POEM

A blank stare, lowered

into a thrown escape

had your name all over

the stopped clock's knives,

anchored passwords

for new frames—

comments I sleep with

have conspired to

proceed with less of a man

now more pretty, sad.

VOLLEY UPON ENVY


The limelight was never our threat, after all.
Trappings of earlier fevers glued to today's parcels
Made you sideswipe, didn't they, all over the euphemism.
It never dropped out of the marquee, even after

Several successful auctions on its light. Nevertheless,
Did everything work out? I throttle not—
To say nought of the final dove of extrusion crescendo
Over the busted sir we loved so.

We entered the hamster and were voided.
The chapter was what did the voiding. Or was it
Just an avoidance-tyranny lease,
Rather than a full-fledged deodorant of settlement?

Supposing it were so, hanging the fallout
Was your jolt. I merely pretended to your thumbnail,
The seaweed of which had been worn down-and-out
To woodshed once covered in handsome verity

Guaranteed never to wear or fade. Well then.
Do you see what I mean about keeping up apprehensions?
The oldest garden show in the boom couldn't
Have distracted any bigamist.

Apple quality finally winning out?

From Salon:

In many ways, Apple is the antithesis of the typical multinational firm. Where
many corporations sacrifice craftsmanship and customer service on the altar of
low price, Apple does the opposite. For example, according to the market
research firm NPD, the average Apple Macintosh computer is double the price of
the equivalent Windows-based PC. At the same time, Forrester Research reports
that Apple far outpaces its rivals in customer satisfaction, likely because (as
any Mac convert knows) Apple products and support are the most reliable and
intuitive in the industry.

Composer Matthew Ricketts took some words that I wrote, jumbled and rearranged them, interspersed them with stuff from Tender Buttons, and set it all to music. I "met" Matthew on Facebook a couple years ago, though I still haven't met him in person. I have no idea what the piece will sound like, but I think it will be entertaining. You should probably come and listen to it, if you are able. (I swiped that graphic from here.)

Birthday muffin, with candle.

Recently declassified document obtained through FOIA.

This Recording posted this classic irreverent interview between John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch. I had read some quotes from it before, but I had never read the whole thing until today. An excerpt:


JA: I think we should clear up the question as to whether the ambiguity in our work is the result of modern life's having made us so ashamed of our experiences that we cannot write about them in any other way, or whether we feel that if we turn quickly around we'll discover something that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

KK: The first possibility you mention I don't understand – how can "modern life" make us ashamed? – but the second is very appealing. I don't feel, by the way, that what I am after in my work is ambiguity.

JA: What do you feel that you are after?

KK: Guess.

JA: I give up.

KK: Do you mean to say that you have been reading my poems all these years thinking ah there he's succeeded in getting that ambiguity he's after, and oh there he hasn't? I mean you don't really think that a main aim in my poetry is to be ambiguous, do you?

JA: Well, it would help if you would consent to give a straight answer to my last question.

KK: I think the difficulty of my doing so has considerable bearing on the topic under discussion.

JA: Since you refuse to reply unambiguously, I must conclude that ambiguity is the central thing in our work.

KK: I have always liked your poetry, but your command of logic leaves me speechless with admiration.

JA: Perhaps this has some bearing on the topic of our discussion.

KK: I don't see how.

JA: I assume you were being ironic when you said my command of logic left you speechless with admiration. Therefore poetry is not logical or is not necessarily so.

KK: What you say is very unclear, but I suppose you mean that since I find one of your remarks illogical and since I like your poems, that therefore I must like poems which are illogical. But I don't find your poems either logical or illogical. If you want this interview to have the logic of a poem and not ordinary logic we will have to start over again.

A COOL THING TO DO


A cool thing to do when you're a dork is to divide numbers by other numbers. This is how I learned to comply with industry standards, even though my temperament has often aimed elsewhere: where to begin my longish litany of prepared remarks on the state of modern salad, for one thing? I could accomplish so much if I were to become ensconced in the trappings of a stealthier lie than the one I've been assigned. I'm sure it's right around the corner. If you're not busy being divided against yourself, you should totally stand and come with.

NAKED SPELLER


At homecoming and abroad,
calculation drips from

photocopier to poem. I've
never seen a more

invested source detector.
Can you happen over me

somehow in a long
lost light-year? Here again the

sickening propagandist I wouldn't
dream of discarding—

well, linear timing's a
blabbermouth like that, a fee

no one can afford. It's terrific,
I think, a real assistant to

this hazy, careworn clincher.
The resulting remnant, at least,

is no less shapeless.

TRAFFIC ISLAND

Specifics are no good to me out here. Lies abound and instruct and hands are all I have at the ends of my arms, no more use than a barista in a bunker. I prefer to beget more handsome dilemmas, with every resource of the state at my disposal. We'll raise a bumper crop or car, we'll toot our horns and the horns of others, strangers and loved ones alike. Terror won't invade for at least a year, though that timetable is admittedly arbitrary and subject to change. Bring it in anyway, cover it with a thousand kisses on sale at Sears.

People are still writing these articles?

I usually like Salon, but I just read an article by Matt Zoller Seitz about Californication that was pretty dumb. The author calls the show an "atrocious masculine fantasy". The basic point is that because the show's main character is often sexist, that means it's a sexist show. It reminded me of a similar comment about House I read on a blog or something not too long ago.

Do serious adult literary/television/movie critics really still believe that characters should be paragons of virtue, or "role models"? Just because characters have flaws, that doesn't mean we're supposed to approve. We're not really supposed to "disapprove" either, exactly, because art isn't about approving and disapproving. It's about taking a look at people and their problems, looking for some kind of truth about human behavior. Sometimes truth comes in the form of ugliness. Does that mean we should pretend the ugliness doesn't exist? What's next, is someone going to remove the word "nigger" from Huckleberry Finn? Oh wait.

Californication really has a lot of heart, in addition to being funny. And it's full of smart women characters! It's a shame to see a reviewer apparently unable to see things beyond a superficial level.

Two questions

If I want to publish a book, what's the best way to go about doing that? Seems like everyone else is doing it. I want to make that my goal for 2011. At least it will give me something to distract myself with.

************

When you make a blog post, do you manually reset the time just before you hit "publish post" in order to accurately reflect the time at the moment you're hitting the button? (I do.)

Why I am not a vegetarian

Why should I punish myself for the crimes of others?

English Department, Ballantine Hall, 4th floor, Indiana University

I don't think I'm smart enough to be a writer.

If someone has a way for me to go to grad school that doesn't involve quitting my job or leaving New York, I'm all ears.

I have trouble letting go. Maybe I was foolish to think I could change overnight. I just need to keep the backsliding to a minimum. "Two steps forward, one step back," as they say.

Every time I try to say the right things I end up saying the wrong things. Why does this keep happening?

A year and a half

since I wrote this post, and not a thing has changed, except now I've been at my job for four years instead of two and a half. I still do not know what to do. I appreciate advice, but I just don't know how to follow it.

POEM


I've been wanting
to be slow awhile,
agreed on like a trap
at the crux of a plot.

I can almost wait
for thieves to supply,
but by then will have
moved to another fact

or misplaced placebo.
True words were never
suspended over the
land like a tarp,

as colors brought in
to decide the fate of
every painted wall
merge and call us away.

I have a new poem on the site "I Am A Natural Wonder", where everyone writes a poem with that title.

I can never stop feeling like I was gypped by my college education.