Weather Poem

Good job, weather!
Today's heat is super realistic.

Hazy Evening

If her dad was my mother
I'd call him mother. I would,
because that is what you call your mother.
If it looks like us I keep it. It is
safe to walk around considering the benefits
of being amused now and again. For instance:
You go on a safari and tranquilize a rhino
and then you go and hug it and take a picture
of yourself with it before it
wakes up and stumbles away drunkenly.
The world looks so familiar to you,
doesn't it? Like you've been here
all along only you just now started
paying attention enough to know how
to take away this way. These days
will devour you if you let them
and then I love you.

Wednesday Top 10

1) The band Goat.

2) Francis Ha.

3) Tompkins Square Park.

4) Greta Gerwig.

5) Wild Ginger.

6) Don & Betty.

7) Art for fuck's sake.

8) Guillaume Apollinaire.

9) Anything in 3D.

10) The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church.

Goat - Golden Dawn

Go See

Flub within view
of The Master. Cloaked
in provencial silk
secured to a boney frame
with safety pins and duct tape.
Watch your grammar
fall to pieces. Watch the slim glow
grow dim. Eat from the hand of a monkey.
Shield your eyes with the skin of a deer.
Bump into people just to feel part
of something solid and real.
Let the sky stay where it is.
Blasting through space, multiplying
years, adding, subtracting, standing
in the upright position just long enough
to get clipped and blotted.

Howl Festival/Poetry Project Reading, June 1st!

Saturday, June 1st
1 PM - 5:30 PM $FREE
Tompkins Square Park, Enter From The 9th Street Transverse, Avenue B & East 9th Street
Marathon Reading by St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery POETRY PROJECT Hosted by Todd Colby

Readers/Performers in order of appearance:

1:00 Billy Cancel
1:15 Jenny Zhang
1:30 J. Hope Stein
1:45 Bo DePena (Musician)
2:00 Jennifer L. Knox
2:15 Ray DeJesus
2:30 Carl Hancock Rux
2:45 Maribeth Theroux
3:00 Shanna Compton
3:15 CA Conrad
3:30 Joanna Penn Cooper
3:45 Edwin Torres
4:00 Maggie Estep
4:15 Mike Doughty
4:30 Drew Boston
4:45 Jason Nazary (Musician)

Host: Todd Colby

************************************

Link to event: Howl Festival

In the Telling #6: Todd Colby

All Time Favorites

My all time favorites
are a red thread on the back of
her jeans, the way light turns
green before a storm, the first taste
of coffee after a buzzing night,
watching people that don't know
they're being watched, the sweet
smell of yesterday's shirt, a freshly
oiled chain on my bike, the taste
of cold almond milk, my dirty boots,
listening to Furry Lewis at dawn,
dabbing sweat off my forehead with
a paper towel, the smell of summer
in Brooklyn, the awkward smiles of
passersby when I say "good morning."

Marianne Vitale - Dinner (Preview - Coming Soon)

San Rafael Valley

Wednesday Poem

Once your excuses are gone
you have to settle for being awkward.
The stillness of the buildings
serve as an ideal backdrop
for the humans scurrying around
Manhattan with bags and carts.
Blooming in oblivion, charging
into the milk white daylight.
Let me be perfectly clear here:
Things are starting to look
like time is passing, that the
momentum of the earth is tugging
us into the faint decay of now.
And now, and then.

Damp Clothes

I woke up sobbing
into my mashed pillow, soggy feathers.
Swallowed by a midnight grief stain
in the part of the city by the expressway.
Governor's Island is visible from here.
The top of a building with a flashing red light
is signaling something positive to the airplanes.
This soothes my senses and loosens the grip of dreamy woe --
a black bear in a wobbly room.

Joanna Penn Cooper

Joanna Penn Copper and I have a new collaborative poem posted on her blog.

Enjoy.

Happy Tuesday.

XO
Todd

Fox Light

Conversation Piece

From the get-go there was
joy. First the emeralds chipped
off the emblem, rendering all the braces
and struts ecstatic and triumphant. On our way
to St. Glacia someone pushed a roll of carpet out
of the van which got us discovered by Hollywood.
I'm writing this to pronounce
the dissolution of our gaming process.
Now that the star machine is rolling,
I'd like you to remember that you're hysterical,
and you're humoring the neighbors as they stand
at the center of their grim lawns, laughing.
I've got so much to tell you about things
that could be done better or not at all.
Let me in on your daily course of action.
I'm eating you.

Kimberly Nichols Conducted a Lovely Interview with Me in Newtopia Magazine

You can read it here.

Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe

Field Guide to Plants of the North

One of my summer favorites is Fink Leaf,
which is best used as a shout propellant, much
like a megaphone but without the batteries
or hassles of the man. This fiery, medicinal leaf
can be used to dye clothing and treat ailments like fake cough
or work fever. Try the Tumbler Bell Flower
for sleep passion, or Shark's Paw for petroleum
gashes. In the shallow dirt near the shrubs around a house
foundation, find the Lime Seed for eye strain
and noise reduction (or enhancement). During the autumn months,
I always keep a satchel of Devil's Paw handy
in case of a gestural flaw, like giving finger
or blistering thumb. When winter rolls around,
I steep Blue Bonnet in a whiskey tea, which
is both sustainable and ecstatic when used
to heighten conversation and observation.
For me, spring is the best time to roll out
the Flip Daisy, a round, slightly powdered
vacancy inducer, best used in 12-hour portals
for euphoric problem solving and garden wandering.
All of the above plants are rear stabilizers, meaning:
They possess divine alkaloids that pertain to meaning
in a larger context, much like washing in a water
bath of half air. Let me know how these helpful
and healing plants work for you!

For Real

Tuesday Top 10

1) Savages: She Will.

2) Pentel Color Pens.

3) Jenny Zhang.

4) Fruit Smoothies.

5) Silver Pepper.

6) Autumn in May.

7) J. Hope Stein.

8) Lucky Lucy.

9) Purple Mountain.

10) Getting all up in it.

Heavenly

Time for the News

Under sunny skies, employers add
stronger first thoughts and cuts. Future
reports tank and emergency fuel
in an uninhabited area. Sandy space
renovated by the revisions. The next
Mayor is driven largely. Another
unknown is agreement. Next year alone
playing off. The slow series to gorgeous
day highs. In the spellbound, glowing
to a sweet little dance of enthusiasm.

Frank O'Hara, 1966

Larry Fagin Tonight at The Poetry Project!

I'm excited to introduce legendary poet & teacher Larry Fagin tonight at The Poetry Project (10th Street and 2nd Ave, in Manhattan) at 8 PM.
"Larry Flying" Photo by Me.