Homophone Nights

( a Tom Becket  title)

Five minutes after I
plug the phrase into
Google, its AI partner
comes awake & tells
me it thinks it's knights. 
I was on edge there for a
while, thinking I may
have keyed in some-
thing that could have
brought the morality
police around. But now
I'm breathing easier, I
return to Google & 
enter 'homophobe
knights' which is what
I was going to search
for in the first place
to see if the castle
cloisters were safe for
a struggling minstrel
to stay in overnight.

McAfee rushed to hospital after asylum bid rejected

Critics say the draft, drawn up by a body dominated by Chinese fishing vessels from waters near China's southern Hainan province, was rushed through parliament without proper consultation & does not do enough to protect political & religious freedoms & the rights of women. "They also lack inspiration in terms of their quest to warn everybody about child safety issues." Also up for discussion today will be the terms of a final agreement on changing the rules of succession for the British monarchy to allow first-born non-binary persons to become heirs to the throne. These plans were meant as a countermeasure to what the Israelis described as a unilateral Palestinian move at the United Nations, which they said violated their previous signed agreements. World leaders denounced the reaction, & critics warned that any future settlement building could harm the prospects of a viable & contiguous Palestinian state. What remains the core issue however, is recognizing the fact that the fight against corruption is not just a cause to ensure the legal protections for civil societies against the abuse that they may receive at the hand of those in power, it is in effect, a fight against human suffering caused by an act that transcends simple violation of power.

wednesday newstrip

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO, was sent questions from T.®ump administration asking if it is taking ‘appropriate measures’ against gender ideology · Interior Secretary Dog Bumrug told Fox News host that he "certainly" believes there’s room on Mount Rushmore for President T.®ump’s face, in an interview that aired on Saturday · despite being prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment from standing for election again, President T.®ump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House during an interview with NBC News · quake disaster has exposed a T.®ump-sized void on the world stage. China is stepping in · a Paris court has convicted French far-right leader Marine Le Pen of embezzling money from the European parliament · Iran has reacted with outrage after DoNuts T.®ump said the country will be bombed if it does not accept US demands to constrain its nuclear program.

Movement

of the 
hands

or

the use of
distracting
scenery –

that's
what
draws the eye 
away.  

a simple
trick

prestigitation

though
some
call it
magic 

geographies : Kalabity

 

A faint but bitter memory

Jerked us around 
she did, telling us to 
go here, to go there, no
place recognizable, 
each much the same 
as the last, as the
others.  Finally 
came to one we did 
recognize — she saying
look, they obviously don’t
know who you are, don’t
trust you, but they know
me, will deal with me.
Give me the money &
I’ll be back in five minutes.

A line from Samuel R, Delany

There is a  link between societal cri-
sis situations & belief in conspiracy 
theories. Stresses in the earth's outer
layer push the sides of the fault line

together. Sensory overload is real. 
It's a subject they kept on talking
about, considering it an area that
shouldn't be neglected. Believing in

something paranormal is no longer 
rare, if it ever was. Radio silence can 
trigger insecurity; there is no articu-
late resonance. The one escape, the

populist belief that only politicians 
still use it to mock & dismiss allega-
tions against them & draw attention 
away from the inner corners of their

eyes. We mere mortals use a brown eye-
liner that blends in much better with skin.
The politician, however, who feels loss
more profoundly than we experience an

equal gain, settles only for an ultra creamy,
dual-ended, & intense pigment gel-feel hybrid
eyeliner pencil that delivers 24hr smooth, 
smudge-proof wear, in just one stroke.

Vestiges

I have almost forgotten the name 
of Alexander the Great’s horse; confuse it 
with a strain of virulent bacteria or the 
narrow strait in Türkiye that separates Europe
from Asia.  I have never used it, nor am I
ever likely to, but it’s there, in memory, ready
to be called upon if necessary. & I have
almost forgotten the names of all the mountains
in New Zealand’s Southern Alps that are higher 
than ten thousand feet, but they sneak back 
into the conscious layers of my mind 
just before they escape forever.  At the age
of ten I could recite them as a party trick. Have
done it again at an age that seems
closer to ten thousand, just to show
what a wonderful thing the mind is & how
it manages to retain such useless crap whilst
forgetting The Bosphorus & brucellosis, both
of which I am more likely to need to know or use 
than Bucephalus &, in descending order of height,

Aoraki
(Mt. Cook) 
Tasman
Dampier
Silberhorn
Lendenfelt  
David’s Dome 
Malte Brun Torres Teichelman 
Sefton Haast Elie de Beaumont 
La Perouse Douglas Peak & The Minarets.

wednesday newstrip

One of Elongated Muskrat’s own AI chatbots has identified him as being one of the largest spreaders of misinformation on X · T.®ump orders the "most lethal machine ever built," the Boeing F-47 fighter jet · the Australian Opposition Coalition's top economic spokesperson is unable to confirm the size of the opposition's planned public service & migration cuts, the taxpayer cost of building nuclear power plants, or how it would limit government spending · as trust in the US collapses, leaders in Australia & around the world are frantically recalibrating · Israel orders troops to 'seize more territory' in Gaza & threatens to annex land · Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky, one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms, made a bold & widely applauded statement when she took to the stage at SXSW wearing a simple, black T-shirt with the phrase: "Mundus sine caesaribus," Latin for "a world without Caesars," clearly a dig at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who wore a shirt of the same color & typeface while delivering his keynote at the Meta Connect conference last September – only his shirt said: "aut Zuck aut nihil," a play on the ancient Latin phrase, "aut Caesar aut nihil" which translates to "either Caesar or nothing" · "Courageous, angry, passionate: "rallies around Australia honor the memory of women killed by male violence & demand urgent action.

geographies : Cape Bridgewater

 

wednesday newstrip aka bring on the T.®umpenproletariat

Following T.®ump's mass pardon of Jan. 6 insurrectionists, there is a new team in the White House whose job it is to "focus on clemency grants that underscore the president’s own grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system" · T.®ump's CDC plans major study relitigating vaccination-autism conspiracy theory: report · possibility of T.®ump nominating a Fox host for Supreme Court is 'not a lunatic thought' · T.®ump signed a day-one executive order titled, "Restoring Freedom of Speech & Ending Federal Censorship," that stated, "Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society." Now a purge of so-called woke initiatives revealed by the N.Y. Times includes a list of banned words that came with that order – from phrases like "sense of belonging," "all-inclusive" & "at risk" – to more innocuous terms like "women," "institutional," & "systemic" · T.®ump pick for Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia would be 'crazy' if Taiwan tensions flare · Yes, T.®ump paid for a full-page newspaper ad criticizing US foreign policy in 1987. "Let's not let our great country be laughed at anymore," reads an open letter penned by T.®ump.

from The Pope's Easter message

"Now that postmodernism’s been (with a wink) flushed, can we, for a moment, glance back wistfully to that cinema of more naïve possibilities, before the insular film school homilies of 'queer cinema' swamped us, when post-new wave sex & politics anarchically mixed in ignorance of our contemporary Sundance straightjackets of liberal visibility politics, body image conventionalism, festival entertainment, & jury-prize prostitution? Such films were made not by technofetishistically schooled 'filmmakers' but by renaissance theater artists like Terayama & Arrabal, who would deride with a magnanimous grin all foisted philistine pigeonholes. But prepare for disillusionment, too, for these artists were blissfully ignorant of more than just the watery liberalism we now cringingly sip like gelid, day-old, decaf."

Sensitivities

 

geographies: Gelantipy

 

wednesday newstrip

Elongated Muskrat’s SpaceX Starship explodes, debris streaks through Florida skies · Ukraine war briefing: US-Ukraine talks to take place in Saudi Arabia in the next week, Zelenskyy says · Muskrat can’t fire employees, T.®ump reportedly tells cabinet secretaries · "Small & weak countries will get burnt first, & the international order & rules will be under severe shock," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. "Major countries should undertake their international obligations … & not seek to profit from & bully the weak" · rattled markets, negative polls: some say T.®ump’s honeymoon is over · 'shadowy, unelected figures': analyst says DOGE is the very thing 'it claims to fear most' · a century-old shipwreck has resurfaced on the east coast of Australia, unearthed by Cyclone Alfred's wild weather over 130 years after it was first swallowed by the sea in another cyclone in the 1800s.

Some recent books

Mark Young
The Hit List
52 pages
b&w free downloadable pdf
Scud Editions
url: https://scudlit.blogspot.com/p/editions.html

A collection of around 55 recent poems.

*

harry k stammer, Mark Cunningham, & Mark Young
Gravel
66 pages
poetry & visuals
full color
paperback ($US15.00)& Kindle($US5.00)
Sandy Press
url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DY56DHV7

Gravel. Might have been called that because it was like walking over it in bare feet to get three grumpy old men to agree on how this book should be put together — identifiers or anonymous; interspersed small offerings or a three-tiered cake; with or without an intro?

Or? Call it that because it's a word with other, quite divergent, words built in & easily accessed — rave, ave, grave, Ravel — & that's before discarding the original order.

Or? Each of the pieces, as denoted by the poet's name, being inserted into the document in a random way, like gravel on a path. The point here is to cross each author's approach in a way that does or doesn’t affect the how of how the pieces relate to each other. Does this matter in terms of how a reader understands each alone & at the same time how a reader may understand the whole & the poetry within the total work?

Or? What is there to introduce? The Pisan Cantos and Zukofsky's A made do without introductions, if I recall. Maybe when you’re famous—or post-famous, so that people need to be told how important you are. Were. Is that “you” plural? Or, as with Aram Saroyan’s Complete Minimal Poems, you can have a blurb with more words in it than most of the books included. Then you can get somebody to write an introduction to tell us who the blurb writer, Vito Acconci, is. Was. Who will introduce the introducer?

Or? The only true blurb would be along the lines of: "If you read this book and get irritated as hell & say to yourself, 'Anybody could do that,' then you're got the real spirit of the book."

Take all of the above, & it's no wonder they invited me in to compose the introduction. All suggestions will be welcomed. Keep watching this space.

— Kasimir Malevich, February 1915 2025, Red Square

*

Mark Young
Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama
88 pages
poetry & visuals
full color
paperback ($US24.75)
Otoliths
url: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young/some-unrecorded-voyages-of-vasco-da-gama/paperback/product-e748z2j.html?page=1&pageSize=4

My first poem in the geographies series appeared on my gamma ways blog at the beginning of 2009. I feel that the best description of my intent comes from Sam Lohmann who published some in an issue of the journal Peaches & Bats that he was editing at the time: "These pieces by Mark Young have a disturbing and comic speed, and seem, as a group, to get at some essential weirdness of the 'global' info-capitalist culture we're all trying to survive and live in."

I began the visual geographies just under a couple of years later. At first they tended to be poems on a background, but gradually transformed into digital manipulations of images from places I looked up on the web. As time went on, I refined those locations to Australia & New Zealand, sometimes with a word or two added; but the intent was the same for the visuals as for the poems — the world is something different to what it's claimed to be.

There have been five standalone collections of geographies over the years, mainly in chapbook or pdf format, plus a significant tranche in the wide-ranging 600-page collection, The Codicils, that came out from Otoliths in 2013. This new collection, Some Unrecorded Voyages of Vasco da Gama, contains a number of visuals &, probably, the final geographies poems.

— Mark Young

*

Mark Young
Closed Environment
24 pages
b&w free & downloadable
Neo-Mimeo Editions, from Nualláin House
url: https://nuallainhousepublishers.com/2025/03/03/closed-environment/

"Neo-Mimeo endeavors to return to the fast and cheap no frills esthetic of mimeo in a non-scrolling digital slideshow left to right reading format. The texts are replicated in the limited typewriter font styles then available, generally Courier or Prestige, but in a larger point size (16 vs.12) to accommodate readability on the small screen. The bold text presentation alludes to the often over inked stencils in mimeo production. Each Neo-Mimeo poetry selection, like many original mimeo books, is limited to approximately 20 pages. A pdf file of Neo-Mimeo titles is available for those who wish to produce their own hard copy; staples not included."

— Pat Nolan

*

Mark Young
The Complete Post Person Poems
138 pages
b&w (paperback), full color (Kindle)
(paperback) $US12.50 (Kindle) $US6.25
Sandy Press
url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZHXYYH7

One never knows what's going to turn up in Mark's mail. I've even turned up — all 6'7" of me — in the postbag. Every page holds a surprise. Mark delivers! —Tom Beckett

In The Complete Post Person Poems, Mark Young delivers “the can” or rather, cans "of worms/ I’d always/ wanted to open.” Master builder/decorator of “a room to put/ the elephant in,” Young helps us achieve some measure of “Gunk Control” through an ironic, fiercely punny wit that is replete with cogent historical and current allusions and accounts of wild misprisions. His “melodious thunks” provide superb rejoinders to the “polemic/ pandemic” that assails the globe. —Thomas Fink

In The Complete Post Person Poems intellectual Tom-Foolery via the official postal system has at it at full speed! — Cathy M. Bennett

All writers have a fraught relationship with the postal service. Mark Young’s remedy is The Complete Post Person Poems, a uniquely multifaceted otherworldly disco ball showering kaleidoscopic colors down onto poetry’s dance floor. Shake that thang. —Pat Nolan

The Complete Post Person Poems does nothing less than bring the world to you. How lucky we are to receive Mark Young's mail. —Brad Liening

After reading this book, I will never think of aubergines in the same way again. Now I must realize: I don't even know what an aubergine is. And the author makes me feel funny about my subscription to the Conspiracy Theory Quarterly. I think he did this on purpose. He is dangerous and no one should read this book. —Mark Cunningham

Mark Young picks a thread in a ball of golden wool and gives it a pull and it never ends. Magic everywhere. —John Geraets

Chance and its output, notably infinite shades of humor, when examined and relished, teach even beyond experience, offering as a bonus “a room to put the elephant in.” —Sheila E. Murphy

Mark Young has given the meaning of a postman's "meaning" in meaning a delivery god. Send and ye shall receive. — harry k stammer

Mark Young IS the Complete Post Person, delivering to us all the news we need to read, to reread, to remember. For these poems we will remember. Here he's given us back so much of our world – the terrible and the terrific – and for that we need to say: thank you, Mark. —Michael Gottlieb

Don’t
call me
biased for concluding

the Hay(na)ku created
its best
poem

because its postman
delivered with
sensitivity
—Eileen R. Tabios

*

& a note for those of you who have a Kindle Unlimited membership. The Magritte Poems, which was released late last year, is now available for no charge as part of that membership.

topaz armies

 

wenesday newstrip

More than 100 Russian officials, lawmakers, & law enforcement officers accused of corruption & serious crimes have avoided prison sentences by joining the war in Ukraine, according to a new investigation by the BBC Russian Service · a restaurant owner in Japan did not take kindly to being given a bad review by two diners — putting a bounty on their heads · DoNuts T.®ump has proposed what he seemed to consider a new idea: a program to let wealthy foreigners pay $5 million for citizenship. "We're gonna be selling a gold card," he said. "You have a green card, this is a gold card" · influencer brothers Andrew & Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, have left for the US after authorities lifted travel restrictions imposed as part of the case, an official says · almost one in five trans & non-binary New Zealanders were threatened with physical violence because of their gender identity in the past four years · The White House says it will now decide which media organizations will participate in the press pool that covers Prissygent DoNuts T.®ump.

Entr'acte

 

wednesday newstrip

An April 2023 train derailment in rural Maine that spilt hundreds of gallons of fuel & left three workers in hospital was caused by beavers, state officials said · humpback whale swallows & then spits out kayaker off Chile coast · goat bitten by red-bellied black snake given $3k worth of antivenom · US sends Israel 2,000-pound bombs that can 'pancake' buildings · despite DOGE budget cut crusade, T.®ump has already spent $10.7 million of taxpayer money on golf trips · 'good luck with that': CNN made FOIA request about DOGE only to learn FOIA staff was fired · Chinese warships sail within 150 nautical miles of Sydney, issue a live fire drill warning & forcing commercial flights to be diverted in the Tasman Sea without informing the Australian military · contempt for this national disinformation campaign notwithstanding, if the polls are correct – &, as usual, reporters have their doubts – then enough voters are buying it & Australia may well end up with Opposition Leader Putrid Dustbinn as its next prime minister.

Osprey

Annie Lennox singing Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2NfgLlJ6zQ"

What more

is there

to say?

wednesday newstrip

Israeli police have raided a Palestinian-owned bookstore in East Jerusalem, detaining its owners & confiscating books about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict · fans were left outraged amid "poor communication" after a sold-out Bryan Adams concert in Perth was canceled hours after it was scheduled to start due to a build up of fat, grease, & rags in the sewerage system, known as a fatberg · T.®ump orders DOJ to pause prosecutions of Americans who bribe foreign officials: report · Georgia Republican Rep. introduces bill to rename Greenland Red White & Blue Land · 'An act of betrayal': Japan to maximise nuclear power 14 years after Fukushima disaster · Sydney nurses stood down after claiming they would kill Israeli patients in social media video · DoNuts T.®ump trade adviser says Australia 'killing aluminium market' in blow to tariff exemption hopes.

geographies: Tatong

More unsavory news noise from the T.®ump pits

AI-generated T.®ump and Muskrat video dupes MAGA faithful into buying fake Golden Eagles coins · T.®ump is the second most unpopular new president in decades. Who was the most unpopular? Why T.®ump of course, in 2017 · 'Delay, whine, lie, blather, wince, repeat': T.®ump question time stuns onlookers · DoNuts T.®ump & Been Jammin' Notjustanyahoo held a joint press conference during the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to the White House. By working together, Notjustanyahoo said, the two leaders could "strengthen security, broaden the circle of peace, achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength, & let the U.S. take over the Gaza Strip & get rid of the Palestinians to somewhere else" · T.®ump's administration is preparing an executive order to begin dismantling the Education Department – while acknowledging the president lacks the authority to kill the agency entirely. T.®ump vowed during the election campaign to end what he called 'wokeness' & 'indoctrination' at the agency · in late night Truth Social rant, DoNuts T.®ump has accused Senate Democrats of deliberately delaying the confirmation of his nominees to top cabinet positions, angrily insisting, without evidence, that his political rivals are intentionally sabotaging his new administration & laughing about doing so behind the scenes · some of the 8,000 migrants arrested under the T.®ump administration's deportation crackdown have already been released back into the U.S., according to a report.

A poem from the Bureau of Meteorology

Significant rainfall may develop over 
the weekend about the Herbert & 
Lower Burdekin & the Cassowary Coast, 
with a monsoon trough in place, rich 

tropical moisture & onshore flow ex-
pected to strengthen. Enhanced rainfall 
due to widespread showers & isolated 
embedded thunderstorms is possible 

from tonight & throughout the week-
end, with extremely wet soils & river 
catchments leading to a higher than 
normal vulnerability to flash flooding.

Source:

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST

Severe Weather Warning
for HEAVY RAINFALL
6.05 p.m., 2/7/2025

recently, at Series Magritte

Le Regard Mental


Look at 
the build-
                 ing. Think. How do I
                 reach the roof? & which 
                                                         roof should
                                                         I aim for? & 
                  if I do 
                  reach a
               roof, will the entire 
               structure remain up-
               right or will it tumble 
                                                      over
                                                      once 
                                my weight threatens 
                                to send it off balance? 
                                Houses upon houses
                                in this one spot. How 
     is the rest of the street likely to look?

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump moves to stop Bush-era AIDS relief program that saved millions of lives · Britons are being put off buying Tesla cars because of Elongated Muskrat’s behavior, new research has revealed · social media influencer manufactured symptoms that caused one-year-old to need brain surgery, Brisbane court hears. The woman, 34, is accused of torturing an infant & posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following & solicit donations · Grace Tame, former Australian of the Year, makes statement at PM’s Australian of the Year function with 'Fuck Murdoch' T-shirt · T.®ump offers public servants seven months pay to resign · Caroline Kennedy warns senators that her cousin RFK Jr is a 'predator' · Google Maps will rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US · China's chatbot juggernaut DeepSeek could mark the end of US supremacy in AI.