Can You Feel It?

In an effort to induce you
I ran my hand over the back of your leopard
and you shivered a bit and said more.
When I felt the tip of the nuisance on your lap
a pink umbrella opened under the yellow canopy.
Things got hazy as we wrestled.
Now the layers of grime are sparkles
like blue glitter held with Elmer's glue
on a kid's art makes the outline of a pony pop
off the page. Well, you are popping
through the living room with an instrument
you play with your middle finger
like an organ but rounder
and softer. Something really great
is just about to happen
can you feel it?

King of Time

I'm going to use the words you love
write something that smells like beer
light a bonfire on the roof
toss pine cones at the neighbor
kids I'm going to shout into a dirt clod
like it was a microphone
in a laundromat I will go back to my school
and jump around the auditorium like I never
did once I should have stuck my finger
in a socket in the Principal's office I will leap
into the air from the water tower spray
some paint over a "Rimbaud" stencil
on the back of my V.W. light the action
in the aftermath of glory comes platinum
oh you inspectors of cruelty I'll have none of your
sparkled hairdos and misshapen identities
you can keep your hot pounds and your celebrities with glass eyes
go throw yourself into a wall I prefer to chat with my mouth
or chew into an apple of deeper beats in this backwater of life
uninterrupted by death I have a hand waving
get me out of here.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Laurel Nakadate - Stay the Same Never Change (trailer)

Le Labo, Oud 27 = Bliss

Really.

About the Rain

That rain is simple slobber
it does not suit my clothes
it renders a lawnchair useless
and makes a wet monkey of me
watch this storm system bloat
into a hand you can hold
oh damn that's not a hand
that's just a rubber glove
full of water and anyway
on Fridays I nap on the floor
while the cars sound like
an oily tide rolling in
it's so gorgeous inside
why would you ever leave?

La Luncheonette Tonight After The Launch at Printed Matter

Happy Thursday with Sun Ra

Thanks, Dina.

Please Come

Printed Matter will celebrate the release of two new publications from Kunstverein NY: On View Worldwide for the Month of…, an official Kunstverein 2011 calendar, and Prompts by Ian Monk (OULIPO).

Thursday, 24 February
5:30 to 7:30 PM
Printed Matter, 195 10th Avenue, New York

Contributing artists will be present, with signings by Marianne Vitale and Michael Portnoy, as well as a special reading by poet and calendar contributor Todd Colby, and a reading from the work of Ian Monk

Top Ten Wednesday

1) Paint the old school desk high-gloss white and stencil a black "13" on the back.

2) Clementine roulette, finally a good bag.

3) Vast radiance.

4) Happy Birthday Aneurysm

5) Thursday, Friday and Saturday: off.

6) Printed Matter See you there: Thursday, 2/24/11 5:30PM-7:30PM.

7) Clarity, coffee, toast and honey.

8) Engineered Garments.

9) Wordless communication.

10) Radiohead.

Have a Seat

Something Really Fantastic & Wonderful

Click here.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Own Stunts

Radiant and Dazzling

I want something really vast and soft
and radiant and dazzling to lift you into
the day so that you feel a real sense of panic
start to recede. There will be gorgeous spiders
and bits of blue skin and something really
sweet like peach pie and honey and pomegranate
jam and stuff like that. Huge flakes of snow
won't piss you off like they do me when you
walk in the field in Prospect Park someone
is there won't you watch them watch you
walk to me? I can't control what you do
in your free time but I can make a helpful
suggestion or three. Won't all the days you thought
would never end finally end and become
planted in your memory as calm shivers? A shark never
stops moving, not even for you, so why should
you stop getting jacked up before bed, if not for me?
The city is all moist and expectant
like my hand on your cheek as you sleep,
I certainly hope so.

NEW! Radiohead - Lotus Flower

Listening In

Is it Spring Yet?

No. But you would think
from the tingle in my brain
that something is abuzz perhaps
a new way of looking at the streets
with their strollers and dusty salt.
Not even the faintest bud on a branch
to lift gray brown into pale green.
Still, something is happening
not the smell of snow, that acrid
rind, but something, oh, what is it?
Maple, honey, vanilla? A human
cupcake dancing in the wind?
I'll follow you anywhere. Oh, all those
people who fade along the way.
As soon as I leave they say what they say.
Float up to the ceiling and never come back.
Everybody has their face on a stamp,
they thumbscrew circle while the city sparkles,
and sleepwalk stiffly up to the sky.
I'll be right there, or here.

The Staircase in the Chelsea Hotel

February Poem

A frumpy truck makes a clang bomb
out of a big garbage bin out front. Greensleeves
is on the radio, no one knows who wrote it.
My aluminum desk is cool to the touch.
For an instant everything feels green and tingly.
Maybe I need to organize something or
rifle through some old papers or order
new checks. Maybe not. A Bermuda High is looming
over Brooklyn so the weather allows
you to literally put your hand in it.
I would like nothing more than a light
feeling that would allow me to put down
this cumbersome basket of memories
long enough to dance across the room
or sleep through an entire night.
There are 10 pillows on my sofa and 12
books on the coffee table. It is 6:13 A.M.
soon I will walk down 6 flights of stairs
and pick up a long blue bag with the NY Times
all black and white and neatly folded inside.

Things to Do in the Morning

1) Move things around

2) Remember to do things

3) Where am I?

4) Coffee

5) Shop for shit you don't really need

6) What is The Poem?

7) A face full of nowness

8) Cultivate desire

9) I just don't know

10) Just totally get it on

Steve McQueen Wore Redwings

Top Twelve Wednesday

1) Warming trend

2) Union Market Coffee (Cobble Hill Blend)

3) Rereading (for the thousandth time) Freely Espousing by James Schuyler at dawn

4) Raw honey and almond butter on Ezekiel Bread

5) Kunstverein Calendar at Printed Matter (reading to be announced!)

6) Sandalwood anything

7) The drumming of Jason Nazary

8) Wooster Group revives Tennessee Williams' 'Vieux Carré' (thanks, Sandeep)

9) Help with stuff (thanks, J)

10) Paintings and Drawings by Rene Ricard (thanks, Rene)

11) Photos from Jamaica (thanks, Jane)

12) Put a bird on it!

You Are Free, Thank You, It Was Fun

I took a little walk
and came back to an email
telling me I'd been sainted. What part of
when you throw the paddle at me
the game is over don't you understand?
Lifting up the medicine to reveal
a stain near where you keep all the notes
I gave you in a box taped shut.
Boxes like this are all over the city
locked away and tightly sealed.
This is the Slope, I am feeling
the gravity of freezing my ass
off at every corner I see you.
I won't be here to see you though to me.
If this were New York it would be a place
I've never been to. Rummage through the parts
of my story that pertain to you. A mint green leather
glove on the sidewalk reminds me of you.
What you dropped or what you left behind
before stillness invaded my block with complexity.
Cars stop, people stand and stare:
you are free, thank you, it was fun.

At Moss with Justin Today (trippy shit for rich people)

If there is a heaven, it smells like this (thanks Lola)

Ibuprofen

The Least of My Worries

Elaborate Hoax

I don't trust you between here and Barrow Street where
the cold chestnut air enlivens your pores and lifts your spit
when you let a white glob drip the dangle drop.
An airplane flies so low over the city that the landing
lights can be seen through the thumb and index finger
made into an O. Maybe it's a cigarette as you doze
you remember what was that again? The kelly green
audience is clapping at your antics, spooning your corpse.
Vick's Vapor Rub is smeared on the heel of your Italian shoe.
Everything smells like an expensive candle that smells like an
old church and for an instant you are transported
to a place free of all needs. All your friends are movie stars,
you are spastic and purple, all your kitchen cabinets are full
of feathers and dead birds with lemons stuffed in their beaks.
You don't know anything that I don't already know.
Your angel, if you believe in such shit, is made of red mud
and yarn and some pale custard poured into a bag
in the shape of an angel. Your angel is fed animal fat and grief
I can see him maxing out on the oxygen so
he can finally sleep well enough when you screw gallons into
that stranger with liquid smoke. I will always love you for that.

Patti Smith at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church 2.9.10.

It was a magical night.

Some Super Awesomeness

click HERE

Many Thanks to You Mr. Daniel Nester.

Poem to Be Handed to Someone in a Bookstore

Nothing says more than a bandana worn
around your neck in the heat of the moment
you go crazy, toss a bunch of oranges into
a canvas Paris Review tote and storm out
of the room. You cannot heed the negative
or you'll get all waxen and wavy.
Your signature style is show up for the people
and win them over like a good motherfucker.
You call for a conference and no one shows up
because they could care less but
you are getting better at dodging the meatballs.
Attitude is everything and the master will fatten the calf.
You have the determination of an eagle.
I have firm beef and I will always have a stand tall
dedicated to hard work if people pay me for it.
Tenderness can act as a balance rod.
Here's the story: there is a world you know nothing about.
You will have to pay someone to explain that site.
A person can find a calm spot in hell
between all the snow and spitting.

In the fields you play in

You cannot heed the negative
or you'll go all blank with small news
and clothes will look like they
have a life of their own when you
put them on your body people will
be kind to you because it will look
like you are in pain. You are red as the weather
making hurt parts that have been
hidden under bundles of now. Hurry
into my arms where a squad of lumps
are bundled in this patch. I play jazz
I am skilled and abundant as pollen
in the fields you play in.

Hello, My Name is Todd

Most of my fusions were harrowing like
licking the edge of a broken cup until my tongue hurt.
It's Winter that is full of wonder and brimming
with broad charm. I built window boxes
that sat bloated with color and bees
on a window ledge near the B.Q.E.
I fancied myself cultured and secure
but that changed when people more cultured and secure
than me made their presence known
in notes scrawled on foil and taped to the door
leading into my apartment. I was churning inside
from all the rutting and declined opening
any sort of nervous boon to their existence
or mine, which were trembling and delirious.
From time to time I pushed my face against the glass
until I felt my own pulse in my cheek.
I fancied gashes there and real bone that
added shape to my face protruding from the wound
but I also saw what was up with the vibe
of the creatures who made my life easier
with their non-spasms and steadfastness.
I am on my way to someplace vast and satisfying
but I feel so useless and redundant. Other than
providing information services, I also design buildings
that make people want to dance in them
or on them or in front of them. I would like
to dance with you for a few years and then
I would like to let go of you and just watch
you fade away like a pop song being turned
down on a car radio so you can whisper something
to me about going away and what it really means.
Hello, my name is Todd.

The Year Ahead (In Holidays)

You can buy the calendar these holidays appear on by clicking here.

January 1: National Artificially Calm and Hopeful Day
January 13: Do Real Adult Things All Day Day
January 22: Don’t Spread Your Legs So Wide on The Subway Day (NYC Only).
February 2nd: NYC Alter a Subway Poster Day
February 14th: National Is This Bullshit Really Love? Day
February 28: National Drink a Whole Bottle of Codeine Cough Syrup and Go Into Work Just to See What Will Happen Day
March 22: Look for a New Job Day
March 29: National Become a Cry Baby Frankenstein Day
March 30th: International You Smell Like My Mom Day
April 11: New More Functional Life Day (State by State)
April 21: Really Think About It Day (NYC Only)
April 24: Totally Body Slam Someone Who Bumps Into You Day (NYC).
May 13th: Actually Complete One Task Day (Brooklyn Only)
May 28th: Don’t Let The Fuckers Bring You Down Day (Universal)
May 30: Give Cookies Laced With Xanax to Your Loud Obnoxious Neighbors Day (Cobble Hill)
June 10th: National Make Out With Someone From Facebook Day
June 13th: National Your Boss Can Suck It Day
June 27: National Get Your Mind Together Day
July 4th: National All Plans Fail Day
July 13th: National Desiring Machine Day
July 29: International Get Away From Me Day
August 10: National Has The Shirt You’ll Die In Been Manufactured Yet? Day
August 25: National One Week’s Pay for Root Canal Day
August 29: National Write “this is a robbery” On a Dollar Bill Day
September 2: Get Off Your Ass And Dance Day (Brooklyn)
September 20: Slip Into Something Sexy At Work Day
September 27: Send Your Mother Home Your Navel Day
October 5: Tag a Bathroom at Barney’s Day
October 13: Jump Up and Down Like a Fucking Idiot Until You Feel Better Day (Cobble Hill, Brooklyn)
October 31: Wear a Mask Into a Bank Day
November 19th: Everything Will Burn Day
November 22nd: Don’t Give It Up, Yet Day
November 23: Give It Up Day
December 1: Worldwide Fuck Shit Up Day
December 25th: Families are Just Plain Weird Constructs Day (Universal)
December 31: International Was It Worth It? Day

Antony and The Johnsons - Candy Says (By Lou Reed)

Stunning.

Talking

I am going to talk with you
to get to the bottom of things
and really iron out any difficulties
you may be having with my personality
which seems to be getting under your skin
so I want you to feel comfortable
enough that I will stick a pick in my brain
in order to alter my personality enough
to calm myself or change my personality
in subtle ways that will comfort you.

MC5!

Mister Freedom Bandana

Thursday Top 10

1) No wintry mix!

2) The very thought of you.

3) Hillside Bandanas.

4) A box of clementines emptied into a big red ceramic bowl.

5) "No observation without involvement; no fact without interpretation." Richard Powers, Three Farmers on Their Way to A Dance

6) Seefeel: Industrious. A song.

7) "For my sins I live in the city of New York." Ted Berrigan

8) Jutta Neumann leather cuffs.

9) Allsaints in the Meatpacking District.

10) Egypt.

Sleep, Be Ours

Sleep is just a form of judgement;
a fecal brick on a sponge of stars.
Liniment on the sting of light
over a flag of mistakes, if such
a thing could be flagged or exhausted
or simply endured. I too strip my desk-
oh my desk, where else to dump that bothersome
woe? I'll get a hook in the meat of the thumb.
This is all there is to lavender and pillows
over hollow grins that lift us lighter
or darker. If you've ever heard a death rattle
you'll know when it comes for you.
Sleep's dark mechanism is that swift
ending doused with rosewater and myrrh.
A glance, another form of luck. Shielded from
balance, lit up by some new form
of gentleness. A greasy kiss of elegance
you'll never be alone, be ours.

Dancing Todd Colby pt. 2

Rest Assured

In some newfangled getup
of wool soaked in codeine syrup
her medicated cherry scent
made my mouth feel like it'd
been turned inside out with
my cheeks gnawed between my teeth.
It made it difficult to chew
the soggy bread she was flinging
at me as she sauntered past.
Some people can handle opiates
on high heels and she was one of them.
A special one with her arms all akimbo
while matter-of-factly clapping whenever
I asked about the situation in Egypt.
She toned her abs with a special device
that looked like Lincoln Logs in a pillowcase.
I am writing this to you from
a place poisoned with PCB's and auto
exhaust. My head is spinning on a molecular
level. Chemicals in her create jobs
for people that need work now more than ever.
It is a good idea to research her methods
and test her substances.
What can you afford to pay?
Because you're in it right now and
it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Thanks for the fashion advice.

Tuesday Morning with Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Don't take it as a matter of course, but as a remarkable fact, that pictures and fictitious narratives give us pleasure, occupy our minds."

-L.W. Philosophical Investigations, Section 1, Paragraph 524.