Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Howie Good - Three Pieces

1. How to Prepare for Heartbreak
Summoning up
a kind of rage,
stubbornly walk,
or even crawl,
across a frozen sea
and then pass
through a hole in a fence,
on the other side
of which it’s dusk,
and maybe always is,
no people anywhere,
just stubble fields
and a black dog
with a red tongue.

***
2. Factory
This isn’t the best place to work. The roof is burning. We might as well be mannequins for all the concern we’re allowed to display. It’s like a test of some sort. Smoke begins to seep into the building, and my eyes tear up. The temp worker standing opposite me on the assembly line chews on the middle links of her thin gold necklace, a nervous habit that under other conditions would be endearing but now just irritates me. We work in silence, heads bent forward, hands moving as if diabolically programmed to perform brutal stabbing gestures over and over.

***
3. OMG
The police had dogs. They even had helicopters. They tried to kill a child to shut her up. I searched among the dead and injured and couldn’t find her. A crow in a tree made a noise like “Ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!” as if finding the circumstances amusing. I responded, “No, no, no!” Everyone thought I was crazy. They failed to notice those didn’t resemble normal clouds up there, but angels tracking in blood on their sneakers.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Yrik Max Valentonis - Autobiography


She tried to write her autobiography. But could only write the word “the”. This fustrated her a great deal since she knew that she had lived more than just that. For years she thought about what she had done with her life and the people that she had met and influenced. Continually she worked on her autobiography.



The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the e the the the the the the the the the the the the the



She eventually consulted a novelist whom was mentioned by a mutual friend. The novelist was well known and respected, even though she had never read any of his books. They sat and discussed writing and literature, the topic of her autobiography was brought up and the difficulties she was having with the word the.  He informed her that he too was having word problems, and feeling limited by his previous books since all he could write was the word “it”.


It it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it it



Together they visited the novelist’s editor at the publishing house. In discussion with the editor, it was found out that she could only cross out the word “which”. Since neither book had the word which in it, but only the and it, the editor offered them little relief.


Which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which


The autobiographer and the novelist in the spirit of camaraderie and the liking for each other that they had developed, went to an artist’s reception at the local gallery. While there, they spoke with the artist about his work and future projects. The artist talked vibrantly about the arrow. When they asked if he did anything aside from arrows, he glared at them peevishly and excused himself from their company.


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They encountered a poet there, also attending the artist’s reception. The poet spoke with them about the limitations of writing and the difficulties in communication. The poet admitted once having tried to find a broader vocabulary, but in the end returned to contemplate and appreciate the beauty of  “whence”.


Whence whence
whence whence whence whence
whence whence whence whence
whence whence whence whence whence whence
whence whence whence whence whence whence
whence whence whence whence
whence whence whence whence
whence whence

                               whence whence
whence whence
whence



There is a reader who is reading this story and she can only read the word “she”. I wrote this story for her, but I can only write “that” so we are left with an incomplete story where no one is fulfilled by it.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Lawrence Upton - An impression of artificiality


An impression of artificiality
the sky from Bangor, Gwynedd

An impression of artificiality
as if drawn curtains were suspended, but
ineptly. Maybe some hooks have failed since.
A skull of fabric from torn radiance
behind blinding emptiness, full of itself,
leaving the broad meander sinuous
going nowhere       crack-clacker of lightning
no sound       no sound       announcing       its great distance
when it does bang                   metal sonority
discarding       lidded light flare      disturbing
claims our getting closer river of depth
a road from a distant part carelessly
scrambling towards the same forms of backed force
darkness; and, also, worse;

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Mark Young - from 690 words,



#4

for
of
all,

; indeed, it
an i have to

In order
for
.

. are not
acceptable
to.

Expect is

to fix is 

will focus on
the closest
part of that

Followed by roughly
seventy years of
Water?



 ***
#5

does not
lately
& is to the
movie

heat-related
enjoy performing

have combined these two trends by experimenting with
large amounts of capital
begun to drift.

children best option here
rows when qualities use time plan
use of the hands especially

Dump status to console pref
customize how cube users can interact
have antiquated some

(the group's performance of multiple tasks simultaneously)
the best damn thing free


 *** 
#6

give not just a
passing phase
To view
to influence user behavior
citizenship behavior,

it was just the opposite.

you'll know that the king is
in the corners &
I have lost my grip

"low class new money"

so that
. & they're
specializing in ....
things aligned

was

the configural
has been deferred.
would result in errors

a little Turkish
might suit

of, is,
&
intent
on
...
every new experience