Never Mind the Beasts

Website of surreal-absurd writer Marcus Silcock

  • DAMN I MISS THE LONDON COMMUNITY OF POETS:

    FIRST KLATCH MEETING IN LONDON

    MISSED THIS ONE :-(

    THIRD KLATCH MEETING IN LONDON

  • I SWALLOW FLOWERS

    tikies tikies
    i love you flashy ways
    I love your sparkles
    and bearded men
    your Starbucks cups
    and tee key wrists
    suck oh suck
    your thin cigarette
    oh whiff of fashion
    oh spray of dying daffydills

  • HOUSE VERSUS HOME

    my teeth have gone grimey
    there is a baby chest inside me

    i turned in bed to repel
    the ghosts

    this face slides away

    towards the morning
    foreign voices drift
    around me

    the house is more to die
    than to live in *

    * Ilhan Berk’s poem “Garden”

  • A student at Middle East Technical University translated a poem about uprooting. The transition from Poland to Turkey. Here is the Turkish translation:

    Yaklaşan Kök Kanal Tedavisini Duymanın Ardından

    bilmiyoruz nerede durduğumuzu

    ya da kiminle durduğumuzu
    ya da neyin bizle durduğunu
    ya da kimin bize karşı durabileceğini
    ya da neye karşı durabileceğimizi

    kedi tüylerini yalar ve
    titretir yaprakları telgraflar

    bilmiyoruz

    kim hata yapar
    kim hamle yapar
    kim ayna tutar
    kim kapıyı çalar

    bilmiyoruz nerede durduğumuzu


    Çiğdem AVCI

    ODTÜ Bilgisayar Mühendisliği
    (METU Computer Engineering)

    http://cigdemavci.blogspot.com

  • Some of my poetry from Godzenie in the new issue of Toxic Poetry. Check it out:

    Toxic Poetry

  • 21st April 2010

    everybody fooled me
    the evening folded
    everybody blushes
    and disappears
    the birds crawl
    on the branches
    the branches do not break
    what is there to understand
    in the silence of this Turkish
    desert what is there to
    listen to if not Istanbul
    I must carve
    something new in this
    blind cell
    are my lips wet
    or dry we listen only
    to mutiply the mountains
    sing of ashes
    there can be no
    turning back

  • Antalya

    (2 March 2010)

    there was a Russian prostitute
    there was Gypsy music
    there were gin and tonics
    there were struts and ruts
    & mock turtlenecks
    there was a bumbling
    there was an opening and closing
    there was time
    time and a wish
    for more time
    what might have
    lubricated today
    does not
    lubricate tomorrow
    the sea was behind us
    the sea continued
    the sea continues
    i’ve built my house
    among the winds

  • 16th APRIL 2010

    Bilkent East Campus

    on the burnt hills
    the light forms a cradle
    a pale song is cradled
    dusted eyebrows
    earlobe and earstrobe
    dark pupils gather light
    tulip tulip alif alif alif
    I think always of her
    a green olive full of fire

  • Cleaves2 is now live featuring 63 contributors from:

    Berlin, Brighton, Cambridge, Cork & Ireland, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Leeds, Lithuania, London, Moscow, North-West England, Paris, Poland, Romania, Scotland, South West England and finally, Switzerland.

    Available here:

    Cleaves 2

  • The search for truth is more precious than its possession

    I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious

    I believe in standardizing automobiles, not human beings

    I love to travel, But hate to arrive

  • blew my mind. some new poetry coming soon from the Istanbul notebook.

    Found great bookshop in Istanbul called Pandora.

    Picked up:

    1) Selected poems of ILHAN BERK

    2) Leave the Room to Itself by Graham Foust

    3) I, Orhan Veli translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

    4) I too want to hunt a deer by Lale Mulder

    5) Selected poems of Nazim Hiklmet translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk

    6) Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry edited by Murat Nemet-Nejat

    YIPPIE!!!

  • some work from my Korean manuscript in the new West Wind Review:

    West Wind REview

  • (26th March 2010)

    Bilkent Center REAL

    I’m writing to you in this weather
    among buckets of bumble bees

    it is better to know my people
    these leopard skins
    are not my people

    tumbling out warm
    with the cosmic absurdists
    a prophet’s ten minutes of satire

    when will you cool your heels?

    there’s a bird on your shoulder
    that whispers goodbye

    donkey eyes
    plum eyes
    olive eyes
    violin eyebrows
    strawberry hips
    apple tongue
    hazelnut nose

    I’m heading to the roaring Bosphorous
    pockets full of mercurial evidence
    a metal tray of endless love
    Venus rising in the hood of my penis
    a wind puffs up for 24 hour shopping
    on account of the frame
    there is loose hair in my thickets
    have fingers and know how to use them
    I’m kissing the lipless

  • my Irish pores are breaking
    into the cold green waters
    the cold muddy froth
    father father I hear
    the turnips preparing
    in their ground
    by the pale muddy
    waters waters
    we sink like any
    old stone

  • Olympos

    (1 March 2010)

    on the wet floors
    of the rocks
    of the rocks
    on the wet floors

    grayed steps
    lighting sheets

    stone steps
    stone steps
    boulders
    stone steps

    heat and oil

    a place of
    eternal torches

    we were cold
    we were cold
    it was raining
    we were cold

    a place of stones
    and rocks
    and rain

    loud slaps from the dark sky
    loud slaps over the Mediterranean

    and these torches
    these torches
    among the rocks
    these eternal torches
    among the rocks

    a place of ruins
    a place of Roman ruins

    decayed columns
    fallen columns
    crumbling columns

    the beginning of the end
    of a new relationship
    amid thorns
    amid forking paths
    amid frogs
    amid one chilled out
    sunbathing turtle

    splayed legs
    leathery head
    shell slightly cracked

    softer softer softer
    than i had imagined

    waded in
    waded in

    the Mediterranean
    the Mediterranean
    the Mediterranean

    watched others
    wade
    further

  • (24th March 2010)

    Kizilay

    gule gule gule
    evet evet evet

    I’m glued
    I’m glued to your
    curly wurly

    yr gay
    dancing
    late night in Kizilay

    the _______ is a body
    of a lover we have
    never loved

    there is space
    there are cells
    there is space

    there are patterns
    there are many birds

    oh my freckled arms
    oh my nerve fibres

    how spring comes
    charming and funny
    the Nikes are golden green

  • Primitive Pianos

    I dream this city
    this city this city
    of primitive
    pianos
    icy millions tell me so
    tell me tell me oh
    pulled tooth
    pulled tooth
    that left a hole a hole
    my my my
    uncooked trial
    a jig with Roman wrestlers
    a jig with Irish diplomats
    my Irish pores are breaking
    into the cold green waters
    the cold muddy froth
    father father I hear
    the turnips preparing
    in their ground
    by the pale muddy
    waters waters
    we sink like any
    old stone

  • 17 March 2010

    Monday I drifted away
    Tuesday I hung from a tree
    my tooth was pulled
    there is a hole
    I dreamt that I was real

  • 19 March 2010

    hot hot hot underlings
    i love you flashy ways
    I love your punting cycles
    and riddles in the wings
    and the whiffs of yonder phallus
    I’m yanking out your daffy dills
    imagine this: imagine this
    I’ve opened up my lids
    and this is what I see
    pawns and pawns and pawns
    yawning in their faculties

  • This Thursday (3/18), the Duke Poetry Working Group will reconvene to discuss the work of J. H. Prynne, a poet whose influences and influence position him at the crux of poetry’s avant-garde milieu. Please join us as we set out to register the immensity of his utterance.

    You can access the readings we will be discussing here: http://english.duke.edu/research/poetry-working-group

    Duke Poetry Working Group: J. H. Prynne

    Thurs. 3/18 5:45

    Continuing our discussion of textualized sound, our second meeting this semester will focus on the sonic and phonic concerns of renowned British poet and critic J.H. Prynne. Conversant with Romantic, late Modernist and Chinese poetic traditions, Prynne occupies a singular space in contemporary literature. Helping us find our way into that space will be Erik Ulman’s recent essay “Composing with Prynne” in which Ulman, a classically trained musician, interprets the poet’s work through the practice of musical translation. After listening to Ulman’s arrangements of Prynne’s “L’Extase de M. Poher” and “Thoughts on the Esterházy Court Uniform,” we will turn our attention to Prynne’s own essay, “Mental Ears and Poetic Work,” which elaborates on the function of sound and signification in poetic comprehension. Please join us for what we hope will be a rousing conversation.

    Readings:

    Select poems of J.H. Prynne

    Erik Ulman’s “Composing with Prynne” essay from Search: Journal for New Music and Culture.

    J.H. Prynne’s “Mental Ears and Poetic Work” essay from Chicago Review.

    Supplemental Reading:

    J.H. Prynne’s “Stars, Tigers and the Shape of Words” essay (an especially hard to find work)

    Please RSVP if you plan to attend, so we don’t under or over shoot on the food. Folks from all fields and disciplines are welcome.

  • How are you? i hope all is well with you, i hope you may not know me, and i don’t know who you are, My Name is Miss T, i am just broswing now i just saw your profile it seams like some thing touches me all over my body, i started having some feelings in me which i have never experience in me before, so i became interested in you, l will also like to know you the more,and l want you to send an email

  • If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday–

    – I warn you not to be ordinary

    – I warn you not to be young

    – I warn you not to fall ill

    – I warn you not to get old.

  • coming up
    only to show your own

    my boat has resurfaced

    I am not a careerist
    I am not your bunion

    the radiant dark is my new
    rehearsal

    oh

    honey turns to stone

    don’t flee
    from being
    whacked upside
    the head

    i’ve set out tonight
    to some new place

  • some terrific poems in the new Blackbox Manifold. Including poems from Jim Goar’s new ms The Dustbowl:

    Blackbox Manifold

  • 1 March 2010

    we reached the campsites at Olympos with modern hippies in this place of treehouses and roosters and backpackers MGMT playing on a mobile phone it rained and rained and lightning sheeted over the Med over the Roman ruins on the other side of the river we walked toward the rocks of eternal fire crossed the flowing stream crossing through villages and headscarfed houses in bare feet my feet dangling down away from my own private exodus my own private Egypt on the wet floors of the rocks of the rocks the rocks were grayed out steps with occasional lighting sheets and monsoon like rains as we climbed the stone steps the stones and boulders arranged around the fire heat and oil a place of eternal torches a place of stones and rocks and rain

    we were cold
    we were cold
    it was raining and there were sheets and sheets
    of lightning over the Mediterranean
    loud slaps from the dark sky
    and these torches these torches
    among the rocks
    these eternal torches among the rocks

    we reached the place of ruins
    the place of Roman ruins
    decayed columns
    fallen columns
    sinking Roman baths

    what conversations did they have among these rocks?
    What inner chatter told me of my own forking path
    the beginning of the end of a new relationship
    amid thorns and forking paths amid frogs amid one chilled out
    sunbathing turtle splayed legs leathery head shell slightly cracked
    softer softer softer than i had imagined

    and the following day after we walked back to the Mediterranean
    the Mediterranean
    waded in watched others wade further
    lost money ate Turkish delight
    and we took the bus back up
    the winding road up and around and
    up and around
    and then a nice fresh OJ
    and another bus into Antalya

    into the clean city full of life
    full of life and the sea and the sea
    continued its rhythm behind
    us as we gunned around looking
    for our kamel coach for a midnight
    ride back to Ankara and found a
    bar with closed curtains and mafia types
    and one washed up
    Russian prostitute and suited men
    watching the room
    loud Turkish music almost a tavern without
    the friendly
    shadows struts and suits and mock turtlenecks

    so we bumbled out
    a tad more serious in our conversations
    and plans
    with our strong gin and tonics
    wagging our tongues
    into the night
    shaking our heads at cafes and restaurant owners
    saying “Guten Abend
    mein friend” and “come come
    come for another”

  • Excellence vs. Perfection

    _____________________________

    Perfection is being right.

    Excellence is being willing to be wrong.

    _____________________________

    Perfection is fear.

    Excellence is taking a risk

    _____________________________

    Perfection is anger and frustration.

    Excellence is powerful

    _____________________________

    Perfection is control

    Excellence is spontaneous

    _____________________________

    Perfection is judgement

    Excellence is accepting

    _____________________________

    Perfection is taking

    Excellence is giving

    _____________________________

    Perfection is doubt

    Excellence is confidence

    _____________________________

    Perfection is pressure

    Excellence is natural

    _____________________________

    Perfection is the destination

    Excellence is the journey

    _____________________________

    -author unknown

  • 25th Feb 2010

    in my family bones
    are many mansions
    a reek of vows
    my mind is a
    would be keeper
    set adrift
    in a wonky boat
    I see this Edenic
    dark this
    close chill
    on the horizon
    in fact in facto
    i’m gorged out
    on white cheese and constantly
    looking for the molten god
    of freedom
    femdom referendum
    do you have
    your Duende pack?
    I have a positive
    thinking rash

  • Made a new friend from Egypt in Ankara last night. Some good photography and blogging on the political situation(s) in Ankara. Check it:

    Photography

    Boraie’s Blog

  • my turkish towel
    smells like
    popcorn

    I have a positive
    thinking rash

    in my family
    bones
    there are
    many mansions

    (these are today’s
    fragments)

  • 23rd Feb 2010

    a trade route
    of broken icons

    clipped sunlight
    with swollen

    lymph nodes

    did you have a good time?

    the blood
    the weight
    the rubbled

    what did I carry?
    Who carries?
    Who cares?

    needles
    on the spin

    she said I’m no
    thermometer I’m no
    snag in the ventilator

    she said these orbits
    need a new orbit

    she said you’ll hear
    the buzz of cicadas

    she said we quiver
    on the river with reversible
    eyes

  • 13 Feb 2010

    I doff
    I doff
    everyday I
    haven’t had
    enough
    of you
    see what you
    wanna see
    nine times
    outta ten
    i wanna
    a better
    place
    to fall

  • 9 Feb 2010

    lovin what might

    kick the buckets

    slaves for these spaceships

    cream on your money
    i came to shake the frames

  • 8 Feb 2010

    my head is a melon
    it’s alright
    invisible rivers
    hidden mosquitoes
    lightning source
    take me away
    what a glorious day

  • 11 Feb 2010

    lightning lightning
    the heavy word is frightening

    I am talking to you

    dirty sweet you’re my girl
    dirty sweet you’re my girl
    dirty sweet you’re my girl

    get it on

  • 12 Feb 2010

    Let it ramble
    let it ramble
    free wine
    at the painted
    boats cartoon
    beat with custume
    clothes borgeoius
    blues would make
    that sound ahhh uhhhhh
    choose your mirror
    you got what you asked for
    there is a crack in the table
    drunken Starbucks at Bilkent Centre
    you can be honest
    our western stain won’t wash away
    ambient bubbles
    ambient bubbles
    I certified
    past hells and heavens
    this is the Milky Way
    the loon door
    is painted gold
    this is the only life
    I know how to live

  • My grandfather died this morning.

    When I was young boy his job was picking up milk from the farms around Northern Ireland. he took me with him.

    I decided I was going to be a farmer.

    I started collecting Farmers Weekly.

    He used to bring me out to his garden where he kept all his budgies.

    We would go outside and talk to the budgies.

    He had the most perfectly clipped hedges.

    When he hugged me his face was rough with stubble.

    Sometimes he smelled of earth. of soil. of damp soil.

    He loved country and western music.

    He had wee horses above the fireplace.

    I grew up on his wheat bread.

  • cultural relativism does not apply:

    girl buried alive in Turkey

  • 7 Feb 2010

    I’m not a rugged individualist
    I’m not a tarnished love mat
    I’m not a tender refugee
    I’m not a celibate cuddler
    I’m not a Utopian experiment
    I’m not a monarch with a whiff of pacificism
    I walk these lands these lands I read
    to my love who does not
    exist I read to simplify my fallacies
    I came to kiss and be kissed
    I came to do what water does
    and does again
    this is bodily matter
    these are the trivial
    conditions of an empty
    kingdom the barbed wire
    of another Medussa
    the heart strobe of another
    America the rafters of another
    Prod with folksy hammers
    and ploughs my ghost chains
    in the wacky woods such capital
    my brothers is not federal
    property I’m sick with child
    I’ve got many others
    I’ve never lived
    a radical life
    I’m pressed into
    tenderness

  • 6 Feb 2010

    i’m lookin for a new California
    California state of mind
    mind my gaps my rogue
    my rogue is not a pretty face
    not a pretty face in California
    California is not a place
    not a place like Turkey
    Turkey is a wail
    a wail on the streets
    streets full of strangers
    strangers full of smiles
    smiles and miles to go
    to go to to go to go to go
    to go to go to go to go

  • new issue of Streetcake. Some good stuff. Goldfish and staring into empty windows and so on . . .

    check it:

    Streetcake

  • 3rd Feb 2010

    someone
    spoke to me
    in the malignancy
    of an old repose
    in the oh god
    another pudding
    of the mind
    another bomb
    in the new uni-
    versity of this
    gloablized
    world

    i turned in bed
    to repel the bored
    ghosts the licked
    intonations
    no cold wish
    this is the reality
    of the smoke
    from a blown out
    candle the question
    far out without the key
    with the shadow
    of an absolute moon
    a simple sign I can think
    of people a host
    of a body in the dream
    story of a man in the stow
    away every country applied
    to the seas

    references
    do not exist

  • Next Friday, 21:15 on Radio 3
    Turkish Literature – Orhan Pamuk
    Ian McMillan presents a special edition focusing on Turkish literature. With Orhan Pamuk.

    The Verb

  • The new issue of Drunken Boat, the wonderful journal of art and poetics, just went online, and features three of Brian Howe’s sound pieces, which in turn feature the voices of three Lucipo members: Ken Rumble, Tim Van Dyke, and Marcus Slease:

    Drunken Boat

  • 27th Jan 2010

    this
    is a manner
    of slipping
    oysters into
    my pockets
    this whole wide world
    my fellas
    will not leave me
    alone significance
    is cheap
    butter on someone else’s
    toast buttocks
    my goddess
    I’ve been
    stabbed by the Baltic fleet
    and live with the Ottoman
    trading company

    30th Jan 2010

    Lojmanlar H/7
    this is recreation
    feet naked
    cutter cutter
    in the thrash
    bag this bed brings
    back Katowice
    the gas of the
    ghost that steps
    on my heels
    soul jelly skipping
    over the candle
    heat the rain
    is forced to settle
    on the arc
    of my eyelids
    my detour
    is not
    a teddy bear
    the sky is adding
    sugar to my corny
    strokes of big eared
    musics
    trip and
    fall trup trup
    in the laboring
    trup trup
    kids the makings
    of raw
    babies
    and beginner’s
    clunks
    among
    the scantily
    clad foreskins
    this house is a guest
    the first straws
    that slurped my Big
    Gulp I’ve arranged
    your neckties

  • Head’s up! It’s the first Crater of 2010, and it’s a grand little broadside from Amy De’Ath: Andromeda / The World Works for Me. There’s a drawing by her too and it’s fantastic. £4 [£5 ROW]. Letterpressed &c. &c.

    Praise for Amy:

    “Amy De’Ath is the new fire for mortals. She peoples space. She plays tricks with the gods and with her readers. This is personal, and it’s hot shit.” — Marcus Slease

    Last October Amy started a pretty neat blog, which can be found at http://www.amydeath.wordpress.com

    Email me at richie_fire@hotmail.com if you want one. (+ a few copies of Harry Gilonis’s Acacia Feelings left too). Paypal / cheques please.

    Also, why not subscribe? £50 (£55 ROW)’ll get you 10 copies or £50/5 worth of Craters, whichever takes longer. Other suggestions welcome.

    ta-ta,

    Richard

  • short quick video from taxi on the way to hospital for three set of rabies shots :-)


  • some of my poems from Spanish Fork and Ankara in the new OCHO.

    OCHO #29 is now available online:

    OCHO 29

    Also in print directly from CreateSpace:

    OCHO 29 print edition

    Ocho #29
    By John Korn, David Krump, William Keckler, Wille Perdomo, Ron Androla, Michelle McEwen, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, William Stobb, Melissa McEwen, Grace Cavalieri, Sam Rasnake, Steve Halle, Matthew Hittinger, Marcus Slease, NIcole Mauro, Didi Menendez

    OCHO is MIPOesias Magazine’s print companion.

    Publication Date:
    Jan 22 2010
    ISBN/EAN13:
    1450547273 / 9781450547277
    Page Count:
    88
    Binding Type:
    US Trade Paper
    Trim Size:
    6″ x 9″
    Language:
    English
    Color:
    Black and White
    Related Categories:
    Poetry / American / General

    Soon from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and your favorite Independent Bookstore.

    Thank you,
    Didi Menendez

  • One of very very very favourite lit journals of all time!!! New issue is out:

    Onedit

  • 18 Jan 2010

    i’ve got bone
    dog skin

  • i was attacked by a wild pack of dogs today . . . on campus . . . 10 of them . . . visited a few hospitals to find rabies shot . . . only one public hospital had it . . first set today . . . jeans all ripped up . . . . guess they came from nearby forest . . must have been really hungry . . . i am a lucky fella . . . they are being hunted tonight . . . ahhhh . . . . new experiences . . .

  • 18 Jan 2010

    a wild pack
    of family

    dogs
    came

    running
    through the trees
    at me

    a pack, a pack
    a hun-
    gry

    pack
    doth froth

    and howl
    tonight

    i’ve taken
    off

    i’ve taken
    off

    my
    trousers

    oh!

  • 17 Jan 2010

    I’ve been
    clowned
    by the
    transcendental
    trickster
    my hand is
    reaching
    forward
    to touch
    his feathered
    wing i close
    my bedside
    table
    my
    miniature
    satellite
    my nomadic
    blanket
    the happiness
    game is a fore-
    play fondling
    a chirping frog
    snapped in
    the mythic
    lips aflame
    in revolving
    credit a mutual
    mood ring
    chump
    chump
    stooped
    in too much
    tenderness
    this is not
    a free trade
    zone

  • 15 Jan 2010

    in the valley of the fairy chimneys
    in Goreme I have yet to see
    I’m tunneling out of the old bogs
    into an arid sky
    hollowed out by ancient people
    a tree of evil eyes

  • 14 Jan 2010

    what is raki without
    rhyme what is the Ouzo
    effect what is lion’s
    milk what are
    bluejays without
    Hermes and tele-
    phones and and
    bulls and blue
    brains and fools and
    belated classics nibbling
    at the gutted backslap
    of plasticity of outter
    space the people
    are still moving
    unassailed and they
    are free in their pussies
    and crocks free to love
    in this red clay of Ankara

  • Lunch yesterday:

    Ayran sour yogurt with Kansik Pide and Ali Nazik Kebap

    breakfast today:

    karamel & cevizli Helva, Turkish coffee, sour yogurt, white cheese, fresh baked bread . . . . . . .

  • First issue of new international poetry magazine Cleaves is now available to view online. Exciting project. I edited the DENMARK and POLAND section.

    check it:

    CLEAVES

  • 12 Jan 2010

    Cybele Cybele
    centre of the Anatolian pantheon
    ritually castrated a hidden noise
    is woven into this Turkish rain
    drumming dancing and drinking
    upon the long sleeves of a priest
    the Turks did give the Dutch
    their tulips

    veni vidi vici

    13 Jan 2009

    the lunar bull
    is damp with sweat and I am amid the testicles
    of another wet winter
    a stranger is at my doorsteps
    a stranger spoons the silt
    of Turkish coffee
    into my cup
    I have eaten
    Ayran sour yogurt
    with Kansik Pide &
    Ali Nazik Kebap

  • It is 03.28 on the second day and my fridge is full of Pınar Doğal Yoğurt. There is a haze of lights outside my window. We were at REAL shopping centre. Prayers crowned the air. I was a translated clam. This is where the world’s nuts are made. I’m waiting for the ruins of a Roman bath. I’m waiting for the temple of Augustus. I’m waiting for the Monument to a Secure Confident Future! Everybody seems hard on the face but soft in the mouthholes.

    It is 06.42. I’ve slept one hour. 15 min till I am supposed to awake. It was a night with my life. Or parts thereof. Snow and microbrews, ping pong beer, erotic nights in hotel rooms. Paper routes and swimming pools. Little boy and big boy. Dusty hands against the window, sweaty trousers and moldy cheese. Hands on the nightstand. Running & running round the tracks. Jesus on the ceiling. Angel light from passing trucks. Tootsie rolls from Mormon missionaries. Las Vegas lakes and rocket ships.

    It is 09.00. It has rained and the red clay of Ankara sicks to my soles. The stones glow at the old gate. This is an ongoing nomadic poetics. I’m drinking Seftali Nektari in the east campus cafeteria. In this garden of dark howls i search for my twin. Cleaners clean around me. When you awake what sticks to your skin? Who colours these keenings? The old has been sold. Culling the senses in this cold wind I have felt the devouring. Praise the whirling dervish. The ecstasy of petals on an empty platter. The non-arousing of hotel erotics. The corona is in the clinic. I’m 90% glutton free.

    .

  • If you didn’t know already . . . check it:

    Poets and Artists magazine

  • Chicago to Istanbul (8 Jan 2010)

    You write if as if something is happening to you. I am happening. This is a happening. Happy haze grazes these sentences. Do not trust goodwill. History decays. What is an exception? The cold duck wades into the pond. I don’t want to get out but get in. How do the flowers suffer? It has happened. You are crushed in my nasals. I’m saying hello to my heart. I’m an abducted alien. Kristy Thomas is not an illusion. A pencil is an extension. We are not prigs. This is not a game. I am still drinking you in.

  • My Bilkent University faculty flat . . . . . swanky!!!!

  • )

    the gospel shakes toughest place meanest dang
    caper imagination mothers i must admit this
    spit was hot we must gather round gather
    round the fireside please please we need
    more rattlesnakes more chickensnakes more
    bellies for the beasts

    my brethren run in broad shoes, my breath
    inhales nostalgia and exhales

    foamy whispers
    passion’s armada

    no. this is not yr mother’s milkshake
    yr uncle’s saliva, each wall
    is a universe

    and behold god
    once darkened skin
    of those who let
    go of the iron
    rod but now it
    is no longer PC
    to have wives
    or darken skin
    for evil ways

    my eyes will break, have broken
    into the old sockets, the old
    golden plates, chopping heads
    off for righteousness ah ha
    um hum please keep running
    me over with your soft wheels

  • Partying with my college students in Poland :-)

  • oh
    pioneers
    the curtains
    are painted
    with min-
    ature spuds
    busy bees
    busy bees
    a hive near
    footprints
    from a husband
    chasing
    his wives
    Cowboys
    versus
    Indians
    nephites
    versus
    lamanites
    in the book
    of Abraham
    kolob
    is near
    god’s
    throne
    near the
    sun this
    is the place
    said
    Brigham
    Young

  • this vulgar tissue
    is sapped
    sapped
    itchy
    and dumb
    i’ve acquired
    the mundane
    in this snowy
    weather

  • put the cele-
    brator on your
    yang and we’ll
    click
    the i-
    phone
    this is a
    reckon-
    ing
    am scant
    scin·til·lat·ed
    my valuable
    friend all
    things
    expire
    the piper
    is down

  • we are a lovely
    finish we are
    80 percent
    aficionados
    this is not
    curry in a hurry
    this is not
    40 hits
    with DJ Scotty B
    you are a
    hot lick
    of berry
    a tiger
    with a tongue
    cherry notes
    without a hint
    of oak
    oh

  • an old blog from an intro to poetry class i taught at university of north carolina . . . interesting to revisit . . .ahhhh . . . all this revisiting . . . reseeing . . . .

    intro to poetry

  • 30th Dec 2009

    a cowboy
    dazzled me
    with his
    belt buckle
    as I blew
    his snow
    in the television
    glow
    i’ve
    squandered
    nothing
    and
    get on
    down
    with the
    years
    you are
    very large
    very large
    and full of air
    I’m most sane
    when charged
    & full of
    pops and bleeps
    with a steady
    backbeat
    get on with it
    toss my top
    these jailers
    play the price
    play the fetish
    in the suburbs
    we’re getting
    dicey

  • Taxi to Victoria Station (Dec 20th 2009)

    I miss
    her picture

    beware
    of your broken bits

    I know this
    face

    my fingers lost
    touch with turtles
    in the half moon
    ——————————–
    Chicago to SLC (Dec 20th 2009)

    there was a general holding
    in the fenced off cloud

    I watched a mindless
    movie

    this is not a painting

    my lovers were blown
    into molten glass

    —————————
    Salt Lake City (Dec 22nd 2009)

    I met
    my ex-wife in the red
    iguana

    ——————————–

    Spanish Fork Utah (Dec 21st 2009)

    and we present
    an army of the un-
    employed

    sipping French roast at Buns
    near a sign
    that reads
    “our money clips grip”

    beware of the
    castrated
    conversation

    beware of the man
    on the wheel
    who cranks
    his legs

    this is a general
    crackdown

    ——————————–
    Provo Supermall (Dec 26th 2009)

    this is precisely the right moment for the spectral city
    an adventure in hymns
    an adventure in custom stickers
    an amateur landscape
    my love is a mole
    a sauce for your meat cake
    to frolic in half-lingered pleasures
    cinematic pleasures disrobing your dunce cap
    behold this fracturing
    behold the pre-history
    cinematic hacks
    seeding new mantras
    there is a larger reason
    for your lunchbox
    we revise to spit up
    the terrors

    ——————————–

    28 December 2009

    I began in a
    failed society
    mushy peas
    and fried
    pineapples
    the present
    is a baffled
    weather
    it is a gamble
    to get off it is
    a gamble to declare
    yrself
    missing, oh

    �i lit my pocket trumpet
    my head is in
    another socket
    the streets soaked
    with melting snow
    we linger like
    I’ve had this air
    only rarely
    morning drops
    itself into the keyhole
    warts are in the markets
    kiss me in my slow croaker
    I smelled the snow
    I’m not spooning
    a single soul

    ————————————-

    you are a defensive guro,
    rectitude, lets light
    another match
    I’m sitting under the widely
    spaced stairs of another
    heaven

    —————————-

    Everywhere I look there are smart-eyed inarticulate creatures wishing me hello in monster aisle supermarkets and small smoke shops where even if you are 35 they want proof proof proof and trucks go swishing through snow and cars change lanes on mega lane highways our picture is on the ceiling when we tried not to make love our picture is smattered and scattered
    —————————–
    that was another life

    everything was another life

    I’ve grown less afraid to love beyond
    my bed

    ————————————————

  • lotsa mountains and snow out here :-)

  • dublin airport . . . 1 euro for 8 min on internet . . . about 17 more hours of traveling . . . . fresh dublin airport guinness . . .. chicago next . . . then salt lake city . . . .

    wonder how America will feel . . . .

    I am heading to Ankara, Turkey on Jan 8th for new teaching gig at Bilkent university . . . .

    so america, turkey, then maybe London to settle . . . . will see . . . .

  • There is Time

    my m-

    id-

    l-

    ife t-

    urn-

    ing yr

    kn-

    ee

    c-

    aps br-

    ought

    me

    up a k-

    iss f-

    or yr

    c-

    aged

    r-

    ibs, a k-

    iss

  • Homophonics

    my frugal heart is on ur
    kneecaps I’m ur sweet
    hussy with twitching brows &
    fingerbones ur throat captain
    AHOY! this yeast infection
    irrigates ur thighs beguiling u
    with loose eyes

    ——————————————–
    Are you still in Poland . . . is Poland still . . . completely naked . . . my body is . . . . coffee . . . . is electric . . . eel . . . I want . . . to get . . . off on yr . . . dried . . . leg . . . bits . . .

    Are you . . . you . . . beguiling . . . bridge . . . over . . . troubled . . . yeast . . . . infections . . . ahoy . . . thighs & eyes . . . beguile . . . (Sssss) he . . . ahoy I . . . twitching . . . brows . . . and fingerbones . . .
    ——————————————–
    thinking what . . . first . . . du dat . . . all over . . . all over . . . christ god . . . dried peach . . . bit . . .

    ——————————————–
    ur . . . . angel . . . . ski . . . tak dali dali . . . mini . . . jako . . . my toesha . . .dupa . . . speer . . . dali dali dali . . . spooooooko . . . . dobra . . . . allergee . . . no . . .vina . . .no . . . vina . . .n(yeah) . . .toe . . . dobe . . .sha . . .toe . . .samo . . .no . . .no . . .do quad . . . n(yeah) . . . few . . . few . . .
    ———————————————
    dugger . . .shall . . .ee . . .dugger . . .shall . . .ee . . . duggar . . .shar . . .ra . . .e . . .go . . .dupa . . .sha . . .chee . . .a . . .shy . . .chee . . .a . . .dupa . . .
    ——————————————-