1.31.12

gardens. gone feral.
the way the shadows fall & fall. or
the way it's always february inside even when
it's "Spring-like" on the street.

1.31.12

1.30.12

is today your day? every minute the ice gets thicker. the town has shut down. storms pass. build. pass again. we prospect the lands beyond Kipling's setting sun. streets with eager faces. getting on with their lives. in a thousand schoolrooms a lukewarm response. time. money. the search for 2 fishermen. masticated. regurgitated. the assessment continues. the latest figures. so shapely. so cold. we prospect the storms. masticate time. assess the latest schoolrooms. the town getting on with their lives. every minute the ice gets thicker.

1.29.12

1.29.12

on Friday, I saw a man breaking stones. sledgehammer. pile driver. shovel. no gloves.
on Saturday, I saw a man selling stolen book jackets painted with pictures of animals.
on Sunday, I saw a man dressed in a blanket & garbage bags slapping his forehead with one hand and shouting something about Jesus rising.

1.29.12

1.28.12

1.27.12

sound-change (a lesson) "h" after any consonant causes sound-change. there are no words that begin with "p" there is no word for "yes" and no word for "no" "beal" is the word for mouth. An thfail me means "I am." sasta means "content" or "happy" nil means "not" I am not. or He is not. or plural: people are not. le means "with" nach thfail me sasta Ca means "where" Ca thfail tu: where are you. there is no definite article "a" or "an" me fein means "myself" tu fein means "yourself"

1.27.12

1.24.12

The Tension between Protecting the Right of Access and Protecting Individuals or Society from Harm.

If an individual who is unfamiliar to you comes to the reference desk and requests material on how to build a bomb, do you provide it? 
[Q: is he a white guy wearing dark sunglasses, a Che t-shirt and a heavy beard?]

If an individual comes to the references desk and asks if there is any material on how to freebase cocaine, do you provide it? 
[Q: the materials? or the cocaine? am I allowed to make a Richard Pryor reference?]

Is it ever appropriate to violate the confidentiality or privacy of library patrons? 
[Q: What is "The Patriot Act"? or Q: What is "Child Pornography"?]

Do children have the same rights to information as adults? 
[Q: Where are their parents? or Q: how about white guys wearing dark sunglasses, a Che t-shirt and a heavy beard? asking about freebasing and downloading kiddie porn?]

[certain lines taken from a library studies textbook]

1.23.12 a series of endless errors.

there are some things about a snow-blurred weekend
words that do not fall into place. so much to see on
the other side of that blur. think of all that red. the blue. 
secrets. all the carefully arranged details of another day.
frost-rime and sleet-stain. slush burned black.
recovering the dumb genius of happiness. of normalcy.
unhappy families are conspiracies of silence.
the intellectual split above the grid of black wires.
On some Sundays I forget who I am. and whether
I part my hair: middle, right, left. or whether
I part it at all. when even the batteries are dead and
Monday becomes the least of all possible evils. 
yes, even then.

1.19.12

1.18. 12 inspired

1.18.12

in the howling wind (read: gust)
in the steepness of streets (read: home)
in the echo of everyday (read: grind)
in the hum of memory (read: lies)
in the scream of days (read: love)
in the scrape of flesh (read: sex)
in the stutter of meaning (read: words)
in the howling streets (read: home)
in the steepness of wind (read: love)
in the echo of flesh (read: home)
in the scrape of memory (read: sadness)
in the stutter of love (read: nothing)

1.16.12

tiny biters. handcuff shimmy-ers. internal explosions.
there's nothing like a new way to lie.
love at first sight. choosing a foundation.
there's nothing like a new way to swallow.
tiny explosions. handcuff biters. foundations exploding.
there's nothing like a new way to dance.
houses made of tinfoil. lovers made of air.

1.12.12

1.11.12

"all men are brothers, that is why we shed tears for people we don't know."

22. 5'10" (or 5'8" depending on the source). 160 lbs. (or 131 lbs).
missing since 12/27 (or 12/30).
"If you ask his mother what his biggest attribute is, she would say he gives the most incredible hugs."

1.11.12

1.10.12

"Darkness doesn't fall, he thought as he swayed to the radio, it rises up from the bottom of the sea and beings to breathe around us."
like hope maybe.
or those monsters that still hide under the bed.

1.10.12 waiting for dance class to start

1.9.12 Waiting in the doctor's office

1.9.12

a whisper. a crack in the sidewalk. (a crack in the world.) the way Valentine's Day always reeks of sadness. His ribs: each. individual. willed to protude. How I know I would never have that courage. How we deify violence. the way the sky is too thin. and ugly.

1.8.12

1.7.12

1.7.12

handprint smear on doorways, frames, windows.
the way the walls shiver with each passing truck.
at the airport: an Egyptian well-dressed and grey around the edges
explains violence to a Lebanese man 40 yrs younger who lays claim to Beirut, then admits Jersey City.
I sit between and notice only their matching backpacks,
their beautiful eyes.
today: early April in December but my bones stay cold. shivering to echo the walls.

1.6.12

1.5.12 more Leigh

1.4.12

in the meantime...
there was something in the way he said those monosyllabic words
that just made them mean so much more
(or so much less)
and his ears stuck full of the sound of his own voice.
always: just the sound of his own voice.

1.4.12 Leigh Bowery

1.3.12 more strawberries

1.2.12

archaeology of a lonesome miner.

as simple as that. like following a map. or a grocery list.
light boxes show negatives for what they are.
words, faces only show what you want.

1.1.12

first poem of 2012.

some words I would like to use in 2012. 

this new year:

effluvial. tumescent. carrion. whistle. schlep and lunge.

smoldering. blinkered. distened. aperture. swathe. (or swathes).

or perhaps to write a sonnet or sestina about anything other than:

rain. the sea. the teeming streets of New York. boots on trails.

the crunch of snow underfoot in an otherwise silent forest.

the way people lie and lie and lie again or perhaps, just

tell stories.