(After Christian Bök, Eunoia)
I Unruly
Unsunk, thus Pru’s lush cult spurns humdrum hurt,
stuffs stubs, bluffs snubs, shuns slurs, gruff flubdub’s churls;
usurps glut’s smut, hunts stunt, clumps mugwump curt,
Pru’s unsung trump plumbs crux, unfurls, uncurls.
Must skulk dull numskull, humbug blunt us, lurch?
Such upthrusts blur, crunch surplus mulch’s grub;
much snuff numbs hubbub, guru’s sunburst church,
but luck Pru sups, mulls dux scuds’ tut tuts drub.
Pru pulls up Lulu, buds plump cumulus,
sulks tumult’s flux, mump’s grump tugs unjust fluff;
stuns bulrush murk, tufts flurry’s susurrus,
plucks dumb cluck truth, nuns’ hushful murmurs buff.
Hug Pru’s plus Lulu’s humbly put up chums,
burnt spun, hung rubdub, glubglub’s turn succumbs.
II Ombrology
Rococo hobos slowly morph to throngs,
how glowworms hobnob on Thor’s ghostly moor;
whom logbook crowns no bloodshot cockcrow wrongs,
for mojo flown yon horn stops short of poor.
Don’t croon too soon from topknot brow O cowl,
for voodoo throb shocks chronos’s droll cost;
consorts moon’s womb forlornly born of owl,
from folly forth fool’s gold forgot who lost.
So lollop on sod’s ivory of tomb,
concoct of protocol orb’s chord sworn low;
go bow to honky-tonk of dodo’s groom,
prolong odzooks for God of sooth to know.
Who swoon contort words’ pomp for rondo trod,
for vow to logos workshops Orloff’s nod.
III Invitingly
With inkling Isis sits, its distich blinks,
inclining childish limbs inditing lips;
which nib will bring its lisping, rhyming inks,
which flight inscribing spiritism quips?
Nigh wist is Isis mimicking its lilt,
it isn’t nihilism wings its fin;
in kinnikinnick’s winking, gliding’s spilt
its whitish iris sidling pippin’s skin.
Inciting ibis, Isis thrills its kind,
with rigid timing fixing stripling’s gift;
its ritzy zip implicit, high in mind,
distills in pidgin titbits prismic lift.
If I print whirring lights with sigil’s skill
will kinship disinhibit, vigil fill?
IV Elegy
Wherever breves secrete themselves we feel
her freshest berth, the deference they entrench
her deft détente excelled. Bejewelled she’ll wheel
the fevered tempest, then eject, bedrench
the vertex, fête these sleepless fetters. Eve
when new we seethed, perfected essences
then erred erectly. Left esteemed hence we’ve
defected, let the seventh scent deem there’s
emergent meekness checked. The whelm her verse
prefers we deepen, steer her cheek where delves
her egress (egrets there her helmsmen terse
spell shelter’s vestment). Then in wrested twelves
we wreck regret, her vessels’ cerements
we fetch, we ferret felt her flesh frequents.
V Arcady
A stanza calms an angst, as avatars
array a Hannah and an Adam, apt
a tract that vamps a sabbath’s plagal stars.
A bard can tra la la, can hazard rapt
as Mars, attack a badland’s flats as all
phantasmal lamps allay a rash, aghast
athwart a flank that chasms gnaw, a thrall
a carnal mantra. Hannah claps as fast
as Adam, drafts a charm that ably warms
a galaxy’s cabbala, pants and paws
a bacchanal. As vast as scandal’s swarms
a spasm spawns a craft, a jackdaw thaws
at craw, and natally amalgam’s play
attracts a sad alas, a psalm astray.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones