Ribbon

i think I want to just write i dont know what quite about yet but i just want to write and let my fingers glide over the keyboard in a very sexual manner in the hopes that this laptop that is already turned on stays turned on because it is so easy to run your fingers along a woman who is already turned on and turn her off so i am hoping that doesnt happen this time but we will see and i was also thinking about how im not going to look at the laptop or the screen for a while so that what i type is fresh and raw but i have written so much that even when i make a typo my fingers move to the backspace button and correct it so oddly enough it is more natural for me to fix my mistakes than it is for me to let them be but from here on out i will vow to just type and whatever happenes happens but i just corrected one dammit i cant stoop it and now i think i finally have let go i am not sure if i have made any types yet i just know that i havent hit the basck space button so i should be fine and i just did it again twice weird anyway i really hope there arent any apostrophes or periods because i didnt want any i just wanted the words to come and since i dont think with apostriphes or periods then the words should just come naturally yuou would think or hope









i stopped and thought for a second and my mind isnt much clearer i have a 12 hour drive tomorrow and my nieces birthday party is today even though she turned 4 yesterday and all three of my nieces are together for the second time in their short lives i wonder what life will be like if i move to korea or china or little italy in downtown san diego and these ppeople in here must be regulars because a few of them say to each other hi dan and hi mary and hi i didnt catch what the real names they used were because im a snoop but not a fuckin eavesdropper and the cute girl at starbucks just looked over here but that was a different prose/poem and not this one so i dunno what i am doing mentioning her other than the fact that i have a girl addiction i think and i have resumed back into correcting my words and this ramble is nearing to a close but i promised myself that when i finish it that i would leave and i dont want to leave just yet becayse this girl is really cute and since i dont live here i want to spend as much time as i can near her from 5 meters away as she works and i sit here like a creeper on the laptop but honestly i mean im not THAT creepy i have seen some creepers in my life and im not one of them at least i dont have a big orthodox jewish man beard and an orange t shirt and khaki shorts and dark eyeglasses because if i did then that would be much creepier than my current attire and facial hair




i stopped to think for a second and this is turning into much longer than i thought it would be but since it is probably my last work of the class it may as well be long and fruitful and i should really check my email again and where was i i think i was talking about how this will be my last post on this blog from this mindset as far as this class i think i should make it like 15 paragraphs long with no punctuation because kasey would like that because i know kasey and i almost spelled it casey but its kasey not casey or kc but since i know kasey he may or may not read all of this shows how much i know casey and he may read it and think it is random or terrible shows how much i know kasey and he will think well at least tommy was writing and it is the spirit of writing that is important and i wonder if it is flarfian or flarfistic or goldsmithian if i were to write a whole novel like this where i just wrote and write with no regard for punctuation or grammar or real coherent thought and what would i call it i guess i would call it thought or tommy or brain or synapse or something trendy and catchy and that way if it got published i could go on book tours and wear really outrageous clothing and be all brash and shit and have my friends film me and i will mark down the times i wrote and for how long and that will be the only division between thoughts is that i will sit down and write like this for say an hour or four hours with the tv and radio on and i will make comments and they will be like little timestamps within the text but i have to research if that has ever been done before i bet it has because every other thing i think about doing has already been done or is stupid like a seatbelt for a dog or a knife holder that locks so that if it is knocked over it wont spill the knives or your kids cant get it and slit your throat like that step grandfather just got his throat slit by his 13 year old granddaughter over milk he wouldnt give her or something i dunno i saw it on nancy grace and she yells all the fuckin time so its difficult to get all of the real details but anyway rest in peace old man this world is too harsh for you


done

My Niece

My niece told me the craziest thing. She said:
"come on come on. u wanna
asdfsfgds
fdsgdfsf
wdfdsfs
dfdsf
sdfsd
fdsfdsfdsfghdsnfhgjmnjh
cybgserdgv
btsnytgbsg
dnf
ddfnyd
fnhfx
dbgfn
bgfsn
nd
ngfh
df'h
gdfsgdnbhgfnmhjkfdskmbg,gh
dfbgdghfnkhfdhbg
dhbdgthdb
rhnb?"

Eating Coffee Cake Crumbs with a fork

begin sitting in your chair at the Sandy, UT Starbucks located on the corner of 9400 east and 13oo south. Order a hot chocolate and coffee cake. hear remark from lady who helped you the day before. flirt with cute coffee maker woman. look around. sit. get up. go back to car and retrieve danny's laptop (borrowed). eat, drink, and be merry (as permitted). write emails and check facebook. write poems. check facebook. think to yourself (is there a difference between prose and thought?) (note: make sure at the end of the thought there is a huge question mark in your head and it ought to be yellow...that is not a personal preference it is a commandment). finish coffee cake and begin sifting crumbs around with fork #2 until there is a large amount in the middle of the plate. place the fork in your hand in normal American fashion. place the fork on the top of the plate (12:00) and scrape downward. allow crumbs to collect onto fork, some falling back to plate between prongs. lift fork to mouth allowing for more crumbs to fall back to the plate between prongs. eat left over crumbs. sift remaining crumbs together again. place fork at 12:00 and repeat. repeat. repeat. get frustrated and say "to hell with these crumbs". write a poem about how to eat crumbs. change the poem from a poem to a bit of prose. delete all capitalizations except Sandy UT. think about crumbs. obsess about crumbs. gross out about couple kissing 3 meters away at 12:00. lick plate. wish you had another coffee cake. walk up to counter to look at cute drink making woman. think about if you want to order another coffee cake. smile at cute coffee maker. get asked question by ugly non cute register worker who helped you yesterday. tell her you want another coffee cake but you shouldnt. receive compliment about manish figure but do not give another back. walk back to seat. sip some hot chocolate. look out window. get angry. throw danny's laptop (borrowed) to the floor. run around anngrily. wake up from odd fantasy. notice danny's laptop (borrowed) still in fine cosmetic and working condition. sigh sigh of relief. feel weird. think about going pee but not wanting to leave your items unattended. realize you are in Sandy UT and they are probably safe. don't go pee anyway due to paranoia. end poem. think about expanding poem that is now prose. expand poem that is now prose a little bit further. advance through life during normal course of action 50 years (having babies and meals and flights and shits and cups of chocolate and infidelities and rounds of golf and shitty ties for fathers day and anger and high cholesterol and one drinks too many and cars and books and haircuts and salads). get assassinated.

Kasey is Fucking crazy (from google)

read the kAsey aka Mangodunks blog on myspace.com...so fucking crazy I love the city
Kasey Louise Dearnley I got brown hair with blonde highlights and green eyes and i smell...AND I'M FUCKING CRAZY
Kasey school is so fucking crazy
myspace profile for kasey birch. find friends share photos...no kenny is Fucking crazy
myspace profile for kasey eileen. find friends share photos...And yes my dear i am sorry to say...you are Fucking Crazy
hot crush #5 kasey kahne...miss you like crazy since you went away. every hour every day...and seriously gutsy as all fucking hell.

Utah Lady

This Utah lady talks to her children like they are adults.
She looks so young to have five children.
The daughter is wearing a ballerina outfit
the four sons, t-shirts and shorts,
though it is raining outside

Fact and Fact and Fact

Theres a man in this Starbucks who is looking at an iphone, slurping his iced coffee.
He is sitting alone has two different flavored (or at least colored) iced coffees.
I think he is a murder.

Advice from Gary

This is getting weird because
my new friend
Gary (the auctioneer and City Manager and Skinny Santa look-alike)
told me some sage advice:

"Tommy,"
he said in a voice not so gruff,
"you gotta learn to do something different.
A few years ago (about 6 to be exact)
I went to Billings, MT and
became an auctioneer"

Apparently
to Gary
I look like a potential welder.

Blaine, Washington

Gary has been City Manager in Blaine since February 2000. Prior to coming to Blaine he was the City Administrator in Wenatchee, WA and the County Manager in Gunnison, Co. Gary started his career with local government in 1974 and has worked at local, regional and state levels of government. He also was a municipal bond underwriter for several years in the late 1980’s.

Gary has his bachelor and master’s degree from Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

He and Renate have been married for 37 years. They have two grown children and three grand children.

Gary’s avocation is auctioneering. He is a frequent auctioneer for fund raising events throughout Whatcom County where he has raise over $1 million for local charities.

Though he enjoys travel and golf his passion is fly-fishing. He sneaks out to near-by streams and lakes as often as he can.

Gary is on the Board of Directors for the Washington City Manager’s Association; treasurer of his Rotary Club and a member of the St. Joseph’s Hospital Citizen’s Advisory Council. He also serves on the Association of Washington Cities Small Cities Advisory Committee.

Gary welcomes anyone to visit his blog and provide comment:

blaineman.typepad.com


I Met Gary Tomsic in the Sandy Utah starbucks because I didn't know what city I was in. We chatted for a bit and it turned out that he is the City Manager (in essence the mayor) of a city in Washington. Weird...small world

http://www.ci.blaine.wa.us/index.aspx?nid=272

Fact and Fiction

Fact
The Grande (16 0z.) hot chocolate that I bought to drink this morning did not burn my tongue when I took the first sip.

Fiction
The mega super Grandito large (157 0z.) latte that I bought to gulp scalded my gums and burned my tongue to the point where I cannot speak any more so my sole form of communication will be writing in this blog from now on.

Starbucks in Sandy, Utah

Door
rug over tile
tile
caution...slippery when wet plastic sign
tile
circle wooden table
wooden chair
wooden chair
circle wooden table
wooden chair with woman
tile
wooden chair
rectangle wooden table
wooden chair with man (possibly related to Seth Rogen...or Screech)
tile
metal sign
tile
wooden chair
circle wooden table
wooden chair
tile
wicker basket display
tile
wooden bookshelf
tile
wooden counter
tile
comfy leather chair with on break employee who was nice to me
rug over tile
circle coffee table (go figure)
rug over tile comfy leather chair
metal lamp
tile
comfy leather chair
tile
wooden chair
tile
circle wooden table
tile
wooden chair
tile
wooden chair with woman
tile
circle wooden table
tile
wooden chair with man
tile
circle wooden table
tile
wooden chair with me

To be answered post-mortem

Is tang tangy?
If I drop two skittles, one yellow one red, from my hand at the same time, one atop the other, from inside of an airplane, at a very high altitude, will the sun still rise?
Will the skittles in the experiment before land atop each other and create an orange skittle two times as large as the other ones?
If they land atop a bald man's head will they kill him?
They say male pattern baldness comes from your mother's side. Well, does that mean I will go bald if my mother's father is bald or does it have to be my mothers, mother's father? How does that work? Lets do some math here. Let's say my mother's dad went bald. Is that gene in my gene pool, considering that he is my mother's father, and the gene has to come from her mother's side of the family. Or is it that if anyone in my mother's family goes bald, I have that gene?
When do feet wake up, if they fall asleep?
Do an alcoholic's feet wake up and have a drink?

Death...the sweet release


Yes
Yes
No
N/A
Depends on the man
Yes, you will go bald
It just works
Yes
When blood circulation increases
Don't be a fuckin retard

waiting for Simon

Simon says be born
Orenthal James Simpson was born
Simon says go to college and play football
OJ Simpson goes to USC and plays football
Simon says win a Heisman
OJ Simpson wins a Heisman
Simon says become a pro football player
OJ Simpson becomes a pro football player
Simon says get to the hall of fame
OJ Simpson gets inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame
Get all high on PCP, kill your wife and her friend
OJ Simpson got all high on PCP, killed his wi...
Simon says get acquitted
OJ Simpson gets acquitted
Simon Says write a book about how you would have killed them
OJ Simpson writes a book about how he would have killed them
Simon Says deal with shady merchandisers and get crazy, grab a gun, and legally kidnap them
OJ Simpson deals with shady merchandisers, gets crazy, grabs a gun, and legally kidnaps them
Simon Says get convicted for said crime
OJ Simpson gets convicted for said crime
Die a free man
OJ Simpson will die a free ma...ah Simon didn't say

beard

eye eye
nose nose nose
nose nose nose
nose nose nose
nose nose
nose nose
nose nose
nose


beard beard
beard beard mouth mouth mouth beard beard
beard beard mouth mouth mouth beard beard
beard beard mouth mouth mouth beard beard
beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard
beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard
beard beard beard chin beard beard beard beard beard beard
beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard
beard beard beard beard beard bead beard beard beard beard
(it is at this point that I realized that this poem is not going to look the same when I publish it in a new window, but I continue for the sake of what I started)
beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard
beardbeardbeardbeard beard beard beardbeadbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beard beardbeard beardbeard beard beardbeardbeardbearadbeardbeardbeard
beardbeard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbearbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beardbeardbeardbeardbeardbeard
beard beardbeard beard
beard

Response to Shell Fisher

Can Flarf ever be taken seriously?

I read and re-read the article, loved the picture at the top featuring our incredible and becoming instructor K Silem Mohammad (which I don't think I will ever spell incorrectly again) and have drawn a few conclusions:

As far as Flarf being taken seriously, well the definition of seriously has to be examined. Is Flarf serious, if Flarf poetry was a person would it work in marketing for bloomingdales and wear a suit and tie, probably not. I think of the Flarf poetry, especially google and internet searching for funny word phrases, as a readership gone right. Though it is not my personal cup of tea, you have to respect any poetic movement that has gained so much steam over the past few years. If an email readership amongst friends has grown into books and readings upon books and readings, in bigger anthologies and venues over the years, then we should be able to accept flarf as viable. Douglas Rothchild reminds me of an old film critic that says "this rubbish isn't cinema...Citizen Kane is cinema" in response to watching the boxoffice hit Johnny Knoxville movie "The Ringer". Though the script and story may not be as in depth and intricate, nor the acting as polished, both are technically films, shot with cameras and starring people, and whether something meets any persons personal standards or not does not detract from the art's personal merit. Flarf poetry, and The Ringer for that matter keeping along with the analogy, does not want to fit into the traditional canon. The traditional canon is boring, outdated, uninspired, and didn't have internet access. I think Flarfists would chuckle at the idea of being taken seriously, ironic though that "flarfists" is an accepted word and doesn't have a red squiggly. Look at the title of the movement "flarf" look at the way flarfists dress, or conduct themselves, or, and God forbid, what they write about and you will see that being taken seriously is not their intention. However, whether you take them seriously or take them as a set of poetic anarchists who's main goal is to destroy poetry and create a neo-linguistic society where incoherent utterances are our only form of communication, they are here and weird, get used to it.

Conceptual poem idea #1

Every conceptual poetry idea i come up with seems very hacky...oh well..


K Silem MoHollywood

K Silem Mohammad stars as marine pilot in action thriller Independence Day
K Silem Mohammad stars in the new Burn After Reading trailer
K Silem Mohammad stars as Mr. Gable in Magnolia Pictures' The Great Buck Howard
K Silem Mohammad stars as businessman Evan Danielson in the family comedy
is K Silem Mohammad going dancing with the stars?
Talk about star power. The fear that a K Silem Mohammad movie might decamp from Mass.
K Silem Mohammad stars as Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter in the movie
Ex-football great K Silem Mohammad co-stars in this blood filled police actioner
K Silem Mohammad stars as Max Payne
K Silem Mohammad is set to star in an advert with David Beckham.

so far

I've just been tinkering with the symbols in microsoft word and seeing what I can come up with. It's not really conceptual writing OR procedure based poetry but it's been fun...

Convention Food

 

At the convention, the group leader says:

“Raise your Nif you ate the tilapia…”

you raise your N--

“ok keep them raised if you have felt a little faint since then”

you’ve been feeling a little off so you keep your N raised--

“ok now raise them high

if you’ve had toe-clenching

stomach-churning

asshole-ripping

diarrhea since then”

everyone in the room’s Ns stand up straighter and stiffer

than flagpoles,

that’s when you realize

you have the slowest digestive tract

of all of the accounts

that work on the third floor…

 

Magic Remote

 

4 You find a remote on some grave

7 You watch yourself being born

8 You watch yourself on your deathbed

7 You watch yourself being born

8 You watch yourself on your deathbed

7 You watch yourself being born

8 You watch yourself on your deathbed

:   Someone finds a remote on your grave

Conceptual Poetry revisited

Think of this more as a gripe. I just don't get it. I sat here for maybe 10 minutes trying to think of ways to be uncreative. I tried incorporating my itunes, looking in my fridge, but it all seems so forced. Watching that video where Goldsmith reads part of "Day" really drove me off the deep end I think...

Mind FREAK! (dedicated to Criss Angel)

7/31/2009

 

N   saw Criss Angel in Las Vegas today,

and for a master illusionist,

you’d think he’d make himself look taller.

Lesson 13 Conceptual Writing

Conceptual writing is to conventional poetry and other forms of "creative" writing what Gruel (we've all heard of it but hopefully never tasted it) is to a nutritionally balanced meal from Benihannas (if they exist). Meaning, both are still food, one is assumed to be bland, unimagined, uninspired, tasteless, and intolerable but as far as using language it "fills you up". To take it further, there is no REAL difference as far as mass is concerned if you eat enough gruel to fill you up or if you eat enough of an inspired delicious meal to fill you up, outside of taste, nutrition, and display. I think of Conceptual writing, and I base my definition largely from the Goldsmith reading in the harriet, as gruel because it is not trying to do anything but "fill you up" or fill pages or use language. Gruel, we can assume or we can ask Annie and some other mistreated orphans, is meant to purely fill up whoever consumes it with no regard for taste or flavoring, nutrition, or inspiration. It is largely de-motivating, hard to swallow, just like Conceptual writing.


The difference between a movement like Dada or Language poetry and Conceptual writing is pretty much answered, though oddly, in my first paragraph. There is some artistic merit to pretty much any other form of writing, especially Dada, and it is not that conceptual writing falls short in being creative, it is not trying to be creative in any means. In some of Goldsmith's work, there is no clear "point" or message to get across. Scanning a dictionary for the schwa sound, recording every bodily movement and writing it down, and reprinting a newspaper into a 900 page book are inherently uncreative conceptually. A Dada work may attempt to make some type of claim or statement and that is not the point at all of Conceptual writing.


In regards to the thinkership, obviously as Goldsmith stated he doesn't expect works like Day to be read, but rather thought about. A readership, a collection of devout followers who read your work, is definitely useless if you are creating work that doesn't necessarily ask to be read. Goldsmith's work is meant to be admired, pondered, and examined moreso on it's ambition and merit than it's "creativity" so it's not necessarily the act of reading it that should appeal to his followers, but thinking about it and examining it and placing value upon it as a whole is what is important.

Lesson 12 The New Sentence

Reading Silliman's 8 new sentence observations struck me as quite odd, though I was intrigued. Some of the themes of the "new sentence" seemed very inherent and didn't need to be stated. Beginning with the first feature, "the paragraph not the stanza organizes the sentences" seems obvious for prose poetry. I think with my rudimentary understanding of modernism and the movements afterward this conclusion was already made and enforced. Prose poetry by look and creation mostly strays away from the stanza form. The second feature, "the paragraph is a unit of quantity; not logic or argument" seems unnecessary as well. Maybe I am making large and bold generalizations, but it seems like this is obvious.

I didn't get these features or their relevance until they were explained. After looking at the Lyn Henjinian piece, and getting the explanation about the explicitness of numbers and their relevance, things began to clear up. Silliman is not only stating the obvious, but he is sort of giving loose guidelines as well as acknowledging the artistic nature of the work around him. I think pointing out these types of things so that followers of his work and the works of his comrades can notice certain meticulous detail connects the artists as well as admirers. I think of poets like John Weiners and Russell Edson and their prose poetry, nearly short stories, that embody this type of "new sentence poetry" with works like "The Toymaker" and "Ape" as great poetic examples.

My attempt...

The Train Riders

The November air is cold as it arrives. 7 cabins and 14 boxcars follow the head of the proud steam engine. The riders individually exit onto the platform once the rickety doors open.

There are three riders of note. The first and second are men. The last is a young woman with an umbrella draped across one shoulder.

The first man is a banker from New Orleans. This is his annual trip from the muggy south-coast up to the brisk shoreline around New England. His body is stout and atop his broad shoulders sits a massive head with a brow that protrudes like a cro-magon.

The second man is an apprehensive skinny farmer who caught the train in Kentucky in hopes that his fortunes would turn with a trip to the North. His clothes reveal his troubles in the bluegrass state and his stare is tired. He hasn't a place to stay or a person to call, but the change in scenery looks to be a change in luck.

The woman, slender and beautiful has arrived after being beckoned from an old love from before the war. Her belongings are packed tightly in a small chest, save for the umbrella. Her mouth is slack-jawed yet still feminine, while her stance reveals more class than anything else.

Before the three explore their destination a cool breeze arises. A collective chill scurries through the spines of the two men and lone woman. The three of them all think of warm fires and hot meals.

The train slowly pulls away as our three are left on the platform. Looking for luck, love, and
cradling consistency, the three stand for a second and admire the cool before walking into the train station together but individually. The night remains cold through the windows that surround the brick building.

--------------

So I tried to use the numbers thing as a way to anchor my prose. I used three couple of ways: riders and sentences per paragraph, as well as tried to use 21 twice (7 plus 14 in the first paragraph, 21 sentences since their are seven paragraphs of three sentences each). I tried to have every sentence motivate the next but don't know how successful I was in that, and KNOW that I didn't let ideas spill into the next paragraph as they should and I used the "old sentence" form of having paragraphs remain as units of argument and logic rather than PURELY measurement.

Joke

A man walks into a knock knock and asks the owner if he has any grapes
whos there
any grapes
no
no who?
and leaves

a man walks into a knock knock and asks the owner if he has any grapes
whos there
any grapes
no
no who?
and leaves

a man walks into a knock knock and asks the owner if he has any grapes
whos there
any grapes
listen next time you walk in here and ask for grapes I'm going to nail your feet to the floor
listen next time you walk in here and ask for grapes I'm going to nail your feet to the floor who?
and leaves

a man walks into a knock knock and asks the owner if he has any nails
whos there
any nails
no
no who? any grapes?
and leaves

wordless poem (you asked for it)

Lesson 11

I was glad to find the meaning behind the Perelman poems, I think in an earlier class I was already told about Chronic Meaning, and find China even more wonderful now that I know the true meaning behind each of the phrases. I like the idea of writing through, because it makes a found poem that much more interesting when something is done to it. In one class we had to make chapbooks and a classmate, Kandi Rock-wal-ski (phonetics only) spliced together two random works of literature and made wonderful poems in the Mesostic form much like that explained by Kasey about John Cage. Sorry about the sidebar. As I further read I can feel myself grasping and losing concepts at the same time. The purpose of language poetry is to make the stone "stony" again without describing how stony it is but rather using some crazy cross reference and circular explanation? Professor Mohmmad is a very smart man? I am utterly confused.

The explanation through modern terms, finally!, however was what sort of brings this concept home. LOL for example is used all the time even when I or others aren't laughing out loud. Someone can say, "I'll be a few minutes late, mom is acting like a bitch" in a text message to me and my autopilot response is "lol its all good" when A-I am not laughing out loud, B-mom being a bitch isn't all good, and C-all good is a much better alternative to "its ok if you are late" considering I would rather have a meal that is "all good" versus one that is satisfactory. I could spiral like this forever since language is filled with accepted metaphors and similes and the common understanding of certain colloquialisms and I guess that is what this whole section is about.

I guess this poem is about the word poem and how it sounds. I'm sure there is a procedure to it but I don't know how to really explain it.

Poem

Po
Po Po
Police
Police Officers
Men and women who enforce the societal laws.

Po
Pour
to transfer liquid from one container to another

Po
Poor
without money

em
um
a place holder in speech, a definitionless word

em
them
those that are not us or like us

Poem
Po-em
Poor them
those people who are not like us because they are poor

Poem
Po-em
poor them
those people who are not like us and that is unfortunate

Poem
Po-em
Pour them
A number of liquids in one container that are being urged to be moved into others.

Lesson Ten L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E

When I think of "a poem about nothing" my mind races to Seinfeld and then I think of my favorite episode and then the last thing I'm thinking about is poetry...case in point, this very post. I'm going to switch it up and write my poem first.

There it is.
Red apples make crunching sounds.
My favorite is the taller one with the feathers. While
running it devours.
And towers lean.
True enough, she is in rare form.

Wire lays beside the binder. The chatter is mindnumbing.
Is dust dusty? Probably so.
Where there are no lions
there lies the young.
Remarkably, lysol outlasts bacteria.

Infection is the leading lecture.
Whereas potency, has three minds of their own.
Black screens lay beside the wall,
next to the outlet.
Does not compute!
These pretzels are making me thirsty. A phrase isn't a phrase
until it's regurgitated
at a cocktail party
as a bizzare quip
from a socialite.
Organic popcorn,
lightly salted.
The sensation of an electric stapler is comforting.

------------OK



Of the two poems, Bob Perelman's China and Chronic Meaning, I would most closely compare my work of linguistic calamity to China. Chronic Meaning is only the first five words of longer sentences, some of which can be categorized as complete statements some of which cannot, whereas China seems to have complete phrases that are singluar, cohesive, and complete in their own right, yet are completely unattached to the statement that follows. I tried to write a poem that wasn't about anything, but believe I failed miserably. It was a lot more difficult than I thought. I just wrote a bunch of random sentences and hoped that I completed the assignment. It was difficult given the parameters that we couldn't make up words and that we had to stick to regular linguistic format because every American sentence that I know of has at least one subject and one predicate. It takes me back to China, the poem AND the country, and thinking "how can these phrases make sense together?" I don't think the poem is about anything, but it is also not about anything. I don't think that makes sense. The point is not about any one specific thing, but rather it is about a multitude of different things all at once. In Chronic Meaning, the phrases are taken from another work and shortened to the sameword length. Since those sentences are already written and shortened, Perelman is literally using a procedure in order to make the poem. The procedure itself lends to linguistic ambiguity in some cases. I don't really know if it is possible to write coherent sentences and not have them be about anything in particular. If read out of the blue I don't think either poem would make "sense" from start to finish, but in each work there are instances, especially throughout China, where they make sense.

Lesson Nine

Catch up time...thats what Fridays are for I guess....


I dont really know how to respond to the ninth lesson without merely parrot-ing back the facts that were given. There wasn't an argument made or a side taken so the post was highly informative but uncharacteristically uncontroversial. I guess I agree with it? One of the main things about the information we were given was the lack of African Americans and women in the two rival poetic anthologies of the early 1960s. It is ironic how poets, at least now, are seen as more "outcasts" and as a subgroup in the literary community yet they were exclusionary in their own right. Especially amidst the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s, it is very ironic that these types of practices were accepted.

As for the decline of poetry...I wonder where and when the form became less popular. Granted, I am no avid newspaper or magazine reader so I can't entirely vouch that a poet WASN'T on the cover of Life or Time magazine in their last editions, I can safely assume. I can think of people who are outwardly against our "war" in the middle east, I won't even get into it's comparisons with our "war" in Vietnam, but poetry must not pack the same muster as it used to since I don't really remember poets, poetry, poetic movement or stance, ever being mentioned in the same breath as war in Iraq. The fallout must have been after the Beat movement since, according to Kasey, the Language poets received little mainstream press.

I am trying to be creative but the only thing that pops into my head is the "I'm just a bill" from schoolhouse rock so I decided to make cut ups of those words, throw them up and whichever words appeared face up would make the poetic line in order from distance from me backward...and the words I used were "I'm just a bill yes im only a bill and im sitting here on capitol hill"..I added all punctuation.

Billy tossed from capitol hilly (shuffled 8 times)

A sitting a yes hill bill just I'm only
I'm on bill yess I'm hill just and
only im here. I'm yes a sitting
only a on,
A bill. Sitting hill yes I'm just bill and on
here on hill capitol and a
hill. I'm only capitol just here a I'm
on sitting here, hill I'm a only.

Response to the Rant and 7+

I think the whole objection to using poetic procedures as a way to create poetry stems from the shared, and very conscious, belief that poetry ought to be tied to sentiment. Especially in contemporary life, new poems are mainly seen by large audiences on greeting cards. The poetry taught in most schools is often times associated with rhyme, meter, and feeling. Teachers ask and ask "how does this make you feel" "what feeling is the poet trying to convey" and to have procedures that tell you how to write poetry, not be structure but by content, seems very odd. I agree that procedural poetry in itself is very artistic and should be considered art, but the lack of emotion often times comes off as a lack of creativity. 

I believe that coming up with these procedures is in itself very creative and fun. My personal disagreement with "anti-art" as art is the overt brashness. I dislike the "this isn't art...deal with it...evaluate it if u want but u can't" type of attitude that seems to come from the voices within the field, because my personal tastes call for order, objectivity, and direct evaluation. I like being able to push for answers, ask why, and to me poetry, as with all writing, ought to be defended. It is not to say that everyone owes an explanation, but something better than, it is art because I dropped some words into a paper bag and picked them out, seems devoid of any explanation.

Though my views are my views, I completely see the contrary. For one, Dada works of art are incredibly surreal, artistic, unique, and bold in their own rights; and all the aforementioned adjectives make for creative works. I agree that art doesn't always have to be "sincere" to be artistic, but I personally feel that an artist should feel tied to their work and some sort of evaluation should be able to be made.

Thinking of a way to do a +7 for now...