diff options
author | Case Duckworth | 2015-03-01 17:52:37 -0700 |
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committer | Case Duckworth | 2015-03-01 17:52:37 -0700 |
commit | 3ec50c15dbbc8725271d707a33064002ad64a33e (patch) | |
tree | 6566d206998c392a53db9ac159dc6f492f0f69f3 /src | |
parent | Change template: linke epigraphs w/o attribs (diff) | |
download | autocento-3ec50c15dbbc8725271d707a33064002ad64a33e.tar.gz autocento-3ec50c15dbbc8725271d707a33064002ad64a33e.zip |
Add poems from the past year
Diffstat (limited to 'src')
-rw-r--r-- | src/100-lines.txt | 108 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/call-me-aural-pleasure.txt | 50 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/cold-wind.txt | 24 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/creation-myth.txt | 44 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/ex-machina.txt | 48 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/finding-the-lion.txt | 32 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/found-typewriter-poem.txt | 40 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.txt | 54 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/index.txt | 10 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/january.txt | 54 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/largest-asteroid.txt | 36 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/last-passenger.txt | 32 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/listen.txt | 16 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/no-nothing.txt | 60 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/nothing-is-ever-over.txt | 24 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/plant.txt | 110 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/seasonal-affective-disorder.txt | 29 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/sense-of-it.txt | 30 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/something-simple.txt | 26 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/stayed-on-the-bus.txt | 21 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/the-night-we-met.txt | 34 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/the-sea_the-beach.txt | 35 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/time-looks-up-to-the-sky.txt | 33 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | src/when-im-sorry-i.txt | 29 |
24 files changed, 979 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/100-lines.txt b/src/100-lines.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7bd99b --- /dev/null +++ b/src/100-lines.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: 100 lines | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Whenever you call me friend \ | ||
11 | I fall down on my knees and cry \ | ||
12 | because I know it's the only thing \ | ||
13 | never to happen before in this \ | ||
14 | life is something you can't see \ | ||
15 | it's a pillow under a hook shot \ | ||
16 | I want to tell you something anything \ | ||
17 | but you are there and I am here \ | ||
18 | we are trapped inside ourselves \ | ||
19 | and the distance is too far \ | ||
20 | you are something that I would tell \ | ||
21 | would be nothing before too long \ | ||
22 | you are not the finisher of dreams \ | ||
23 | you are the beginning of nightmares \ | ||
24 | or waking but I'm not sure which \ | ||
25 | this letter is for you in the future \ | ||
26 | it will lead you on the path \ | ||
27 | of goodness or of rightness or of \ | ||
28 | wrong people and right meanings \ | ||
29 | or the meaning will be hidden \ | ||
30 | or wrestling the demon I will have become \ | ||
31 | restless under the starlight \ | ||
32 | it's too bright here to think \ | ||
33 | the negatives would be pitch black \ | ||
34 | darkness of a silver mine \ | ||
35 | there are no trees here \ | ||
36 | where have you been where are you now \ | ||
37 | I am no longer here or there \ | ||
38 | you are anywhere or are you \ | ||
39 | up in the clouds is a ghost \ | ||
40 | he is white and blue like a cloud \ | ||
41 | he paints with his teeth \ | ||
42 | he paints the rainbow before midnight \ | ||
43 | that you can see from your window \ | ||
44 | staring out under the sunlight \ | ||
45 | through the gauze curtains \ | ||
46 | over the high mountain far away \ | ||
47 | that is covered over with snow \ | ||
48 | past the rivers and forests \ | ||
49 | that lie awake under Orion \ | ||
50 | hunting the bull that runs forever \ | ||
51 | just out of his reach \ | ||
52 | pointing the way for the two of us \ | ||
53 | to join together in song or dance \ | ||
54 | or that other thing and sing \ | ||
55 | the Grinch down off Mount Crumpet \ | ||
56 | his heart breaking his chest \ | ||
57 | thumping with the beat \ | ||
58 | his little dog too running running \ | ||
59 | with the bull full of laughter and blood \ | ||
60 | he can't see it anymore because it's become him \ | ||
61 | we are trapped he says we are \ | ||
62 | trapped in ourselves it turns out \ | ||
63 | that all along it wasn't you or me \ | ||
64 | but he and her or her and him or \ | ||
65 | he and he or she and she or they \ | ||
66 | even they tell us that nothing has happened \ | ||
67 | even they know that it's a big joke \ | ||
68 | one more thing to know before the death \ | ||
69 | we are crying like alligators \ | ||
70 | before their loved ones' coffins \ | ||
71 | we are bellowing with grief like buffalo \ | ||
72 | on a berth of wild oxen \ | ||
73 | we are wailing our clothes are in rags \ | ||
74 | we want we want we want \ | ||
75 | but never can we get \ | ||
76 | what is it \ | ||
77 | we don't know what it is \ | ||
78 | but it's something it's anything \ | ||
79 | it's too many people or not enough \ | ||
80 | it's too few trees we need more \ | ||
81 | beavers to build riverdams we need \ | ||
82 | grapes too or plums from the ice box \ | ||
83 | or an ice box even would be nice \ | ||
84 | all I have is this cube isn't that right \ | ||
85 | or is a sphere a cube a donut a coffee \ | ||
86 | cup your hands in mine yes that's right \ | ||
87 | now bring the water to your face \ | ||
88 | clear and cool and \ | ||
89 | full of something \ | ||
90 | what is it wanting \ | ||
91 | or yearning \ | ||
92 | I can see in your eyes they're clear now \ | ||
93 | they are as clear as a running stream \ | ||
94 | or the sky that's clear right \ | ||
95 | or the water that is in the Bahamas \ | ||
96 | because I hear that's clear \ | ||
97 | you're as clear as the sound of a bell \ | ||
98 | you're as clear as the braying of horses \ | ||
99 | you're as clear as the glass in God's eye \ | ||
100 | and I \ | ||
101 | I'm as dull as an ox plowing \ | ||
102 | through fields in his yoke \ | ||
103 | I'm as dull as clouded amber \ | ||
104 | I'm dull as you find me \ | ||
105 | tonight after dinner \ | ||
106 | I'm reading the crossword \ | ||
107 | you're sitting beside me \ | ||
108 | you're watching TV. | ||
diff --git a/src/call-me-aural-pleasure.txt b/src/call-me-aural-pleasure.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4b4dbf --- /dev/null +++ b/src/call-me-aural-pleasure.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Call me | ||
3 | subtitle: aural pleasure | ||
4 | genre: verse | ||
5 | |||
6 | epigraph: | ||
7 | content: | | ||
8 | compiled thru Facebook statuses of the author | ||
9 | link: 'https://www.facebook.com/kittensruleforever38' | ||
10 | |||
11 | project: | ||
12 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
13 | css: autocento | ||
14 | ... | ||
15 | |||
16 | Like _40_ as I challenge anyone to come too! \ | ||
17 | It's like you're the epitome of lame! \ | ||
18 | She's all _I am SOOOO CONFUSED_ \ | ||
19 | Aw yeah she got word from yarn. \ | ||
20 | ---but technically it's a pretty sweet, huh? | ||
21 | |||
22 | Dude we were going and delicate fragrance of arguments get based off of are not try \ | ||
23 | dropping glasses in such an emotional rollercoaster you \ | ||
24 | and yes, I'm cocky enough to do anything! \ | ||
25 | I am as good as Phineas and make another picture symphony \ | ||
26 | This is a modification of a young woman to try \ | ||
27 | groups disband after they get your Meacham stuff please let it \ | ||
28 | RJ Covino, own statuses that'll be a great | ||
29 | |||
30 | MY OWN afterbirth than do that \ | ||
31 | I am 2 we can be KISSED ON THE page. \ | ||
32 | You know I'm not sure that \ | ||
33 | Ben & Jerry's FTW \ | ||
34 | 4/10 would not be able to vote, because I gotta do it \ | ||
35 | This is going to be sad about what \ | ||
36 | Rush Limbaugh comes forward with sunglassesbut at least I wasn't wearing a messenger bag or skinny jeans! \ | ||
37 | The cooler THAN Facebook \ | ||
38 | Wine is the best. \ | ||
39 | |||
40 | YES I was surprised at first, but the train one, definitely. \ | ||
41 | |||
42 | Also Valhalla is a dumbass... \ | ||
43 | But we can get based off of course, Jon. \ | ||
44 | We watched this \ | ||
45 | CELEBRATE FRANKSGIVING TOO! \ | ||
46 | That didn't get started on that \ | ||
47 | FRANCIS OF VERULAM REASONED THUS WITH the courage to reply. \ | ||
48 | Anyone wanna watch out \ | ||
49 | I am cranky from Bro a good as a way to hijack my hand. \ | ||
50 | Afterbend was not to produce photographs. | ||
diff --git a/src/cold-wind.txt b/src/cold-wind.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1281b10 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/cold-wind.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Cold wind | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | dedication: Justin | ||
6 | |||
7 | project: | ||
8 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
9 | css: autocento | ||
10 | ... | ||
11 | |||
12 | Man of autumn, cold wind, \ | ||
13 | blow down the trees' leaves. \ | ||
14 | Fire on the ground. The sky \ | ||
15 | perfect water, frost-cold, \ | ||
16 | rippled only by flocks \ | ||
17 | of black birds flying, gone. \ | ||
18 | Their brightness can blind \ | ||
19 | an uncareful watcher, work him \ | ||
20 | in a froth of hands, not-wings \ | ||
21 | that ache with the loss of flight. \ | ||
22 | A tear is flung faithfully \ | ||
23 | to the ocean of air, slipping in \ | ||
24 | slowly, is as gone as the birds. | ||
diff --git a/src/creation-myth.txt b/src/creation-myth.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..faed75d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/creation-myth.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Creation myth | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | So two hyperintelligent pandimensional beings \ | ||
11 | walk into a bar. One turns to the other and says, \ | ||
12 | "Did you remember to check the end state \ | ||
13 | of that simulation we were running?" The other \ | ||
14 | says, "No, I thought that you did?" To which \ | ||
15 | the first replies, "Oh shit, we missed it. \ | ||
16 | I suppose we must do all of this again. Barkeep, | ||
17 | |||
18 | two beers please." The bartender nods in that way \ | ||
19 | that bartenders do, pours the two beers, \ | ||
20 | expertly, by the way, just so, and hands them \ | ||
21 | to the first hyperintelligent pandimensional being. \ | ||
22 | The second one pulls a few singles out of his \ | ||
23 | wallet, places them on the bar, and the pair \ | ||
24 | turn around and begin walking toward a table \ | ||
25 | in the middle of the mostly-empty bar. The bar- \ | ||
26 | tender picks up the money, fans it out, frowns, \ | ||
27 | and calls to his patrons' backs: "Hey, this \ | ||
28 | isn't enough!" The two turn around simultan- \ | ||
29 | eously, with parity, and stare at him. A beat. | ||
30 | |||
31 | One of them, the one without the beer, breaks \ | ||
32 | the silence by exclaiming, "Oh dear god, I'm \ | ||
33 | sorry! I didn't know your prices went up since \ | ||
34 | last time. What do I owe you?" The bartender \ | ||
35 | says, "Oh, just another dollar-fifty." The being \ | ||
36 | reaches in his back pocket, slides out his \ | ||
37 | wallet, looks in smiling, and frowns when he sees \ | ||
38 | it's empty. He looks to the other and says, \ | ||
39 | "You got a buck-fifty I can borrow?" | ||
40 | |||
41 | The second hyperintelligent pandimensional being \ | ||
42 | considers this. He sets the beers down \ | ||
43 | on the table, pulls out his own wallet, opens \ | ||
44 | it, and frowns. "I'm broke too," he says. | ||
diff --git a/src/ex-machina.txt b/src/ex-machina.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..131b4b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/ex-machina.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Ex machina | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | epigraph: | ||
6 | content: with lines from National Geographic | ||
7 | link: 'http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/sugar/cohen-text' | ||
8 | |||
9 | project: | ||
10 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
11 | css: autocento | ||
12 | ... | ||
13 | |||
14 | Bottom of the drink: they had \ | ||
15 | to go. The Coke machine, the snack \ | ||
16 | machine, the deep fryer. Hoisted | ||
17 | |||
18 | and dragged through the halls \ | ||
19 | and out to the curb, they sat with \ | ||
20 | other trash beneath gray, forlorn | ||
21 | |||
22 | skies behind the elementary \ | ||
23 | school, wondering what their next \ | ||
24 | move would be. The Coke machine | ||
25 | |||
26 | had always wanted to live \ | ||
27 | the life of a hobo, jumping trains, \ | ||
28 | eating from garbage, making fire | ||
29 | |||
30 | in old oil drums. It had some \ | ||
31 | strange romantic notions of being homeless, \ | ||
32 | is what the deep fryer thought. | ||
33 | |||
34 | Its opinion was to head to court, \ | ||
35 | sue the bastards at the school for early \ | ||
36 | termination of contract. It was | ||
37 | |||
38 | the embodiment of justifiable anger. \ | ||
39 | It believed privately that it was an incarnation \ | ||
40 | of Nemesis, the goddess of divine | ||
41 | |||
42 | retribution. What the snack machine \ | ||
43 | thought, it kept to itself, but it did say \ | ||
44 | that nothing ever ends. The others | ||
45 | |||
46 | were confused, then angry, but finally \ | ||
47 | understood, or thought they did. The snack \ | ||
48 | machine's candy melted in the sun. | ||
diff --git a/src/finding-the-lion.txt b/src/finding-the-lion.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0a7535 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/finding-the-lion.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Finding the Lion | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Tonight, as I look up, the stars \ | ||
11 | hide themselves in shame. There is no moon. \ | ||
12 | The sky is black, like my desk, | ||
13 | |||
14 | nothing like a raven. The streetlights \ | ||
15 | look on the scene disinterested. \ | ||
16 | They have their own small gossips of the dark. | ||
17 | |||
18 | I came here to find the Lion, old \ | ||
19 | friend, but he will not show his flanks, his \ | ||
20 | paws, his shoulders, his mane. I | ||
21 | |||
22 | can hear him laughing from his hiding-place \ | ||
23 | behind the moon, nonexistent, under \ | ||
24 | the cold dead earth. The mountain is in front | ||
25 | |||
26 | of me now, a hole of stars daring me \ | ||
27 | to pierce it with my sight. The lion's still \ | ||
28 | laughing; the streetlamps talk about | ||
29 | |||
30 | me amongst themselves, and go out. There \ | ||
31 | never was any lion, they tell me. \ | ||
32 | You only hear the wind on the mountain. | ||
diff --git a/src/found-typewriter-poem.txt b/src/found-typewriter-poem.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8771100 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/found-typewriter-poem.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Look | ||
3 | subtitle: a found typewriter poem | ||
4 | genre: verse | ||
5 | |||
6 | epigraph: | ||
7 | content: | | ||
8 | Is he older? I asked her. | ||
9 | And I never got an answer, because at the moment she disappeared in a puff of smoke. | ||
10 | I like to think nothing ever happened to her save that she went over to the spirit realm. | ||
11 | I usually know better though. | ||
12 | |||
13 | project: | ||
14 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
15 | css: autocento | ||
16 | ... | ||
17 | |||
18 | |||
19 | Look, I say---look here--- \ | ||
20 | at this old place \ | ||
21 | where nothing changes. \ | ||
22 | Look at the people \ | ||
23 | who pass by. Look at \ | ||
24 | the trees. The flowers \ | ||
25 | full of wanting: look \ | ||
26 | how full they are with \ | ||
27 | color. Look how they mock \ | ||
28 | us, empty people who \ | ||
29 | must fill themselves \ | ||
30 | with changes---emptiness. | ||
31 | |||
32 | "There is nothing to be \ | ||
33 | but happy. There is no \ | ||
34 | sadness to fall down \ | ||
35 | like cherry petals." | ||
36 | |||
37 | The trees don't under \ | ||
38 | stand: they are too \ | ||
39 | tall to see the germ \ | ||
40 | of discontent in us. | ||
diff --git a/src/i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.txt b/src/i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad9a1c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/i-wanted-to-tell-you-something.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: I wanted to tell you something | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | I wanted to tell you something in order to \ | ||
11 | explain the way I feel about the Universe, \ | ||
12 | its workings, etc. But I couldn't yesterday \ | ||
13 | ---I'm sorry---I wanted only to ball \ | ||
14 | myself up and cry all day. It was the sixteenth \ | ||
15 | day in a row this happened to me, and to be | ||
16 | |||
17 | more than two weeks waiting to cry is, \ | ||
18 | especially when, the whole time, I wasn't able to, \ | ||
19 | absolutely horrible. It was no sweet sixteen, \ | ||
20 | I'll tell you that much. Unless at yours, the Universe \ | ||
21 | kept telling you to quit having such a ball \ | ||
22 | and that you should have died, like, yesterday. | ||
23 | |||
24 | At first, it feels like you're winning--that yesterday \ | ||
25 | you really were meant to die, but since you still _are_, \ | ||
26 | you beat the system somehow. But the Universe bawls, \ | ||
27 | "No, I meant you should've crawled into \ | ||
28 | a hole and fucking _died_!" And then the Universe \ | ||
29 | punches you right in the gut, something like sixteen | ||
30 | |||
31 | times, and all you can think is, "Some sixteenth \ | ||
32 | birthday! Maybe I will go die in a hole." Yesterday, \ | ||
33 | at times like this, is a luxury the cruel Universe \ | ||
34 | refuses to give you. This is when it's a pain just to _be_, \ | ||
35 | when that Marvell line about "rolling our stuff into one ball" \ | ||
36 | just seems glib, when you don't want one body, let alone two. | ||
37 | |||
38 | Something else that may come as a surprise to \ | ||
39 | you: over the past more-than-a-fortnight, these sixteen \ | ||
40 | days, I've had nothing to eat but crackers and a cheese ball. \ | ||
41 | (That's not entirely true---yesterday \ | ||
42 | I had some candy, peppermints and Jujubes.) \ | ||
43 | Maybe this is why I'm so mad at the Universe--- | ||
44 | |||
45 | because all it has ever wanted, this Universe \ | ||
46 | that gave me life, fed me from its breast til I was two, \ | ||
47 | and even before that, made a place in which I could be--- \ | ||
48 | all it's wanted was for me to take the sixteen \ | ||
49 | steps to sobriety, fold the Eight-Fold Path over yesterday \ | ||
50 | and step around it lightly, as I would an exercise ball, | ||
51 | |||
52 | but the problem is, dear Universe, there's no way I could be \ | ||
53 | something as hard as all that, to wake up yesterday \ | ||
54 | morning, stretch over my sixteen selves, bound out like a ball. | ||
diff --git a/src/index.txt b/src/index.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc2def6 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/index.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | [Ideas are drool.][] | ||
diff --git a/src/january.txt b/src/january.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c715a8a --- /dev/null +++ b/src/january.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: January | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | January. \ | ||
11 | It's cold, and I don't like it. \ | ||
12 | I prefer warm weather, \ | ||
13 | although I like sweaters. They are the one \ | ||
14 | warm spot in an otherwise shitty season. \ | ||
15 | But fall is better sweater weather. So be patient, | ||
16 | |||
17 | Patient, \ | ||
18 | while waiting for the end of January. \ | ||
19 | A change of season \ | ||
20 | brings a change of mood along with it, \ | ||
21 | although I never thought I'd be one \ | ||
22 | to believe that SAD junk about effects of weather--- | ||
23 | |||
24 | weather!--- \ | ||
25 | on a person. Who becomes a patient \ | ||
26 | just because of one \ | ||
27 | month of snow? I did say of January: \ | ||
28 | "It's cold, and I don't like it," \ | ||
29 | but I hardly think it's fair, knocking whole seasons, | ||
30 | |||
31 | seasoning \ | ||
32 | your conversation with demands for better weather. \ | ||
33 | (While I find it \ | ||
34 | nearly impossible, it's my mission to be patient \ | ||
35 | while waiting for the end of January.) \ | ||
36 | Oh, but how the long nights do so tax one! | ||
37 | |||
38 | One \ | ||
39 | warm spot in an otherwise shitty season--- \ | ||
40 | all I ask, January, \ | ||
41 | is one warm day. Do you care whether \ | ||
42 | I'm a person who becomes a patient \ | ||
43 | in some psych ward? This just about does it. | ||
44 | |||
45 | I.T., \ | ||
46 | although I never thought I'd call one, \ | ||
47 | is fair and patient \ | ||
48 | when I call. They talk with me, season \ | ||
49 | my conversation of demands for better weather \ | ||
50 | with an argument for the white beauty of January. | ||
51 | |||
52 | They know it's hard; they say each season \ | ||
53 | has its detractors. One day, they say, the weather \ | ||
54 | will be controlled - until then, patience in January. | ||
diff --git a/src/largest-asteroid.txt b/src/largest-asteroid.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6428620 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/largest-asteroid.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: The largest asteroid in the asteroid belt | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | What secrets does it hold? \ | ||
11 | Can it tell us who kissed Sara \ | ||
12 | that night on the veranda, or \ | ||
13 | who Joey is really in love with? \ | ||
14 | We all know it isn't Sara, we \ | ||
15 | mean look at them Christmas eve \ | ||
16 | and he's staring whistfully \ | ||
17 | at the stars, or the largest \ | ||
18 | asteroid in the asteroid belt. \ | ||
19 | She's staring at him, sure, but \ | ||
20 | she sees the twinkle in his eye \ | ||
21 | is not aimed in her direction. \ | ||
22 | The reflection of that reflection \ | ||
23 | will beam into space, lightyears \ | ||
24 | of space, dimming slowly each \ | ||
25 | second, until it dies out like \ | ||
26 | all of Sara's hopes for something \ | ||
27 | resembling love in this life, real \ | ||
28 | love that takes hold of her by \ | ||
29 | the throat and refuses to let go, \ | ||
30 | love that makes men travel for her \ | ||
31 | and only for her, love that launches \ | ||
32 | space ships to that asteroid, the \ | ||
33 | largest in the asteroid belt, that \ | ||
34 | jewel of dead rock and ice, harboring \ | ||
35 | something that could've been life \ | ||
36 | and nothing that actually is. | ||
diff --git a/src/last-passenger.txt b/src/last-passenger.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71d1382 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/last-passenger.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Last passenger | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Memory works strangely, spooling its thread \ | ||
11 | over the nails of events barely related, \ | ||
12 | creating finally some picture, if we’re \ | ||
13 | lucky, of a life---but more likely, it knots \ | ||
14 | itself, catches on a nail or in our throats \ | ||
15 | that gasp, as it binds our necks, for air. | ||
16 | |||
17 | An example: today marks one hundred years \ | ||
18 | since your namesake, the last living passenger \ | ||
19 | pigeon, died in Cincinnati. It also marks \ | ||
20 | one year since we last spoke. Although around \ | ||
21 | the world, zoos mourn her loss, I'm done \ | ||
22 | with you. I mourn no more your voice, the first \ | ||
23 | sound I heard outside my body that reached \ | ||
24 | into my throat and set me ringing. But that string--- | ||
25 | |||
26 | memory that feels sometimes more like a tide \ | ||
27 | has yoked together, bound your voice to that bird, \ | ||
28 | the frozen, stuffed, forgotten pigeon---my heart \ | ||
29 | is too easy, but it must do---to blink, to flex \ | ||
30 | its unused toes, slowly thaw to the wetness \ | ||
31 | of beating wings, fly to me again, and alight, \ | ||
32 | singing full-throated, on my broken shoulder. | ||
diff --git a/src/listen.txt b/src/listen.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39f15e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/listen.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Listen | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | If you swallow hard enough \ | ||
11 | you'll feel the stone \ | ||
12 | the one we all have waiting | ||
13 | |||
14 | Once I found the stone in \ | ||
15 | the sea it kissed me as \ | ||
16 | the sea pawed at my back | ||
diff --git a/src/no-nothing.txt b/src/no-nothing.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e81d70b --- /dev/null +++ b/src/no-nothing.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: No nothing | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | | While swimming in the river | ||
11 | | I saw underneath it a river | ||
12 | | of stars. Only there was no | ||
13 | | river: it was noon. You can | ||
14 | | say the sun is a river; you | ||
15 | | can argue the stars back it | ||
16 | | like shirts behind a closet | ||
17 | | door; you can say the earth | ||
18 | | holds us up with its weight | ||
19 | | or that it means well or it | ||
20 | | means anything. | ||
21 | | There is no | ||
22 | | closet, nor door; there are | ||
23 | | no shirts hanging anywhere. | ||
24 | | There is no false wall that | ||
25 | | leads deep into the earth's | ||
26 | | bowels, growing warmer with | ||
27 | | each step. Warmth as a con- | ||
28 | | cept has ceased to make any | ||
29 | | sense. In contraposition to | ||
30 | | cold, it might, but cold as | ||
31 | | well stepped out last night | ||
32 | | and hasn't returned. | ||
33 | | Last I | ||
34 | | heard, it went out swimming | ||
35 | | and might've drowned. Trees | ||
36 | | were the pallbearers at the | ||
37 | | funeral, the train was long | ||
38 | | and wailful, there was much | ||
39 | | wailing and gnashing of all | ||
40 | | teeth--though there were no | ||
41 | | teeth, no train, no funeral | ||
42 | | or prayer or trees at all-- | ||
43 | | nor a river underneath any- | ||
44 | | thing. There was nothing to | ||
45 | | be underneath anymore. | ||
46 | | Look | ||
47 | | around, and tell me you see | ||
48 | | something. Look around, and | ||
49 | | tell me something that I do | ||
50 | | not know. I know, more than | ||
51 | | anything, that the world is | ||
52 | | always ending. Behind that, | ||
53 | | there is nothing, save that | ||
54 | | there is no nothing either. | ||
55 | | | ||
56 | | Nothing somehow still turns | ||
57 | | and flows past us, past all | ||
58 | | time and beyond it, a river | ||
59 | | returning, to its forgotten | ||
60 | | origins deep within itself. | ||
diff --git a/src/nothing-is-ever-over.txt b/src/nothing-is-ever-over.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0d179c --- /dev/null +++ b/src/nothing-is-ever-over.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Nothing is ever over | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Nothing is ever over; nothing \ | ||
11 | is ever even begun. The foundation \ | ||
12 | hasn't been laid; how can we hope \ | ||
13 | to put in the plumbing? The bed \ | ||
14 | is unmade, not even made; the wood \ | ||
15 | hasn't been cleft from the tree; \ | ||
16 | the seed hasn't been cast \ | ||
17 | out of water and growth and sun, \ | ||
18 | which itself hasn't started shining. \ | ||
19 | The cock has never stopped crowing \ | ||
20 | because he never started. Peter \ | ||
21 | betrays us again and again with \ | ||
22 | silence. Christ wakes up at night, \ | ||
23 | choking from a bad dream, wrists \ | ||
24 | aching from a dreamt, torturous pain. | ||
diff --git a/src/plant.txt b/src/plant.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06be535 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/plant.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Litany for plants | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | I need a plant. I need a thing \ | ||
11 | to take care of. I need \ | ||
12 | a little green brownspotted \ | ||
13 | blackdirt growing \ | ||
14 | quietness. I need a sunlit \ | ||
15 | dawn knowing my name filtered \ | ||
16 | through a thin green window. \ | ||
17 | I need chlorophyll \ | ||
18 | working its magic on beams of \ | ||
19 | grassmade early morning dewdrop \ | ||
20 | sweetmaking green. I need \ | ||
21 | the dark earth sucking water \ | ||
22 | from a black crevice \ | ||
23 | its black magic churning \ | ||
24 | wormilled rockturned starblind \ | ||
25 | darkness and cold into \ | ||
26 | the opposite of dust. I need the heat \ | ||
27 | to blind me. I need the dumb making \ | ||
28 | to charge my coldened blood. I need \ | ||
29 | the dropturned leaves to turn again \ | ||
30 | their faces to the windblown sun. \ | ||
31 | I need millions of tiny years \ | ||
32 | summed up and burning out some unknown \ | ||
33 | new growth into the air. I need four \ | ||
34 | hundred feet of dark red gnarled wood \ | ||
35 | and needles glistening wetly on goldheaded \ | ||
36 | branches hoisting themselves \ | ||
37 | to the sky. I need ten strong men \ | ||
38 | to fail to bring you down. Old one \ | ||
39 | I need the peace that comes with knowing \ | ||
40 | something sacred holds still \ | ||
41 | in the world. I need your green tongues \ | ||
42 | of flame to lick at old wounds \ | ||
43 | stitching us together away from ourselves. \ | ||
44 | I need your brownbranching grasp \ | ||
45 | to keep me from drifting off \ | ||
46 | into unknowing terrible sleep. I need \ | ||
47 | to know the snake hanging \ | ||
48 | from your branches. I need to watch \ | ||
49 | the dropping of flesh massful \ | ||
50 | onto the ground from a height. I need \ | ||
51 | the gnawer at your root to strike \ | ||
52 | a vein to quicken old brown stone \ | ||
53 | to movement. I need jeweleyed venom \ | ||
54 | barking new greennesses into the bark. \ | ||
55 | I need a knocker of dark secrets hidden \ | ||
56 | in the dark bark hiding a smallstone \ | ||
57 | smoldering pearl in the knot. I need \ | ||
58 | that pearl held out in a hand like an offering. \ | ||
59 | I need the hand to be a plant's hand. | ||
60 | |||
61 | I need a plant. I need a growing \ | ||
62 | growler groaning toward heat and air. \ | ||
63 | I need a green thin stem surprisingly strong \ | ||
64 | holding up the weight of a plain \ | ||
65 | of fallow greennesses of creases and caresses \ | ||
66 | of tiny worldmaking hardworking grandeur. \ | ||
67 | I need a singer of life crying \ | ||
68 | forward into old roads covered over \ | ||
69 | by dead trees. I need the rasping of root \ | ||
70 | in dirt. I need the unfurling of fiddleheads \ | ||
71 | to sing forth a new symphony. I need \ | ||
72 | fruits swelling large for the harvest. \ | ||
73 | I need yellow light shining through white bark. \ | ||
74 | I need juicecrush flowing waterlike \ | ||
75 | through valleys percolating up \ | ||
76 | through the ground. I need springs bubbling sap \ | ||
77 | into cabins of wood fought for by labor. \ | ||
78 | I need snow on the ground with shoots \ | ||
79 | dotting the melting patches. I need two \ | ||
80 | leaves on a thin stalk shivering \ | ||
81 | in moonlight. I need robinsong warbling \ | ||
82 | over the heads of small seeds sprouting \ | ||
83 | to enliven their growth. I need rings \ | ||
84 | of woody material widening to push \ | ||
85 | the ground out of their way. I need \ | ||
86 | new greennesses pushing out from \ | ||
87 | the brown dark bark gnarled. I \ | ||
88 | need the robin to build its songfilled \ | ||
89 | nest in a branchcrotch. I need \ | ||
90 | the fecundity of fungi on the branches. \ | ||
91 | I need quiet of the sunlight shooting \ | ||
92 | through thousands of branched leaves \ | ||
93 | quivering. I need whisper at dawn. \ | ||
94 | I need burrows underground foxholes. \ | ||
95 | I need duff layers eaten through \ | ||
96 | by worms. I need brooks murmuring \ | ||
97 | through crooks of roots. I need small \ | ||
98 | fish swimming in their schools at \ | ||
99 | midnight. I need oldnesses giving way \ | ||
100 | to youngnesses giving way to oldnesses. \ | ||
101 | I need dapplegray yellowshot ashbark. \ | ||
102 | I need the crunch of dead leaves underfoot. \ | ||
103 | I need snowquiet deadbranch mourning. \ | ||
104 | I need those purple mountains majesty. \ | ||
105 | I need a walk between trees in the dark. \ | ||
106 | I need that moment when stopping to rest \ | ||
107 | it suddenly seems that all the weary \ | ||
108 | forestroads in all their meandering come \ | ||
109 | to rest their heads at my astonished \ | ||
110 | feet, none of them needing more than me. | ||
diff --git a/src/seasonal-affective-disorder.txt b/src/seasonal-affective-disorder.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef14309 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/seasonal-affective-disorder.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Seasonal affective disorder | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | On your desk I set a tangerine: \ | ||
11 | a relic of a winter quickly passing. | ||
12 | |||
13 | I'm reminded, fiercely, of a summer: \ | ||
14 | I watched the cemetery grass on my stomach. | ||
15 | |||
16 | You hate the wind blowing through buildings: \ | ||
17 | the coldness of fire, blister of a mountain stream. | ||
18 | |||
19 | When you broke down that night: your aunt / you \ | ||
20 | never have been / you shook that night / | ||
21 | |||
22 | Seasonal affective disorder is real: you \ | ||
23 | mutter under your breath on the highway. | ||
24 | |||
25 | The ant carries an orange peel past a headstone: \ | ||
26 | it carries her nearly as often. | ||
27 | |||
28 | I set a tangerine on your desk: \ | ||
29 | an engagement ring, winter-returned. | ||
diff --git a/src/sense-of-it.txt b/src/sense-of-it.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1be59e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/sense-of-it.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Sense of it | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | I only write poems on the bus anymore. \ | ||
11 | I sit far in the back to be alone. \ | ||
12 | I mark black things on white things in a black thing. \ | ||
13 | I try to make sense of it. | ||
14 | |||
15 | Every time I see a plastic bag in the wind I think: \ | ||
16 | This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. \ | ||
17 | Most of my life I relate to something on the TV: \ | ||
18 | This is how I try to make sense of it. | ||
19 | |||
20 | The Talking Heads song ["Stop Making Sense"][stop] \ | ||
21 | is about a girlfriend caught cheating and willed oblivion. \ | ||
22 | The song's real title is "Girlfriend is Better" \ | ||
23 | but lying about it is a way I try to make sense of it. | ||
24 | |||
25 | The day after I lost her I found you again. \ | ||
26 | Your face made a plastic bag of my heart. \ | ||
27 | Your eyes were the wind pushing the bus forward. \ | ||
28 | I couldn't make sense of it. | ||
29 | |||
30 | [stop]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7X3f2gFz4 | ||
diff --git a/src/something-simple.txt b/src/something-simple.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0065c34 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/something-simple.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Let's start with something simple | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | in mammals the ratio between bladder size \ | ||
11 | and urethra is such that it takes \ | ||
12 | all of them the same time to piss. Take \ | ||
13 | for example the fact that Fibonnacci \ | ||
14 | numbers show up everywhere. How can you \ | ||
15 | look at this at all of this all of \ | ||
16 | these facts and tell me to my face there \ | ||
17 | is no God? And yet there isn't \ | ||
18 | you murmer quietly into my ear over \ | ||
19 | and over like a low tide sounding \ | ||
20 | its lonely waves on an abandoned beach. \ | ||
21 | The ocean that birthed us holds us \ | ||
22 | still. We are tied, you and I, together \ | ||
23 | in her arms. The [moon, caring father,][moon] \ | ||
24 | looks down from a dispassionate sky. | ||
25 | |||
26 | [moon]: moon-drowning.html | ||
diff --git a/src/stayed-on-the-bus.txt b/src/stayed-on-the-bus.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d9e867 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/stayed-on-the-bus.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Stayed on the bus too long | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | It was a gamble \ | ||
11 | I lost---thought I could get closer \ | ||
12 | than the library, stayed \ | ||
13 | on past the admin building, \ | ||
14 | back down the hill to my beginning, \ | ||
15 | the driver's second-to-last stop. \ | ||
16 | I have to walk now, \ | ||
17 | through the wind and sun, past \ | ||
18 | traffic moving merrily along \ | ||
19 | taking their own gambles \ | ||
20 | staying on or getting off \ | ||
21 | too soon. | ||
diff --git a/src/the-night-we-met.txt b/src/the-night-we-met.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a9dc93 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/the-night-we-met.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: The night we met, I was out of my mind | ||
3 | subtitle: or Lying in the dark | ||
4 | genre: verse | ||
5 | |||
6 | project: | ||
7 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
8 | css: autocento | ||
9 | ... | ||
10 | |||
11 | My head is full of fire, my tongue swollen, \ | ||
12 | pregnant with all the things I should've said \ | ||
13 | but didn't. Last night, we met each other \ | ||
14 | in the dark, remember? You told me time was | ||
15 | |||
16 | pregnant with all things. I should've said \ | ||
17 | something, to draw you out from your place \ | ||
18 | in the dark. Remember, you told me time was \ | ||
19 | only an illusion, and memory was only | ||
20 | |||
21 | something to draw. You, out from your place, \ | ||
22 | I out from mine, that night, I believed in you. \ | ||
23 | Only illusion and memory were one, lying \ | ||
24 | down on your couch, through the night you drew | ||
25 | |||
26 | me out from mine. That night, I believed in you \ | ||
27 | when you told me you loved me. I lay \ | ||
28 | down on your couch. Through the night, you drew \ | ||
29 | a picture of our future together. | ||
30 | |||
31 | When you told me you loved me, I lied \ | ||
32 | in the dark. Remember, you told me time was \ | ||
33 | a picture of our future together. \ | ||
34 | My head is full of fire, my tongue swollen. | ||
diff --git a/src/the-sea_the-beach.txt b/src/the-sea_the-beach.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a4e88c --- /dev/null +++ b/src/the-sea_the-beach.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: The sea and the beach | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Waiting for a reading to start \ | ||
11 | when there's nobody coming anyway \ | ||
12 | is like waiting for the tide \ | ||
13 | to make some meaning of the beach. | ||
14 | |||
15 | The sea doesn't know or care \ | ||
16 | what the beach even is, let alone \ | ||
17 | its cares or its troubles, its \ | ||
18 | little nagging under-the-skin annoyances \ | ||
19 | that make the beach the beach. | ||
20 | |||
21 | Sandworms, for example, or those crabs \ | ||
22 | with big pincers on one side \ | ||
23 | but not the other. Those really get \ | ||
24 | the beach's gander up, but the sea \ | ||
25 | doesn't care. The sea | ||
26 | |||
27 | only wants to caress the beach \ | ||
28 | with its soft arms, to tell the beach \ | ||
29 | how much it's loved by the sea, \ | ||
30 | that complex of water, salt, and \ | ||
31 | the moon's gravity, the mercury \ | ||
32 | rising up and down slowly, like a yawn. | ||
33 | |||
34 | The sea only cares about itself. \ | ||
35 | The beach lays there and takes it. | ||
diff --git a/src/time-looks-up-to-the-sky.txt b/src/time-looks-up-to-the-sky.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c43786 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/time-looks-up-to-the-sky.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: Time looks up to the sky | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | I wish I'd kissed you when I had the chance. \ | ||
11 | Your face hovering there, so near to mine, \ | ||
12 | your mouth pursed---what word was it you pronounced? | ||
13 | |||
14 | When I think about you, something in my pants \ | ||
15 | tightens, and my thoughts run, and I realize \ | ||
16 | I should've kissed you when I had the chance. | ||
17 | |||
18 | I want that moment never to be past \ | ||
19 | like Keats's lovers on the grecian urn: \ | ||
20 | his mouth pursed, her figure turned to pronounce | ||
21 | |||
22 | her hips in ways that are not feminist. \ | ||
23 | But time strolls mildly on, not glancing at my \ | ||
24 | wish to kiss you when I had the chance, | ||
25 | |||
26 | whispered like a beggar to a prince \ | ||
27 | outside his palace: time looks up to the sky, \ | ||
28 | purses his lips, and hears what I pronounce | ||
29 | |||
30 | but pays it little mind. If he would just \ | ||
31 | turn back, bend down, and follow my design, \ | ||
32 | I would have kissed you when I had the chance, \ | ||
33 | as your mouth pursed and you pronounced goodbye. | ||
diff --git a/src/when-im-sorry-i.txt b/src/when-im-sorry-i.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af1d059 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/when-im-sorry-i.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ | |||
1 | --- | ||
2 | title: When I'm sorry I wash dishes | ||
3 | genre: verse | ||
4 | |||
5 | project: | ||
6 | title: Autocento of the breakfast table | ||
7 | css: autocento | ||
8 | ... | ||
9 | |||
10 | Your casserole dish takes the longest: \ | ||
11 | it has some baked-in crust from when you \ | ||
12 | cooked chicken last night. Washing it \ | ||
13 | allows me to think about this poem's title \ | ||
14 | and the first few lines. Now that I've \ | ||
15 | written them down, I've forgotten the rest. | ||
16 | |||
17 | While sraping at something with my finger- \ | ||
18 | nail, I catch myself wondering again whether \ | ||
19 | you'll thank me for washing your dishes. \ | ||
20 | I realize that this would defeat the point \ | ||
21 | of my gesture, that this has destroyed \ | ||
22 | all good thoughts I've had about saying | ||
23 | |||
24 | "I'm sorry." This, this is the reason why \ | ||
25 | I am always apologizing: because I never \ | ||
26 | mean it, because there is always, in some \ | ||
27 | attic, a thought roaming that says, insists: \ | ||
28 | "I've done nothing wrong, and I deserve \ | ||
29 | all I can take, and more than that." | ||