Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Theories of Tubes

Electrons skirt funnels
     erect infinitudes loath to bend

Funnels sip electrons
     shave ten-to-the-tenth-to-the-tenth bits
     unlightened lasers stab network

Funnels sign funnels
     convections of limp subtext
     evaporates holographic cowls
     aurorae shear stiff tubes
     distended flux links close cousins 

Electron scans electron
     two wave forms mimetic beyond Planck and perfection
     non-local non-relative and non-deterministic
     below basement and vacuum and biosphere of ducts
     superimposed funnels spin plasm
     and surge    

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Two paragraphs from my novel The Real Raquel

Maybe Raquel and I share more than looks, I thought, and when the chorus finally hit in all its authoritative glory, my nervousness turned into something more like adrenaline, and I was able to fall flawlessly into a circular formation with the dancers, whisper-singing little snatches of Raquel’s defiant manifesto to each one of them as they cycled around me. “I’m the Real Raquel. Oh, I’m the Real Raquel,” I declared to the dancer with blonde highlights before turning to a slim male dancer with messy blue hair —“I’m not a chameleon, but if I was, I’d never tell…” The noise of the crowd spiked at this line, which didn’t surprise me. I lipped it with particular conviction because it sums up Raquel better than any other lyric in her catalogue: she’s as real as they come, exuding the kind of authenticity and feistiness that focus group-tested pop stars can never hope to achieve, but at the same time she maintains a certain element of mystery, a thoroughly sexy and effortless elusiveness, giving you the sense that there’s always a piece of the puzzle missing, always something to study and be fascinated by.

I don’t want to downplay the discipline and years of practice needed to pull off a good performance but I think I passed a crucial test when I first grabbed the mic and dared to whisper-sing words that were rightfully Raquel’s. I say this because as the song went into the second verse and Raquel, her voice losing some of its bravado and displaying more tenderness and vulnerability, sang, “Baby I won’t compromise myself,” the oppressive weight of my nerves lifted entirely. I felt a kind of synergy between my body and the lyrics booming out over the field and when Raquel sang, “If you don’t love me I’ll find somebody else. Somebody who wants to know the truth,” I gracefully lunged forward as if asserting the truth of my own existence through physical movement. This is the real Raquel, I was saying to the audience. You can take it or leave it but it is a truth I will express unapologetically. Then I fell back into formation and looked sideways at some of the dancers. They were somewhat disoriented by the small liberty I had taken but this didn’t bother me. In fact, it was downright satisfying that I had went off script, especially considering the audience’s reaction. They gave me their loudest round of applause yet and this confirmed to me that while Raquel’s mystique lures people in, it’s her honesty that makes them stay.

Friday, October 16, 2015

journal entry/ poemy-thing

Looking through my notebook in search of the (multiple) bodily ramblings, I found this note I had forgotten about. Relevant re: burning, sacrifice, identity,


"As fodder for..." I can't write anymore because I can't bring myself to burn anything.
I'm holding all objects and materials and knowledge close and whole.
What should be burned and how? Or when does the effigy leave the vile thing intact?
A sacrifice to it rather than a sacrifice of it.
(as in VP)
the 'I' is key?
whiteness as fodder for poetry?



Free Range

Hi folks, below is the first poem I wrote when I moved to Boulder. It's mostly a ripoff (albeit a very indirect one) of a Kim Hyesoon poem called "Song of Skin," which I wrote about in a review of Kim for Jacket2 a few years back.

Free Range

Associated Press: From what we can see, she mostly just walks around putting her tits in everything knots of trees chinks in the cabinet I mean everything everywhere you can find a hole I meant hollows I suppose not knots point is she just sticks them in and we have to watch her feet roll up like toothpaste tubes with each ounce of milk she volunteers to the woodwork which isn’t to say we aren’t all benefiting from the nutrition but the shame of it months pass now she’s syphoned out to her solar plexus and bending down to suckle misaligned baseboards and the occasional mouse hole but we’ve learned to live with her whorish indiscretion besides she’s taken the liberty of stringing Christmas lights along the walls you’d never expect the whole room needed a twinkling anklet down there but really the effect is just stunning

A fourteen-line poem on the female body

1. It has to begin somewhere

2. she harass with enjoyment

3. tired of the topic before I

4. start. Cause if she's not raped

5. she's the criminal killing the

6. thing. So rape her to

7. save her from herself. O

8. lovely

9. flakey, she'll be data or she'll be tagged

10. so she made herself a border and hung there

11. pregnant or bleeding or pregnant and bleeding

12 been full a long time with

13 time and grey clouds streaming in

14. We're not always dead