kitchen' feeds body, soul

Study: Kissing keeps spouse happy
Roseanne Barr set to star in new sitcom

Need a minion? There's an app for that
7 apps to make you a better person

If not college, then what?
Large wildfire in Virginia swamp

From iReporter to CNNer (and beyond)

2011-08-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Dry Texas town to recycle urine
Flooding in Hoboken

Stocks: Buckle up
Chilling in back-to-school chaos

Little man Bill: Size does matter
Pimps twist California dream

New video game about 1979 Iran revolt
Boy's ode to fallen dad inspires

This Just In: CNN's news blog

2011-08-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

This plane can hack you!
Walgreens to sell health insurance

Should bullfighting be banned?
Best sandwich in the universe?

'The sun will come out for Wall St.'
Welcome to CNN iReport boot camp

William Wordsworth: "London, 1802"

2011-08-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Gregory Lawless Talks with Kim Gek Lin Short

2011-08-07T13:42:00.001-07:00

Read it now at I Thought I Was New Here. And here's someone's awesome two-minute version of Dark Star.

AA+

2011-08-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

I will shiver the whole
night through

like the last few
years anyway,

spent sleeping
atop a stepladder

in the middle
of a sinkhole

on top of a cloud
that looks like

a vampire.

The Hazy Intersection of Art and Commerce

2011-08-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

My vision quest has paid off
in the form of a giant spider
fern that eats spiders
and also people, or,
more specifically,
it gives spiders a place
to grow to be giants
wherein they eat the people
who get trapped in the fern.
How is this a positive outcome?
I wrote this whole thing down
in the poem you are reading,
which I've sold to Hollywood.

36 Million

2011-08-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

The president walks out
and says words into a microphone.
They float up and randomly away
like bubbles above grass.
This morning 36 million
pounds of ground turkey were recalled
as the nation began
its long wait in traffic.
The ends are mysterious.
The problems are complex but
expressed in simple dollar signs.
I would love to help but
I'm blowing away, piece by tiny,
stupid piece.

I Read Poems Good?

2011-08-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

InDefinite Podcast #18 is up, wherein I read some poems from We Are Doomed: Dispatches from the City of the Future. Click to check it out right here, and then be sure to also read the rest of issue 21 of InDigest, wherein you will find lots of great writing.

INDIGEST No. 21

2011-08-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

InDigest 21 is live as of this morning. Click here to check it out.

You will find poems by Wendy Xu, Gregory Lawless, Monica McClure, Sarah Bridgins, Noah F. Grossman, David McAleavey, Adam Moorad, Maia Elgin, Masin Persina, Charlotte Seley, and broadsides by Paul Siegell. And that's just in the poetry section - there's a lot of other great writing and art ready for your consumption.

For instance, there's a lyrics sheet by Richard Buckner, who I was just talking about the other day as being the living embodiment of stage presence. (I saw him with my friend Chris in Ann Arbor, Michigan, about ten years ago - he killed it.)

Anyway, help us celebrate 21 issues of InDigest. Thanks to all of our contributors.

Stagflation

2011-08-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Rain blows in for days.
Here comes fun.
Here comes some
liars and thugs.
They've got shoes
at high sheen
and interests
in briefcases.
Their eyes are the color
of camouflage.
Their ties smell like rain.
Someone took
my books but then
gave them back,
who knows a thing
or two about
Keynesian economics,
voodoo, too.
No one's saying anything.
No one knows
what to do
with the dogs,
dogs that want
out.

New InDigest Coming Soon

2011-08-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

We're wrapping up the new issue. It's a doozy.

Happy Monday Morning

2011-08-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Ars Poetica

2011-07-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

[poem was here]