This Is Nice

I've been on the road, but I'm home.
Like I was saying, this is nice.
And this is nice too.

E-Mail to Wallace Stevens

The poster for the reading
is cool
and I'd show it to you
if I could save it as a pdf
instead of a jpg
which probably makes a ton
of sense to you and makes
sense to me
but not enough to help
myself. So Listen: There is,
like, a sky and a sideways
building and a, like, penny,
maybe, and two tumbling
heads in the shape of squares
and it says: Look! Poetry Reading!
or words to that effect. I'm
trying to explain it and it
doesn't even matter.
The world is beautiful
and the people are happy.

Predictions

I'll be in Athens, GA on Wed. http://athenspoetry.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
I'm still having trouble with my blog.
I'll be reading poems involving Hitler's mustache, from my book, Hitler's Mustache. With Bruce Covey.

A real question:
How will I handle the technical difficulties of the blog?
I feel like a mouse that nibbles
and is electrocuted.

It Is Important to Repeat Yourself

Things I Don't Mean

Listen, there's stuff I
should do, and haiku isn't
one of them. Enough

Then, I'm thinking some
other things too, like rabbits
splitting from a dog

and our baby girl
is kicking upstairs, I can
hear the monitor

Now just static just
you know peace, you know loud hush
you know ham sandwich

A Personal Message from Me to You

Where will you be on March 28th at 7:00pm? I will be in Athens, Georgia, reading in the Vox reading series. I would link to it, but I can't seem to get the link thing working. Likewise, my spellcheck isn't working and hasn't for the past couple of days. And I spell badly. Am I having New Blogger Problems like I've heard others complain of? Even if I could link to the site, it has the reading listed as being on Thursday the 29th. I don't think that's right. I think it's Wed. the 28th, at a place called Flicker, or The Flicker, or Flickers, or something like that. I guess I could be wrong. It is next week some time. If you are driving there from some place far away, I recommend you leave sometime within the next couple of days. Give yourself time to enjoy the countryside. I'll see you soon. Looking forward to it. Be safe.

There Are _______ in the Afternoon

Here is bleak
despite spring
and the absence of
hardship. A sort
of mushy roast beef
on doughy bread.
In blankets of mayo, am
greasy, am sitting inside
my stomach
melting there.
Am telling myself
hey, lighten up
but it's hard here. There
is no ________.
The same bullshit
in a magazine
or at middle
school. The shit
in _____.

Friday Night

This dirty pile of T.V.
that sits in front of me.
These miniature
basketball players .
This halo on my head
that has a hairy, animal
smell.

in Dagger #39

I'm not a big fan of words like "heartfelt" and "emulates" and "kudos." Of course, "irresistible" is nice. And I do like the word "Dagger." A lot. Glad I'm not Rhino Bucket.

Notes on Conference Making

I have feelings that are hard to express.
There are things I'd like to to say but don't know how to say them.
I feel the need for conferences is funny.
I attend conferences and feel my needs for attending are funny.
I was thinking this out with my dog, and couldn't imagine it.
I don't believe that poets are different than other types of people.
I beleive we are different because we are poets, but I believe we are people.
Some people believe in community.
Some people believe in community but can't tell you why.
Some people say they believe in community but don't.
People work and have jobs.
Or they don't.
Some people believe in sending, responding to, and creating invitations.
I don't know why I'd open my mouth.
I regret it when I speak up.
And I'm not even speaking up.
I too enjoy thinking about Utopia.
How about, The Associated Writing Utopia?
Here we will all finally be on the same page.(Ha!) You know, like, really, you know, all be for what we're for and against what we're against and all that other stuff...You know, fuck those careerists and those whatnots, cause we'll be just in love with the craft. Pure, like a purist, but different from what you might think I mean when I say the word purist. It will be very special and different, because it's smaller, more exclusive, purer, you know, purr, purer.
We're not like them.
There's High School and then there's collage. I say, College was okay, but let's go back to High School.
And I don't even know that High School is better than College, I'm just saying.
I mean, I went to college and even got a master's degree (twice) but I never really appreciated the world unveiled to me. I appreciate the veil. I like High School where you know everyone and have kissed a higher percentage of your graduating class.
I got even more play in Middle School. That's when french-kissing was like finding a cool place to skate.
By 'skate' I mean skateboard. Which is what I'm talking about, you fucking dorky bitch.

Attention!

It doesn't matter
how you feather
your hair
or if you're involved
in a production of
Grease, or simply sliding
through the universe.
There is a moment when
your finger snaps
get lost in the snare drum.
I refer to this as
x minus 0.
Other people I know, who
are more reasonable,
believe that this moment
is like other moments.
But I'm unconvinced.
You say to me, Hey, the
world is ending.
That's when I perk up.

The Best Thing about AWP Haikus

the best thing about
AWP? the sex with my
wife. fuck poetry.

of course, that is too
easy. but how hard is it
to be easy? not.

i love my kids lots.
i was glad to be kid-less.
happy my wife's hot.

Once I Drew Something on the Back of a Checkbook

Short Hand!

New review of Good Enough.
(You gotta scroll down when you get there.)

The First Step Is the Name

There are a number of people in the world who want to know, just as I once wanted to know, what to call a Hitler-style mustache. They say to themselves, "What do you call a Hitler mustache?" They are sensing fascism and injustice. One might say that one of Hitler's least meaningful but most thorough conquests is his complete dominion over that style of mustache. Alternatives may be important.

from pgs. 78, 79,80 of Hitler's Mustache
Hitler’s Mustache: The Alternative Names
(an incomplete list)

amplifier
amputee
anus
anvil
armband
ashtray
bar code
barn door
barrel
belt buckle
bible
blackbird
blackboard
black book
black box
black cape
black chest
black curtain
black egg
black flag
black hoe
black hole
black knot
black magnet
black shrimp
black stamp
black square
black tab
black tooth
black trap
black troth
blister
block
bog
boil
book
boot heel
bowling ball
box
brace
brick
brush
bullet
bumper
burnt egg
business card
calculator
cape
cask
casket
cassette
castrato
cat head
cave
cave hole
Charlie
chimney
chip
computer chip
computer screen
cookie
cookie sheet
couch cushion
coup
cube
cuff link
dance floor
deck
divot
door
doorknob
doormat
doorway
dot
egg
egg yolk
eye patch
fang
fetus
fireplace
flag
frame
fur bullet
fur fetus
fur eye
fur head
fur oink
fur pig
fur pocket
fur shadow
fur square
fur stamp
fur tongue
fur tooth
fur trap
fur troth
fur turtle
gap tooth
giant dot
giant seed
golden mean
hat shadow
head
headlight
hinge
ice block
ice cube
infant
ink blot
ink cape
ink pad
ink pond
jukebox
kid
kiddy
kidney
kneecap
knot
lampshade
larva
last meal
last square
lip car
lip cat
lip divot
lip hat
lip squirrel
lip tuft
magnet
metal lock
microwave
micro chasm
money clip
monitor
muffler
nip
nipped
nose boat
nose coal
nose curtain
nose drop
nose fetus
nose kidney
nose noose
nose oink
nose olive
nose pig
nose plug
nose poo
nose radish
nose rake
nose shadow
nose Q
notebook
not Lincoln
oil tray
oil tub
olive
open throat
orifice
ovary
oven
oven door
oven hole
oven throat
padlock
pig
piggy
playing card
pork barrel
pork cask
pork chop
pug
Q
quarter
rake
regular
regular square
rest note
rum barrel
seed
shoebox
shovel
shrimp
shirt pocket
skid mark
sled
smudge
snout
square anus
square barrel
square button
square chimp
square dot
square eye
square hub
square key
square knot
square magnet
square olive
square oven
square pill
square pupil
square sled
square trap
square well
stereo speaker
swimming pool
tab
tablet
tadpole
television
tennis court
third square
thumb wide
toad
tombstone
tongue
toothbrush
top hat
trapdoor
troth
tub
tuft
turtle
vault
wedding ring
window
wing
wire brush
wire troth
young fang
young flag
young fur

Through My Blinds, As I'm Peeing, the Moon Appears to Be A Streetlamp

The whole way to the
approximate "night hour" is difficult.
I see small balls of light
ricocheting in a box and
signaling
some cipher. I need
a u-boat code-breaker.
I need a generalized theory
to brace this shoddy shit.
I am thinking of a number from
1 to 100, though it is
Egyptian, or something, that
doesn't, like,
make sense to you.
What am I trying to say?
I was getting to that?
You've got to be kidding
if you believe
I'm fingering a question mark.
I know what the girls from
my middle school felt like.
I mean I had some knowledge.
Like, I liked stuff then
but I don't ride slides that
end on a dot.
I don't dot the i's but my
computer does.

There's

This, which is nice of Kate Greenstreet.