no Reading Wittgenstein’s Judith Wright

i met x 'Judith prize Wright' x on the same wavelength of the media-
release talking about talking about the self-portrait of i. who is writing
the drysdale bicentennial memorial? who in cahoots? there'll be no
new techniques of this something new; the average number of prose
poems is 44 poems for June 2009. Reading Wittgenstein's Judith Wright 'i'
shift focus: i keep meeting genuine guys from Wollongong. this new
Wright from Wollongong he is past the cover of new prize poets his
downfall may be in money suppressed analysis &
data which says one in two poets come in handy in Australia.
like prose poets isnt one Publishers and editors and stakeholders even
want or even like read. I. there was philosophy a negation w/ a
basketball: 'im going to breathe genuine atmosphere into the
linebreaks' II. production line Wright shaped like
department store Wright looks like sydney. channel surfing illogic 0-
1 0-1 0-1 0-1 0-1 0-1 people studied Wright et cetera effective i mean
even i met Tim x Judiths editor i may be Tim x Judiths editor but i
didnt meet Tim x Judith i didnt meet i.
III. something i couldnt do?
texts/ lyric articulations i was not classically trained in talking
shit at that level that wont happen again. getting more out of the
literacys. there'll be no bee-eye view googoogoo. Wright?

Posted in 36: MADE | Tagged

Custom (First Lines)

The production line has not been idle
take something sharp
She and the fire
Your lover has been made in Sri Lanka
My skin pores and lets you in like
He will not be delivering the Kenneth Koch memorial lecture in person,
Remb
A Maoist is reading a map
Crazily it shone – the moment that formed his desire. Somewhere in
the hard drive a still hum, a natural pilot light
The woman with the styrofoam cup and no teeth
I hold the darkness this time
In the thin place between the word and the thing,
lies at the next turn, a sign says,
As the key sticks I can't write,
Clouds Hopkins across the blue page.
Thou art 2 ezy on th i. I do
Falling for you, or at least in front of you,
Country | Number of Deaths | Cause
you have that white chocolate
walk with me along the pathway of analog lovers
The cattle grid jolted him back; it was where the green
one in two men like jelly.
i met andrew xs editor but
My foot on the wood and the heat surging through it
The money spider crosses a hand.
Every day Abba Paul plaited a new basket,
there'll be no billy ocean
From my father I got
in the yoga class, breathing Ardha Padmasana,
He'd hated her old handbag
This Berryman's a moralistic thing:
Every landscape painting is a left eye's worth
someone's shout become
what wakes me some outside
In a forest of blue trees it's easy to feel lost.
When he reads me, I'm reading him
We write beneath the noise of men
Could anyone be bothered pressing these
I didn't mean to be an artwork,
Sometimes, not enough,
i thought
Holds 1000 litres save every drop of your precious rainwater
successful poetry
He slipped through the curtains

Posted in 36: MADE | Tagged

Custom/Made Editorial

The production line has not been idle at the Cordite Industrial Park on Bespoke Drive. Here are 44 poems that engage with the rubric of Custom/Made in a diverse range of texts/articulations – poems have been 'made' often employing quirky and sprightly strategies in response to the subject.

Continue reading

Posted in ESSAYS | Tagged ,

reconstructing a rabbit

take something sharp
& begin

observe

the crescent curve of his back
folded fullmoon the rabbit world opens
thickly; darkly bound these stitches

you are bookbinder cartographer
historian: this body of work to be studied

the rabbit measures by its teeth
where all wisdom is stored how it discovers
its existence identity
kit & kindle
its rabbit-proof

remove the incisors these are your luck
the feet may be soft & more sightly
yes, but they are
merely decoration

knowledge is the greater fortune

ask the rabbit on the tall ship
the rabbit with the pocketwatch

(((((

the ribs like bows unstrung beware the sharp end
there will be no fairytale wound

sleep awhile, if you will
but expect no handsome visitor

its capped heart a flask for
what? linseed oil?
fodder for careful creatures
ears raised & a phosphate thump

label the provinces:

calcaneus carpus cranium femur
ilium mandible maxilla phalanges
radius scapula sternum tibia

a rabbit atlas

Posted in 35: CUSTOM | Tagged

Joan of Arc

She and the fire
fight adjectives. Their concreteness

deflects reification
by language. She simply is

a pronoun. It may signify
say, my wife (coming from me

'she' often does) or, yes
a medieval French woman, her being

so roughly abridged
by the pronoun, as brutally fed

to the fire. Regarding the fire
dazzling, heaving, devouring

won't do. It only suggests
a familiar occurrence: ouch

when flame touches skin. Indeed
flame doesn't suffice (rhymes with lame)

and a pyre, much more poetic,
based on the transcripts based on

wordy statements. So much
reliance on the makeshift engine

of abstraction, language. She
did, I think, end in fire, but hero

saint, witch, schizophrenic
won't do. Will numbers rectify

the flaws of alphabetical signs: 1412
to 1431? Historians can't be certain

about either: no records
other than her reserved guess

on the first day of trial
apropos birth, and her famed death

also contested by theorists
of bad conspiracies. So I can't

force the ephemeral stuff
of her matter into a mould (a poem)

with description, facts
or even an attempted evocation. She

floats and evades
perhaps – if I may hazard a simile –

like her ashes, diffused
by an English guard over the Seine.

Posted in 35: CUSTOM | Tagged

Thank-You for Choosing this Product

a (mostly) found poem

 
 

Your lover has been made in Sri Lanka
and conforms to British Quality Standard BS1970.
Features include superior one-piece moulded construction
and a ribbed surface to control heat release.
Your lover is a safe and natural way to keep warm
or may be used for therapeutic purposes.

Instructions: Do not use boiling water.
Recommended temperature should not exceed 42 degrees.
Hold your lover by the neck in an upright position.
Do not fill using the domestic hot water system –
this can considerably shorten the life of your lover.

Do not place anything on top of your lover
including sharp or heavy objects.
Prevent contact with hot surfaces and naked flames
Do not use in microwave ovens.
Prevent contact with oil and grease.

Drain your lover completely.
Prevent exposure to sunlight.

Check for wear and damage at regular intervals.
Warning: Your lover can cause burns.
Avoid direct, prolonged contact with the skin.

Posted in 35: CUSTOM | Tagged

The Fear of Sunrise

My skin pores and lets you in like
Nails down a chalkboard.
It's not often I see you in front of me

I had three names picked out –
Trailer trash complimentary
This insect has a protective coating

Disturbing my alternate existence
Colliding conclusions, cheap motel moments
Venetian, vertical – screen your calls

Night solace solar systems
No longer light years away
Living on adjectives, not adverbs

The master of my ceremonies
A symphony of harmonies out of tune
I'm waiting for someone to count me in

Sometimes I lick the underside of
The welcome mat outside my front door
To get a taste of how the other half live

Yes I know I know I know but
Jack is no longer my name
All trades is not my place of residence

Late night talkback my companion
Seeking adulation in carefully constructed metaphors
A library of unwritten masterpieces in my mind

Guess that's why they call it – the morning

Posted in 35: CUSTOM | Tagged

The Kenneth Koch Memorial Lecture

He will not be delivering the Kenneth Koch memorial lecture in person, rather he will present his person as a series of drawings. For the introduction he will draw correct pronunciation and a pun: a popular bottle of fizz (light-reading). For the part about War he will draw a Ph.D. For the part about New York he will draw Ohio. For the explanation of his energy, he will draw, on stage, a sprinkler and suggest that water can fly, but stress that flight is not infinite by drawing dry bird-bones and a wet bruised apple. For the hard part – the technical detail and friendship – he will draw a dune-buggy. There is always something fun about these parts even though they can drag out. For the part about comic art, he will draw a spirit-level and imply that, though it plays it straight, it is funny. He will pause and change to texta. To represent the change he will draw a paragraph and a man in relief. To signal the pause, he will draw a clock without hands. This will look like a circle to the audience and they will applaud. For the part about insecurity, he will draw Daffy Duck, the Hollywood sign, two close friends, Jack Kirby meeting Tex Avery, and the ambitions of the Great Cartoonist on his deathbed. For the part about the critical reception he will draw most of 1995 and an expensive cup. He will try to draw a final postcard. Adapting his work for an Australian audience, he will draw a lake and a salt shaker. In drawing a generic brand of appliance (a dishwasher), he will admit that he didn't give much thought to the adaptation. For the part where he draws the audience's concept of value, he will draw one long anecdote and his own voice being authorial. For this he will draw a musical note and a crude representation of a famous orator. He will draw a strayed cat. For the part that signals the end of the show, he will draw the audience applauding. For the part about when he goes home, he will draw a taxi cab, a jostle and he will ask the woman in the third row from the front, seat C-13, if she will join him by drawing her seat number and seat in the window of his taxi cab. It will later be judged as the clumsiest drawing: over-crowded. For the part where they have dinner, he will draw two knives, and one lettuce leaf. For the part where he pays for the dinner, he will sign his name in the bottom corner of a key. For the part where he seduces her, he will map her family history, his own family and his professional history and also some flowers. He will colour in each petal with the scratchy hand of a kid, but like an adult, will demarcate each as a different country. In bed, he will draw her legs and place the drawing on top of the doona so he can see her legs without making her shiver. For the part where he is funny and also somewhat poetic himself, he will illustrate the text with 'I limned your lower limbs'. For the part when he wants just a small amount of time alone, he will draw an exit sign. For the part where he asks himself if he wants her to come back later, he will draw a telephone and a series of images that represent his telephone number: nothing, a table, a shit, himself, the letter g inverted, a three-legged dog, a shit, a table, the letter g inverted, himself. For her part, she will take the pen off him and draw herself not calling. She will mark the hours after the lecture with an F. He will record the cumulative performance number: 6-6-3. He will draw a door closing, but to him it will just look like an unopened door.

Posted in 35: CUSTOM | Tagged