Bissextile

Bissextile (2/28)

He gives some comment about dating a Leap Year baby - jokes
about turning 48 when she is 12

Pedophilia jokes are only funny on extra days

Legerdemain

Legerdemain 2/27

The mind is an unopened saucer -

Statin

Statin (2/26)

They should come up with a stress inhibitor - some sweat gland plugging
muscle relaxant that breaks up the everything

Liver colestorol - too busy with sleeping pills dick hardeners
Too busy with ADD and happy pills

I just want to feel human when I leave work - that's all...

Appal

Appal (2/25)

An old woman at the window of a brownstone
Staring in silence at the sun - trees waving themselves

I'm remembering an old woman in London
Sitting in front of a painting - examining the hands of figures

How glazed her focus - the slow crinkle in her eyes
The sun spots the glass and breaks over this new woman's blankets

It's a Polaroid - another outdated person
Flapping against the air and developing slowly into image

Plasm

Plasm (2/24)

Golem walks across the street - leaving silt in the crosswalk
Ubermensch - leaves sprouting on his back - he is an urn
of the dead - ashes of our Grandmothers - Aunts
He carries the memory of a nation - will plant himself
at the feet of furor

Golem vessel of seeds - growing meadow of a person
melting enigma - trees from his eyes bleeding rivers of wood

Majority

Majority (2/23)

At the given time everything will bloom - the mountain will erupt
The cosmos is agreed - at noon atoms will separate - elements will cease
Voting happened in secret back rooms - no one was invited to give opinions
Humanity will have to deal without form - with no fingers

Letter

Letter (2/22)

-
The lilacs are coming - little red fists at the end of branches
In the square the magnolias are inflating their fuzzy heads - it will be
all fresh and clean soon - fountains will be on again and the rain -
-
Today was clear until a wall of black clouds brought snow
I was watching the pattern of light change against the house across
the street - it looked like a clearing sun in a forest -
-
...that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach again?
Would it be too presumptuous to ask you to wait until May? - the
bluebells will be blooming by mid-April...I don't want to miss them again-

Pony Car

Pony Car (2/21)

Who would win in a race between horse drawn Winnebago and a 4x4 pulling an Airstream

Put up the tents billboards sell t-shirts ice cream dolls
12 oz. water for $5

The 4x4 will win -
            being the marriage of two things - man
            and the things he has pulled from the earth

Educate

Educate (2/20)

Anne Bolyn was a power hungry woman who betrayed her sister to become queen.
She forced her gay brother to impregnate her after a miscarriage to protect herself.
She looked like Natalie Portman and her brother was in that movie with Beatles songs.

Slug

Slug (2/19)

Trails on the floor in the morning - never a body in sight
All hail the banana slug movement at night!

In my hand - looks like a squat of bird poo
Dark brown - wet - nothing at all like a spent bullet

With salt they look like shitake mushrooms in a wok
A pressed bullet is a watch battery - a nickel

A lifeless thing that shines - an eye in sunset

Macquarie

Macquarie (2/18)

A place where one of the largest earthquakes hit
with its own grape - a parakeet - a rabbit problem

Overstrike

Overstrike (2/17)

The light changed : the face was a double blind
                                    I managed to be affected : managed to lie to them to get out
She hid her eyes with a veil : erections were imminent
                        Running with the leather straps still on my wrists : snowdrops were fragile
In seconds the bud formed : broke open : beat against the sky
                                                The tears running were Euphrates : the grass was straw
She folds her hands into sandpaper : a crane : an igloo : a rambling orchid

What Else?

This is the video for 'What Else Is There?' by Royksopp. It features the voice of Karin Dreijer. Amazing song.



It was me on that road
But you couldn't see me
Too many lights out, but nowhere near here

It was me on that road
Still you couldn't see me
And then flashlights and explosions

Roads end getting nearer
We cover distance but not together

I am the storm I am the wonder
And the flashlights nightmares
And sudden explosions

I don't know what more to ask for
I was given just one wish

It's about you and the sun
A morning run
The story of my maker
What I have and what I ache for

I've got a golden ear
I cut and I spear
And what else is there

Roads and getting nearer
We cover distance still not together

If I am the storm if I am the wonder
Will I have a flashlights nightmares
And sudden explosions

There's no room where I can go and
You've got secrets too

I don't know what more to ask for
I was given just one wish

Rabbit Photo Work

Photo Work (2/16)

fig 1
A car with rumpled front - snub-nosed hood - jaguar ornament

fig 2
Black & white - dark spreading on concrete - blood? - ice?

fig 3
Arm - hand - finger - wedding ring - very welllit

fig 4
Man with arms outreached - messiah - car wrapping around torso


After reading the poem. Watch this video:

Mediascape

Mediascape (2/15)

The net widens then falters - here is
your high school prom - a clip
of a Heart video

Over here some shit about a war in some country

Look!
A famous person is posting
their thoughts online

Demi Moore wants Chinese tonight - Ashton
Kutcher is buying

Brawn

Brawn (2/14)

Here - take this leg
by the bone

This meat is thick
An onion peeling

I crave your fingerprints
piled on a plate

Let that window open

Let the meat smell waft

Rom-com

A huge part of this project is coming across words that I find just plain stupid. Like Romcom. Why does Romantic Comedy need to be abbreviated? Why?

I wrote a new poem. The original was basically the above statement with line breaks.


Rom-com (2/13)

See -
         I need you to be perfect
But also broken - I'm
broken

I need a little
rose-colored light
on this balcony

Some flowers
         come cuddle with me
watch some Hart To Hart

I'm - broken
but the bruises are
flowering

Frown

Frown (2/12)

In every picture on MySpace I'm frowning
but lit well - but looking stern - This
is why I'm single - I should post happy pictures - sunlit
Me in my tie with elephants on it - Me in purple
I look like some model in a dusty room wearing
something well and looking bored - well
it is boring - MyBoredfacebook
This is what the 21st century brings - we've slid
into an ocean of ennui - we post pictures
of the flooding delta

McQ

Alexander McQueen was found dead today. I always loved looking at his clothes. They are other-worldly and fascinating. They transformed the bodies wearing them.

Link to Daily Mail article.

Nuclein

Nuclein (2/11)

Some FedEx thing - little RNA guy in a hat
with an arrow on it - beeps his horn - runs all lights

Stoppage

Stoppage (2/10)

There is that word in your throat - four letters
that spill so easily - it seems - any other time

Murharram

Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar. Today's poem is made up of the 30 titles that came before this one. It's a clip show of sorts. Enjoy.


Muharram (2/8)

oorlam
spiritualize tawny fadge
monomode fx
stewpot haut-gout
naturalize neck phrase
cowboy spa
minimax haggis barbecue
combi misprision
buffet bash
tailor-made malpighian
particularize chippy posterior
pancake maori
amateur dramatics
head-banging mince

Some Things

I feel like I should address a few issues some have no doubt noticed.

1) Yes, there are a few posts about restaurants and food before the poems begin. This was, at one point, a food blog. It stopped. I was going to delete those posts but felt like ignoring the history was silly. I like what was written, it stays.

2) Yes, these poems are not running in 'real time' with the word-of-the-day from the OED. These were written in 07/08. I decided to post the older stuff first as a chance to 'air it out' and to allow me some time to get back in the habit of writing every day. I AM writing a poem every day based on the current poems. Today's word was 'marsupial'. It's hilarious.

3) As soon as I run through the 07/08 poems I am going to start posting in real time. What you see will be written that day. This will happen sometime this summer. I will let you know. Both of you.

4) I am working on some secret awesomeness to be reveled this spring.

Mince

Today's poem is called 'Mince'. I originally was going to write a poem about Paul Linde. I thought that it would go over too many people's heads. Maybe there is a poem about Hollywood Squares somewhere inside me waiting to get out. Something about the center square being the root of all bitchy queen answers.

Instead, I wrote about meat.


Mince (2/8)

It's a haggis day - you're eating on a blanket
int he park - there are kids and a dog - it is all so
idyllic

I'm remembering the first time I had it - 3rd
grade in front of the whole class - I was picked
on

You're gingham - the sun is 2:30 - I'm watching
the fountain for pennies - lead taste - blood taste
that's the best way to describe it

Head-banging

Head-banging (2/7)

A dark
            room fills
with fog            it is            the opening
scene of
                        Macbeth
The sound of death is so            loud
            breath will catch
This is
            a club?            a night out?

Amateur Dramatics

Amateur Dramatics (2/6)

Tears! - as she auditions for American Idol!
In a bad wig! - some terrible story about genetic obesity
she's butchering Dreamgirls - this
is sad

Maori

Maori (2/5)

Normal people - tangata whenua

Posterior Pancake

Sorry about the late post. I was mugged in Harlem last night. I'm fine. Here are yesterday and today. Poems about falling down.


Posterior (2/3)

In the back of my head there is a voice - constant drone - whispering
so quietly - a mumble in the dark

It is a prayer to continue - a hymn against collapse



Pancake (2/4)

as in flat as a - twisted metal is mille crepes - is
geologic process in cement bathtub - It is severe
clear and falling like it was meant to implode

is paper fire - it is sliding off the griddle and butter
fresh - the sound of static - of people losing it
It is constant reminder of mortality - a drying
shallows filled with flesh

fills the plate well - presses every corner - was
pressing was made to press - It is a sponge for
our sorrow - a metaphor for myopia

Chippy

While 'chippy' commonly means 'prostitute', it can also mean 'cheap' or 'ill-tempered'. I also like to think of my radiator as a hooker.


Chippy (2/2)

Moisture - radiator steam - peels the walls
leaves rings of black on the wood floors

It hisses at us - sits dumbly in the corner
behindthe sofa making soup of the varnish

Particularize

Particularize (2/1)

A bowl of stones - a handful - one
smooth river stone in your palm

A vein of white inching through - pixels
crystals of quartz - a dotted breaking line

A slam - stone on sidewalk
splitting in half - in thirds - quarters

A gray cold heaviness that is resonance
pushing in the ears - a platonic crunch