Big Window

DIM GO. VOID GO. LONGING GO.

Avoid go but went Went where, out out amongst words there

So, being benign void longing ethics then bending

How about it roustabout drilling deeply into middle earth

I was a roughneck land laborer I mowed endless civic greens

The men said slow down with the weed whacking

Exchanging sky with campground fire Went venting picking up

Refuse We wore boots of thick cow leather

The roof slanted toward the lake

Peterson announced the great tureen of ear

We partook, we partook

Colons bulging eggplant proportions were the shipwrecks

Gunky oil yet she managed to wear a ravishing corona

Bobbing bubbly scanning scansion with thick inside saying    

You done it

I'll have tea with this ear, thank you   

Then bobbing again

For appellations

Horrible tablatures in a picnic setting Sincerity danced a Balanchine ballet       

With mental commitment robots      

The jewels bled blood    

Ketchup in a revolving rebellion, GM   

I-ness witness   

They weren't born me said death

by Brenda Iijima
published in the new issue of Coconut

Trainspotting with Denmark's Kenny Wang

Cahier de Travaux Pratiques

Artist and illustrator Emmanuel Polanco opens his notebook and shares. Check out his new blog.

Here's an Alice in Wonderland inspired doodle.  Is the white rabbit wearing head gear?

One Day Poem Pavilion

My friend Ann Sieber sent me a link this week to Jiyeon Song's site Experiential Typography, saying she thought I might like it. I do!

"The One Day Poem Pavilion demonstrates the poetic, transitory, site-sensitive and time-based nature of light and shadow. Using a complex array of perforations, the pavilion’s surface allows light to pass through creating shifting patterns, which–during specific times of the year–transform into the legible text of a poem. The specific arrangements of the perforations reveal different shadow-poems according to the solar calendar...."

The poem Song chose is a sijo, a form from classical Korean poetry.  Here's the breakdown:

You can learn more about this form here or here.  And you can see the pavilion through time-lapse photography on YouTube.

Song did this project as part of a master's thesis at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

A Splash

Seal
Originally uploaded by backnext321

The Definition of Gardening

Jim just loves to garden, yes he does.
He likes nothing better than to put on
his little overalls and his straw hat.
He says, "Let's go get those tools, Jim."
But then doubt begins to set in.
He says, "What is a garden, anyway?"
And thoughts about a "modernistic" garden
begin to trouble him, eat away at his resolve.
He stands in the driveway a long time.
"Horticulture is a groping in the dark
into the obscure and unfamiliar,
kneeling before a disinterested secret,
slapping it, punching it like a Chinese puzzle,
birdbrained babbling gibberish, dig and
destroy, pull out and apply salt,
hoe and spray, before it spreads, burn roots,
where not desired, with gloved hands, poisonous,
the self-sacrifice of it, the self-love,
into the interior, thunderclap, excruciating,
through the nose, the earsplitting necrology
of it, the withering, shrivelling,
the handy hose holder and Persian insect powder
and smut fungi, the enemies of the iris,
wireworms are worse than their parents,
there is no way out, flowers as big as heads,
pock-marked, disfigured, blinking insolently
at me, the me who so loves to garden
because it prevents the heaving of the ground
and the untimely death of porch furniture,
and dark, murky days in a large city
and the dream home under a permanent storm
is also a factor to keep in mind."

by James Tate

Hello Lucky Presents

Hello Lucky presents Flora and Fauna featuring work by Rene Cruz, Woody Golden, David Krueger, Dana Pike, and Christine West.

Flora and Fauna will open Thursday April 24, with a reception from 5 - 7:30 pm.

Hello Lucky is located at 1025 Studewood Street, Houston, Texas 77008.

via SpaceTaker

Containers by Vincent Zompa

Check out Containers, an amazing poem by Vincent Zompa that's published in Octopus 10.  (From the grid of dots, go down 6 and across 3.)
 

Here, There

Photograph by Barbera via flickr

NaPoWriMo 2008 - Check In

NaPoWriMo is 2/3 through. How's the month of poems going for you?  So far I've only missed one day, the day I did the taxes.  That seems reasonable, somehow. At first I thought everything I wrote was dreck, but lately I sense the outline of a poem in several of the drafts.  That what drafts are all about, right?  I've been using my LiveJournal blog. Outsiders can only read the most recent attempt.  Add me as your LJ friend, if you want to see the month-long trajectory.

Anne Boyer

Robert Lee Brewer

Sharon Brogan

Julie Carter

Shanna Compton (if not there, try Bloof)

Catherine Daly

Michelle Detorie

Carrie Ettar

Experiments in Daily Verse

Christa Forster

Susana Gardner

K. Lorraine Graham

Janet Holmes

Geof Huth (vispo!)

Reb Livingston

T.A. Noonan

January Gill O'Neil

Danielle Pafunda (if not there, hanging with Shanna)

Alexis Quinlan

Evie Shockley

Carmen Gimenez Smith

Laurel Snyder

Christine Swint

Maureen Thorsen

Elizabeth Treadwell

Jen Tynes

Tria Wood

Here's my list of NaPoWriMo players.  Leave me your name and link as a comment below, and I will gladly add you to the list.  If you're on the list and prefer anonymity, I can arrange that as well!

Xmas Lights in Arkansas

photo by RichieS via flickr

No Passing Zone

This is a photograph by Tina Manthorpe.

Yes, Moleskine Monday

  you are loved 
  Originally uploaded by luckyfish

You are loved.  And look out for mega-love fest on blog reader appreciation day this coming Wednesday, April 16, 2008.

My Red Hand

The iPhone took this one by accident.

My Pollock

My daughter Carrie (age 2.5) did this one.