the tribe that was mad for games (day 167)

Zone of Irreversible Strain.

"there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men" --@MobyDickAtSea

Bury me in a Free Land.

My ears do no tartan odor SEAMY
cacerolazo EERIE
in the defunct ARENA
where i'm a zero MINER

for long-ago-lost threads these scissors YEARN
(sounds of snipping ABATE)
ev'rything readworthy BOXED
derision for the AXING

all-provided, strangely TENSE
this gig impalpably EDGED

The Jetty.

"Ah dearest dame (quoth he) how might I see
The thing, that might not be, and yet was donne?"

--The Faerie Queene

"It made me realize, as did the Edith Piaf record in Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore, that the single most important aesthetic effect was the ability to slow down time. I have spent my entire life attempting to arrive at such moments with words."

(via)

lincoln in the bergdahl

(via)

"I desperately want to show my daughter the world, yet I despair at what’s become of it, what will have become of it, by the time she understands how much we’ve lost and for what."

1.
landscape of KARST
whose sway gains traction APACE

cinderblock RADON

Rodan’s thrash in CineSCOPE
rears a fane without TENET

2.
losing’s raw GAMUT
rueful hearts cannot ATONE
sighting of a MOOSE

normalcy’s return UNSET
this little mother has TEETH

3.
of closing WISPS
of stark & sober INPUT
mansions from this SPORE

quaff the media PUREE
cannot be the last to STEER

4.
fine rain of ASHES
sun through bare branches is STARK
Tower of HANOI
the steps as these coasts ERODE

we contemplate the last SKIES

5.
giant wingèd CRABS
in whose form the world’s REMAP
ongoing, AMPLE

& our vows fangled of BALSA
melt in the air as we SPEAK

6.
horrorshow ASSET
starring in the Burgess SHALE

Armageddon SAKES
as the monsters we ELECT
in confined space grow TESTY

7.
in the ash CAPER
lit on nitro AGAVE

this random PAEAN
no plesk nor fry can EVADE

it’s our vows we must RENEW

8.
the search never FACED
in the jostle to ADORE
orbit of CONIC
narrated by ERICA

slow turkey much like DECAF

9.
cultivating WARTS
under threat-filled AZURE

on my last RUPEE
so many times * the soft TREAD
of bard-stealth much too SEEDY

10.
the lake’s orange VESTS
half the way there nil EQUIP
& junkie SUMMA
electric chair with TIMER
in Tvashtar a groshing SPARK

11.
telescopic SPRAT
yacht pretty good gunboat PROVE
black assassin ROBES

extraction worse to AVERT
we thought we had done with TESTS

12.
big-endian GATES
watched without the AUDIO
barbaric IDYLL

endangered like the TILDE
worn out like cheap rubber SOLES

13.
penultimate BANGS
target tied to an ABELE
wander the NEGEV
live-streamed slaughter on the GLEBE
gleams presently the SEVEN

14.
duelling VACUA
termination of AEONS

wrap in coil phone CORDS
call the myst’ry not UNDUE

luncheon with the red ASSET

15.
felt but not seen HAIRS
drinking Chartreuse is ARSON

no other ISSUE

to small revolts you must ROUSE
half looking out * nimbly STEER

16.
old crossed-off address
caring befits a RELIC
choice-fetish ELDER
gods * what shakes forth from the SIEVE
can’t-yet-figure-out-what lost SCREW

17.
otherworld DIETS
not Doric nor IONIC
blizzard ENEMA

tire pressure race the TIMER
i am old & bear the SCARS

18.
twilight on the MARSH
wounds on Liberty AGAPE
ruler with RAZOR

jet scooter Alderaan SPORT
screams vying dog-whistle HERTZ

19.
this is not the LARCH
this is not our ALOHA

insanity ROVES

why should we not follow CHEAT
choosing our ends in such HASTE

20.
having that ETHIC
doesn’t make you the clouds’ THANE

irony HAVEN

at mere survival INEPT
says two bits make fifty CENTS

21.
vestige DEISM
sundry cuckoo clocks ENSUE
ride a rogue ISLET

castle supple as SUEDE
all the bad laws you’ve METED

22.
double-ended WICKS
open another INLET

marches lonely CLONE

certificate in KENYA
short track for the train of STEAM

23.
drive three in two LANES
the helpless-feeling AGENT
pain that is NEWER

trouble yearns for ENEMA
dildo with a leather STRAP

24.
this dark house REBEL
whose lights are the more EERIE
the blindfolded BRIDE

on crucifix of EIDER
each clock with the wrong time LEERS

25.
by bad laws, by GENES
hoi polloi less than EQUAL
calls for a brisk NUDGE

in the realm of the EAGLE
prey makes those great feathers SLEEK

26.
what soothes, what will SCALD
each truth measured in CURIE
& art of ARSON

i scold the other LIONS
no matter we grow less DENSE

27.
gush through the door JAMBS
is it time this shift ABORT

"only a MOVIE"

placated by a small BRIBE
summit win however STEEP

28.
comparison LIMPS
in my public IDAHO
yield no such MANOR

book written on a cell PHONE
the sky erupts in huge SORES

29.
then impetus FADES
shaky-writer’s-hand ABODE

the children can DODGE

an environment less EDGED
someday (how?) from these sharp SEEDS

30.
the Maelstrom of FACTS
no raft of fancy AVAIL
sleep on wet CACTI

by methane lakes on TITAN
Goliath ponders a SLING

31.
t’ward injection TENSE
sings silicon ERICA

if sixes were NINES

this necropastoral SCENE
angst a little death EASES

32.
at dusk face ASHEN
esocya inlari SMILE

break out into HIVES

as the penitent ELECT
go back to their ruined NESTS

33.
perihelion’s FAULT
all the molten disks AGREE

parable URBAN
lifelong on a six-month LEASE

differ a single TENET

34.
carol in HAZAJ
drifting through a world AFIRE
& one more ZIMME
to adorn my nesh ARMOR
hurt worst by the ricochet JEERS

35.
this cliff face, sheer KARST,
has its own frank AROMA

song of the ROTOR
song of the making of SMOKE

we were destined to be TARES

36.
waiting on EURUS
or maybe Queen UHURA
karst that’s RURAL

saucer crash in the URALS
terish like homemade SALSA

37.
stark gun-sung karst

Slave revolt reenactment.

(via @CrookedCosmos)

Okjökull Elegy

(Everett Shinn; "The Clown (No Laughs)" via)

Ofrenda.

1.
The noontide’s last GLEAM
Our doom no longer LENTO
With these songs ENDOW

Who will be left to ATONE,
Squamomandibular-MOWED?

2.
Maintenance of PACTS
In a cryptid AGORA
One makes a COVEN

Checking out early a TREND
To die amid painted SANDS

3.
The raptor’s ETHOS
Flickering shadows in TWILL
Payback is HINDU

A named battle, as of OLDEN;
Fetched back over a saddle SLUNG

4.
Tree too thin to CLIMB
Acme of capture LUNAR
Help desk INDIA
Says. Tsourris in my e-MAILS
Peals from the treetops * skirl BRASH

5.
Outrageous Wyrd-DARTS
Dodging * the reign of ADHOC

Traik like a RHINO
Through ev’ry wry or TONAL
Cantata of the sky-SCOLD

6.
Hardest of nesh TASKS
Gathers punishment ADHOC
On the point blank SHORE

A beast, like the KORAN
From the old pile a strange SCENT

7.
Sev’ral dire GASES
Ago * went where people AREN’T
Slept in a SEWER
Tunnel * shotgun ENEMA
Burning up the final STRAW

8.
Coven short one WITCH
Mink compound in IDAHO
Schnoz like a TAPIR

Down are all the carrot CHIPS
Hearing lines from eBooks HORSE

9.
Gift from Cracker JACKS
This poem is * beast ARENA
Judged by some CELEB
I never heard of * crow’s KNELL
Svelte * axeman trimmed with SABLE

10.
Keep painting those BALES
Morning, noon * secret AGENT
Caspar * vote LEVER
Doubles as an ENEMA
Of glitz * cat’s paw slaps the STRAY

11.
Gantry for a SMASH
Canned milk sweetened with MAPLE
August rain; APRIL

Triangular by the SLICE
The part that isn’t HELEN

12.
Bent beside our DESKS
Survival forlorn EXERT
Cold war SEPIA

Oil from the prey of whales KRILL
Lest this admonishment STALE

13.
Inscrutable GLASS
Is this shit even LEGAL
Rabbit less AGILE

No surgery brain SALAD
Uphill gymkhana of SLEDS

14.
Flung by sky LASSO
Without even ALOHA

Eke my best SODAS

Vaster than our desert SHARE
The future’s naff OASES

15.
End in sordor CASED
Symphony of APNEA
The sky’s subfusc SNARL

Blower’s whistle so EERIE
Over turned-to-charcoal DALES

16.
Gabriel VAPID
On pilgrimage AMINO
Dating a PINUP

To like abjections INURE
Other dwarves call me DOPEY

17.
Our Hindenberg BLIMP
Makes blarney landfall LUNAR

Stay for the INTRO
That’s made of polychrome MARLS
Culminates in deathless PROSE

18.
They call this MUSIC
I call it gears of ULTRA

To the stars boot-STRAP
The planet itself IRATE

Watch our superhero CAPES

19.
Clap- style –back DOGGY
Stans of the first red OCHRE
On old texts be GHOUL

Though I speak with tongue of GRUEL
It’s the ricochet that YELLS

20.
My all-quisling STAFF
Knows a paradox or THREE
Preferred ARENA

Irony from mishap FENDS
Nil ‘midst Barmecidal FEAST

21.
The tale in the TWIST
River-returns to the WHOLE
All the IOTAS
Mansion built on a coast SLANT

To be asked makes you TESTY

22.
Too long, too MUGGY...

The wisdom of UTERI,
Versus the GENIE
That resides in the yard GRILL

All our fool failures to YIELD

23.
Watching the WISPS
Rise * ice two ways IONIC

Service with a SNEER

No-Man’s-Land the PIETÁ
Answer written on a SCRAP

24.
Tournament of WASPS
All my pores on red ALERT

Fadeless SEPIA
Seeks the condition PRIOR

Measured in a dead-eyed STARE

25.
Battlefield TAPAS
Acetone’s dire AROMA
Affordance, POSIT

Color change phenyl AMINE
Curiosity SATED

26.
Castle made of KARST
Into the sea ALOHA
Hum of the ROTOR

In foreign furrows it SHONE
All the enmity of TARES

27.
If this is a WASTE
Say tarriance ALOHA
Skeleton SOWER

Sluggardly incipit THESE
Mackerel-sky’d & flop-EARED

28.
Combustion TACIT
In the derby to ATONE

Set parallel COUPS

Same out if garbage INPUT
The medium is TESTY

29.
Neotene LARVA
Slestered with caustic ALOES
As the drizzle ROARS

All we know is plunge & VERGE
Our will a hostile ASSET

30.
Cut him if he STAND

Pristine copy of TABOO

Murderous ABBOT

Orchestra in view a NOOSE
With dummy * else I’d DOTED

31.
Pic of homestead FIRTH
Lava beds in IDAHO
Crystal RADIO
Tremor in the ether * THICK
Darkness & the walls have HOOKS

32.
Monument of WASTE
Monkey’s extreme ALOHA
Six seventy SONES

Say I am not one of THESE
Not that defense EASES

33.
Pale glow of ARGON
Dance on lost ice * white with ROUGE
Somewhere beyond GUILE

Scryer has never OGLED
A more puzzling knot of NEEDS

34.
Ant colony WHIST
Forms ages & ages HENCE
Knotting with INCAS

The evidence plenty SCANT
If you want to be TESTY

35.
The smell of old BRASS
Invades my nascent REMAP
Solitude AMPLE
In the gunswept night * SALSA
Drifts through a vignette of SPEAR

36.
Under the RADAR
Clear yellow of AGAVE
Rubicon one DARES
Final melting not AVERT
Stacks of books one’s head RESTS

37.
Color a net near-loco.

"Hello. I have been to hell and back and hell and back and hell and back."

thunder in walmart

(via)

What was America? Was it a wrist,
a hand? Keep writing the same date
day after day, in the same light
      risk averse
      in the spiderverse
      of syllabic verse
Aver loud clamor,
a lam or a cloud rave.

brushed aluminum at dawn

aver boyg trash auras,
hautboy grave

pale lemon & turquoise
set & setting sun

air diary

(via)

"In total about 168 methane plumes are now observed to be bubbling out of the sea bed off the Washington and Oregon coasts."

Star-akin
chases yes as
China karst.

Jill Parr artwork.

57. shipping container blues

(by larry lundy via tom hendricks on fb)

Punisher style. (via mefi)

cactus is our bed
the addled suds led death
their rasps abide
cactus is our bed
a thousand merles on board
t'ward leagues of antic dearth
cactus is our bed
the addled suds led death

"Copland says that Spear spent his last days in hospital ‘translating favourite English poems into Latin’."

28. volcano in a box

(via)

I try to slow things down so i have time to write, & then i don't write.

Dark Blood.

it might be Pluto light
& whether rain or nay
a somber way the gods allot
it might be Pluto light
it might be shape-complete
or funnelcloud alert
for proof, stand by
it might be Pluto light
& whether rain or nay

Out-Cabal, the Deep State
another color · of darkness

anorak tsar · he hearts a Koran
Ragnarok · of the Out-Cabal

Horseback Mueller, in a dismal year:
it's schadenfreude all the way, from here.

         another religion
         i'm an atheist of

leatherface smiling

Your love is true.

Hsigo sums sumo sighs
on a close mission from Zeus

Santa Tsantsa at first light
vindicates the cluttered tale

sum shatters the abacus
sum whose other we must seek

origin story

Coulthart on Roeg.

      1.
Legacy pits our dord out spicy gale
cold light
at the end of warm day
a kid spinning with a branch
faint incessant barking
amateur baseball
it is 2018 & the saucers have not come

      2.
nail protruding from pegboard
harder than stone they built
they built pyramids harder than stone
in the mind's eye
harder than stone they built
vertigo
in a burning landscape
is there only desire

in the headlights
tattoo'd pastor
caught in the small rain

      3.
never look at the empty stars
or the stars behind them
precipice inly · scratchmarks
on a cell wall
wasp slime
the bottom of the catcher holds

To the Rain.

witness tree

"Once having consigned the dead to the ground, the living do not wish the dead to return, not really. They feel that the dead are strangers to life, and especially to the present. Still wearing their old suits and gowns, and burdened with their outdated notions and former bad habits, the dead are like discharged servants: they have found another situation." --Bruce Duffy, The World as I Found It (1987; reissued 2010)

Ross 128b mystery signals. (7/17)

Aelindrome: Read, cede cadre.

Cover of "Maggot Brain".

a voyage to Plethora, with SCABS
in the year of the COMET

resale laser beam,
halt AMBLE

ev'rything is at stake, read, polo padre;
& nada, Antarctic BELLE

bird embryo on the cold sidewalk
Graywyvern finds STEEP

utopia, myopia

Litost.

a fair field full of ragweed
my quartz sphinx loved by jackdaws
Roko for aura of koro,
tainopia regained.

In the shadow of a saint.

"Word of the day: 'keld' - a deep, still part of a river, such as has a 'smoothness while the rest of the water is ruffled' (Brockett, 1825)." --@RobGMacfarlane via @JoyceCarolOates

black hole like me

(via trover dot com)

impar · cerulean
seems to unfurl
Vega: anew-
hewn agave

it was long ago

car 8-track player days
no museum now
to give it to

impar · cerulean
seems to unfurl

Rudy Wurlitzer today.

nada, zip, & zilch

Southern Man. (redux)

"Poems, like animals, are highly organized structures (sometimes fat and sometimes sinewy, sometimes spined or spiny and sometimes all undulating flesh) engaged in fabulous adaptabilities and seeking to communicate both internally and externally." --Eleni Sikelianos

raku, a stop to sakura
a further dismay to secure

the witnesses talking into
cam'ras' italic aftermath

braked suddenly spared a rabbit
another day another struggle against sleep

flowers of evil for algernon

Fake sparkle.

arsenic or coin sear
to get the right cancer

to stand at Chicxulub
the only moksha lab

"The poem supposedly, for all its enormous length, recounts the succession of thoughts passing through the mind of an English Catholic at Mass during the course of roughly seven seconds." (via aldaily)

"...in my opinion Dylan Thomas's voice was a bright green." --The Secondary Colors

benbu naigabehati teudibu

stark foam, oaf karst meet
in the delicate myst'ry
of joke & clown lung

a toxic sideshow to care
for more than this winter light

Boro thread.

"People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad." --Emerson in His Journals

gumption-refresher

(Cathar castle (cropped) by Sheryl St Germain on Fb)

The Monstrous Moonshine number 196,884 in Base-4 is 300010110. To be able to use this in an aelindrome, one can add 1 to make all the digits nonzero (411121221). Thus, i have composed the following:

      Earth foins a lotto, total sin of heart

"[Brain] not responding due to a long-running script"--the very definition of Asperger's!

ghosts empearl the sterving wind

yet what is it that drives us?
a wheeled canister
a proxy for the self

in all our encounters
with the brutal city
the city that our cars made

smell no longer smellable
water for the goldfish circling

"This tax bill is legislation you would only back if you think America is finished and the only thing left to do is loot what you can." --@Econ_Marshall

the smell of winter

Turned up on a search for "kwotsxwoe".

I return from the dead to stop other people from writing my books
hatchgreed
attenuating

Opes a noir pro
in Aesop

gaslighted by our own possessions

monstrance for a gray wyvern

Aelindrome: Archpoet, mime top char.

A Mouzell for Melastomus.

"To bear a name is both terrible and necessary." --Don De Lillo, Ratner's Star (1976)

charlotte's wen

Richard Wilbur: "Junk."

"A man cannot help being intelligent, but he can easily help becoming intellectual." --Jacques Barzun

"...no one was surprised."

Aelindrome: Add, O goad, mad Ogdoad.

"My old redwood Victorian was built in 1867 and lived through being a brothel, a halfway house, a Hell’s Angels den, and a witch coven. It had a ghost and a ton of history. I don’t think it was possible to childproof that house. In fact, I don’t think Vallejo will ever be child-safe. I moved my daughter out of the town before her second birthday."

(via dailykos)

the old dark frog

New aelindrome: Vegas, each, aces gave.

Vladislav Khodasevich: “Nights” (tr Peter Daniels)

               for Sergei Krechetov

"A thin howl from the dogs on guard.
Tonight still camped in the same place,
no-good vagabond orphans, we are
warming our hands at the bonfire.

A sullen look beneath the brows
from empty nights of far-fetched sleep.
The smoke is full of ruby floaters
whirled from flames that whistle and crack.

The waste says nothing. Silent, barbed,
a distant wind pursues the dust;
we sing with an evil dreariness
that's chafing at our curling lips...

A thin howl from the dogs on guard."

"A huge number of these videos are essentially created by bots and viewed by bots, and even commented on by bots."