All of the Above

The wildly popular trapeze artist who annually and intentionally
breaks his legs jumping to the ground at the conclusion
of his act. His injuries become the obvious ending to the program
which by necessity and design he is only able to complete once a year.

Dual Suffocation on The Maid of the Mist (Thanks Jill)

A New Year Poem

I am luminous and measured
as a crescent wrench in whipped cream.
My position is the one that song and dance
and caffeine and the joy of friends provide.
I seek ink and the relief that letters formed
by this liquid give to the page. I climb stairs
daily with a certain fretful if not erotic
grief. I forbid nothing and embrace all.
I step into the snowbanks as though
I will never sink. My language is rotund
and delicate as that winter bird hopping on a stick
in the mouth of a bull.
I've been so wrong that I've come
out the other side. I no longer need to prove
anything to anyone. My teeth were once prizes
worth money as they fell from my face
now I give a week's pay to men
who remove the nerves and hang them
from lockets in their vacation homes.
It takes a mighty wind to clear the air of these
days so I embrace you all as only these words can
make clear. Thank you all, it was a pretty good year.

Love,
Todd

Normal Hours

My building is a giant ocean liner that has been set adrift
and I am the only one on board lurching through the ink dark sea
in a hunk of steel in the middle of the night. Waves lash
at the side of my vessel and wind pounds the windows.
I've turned my house upside down thinking of you always.
I wish I was watching a stupid movie and not so worried
wearing a paper crown can you transport me there?
I was thinking of you happy as can be sweating
in your grandmother's fur, eating bacon and sipping
champagne. I'm on a retreat, I'm getting my house in order.
I'll put on a one piece snowsuit and roll in the snow
until I can't feel anything. And then I'll go to work.

A good night for some Nick Drake

I wrote this for you

Christmas Morning in Brooklyn

Silent Night, etc

Or so my love is weary

Because there is more space out here
I spend more time out here of late
because there is more
or so my love is weary.

Bukka White - Poor Boy Long Way from Home

Christmas Ball Poem

You loaf like a deer in a medicine chest
you get groggy and light maximum with the thrill
of a booming city made of metal and yarn
go get the box of flesh and read to me
blow sax machines into the bright new oblivion
skate in the woods on the frozen lake
eat gingerbread and eagles and pout
you have big baby status among smaller babies
the roof is collapsing from sugar and punks
all I have to do is whistle and the trees
start gleaming so settle in for the duration
claustrophobic winter chills and wind
you see sparkles where once stood dull information
you may now lick cherry marmalade
from the tip of the clown and do justice to the mighty
serve treats to the passengers and light up and lighter.

Happy

Desiring Machine

I'd like to hand you something radiant
and vast as that landscape without worries
but that's just a silly reverie on the subway.
We could dance so hard that the crazy neighbor
lady downstairs comes up and suffers tearfully
with her bulging eyes and condescending manner.
She's a photographer, my neighbor. I need
all the glory I can fit into my canvas tote.
My teeth are really not secure in my head:
one needs money, another is just fucked.
Morning is all spangled with ledgers and reality.
Numbers float around my eyebrows. When I look
in the mirror I have a numeric glaze. I need
a honeycomb hideout where I can eat and play.
The distance between things is growing with
that itchy adjustment of the universe expanding
making it difficult to communicate simple needs
to other human beings lost in their own needs too.
A desiring machine under a blanket would be nice for an hour
and then I would just go to work like nothing happened.
I don't want to upset you, I'm just this guy in Brooklyn
making the sign of the cross with a cup of coffee in the air.
I'm all holy and shit in my soft blue sweatshirt - watch me now.

Winter Poem

The day is magical but brief. I carry a satchel full of golden papers.
Revealing personal information allows you to be kinder to people
because you don't want them to turn on you. Wellness formula.
The ruggedness of the shortest day of the year. Lately I am in her
dreams more than usual. In one dream I was faster than an eagle,
in another dream I could scoop clouds from the sky like spun sugar.
Or so she said. I would like to appear in your dreams more I said.
Think of a dreary complacent town full of literary yahoos.
Now run away from there and don't look back.
We are diving into our inability to inflict harm on others.
This is an odd time of year to have a crush on warmth.
I think of Spring and how sweet the word tastes on my lips.
Oh gunmetal gray, go all green and wondrous, sparkle
with your showers and move the soil back into thriving.
When I walk, I walk with a certain flare and it shows. Oh Love,
I am not up for shenanigans, I am on my way to work
and it's uphill all the way. What have these days failed
to deliver? What matters? What happens to these days?

The Things I'll Draw for the People I Love

Cherries, apples, gooseberries, grapes, eggs, rhubarb, nectarines, apricots, pears, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, currants, quince, cranberries, almonds, vanilla, rabbit, lemon, pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, tangerine and orange.

Love,
Todd

Cousin Corinne, Issue Two -- OUT NOW!

ISSUE TWO: Cousin Corinne
available here: bookcourt.org

WRITING:
STANLEY CROUCH
NICK FLYNN
SOPHIE ROSENBLUM
HOWARD KAPLAN
PRISCILLA BECKER
NATHANIEL BELLOWS
ERIC GREEN
DAVID HOLLANDER
ADAM WILSON
CATHERINE LACEY
GEORGE EMILIO SANCHEZ
STEPHEN ELLIOTT
TODD COLBY
ALEXANDRA LUKENS
JEAN GARNETT

NEW ART BY TODD COLBY

COMIX:
DEAN HASPIEL
JOAN REILLY
MICHEL FIFFE
TIM HAMILTON
JEN FERGUSON

PHOTOGRAPHY:
TIERNEY GEARON
ALEXANDER BINDER
ANTHONY BARBOZA
CHERYL DUNN
MATTHEW PILLSBURY

INTERVIEW:
AMELIE MANCINI

Guidance Counselor

Weather is just math so you can add it up
and see where you are in the year. A group
of people called real people. The manger is
on fire. Gangly orange light. Memory of heat waves
rising from the sand in summer. Pink and cherry glowing
pale blue by evening, milkier by noon the next
day. What color is remembering? Oh you precious
poets drawn to nothing where nothing is.
The slope of winter just tilted, go rub some
butter on your toast and do something
American. Heart thumping in blue chest,
wake up in memory of panic. The pliers
go mushy in my hand, I can't fix anything.

Captain Beefheart!

Rest in Peace Don Van Vliet/Captain Beefheart

37th ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S DAY MARATHON READING

FYI: I'll be hosting from 5-6 and reading around 7. See you there!

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

January 1, 2011
2:00 pm
Saturday

The Poetry Project
at St. Marks Church
131 E. 10th Street (and 2nd Ave)

212-674-0910
poetryproject.com

Poets and Performers for 2011 include: John Giorno, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Philip Glass, Suzanne Vega, Taylor Mead, Eric Bogosian, Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye, Vito Acconci, Foamola, Anselm Berrigan, Ariana Reines, Peter Gizzi, Liz Willis, Ted Greenwald, Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers, The Church of Betty, Thom Donovan, Tim Griffin, Todd Colby, Tom Savage, David Shapiro, Jonas Mekas, Josef Kaplan, Judith Malina, Albert Mobilio, Alex Abelson, Maria Mirabal, Bill Kushner, David Freeman, David Kirschenbaum, Diana Rickard, Don Yorty, Dorothea Lasky, Douglas Dunn, Alan Gilbert, Alan Licht w/ Angela Jaeger, Charles Bernstein, Christopher Stackhouse, Citizen Reno, Cliff Fyman, Corina Copp, Aaron Kiely, Adeena Karasick, Bill Zavatsky, Bob Holman, Robert Fitterman, Rodrigo Toscano, Brenda Iijima, Brendan Lorber, Brett Price, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Curtis Jensen, Dael Orlandersmith, David Vogen, Derek Kroessler, Diana Hamilton, ARTHUR’S LANDING, CAConrad, Akilah Oliver, Douglas Piccinnini, John S. Hall, Samita Sinha, Sara Wintz, Secret Orchestra with special guest Joanna Penn Cooper, Shonni Enelow, Bob Rosenthal, Brenda Coultas, John Yau, Julian T. Brolaski, Evelyn Reilly, Filip Marinovich, Douglas Rothschild, Drew Gardner, Eleni Stecopoulos, Elinor Nauen, Eve Packer, Jo Ann Wasserman, Joanna Fuhrman, Dustin Williamson, E. Tracy Grinnell, Ed Friedman, Edwin Torres, Eileen Myles, Elliott Sharp, Emily XYZ, Erica Hunt, Erica Kaufman, Evan Kennedy, Joe Elliot, Joel Lewis, Frank Sherlock, Gillian McCain, Greg Fuchs, Janet Hamill, Jeremy Hoevenaar, Jessica Fiorini, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Jim Behrle, Julianna Barwick, Julie Patton, Michael Lydon, Lisa Jarnot, Maggie Dubris, Marcella Durand, Marty Ehrlich, Merry Fortune, Michael Cirelli, Kristen Kosmas, Laura Elrick, Lauren Russell, Leopoldine Core, Nina Freeman, Paolo Javier, Patricia Spears Jones, Paul Mills (Poez), Michael Scharf, Mike Doughty, Karen Weiser, Lewis Warsh, Linda Russo, Penny Arcade, Peter Bushyeager, Rebecca Moore, Mónica de la Torre, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Nathaniel Siegel, Nick Hallett, Nicole Peyrafitte, Pierre Joris & Miles Joris-Peyrefitte, Kathleen Miller, Katie Degentesh, Kelly Ginger, Ken Chen, Kim Lyons, Kim Rosenfield, India Radfar, Tonya Foster, Stephanie Gray, Susan Landers, Tony Towle, Tracie Morris, Valery Oisteanu, John Coletti, Rachel Levitsky, Edmund Berrigan, Jamie Townsend, Macgregor Card, Wayne Koestenbaum, Will Edmiston, Yoshiko Chuma, Nicole Wallace, Arlo Quint, Stacy Szymaszek and more T.B.A

General admission $20/Students & Seniors $15/Members $10.

Marianne's, Last Night

The Tree of Life Trailer (2011) From Terrence Malick

Go, Go, Go

Wednesday Top 10

1) Fernando Pessoa.

2) Generally: heat is generated in our cubicles.

3) All I have to do is dream.

4) Rice bread in my fridge.

5) Strawberry jam, from France.

6) Almost everyone in New York City has a shoulder or two.

7) Sitting close to people on the F train is okay this time of year.

8) What holidays?

9) A cough that sounds like a sick walrus?

10) Today is brought to you by yesterday's black hoodie.

Jake Davis Test Shots: Tanya Romero

Jake Davis Test Shots: Tanya Romero from Jake Davis on Vimeo.

Enchanting.

I will milk my mistakes

I will milk my mistakes for all they're worth
and if their worth eludes me, then I'll walk
to the park, lay down on the dry grass, and
let my face press into the cold dirt.
That's what I'll do right after work.

Allen Ginsberg in His Kitchen

Three for Monday

"The one thing a family can't prepare us for is life outside the family."

Adam Phillips, from On Balance, p. 157

***

"If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonesense. Get rid of it I cannot without giving up myself. We are all steeped in it, one as much as another; but those who are aware of it are a little better off--though I don't know."

Michel de Montaigne, from The Essays

***

"We all think we have reason to reproach nature and our destiny for congenital and infantile disadvantages, we all demand reparation for early wounds to our narcissism, our self-love."

Sigmund Freud on Richard III.

***

Have a magical week! Mercury is in retrograde, whatever that means.

Night in a Hyatt

A surge of people
make for a literary delight.
French kissing a blue form
is dramatic and wild with clusters
of stillness lit by amber light. Boho.
Too fucking abstract.
Perhaps a day like this is broad
and clear and steady and not rainy
and disjointed. Perhaps
I should feel free to look at it
in a spoon curled just so with bisque.
I am trembling before the tasks
you shed this fur on me in such
a way that I am all wanton and agape.
Everything is worth the time
it's just that some of us have been
captured I mean, think about it.
All the things we do for you
this lovely light makes an earthy
mask can you see me? I saw
you, a little ghost walking past me
someone is arriving, someone is leaving
from time to time I realize this.
The Boomers, they are dying.
I would like you to have this
her voice so distant and removed.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Bright Stupid Confetti

One of my favorite art blogs posted a portion of one of my poems here

Be forewarned: it's a highly addictive site.

In other news: My fever has finally subsided.
Now if my headache would just go away too.

Love,
Todd

My Name is Mud/Issue #1

My Name is Mud
Short Fiction / Poetry
Issue One

92pp Text with b/w images, perfect bound featuring:

Kendra Grant Malone, Daniel Bailey , Adam J Maynard, Maurice Burford TR Deeks, Sabra Embury, Brandon Scott Gorell, Prathna Lor, Todd Colby, Paige Taggart, Joseph Goosey, K. Silem Mohammad, Cassandra Troyan.


$15.95 (includes shipping and handling)

You can order it here

Fever in Form of Poem

Human beings are just so clumsy
they are always bumping into things
which is part of the reason
that our nights are plagued
by the sound of ambulances
screaming through the night.
I would like to find someone
funny and determined enough
to make me laugh through
this cold and these chills
a fever mechanism making
everything doubtful and smudged.
What I'd really like is a bed
with a big blanket on it
and a box of tissues and some
zoned-out internet garbage
say, someone covered in cotton
and moving through traffic
without fear or trepidation
won't you come over right now?

Perfect

Take a Walk

All you can do is get up
and when you do: someone hands you
a blue balloon. Favorite food: taco.
The sky is a rare gray color splashed with
a chorus of buses. Gravity works
in a creaky way today. Down the stairs
to the paper: one foot in front
of the other down a circle to earth.
Someone may or may not be thinking
of me now or never. The coffee is reason
enough to stand up or sit down.
All I can do is do what I do.
Romance is a really funny thing.
The language of love must be observed and weighed.
The blue mug I've had for years. I love that.
Standing on the street. Baltic Street.
Making a gesture like come here
or run away or I live here alone.
You might observe me walking to the store to purchase provisions.
My favorite color is blue. I need to pay the bills,
eat a banana and take a walk.

In Another Life

Top Eleven Books of December, 2010

1) How to Live or A Life of Montaigne In One and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

2) My Sister's Hand in Mine by Jane Bowles

3) The Sea by John Banville

4) We Come and Go by William S. Gray, Dorothy Baruch and Elizabeth Rider Montgomery

5) Life by Keith Richards

6) Why Do Women Write More Letters Than They Send? by Darian Leader

7) On Hashish by Walter Benjamin

8) Subjectivity and Otherness: A Philosophical Reading of Lacan by Lorenzo Chiesa

9) The Unknown Quantity by Herman Broch

10) Kurt Schwitters by John Elderfield

11) Night Fritters by Todd Colby

Cousin Corinne's Reminder (Out Soon!)

Available here.

We All Go Away

Good Morning

Good Things

1) Speaking fake French.

2) Looking at the sky.

3) Winter running.

4) Sleeping next to someone.

5) Calm civility.

6) Good smile lines.

Freaky Day

1) I can read your lips.

2) I can't take your mind off my mind.

3) I might have to shatter the butter over my toast (it froze in the back of the fridge).

4) The gift of solitude is a freaky day.

5) I'm going to make a movie and spill the beans.

6) Taste my Rag & Bone.

7) I've got a really good feeling about tonight, so don't spoil it.

8) A harpoon = good on a boat, bad on the F train.

9) What would happen if everyone came to their senses?

10) An award winning lack of nerve. Send someone else to accept the award for lack of nerve on your behalf.

11) Don't yield to genealogical messages: you'll become more complex!

I can't stop watching this (Keith's boots!)