Tag Archives: Listpoem

lays: showcase of a collector

traveling
with low funds
in a strange city,
best lit among natural collections of the area.

bouncy tree


bare footed

ambling over leaves,
fallen trees
in the morning.

siobhans get-a-way

guest blogger


old fashioned friends

the light lowered
words lessoned
a photo was snapped and then night came.

split personality



one half.

out for a walk



buttercup

a stop by the side of the road to play in tall grass.

cage. bird.




feast on this

nyc subway myth is REAL


did you know that alligators live in the nyc subway system?
joyce hackett knew and so did amy vaillancourt.
vaillancourt made her way to new york.
she bought a ticket into the subway.
she began the waiting game.
for what?
new shoes? new pet?
few are ever sure of the intentions of amy until they have already become fruitful realizations.

dusty bluff


rattle snake alley
lined with thistles
exposed dirt
where feet had tread
fences cling
to the edge of cliffs

a hot summer day


hints of summer’s shadow

soon the leaves will fall
then the snow will follow
in gusts of swirling silence

coney

island




“hey do you girls want a paper bag for that beer?”

“um no, not really.”
he hands us a small sized bag from within his bag, identical to the one covering his tall boy of cours light.
“uh thank you,” i respond, covering up the same labeled can in my hand.
“you know that it is a 25 dollar ticket if you get stopped by the police with open beer?”
“wow that is like a deal where we come from.” jessica and i look at each other and nod in agreement.
we all sit on our benches and take a few sips looking out over the water. taking in its horizon.
“you know if you want to find an interesting time you could go down to the public court house. there is always a lot of action there. you don’t even need the ticket.”
“oh ya. i guess that is an idea,” i reply, looking over my shoulder at the tattooed russian hoodlums playing hand ball in cages, glistening with sweat. we sat there and finished our beers as night fell around us. i was quite happy where i was, this place was nutty enough for me.

Scarlett’s Mask

who?

vespa fever

shark baby

fallen camera rises again

loaf more



local elementary students showcase their first pieces of stencil art in the derelict forest behind their school. the message is clear.

when i found these piles of abandoned junk tagged up with these motivational words i was so impressed that i was tempted to make a counter comment just to egg them on but i only got this far;
‘it may or may not happen’
‘do more or less sometimes’

recolter

arrival of the salted summer month

in this sweet summer

in this wind and wake
on this beaming bow
on this life to take
in the last warm month
you salt excess fish
you’re brown and restless
keen to any wish
it’s the sought out height
oh the hearts thunder
you capture your light
for winter’s plunder

can do




the killing scene (out takes)

this is a scene that does not fit the ‘script’.
this is filmed in super 8.
this is the slowest runner in all the world playing their instruments.
this is a bus graveyard.
this is a beautiful frenzy.
this is guts and glory.
this is thank you.

the water’s edge

beauty’s reflection in the glass of water

the magic that creates fairytales
the paired loons laugh, giggle
at our absurd paddle boat antics

out in the middle of nowhere



somewhere in mid-northern michigan while taking a supposed short cut we came across this lovely setting. it could be described as a road side mud clearing dotted with army trucks and about as many half bred buffalo/cattle (also known as either beefalo or cattalo) . i have only my little shreds of evidence and some theories as to what kind operation or militia might be gathering here. though admitably it did have a sort of futuristic apocalypse feel to it that i kind of liked, but also found disturbing. i would warn you to steer clear of it, but in reality i have no idea where it was or how to get back there.

light action

a comfort in the dark

Vagabond


in the midst of a journey it is easy to forgets where exactly you are going or where in fact home is. the world becomes a fantastical place filled with unbounded possibilities and newness. we collect souvenirs along the way in hopes of keeping a reminder of beauty that was discovered. sometimes these treasures are tokens such as rocks or feathers. sometimes they are memories of places or of kindness and sometimes they are artistic inspiration, an image or an idea. in this case it was an image to frame an idea;

‘homeless hottie, on the corner next to you.’

sumac grove

trespassing on an American farmer’s land for a few photographs while the vespas idle calmly on the side of a dirt road.

party time



If there is one thing that is a common sighting in Detroit, it is the ‘party store’. They are typically peppered into the landscape along clusters of abandoned commercial areas on larger roads. They are open from 7am until 2am, save a few exceptions; January 1st: open until 4am, December 24th: closed at midnight and Sundays they do not open until 12pm, as a consideration for church goers. You can often cash checks, buy liquor, cigarettes, lotto tickets and a variety of pops and junk food. They use an elaborate sign campaign to advertise their products, which I liked because many of them date back to the fifties.

The French Canadian version of a ‘party store’ (a term mostly used in the mid-west of the U.S.) is called a Depanneur. The translation of this word to English is “a repairer of breakdowns” or “troubleshoot.”

house for rent


Maria Bulgaria


friend with heart,
happy birthday

in the wind

Faced with Plate

beefalo

when you are staring yourself down

and it is scarier than you remember

goons

two goons paying respect
as an alligator makes way

off!


ghosts exiting

in quest for adventure
in a pile of sand
on a peninsula

the median


this lonely set of highway barriers is a particularly old and beautiful one. i immediately was drawn to them, they had a sort of ancient throne appeal. the common barrier that you would find on a highway (also known as a jersey barrier or k-rail in the more western states) was originally designed for the safety of pedestrians as well as the elimination of head on collisions but has had arguable impacts on the movement of animals. the jersey barrier has more recently been deployed in anti-terrorism plights due to the durability of their reinforced steel design. their advantage in battle is their moveable but semi-permanent nature. but i must ask the question of this need for separation, if the lines are ephemeral how does one know what side of the line one is standing on?

safari suffice



you can place her in the city, but the safari stays.

not half full



all that was in the pool is on her mind

vaillancourt and toes.


if you seek a body a water
to cool your feathers,
you may run into amy
and her pet duck, toes.
they never leave each others side.
often, in pursuit of a sitting pond,
they must resort to hoping fences
and illegally quenching their thirsts.

mr. schuster



when i was young i had a teddy. i named him mr. schuster after the man across the street who had cancer and was going to die soon. I wanted his wife to ‘be okay’ when he died.

every night i slept with mr. schuster between my legs, like a preggers with a body pillow.
when the cancerous mr. schuster died, i didn’t tell his wife about my teddy. mr. schuster and i were too close, i didn’t want to share.

after high school mr. schuster and i parted ways. he wasn’t interested in university and even though i wasn’t either, i decided to go, in montreal.

i went to visit mr. schuster recently and he took me out to meet his friends.
it was a pretty wild night.

dandy lions




if you wake up planning to go to a castle

and find out it has been replaced by a condo
don’t cry in the rain
climb walls that outline a distant castle
a castle so far it is only in your mind
you can hide in the grass
romp in dandelion dander
loiter by highways
and all this will make you feel as grand as any ruined castle ruins

crushed

the street hits back.

tree top treason


yellow sun burns

even the trees were crying

futuristic sailors



the nautical hour of brilliant light

forecasting our sights
into falling night

cross hatching


a linear representation of shadow

parallel lines crossing on an angle

come join us

in our inner city trailer park
a parking-lot paradise

of high density living
with flexible habitable space
and a lack of rules.

know your neighbors, too well.

mobile homes
rvs
trailers
pop trailers
tents
hammocks
tarps
sleeping bags

edge of the pond

it is as if they were the beginnings of frogs emerging from some melted run off water, mere tadpoles with transforming bodies. a huddled mass of a new years hatch, fresh and anticipative for warmer months.

(read in Herzog’s voice)

been a long time, your clothes or mine?

mustard and chartreuse
wending your way
burgeoning feathers loose
goodbye, you say

the crossroads


why is it that strangers rarely if ever collide with one another? is it fear of proximity, intimacy? is it society’s ethics that drive us to comply to politeness or hurried steps?

or is it simply that we are on autopilot, our paths pre-determined in a complex maze of ties and steps?