text:
Thursday, March 30, 2006
The Goodnight Show: The Beat Goes On
out of the sanitarium
we walked in backward
steps toward extinction
toward anthropophagia
toward metropolis
because of the skin
because of the face
you are victim of my g a z e
for me to make
s o a p and lampshades
out of you
and t r e e s out of umbrellas
books burn but words remain
like doubloons in a ship caught
in a genoan f i r e
and into the mouth of a cave i painted by my own hand
i will step
in hunger i came watching the tin witch
crash into a wall of streaming photons
and into the metropolis of glassseapylon
can our deformed b o d i e s
exist in autonomous margins
naïve primitivism is an affect
of the tyranny of our human form
a fact written in
disappearing i n k
as s k i n succumbs
to the fixation of liquid l i g h t
and d i s s o l v e s into
aggregates of silver salts
and a paper e y e
Closing Time
Trays. Contralto quarters, soprano dimes
Chiming the hour above the whisper of paper
Money--counting down the drawer,
Roy, the assistant manager, shakes
Off a late customer rattling the door,
Eyes never straying from the blinking
Cursor on the blue crystal display.
Heather and I feather the wall, fingers
Grooming limp suit sleeves, coaxing
Regimen from remains of the worried
Lambskin, camelhair, merino wool
After shoppers have had their way.
We work from the store's dark belly
Toward well-lighted window displays--
Those undead mannequins that guard
Capitalism. Roy tells us to get our things
And stand still while he sets the alarm.
When he says ok we step over the iron
Gate runner. Roy turns the key and runs
The siren test which sounds, as we walk
Next door to the Palace Hotel for a cocktail,
Like a slightly different emergency
Than high heels clicking on wet sidewalk.
details become sublimated under dust-lidded
dioramas. A spread-eagled grey squirrel straddled
with a red squirrel's tail. Splayed for all the world.
Pinned down along with other half-done juxtapositions.
I've got one of these centaurs in my own front yard.
He makes me nervous when he runs as if
hoping to escape from his inborn recessive flames.
In a more extravagant installation, a miniature
she-goat, grazing on diurnal hibiscus flowers,
opens up to the exhibition of the forest.
And over here we have the bifurcated
V of taxidermic geese superimposed over
the grayed-down background of a fighter plane.
There's nothing new under the sun and so on.
All go which go in noisome abandon.
Including an entire afternoon. Until we return
to the easily shed and forgotten as now becomes
fanciful through the recollection of critical animals.
Highly charged, phantasmagorical griffons,
half mammal half talon, potent and
physical as anything we spread out to apprehend.
I Take To Heart Your Sleep
Immersion's cool possessive else
Approached from embouchure I guess
Unless the terra cotta holds us twinned apart from garden
Manifold impartings lessen steep curves of daylight
Also rising even as I watch and hear the breath of you
This morning
Nothing foretells what to do if
falling in love with him again.
Concrete not made diamond
by felonious softs steps.
No accounting a dubious daddy
ghost wire-singing or
hampering currents
between the legs,
curt breezes seeping. Blink
and they're side by side. The
baby's man had Brylcreemed hair, his
left middle finger topped by
an aircraft propeller,
a war he was (slightly) too old to fight.
Grounded. The
woman's pearly white. Bare.
Clean as umamirose stink.
Hair tufted, for the pulling of. Head
back. Agape in tensile, in expectant,
in throes, in trust
mode. Him and him a slight
ambergris slaver. Metal
or nipples. To choose. And ride and ride and. Yet
saver the present so that nothing
links. Too soon reconciled. Hands,
eyes bletted adult. Love
swoon-beckons a little
death across a greater divide.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Henry's Rich Black History Month
I saw Kobe driving a 1998 Ford Escort,
I saw Michael Jordan driving
a 1998 Ford Escort.
I saw Shaq driving a 1998 Ford Escort,
I saw Magic Johnson driving
a 1998 Ford Escort.
I saw Kobe and his wife driving a 1998 Ford Escort,
I saw Michael Jordan and his wife driving
in a 1998 Ford Escort.
I saw Kobe and Michael Jordan
and Shaq and Magic Johnson
driving together in a 1998 Ford Escort
and I don't know how they did it
but they had their wives with them
in that 1998 Ford Escort.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Bonsai Numero # 1 Goes To.......
A Promise of Yellow Roses.
Fuck the racist of any color.
Fuck the Democrats and the Republicans.
Fuck the Capulets and the Montagues.
Last night I dreamt we pushed
the earth in unison
and made the galaxy spin backwards,
while God danced to a tune by Marvin Gaye
and handed yellow roses.
But that was not what we did today
nor what we did
the day before.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Lack of comments on poems
Let's try and least to give it the old college try and read/comment on more things posted here. Let your browser walk down this page and see how many poems go by with no comments at all. They can't all be so bad that they don't warrent some sort of reply. I just now looked at the ones that did have comments and the same very few people have made those. Even many of the poets posting their poems haven't gone down, found one they liked and posted a comment. I honestly think that part of being a blog community is to do that much. What do you say??
d, if this is none of my business, pls feel free to delete. Won't bother me at all.
The Prelude to War
But impressions stand stolidly in the face
of observation. He wanted his invasion
even as he was stealing the presidency in Florida
and as he was climbing ground zero under a sky
still crying soot and ash. Millions could see it.
Citizens of the world's greatest cities poured into
their streets and they flooded like over-burdened
rivers after torrential rains. There was hope that all
the faces and voices rising from the flood might
convince America there is legitimacy in reason
and sound evidence, not pre-emption. Yet,
the bastards veiled Picasso's Guernica,
covering the symbols of war's brutality. Where
is the screeching woman who is half there?
Her arms stretch across the fiery sky, spanning
the East and West, and she makes her fingers
fly like hooks clawing the rungs of heaven
or the hems of God's holy habiliments. Hidden
is her terrible expression invoking deliverance.
But there will be no God for her in these days.
And this is why they hid from sight the horse,
possibly representing the Apocolypse, racking its
neck, widening its eyes, and spreading its mouth
so wide from screams it must have chewed down
the burning sun. So great is the pain
and this revelation of war.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Losing His Name
reading his newspaper.
He doesn't know
how to write one to ten in words,
though he remembers
that he wrote poetry,
that the names of the friends he knew
come into his dreams at night.
He doesn't seem to understand time,
walking into a room
again and again
asking the same question
as if to remind him
where it's gone,
where he can find it.
Outside of stepping in the office,
he rarely goes anywhere.
Perhaps each new place
is like a spiral that turns away
from where he is,
losing his name
and the places he's been to
like the numbers he can't write.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Snapshot 22 March 02006
and the Seed Moons, between
Sap and Grass. Winter lingers
on the dark side of the road,
high in the mountains; but here
in the valley, spring touches
the liquid face of the pond, buds
on the birches. Long friends
share stories like knitted scarves,
unravelled, rewoven; nothing
lost or forgotten, nothing unused.
Bamboo needles, silver hairpins,
a hospital balcony, a death bed.
Brutal family holidays, road trips
in deep snow. We pass back
and forth between us, gold ear-
rings; apricots and grapes; what
we know and what we don't.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Ode to a Nature
Vallejo was a hater of God
and with good reason,
the day Vallejo was born God was sick,
absent-without-leave, AWOL,
gone over the wall,
he was teenage girls at the mall.
God was a wife-beater,
a child molester,
a mean stepfather to Vallejo.
Vallejo would cover his head
with his arms
as punches rained down on him,
the Ark already departed with pairs,
Noah in the pilot house
filled with sadness like a cup.
The day Vallejo was born
God was sitting on the pot
omnipresent and omnipotent.
words that can't be / spoken
to this house / for my own
safety / peace of mind
oh yes / pieces of my mind
i re main / this is my self imposed
the vapid loss / of my self less ness
stretch ed thin enough / oh / pull me tight enough
i can't get enough / of this /
i'm scream ing a gain
no one is listen ing / a gain /
& the house crash es
& i / mommy dear est / crash /
& wish to do / no thing
& i / clean /
i clean / i clean / & i feel like
yes / it's the drown ing / it's this
'Round The Mulberry Bush (slight adj to stanza 3 &line brk in last stanza)
his hand on your arm, bidding you stay,
while the crazy bluebirds circle, crying
yes, yes, and the great willows bend
in the wind, moaning yes yes.
And so you lay your head next to his,
listen again to his lies, try to believe
those bluebirds and the willow trees
and the flash rain that comes, soaking
everything back to bright green.
Your body melts to the bed when he enters you,
whispering secrets only two lovers share, but
you know they all lie--the foolish bluebirds,
their feathers now like sharp glass, the two-timing
willows, even the greedy rain, and so you rest
pennies upon your eyes when he has finished, draw
a shroud up across your face.
You recite your prayers to the tooth fairy,
Romeo and Juliet, and the weeping lady
across the street,
tomorrow he will kill you again.
Siren Song
beneath the waves
break the calm
violet dusk
that slows the hours.
From all the origins of music
nothing is as pleasant
as the ethereal sound of your song
daughter of Neptune,
voice of moon driven rain.
It will outlive my time
as it has all others.
Eternity. Desire. Nimbus.
Be present in my ear
on the last day.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
A Psychology of Space
The window is in front of you
as you're asked to be seated
so you can break the glass,
so you can fly through if needed.
A view of birds fighting
for seed at an empty feeder
or a playground full of preschoolers
screaming, slide and swings
anchored in pavement.
The instruments are behind you
so you can't see the silver tools
sharp and cruelly gleaming.
The needles and drills are invisible.
As with god and love, it's difficult
to believe in what you can't see
or feel. The walls on either side of you
don't connect with the ceiling
so your cries won't go unheard;
all of the patients in the waiting
room flipping impatiently
through magazines without seeing
the pages will feel your pain too.
This is how I want to love you.
I close my eyes as the Novocain
is injected. Not so bad. Just a pinch
then the tongue goes numb.
I can say nothing. I can live
with that. Can't you?
Monday, March 20, 2006
Bottled Butterflies
It's dark as midnight
At six pm in Windsor.
It's Sunday night and
Things are the same
As if it were Saturday
And as you walk you
Kick rocks hands in
Pockets and nose
Covered by the scarf
That someone special
Gave you a few years
Ago and sometimes
You swear you can still
Smell her on it so you
Stop, and sniff, and
In this half filled
Desolate parking lot,
your vision is given;
The perfect afternoon
On grass and strategic
Trees spread out light
Across your horizon
And there is no one
But you two and nothing
Else you can think of
Wanting. As if all the
Tragedy of your last
Year. Your father. Your
Family your purpose in
Life and all the miles
Of love you have left
To give, you never knew
Of; uncapped like a
Bottomless bottle from
This paradise scape
of cracked Windsor
Parking pavement between
The strip club and the casino;
Fluttering into the air
Like clouds of opals,
Diamonds, and worries
Away on a million wings.
~luc u! '06
memoir of walks in the garden.
Dreams that seemed eternal then
are now glass fragments
we can't piece together.
Perhaps you are here unknowingly
as a instrument of memory,
like those persistent souls
that cling to old homes
looking to be remembered.
I taste and grieve for a man
somewhere in the world
who can't find your flavor.
It lingers in my mouth,
pleasant until the end.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
the missing, hissing links. Talking snakes with legs,
saltine cracker wrappers, side by side with raptor
bones, or Paris fashion hats with T. Rex tails--can't be
found. Religious cults abound; in St. Polly's name
they pray in unknown tongues, repeat their litanies from
inside wired cages, making supplications to their gods
for bleached-flour wafers, cleansed with salt. They hate
deserted islands, pirates, treasure chests, but have such reverence
for tradition, they show up for the pictures--at a minimum,
do a fly-by, as long as it's for scale. They often change
romantic partners after empty nests, don't read
the papers (they're covered with so much crap), get
their news from magazines in check-out lines and barbershops--
Hollywood gossip, politics and hip-hop are their favorite
subjects--they're really into repetition. Parrots don't believe
in revolution. They don't think the world is one big curve,
thrown to strike them out. They don't play baseball
yet. Hence, no hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jacks. Nights
are spent perched on barstools sucking cocktails. Tropical
drinks are their weakness. Pink umbrellas in their beaks,
they drink to forget day jobs, wives sitting at home
on the eggs. When out of town on business, they'll hit
some kinky clubs, check out the chicks in cages, swinging
above their cherry heads, fly home just in time for breakfast
with stories of their trip--plantains big as airplanes,
crickets sweet as crispy cremes.
What's new?
Or how about stopping by and checking out who is on the cover of MiPOesias Magazine.
Or hey wanna hear some readings from the AWP? Laurel Snyder captured it here.
Or hey still don't have enough, stop by MiPOesias RSS feed here.
And of course the latest miPOradio is here.
what could be; late at night and broken
where are you going with
things in your hand? your
hands are soft even after
(you and i)
i can only hold you for
another month. because
i am five years too late
already. in the studio
we find a potter's wheel,
your hands and my impatience.
(so many others)
after years and years
they become fiercely hard.
petrified just in time
to die. from florida,
arizona and other sanctuaries
like slow zombies with
more and more and more
money. money that will
blow your mind. or anything
else. and it's coming
from every direction and
i want some. and you know it.
~luc u! '06
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Basic Floorplan of a Ranch House
Do you want me to be inside it?
Do you want yourself to be the plan of it?
Do you need to sleep outside, on the patio--will that do it?
Will that make the dream come to you,
the blueprint all fixed and starry and purposeful, as you need it?
Because I don't know if I do.
Some words are not nearly as useful as they could be.
For instance, some of these swaths that we have to send back--
I wouldn't mind.
Not really saying as much.
But, I really hate some words.
I hate them with something like ardor.
The ardor of your interiority.
The way certain sounds...
you turn up the flame on the sugar, for instance, to melt it--
or villa,
underscoring the word village, where the world becomes street.
That world is too busy--too black.
For I hate hustle, I hate hegemony, I hate hate.
Also that swayback, I hate it.
I hate plurality.
I hate the fact that just to exist means, being partial.
I hate the row, (just now, the one we just had).
And I hate the salesman who insists on going to his car,
who keeps on rising up to go to his car, who keeps everything in his car--
his damn car--with not a goddamn thing back here,
where we could use it.
Or I hate you--I hate you, sometimes. When you're asleep--
you're not so tender.
You fall asleep and your eyelids rove about.
Your limbs thrash.
Are you thinking about me, is this the house you wanted,
is that why you hate it?
sketches menses to samuel barber's adagio
and this is no chore
this smoothing of the
and this is no act
this serious handwork
and this is no secret
this labourlove
this the way the
ripples bend to
and this is no mistake
this blood within the crack
and this is no unknowing
this written in stone cycle
and this is not at all
all foregone
this red
this penciltip cracked like a picked
this novel and unworkable the
lead tipping
and this tool spl-
and this sliver
and this shallow soft flat place bed
and this muskiron this to the woo origins led
and this baroqueing ooze so antagonistic to bed
this hand
this forefinger-thumb blend
soft hatching
and this no tumultuous occasions but this
and this sweet white comfort flat belly
this no credible home but empty womb-fleece
this bevelled lip finger in nippleshard lending this
this hornday pillow cramp stain
and this no ordinary unordinated day
and this harrowing sorrow this nochildway
and this lack
and this more than made up for
in someway
quick again
stay the flow from out the door more
many kinds in mid-turn
often redoubled as renewed idea
that sky in the interim
her perfect word
thrown at the gates underleaf
they still say
nothing sounds the narrative as bells
the crowd of the aging
grind through the weathered instead
So Didi what exactly is the Bonsai Project 2007 and how do I fit in?
Does anyone have any questions?
Friday, March 17, 2006
Bonsai Project 2007
And only available to cafe' cafe' community members....
If you are not sure what Bonsai Project 2007 is, stop by here to see Bonsai Project 2004.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Also, I'm about to get swept off cafe cafe poetry blog.
Just now noticed my winter snapshots look a bit uterine
as if there's this snowglobe maybe hidden in my abdomen
filled with water for oxygen, talk about your particles and waves!
I haven't had the chance to tell you my ethereal dreams:
blizzardesque and tilting, forward and backward,
cerulean blue alcove just behind the curved glass lens.
The skylight presupposes an endless search. Also, binoculars.
Wild geese overhead with their maps and compasses.
We look up to them and lip-read silent words of stars
or snow or even dust from birds. Our progress thwarted,
we fail to understand the maelstrom of constellations.
Three/quarters of the universe is frozen, the rest up in flames.
Our first clothing nothing more than blankets of smoke.
Newborn air has all this symbolic strength, coming,
as it does, from babies-breath and the biology of leaves.
Beflowered wind has got us lifted out of half-states.
Something like a winter garden only indoors and full-blown.
At the End of the Street Lies the Sky
At the end of the street lies the sky
dressed in the purple magician's robe
of eventide and the winter storm.
Tonight she sculpts stairs of ice and
snow. She casts spells upon the laden
earth and the dying man can hear
her invitations in the blizzard, in
dreams that are like all other dreams
except soundly, deeply, more vividly.
He leaves while his wife is sleeping.
He leaves without any goodbyes.
There is no gentle kiss for her lips
no tussling of the boys' hair or
kiss for the daughter with the moon-
shaped face. This is not intentional.
How could he know the destination
of this dream? He leaves his house,
walks down the silent street and
past the rows of barren trees
that shield the homes of dear
neighbors who helped round out
the days, grow the kids, and watch
year after year arrive and depart.
He does not think this odd tonight.
He considers this an adventure
walking past the shroud of snow
and onto the glistening stairs
that climb the breast of sky.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
a long side strides
the creamed
wood lures passing
crowds of singular
attention as
lined home
roads also glistened
with spatters of
long light
to walk
places to live
among the non-
dichotomous beings
the random
likelies bloom like
daily shown flowers
we agree
shallow meaning
deep meaning real
appearances like projections
of our
focus while
releasing present tense
trash burn
",as meaning any
formless" wall
high bag plastic
in newspaper
(butts) seize muscles
paper (ing)
filtered catch/caught dipped
fingers trash
water (gutter) into
edge curved
inch 3 formed
on" floating
letters out kerned
(eyes across)
dots thighs number
A poet for the Nameless
The day and the sun and the trees,
but it is infinitely calm in here
deep inside me.
Perhaps I'm uninhabited.
I, of ancient ownership
and vanished years,
flag of abandoned land.
I leave this collection of poems
written in archaic language
for those who are missing
yet can still dream.
They will read them in silence
and recognize my name
under the gleam of their eyes.
Monday, March 13, 2006
age old / i have be come your hands
a place no one can talk about / it goes beyond
love / the slick ness of sweat / sweet taste of life
i am not / heart / only stone / cold they say
an anger press ed down / fill ed up / w sad ness
& simple they say / there is nothing to dying
i don't remember being born / i scarce lee
remember / touch / core thing / that / heavy hand
of / now you've for gotten / & i get up & leave
always leaving / once / last time / /
yes / the days are getting long er now / sun shines
over the mountain / air / frozen roads / ice to remind
we st.ill move around / this year / next year / & i keep
next year's plan to my self / no sense sharing with the dead
Sunday, March 12, 2006
To my daughter
you are a gift to one undeserving
so fine, unspoiled
the universe in your eyes gleams
and all mankind historic
in every discovery
many, many times, each second indivisible
you are one with me
out of love you arose
and in the infinite wisdom
of those powers that be
to remain, pure, infused with love and of full living
is my wish for you
my darling baby
The boy falling from a balcony three-storey-high
is not falling. Rather, he challenges the rules
of attraction, floating in a bottomless abyss
framed by the black lines
of a comic strip panel. In penumbra,
the action lines smear and fade
from white to red to form the capital letters
of a stop sign. But this does not end here.
I reach my hand out into the viscous substance
of the dark. The fragrance of obsidian
is like the white clay kabuki actors
smear their faces with when they become
oni, Japanese ogres with eyes crimson red
like the wounded head of Apollinaire on a snowy day
of when he saw
a bombshell fall into the trenches.
I watch the ochre yellow and cyan blue fumes
of Munch's The Scream from the interior
of its wooden frame. The paper canvas rolled up
inside of the devil's pocket, the varnish
and the oil paints crack and chip off,
and my face falls again toward the grid
of the wooden board of a game of go
where no one has the need for a face.
Spring Cleaning
The Weekend Show
Sunday: writers from the current issue of MiPOesias Magazine
(Note at the end of Sunday's show, I somehow mixed in Linh Dinh's poem in with Carol Mirakove's so I will rebroadcast Carol's poem again next week)
Saturday, March 11, 2006
My friend just back from Iraq
maybe six or seven months
and discharged from the army
was an optometrist at Abu Ghraib,
was back home now
looking for a different kind of job,
a release valve, a working vacation.
Well, one day while working
with a Lebanese guy
who's been in America for over twenty years,
anyway, my friend gets pissed off
at the Lebanese guy and tells him
to go to hell or wherever it is
that Lebanese guys go
when they are told to do so.
A day later my friend says
"I didn't know why I went off on him,
it wasn't until today
that I realized it was the accent!"
Ever since the dawn of time
soldiers bring the war back home
and they have to deal with it
the best way they can.
The accent, the accent, huh? Damn.
Zephyrus etches poems
in swirls of yellow ochre.
Poems unaware
of their own beauty
and lack of metaphor.
His ancient breath,
cabbalistic and quantum,
sweeps below the moon
like a song that makes
us centuries young
by use of sacred symbols.
Why are we here?
To seek divinity
in eveyday things.
Far and luminous
like the stars
intricate and beautiful
like crop circles.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
MiPOesias in New York
29 Cornelia Street, NYC 10014 212-989-9319
MiPOesias Reading
March 30th, 2006 at 6PM
Gabriel Gudding, Amy King, David Lehman and Annie Finch
We've been married fifty years
with anyone
without you beside me,
hearing my words
almost yours equally to speak.
What do we have
that love can't be itself,
that when a person
thinks of another,
she leaves herself
to be gathered
like a word overheard.
futures word
said there agree
state (notes)
clearing masturbation ((ular)
successions surround
to (s) (backover)
language word
direction back nominating
sound (ed)
(s) life hearing
slime "briefing
nominated" and clothes
"whom as
times" circle word
Monday, March 06, 2006
Feb IBPC winning poems
Sarah Sloat
Desert Moon Review
the girls have grown so much
the ceiling shatters
kitchen chairs collapse
but a quart of milk stays simple
it will do for brewing
custard in the sweet hereafter
recital of steps so few
even a daughter might muster
a cloudburst of milk
mudslide of sugar
egg albumen expanding
like a most virginal flower
stovetop, slop shrine
nothing special about
stewing, ruminating
over smoke in the kitchen
why, because
the mind simmers
like melancholy it boils over
and what else can one do
up to the elbows in flour
2nd Place
high altitude in the lips of clams
Cy Street
Splash Hall Poetry
high altitude in the lips of clams
i saw a buttercup blinking
above a florentine door
hotel de lanzi
the street ran empty
a ghost biker passed thru
rubesco bottles patiently wait
dimly lit buildings
drank the dew
expressing concerns privately
off camera
an interview with the stars
thru flashbacks
criterion for thunder and rain
overlapping darkness
a passage to where
beneath the bench
a shadow
an earthy
and stone faced night sky
a pitch black invitation
what is your name
do you unknown
i was taken by a storefront
uttering evidence of solitude
free from the baker s wood oven
another song writing tourist
an angry angel singing
some soul take
war cries
pledges to speak up
a rusty harmonica
a picture off the shelf
another glass of aspirinio
i begin to remember myself
from the eighteenth century
a white wig i think
two years ago
when i bought the photo
smoking my spirit
a burning box
now resting on the eastern wall
facing the ocean
and a million barrels a day
from the shotgun
i get lost around the corner
looking ahead
i walk away into the unseen
a red rooster
having a nap
bored by the lecture
clear creek practices
in the ancient art of tomato farming
and olive pressing
i remember my introduction to panic
and high altitude in the lips of clams
glazed with the ocean floor
and lost phone numbers
3rd place
The Gospel According to David Copperfield
Nathan McClain
Inside The Writer's Studio
The Gospel According to David Copperfield
At six, Jesus drapes a velvet cape
over broken chair legs, curls his fingers
and yells Abracadabra in Aramaic.
Mary applauds the dove of sawdust beneath.
John lowers Jesus into Jordan's
backyard pool. He emerges and yanks
quarters from the mouths of inflated goldfish.
Jesus dunks his hands in stone water pots
filled to the brim, pomegranate fog
spreading like Easter egg dye.
Peter hands out fliers for a three-day show
in Galilee. It reads: "Jesus, the Magnificent:
to wake sparrows from sleep
and saw Death in two! Watch as he parts
the flaming halves like the Red Sea!
(and of course, Jesus nails every trick)
For the grand finale, he'll make himself
vanish from a pad-locked coffin
and reappear off-stage in a sequin-
crusted suit. Watch the women wail and faint
as He guesses the cards they choose.
And as a special encore—Jesus levitates!"
1st Honorable Mention
Of a Journal Partially Smeared from a Summer Flood
Yolanda Calderon-Horn
Desert Moon Review
August is too hot to be sexy outdoors.
Blue strip indicates a new period.
New art is forming.
I become a fossil on the spare bedroom carpet
shaped out of time I spent being petrified and eager,
but fire-trucking to the bowl makes it
impossible to stay stoned.
Because he's baptized in my water,
there'll be deliverance. He?
When did I conceive this notion?
He's settled among my springy pillars
and has become my daily meditation.
I will look fastidiously after him. I hope he looks
a little like me to pull me out of grownup context.
I gobble and gobble chili-con-carne
as the legs of October rest high on a timetable.
He does not seem to mind my new weakness.
I have never been equally full and hungry
of/for an individual so little, so huge.
I barely sleep as I go from my right side,
back, and then left side.
He crashes comfortably: sleeps well.
His mutiny through my Nile absorbed
an entire day.
Upon delivery, a poem
that would jam in my belly soared
to epistles baby-bluing the neck
of that April sky.
The hurt he caused my yielding walls
with startled fists and feet
is now an obscure backdrop
like ink that blurs colorlessness
on the page it evangelizes to.
7lbs, 9ozs of sun.
2nd Honorable Mention
Coming To Terms With Delinquency
Author: Wendy Howe
The Versifier Online Poetry and Art Forum
I wish I could say the furnace
squatting in my yard
is a sculpture by Alexander Calder.
Scrap metal drum
with pipes and faucet prone
to spit water
could be his way of defining
the housewife whose breath
is steam-hissing through bones
and a radiator of shoulder blades
that stands nonchalant
letting a stray breeze
shrug off the dust.
That would make its presence
significant, a work of art
to contrast the silent poise
of stones and wide-sleeved pine
bending like a geisha to serve tea.
I can only say the furnace lingers
because a plumber honored
half his contract. He installed
a new system and neglected
to haul the old one from my garden.
When it rains
water floats on the rusted surface,
birds bathe in tequila
and I become their patron saint
wearing clogs and blue denim.
3rd Honorable Mention
Villanelle on the Sky
Mitchell Geller
Desert Moon Review
The sky has many faces, many hues,
from cobalt to a pale chalcedony;
a scintillant kaleidoscope of blues.
The opal dusk surrounds a maple whose
black branches etch a haggard tracery.
The sky has many faces, many hues.
Like sequins dotting indigo charmeuse,
the constellations contrast hauntingly
a scintillant kaleidoscope of blues.
When amber and vermilion tones suffuse
a sunset blazing incandescently,
the sky has many faces, many hues.
Amorphous, dark, the scudding storm clouds cruise
across a mass of lapis lazuli --
a scintillant kaleidoscope of blues.
The heavens' lights, eternally the muse
inspire music, dance and poetry.
The sky has many faces, many hues --
a scintillant kaleidoscope of blues.
-Congrats to all winners!
The IBPC Team
AWP POET? Po' Blogger in Austin? You're Invited to Lorna Dee's Book Bash
SUPERFLUX LAUNCH PARTY, March 8
Readers include Eileen Myles, Susan Wheeler, Rosa Alcalá, Lee Ann Brown, Lara Glenum, Arielle Greenberg, Rachel Levitsky, and Denise Szymczak. There will be a screening of a short film by Jill Chamberlain. 7:00 pm on Wednesday, March 8 at the Cactus Café in the Texas Union (UT Campus)
READ 'n' EAT, MEET & GREET POETRY BLOGGERS!
Wednesday 6 - 7:30 pm
Poets' Pot-Luck Picnic Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway
(esquina del rio y carretera)
Town Lake Park
7:30 - 10pm+
marathon monopoem spin-the-bottle reading
Poets Book Fest
Pecan Tree Restaurant - Blue Bonnet Banquet Room
Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake
20 North Highway 35
Hot & Cold Hors D'oeuvres
bring your own drinks from
Orale! TIME TO GREEZE! Who's up for meeting po'bloggers everywhere? I'm up for hosting a meet & greet marathon monopoem spin-the-bottle reading (A la the good old days of the Annual MANGO Toast 'n' Jam), food, drinks on wednesday evening especially for all my poetry blog buddies - that means you, buddy! Esa! Bring your guitar, all youse local yokels. [yes, yesy, I know, geographic socioeconomic melange: all by intent for deconstructive purpose and strategy y con plenos poderes.]
So, let me know as soon as you can, RSVP, come in on the spur, come as you are -- no cost but a gulp & someone will gulp what you don't. Hey, we're all poets, we're all poor. We'll buy our tacos elsewhere, break bread together and convene later in the boardroom. So just let me know who can come - the more the merrier & more economical, especially if y'all can chip in. Otherwise, we'll have food, water, juice, beer, wine, witty new friends (even if only on the page) and poetry until they all run out except for the friends -- including the ones we haven't yet met. What else is there? Love? PISH-TUSH. O, was that a hair? So, hey, grab your sweetie, round up your buddies, avoid the posse and poesy over to Town Lake (the river, son) and convene beneath the shadow of the freeway with me & my "bums and babblers." Any time you get there is when you're there. "Real Poets" are rumored to arrive -- could be you. All are invited. And, it's free. Come sell your books before the conference. I'll have a table for poets participating in the open-mike spin-the-bottle monopoem marathon and you can buy books direct from the authors.
Come help me celebrate my new book in 15 years, DRIVE: The First Quartet by reading me your best poem. You can contribute to the cost of a cool place to meet up with other poets by buying my book direct from me ($25.00, cloth, 320 pps.) Or not. And help us unite - You have nothing to lose but your poems! Don't be shy (like me) - POETRY ON!
So, spread it around!
Besides my reading Thursday Night at the Con Tinta Event Celebrating 40 Years of Chicano Literature - among other things - and my panel at noon on Friday, and as many of your events as I humanly can, I'll be La Bird hanging loose by my WINGS on 442 Prayers -- just think of my poem, "Coffee" -- I'll be near the coffee, in the back, #442, Wings Press, where I'll be signing books periodically. (CU-CWP students get heavy discount).
You & your buds can contact me at PoetDee AT LornaDeeCervantes DOT ya'know -- or not. See y'all there! (Tejana by birth: my son's.) ¡Ajúa! I LOVE TEXAS.
YEA!! (I'm hearing Donna Summers in my head - somebody help me! Read me a good poem! )
I'm so excited/ And I just can't hide it. . .
An Uncredited Achievement
I visit
places where I
used to be a fool.
Although I
know I'm wiser now,
I see them
laughing at what
they remember of me.
a fool
and alone,
I humored
many a heart.
~la seductrice~
and how you are leaning and stuff,
and how your hair is bobbed and
took care of, i doubt i will
have much to say to you since
your glass is full. it's been full
for hours. i wonder if you know
any good jokes. i wonder if you
know french. the french really
have it together. i know this
because of their very long and
reasonably stable history.
shall i speak of french history?
that's a rhetorical question by
the way, so don't worry about
giving me a grin or something.
maybe i'll just tell you the truth;
all your stuff, especially your face
lessness, makes me feel like i am way
too broke and old fashioned to dally.
Po' Bloggers Meet In Austin - AWP - Lorna Dee's Book Bash Invite
Wednesday 6:30 - ? 6 - 9?
Pecan Tree Restaurant & Blue Bonnet Banquet Room
Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake
20 North Highway 35
(esquina del rio y carretera)
Orale! TIME TO GREEZE! Who's up for meeting po'bloggers everywhere? I'm up for hosting a meet & greet marathon monopoem reading, dinner, drinks on wednesday evening especially for all my poetry blog buddies - that means you, buddy! Esa!
Let me know as soon as you can, RSVP, and give me a ball park figure on who all would be interested in private sit-down banquet buffet for $25, buffet & host bar for $40, or bar in room for reading (sit-down & order food & drink off restaurant menu first) or, hey, we're all poets, we're all poor. We'll buy our tacos elsewhere and convene later in the boardroom. So just let me know who can come - the more the merrier & more economical, especially if y'all can chip in. Otherwise, we'll have food, water, juice, beer, wine, witty new friends (even if only on the page) and poetry. What else is there? Love? PISH-TUSH. O, was that a hair? So, hey, grab your sweetie, round up your buddies, avoid the posse and poesy over to Town Lake (the river, son) and convene beneath the shadow of the freeway with me & my "bums and babblers." Any time you get there is when you're there.
But I have to order (commit cash) by today, and I have no idea if there are a dozen of us or 4 times that.
Come help me celebrate my new book in 15 years, DRIVE: The First Quartet by reading me your best poem. And help us unite - You have nothing to lose but your poems! Don't be shy (like me) - POETRY ON!
$50 will get you a signed copy of DRIVE, a banquet buffet (selection of 2 entrees, sides, desserts, etc. let me know veggie/ vegan food preferences), no-host bar & a cool place to meet up with other poets.
Or, whatever level you can contribute & I'll spring for the room, service & tax, maybe snacks. Or, just let me know you'd like to just come, or contribute only so much, or would prefer we all order off the menu (more time) and carry our drinks from The Tavern. (We can't bring any food or drink into the hotel.) We may even have SONG!
So, spread it around!
PoetDee AT LornaDeeCervantes DOT ya'know
YEA!! (I'm hearing Donna Summers in my head - somebody help me! Read me a poem!
I'm so excited. . .
"La Seductrice"
suspended disbelief
to the third floor, door number four this time,
been here before too.
my god, instant recog ignition
all there. all on.
her siren call burns me so immediate
my thought plugs fry
must go look for their bits, I guess on the floor
and oddly enough,
barely see a red light, blinking small, just quite
tiny really, on my shoe.
but a rope smoked from her flame
flys ME back to the moon alice
into a
crystal gaze sweat drop
reflecting you know who
and that whack
off stage door left.... behind the potted plant
sips pink drink, and smiles slightly
Saturday, March 04, 2006
"pinche chicano moon: es sestina ese"
~ for Henry & Mr. Bones
Noriega provides us with an want anything.
Between images of the moon and
Chicano scholar Chon A. Noriega
Judgment day come and come soon — I — unPURO
Him — he seemed like — 3. You can
Bet not even talcum powder can
Can Watts. (never will I forget anything)
Sur 13, so hit me up at - PURO
Film critic and scholar Chon A. Noriega
Has the image of a Yellow Star and
On. . . . If "hombre" and
Forums think soo — pero i just can
Read film critic/scholar Chon A. Noriega
And tint person (so I can't give you anything)
Chicano Rap from DA VALLEY to DA Bay
Mexico pero i was born in Califaz — Puro
Style was what he called the puro
To the Sun, the Moon, the Wind And
FINEST. City: SHaoLiN KiLLaH BaY
(Head to a breakbeat) ... ones we can
Not shape. "His sister couldn't do anything
Baldwin Park to USA," says Chon Noriega
"Park the USA!" says one Noriega
EX'S. Male or Female - SOY PURO
They were cowards and never did anything
_____ Shoot for the moon! and
Tint not be what riches a person, so he can
Say: Contextualizes the a - bay
And contextualizes the A Bay
"Park the US!" says Chon Noriega
It aint HIP HOP it's shit I can
You got a lot riding on this puro
Night, I would lasso the moon, and
It's real good i love to read and post anything
From watts... Never will I forget anything
To the Sun, the Moon, the Wind — And
You got a lot riding on this puro.
Compiled 3/4/2006 6:44:38 PM GMT
and edited minimally by Lorna Dee Cervantes 11:50 AM
get a google poem c/o Leevi Lehto
More poetry in English/Finnish:
I would feel like an Iraqi insurgent
would feel like when blown apart
by 50 caliber machine gun fire,
I would feel like six very young children
eviscerated by a car bomb
meant to further a cause,
I would feel like an American soldier
whose brain flies in pieces through desert air
after the roadside bomb explodes,
I would feel like an Iraqi policeman
gunned down in my police car
at an intersection,
I would feel like an Iraqi mother
looking at her bloody children
made unrecognizable by Air Force bombs,
I would feel like an American father
receiving the news that his son is no more
shot while on patrol protecting the oil pipeline,
I would feel like I should do something
and you would feel like you should do something
but we won't.
Friday, March 03, 2006
These, My Politics
after hold from hurt still
there are actualities to rend
er there are branches from
north breezes the imagination
fosters will have fostered
an enormous shift the limber left
is singular (in wingspan)
commas bridge the little segue
from (say) fluctuate to stay
here just a piece I want
to freshen your connect point
(be with me) only this glyphs
to show we're in parentheses
thus mere thus partial
so the curved way of the thin road
needs each way-place to be
covered versus cautious
and the trail to rooftop
needs to hold encompassing
breeze peace a prayer is
most important to have home
and in this fluency
one takes the earth from
piece to shambles and dis-
mantles prior look unto
a first born semblance
to arrive at thus
how insurmountable is effortless
and colorless brilliant pure
perception that for all
eternity will hinge
the infinite appearing
texts, sighs and café café
im leaning on d bar warin a lng orange skirt. ther's a ,>--l @ my rght elbow whch f i stNd hEr much longer i mite knock Ovr. cum qixlE.
wot f i git d wrng woman?
dun wori - ive got my L h& Ovr my puC & ther cnt b mNE women stNdN hEr lIk DIS cn ther?
wot shaL i sA wen i git ther so dat U knO itz me?
sA: LO - havnt i cn U on a poetry site? & f i throw d ,>--l Ovr U U knO uve got d wrng woman
wot f U dun lIk me wen U c me?
Ill throw d ,>--l Ovr U NEway & remind myself nevr 2 post on a poetry borD 'gen
Wait. Let's waltz.
What is your caste system?
Is your hymen intact?
I need to eat something.
Somewhere, Jenny, I believe
I feel like I am in a field?
where there are big storms
and oh, something else
something allright with us--
you decide.
(Krishna, Garuda...
in the dentist's head
a big flaming bed
he shouldn't operate without light)
Sometimes I feel like
we are in a gigantic universe,
just a little bit older
than this one.
bit of skirt haiku
she stands at the bar
despite her seductive pose
she's pulled already
Thursday, March 02, 2006
"La Seductrice"
you clearly have in mind.
None you could have as your own.
Still, faces don't matter.
She finds the colours
to make yours.
When the sun sets,
in time, her dress
would become the river
you swim in.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
View of a Woman (La Seductrice)
moon sylph
If she had a cocktail
it would be Strawberry Bliss,
like pink detergent, interacting
with the side of a glass.
No matter where she leant,
up against a bar,
or at the kitchen sink,
the inverted cone of alcohol
perched beside her would re-frame
the golden flow of evening gown
Elixer of hunger
resides in the glass.
She has bought the tailored dream,
the promise of her own movie,
the command of camera eye,
machinery of the image.
But now she's bought it,
can she sell it?
"The Kiss"
~ after a painting by Rabi Khan
The kiss is hollowed
awesome blood caverns
to purgatory--a small aqua
spot projected out your inner
ear, projecting. Imagine that. A
circumference of lust, a wrap of throb,
destiny from them until arrival. Shining
on. A magistrate of emptiness in
the vascular heart. Autumn seeping
through. A new design, architect
of the next arousal. Just missing
her final button. The kiss is hallowed.
Mr. P runs around the line
reversal window
argues pants socks
smell coffee
door pleasant no
no shoe
no (time another
was that said
they" keyboard
uses time another
it sings
walked boot trap
wooden "subject
human that" it
bending piece
tongue in hands
moored (it
defines it nonsense
it tied
down button again
February in Queens
I visit her in Astoria. A sound, like astonishment
maybe mixed with stars. She tools around,
all day long, cheek by jowl, with the Guru of Flushing.
He has all these plans to give lectures on big things
that look like small things. He says, always keep
an extra place-setting for the unseen guest
who comes to your bed. Having slept, so long,
in the secular sense. Nag Champa incense in the air
and the water and the bread. Sabina says, persistence
of vision is the retina's hieroglyphic palimpsest.
From up in our window, we watch the Queen of Night
pedal by on her bicycle. She is heading eastward
but her wheels spin backwards. Here in this cavern,
the horizon line must be imagined circling around us,
as with a fish-eye lens. He always says, deep focus
makes ground turn figurative and swings back again.
The way we overlook one million tiny windows of the
contiguous cities themselves. Become haunted by ghosts
of our own faces when the lights come on. Just above
the rooftops, clouds and a moon-sized sun.
miPOradio: A Conversation With Annie Finch
And Blonde On Blonde
Elvis walks into Rick's Café Americain
with a blonde on his arm,
this ain't the Algonquin Round Table,
watch her bosom jiggle,
this ain't no water table.
A young punk sits nearby
clinging to his life by a thread
as all young punks do.
I think I seen him in the Nighthawk window once.
The blonde used to be Rick's lover long ago,
somewhere in a wartime Paris,
"berets meant something then,
at least, on men!" quipped Dorothy Parker.
Even in sunshine Europe was darker
and the Arch of Triumph didn't triumph.
The blonde made Sam play it again
for old time's sake she told him
until Rick came by to scold him
before old Rick sensed her presence
and wimped out, poured himself a drink---
if love is not exhilarating it stinks.
The young punk walked away,
his inner organs the same as Peter Lorre's.
The fat man wanted to re-sign Elvis the Pelvis.
Rick continued to feel morose
while the bartender picked his nose.
The blonde got up from the table,
tugged her panties out of her butt
and tried to console Rick
with the very same fingers
by caressing his face.
Rick, of course, caved in,
turned into the romantic poetry of puppy love.
When she and Elvis got into the airplane
to head to New York or New Jersey,
Rick shot a German named Herman
just for the hell of it
he told Sam when he got back from the airport.
Sam's eyes bulged out but there was no retort.
The plane took off into the sky
awkward in the eyes of birds,
Bogie thought he was gonna cry
so he shied away from words.
He stood there on the tarmac
surrealistic things crossed his mind,
he thought to himself, "I have a knack,
always sacrificing myself for mankind."
But mankind didn't give a fuck
and would not have given up the girl,
let somebody else play the schmuck,
you only live in one world.
There is no heaven and hell,
there's only momentary pleasure.
a fighter listens for the bell,
throws punches, there is no time to measure.
Bogie could not see the poetry
and clung to what he perceived as real
unaware that if you pee into the wind
your heart can't tell you how you feel.
Back at Rick's
the porcelain was porcelain
and furniture was furniture,
the sky above the airport
was unimpressed that blue meant blue
and clouds made of stone
remained afloat,
basaltic and sedimentary
above the ants that labored without love,
the desert reduced to one sand grain
would still be a desert,
the wind blowing across the wind.
No human thought could make a dent
upon nature steadfast
and natural.
In the airplane Elvis was talking
about his upcoming tour
in some other desert city,
her eyes were sparkling
and the propeller noise
hid the insinuation of her voice,
he leaned in and his sideburn
brushed her cheek,
her smile misplaced in a smile.
His black hair reflected in the window,
clashed with the sky outside
where Gulf Stream currents collide.
Love doesn't really have to be love,
we substitute it for everything else
but we don't need to tell that to ourselves.
The handsome young punk
had an appointment in the desert,
his golden hair flowing from the convertible,
the desert flowers bloomed inside a room,
gila monsters with bolts in their necks
appeared to God in flecks,
the absent-minded jackass
forgets all the shit
he has created
so don't depend on his omnipresence
just because he appears as omnipotent
as Disney's rodent.


text:
Planning ahead has worked very little on my trip. Going with the flow, allowing each moment to take me in new directions has always proved to lead to the best experiences.
So when Carolina told me she was going to have to fly into Christchurch instead of Queenstown, I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, "See you there!"
This change in plans took me and Birgit on another route deviation. We were at the perfect junction to turn inland from the West Coast and cross the center of the South Island back over to Christchurch.
We ended up traveling along New Zealand's Great Alpine Highway. This area of the Canterbury region was so spectacular and filled with adventures, it was worth retracing the route with Carolina a week later. From pie-eating and caving to camping and hiking, these are the highlights from my Great Alpine Highway drive.
1. Sheffield Pies
Carolina, a Swedish woman I met and road tripped with in Iceland, was now sitting passenger for a road trip in Frogger around New Zealand's South Island. Birgit had stayed behind with some friends in Christchurch. We had all hung out the night before and said our goodbyes.
Now we were on Route 73 with plans to stop at Sheffield Pie Shop for a bite to eat.
I was told Sheffield Pies have some of the best pies in the area and possibly the whole country! Meat pies are like a national dish in New Zealand. Carolina hadn't tried any yet since she had only arrived a few days prior and I had driven right by the place the two times I had already been out this way.
Walking in, there was a huge display case filled with all sorts of pies—both savory and sweet.
I tried a chicken, potato, and mushroom pie. It was definitely worth the stop.
2. Cave Stream
The ride from the pie shop to our first destination wove up a mountain side overlooking a valley next to Korowai-Torlesse Tussocklands Park. The view was our first taste of the dramatic Southern Alps we were going to witness over the next two days.
We passed by Castle Hill—we'd head there later—and went straight to the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve. A small car park in the middle of an open field looked like nothing much. But a short walk down the hill took us to the mouth of an enormous limestone cave.
When I think of a cave this is what I have always pictured!
The water at the entrance was waist-deep and cool—refreshing after the walk down in the blistering summer sun.
With our headlamps on, we made our way into the pitch darkness pushing against the current of the stream water.
The limestone in the cave was sculpted into unbelievable arches and sweeping corners. Where strong currents had once beat against the rocks repeatedly, the limestone was etched with ripples like wood chipped carvings.
We could explore off-shoots from the main tunnel. At one point, we heard people coming up behind us in the cave. Carolina and I huddled inside one of the holes in the wall until they came by and—"RAAAHHHH!!!" We jumped out and scared their headlamps out. Well, no, their headlamps didn't go out, but that's what would have happened if this was a cartoon. The couple we had scared had a good laugh with us over it and then continued on ahead.
The stream was strong in several parts of the cave. We seemed to be heading up hill slightly which meant there were waterfalls to climb in various spots. The water was so strong it actually untied our shoe laces several times over!
After about 45 minutes, we could see light at the end of the tunnel. A driftwood sculpture was propped up against a wall on the way out to a large pool of water near the entrance. We had to climb out up metal rungs haphazardly nailed into the rocks and then crawl out on hands and knees.
Such an adventure! Our clothes were heavy with water and our skin was clammy and cold. I welcomed the heat from the sun on my wet hair and clothes on the walk back to the car park.
3. Castle Hill
We backtracked down Rte 73 about 1 km to continuing drying off at one of my favorite locations in the South Island—Castle Hill. Castle Hill is just a short walk up from the road. The area is covered with hundreds of enormous limestone boulders dispersed all over the place. It happens to be one of the film locations for Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
You can spend hours here exploring between the boulders, climbing on top of them, and just taking in the 360-degree views.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves…
This was my third visit to Castle Hill. I had been there previously with Michaela, my couchsurf host in Christchurch, and with Birgit just a week before.
But it was worth it returning for a third time especially because we found out there was a forest fire nearby. This made for a dramatic scene for my lens—especially with this epic filter turned on:
4. Lake Pearson Camp
Originally, we were going to keep driving all the way to the West Coast, but the forest fire was in full swing when we finished up at Castle Hill.
The road was closed and a line of cars was developing. There was a 2 hour wait in which we got to stand outside the car and watch all the action taking place.
Helicopters were taking water from the lakes to put out the fires. It was exciting getting to see them up so close.
Eventually we made it to a campsite at Lake Pearson. This location was really lovely at the foot of Purple Hill. There was great cover under trees and plenty of room for other campers to spread out nearby.
Ducks greeted us both when we arrived and for breakfast the next morning!
5. Bealey Spur track
The next morning, Carolina and I were on the lookout for a good trail to hike. Any hikes that go up were bound to have amazing views.
Eventually we spotted signs for the Bealey Spur track. I knew nothing about this track, but the area was beautiful and the direction of the track went up and up.
First, the trail went through mountain beech forest and then it opened along a ridgeline looking down on Bruce stream.
Carolina is a bit of a daredevil when it comes to ledges of cliffs. You can get a good idea of our altitude and the steep drop from this shot.
The trail continued through grasslands and passed mountain tarns (or lakes). At this point, the views of the Southern Alps came into sight. We could see the entire glacier-carved valley below.
Other hikers passing by asked if we were going to stay at the hut at the top. "No, but how is it?" Apparently they had slept over there the night before and said it was filled with rodent droppings! We had a laugh and then continued the last half hour up.
After a total of 2.5 hours of hiking we made it to the hut. The amenities were pretty rugged, but I could see it being a saving grace to some hunters caught in a storm in the winter.
We signed the book inside, ate a snack on some logs out front, and then made our way back down to the car park.
This hike was completely worth the climb for these views overlooking the Waimakariri River valley.
Why driving was the best method
While we chose to drive across the South Island, one does have the option to take the Tranzalpine Kiwirail to make the trip from East to West. Tickets start around $130 to do it.
But driving it in Frogger, our rental car, allowed us to dwell as long as we wanted, where we wanted, and at our own pace. We never would have had the chance to see all of the above and more if we were confined to a train car.
The rest of the drive on the Great Alpine Highway included many beautiful sights just from the road side. We could get out and take photos freely at any point.
We were able to stop at a lookout along Arthur's Pass to get a glimpse of the amazing, earthquake resisting Otira Viaduct…
And we could stop for a swim in the cool, ice-cold water of Deception River…
After so much to see and do along this 231km stretch of road, this was the most effective mode of transportation in which to experience it!

subset: commoncrawl


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The race to be popular
Dear PLS,
I'm not exactly the most popular girl in the class, because almost everyone in my class has a boyfriend!
How can I be more popular?
Lola, I think the answer to this question depends on what your definition of popular is. Is it having a boyfriend? Is it having a lot of BFFs? Is it making certain sports teams or being a leader in other groups, such as student council? I think it would be great if being popular meant that a lot of people liked you because you were someone that was fun, friendly, and easy to hang out with. (But I know that's not always how it works out.)
What do you guys think? Can you do something to make yourself more popular? Should you?
Think pink!


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Connections: Sabbatical 1998 • Description
2. Sculpture and Facilities
My goal was to visit as many universities and colleges with sculpture programs as was practical. The same considerations was also true in my visiting as many universities and colleges with sculpture programs and sculpture parks, both at museums and at institutions of learning. My visiting with curators, galleries, and other sculptors led to many contacts that I will take advantage of to exhibit my work. In pursuit of exhibiting opportunities, I have been successful in making arrangements with Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey and the Sculpture Guild in New York City, for exhibits.
My understanding and sensitivity to sculpture has been greatly expanded by my experiences. I now better understand and am reinvigorated by the relationship of the environment to the art and culture of the North American Continent.
Universities and Colleges with Sculpture Programs: Impressions and Educational Observations
My observations are based on a reasonable amount of visiting to other campuses that have graduate programs in sculpture. My report is more about facilities, surroundings and space then about curriculum. I did try to discover the effectiveness of their curriculum and program by observing students' work in the studios and on display.
The following are general observations. I will deal with specifics later. In observing other graduate sculpture programs and trying to judge their success, I found several similar factors, space, and facilities, number of TAs, length of program - 2, 3, or 4 years, number of faculty, and budget.
- Our program has the best equipment of any facility that I reviewed, although our space is at a minimum.
- The successful programs seemed to have the best student teacher radio, usually two or three faculty. This is for diversity as well as ratio. Having more then a couple of TAs also is a great advantage. This is not only for recruitment but to be better able to have a staff of well-trained students to assist with the many complex, technological areas of supervision.
- In visiting and speaking to other sculpture departments, I realized that there was little more I could do to make our sculpture program more successful. I have done all that I personally can. The rest is up to the University, such as space, faculty, budget, and TAs.
- Because of the complexity and time element inherit to sculpture, a longer period of time for candidates to complete their projects seems to be more desirable, a three-year period seems preferable.
- Some of the graduate programs of Sculpture that I visited were at Alfred, Purchase, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Arizona, UCLA, University of Washington, Vancouver College of Art, and Chicago Art Institute. It was often difficult to visit some campuses because my visit coincided with holidays or they were in hiatus for the summer months.
My conclusions as to why sculpture seems to have a hard time being supported sufficiently by institutions of higher learning are:
- There are only a few capable or motivated students wanting to deal with the complexities of sculpture. It is rewarding that those students that pursue sculpture are often successful.
- Sculpture is very expensive to equip and maintain compared to other disciplines. All art disciplines have a hard time securing grants, especially when compared with the sciences.
- Sculpture, by most other evaluators, seems to be more physical then cerebral.
Although I have often been told that the differences in funding and support for the arts has much to due with an institution being public or private, I found this to be largely unfounded. Some of the public institutions visited had some of the best facilities and support. I did sense a lack of respect and accommodation for the creative artist, particularly towards faculty at public institutions. Examples - of this can be found in space allocated for faculty to do their own work and students and faculty work exhibited around campus. The photos and enclosed tapes have


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The reproductive ecology of the little-known Kinda baboon (Papio kindae)
PhD dissertation; New York University
For my PhD dissertation, I am studying the reproductive ecology of the little-known Kinda baboon at the Kasanka Baboon Project in Zambia. Kinda baboons are morphologically, genetically, and behaviorally distinct from other baboon species. I am interested in understanding their unique reproductive and life-history strategies in order to test different comparative models of evolutionary primatology.
I spent summer 2014 and 2015 in Zambia undertaking pilot research in Kafue and Kasanka National Parks in Zambia. My pilot research was supported from generous funds from the American Association of University Women and NSF IGERT. I am currently applying for grants with plans to return to Zambia in 2017.
My PhD advisor is James Higham, though I am also supervised by Cliff Jolly and Todd Disotell. This project is in collaboration with Anna Weyher and the Kasanka Baboon Project.
Is the red facial coloration of male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) under intra-sexual selection?
MA thesis; New York University; 2016
Male sexually selected traits can evolve under different selection mechanisms: armaments evolve via intrasexual selection, and ornaments usually via intersexual selection. The colorful signals found in many primates appear to be products of intrasexual selection as they typically indicate social status, like most mammalian armaments. This, however, is not true in male rhesus macaques; red facial coloration does not correlate with dominance rank and is attractive to females, suggesting it evolved primarily under intersexual selection. Nonetheless, males pay attention to other male's facial coloration. For my MA thesis, I examined the role of facial coloration in free-ranging male rhesus macaques, to determine if this signal influences the outcome of agonistic male-male interactions, and is more strongly expressed in contexts generating intense competition.
I was supervised by James Higham and worked in collaboration with Constance Dubuc and Alexander Georgiev.
We are currently turning my thesis into a manuscript. Our results were presented at ISBE in July 2016 and IPS/ASP in August 2016 (read abstract).
Osteological markers of cheek flanges in Mandrillus
2014-present; New York University
A major challenge in paleoanthropology is reconstructing the behavioral strategies of extinct primates represented only by fossils. Canine size and estimates of body size are used to infer sexual dimorphism as a proxy of socio-sexual behavior; however, these are somewhat limited and other bony correlates of soft tissue sexual traits may be more informative. This study assesses the cheek flanges that characterize adult male drills but not closely related mandrills in an attempt to identify potential osteological markers that characterize this secondary sexual characteristic.
This project is supervised by Scott Williams and James Higham; we are currently in the process of expanding our dataset.
Preliminary results were presented at the 2015 American Association of Physical Anthropology annual conference: download our abstract here.
Sexual swelling symmetry, individual quality, and attractiveness in wild female olive baboons (Papio anubis)
Master's thesis; University of Roehampton; 2012
The sexual swellings that characterize many female papionin primates have been examined in relation to their function as a signal of reproductive quality or fertility. I measured the fluctuating asymmetry of the sexual swelling via photogrammetry and morphometric analyses to expand the assessment of this multicomponent signal to determine if it advertised female reproductive quality and/or was attractive to conspecifics.
I was supervised by Dr. Caroline Ross as part of the MRes in Primate Behaviour, Biology, and Conservation. My research took place at Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Nigeria.
Download my poster from the 2014 Northeastern Evolutionary Primatology conference.
Reproductive suppression in captive female cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)
Undergraduate research project; 2008
At the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, I worked in the Behavioral Ecology division to understand the reproductive implications of social housing on captive female cheetahs. I used a combination of behavioral observations and hormone monitoring (measured non-invasively from fecal metabolites). We wanted to determine if group-housed cheetahs were reproductively suppressed in comparison to a solitary-housed cheetah, and if this relationship was mediated through social interactions.
I was supervised by Dr. Fred Bercovitch, Dr. Matt Anderson, and Corinne Pisacane. I was funded by a Summer Student Fellowship.
San Diego Zoo blog: How to Spot a Cheetah, Cheetahs: Playing Favorites


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Friday, September 26, 2008
Wedded 37 Years Ago Today...
23 comments:
- Lanny said...
- September 26, 2008 12:35 AM
- Dan said...
You've got quite a grip on her in the picture, not letting that one get away! Congrats
- September 26, 2008 4:25 AM
- Ramblings of a Villas Girl said...
Happy anniversary Cliff & Marilyn.
I hate to tell you Cliff, but you have aged some yourself, but still as handsome as ever.
Take your beautiful bride out for a romantic dinner tonight and enjoy, but don't blog about it. There are some things better not said or read. Lisa
- September 26, 2008 5:04 AM
- bobbie said...
Congratulations to you both.
She was very beautiful. I'm sure she still is. And not so bad yourself.
I know from what you have written that it has been wonderful so far. I wish you continued happiness forever.
- September 26, 2008 8:09 AM
- possum said...
Did she have any idea what she was getting into????? ;-D
- September 26, 2008 9:09 AM
- Marc said...
Congrats Cliff. You've got me beat by 8 years. Hope you enjoy many, many more.
- September 26, 2008 11:42 AM
- Jerry said...
Who are those youngsters?
Great looking couple. Then, and now!
- September 26, 2008 4:19 PM
- Live Well, Laugh Often & Love Much said...
Congrats to you both !!!! I hope to follow in you foot steps !
- September 26, 2008 4:51 PM
- Rachel said...
What a cute couple!!! Who are they?? Haha!! Only kidding Cliff!! Congratulations on your anniversary!! My very best to both of you!!
- September 26, 2008 5:26 PM
Congratulations! You are making quite a legacy!
- September 26, 2008 6:00 PM
- Peter said...
You made a lovely couple then as you still do, congratulations.
- September 27, 2008 1:16 AM
- Paul Nichols said...
Corngratulations! Happy Anniversary! And best wishes for many, many more.
(I just had a vision of the Lord giving you two a wink and the thumbs up.)
- September 27, 2008 6:00 AM
- Rhodent said...
Congrats! It is always wonderful to see a happy marriage and a man who appreciates his wife! I am sure that Marilyn must have a good sense of humor as do you! Stay happy and grateful!
- September 27, 2008 6:41 AM
- Cat said...
You two are the cutest couple ever. Congratulations Cliff.I hope Scrag and I stay as happy as you two have. You look mighty spiffy in your picture!! Still do!!
Hugs xx
- September 27, 2008 9:30 AM
- Rachel said...
Hi Cliff!
Tooter's real name is Ora. She isn't crazy about that name. Her mother named her. When she was a wee lass her Daddy held her up and said, "This is my little Tooter." From that day on that was her nickname and it's stuck.
- September 27, 2008 10:25 AM
- Shannon said...
Happy Anniversary!! Love the picture!
- September 28, 2008 7:23 AM
- Gette said...
Woohoo! Check that bare midriff. No wonder you wouldn't let her get away!
- September 28, 2008 3:58 PM
- EV said...
Happy Anniversary you two!! What a great gift to your children and each other. Great picture, too.
- September 28, 2008 5:53 PM
- LZ Blogger said...
It may actually be that Marilyn was just attracted to the wisdom of an older man. Well... by hanging with you for 37 years... she FINALLY got one! Congratulations to Marilyn, she got one of the funniest guys in blogsville! As for you buddy... congraulations to you that Marliyn's vision has not improved in all of those years! Love ya buddy! ~ jb///
But seriously… HAPPY 37th Anniversary to you both… here's to 37 more!!!
- September 29, 2008 3:51 PM
- Kendra Lynn said...
Congratulations! I love hearing love stories. :)
- September 29, 2008 5:22 PM
- Janell said...
37 years is only achieved by following the truth in "the greastest gift you can give your children is to show them how much you love their Mother."
PS - I love the bare belly look on Marilyn.
- September 30, 2008 8:09 AM
- Jamie Dawn said...
Happy 37th Anniversary!!!!
I wish you many more years of wedded bliss.
Marilyn looks mighty sexy in that photo. You got yourself a beautiful wife, inside & out. You look great too, also, as well. Loverly couple, simply loverly.
You are right about the importance of showing your spouse your love. I think it is one of the most important things we can teach our kids. By modeling a good, loving relationship for them, they know what a love and commitment looks like and can emulate it in their own lives.
- September 30, 2008 4:39 PM
- Flip Flop Momma said...
boy thats one handsome looking couple..
- October 08, 2008 4:49 PM


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Welcome to Oxford EPC!
We are a new church in the heart of Oxford. Scroll down to learn more about who we are and what we do.
We are a new church in the heart of Oxford. Scroll down to learn more about who we are and what we do.
Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church is a new church plant in the heart of Oxford. Our morning service is at St Luke's Chapel at 10:30am. Everyone is welcome! (Oxford OX2 6HT).
How to get to St. Luke's Chapel »
Our evening services will is at 6:30pm at the Quaker Friends Meeting House (43 St Giles', OX1 3LW), just a short walk from St Luke's Chapel.
How to get to the Quaker Meeting House »
Once a month on a Thursday we meet downstairs at Caffe Nero (14 High St) to read and discuss the Westminster Confession of Faith. All are welcome to join us for a rousing discussion of one of Reformed theology's greatest doctrinal statements.
Are you a new student to Oxford?
In addition to our weekly worship and Bible studies we plan on having various student events.
Rev. Andy Young
Andy has been the Minister of Naunton Lane Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Cheltenham, UK, for the last 10 years. He is married with four children and enjoys spending time with his family, reading, good coffee and hanging out with anyone who can bear his company. He is a sinner saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
You can contact Andy by email firstname.lastname@example.com or on his mobile 07963 139683.


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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Fall color—and the lack thereof
A good thing we visited the fabulous Pumpkinville (above) last week, because these pumpkins are providing the blast of brilliant autumnal hues we usually expect from our trees—a blast that will be somewhat dimmed this year.
Not all the maple trees in Western New York have the dreaded tar spot, or the Rhytisma acerinum fungus, but enough do that leaf peepers will notice a considerable amount of dull brown patches along local roadsides this fall. Norway, red, and silver maples are said to be the most affected, but it seems more widespread than that this year—at least to my unscientific eyes.
And here's the depressing prognosis, courtesy of the Purdue Extension:
Tar spot diseases seldom are detrimental to the overall health of infected trees. Tar spots may cause premature defoliation, but are not known to kill trees. Tar spot diseases are best managed by raking and destroying fallen leaves because the fungi overwinter on leaves.
According to all sources, the tiny spores infect the leaves in the spring, and their growth is much aided by very wet springs, as we had this year. (Apparently, Buffalo got the lion's share of its annual rainfall in May.)
I also saw this on the University of Maine's extension site: If infected maple leaves begin to crinkle and turn brown, anthracnose, another common disease of maple, may also be present. This must surely be the case, as I've noticed the spots before, but never as bad as this, and there is crinkling.
Sources agree that treatment is unlikely to help, and in any case would mean blanketing the city with fungicide. The municipality is unlikely to ever remove the infected trees, as the disease will not kill the trees. So I am stuck with ugly trees and their horrifically ugly leaves in front of my house pretty much every year.
I'm not alone. Tree owners throughout the Midwest and Northeast are asking their extension services about this, if google is any indication. Here's my answer: don't plant Norway maples, and replace those you can with a good mix of other tree species. All trees get diseases and infestations, but if we don't depend on a monoculture of just one type of tree, the impact is not as dire. I wish the people who chose to plant my block almost entirely with Crimson King Norway maples had thought of that!
Leaf spot photo by JP Thimot.
Posted by EAL at 1:00 PM 3 comments:
Monday, September 19, 2011
Do I have to talk about my garden?
I'd much rather not. It looks fine and all—in fact, there's been a decent amount of late season activity, thanks to tireless annuals, oblivious tropicals and a few warhorse perennials (rudbeckia, buddleia, etc., etc.). Things are winding down now; it's almost time to bring the houseplants in and bury the bulbs.
To a certain degree, this has been a summer of looking at other people's gardens. In July, the Seattle bloggers' meet-up provided a whirlwind tour of magnificent private and public landscapes. The Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island was the most spectacular site we visited, in my opinion, and I think most of the bloggers would agree. There have been many posts on the Seattle gardens, but I am sharing just two images from Bloedel, at top and above. This is part of their Japanese area. I've seen plenty of Japanese gardens, but the variety of specimen trees, the artistry, and the luxuriant spectrum of greens in this one set it apart.
In August, we had two great garden visits, one private and one public. First we stopped by the fabulous property of Layanee/Ledge and Gardens. She made us a wonderful lunch, most of it fresh from her garden, and then we walked around in a steady rain to view her extensive gardens. There are several beds framing the house, more around the pool, and a good-sized vegetable bed. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought—the rain, we were talking—but here's a decent one (above).
Finally, we saw the formal grounds of Edith Wharton's former home, The Mount, on our way back from New England. It's gone through some rough times over the years, but is being restored. Wharton was an accomplished landscape designer in the classic fashion, clearly inspired by gardens she'd seen in Europe. I liked the contract between two equally formal spaces—a shady walled Italian garden and the quartered sunny flowerbeds. There are also magnificent buddleia and hydrangeas massed along the slope to the house (not visible here).
That will be it for garden tourism unless we make it to the tropics this winter. Fingers crossed!
Posted by EAL at 8:09 PM 8 comments:
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