u can't go back

the familiar
web of galaxies comes round
150 million
the years go by so fast
the neighborhood has changed

poetry

yesterday's gone and
the poem was not written
today near as bad

I paint what I see

came the aliens

every shape
short fat tall diffuse
we collaged them
by the thousands
still they came
wallpaper wrapping paper
decorative pavers
and still they come



globe

but then the Earthquakes
we flew, they flew
if it wasn't nailed down it flew
up up up
down down down
again again
and at the peak I saw
the eye in the sky
and heard celestial laughter
and saw the grubby whorls
upon the sky

what?!

out now
it's a cultural thing
we do eat our young

binocs backward

you look so small
I feel like I'm Master
of the Universe

modified from "Over the Top," by Sonic Assassins

stupid grinch

sitting down by the red firelight
guess who's visiting tonight
the jolly elf we love the most
sliced real thin & served on toast

the year in poetry in review

This is all about me, so if you don't want to read that sort of thing, skip to the next post.

I am really thinking only about the poetry that I wrote and published during the year. I started making my list of published poems thinking that it was going to be pretty short this time. Then I started thinking it would be almost all stuff from Brushfires. then I realized I had forgotten a couple, and that I have a few more coming out in "the hungry dead," which is supposed to be available right now. So actually I published a huge number of poems this year, even though most of them are no longer than five lines. More than half of them are in Brushfires, which is the culmination of four years of work. Lately, I have been writing mostly scifaiku and flash fiction, and hardly any of the kind of poetry I was writing a few years ago. The end result of all this is that I have a sneaking feeling that I have gone from writing stuff I had gotten pretty good at to things I don't do nearly as well. I honestly don't know if that is good or bad. Well, enough about me.

them humans!

gypsies, tramps, thieves
we hear the usual names
on every world

Meri Exmass

Christmas flash http://www.dailycabal.com/ Santa in the Time of Warming

I'm in there. It's tasty!

http://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Dead-Zombies-vampires-ghosts/dp/1456391836/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293138770&sr=1-6

The Hungry Dead. Awesomely gross cover & stories & poems galore. Good late gift, I think.

eligible collaboration

I forgot this poem, also Rhysling eligible http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100419/merkel-p.shtml

swing low

Heaven (fibonacci-no ku)



to

my

absent

ancestors

I raise my whiskey

glass, each of us can now persist

till, thru accident or violence, at last we meet



End

Luc Reid's new flash e-book

Hello,



I wonder if you'd be interested in a free review copy of my new eBook, Bam! 172 Hellaciously Quick Stories, a vast collection of flash fiction. It's something to read one story at a time at bus stops and in line at the grocery store, or else to read a dozen stories at a sitting. Bam! follows normal characters in strange and impossible situations: parallel universes, robot insurrections, inexplicable light bulb thefts ... it tells of Cinderella's divorce, inventions gone horribly wrong, heartbreaking successes, children with the power of gods, a self-aware teddy bear forgotten for decades in a toy box, and much more that is unlikely and yet (one hopes) familiar and meaningful.



I'm a Writers of the Future winner, the author of a popular blog about the psychology of habits (www.willpowerengine.com), the founder of the Codex writers' group, a former radio commentator for Jacksonville, Florida NPR affiliate WJCT, a founding member of the flash fiction group The Daily Cabal (www.dailycabal.com), and a columnist for Futurismic (www.futurismic.com). My fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Abyss & Apex, Brain Harvest, and elsewhere.



If you're interested in reading and possibly posting your candid opinions about the book on a blog, Amazon, or elsewhere, I'd be happy to provide you with a free review copy. I expect to have a print edition out next year, but currently only electronic formats are available:



* .mobi (Amazon Kindle and some other eReaders)
* .EPUB (most other eReaders)
* HTML
* Microsoft Word
* Adobe Acrobat (.PDF)



If your computer, smart phone, iTouch, or eReader needs a different format, just let me know.



Best wishes,

Luc Reid

Rhysling eligible poems

All of my eligible poems are now available online, as pdfs, or as text files. Just ask, if you want to see them.

continued at supper

edible poems
short and sweet
each Feb., or
Gettysburg address
on a roast

Rhysling-eligible poems

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

jopnquog@Gmail.com

Poems first published in 2010; eligible for the Rhysling award

Brushfires collection free as pdf for voting purposes. Here are listed only those poems first published in 2010; the collection also includes some reprints. Dreams & Nightmares 85-87 (2010 publication) available as pdfs. I can send text files for the other poems on the list.


Titles and venues

$3 time machine, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
10 video documentaries, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
A Calculus of the Gulf, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
A few stops on the journey, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Above his head, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
alas, poor yorick, Feb. print Scifaikuest
among the fungi, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
and her eyes, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Andromeda gate, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
At the gene gallery, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Bumbling, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Charcoal sketch, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Death and Texas (with Kendall Evans), The 28th Dimension anthology
Death Dreams, Not One of Us
Dragon's breath, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Dust, and Stars, and Night, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Eight foot god, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
find tool, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
4 from an illo, Dreams & Nightmares 87
from Earth we saw planets, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Glaaki to its latest lover, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
gools, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Green Airlines, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
henny youngman, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
How to Shuck an Oyster, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
i don't care, Aug. print Scifaikuest
I Didn't Read the Book, but I Saw the Film, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
intestinal fortitude, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
it's all about astronomy baby, http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/astropoetrytotheglobalastronomymonth/project.html
levering the slab, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
lizard in the window, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
lunar tunnels, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Missionary Mouse, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Name yr poison, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
one born every minute, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
parallel girls, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
payloads splash, Scifaikuest Nov., online
pulling up stakes, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
raid on acephalia, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Rainbow's end cottage, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Recipe for Science Fiction, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
run evolution, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Salad days, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Seasons of the Worm (with W. Gregory Stewart), http://www.goblinfruit.net/2010/winter/
Small steps, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
spinning clay, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Sportfishing in the Cambrian, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
spring peep and toad trill, Scifaikuest, May online
spuddy buddy, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
strings contract, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
sulfur crystals bloom, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the aliens are here, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
The burgers of Tindalos, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the game-ending move, Scifaikuest, May print
The good ship Biblios, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the sandwich opened, Scifaikuest, Nov. print
the sexton, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the swimminghole of stars, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the vampire solution, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
the wheel turns, Scifaikuest, Feb. print
This Must Be the Place, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
this was once mine, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Thousand-year-old eggs, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
trash talk, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
troll, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Wake-up call, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Ware the Diptera!, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
What the Sun Wants, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
When the chair-lord's away, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
where are you, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
where the lander paused, Scifaikuest, May online
Wicked Child, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
Wild Gods, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
women hold up the world, Brushfires, poetry collection from Sam's Dot
you can't recall, Scifaikuest, May print

is that wrong?

the tree

holding
my leaves
a brown cloak

still here

Dad caught me at TransPort
choosing among continua
said I could decide at home
never did

The latest 5-second poem

Something about aliens

and, um, teddy bears
or cockroaches
little boy
in peril
that'll make it seem
more personal than Great
Aunt Mabel squashed
by a 90-meter roach in the
WalMart parking lot
in Tuscaloosa
The one by Sam's;
not the other one

19 seconds.

fast and faster

Old
Gabe
he knew
a thing or
two, but the Thing got
him anyway. Claws, mouths, suckers:
tread lightly in the woods, carry something to toss it

Heau de heau heau

he's allus talkin bout dem
an he for sure know how to shake.
where he go that take so long?
he know which ones is naughty!

his old lady
she don't know
or don't care
them fiiine young elves
is dy-no-mite!
but now
she fixin to sheau

no silly, it's backwards

how
many poems
start with how

how many poems
end with
how

as likely to work

Banker's hours/economic stimulus

goats
Phillips-head screw driver
copper wire from a foreclosed house
banker's hair
a bald banker
Mamie's special blend
a newt

Recite the Drith incantation on a full blue moon

sacrifice the goats
burn everything
not the banker
smear the banker with the ashes
chain him/her naked
to the bank front door
at 9 am

yum

peanuts
pie pickles
promote planetary peace

radiometer in winter

this gol-durn sunlight
turns the vanes
but sheds little heat
on the floorboards

book writing and book reviewing

You all know I just reviewed the massive J. G. Ballard compendium. Some may remember I am working on a popular science book about Pennsylvanian trace fossils and their discovery and protection. I worked on it a little yesterday and I should do more this afternoon before I get tired. I also have a young adult novel about science that I agreed to review for "Reports of the National Center for Science Education." One begins by reading the book, so I'm going to work on the trace fossil book for a while and then switch to reading Sandra Dutton's novel when I'm a little bit too tired for writing. I already wrote a flash story this morning, as well as the short silly poem I posted in this blog, so I'm good on that front.

Speaking of fronts, one is coming through today, and it's a good thing my wife baked a turkey. Made the house smell good and feel warmer than it otherwise would have, for a while.

fundraiser thin on the ground this year

I was only able to donate $30 this year to my local soup kitchen, as a result of my annual fundraiser of books and magazines. I'm going to think about new ways to raise money for them, and if anybody has suggestions, feel free to let me know.

describe from bottom up is best

untied we stand
and tread upon a lace
oh the strata

book review, J. G. Ballard, the complete short stories

JG Ballard, 2010, The complete stories of JG Ballard, W. W. Norton, New York, ISBN 978-0-393-33929-1, $24.95, very thick paperback, 1199 pages. Ninety eight stories, including two that were not, apparently, previously published.


"The complete stories of J G Ballard" is a big book, and Ballard is a world-class writer. The book and the author are beyond my capacity for literary justice. With that warning, you might still want to read my few comments about the book.

First of all, this is only the 98 short stories. The book doesn't include the novels. If it did, it would be much thicker. As it is, it is so thick it is difficult to read.

Most of these stories are new to me (I primarily knew Ballard through his novels), and they are printed in chronological order. Many of Ballard's characters are not fatalists, but they almost all should be. His novels can get pretty depressing. Dashed hopes and failure are easier to take in small doses! It is not true that every one of his stories ends badly for the viewpoint characters, but happy endings are few and far between.

Ballard returned again and again to several tropes in his writing. Dried-up seas, reefs, insane women (many homicidal), pathetic loser protagonists, and an imaginary place he called "Vermillion Sands," which was not the same in every story, but which among its many incarnations seems to represent different aspects of the same decadent and/or decaying world. In the matter of recurring themes there was a progression. He might write three or four stories that explored different versions of a plot, or perhaps different incarnations of a character. At some point, he would have said everything he wanted to say and would move on to do the same thing with another recurring character or story line. Here is one example.

Back in the 70s Ballard published a series of stories about flying. These were not his only stories in which flying was important, and publication order is not necessarily the same as writing order, but this group of stories illustrates his penchant for reworking themes into multiple stories apparently one right after another. "My dream of flying to Wake Island" was published in 1974. In this story, vast numbers of World War II era planes are buried in sand at an abandoned beach resort. People come to excavate these planes the way others go to Civil War battlefields with metal detectors looking for spent 19th-century bullets. The protagonist is obsessed with flying to Wake Island. It is evident from the beginning he is never going to get there. During the story he indulges in various activities that don't further his goal, has a brief love affair, and loses everything. A typical Ballard story.

The next Ballard story published was "The air disaster," which appeared the following year. In this story, a journalist is on his way to the site of a disaster. He is led astray by some local people who eventually lead him to, not an airliner that just crashed with a thousand people on board, but a small airplane that fell in the high mountains decades earlier. This story operates on several levels and it is not much like the preceding story. The protagonist is not an obsessive loser, but he does have an unseemly desire to find a bunch of freshly killed corpses before anyone else does. Then there is his interaction with the locals. He invades their world with the same disrespectful attitude that representatives of technologically advanced cultures often have in such situations. And finally, the comparison between a few dead air men, lost and forgotten, and a thousand travelers whose families have just begun to grieve for them. This comparison is not explicit in the story, but it is unavoidable. Of course, the dead travelers are not really in the story. Only the journalist and the natives are actually present. They meet and interact, but the journalist doesn't understand the locals and they don't understand him.

That same year, "Low-flying aircraft" was published. This story is very interesting. In some ways it is a typical Ballard work and in other ways it jumps the rails completely. In this story, the human race is dying out. All babies born are unviable mutants. Other mammalian species are similarly affected. In a paroxysm of revulsion, people have been ruthlessly exterminating themselves and the larger mammals, until cattle, sheep, human beings, et cetera are almost gone. The protagonist, Forrester, and his wife Judith, are fertile. She conceives readily, but all the newborns are mutants. They are humanely put to sleep. Still, the Forresters keep trying. At the time of the story Forrester meets a doctor named Gould. Gould is seemingly obsessed with flying his airplane dangerously close to the ground, hence the title of the story. It turns out that Dr.Gould has discovered something very significant about the mutants, human and otherwise. He suggests to Forrester that if a creature seems defective to us, maybe we just aren't looking at it correctly. It may simply be different, or even more fit (in an evolutionary sense). The story ends on a hopeful note. "Low-flying aircraft" reminds me more of R. A. Lafferty than of other Ballardian stories.

This is one kind of thematic iteration employed by Ballard. Aircraft are important in all three of these stories, but in vastly different ways. In one, they are objects of a futile obsession. In the next, aircraft are props used to reflect aspects of humanity. In the last, aircraft appear to indicate mental instability, but turn out to be part of something a lot healthier.

Some of the other clusters of related stories contain stories that are more closely related to one another than these three. Sometimes they even contain some of the same characters. For example, the half dozen or so stories in which changes in the flow of time are central to the plot. People live faster than the rest of the world, they live more slowly than the rest of the world, the entire world slows down physically but the speed of thought does not change, and you get the idea. Ballard returned again and again to the possibilities inherent in changes in our sense of the passage of time, whether objective or subjective.

The last story in the book was published in 1992. This is "Report from an obscure planet," which is only three pages long. The story deals with both virtual reality and Y2K. One of his last stories was simply the schedule of a day's television programs. Through the titles and one-sentence descriptions of the shows Ballard sketches out a world.

I have to recommend this book. The price is incredibly low. Ballard's oeuvre encompasses nearly half of the 20th century, and during much of the time he was an important and influential writer. And the stories are good. Depressing, of course, but you don't have to read them all in one day. But buy the book.


End

perspective

low
hanging fruit
to a giraffe

pounds melt away

ya gotta admire
anything that can live on paper
some folks eat words
but it's not a nutritious diet

matrix disassembled

billion brains floating
in nutrient fluid bath
each asking "Hello?"

me in Amazonia

http://www.amazon.com/Nursery-Rhyme-Noir-Deadbolt-Files/dp/0982106831/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1291997839&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Ship-Never-Kendall-Evans/dp/0982135211/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1291997839&sr=8-6

http://www.amazon.com/Simian-Transcript-David-Kopaska--Merkel/dp/193602117X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1291997839&sr=8-7

faerisites

those ain't lice

and don't wash them out

head brownies

which reindeer are girls?

with reindeer extinct,
and the Arctic defrosted,
Santa turned to the noble
Norway rat to pull his sleigh
he saved money on fodder
laid off the elves
put the rats to work in the workshop
during the 364 day off-season

Blitzen woke up screaming
just a nightmare
Donner assured him

Feed the hungry and blow your mind

Last chance to buy genre holiday presents and benefit the East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl at the same time


The Soup Bowl provides hot nutritious lunches for the needy in my town, in my neighborhood. Every year about this time I sell various science fiction and fantasy publications at a discount, and I donate all of the proceeds to the Soup Bowl. If you missed out on the offer that expired yesterday, or decide you need a little more, for the rest of this week only (December 8 through December 10) you can buy a lifetime subscription to Dreams and Nightmares magazine for $50. Not only is this about what you would pay for a 5-year subscription to this magazine (almost 25 years old and going strong), not only do you get all available back issues (7, at this point), but every penny goes to the Soup Bowl. The Soup Bowl feeds the hungry and you get award-winning science fiction and fantasy poetry, forever, or until I kick the bucket, whichever comes first. But you have to do it this week. I need to send a check to the Soup Bowl soon, to make sure they'll have the money before Christmas.

PayPal: jopnquog@Gmail.com, or e-mail me at that address to make other payment arrangements.

gnaw on this

the termite colony
with the most-permeable network
wins

the termite colony
that evades
the most anteaters
wins

the termite colony
that invents
the trail-to-colony
anteater
wins

the termite colony
the improves
termite communication
wins

the
termite colony
that invents writing
writes the history books

new horror flash

What's in your "Spare Bedroom"? http://www.dailycabal.com/

pun

brevity
the sole
of witty feet

above the meniscus

migraine

your grain
ice pick
in your frontal lobe
fin frozen
at the moment
Earth's first step
last one out
drowns in the
dried mud
not all its cracked up
to just
keep 'em
laughing
out there

Circe of life

the crew grew restive
while Cap dallied ashore
oink oink

Annual holiday fundraiser--new offer

5 DAYS LEFT

Annual holiday fundraiser for East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl

In addition to the offers listed below, I have 3 copies of my most popular book, "Nursery Rhyme Noir." Humorous detective stories based on nursery rhymes (reviews below). Just with this offer, $10 postpaid, signed, and all $10 goes to the Soup Bowl.

http://ttapress.com/fix/reviews/nursery-rhyme-noir/
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wual/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=14&id=1470478&pid=217
http://www.writersforum.org/books/book.aspx?ID=197
http://www.slothjockey.com/books/bryant_shelly/hasp_deadbolt.shtml

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

it's all about erosion baby

can you smell
what the rock is cooking
water can

new sf flash

Outpost, tribute to JG Ballard http://www.dailycabal.com/

a future I see

trim the bushes Nurse
I can't see the young women
striding to their cars

yeh well

lumberwurst
wood I
think a bun