Friday, August 31, 2007

Check It Out/Click Here

FYI: I'll be teaching a poetry workshop this fall...

Where?
The Poetry Project at St Mark's Church
10th Street & 2nd Avenue/Manhattan
registration info:poetryproject.com

"The Poetry Project burns
like red hot coal in New York's snow." - Allen Ginsberg

Poetry Lab: Forms of Joyful Experimentation
Fridays At 7pm: 10 Sessions Begin October 12th

In this workshop we'll forge new paths to the poem by investigating how far a poem can depart from being “a poem” and yet still be a poem. We'll experiment with breath, heartbeat, movement, blogs, the alchemy of words, visions, letters to the editor, spontaneity, psychoanalysis, collaborations, appropriations and self-hypnosis along with various traditional forms. The main objective is to create a supportive, affirmative, creative and inviting atmosphere in our "Lab." A partial reading list will include: Hannah Weiner, Jacques Lacan, Diane Williams, David Markson, Miranda July, Thomas Bernhard, Bill Knott, Arthur Rimbaud, Alice Notley, Mina Loy and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Todd Colby is the author of Tremble & Shine, Riot in the Charm Factory, Cush and Ripsnort, all of which were published by Soft Skull Press.

Friday Top 5

1) "Not bound by rules but excelling over those that delineate without restraint." -Chen Hongshue, arist (1768-1822)
2) Coffee cups made of purple sand make the coffee vibrate with taste.
3) Delay won't seek reflection.
4) End all the sentences you speak today with the word "the."
5) The.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Top 5 Books on My Desk 8.29.07.--click photo to enlarge. You've been tagged.

High Class Pepper









Take a large green pepper
then taker a darning needle
and heat it in the stove
then stick that needle
through and through
the green pepper
and say:
kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss

Monday, August 27, 2007

Redbird 2

Forgetting a person's name is unlucky. When you retrace
your steps to the house, never sit down or you will get lost.
Sit down and rock without letting your feet hit the floor. If
you forget something, it means you are having a bad luck day.
To avert bad luck when you retrace your steps, take another route.
If you go back to the house for a forgotten item, it is pleasant
to see such things happening. A loaf is in your midst.
Sit down in a chair and count to ten to one-hundred to eleven tonight.
On leaving the house in the morning, if you go back in heavy writing
it means someone hates you or is angry at you about something.
It signifies an accident, if you return to the house
after beginning a journey.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Redbird

If you see a redbird
it is murder it is a good luck if shot
in the sign of the "heart." My friend and I,
we shot three times to bring you into alignment
with your family than would ever hit you
over the head with it, ever.
It is an uneasy feeling leaving the yard
with people screaming in the house.
If you go down to the park you will see
squirrels you will know where to look
for them when you get in the woods.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Saturday Night

Friday, August 24, 2007

Cherry Tale






















Some boys were playing baseball in the yard. A woman went out into the yard and was reaching for cherries. The batter threw back the bat and accidentally hit her on the head. She dropped dead at the same moment the child was born. On the girl's head there was a bald spot with red skin in the shape of a baseball bat. Storks bring cherries. Cherries eaten by a cat will cause fits. Cherries in the house come from dust. A friend is slain every time you eat a cherry, or ejaculate.

Drunken Boat 1991

I knew someone would post this someday on youtube. I have no idea who the two guys are at the start of the video. One thing is certain: that's me singing. My brother is playing drums on the song, but not in the video--that was another guy who played drums for us for awhile.

Friday Top 5

1) Max Roach & Clifford Brown: Joy Spring
2) Carla Bruni: Those Little Things
3) Elizabeth Zechel: Bad Boy Stabbing a Penguin
4) MF Doom: John's Mix
5) Max Jacob: The Dice Cup

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Contents

Section 1
voicemail, whacking, ventilator

Section 2
sweetie, trembles, nubs

Section 3
carpeting, copulation, flooring

Hair Poem

If you wash your hair with peach leaf it will
cause the hair to grow with rain water
rub your head on the person
who has red hair if you have tangles
rub a new penny and it will grow faster
to make hair blunty use a strong tea
made of peroxide it will affect the brain
I never throw my hair out I burn it
a tea made of walnut hulls is a trick
if you comb your hair before going
to bed you will become crazy

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

# 2 Dream

My Wish List

I wish I had tranquil
candy stripes the gold bars
the rhythm of giants
a small notepad
with the words
winner of time away
on the list of things
to do: nod out
on a hammock
in the country
with fluffy cotton
stuff and a calming
potion. Mint scented
air pine strips
a cake of rice
and some veggies.
And of course you
with your soothing
voice reading Shelley
to me in my sleep
kissing me between
every word.

My Friends, My Co-workers, My Comrades

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A Slippery Glimpse

Rain Poem

Rain comes &
air drops from
my face in cubes
of silver.
The air is thick
with swimming hands.
A dirty spoke,
a loose nut--
all the skin
in the world
is skin to skin
as this poem
is a key that starts a motor
that opens a door
that mops up a mess
in the wet dark.
A flash
of white light:
a piston
through
the frontal lobe
gone, done--
like that.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Pictures on the way to Rose Water last night (click)





Sunday Top 6

1) Allen Ginsberg reading Ezra Pound aloud (in the Naropa archives)
2) Goldberg Variations = Sunday Morning
3) Selected Dreams by Anne Boyer
4) Last night I had a dream that I had written a book of dreams so that I wouldn't have to explain my dreams to friends. In the dream I had bound the dream manuscript and was handing it out to friends while repeating: "okay, this will explain everything."
5) "Of those who feel God as light and those who feel him as rules." -Joseph Joubert (Paul Auster Translation)
6) Four articles about Jack Kerouac in today's NY Times Book Review (8.19.07)

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Husker Du, 1984

The video is bad, the audio isn't much better, and it sounds like there were 8 people in the room--but this clip gives me goosebumps.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Look Up More

Marginal Lives

Here's how to relax
by soothing
your marginal life
and get your eyes
to stop rolling in the back
of your head: A seminar!
Press on your chest "breathe!"
I am trying to save your
life with my seminar
on dramatic
life saving techniques.
It's standard
life saving material
putting us into
the position of
"responsibility" or "guest boss."
You don't even have to say
"save me" because we
know you need to be saved
just by observing you
through our hidden cameras.
I'm writing this from a mobile unit
while I observe you.
A question for you:
Can you get better
everyday at soothing
the buyer?
Another question:
would you scoot over
a bit for a new product
that we would like to
display where you
are standing? We'd like
you to sell it for us--we'll
teach you how. We talk
like this all the time
because we can
do things for you
if you let us.
We think we are
sure of this.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Husker Du: New Day Rising, 1985

George & Pig 1 & 2


Monday, August 13, 2007

Favorite New Band: Screaming Females

"There is no point in baseball." She's singing it now from the other room. I swear.

Heavy Stuff

You might see one of us in a totally
deep private space with a hook for an arm from some
hanger, in a crappy pirate movie with a flannel shirt
soaked in blood, lemons in one of our breast pockets
leaking sticky juice. You might have to crack open
a pomegranate and fling the seeds on the
damp blue carpet -- not out of mischief, but of spite --
that's the way you flow in your cycle of despair and woe.
You can shave or pluck the unsightly hairs from your
mysterious enemies, you can rake the yard
of glass and offal while casually piercing the bag
of gassy air. You can even score points
with a machete as you walk through the yards, but you'll
never ever ever ever ever make friends with
the cool group because they totally kick
ass and they are so tired of your bullshit.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday Top 6

1) J.M. Coetzee: Inner Workings, Literary Essays 2000-2005
(with essays on Walter Benjamin, Paul Celan, Robert Musil, Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser, et al)

2) Ali Farka Toure: Savane

3) The Fall: Shoulder Pads 1

4) Body Glide

5) John Godfrey: Midnight on Your Left

6)

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Four




We Don't Have Much Time

It increases low potential
in and out of mythical lives.
We don't have much time.
Who heals in a vacuum?

a body made of 5000 ears.

Almost a sham root word for "peace"
or method of in rather than out.

Out moving leaves blown
by a gasoline powered breeze
over his shoulder walking
blowing stuff around
a high-pitched whine.

In our system: engaging charming
witty and so on--good with people--
the report said after they washed him
a potential tycoon leaning
on the tracks of rock America.

Tension in has son as
so as centuries so as glad
so as light is elastic
so as good nerves
so as mind come.

You are in their needs.

Did I tell you my dream
about balloons on Lake Geneva? No, that's
okay I can't really too tired.

Some stupid with a flare gun.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Brick Camera

I feel no outlet
big enough for my
and you
in sheep scape
in dog hair jeans
prone in jagged bottle car
nape of neck bent, irregular
"how you do that" I whisper
goddamn little ridiculer
say I say sway
under the canopy
the real canvas burning
a hole in this guy
I shudder in recognition
of this

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Sunday Top 3

1) Angel food cake
2) Merce Cunningham
3) A squirrel holding a tiny heart.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Peach Pie, Passion Flower & Pensive Cat