A strange octet

He carried a cage
with nothing in it.

A small bird.
Thalidomide wings. 

Flew quite delicately.
Mouth open. Mute.

A beautiful song.
It carried the cage.

Blink

A participle of
movement. The
running man. Snap-
shot open to
interpretation. Statement
given, vision
attached. Nothing
in it. Wait for. Wait for
the man to pass 
by. Ask. Why? State-
ment means nothing

Lotka-Volterra

The silent animals converge. 
Count the eyes at night. Divide 

by two. Measure the distance. 
A phrase away? Perhaps a paragraph.

Predator & prey is a classic
mathematical model. It is a balance.

Is there an answer? Is this
a riddle? A rebus of fear? There

is a space between predator & 
prey, a mathematical construct.

Reduce the prey & the predators
diminish also. They die. One

family left. The prairie empty.
Is this what they are waiting for?

No prey, no predators. The sun
grows hotter. Oceans encroach

upon what was once grazing land.
Count the eyes by day. Desolation.

wednesday newstrip

Penis cancer cases are surging around the world · Chinese authorities say they are investigating contaminated cooking oil issues after local media reports found a major state-owned food company used the same trucks to ship fuel, chemical liquids, & food products to cut costs · T.®ump vows to end Ukraine war in call with Zelenskyy · [2.23.22: T.®ump calls Putain 'genius' & 'savvy' for Ukraine invasion] · the United Nations has released its most recent analysis of world population, which now estimates there will be 700 million fewer people in 2100, 6 per cent less than anticipated a decade ago · RNC booth hosts AR-15 giveaway, days after T.®ump assassination attempt · scammers will pounce on global outage caused by CrowdStrike bug, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil warns · International Court of Justice rules Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territories in Gaza, the West Bank, & East Jerusalem is illegal & should end.

Flight Path

Not all thoughts grow into
a line of solid reason. Some

appear on the windowsill, 
birds waiting to be fed. 

Sometimes I draw upon my
store of past experiences to

feed them. Other times I have
nothing to give. They fly away. 

Occasionally I follow. Find
only small bones. Feathers. 

geographies: Deep Lead

 

Two-Step

Each night she
would put him
in an air-
tight jar & they
would dance

a little

before he went
to bed. They’d
take it in
turns as to who
would lead.

wednesday newstrip

Intense winter storm to bring heavy rain, gales, bitter cold, & snow to eastern Australia · report reveals 100,000 Melbourne homes were vacant in 2023 in the midst of a "housing crisis" · JoeKing BidenMyTime reassures supporters 'I'm OK' as Democrats remain split over US election prospects & JKBMT continues on with gaffe after gaffe · DoNuts T.®ump has brutally mocked JKBMT after the President’s gaffe-ridden day at the NATO Summit in Washington · Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter case dismissed in middle of trial & cannot be filed again · T.®ump's critics point out that many psychiatrists believe schadenfreude is a mental illness · Rudely Jeweliani’s bankruptcy case dismissed by NYC judge, clearing way for debt collection & lawsuits · meanwhile, Rudely claims that DoNuts T.®ump owes him about $2 million in unpaid legal fees for helping try to overturn the 2020 election · registered Republican identified as DoNuts T.®ump's potential assassin.

Plaint for the day

I've got gall
stones, kidney
stones, most
every stone

except the
Rolling Stones —
& I'm saving them
for a rainy day.
  

wednesday newstrip

He’s derided as dull but Care (not to) Stammer becomes UK prime minister with a sensational victory · Canberra couple awarded damages after wife awoken by a real estate agent in her bedroom conducting an inspection · 100 feral cats caught in Queenstown Lakes' Rees Valley; group steps up trapping efforts · One Million Checkboxes, a simple online game that invites visitors to click or unclick check boxes, has become an unintentional case study in human behavior · steamy 'Overwatch cabaret club' where you can pay to have women fall asleep on voice chat with you gets obliterated, is immediately replaced by even steamier Apex version · Machete actor Danny Trejo in nasty July 4th brawl after being hit by water balloon.

I cannot attest to the truth of this story,

told to me many years ago at a friend's house by Barry Humphries before he became more famous via his alter-ego Dame Edna Everage.

About being in a bar, in New York, & a drunken Jack Kerouac lookalike came up to him & invited him to a party. He declined the invitation. Was given the address anyway. Discovered about half an hour later that it had, in fact, been Kerouac. Rushed off to the address. Found it to be the premises of a removal company & that the party was taking place in the back of a moving Moving van that had left fifteen minutes earlier & was now out on the road, somewhere, anywhere, in the city.

wednesday newstrip

Israel's bombs flatten parts of South Lebanon village amid fears of wider war · driver hit with $387 fine after mobile camera snaps her holding — a piece of banana bread · US Supreme Court ruling allows cities to ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors · tests show Paris' Seine River still has unsafe E. coli levels with Olympics less than a month away · BidenMyTime crashes, T.®ump lies: a campaign-defining presidential debate · Australia's weather heading off the rails — cold, snowy change followed by possible record 'blocking high' · Internet shocked to hear Paris Hilton’s real voice · & no, (sigh) BidenMy Time didn't fall asleep during debate · was DoNuts T.®ump a king during his presidency? The US Supreme Court thinks so.

geographies: Jeperit

 

wednesday newstrip

MAGA granny admits to grooming teen grandson to believe Democrats worship Satan · nuclear plan put forward by Australian Opposition leader, Putrid Dustbin, could cost as much as $600bn & supply just 3.7% of Australia’s energy by 2050, experts say · Israeli forces tie wounded Palestinian man to a military jeep in an incident a UN expert said amounted to using him as a human shield · a man who terrorised South Australia in a 10-year bank robbing spree has been sentenced to 35 years jail, but will instead take his own life under voluntary assisted dying laws · Philippines says it won't start a war, but won't yield 'to any foreign power' after clash in South China Sea · lost continent 'unlike anything found today' discovered off the coast of Australia · the Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) in Tasmania was found to have discriminated against a man who was refused entry to its women-only ‘Ladies Lounge’ in April 2023, despite paying the museum entry fee · Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary into the military, a decree with the potential to divide Prime Minister Beenjammin' NotJustAnyYahoo's governing coalition.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a brochure
from EARWAX—
extinct animal 
resurrection with 

academic expertise—
suggesting that if 
I donated both
money & a sample 
of my DNA they 
might be able 

to bring back 
the Amazonian 
smilodon. I de-
clined. Now if it 
had have been 
the mastodon. . .

wednesday newstrip

China-Australia relations 'back on track', says Chinese Premier Li Qiang · a remarkable group of Aussies stationed in Antarctica will celebrate the Winter Solstice in a very bold way, by swimming in freezing waters between -5 & -25 degrees celsius · Internet could be worsening our fear of small holes, psychologists say · ‘I need your help saving koalas’: Australians band together to build wildlife corridors · new Australian market research suggests the so-called 'bank of mum & dad' could be closing for business … despite its best intentions · old fools caught raiding Groper Creek for mud crabs.

wednesday thursday newstrip

Australian Opposition leader, Putrid Dustbin, is to pull Australia out of the Paris Agreement, & bring in nuclear power if his right-wing coalition wins the next election · Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suffered a light whiplash injury after she was assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said · grim scenes at Aldi as snow gear overflows "Special Buys" shelves bedcause it appears there's little snow this year · security experts have raised alarm over the vulnerability of older iPhone models, warning users with "outdated" tech are now more vulnerable to cyberattacks · survey reveals Australians distrust China & are losing faith in United States · don't know much about the clitoris? The International Cliteratti will help.

Now out from Otoliths

Otoliths has just released 100 Titles From Tom Beckett — Poems by Mark Young, Paintings by Thomas Fink, & with an Afterword by Tom Beckett.

Mark Young & Thomas Fink
100 Titles From Tom Beckett
full color
152 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-3-4
$US37.75
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young-and-thomas-fink/100-titles-from-tom-beckett/paperback/product-nvwzp98.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Tom Beckett's list was challenging. Sure there were some straightforward titles; but when you're confronted by 'Some of America’s Finest Malapropisms Stagger into a Bar' or 'He hadn’t Always Wanted to be Somebody’s Girl' or 'The Nine Stages of the Decomposition of a Corpse.' it's definitely time to kick into overdrive.

Add to that a common comment on my poetry is many of my titles have little relevance to the poems that accompany them. That is something I could not allow to happen here. Instead, the poems had to pay their respect, homage even, to the title that gave them birth.

I think I have done that successfully. &, helped along by the paintings from Thomas Fink, given me a collection of which I am most proud.
— Mark Young


Mark Young’s insightful, laser-sharp new poems in 100 Titles From Tom Beckett invite paradox and chance to dance with the sparks and echoes of Tom Beckett’s hilarious, downtempo titles and Tom Fink’s paintings of spreading fractals and swirling ropes of color. Young’s humor and pathos sprinkled with inkblots of bathos illuminate this book. His magnetic fields tease the push/pull levers of constraint and release. “I seem to be attracted / to things that do not exist, no / beginning, no end. Non-end - // ities, if you like, until negated / which then creates them.” Young’s poems often playfully reflect upon their own development and diversion as they proceed, exposing an openness to process at each turn of phrase. It is a pure delight to see Young, Beckett, and Fink – three master poets in their own right – join hands in the creative adventure of this marvelously generous work.
— Charles Borkhuis, author of *Rearview Mirror*


Reading 100 Titles From Tom Beckett makes me recall something I’ve sometimes thought about Mark Young’s poems: if all words created a block, the poet made poems by chiseling some of them out to fall randomly on the floor; the poet then assembled the words into lines and poems surface through a music created by breath and syllablic rhythm. These poems then are unique in that Mark volunteers that he actually tried to make his poems relate to the titles given by Tom Beckett. And yet the leap between title and text is not (always) linear, might be considered opaque in some cases, so that the reader's freedom of response is not diminished. What’s relevant to me is seeing how Beckett’s titles are such strong muses for Young’s poems. These poems present the play of brotherhood, as affirmed by Thomas Fink’s paintings where colors and shapes effect a harmony that couldn’t have been anticipated by each individual element before the painter joined them. Poems can be created through a multitude of ways and these results indicate the generative effect of affectionate brotherhood, while affirming that poetry succeeds by creating relationships and connections.
— Eileen R. Tabios


[Lulu has a 15% discount — promo code BOOKGOALS15 — running this week until Friday night. Promo codes for future weeks can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/Luludotcom/]

Today the post-
woman brought
me the latest 

issue of Conspiracy 
Theory Quarterly 
in its plain alfoil 

wrapper. I waved 
to the spy satellite 
as I carried it in.
  

wedneday newstrip

Speaking outside the court after being convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records, DoNuts T.®ump said he had been subject to a "rigged trial" by a "corrupt" judge, without providing any evidence to back up those claims · idiotic man fined for trying to 'body slam' orca off New Zealand coast · breast implant removals on the rise in Australia as researchers study health issues · Hellblade II tips for mastering the game’s visceral combat · accusations that DoNuts T.®ump has taken advantage of taxpayers by overcharging for lodging & travel for his Secret Service detail are once again being raised · ABBA receive Swedish knighthood for pop career that started at Eurovision · the ANC party that freed South Africa from apartheid loses its 30-year majority in landmark election.

The Wizard of Idiosyncrasy

 

wednesday newstrip

Kid Rock pulls gun out, praises his "bestie" DoNuts T.®ump, & uses ‘racial slurs’ in trainwreck interview wuth a Rolling Stone journalist · Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence with multiple injuries & a death reported. Turbulence, which has already increased by 55% in the past 40 years because of the impact of climate change, is projected to increase even further in the future · Norway, Ireland, & Spain say they are recognizing Palestine as a state · Google has updated its search engine with an AI tool — but the new feature has reportedly told users to eat rocks, add glue to their pizzas, & clean their washing machines with chlorine gas · a 16-year-old who overdosed after receiving three prescriptions for addictive drugs in the days before his death had received 64 prescriptions from 31 doctors in the preceeding months · an Australian mother of five is facing the death penalty after she was accused of smuggling 7kg of drugs into Taiwan.

dia∧critical questions #79142 & #79143

Is failing to

add an acute a

grave mistake?

  -

Is falling into

a grave an

acute misstep?

wednesday newstrip

Chinese zoo's 'panda' display found to feature dogs dyed black & white · swarms of noisy bugs are now starting to cover parts of the United States · Rudy Julie's Aunty claims he was booted from radio station because of 'trailer trash little creep' Joe BidenMyTime · a softly-spoken former bank clerk has become Putain's new mouthpiece, three years after she was released from a Virginia jail for drug smuggling · conscription is back on the cards for millions of teenagers in Germany · video portal allowing people from New York City & Dublin to interact in real-time goes horribly wrong · 'Hinky septic tank' of 'skeezeballs': devastating NY Times attack skewers T.®ump hangers-on.

65,000 years of history at the Venice Biennale

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-12/archie-moore-venice-biennale-up-close/103789292

recently, at Series Magritte

Les Pierreries

So much alike as 
we peer from the
box we could 
pass as brothers. 

But what’s in a 
box is often more 
than just contain-
ment, what reso-

nates can be more 
than beauty is. Gems 
we might some-
times be referred 

to as; but what 
other facets will
be displayed when  
the lid is lifted?

wednesday newstrip

Hellblade II is very nearly upon us, & the system requirements have just been rereleased. You'll need, as per the table of specs, at least an Intel i5-8400/AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or equivalent CPU coupled with a NVIDIA GTX 1070/AMD RX 5700/Intel Arc A580 with 6GB VRAM to play the game on its “Low” preset at 1080p as a minimum experience, while pushing the game to its limits on “High” settings at a full 4K will require in the ballpark of an Intel i5-12600K/AMD Ryzen 7 5700X & NVIDIA RTX 4080/AMD RX 7900 XTX · new SARS-CoV-2 KP.2 variant defies vaccines with higher spread, study warns · a Queensland mother has shared her shock after finding a note about her newborn baby in her letter box that “left her in tears”.

a couple of recently released free downloadable pdfs,

one old work, one new.

eNumerations

I have just completed the preliminary draft for a forthcoming book, 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & preparing the introduction led me to 'A List for Tom Beckett,' a poem I had written in 2006, & which had first appeared on this blog.

The surrounding text indicated that I had decided to include this list poem in a then-current project, Enumerations or eNumerations — it seems like I hadn't yet decided on a final title. So I sought out what else I could find from this project, & this pdf is a result of that search.

Only a fraction of it seems to have since seen the light of day. 'A List for Tom Beckett' later appeared in Word For/Word; five of the poems were included as 'New Poems' in my 2008 selected Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959 – 2008; & I'm fairly certain that something may have appeared in one of Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's zines. Apart from that . . .

It's a bit of a mishmash. Visuals that seemed aligned to what I was trying to do, found spam, straight poems, code, output from the late Leevi Lehto's poem generator. But I find what I was trying to do at the time, & how that has since been refined, informative.

So, with thanks to harry k stammer for hosting it at Sandy Press, I present what I hope will be an interesting piece of past.

https://www.sandy-press.com/blog/enumerations-mark-young/


to your scattered bodies go

A collection of 50 poems from the past 12 or so months.

Because I've got two "big" books coming out later this year — the aforementioned 100 Titles From Tom Beckett, & the 600+ page The Magritte Poems — I decided to do a free downloadable pdf instead of my usual annual collection of recent poems. It's published by Scud Editions, who are also home to the companion Scud, one of my favorite journals to publish in, but not as well-known as it should be.

https://scudlit.blogspot.com/p/editions.html