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The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide...
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everything on the wooden table
sprouted feathers & flew away
the table reared up on its hind legs
& galloped into the forest
to be with its kind....
I have been chasing Hemingway’s ghosts around the world. I’m inspired by his love for culture that is explored in his stories. I’ve visited...
Our heads buzzed with talk of escaping
dead-end jobs, family dramas, and towns
that held no surprizes. Our heads buzzed
with talk of pilgrimage, of travelling
the slow...
There were days when Hywel stood knee-deep in muddy water, a snow-capped mountain in his path; days when every passing flock of storks croaked...
...
so today
as I tiptoe into the first night
that guides me into
the first day of a new year
and offer heart and hopeful promises
and time I...
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Pigma Microns and Ohuhu Pupe color markers on vellum bristol paper, 14" x 17".
crows in a murder
on a birch tree limb
while sun screamed
through half-opened blinds
painting my body
in warrior stripes
I rose to the window
exposing myself
to the ancient oracles
and...
I found another of your ghosts.
This one, an unanswered email,.with its genial demand for a speedy
reply. Did you call me, as usual,.right after hitting...
I stand steady,
stone in the stream,
current breaking
but never breaking me.
My silence commands.
My presence
settles the room.
They lean in—
without knowing why.
Beneath,
a furnace hums.
The quiet masks
a hunger,
an...
Calcified words
unable to break free
from the chains
of those that came before
sit helpless
before the wall
that demands precision
and become documents in the trash
as a new blank...
Violetta taught her lizard
to sing
a libretto
Alfredo’s script became
a passion play on morality
better a whore
than a bore he sang
and sunlight struck
his draconian scales
and he fought
with...
For the promises I never made, or kept; for the
friends I wronged, or let down, or lost touch with;
for doors I failed to hold...
give something today
not just get something
look for that something
around certainty
give yourself wonder
find that thing to comfort
celebrate the mystery
of life without purpose
drop those things
run outside...
From a distance, amber scores
Alerted our fight.
It's a particular beat—
Threatening thumping.
Toussaint, Jean-Jacques, our dark wings
affirmed our blackness,
Vulgarized by sugarcane,
As fire stalked the land.
Once I had to constantly remake home
when it was destroyed. I patiently made
restrung each strand between brightnesses, honed
each line for those who reluctantly stayed.
Now,...
Before the ascendance
the darkness enfolds
seamless, soothing,
then from it
rises
the moon
and shadows descend
to rest on the shoulders of night
infinite mystery
illuminating insignificance
with eons of indifference
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Hover your cursor...
It sits with legs elevated
to help the fluid drain
into its empty chest cavity
skinny, skinnier, then bone thin
as an Xray transparency.
Fading into the itchy couch
yet...
I'm spying on Annie B. and Baby Ray Carter gassing up their bikes in front of Eldredge's country store, watching them squat half-naked in...
I slept under a sturgeon moon
the breeze came swiftly
and with it
the dream I have
so often, the one that guides
an ever-changing map
of a future trampled...
Hover your cursor over an image to see its title. Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
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Photographer's Notes:...
We’re more than a week in and people are still saying it’s already September as if there’s some injustice involved, as if it’s their first time...
I went to the bar
after my shift
at the dry cleaners
to watch TV from a stool
the way I usually did
on Friday night.
Downing three beers
and two...
after the cops left
and the ambulance had gone
and i was home again
with nothing but silence
and the leftover pad thai
that no longer looked festive—
i found...
An old woman
black lace veiled
kneels at her pew
hunched in solitude
crooked fingers
tremble
through a string
of beads
with Four Mysteries.
Bead by bead
fingers and thumbs
rub their tempo
of whispered prayer
into...
I name one stone Granger. I name the other stone Wayne. Neither has a housemaid. Both have birthdays.
Their father's name is Hays. Their mother's...
i was out in the field this morning
trimming the spent blooms
from the most beautiful flowers
i’ve ever grown, lisianthus &
larkspur in blues & the colors...
i was halfway into a pint of ben & jerry’s
and halfway through a bowl of blue dream
when my sister called
voice like a weather alert:
lance?...
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***
Birch Bay, Washington. Spring, 2018.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i. Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Image Stabilization II
I might be the
only person
you know
who’s bought 2 refrigerators
in one month
And the reason why
is less interesting
than the fact I sprung for
a sleek, European
monolithic design
Because...
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***
Ink, pencil, and watercolor
Your flight delayed, you scroll your photos app.
There is the dog you just adopted, eyes alert
and energetic. There is your son roughhousing
with him on...
I am not sure
if the hushed noises
above my thin-walled condo
are real or porn.
The unit across mine
is now vacant
after a night raid
by a camo-uniformed squad.
The...
I just read that insomnia has become a public-health emergency.
Unless you’re mainlining or planning a murder that’s bullshit.
I had an insomniac summer when I...
I perform tricks for the children
at the roadside attraction—mannequins,
bedpans and teeth being the main of my draw.
It is unpleasant work but must be done,
for...
i was filling out a survey for a five-dollar gift card
when the news broke like a mirror in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
“the president has terminated...
I am crying now.
Finally the gates opened.
I look for my heart.
I am in trouble
I know love
when I feel it
I will keep it
to myself
I’m not good
at being dragged
into someone
else’s life
sometimes
they just up
& die
It’s not that
I’m...
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Pigma Micron Pens on Smooth Bristol paper, 18x24 inches.
Like that dream where you're pulling out a wild hair
and it keeps getting longer and longer until you have
great piles of it all over...
I'm gonna drink a lot of coffee when I get out of bed
because I'm ravenous of memories
- you know what I speak of, when...
a mound of vesuvius
clothes on the floor
tripped
on the orange extension cord
found the toothpaste
in with my underwear
the brush
dipped in my after shave
okay gonna be
a good...
quiet joy always makes me curious
so do yesterday afternoons recently purchased
peeking out the top of a tote bag
carried around with a destination in mind
by...
Halfway through the night, alone in my bed, I breathe out
with a dying man’s last word on my lips— Believe.
Let belief fill up my days....
at one time in my foolish past
i cared.
i really did.
i marked up papers
with comments like
“awkward phrasing” and
“what exactly are you trying to say here?”
i...
There is nothing new to say about rain.
It has already been likened to tears,
or a cover for some secret grief;
the sky has long been...
“you ever seen a man drink himself backwards?”
i asked the barkeep, who looked
like regret in a vest,
polishing his way toward minimum wage.
“because i’m halfway...
Art class:
where mistakes
become discoveries,
where mess
means
learning,
where every child
is
Picasso
and
Einstein
rolled into one
paint-stained
possibility.
I heard he only
spoke Russian to horses and
only when drinking
real Russian vodka
or maybe some god-awful
home-brewed concoction
made from various
herbs, flowers and weeds that came
from his...
- for WKK
daylight a prism
of worry, night an eerie
chandelier of stars
my dream life
has you up, dressed
and walking
glint of resolve
air deprived and hidden
inside this verse
nail...
An Old Dog Reads Keats
I read Keats’ biography.
Muse naps.
We're both “old dogs”,
nagged with illnesses.
He naps as the 5:20 express train
clatters past,
trundling towards Gilroy
while I...
I have counted her footsteps
for thirty-seven years
the same path worn
into my slope,
the same pause
at the thorny ridge
where she catches her breath
and adjusts the
weight on...
The birds prefer seven and then again at five
Sun flowers
A pile on each four by four
That’s right
Orange kitty eats on the rug near the...
In a bold move that redefines both "art" and "history," the National Portrait Griftlery has appointed a new director: former real estate tycoon, reality...
First, cry your eyes out,
into a pot of unpeeled potatoes.
Chop 2 large onions furiously,
crying copiously.
Potatoes want lots of salt
to be savory.
You don’t need exact...
The finches of the land stood sentinel
to grazing flocks of black-faced sheep.
We drove roof down, your long hair pony-tailed,
through crumpled fields like kicked off...
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Photograph taken in Segovia with an iPhone camera
“fuck off,” the old man said
as he heaved a black trash bag
into the dumpster behind the Safeway.
karsten blinked.
“well damn.
i just said hey, man.”
we were...
Her sky
is the ferns, and the dew sick flowers
opening and closing their gums
for the toothless promise,
for body to memory.
She thinks of the leopard she...
Click on the white arrow to see the video and hear the author reading this poem. The text of the poem is shown below.
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https://vimeo.com/1025342547?p=1t
Picnic
Jane...
They brought me in on a six-week contract to “optimize client contact channels”—which, in plain English, meant building a phone system so soul-destroying that...
"You know what drives me crazy? It's all these people talking about how great technology is, and how it saves all this time. But...
With fake gusto I work through
early morning exercises,
a song on the radio turned up
loud enough to stir the house,
to get the windows grinning
and prime...
Hover your cursor over an image to see its title. Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow of...
your mouth set just so
sitting at the window
watching the storm pass
lightning & thunder relentless
I try to carry silence
in the lining of my overcoat,
but it is everywhere, in hiding,
taking the shape of everything.
I fear I might become a...
CHARACTERS
LCPL. JACKSON TURNER African-American, 21, from D.C. Athletic, disciplined, quiet. His father was laid off from a federal agency during a DEI restructuring.
PFC. RICARDO...
Running through the palace of rabbits
begins with finding one.
Pull your car to the side of the road
and peer under bushes with a light,
eventually you’ll...
At Gary Goldenberg’s retirement party, someone brought a chocolate sheet cake that said “Congratulations!” in blue frosting, the kind that stained teeth and clothes...
In Manila,
I watched them toss coins
into a canal slick with waste—
sailors and Marines laughing,
like children on leave
from war.
The kids dove in
as if they’d waited
their...
Hover your pointer over any image to see its title. Click on any image to view it full size and launch a slideshow of...
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Oil on paper. 30 cm x 30 cm.
They told him in March. A manila envelope full of scan results, a half-hearted handshake from the doctor, a lot of words like “advanced”...
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Artist's notes about this painting:
"This is a painting of a Japanese fox mask (273 x 220 mm) on F3 panel board. It was done...
adrift,...
Unfinished but complete
Media: alcohol-based markers.
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2. Untitled
Media: Pigma Microns on mixed media paper. 9x12 inches.
**********************
when the bombs drop
I will catch them
then fasten them with love poems
and my wife will attach her recipe
for homemade nutter butters
and even Scurry will...
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Acrylic on Panel. 24" x 36".
arose a rose without spikes, unshaded
softness
scattering delicate dreams through the air
tickling
veiny leaves, mundane bees, an undesired
fondness
predating papa bears, and heinous hares
tingling
with such profane heat,...
In an era of information overload and media fragmentation, this experimental typeface transforms discarded newspapers into a powerful expression on how we consume news...
...
corn's happy
hip-high in May
unravelling cornucopia
of broad, bright leaves
in preparation
for longer
hotter days
the swelling days
the days of ombre silk...
days of black beetles' creep
and the ravages of...
“I want you to delete all the pictures of me,” she said.
I was sitting in the tub with my feet sticking out like two...
Inside the giant rabbits warren of the Newbridge Center dwarfing its vast, lovely coniferous acreage, the deer and turkeys sidling up to the doors...
A boy is playing alone in the fields
lost in the vague transparency they have become.
Music seems to emanate from the sea-green of a beetle’s...
The flower bed is empty now;
the spring flight and summer brood
will find no treasure there
like thieves on the Via Maris
who robbed the holy family
only...
It started as a walk in the park
next to the river's
wooded alluvial plain.
A remote spot
where we go to soothe ourselves
on warm sunny days
looking for...
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Acrylic, oil pastel, watercolour, and ink collage. 40 cm x 50 cm.
"I recently painted this over repeated listens to Gustav Holst's Mars: The Bringer...
Oh, slow-drip moment caught in amber light,
When clocks forget their tyranny of gears—
That fragile span between the day and night
Where time dissolves in honeyed,...
Here at Punctuation World we have a large overstock of semicolons. This is due to the continuing worldwide decline in their popularity and use, particularly in...
what would I tell you
of the giant cod
how each summer we
would meet
out there in the bay
off Spruce Head
me with my fishing pole
and shining metal...
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acrylic and watercolor on wooden coffee table
“you ever wonder,” i said,
“why we get to have nukes
but if anyone else even looks interested,
we call it a threat?”
karsten took a hit,
blew it...
I make the bed,
as if the covers being straight
and pillows nestled perfectly by width and length
will obliterate the rapid-fire bulletins
flying through my head. Curfews
was the...
1. Homage for Shearing
a cascade of fingers
plunk 88 triggers
shoot a brocade
of gold and silver
and magic fascination
while notes ricochet’d
off nodding heads
tapping knees
and whiskey shivers
the blind...
one says
"without me, you'd have lost."
the other says
"epstein files, bro."
and just like that
two assholes
who once held hands
under a flag made of stock options
start hurling
vape...
i was on the couch, alone, halfway through a bag of pretzels
and a questionable bowl of indica when he showed up,
just sat down like...
i have become silent,
the alabaster vampire
in an anne rice novel,
unmoving
i come from nothing
like my father before me
& i walk in my mother’s path
on days...
Thon boy of ours is one useless hoor.
A heap of turf still to be cut and he's
leaning against the fence with his two
arms the...
Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
"I enjoy taking photos of ordinary items, especially food, to give them...
If I could turn up the silence
and turn down the noise
I'd revel in the world's collapse.
There would be no soundtrack,
no more clamor of progress,
of...
Near the horizon, beyond the wordy plain
of the flattened book on my belly,
I watch the bedroom doorknob
convulsing like the final sunrise,
awaiting the sudden explosion...
Hover your cursor over any image to see its title. Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow of...
Wrinkle like a sun-dried prune
lose your place in the queue for the port-a-toilets at
music festivals
spend the night on a freezing cold station platform after
losing...
The Season of Laughter
It was the spring of laughter. Or maybe the fall. Seasons lost their edges here long ago. In Ardona, the scent...
he was smoking menthols
and eating expired jerky
like a man
who'd given up omniscience for the night.
he looked tired.
like he’d been
believed in
too hard
by people with terrible...
The humidity sat
like a hand on her neck.
Even the silverware
seemed to wilt.
He stirred his coffee
slow,
like it might speak.
His shirt clung—
young,
distracted.
She watched
and said nothing.
She’d worn...
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Artist's Notes:
"Flowing water shapes even stones, nourishing varieties of life and of the imagination."
Linen, wool, and cotton yarns with river stones, on a metal...
sideways
where would you go if all you could pack was sorrow
could you walk a straight line to the sun
i remember chasing the dogs
rolling away...
Filled in a beautiful wooden box,
with a neatly printed ticket in the corner,
placed in a paper bag
with your brown Aztec collar.
I didn’t have the...
I have put lettuce out
for the fawn eyed rabbits
quivering against their shadows
where the tender
shoots wrestle
with the dregs
of snow.
I am trying
to love the fragile
hopefulness
of spring,
without...
You Americans may have your “land of the free
and the home of the brave” and “all those buffalo roaming”.
Well, we Canadians have our “where...
I'm more than merely if - I'm when,
a dirge you sing in metered rhyme,
the sullen muse that moves your pen,
the loss by which you measure time,
a ghost...
“you ever think,” i said,
“that if we only had one choice,
we’d be happier?”
karsten squinted at the sun,
rolled the joint a little tighter.
“you mean like…no...
I’d order a blue stone
delivered from Wales
& have it stood up
in the rose garden
where I’ll drink tea
grown in Kashmir
on my once great uncle’s,
Lord so...
Hover your cursor over any image to see its title. Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow of...
on the street corner
a guy
forty something
good looking in a celtic kind of way
he has a walking stick
and in the spring sunlight
there is a halo...
Hover your cursor over any image to see its title. Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow of...
every year around the same time
when the flies get lazy
and the air starts smelling like a wet sponge left in a coffee cup
i walk...
never forget AI quantum
sleeper assassins back in ‘73
on windowpane LSD
ejaculated kingdom
come in a frenzied
sexual slaughter bare
back in gaza black smoke
and rubble cover bloody bones
with...
blind man’s buff.
wherein the word buff is use
d in its older sense of a small
push.
the game later also became known
as “blind man’s bluff”; it...
Lit a match in the wind. It fought—
not for warmth, nor for light,
but to be.
The girl at the café said I was distant.
I said...
https://soundcloud.com/rc-james/friend
I don’t know what to say,
I’m stumbling lost in a foreign land
you’re talking in a strange language
but your tone I understand
(chorus)
you show me how...
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Soft and Oil pastels on maroon-coloured paper.
________
Editor's note: The title refers to a poem by William Blake of the same name (1863).
i defecate around 9:00 a.m.
most days.
same toilet.
same cracked tile.
same weird patch of mold on the ceiling
that kind of looks like a map of Texas.
i...
If you could see me,
kneeling to kiss
the rocks
on the promontory
where you paused
on our nightly walk,
head cocked
listening,
your entire being
leaning,
tuned
to darkness,
breathing softly,
lifting your head
to sniff the...
Once I sprung myself from
the heartland factory trap I
could not be stopped I was a
bullet aimed at the heart of the
matter I FLEW to...
Click on the Red Arrow to hear the soundtrack. Lyrics and music written and performed by the author.
https://soundcloud.com/rc-james/robertjohnson-in-southrosedale
A beat-up guitar hanging over his shoulder,
tall,...
Click on any image to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
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Editor’s Note: These paintings are from the Open Arts Forum archives, posted...
Dreams of gasoline
screams, screams, screams
Seems like
(seems like)
seems like God is ready
to be done
One nation
under...
See:
The Seven Wonders of Hell
sell your soul for Ozempic
thick to thin...
tangled limb morning
kisses the fringe of perfection
still—
i start fishing for a reflection
a light sprouts
then dangles
from my forehead
bioluminescence designed
not to see
but to be seen
not to...
The world ended on a Tuesday. Not with a bang—though there were plenty of those—but with the usual assortment of morons talking about “security”...
"In a series of seven images, the longest day glows orange as it slips gloriously into night. These images were taken on June 21,...
I long wondered how Burroughs escaped a murder rap
after his drunken reenactment of William Tell
in an American friend’s apartment in Mexico City,
in 1951, when...
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Pigma Microns on mixed media paper, 14" x 17"
I used to get high on life,
but I’ve built up a tolerance.
It continues to pass by and through,
whether I drive or eat or sleep
and/or...
solid. My son never complains
he can't walk through walls or people.
He dies only with wishes not to become
the shadow of a building or street...
There is a gentle language spoken
by things that do not speak:
a Parka draped over a chair back,
a half drunk wine glass on the coffee...
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1. Colibris
Pigma Micron Ink Pens on mixed media paper, 9"x12"
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2. Bird
Pigma Micron Ink Pens on mixed media paper, 9"x12"
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3. Abstract 2
Pigma Micron Ink Pens...
1.
Come to me, dearest day -
bring everything, and nothing
I say, and the Atlantic
offers its high tide,
and the firmament
draws closer by night.
2.
A small hammerhead shark
writhes...
The sky is backlit by these afterthoughts.
The golden hour and dusk shake hands then go
their separate ways, but not before burning
an iridescent edge behind...
Hover over any thumbnail photo to see its title. Click on any photo to see it full size...
You never knew
what shade of blue
to call her. If you
should follow her
out of the forest
and down the lane
to the cottage wired
for wifi and adjacent
to...
Il Faut Imaginer Sisyphe Heureux
"One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy" - Albert Camus
The morning hacks up a sun—nicotine-yellow, thick with last night’s smoke—
splattering the sidewalk...
for R
what I'd much rather to do is walk
into your Georgia home for the first
time, offer cactus honey from the desert,
dump my bag on...
Hover your cursor over each piece to see its title.
Click on any piece to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
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Editor’s Note: These...
1.
A dragonfly landed on a pond
without making a ripple,
then saw its own reflection.
2.
What to keep,
what to change,
what to lose.
What to do
with the remains.
3.
Poetry and...
They vote to hurt the other man. That’s what it looks like. They don’t vote for roads or bread or doctors or better schools...
Our ship at midnight slides
under timeless constellations.
Low Anguilla drifts by,
beaded shore lights snaking.
The kraken in the hold coughs,
shivering through the decks,
as we lift and...
i love Trump.
there, i said it.
go ahead, judge me.
he’s loud,
he stinks,
he humps everything with a pulse,
and he once ate an entire bucket of fried...
You're still here
and yet you've gone
At night
when the house heaves with our breathing
yours is absent
I know
you're alive
but somewhere else
not with me
I sometimes see you
at...
Hover over any thumbnail below to see the piece's title. Click on any piece to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
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All pieces...
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Abstract Digital Painting
To hide my naked head, I wear a rug
which mimics a dead cat.
Ah, how forgiving old age is!
No one wants to embarrass
an ambassador of...
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
At the last midnight ever to fall,
the clock’s brazen lungs swelled full
and...
Here is to a year of living dangerously
because those who dole out portions miss the whole
point that dawns do not rise with guarantees.
I think...
She'd waited around for him all day.
Had prepared his favourite meal.
Even wore the earrings he liked,
the swingy ones with the sparkly balls.
As usual he...
I'm going to Pennsylvania.
I'm taking all the owl statues with me in a plastic bag
to live in real mountains, no scrapyard neighbors
every road narrow
poems...
We took him from the locked place
where 'memory care' meant being tied
to a chair and parked for hours by the main
desk. He said they...
I passed her building again yesterday on the train. It’s wrapped like a Christo – do you know Christo? – it's been in this state I...
quietly on the B train
perfecting a test
to determine the date
of my death
pondering
what I would leave behind
a list of curses tucked between my legs
an estrogen...
A bird broke on the windowpane—thud, feather-flutter, hush.
The glass hummed, the air held still,
thick with the sound of nothing.
His mother, hands white from wringing,
spoke...
The morning started the way it always did: half a joint and a bowl of Frosted Flakes. The cereal was stale and the joint...
I’ve long wanted
an excuse
to shuffle my feet
to take small steps
to own a few canes
My favorite
is a walking stick
my shepherd’s staff
I pretend I am Jesus
40...
Hover your cursor over each image to see its title.
Click on an image to see it full size and launch a slideshow.
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Artist's Notes:
I create...
...
old pennies
gone as smiling like you got a wad
styrofoam cup crack in the dirt
yellow teeth
dirty fingernail scratch
a skipping album
and dull lighting
dull as the TV
infomercial...
To not be that guy who kicks the dead mouse
of his humility under the sideboard.
To not be that guy who leaves their compassion
hogtied on...
we are
a population
of dead kings and drug lords
descended from outlaws
generations
of sunsets and murmurations
carvers of gargoyles
breeders of pigeons
we are sparrowhawks
racehorses
ice cream wars
we are a theme...
He leaned the old wooden ladder against the house,
climbed twice to extend its heavy sections,
retreated to pick up scraper, brush, paint
and mount the lowest...
This is a collection of 19 paintings using watercolor, pencil, and black sharpie. In the artist's words, "they are based on sensations from energies".
Click...
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Watercolour, acrylic and ink on cardboard (collage)
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Acrylic on canvas, 74.5 x 73 inches, 2021. From the OAF Archives: Originally posted on 20 August 2021. This piece was never published on...
Mom started getting
emerald green dishes
every time she went
to the grocery store.
She said Joe’s Food Mart
was giving away
free dinnerware
every time you spent
a certain amount
on groceries.
“We...
the neighbors
are getting their car fixed
right outside my deck
I can’t think from the noise
and the people
I get sucked into the repair
does he want the...
Whisper, whisper—soft-hand hush,
paper-gold lips coil promises,
ribbons spun from the marrow of knowing men.
Tongues flicker in the ear of the street,
warm, wet, lulling—
all is well,...
They came in loud, laughing, chewing gum like it was some new Olympic sport. Kids in expensive sneakers and hoodies that probably cost more...
Just before sunrise, the sky above the lavender farm roared into purple, and the dawn came tinted.
Picture me a purple-eyed child insomniac, skinny in...
Some poems require
an emotional investment,
a commitment to providing
a lived truth, spoken with
a poetic voice meant to
enthrall and excite.
Others are simply bullshit
requiring no depth, no...
A Cooper’s hawk
appears at least
once every other
week. He works
the avocado tree,
hops through its
branches, stares
expectantly— waits
for what will emerge.
his voice haunts me tonight
grief is the price
you pay for loving someone
I know that well
I’ve paid mine
on the installment plan
my crazy grandfather
in 1977
Barbara
my beloved in...
Hover your cursor over each image to see its title.
Click on each image to see it full-size and launch a slideshow.
Wet and moonless, the Japanese maple drips color
on a desolate, metal halide-lit stretch of road, until
pink-red rivulets parade ostentatiously toward
the storm drain. All is...
when I was sitting
at the gas station
picnic table
down to my last cigarette
and one single drop
of rain
put it out
I called
back in the days
of landlines
and her...
On the floor before the library service desk
a little lizard
feels like soft dry rubber
when I put a finger to it.
Think it maybe is a...
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Acrylic on canvas. 24" x 36".
oil pond mirrors the darkness the november
day sun draws white against the grey
this leaf lays on earth
there is no god
not hungry nor otherwise
you look at me straight...
—for Douglas
Baby it's been so long!
What do you want to talk about?
You struggle to make words, blurt
"Spaghetti Sauce"
and disappear into the living room
for a...
Ate well, drank less, exercised,
used valerian root and holy basil,
filtered rainwater and the northern breeze
and the rhetoric coming from outside,
paid attention to mental hygiene,
held...
-
a small black wing
without its bird
skitters across the road
scissor-tail flycatchers
rise and fall and rise and fall
between the wires
like a wonky oscilloscope
that has forgotten its...
I have the inclination
to shut down my tablet
just as I realize
the tablet must be on
to turn off the air
conditioner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7F7n55hpnE
“I watched it through the kitchen window,
up to my elbows in dishes and meat
burning on the stove, but I couldn't take
my eyes off it,...
The Urquhart & Music street sign is a rebus, Kerry claims:
toy firetruck attached at top above a naked plastic Barbie
with a lime-green plastic ball...
i've always managed to hang onto it
that joy inherent in the season
not solely for its christian notes
(which i'll enjoy for what they are)
but for...
Now he’s gone, I left the gate open on my way back from splitting wood. My arms were full. But I felt that worry...
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Watercolor. Artist's Note: This is my favorite art work I’ve done thus far. I am planning on doing more people, so stay tuned, as...
Last week I
painted the cat blue.
Now we sit up until dawn
discussing Kierkegaard.
Strange, because my cat
formerly hated philosophy.
I have noted the level
of my Glenlivet bottle...
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Acrylic on canvas. 67 inches by 50 inches. From the Open Arts Forum Archives, originally posted on 15 September 2021. This piece has not...
to the barricades, mes amis
We think too much of the ends of things, American
Democracy now, or my fountain pen giving up the ghost,
red-state votes cascading down like red...
They say an opening sentence should draw the reader in with its precision and clarity, a bouquet of words with the promise of fulfilment...
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Acrylic. 20" X 22 1/4".
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8" X 8" styrofoam tile. From the OAF Archives. Originally posted on 15 May 2019. This piece was never published on the OAF Front...
Through the cracked visor, the world warps—
a funhouse mirror of ruin.
Behemoth coils across the horizon,
talons raking earth’s bones.
Houses exhale splintered beams;
chimneys thrust skyward: cenotaphs...
I wish I could rub a genie’s lamp
the way I tenderly
rubbed your feet
after a long day of work—
then I would wish
for 3 things:
for another
lifetime...
Lately I’ve had trouble staying in my mind,
like when I’m driving with my daughter
and she’s calling out the colors of cars
passing the other way...
and right now
a little Tibetan boy tends to his yak.
what is
more alive than this boy,
the fire from his cheeks,
the snow bed mountain behind him.
this...
Not to dart along. Stilled. Here.
A life painted on. Dry docked.
No shoal, no fleet. Alone.
Not line caught. Scales of grain crack.
Unworked, unworking. Stopped. Stopped.
The...
Great news! If you’d like to publish my work,
my submission window is now open
and will stay open until the cows come home.
There is no...
The air is a velvet rope, coiled tight ’round my chest.
Breath unspools silver wire, threading ribs,
tugging my spine toward a fluorescent stage.
Copper lingers on...
Tiny, claustrophobic room,
stained Hopi carpet,
folded-up prayer rugs,
assorted scriptures,
brass band in the distance.
Sign:
NO Alcohol
NO Incense Sticks
NO Cell Phones.
Grey steel
lectern,
3 whole-tree-trunk
benches.
In the classroom-style door,
a small, square,
twisted...
