here he comes – formerly titled “between herbie mann and myself”
This is how it happened – random violence, i suppose
A Weekend in Italy – the peaceful splendor of Lake Garda
an amelia earhart pancake – Richard Brautigan suggested the title
US 31 – travelling Lake Michigan
Recession (a sonnet) – who’s to blame?
Acid Chief – the enlightened cynic
yours is pink and grey – from the second edition of Ellipsis
A Plant – sad, indeed
bad teacher – we’ve all been there
when is cruel – yes, it is
mystification – it’s always been a mystery
An Acute and Quintessential Vacuity – loss of a child
afternoon with a weed in my teeth – hmmm . . .
minds of men – never satisfied, it seems
the size of your brain – it’s nothing personal
about that hope and change thing . . . – it should make a difference
the ambulance crew discussed – if only we could forget our sins
To Sing Together – mellifluous or cacophonous, the choice is yours
Thanks for the comment. As for the .pdf files, they should now open a new tab. If you get a message saying Adobe cannot open the file, click cancel on the message and the file should open. Sorry about the challenge, but I haven’t had any problems at this end. Some files were created in Adobe and some were saved as .pdf from Word. That didn’t seem to matter with my access to them. rwmiller
Nice bro. I may steel amelia. FYI none of these open for me on first try, I have to manually open with Adobe. I don’t know how they are saved but…..
Keep it up.
RE: Recession. The juxtaposition of a modern theme and an archaic formal form is a compelling one. And that you used Shakespearean-esque language to pepper it with is brilliant, in my estimation. I wonder if Shakespeare had been a percussionist he would have been able to find the same timber in his lines as you do, iambic pentameter or not. Your always sharp use of devices, particularly alliteration, creates rhythm that is song-like. Delightful.
After a few reads, the line that pulls at me most is: spending pennies never earned yet borrows. I wonder if you see Hamlet in this. Old Polonius sends his son Laertes off to school with the advice: Never a borrower or a lender be … If you did not intend this allusion, claim it. Perhaps Laertes didn’t take his father’s advice, and he also is one ‘softly’ moaning the ‘giving, taking, back, and forth.’ We don’t know, it wasn’t his story. Perhaps this stuff of treasures and fortunes, won, lost, never-hads isn’t so modern after all. It is as universal as what is typically the stuff of what makes a Shakespearean sonnet: love. But in this read, it is easy to see how one could easily replace one for the other. Though ‘whispers’ and ‘moans’ and ‘aching souls’ could easily be lent to a love-poem, you have made it about something that perhaps men are most concerned.