Poetry is not feelings. Poems are poems because they adhere to some type of structure. My critical writing professor, who refused to give me an A up to the very end, brought it to my attention that no amount of feeling, no matter how poignant, will amount to a decent poem if there is no structure to glue it together. I’m glad I learned this because it confirmed my suspicion that I am horrible at poetry and should just stick to prose.

 http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/what-i-really-learned-in-college/

our sleep

these sunrise dreams of our bodies
flying as yellow birds over water

her

miss my yellow bird
and perfect words

batting your lashes
I am borrowing your verbs

cynical potion

you're not allowed to jumble on what to do
if your brain will always grow shitty poems
for the rest your life and no one will know
about how you felt a little better

you felt a little better after writing that
didn't you
that's about all the good it'll do
so enjoy it
enjoy the brief sensation
and then go back to how you felt before

you drank cynical potion last night
while you were blacked out
i tried to stop you

don't ever tell me you're not good enough
or that it's not fair

because it is fair
and that's why your sad

because it's fair
you don't even understand what you"re saying
stop it

put that down now
and never think about me ever again

sample page

a red cardinal sat in the blue evergreen
the rain came down wetting almost everything

my throat is sore

when you grow old you could say
you were on tv
coughing up nothing of value

and when you win you can hug
the models and wave
Jane is a girls name

and everything of value is worth
nothing at all
and all art is garbage
but garbage is better than you

and muslims will explode
and christians will destroy our kids
and oil will be spilled
and blood will be spilled
and japs will kill more whales

linguistics

loinguistics

and life
end life

withdrawl

dosen't it feel good to delete

if a uterus can be a coffin
then a coffin can be a uterus

if something can be nothing
then nothing can be something

if i can die in life
then i can live in death

if i can die in this life
then i can live in this death

dying in life vs. living in death

myself delay
forgot my laptop charger
and never used the word slash
before I don't know whether
scanning through textbooks and feeling dumb
turning 23 every month in the old days
with no family and your music
standing out in the rain

They look so young and here I am
why does the space bar mess up
the rain is a fan
yup

unfocused

walking home

wonderboy1027

for Aunt Ruthy

I took the pictures
of the house with 
the chair-on-top

without 
the chair-on-top
and she wrote a letter
to strange new jersey
and we got published

Now these big pockets

of her jacket contain my things

but they were meant for grenades

handed down to me

that covered her Rosie the Riveter tattoo

that was written about in magazines
she could smell a lie 

disarm a bomb 

And it was bullshit

whether the sun would have 
burned her skin

or whether her skin  
burned the sun
it was bullshit 
she died so young

and strong
-The Truth from Ruth
and her cousin "wonderboy1027"

5 August 2009

You know if you show me everything

You’ll be the first and the last

Those summer boys don’t mean anything

We can forget about our past

The sand on your floor of your bedroom

Tells a story you know well

Of a boy who painted houses

And a girl who one day fell

Into love one day last summer

girard

When

I want you to stop
but you won't
and the shower just won't turn on

It's a broken
washing machine
and a symbol

9 November 2010

X

There is a lot more to listen to then there is to listen to

but Everything is bored slouched over an antique rocking horse

You are The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

or the sound of the beach reproduced by software plug-ins and sequencers