but then again...

Sometimes it really is the end

Perfect combination of spices
incantation found concealed
in a warm-blooded book
frustration: the corpse
refused to rise
even the cup of blood
from a living vampire
was no help

We took her to sea
on her black sloop
and set it ablaze
as we watched
from a small boat

I swear I did not see
her struggling
to her feet
amid the mounting flames

play it faster

this band sucks

bug eyed monsters
scream into microphones
robots yawn
bored with death metal
they long for flesh punk

machine oil tears

Robot wannabes
break each other's hearts but it
just isn't the same

poetry chapbooks almost gone

I discovered this weekend that my two poetry chapbooks from Sam's Dot publishing are almost out of print. There are only three copies left of each. The books are "Shoggoths," and "I don't know what _you're_ having." You can buy them from the Genre Mall(http://genremall.com/contents.htm). Just go to the poetry tab and scroll down the page.

easy being green

sun warms siding
anoles look out blinking
at lazy flies

mythoku

blood spills but
That which waited turns away
flies stir the air

our new home

snow by the water
fingers brush the screen &
I turn to go

crocuses will bloom
they keep the old calendar
for this display

children fly in
games that use 3 dimensions
I glide below


I'll b at Omegacon tomorrow -- no post

long-dry river

skipping stones
nestled among smooth disks
some are sharpened

DN 82 in mail

All subscribers & contributors.

poor Freddie

Pig say so long

dawg
eats
sumthin
dunno what
but it ain't varmint
man throws rock & dawg skedaddles
where'm I gone get a new pig; tail tween legs don't cut it

new review of "nursery rhyme noir"

http://www.slothjockey.com/books/bryant_shelly/hasp_deadbolt.shtml

that's ridiculous!

Worm philosophers

peristaltically
assimilate new ideas
cast what you don't need
could people have legs and minds
no, insects live by instinct

DN 82

contrib. & overseas copies mailed. Stamps bought for the rest.

submissions for future issues

82 is ready to be mailed. 83 is essentially full, although I could use a little bit of filler art. 84, scheduled for publication in September of this year, is about 40% full. I'm wide open for submissions of poetry and art for that issue and all subsequent issues.

I have about 10 submissions on hand, most of which have passed the first reading. In fact, as soon as a deposit I am uploading to my PayPal account clears, I expect to accept two or three of them immediately. That will still leave plenty of room in the September issue.

Regrettably, I am still not in contact with my erstwhile layout person, Steve Cooper. I'm a little worried about him. Besides that, he has some filler art that was supposed to go in the issue 82. This includes some work by Guy Beining and by Randy Moore. Nothing I can do about that, but I'm sure Steve will surface again and either will resume his work with me or give me back the art work.

When you send art as electronic computer files, please either sign the work or put part of your name in the file name. This would prevent errors of the kind I made in issue 82, when I attributed two drawings by Scott Virtes to someone else. This was entirely my fault, not Scott's fault, but I would have been able to avoid the mistake if his name had appeared in the file name or on the work in question.

future issues

Dreams and nightmares 83 is nominally scheduled for publication in May. Because the January issue is not being mailed until late March, for reasons previously explained, I'm shooting for June for the next issue. That way I can be caught up by the final issue of the year (September, which is really supposed to be mailed in August) so that all contributors have a good shot at Rhysling nominations

DN 82

Illness & spring break threw me off schedule. The post office and the bank I usually visit, because they'll are by far the most convenient, were both closed because the university was closed. I think the post office was only open for picking up mail from post office boxes. My new plan is to mail all subscriber and contributor copies tomorrow. They are all ready to go and we are not supposed to get rain.

worth the wait

The bones of flowers

moonflowers at dusk
in the years since all five suns
set the vine has grown
white blossoms reflect bold moons
close on unwary birds

crash couch

crash
couch
lucky
green melange
architectural
palette of cookies one side makes
you small one smart one rewrites your code sorry goodbye

rockin' in the House of slumber

can you smell what's
cookin' in the kitchen
of Cthulhu?

what do we know?

Wrong world or incomplete fossil record?

the fossil dude
exited the time machine
breathed Cretaceous air
holy crap he said these shells
I recognize none of them

cleaning up

ghouls achieve the dream
and infiltrate city morgue
cemeteries starve

chemistry of creation

could have been

bare
clay
surface
a template
ions ladder up
each link's twist just so to make a
helix that makes/remakes itself ad infinitum

eat hot steel!

mold on engine room
only the engineers es-
cape the new disease

in the dry country

the stairstep streets
uncoiling on the hill
hoarse barks of fish
mist from the reef carries
memories of home

Conjure Woman

http://www.dailycabal.com/ -- Conjure Woman -- new flash story

ouch!

sliding into you
keeping the bits I like re-
formatting the rest

a cool kiss

like drawn to like
these bipeds so insular
methane sea midnight

in His great House writhing

emerging
from His long illness
world's nightmares subside

DN 82 printed

should be in the mail this week.

new flash story, about pets!

http://www.dailycabal.com/2009/03/the_pets_of_tindalos.html

flash story. Tribute to FB Long. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Belknap_Long

still sick

such a drag

it's flat as a pancake

along the rim
mountains barren hot windswept
waterfalls worse

I've been pretty sick

That's why I didn't post anything Friday. Congested (couldn't sleep) and feverish.

giant brains

billion mile circuits
linked in 3D thought
at last! 42

scifaiku

on a galactic
plain you can walk away
new place new troubles

cinquain

You can't be too careful

wanted
one troll for bridge
all the carp you can eat
and any children that fall in
no pets

DN 82 contents

Dreams and Nightmares 82 is hot off the presses and full of brand-new poetry by some of today's best (see contents below). For $5 postpaid you can have it all.

Stephanie Jacobs, cover
Wade German, The siren
Milan Smith, Earth-ugly ways
Duane Ackerson, Outfoxed
Peter Andrews, Monetizing Helen
Scott Standridge, The best laid plans
Guy R. Beining, illo
Michelle Muenzler, Stone baby
Randy Moore, illo
Ann K. Schwader, Not alone
Guy R. Beining, illo
GO Clark, Slumming with the ghost of Charles Fort
Hillary Lyon, Mike the Jedi
Megan Arkenberg, Cambion
Jaime Lee Moyer, Doppelganger
Joshua Gage, untitled
Randy Moore, illo
Robert Borski, Little Frankenstein

tally ho!

on cricket world
college students sleep all night
party every day

DN 82

I have a proof of the issue & should have copies within a week.

Huxley was wrong

And still it moves


If enough believe,
the great turtle will once again swim the
boundless ether.
It can be done:
computer animation, viral marketing, e-mail
solicitation promising
whatever people want.
The turtle blinks:
earthquake.
A flipper flips: monsoon.
Children's videos on youtube:
tales of the turtle.
Plush dolls, t-shirts, accessories.
The Abrahamic religious authorities
don't see turtle worship as a threat.
But I saw huge shadowy scales in the
last photos sent back from Mars.


end

will this night end?

The rogue nebula

stars grandfather said
were like distant candles
dozens of ghost flames
the veil glowed with lights
even the sun wears a shroud

Imagicon, Birmingham AL Mar. 27-29

http://imagicon.org/gatekeeper/

I will be there. Will read & sign. Hope 2 meet some of you.