It's been 30-45 days since I've had the wherewithall and focus to complete a poem.

I'm probably due, right?

I've submitted some recent unpublished work to various literary magazines, though - hopefully something strikes someone's fancy, somewhere.

And: Crucial Sprawl is coming. Promise. Soon: save your pennies!

Get ready.

EPIGRAMS FOR CRUCIAL SPRAWL

“Kim hugs Dimitri, who doesn’t seem to notice or care, and he drops his guitar by his side and stares off into the pool and eleven or twelve of us stand out by the pool and someone turns the music down so that we can hear the sounds of the city celebrating, but there’s not a whole lot to hear and I keep looking into the living room, where Muriel’s lying on a couch, smoking a cigarette, sunglasses on, watching MTV.”
Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero

“Asters are purple, there‘s purple ink/Purple‘s more popular than you think…”
Mary O’Neill, Hailstones and Halibut Bones

“Redford?/I go rob/Creamed corn, no cob/Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, go sob/Your Saab?/Oh, God”
Cam’ron, “Silky”

"...and Prairie huddled down in back, hanging on, wishing they could wake into something more benevolent and be three different people, only some family in a family car, with no problems that couldn't be solved in half an hour of wisecracks and commercials, on their way to a fun weekend at some beach."
Thomas Pynchon, Vineland

“And silence is danger, but it’s not quiet here/So why you scared?”
Pavement, “Strings of Nashville”

EPIGRAMS FOR VIGILANTE FLUXUS

“I wanted to film everything but there are things we are not getting. The wild ass is in danger in Europe--we’ve got nothing on that. We’ve got nothing on intellectual elitism funded out of public money, an important subject. We’ve got nothing on ball lightning and nothing on the National Grid and not a foot on the core-mantle problem, the problem of a looped economy, or the interesting problem of the night brain. I wanted to get it all but there’s only so much time, so much energy.”
-Donald Barthelme, “The Film”

“And the stars reflected in the lake
Are water for all their twinkling
And bloodless for all their charm.
I have blood, and a song.”
-Owen Dodson, “Sorrow is the Only Faithful One”

“One day, I’m gonna say something really impressive.”
-Asher Roth, “Muddy Swim Trunks”

mp3 of assorted CRUCIAL SPRAWL and ASSEMBLING THE LORD poems

Why? Because you'd always wanted a no-fi recording of me awkawardly reading my poetry and flubbing lines for your iPod so you can rock out to it whenever you get good and sick of the Black Eyed Peas.

On archive.org. Click here to check it out.

P.S. Thanks, Dad!

notebook scraps #2

notebook scraps #1