I Have a New Poem on the Academy of American Poets website

Here

Winter Poem

People walk in the bitter cold
like stiff clowns in a frozen circus.
That goofy gray bird seems to be talking to you,
so you make a sound like the bird,
but the bird flits away. You worry
that you might have told the bird
to fuck off in bird language.
Remember that your body is composed
of more bacteria than flesh. This is
one more symptom of your unease.
Pick up a newspaper, bite into
an apple, and wash your dishes by hand.
Sooner or later you'll be overwhelmed
by the realization that the casing
around your body is super-duper permeable.
The thoroughness of your unity
with your surroundings makes
the use of bleach on almost any
surface laughable. And now
for a pitch-perfect rendition
of "I'm Over Winter."

The Mackinac, Issue #5

I have two new poems here.

Playlist

1) Who rubbed it on my crowd?

2) It feels alright!

3) The tissue sticking up out of the box in front of the window is fluttering a bit.

4) Unscented and unflavored.

5) Phil Hartman as the Neanderthal Lawyer.

6) "They Live" at BAM.

7) "Why Did I Laugh To-Night?" -John Keats

8) "Sister Ray" covered by Joy Division.

9)

"That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot

of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
singest of summer in full throated ease."

-John Keats from "Ode to a Nightingale"

10) How your body responds to cold weather.

11) Friday arrived with an icy slap, Saturday came in with an icy kiss.

Cabin Fever Cropping

"The earth is beautiful beyond all change." from "Midsummer" by William Bronk

Captain Beefheart - Autumn's Child

Patti Smith - Piss Factory

Hildegard Von Bingen - Columba Aspexit (Emma Kirby)

February Bisque

You can eat a potato chip
off the floor of the L Train.
I know this because I saw it happen.
I would like some song from some movie
as I walk to some job.
Nothing is simple, but it will seem
simpler as it falls apart.

Bud Powell - Comin' Up

Top Five Facts

1) Bob le Flambeur

2) Guillaume Apollinaire

3) Emma Kirby

4) The Strike Gold

5) John Dowland

Body/Head: Can't Help You

Hildegard von Bingen: Columbia Aspexit

John Dowland "Time Stand Still" (sung by Emma Kirby)

Thank you, Peter.

Glinty Blue (Broadside & Recording)

Click on image to enlarge.
Me reading "Glinty Blue" from my latest book Splash State (The Song Cave, 2014)

Stereolab Friday

Poets & Writers: On Cioran

My piece in Poets & Writers on E.M. Cioran

Omnibus

I sing to pop stars and zombies,
not at them. Limited 7 service and
systemwide delays. People are vulnerable,
like newborns. In a fog all day, oddly.
I have the loudest pants in the palace.
Why am I living where the weather
hurts my face?