Jim Leftwich & Steve Dalachinsky

green soft/pling why 


subatomic vermin 
  either too full or too empty 
to be thought
amphetamine patriosis
  rip/snort paralysis
       highend highjinx
 hygiene always last/first
         & men do stam(p) 
   da proof in da pod/cast
      wiggly poetics
improvisational promiscuity
        academic folklords
a cult of culture-making 
cast iron flyfishing always
    a highwire parataxis
       granted green mats
dependent on soft/pling
    a gracious spill of why not
         pretense of relaxation within 
   borders of confine 
        vowelic melodiousness 
self-made proletarian sabbatical 
      this is the kind of time 
          God would inhabit 
if he existed
if he existed as a fragment
           or a postcard.



plot stem hummer


im print
 the hand clap 
   hill shout 
re print  
     press hind
imp rest i   cular
window        cell
cilia         fossil 
    poetry
clout slap shin
    heavenmetal
m  e n  t a l 
      weather 
pint-seized
  hell ee cop tour
     whip out whooper 
trance screamers 
   what typer lips 
ex press / pressure 
   drop draped 
tongue cut of(t)en
soft but young
merino, contumely, 
notes from 
underground...
memory is not 
subjective — how 
old do you have 
to be to know
that? helix crop
circling ships 
 cop tic(k)
trans  end dent /al(l)
  marine life organ is mmm
mm ar gin al(e) sphinx/ter
  muckle
plotsemheimer   
            Stravinsky 
neighborhood: poetry (as 
    in Beethoven, or 
Rauschenberg) is a 
      perpetu
ally seditio
us 
  charter of human 
rights      // sideways 
       thinking 
meristic phrontistery
aesthetics of abundance
       rotissisere & crack/ward
  blinking...   
umbilical chord of illumination



Role of Poetry


perpetual vs periodic inventory 
        disalienatory
              airports for particles
Role of Poetry — to Obliterate Pessimism
    perennial inventories
       blown whistle dreary
dues  captain 'lectric cloudy chair
  best of friends needy companion 
    rainin' stormy on the sea 
                 i feel somebody has ship
wrecked   for / me blue wish troubles
        flown capital rain nest drains
  thistle lectern tricks fried torment
              weary clout eye seeds only
    fuse hairs comb onion seal
          eyefeed some bodies hash shop
invented stories of alien articles
in life kissed death cold lips
  lord hot/dog on my roll red rose
     heart of green briar fell
         blot em/brace the wire
ar m  ature brank use gioc 
  met me sou teen risque 
"you have to start somewhere" they
said, but i didn't and still don't
believe them
despite
   global warming & heart/
        break



bicameral pulsion foamer


wall
 of   tin (sel)
    declarate
the warped ones 
 mizu (gucci)
    rem(br)an(d)t
self po(u)r / trait 
s    diploma/dials
intuitional optimism 
v  o w  e l i  c heat 
      self-branching
  bones of the
    desecrated
              s ea l
sea  l
    sea-wall
hopevue dry/wall
   plyward boptional
          rivers/compulsion
involute la foam/er/sohm)
 placid  placard ' s paella 
wry venue tonal barnyard
what are the best sources
    for protein? spelling
        cardboard diplomacy
  moss-over loam and
            nose flute
   abstract truthes &
      olive
branches.



storytelling


they were telling stories around the
lamp-fire. i remember i feel 17 years of
non. non-did non-despite non-iconic
non-would. they were wars dispatched 
    and laundered next to process.
toasted they roasted  marsh demons
          always scary ghost sagas 
i was at times mellow though a
frayed of the dark & of sweeping
      outside / the the stars were
a comforting blank
 kit... i slept with both eyes op
            tioned,
boasting of the scarred host, stark &
weeping. shoes on fire. dawn as fear
arrives for a fee. roborate, rident,
        costrengthening, 
              creaking.
i was streeped  in (t) ra/di(a)/tion
  over-ripe for (g)rif(f)
ting  - ear splayed lopin'
           re/tread in gog me 
)b)lust   elements of chemo-/stree
     ready to gather me rose/bloods
 whilst i coudn't for a day @
     the (t)race / rack.
lather the streets with
        clack & glint. hematomancy.
  radiation-creep, roped-off &
              layered (flog them with
      bread, not with
          cake) 
walked
chalk faced millenials 
  having taken the courses
    8 now the money
         gibberishing
  their way thru solid cell
  you -loid   mascara,



bluefish in the swamp


opine
ses ami
  da ditto-mat eats
     der fisherman 
              un(d) sard/een
  swimmith 'tween
      da legs of der pisher/mint
                der cramp/liar
       is soaked by the (b)rain
(what do you mean when you
    say "drain the swamp"?)
open like a seed or
          a brillo pad?
   pen OH sez army 
spliff like spleen drill or
    dapple/gang her ornaments
         (a)for long
ball peen hammer,
a foot-long ball peen hammer. 
  says ah mea(n) grinned 
            griminal
"don't you mind / people
grinnin' / in your face" says
john the revelator groping @
    the elevator hatch
        moaning open sesame 
seed me bluelin bring da gypsy's blue
         lips home.

july 2018



blunderfucked food no socks was a normal pigeon

he transformed his smut with just one thing
       trial & erasure / the capital gained from
            muttering into wobbliness abysses
               x marked 2 stages of xenophopia
                   a word he could spell but had no real
                        knowledge of
                           g. the way the transom hung
     l.   why the cat was put in the bag
                   p. no wonder spring got lost
in each eye a universe of voices
     in each eye an omniverse of noises
          in each eye an I against each I
               in each I an eye inside an eye
                    no thing from abyss no real no
                thing no thing no real no thing
           knowledge of the way is a bag of ghosts
     no wonder the cat a word x marked muttering
into erasure transformed once perhaps twice into soft pillowed purrs
          the homing pigeon not realizing it was now part of the street
                  eating the taste he left over when leaving the diner
                               c. no blunder could account for the mess that ensued
                  f. he was totally fucked as he shat in the supermarket
                       black t-shirt full of food stains showing his big belly
                          his shorts piss stained no socks middle of winter
                            n. it was obvious he was a normal pigeon
                               u. he was a widget (pidgin)
                               v. a flock of no (& gno-)
                               w. plunder (thunder / under / mind)
                               x. rice fluttering a host of hinges (tao)
                               y. purring streets (sweeping up)
                               z. dining on the winter belly (fat)
he transformed his trial by smothering the cats in wonder
he should have blown his brains out but sat most of the time staring at
  his paycheck he was a pharaoh no longer but the bottom of a sad peach cobbler
 who managed to cobble stoned a pair of upright munitions works
           16. the code of the west was broken into -
 21. nothing but chaos was found
                           22. the wild wild west
                   17. But down these mean streets a man must go 
                                      who is not himself mean, who is 
              neither tarnished nor afraid.
                                                  23. brains no longer a pair
       18. munitions at the bottom of time
                     so with the swell of the sad man's shorts
                              we cannot deny that for once & a day
                                    eternal numbers & letters prevail amongst
                                                   his misplaced dreams.

december 2018

Jim Leftwich is a poet and essayist who lives in Roanoke, VA, USA. He is the author of Six Months Aint No Sentence Books 1 -187 (Differx Hosting@Box, 2011 - 2016), and three volumes of essays entitled Rascible & Kempt Vols. 1 - 3 (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2016-2017).

Poet/collagist Steve Dalachinsky was born in Brooklyn after the last big war and has managed to survive lots of little wars. His book The Final Nite (Ugly Duckling Presse) won the PEN Oakland National Book Award. His most recent books are Fools Gold (2014 feral press), a superintendent's eyes (revised and expanded 2013 - unbearable/ autonomedia), flying home, a collaboration with German visual artist Sig Bang Schmidt (Paris Lit Up Press 2015), The Invisible Ray, with artwork by Shalom Neuman, from Overpass Press, "5-COLOR ASSORTMENT" Chameleon Too from Redfox Press, and FROZEN HEATWAVE with Yuko Otomo, from Luna Bisonte Prods. His latest cd is The Fallout of Dreams with Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach (Roguart 2014). His poem “Particle Fever” was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize.
 
 
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