Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Wreck of the GC

the alien forest

it was on a remote
part of the globe
Earth's third hemisphere
everything was
weird
bad
sinister
hungry
tree huggers
didn't last long
moved on in the circle of life
were off the died cos
too fatty
needed to get out more

Monday, November 29, 2010

Algalalia

Algal blooms
don't last long when cut
algal blood
type green red or cyanotic
algal blur
on the other side of the window
algal bluff
slippery and unsupported
algal blues
play that again from
where some cells
went motile

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Friday, November 26, 2010

out ma window

droplets pause
at each leaf base
red berries

Holiday soup-kitchen fundraiser --12 days left!

Annual holiday fundraiser for East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl

Most of you probably remember that I raise money for my local soup kitchen each year about this time by selling some of my publications and donating the proceeds. This is what I'm doing this year.

I have 7 recent back issues of Dreams and Nightmares. Order anywhere from 1 to 7 of these at $4 each (a 20% discount) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. If you already have some of the last 7 issues, tell me which ones you want or which ones you have.

I also have a few copies of my two collaborative chapbooks with Kendall Evans. Separate Destinations is $7 and Night Ship to Never is $8. Order either one now (or both, for $13) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. And I'll sign the books. By the way, Separate Destinations is out of print, and I only have three copies left. If you don't buy them from me, now, you might not be able to get them at all.

So that's the deal. 100% of the money goes to charity and you get books or magazines that make great holiday presents.

I prefer payment to PayPal at jopnquog@Gmail.com. If that doesn't work for you, try 1300 Kicker Rd, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404.

I must receive your order by December 7, 2010.

David

Thursday, November 25, 2010

how could she!

I will show that Mrs. Dumpty cracked her husband, scrambled him & cooked him. Then she & Little Boy Blue devoured him in a cannibal frenzy.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

wake up and smell it

The life of a cell by Renee Montage

callipygian girls
floating in mist
hurrying on errands
bureaucratic and less so
kitchen appliances
toast-popping and drink mixing
pressed flowers
rugby players
their soiled equipment

step back
paradise the dream
surreality in housewares
each agglomeration in turn
a Closian image
of simple geometric forms
viruses voiding
themselves
into something big
a deathstar waiting
to explode

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

new story

"The Tooth," my fantasy story today http://www.dailycabal.com/

evolution lecture in Tuscaloosa December 2 7:30 PM




More about the lecture

http://uanews.ua.edu/2010/11/ua-allele-lecture-series-continues-with-harvard-biologist-hopi-hoekstra/

Charlottesville winter

Flexible Flyer
does a 180
keeps on going
it's all fun and games
till we hit the dogwood
face roll
collar snow laugh
sister not crying.

let's do it again
but this time
all three of us

Monday, November 22, 2010

masquerade

but then again
a lot of carnage
could've been avoided
if Tarkeen HAD
let the miners
smash every last one
of the eggs they found

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Holiday soup-kitchen fundraiser & sale reminder

Annual holiday fundraiser for East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl

Most of you probably remember that I raise money for my local soup kitchen each year about this time by selling some of my publications and donating the proceeds. This is what I'm doing this year.

I have 7 recent back issues of Dreams and Nightmares. Order anywhere from 1 to 7 of these at $4 each (a 20% discount) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. If you already have some of the last 7 issues, tell me which ones you want or which ones you have.

I also have a few copies of my two collaborative chapbooks with Kendall Evans. Separate Destinations is $7 and Night Ship to Never is $8. Order either one now (or both, for $13) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. And I'll sign the books. By the way, Separate Destinations is out of print, and I only have three copies left. If you don't buy them from me, now, you might not be able to get them at all.

So that's the deal. 100% of the money goes to charity and you get books or magazines that make great holiday presents.

I prefer payment to PayPal at jopnquog@Gmail.com. If that doesn't work for you, try 1300 Kicker Rd, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404.

I must receive your order by December 7, 2010.

David

this 1 is big

this clinker

won't grow squat

beans though

corded vine through the roof

see who's come down to visit

Friday, November 19, 2010

tooth & claw

nature vs nurture



nature vs nurture

sing praise in chorus for

a well-trained clipped verdure

our safety to restore.


options we had many

we went with centipede

it strangles, then dismembers

its genome has been freed.



end

Thursday, November 18, 2010

farewell isn't what it's all about

Nothing is permanent,
even the things
that feel like they are;
bad poetry commemorates
every loss,
especially the important ones.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

dreams and nightmares submissions

I haven't posted an update about that recently. Last weekend I got mostly caught up on responding to submissions. I held on to a few about which I could not decide. The next three issues are all but full. This means that, although I am still reading, I am going to be choosier than I sometimes am.

the real reality

I was pretty busy pondering the significance of isotope variation in calcite veins, yesterday.



the sun sees but
is not seen by window
radiometer

alack

did
I miss
Tuesday oh well

Monday, November 15, 2010

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Saturday, November 13, 2010

review of poetry book

Bob Raczka, 2011, Lemonade, and other poems squeezed from a single word, www.roaringbrookpress.com. I wrote a nanoreview on Twitter, but this book deserves a little more. This is a slim orange volume of poems made from single words. In other words, you can use only the letters that are in the title word to make the entire poem. Here is an example

Breakfast

a f t
e
r

re st

ea t
fast
as
a
b ea st


See?! These poems are really utterly charming, and the concept (not original to the author of this book) is clever. Illustrations by Nancy Doniger add to the reader's pleasure. The book would appeal, I think, to anyone interested in words, perhaps especially children. The book is aimed at ages eight to 12, is 48 pages long, will cost $16.99 US, and will be on sale March 15 of the coming year. The ISBN is 978-1-59643-541-4.

A good gift for a playful bibliophile.

Don't let the cook in the engine room

"The Brass-Bound Spaceship." Cesare could never remember which way was "Off" on the boiler.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

my new story is science fiction or maybe fantasy

new flash fiction "the last word" http://www.dailycabal.com/ -- talking animals, philosophy, and death!

dreams and nightmares 88 and the end of the world

Almost time to start putting this together, if I am to get back on schedule. Unfortunately, just mailed the previous issue a couple of weeks ago. I think I'll compromise and start putting together the next issue at the end of November. That way it will be a couple of weeks later than I wanted and I will still have caught up by several weeks. The next two issues are full. I have a little bit of room in the end of the world issue, number 90, due to come out not too long before the end of the world in December of 2012. Okay, it's coming out in September of 2011, but that gives you time to read and reread the wonderful poems before everything goes away. Anyway, my point is that if you have a short but sweet apocalyptic poem and want to send it to me, I still have a little bit of room. And I am accepting work for issue 91, due out in January of 2012, and all subsequent issues in due course as long as both I and the world continue to hold together.

ode to low-latitude winters

cold
wind tweeted
70C down here

annual holiday fundraiser for local soup kitchen

Annual holiday fundraiser for East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl

Most of you probably remember that I raise money for my local soup kitchen each year about this time by selling some of my publications and donating the proceeds. This is what I'm doing this year.

I have 7 recent back issues of Dreams and Nightmares. Order anywhere from 1 to 7 of these at $4 each (a 20% discount) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. If you already have some of the last 7 issues, tell me which ones you want or which ones you have.

I also have a few copies of my two collaborative chapbooks with Kendall Evans. Separate Destinations is $7 and Night Ship to Never is $8. Order either one now (or both, for $13) and I'll donate all the money to the Soup Bowl. And I'll sign the books. By the way, Separate Destinations is out of print, and I only have three copies left. If you don't buy them from me, now, you might not be able to get them at all.

So that's the deal. 100% of the money goes to charity and you get books or magazines that make great holiday presents.

I prefer payment to PayPal at jopnquog@Gmail.com. If that doesn't work for you, try 1300 Kicker Rd, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404.

I must receive your order by December 7, 2010.

David

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Pushcart nominees

Congratulations to these 2010 Dreams and Nightmares Pushcart nominees!

Adrienne J. Odasso, The Ghosts of Moody Street, Dreams & Nightmares 85, p. 20, Jan. 2010
Neal Wilgus, Mariah, Dreams & Nightmares 86, p. 6, May 2010
Brian Trent, A holiday in necropolis, Dreams & Nightmares 86, p. 7-8, May 2010
Wade German, Dunwich Pastoral, Dreams & Nightmares 87, p. 4, Sept. 2010
Nathan Whiting, The new fast-built planet, Dreams & Nightmares 87, p. 17, Sept. 2010
Robert Frazier, Wreck diving the starship, Dreams & Nightmares 87, p. 12-15, Sept. 2010

let's get small




An ooid, a concentrically laminated calcium carbonate spheroid, formed inorganically by wave action around a pre-existing nucleus. The nucleus in this case is the microscopic shell of an amoeba called a foraminiferan. Just so you know.

A tiny box without key or lid
inside a chambered treasure hid
its maker dead and long forgot
yet carbon saved so we aren't hot

Doggerel again, I'm afraid.

Brushfires cover



This is the handsome Richard Fay cover for my new poetry book out just last month from Sam's Dot. The book's available from The Genre Mall for $7 and change. Want a signed copy? I can handle that for the same price.

Brushfires is about 1/2 reprints (mostly older ones) and 1/2 new poetry.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

doggerel + horror

Rickety tickety sound
The ghoul came out the ground
The thing ate one
Said "What fun,"
And gobbled the whole durn town,

Sunday, November 7, 2010

eliminatory

a pumpkin rises
its orange mouth opens wide
swallows the moon
the orange rings of Earth

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Friday, November 5, 2010

getting rid of stuff

culling the family album


yet another recording
of great grandma
on the swing
as a little girl back on Mars

out it goes

the simulacrum's
pleading rises thru
the vocal register
as the code unravels,
ending with a despairing
helium shriek

New sf flash -- haunted houses of the future

"Misprint," sf flash http://www.dailycabal.com/ Homeowners beware!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Brushfires ready for orders

$7.50, postpaid, signed, paypal to jopnquog@gmail.com, where you should also inquire with any questions.

I won't get any submissions today

Or tomorrow. Some jerk broke our mailbox, snapped 6" post off at ground. No car did that. Hope truck repairs r high $$. Not easy to dig out post stub.

tough break

on Aqua it rains
hard every 3000 years
my salt sculpture!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

a paleontology post: mystery fossil



The mystery concerns the two dark linear objects in the center of the photo. They are each slightly more than half a centimeter long. They are Chesterian (Mississippian, lower Carboniferous) & were collected from a tropical carbonate platform in northwestern Alabama, USA.

Voted and a poem

absentee ballot
traveled far but can't be counted
species extinct now