off the wagon again

I think that I shall never see
a laundry greener than a tree
unless a paint truck,
parking there, should blow,
and even folks across the street
would seem St. Paddy's Day
celebrants, displaced in time,
or photosynthesizers,
for all the green that's in their hair.

sharpened bananas

The old DNs is going fast.

Responded to ~half of DN subs since last time.

Ate delicious chili at UUCT cookoff.

Friend gave me Lovecraft fiction omnibus!! Now my output will plummet for a week.

Here's a new poem

For the people of Egypt

how like the stars
which breathe
and gutter
out we are
in this in whom we speak
and raise hands
to one another
and grow flowers of freedom
with our love

A few Dreams & Nightmares back issues found

$4 each

See zine website for contents of most of these: http://dreamsandnightmares.interstellardustmites.com/

30/31 - short version & long version
44
45
46
49
61
64
65
69

cat people

if the books fit on the shelves
if every pepper picked
if the cat ...
sorry, that's more than 3 wishes
right there

really

friday
sings outside
my sunny window

My new horror flash

Don't get too close to the edge http://www.dailycabal.com/2011/01/i-fell/

Escorts don't have to take you out

boy
rang
bell just
in the nick
she wouldn't have to
watch gymnastics alone tonight



Thanks to Nicole Hollander's "Sylvia" for the idea.

my favorite season

Hard Rain

It's
fall
iron
condenses
bright sky gift cools earth
fat drops hiss and pool about my
feet; strength renewed I take up again my pen and write

what is it about Tuesdays?

More T

Texas
Tennessee
Thelma

Please Sir, can I have some more?

1 lump or 2?

Mordant
Morbid

You trying to make a fool out of me?

DN 88

N. Am. subscribers & contributors should get copies this week.

spring in January

are those tulip leaves
really growing already
no crocuses

barred none

owls
wonder who's
working the grill

DN 88

Last subscriber & contrib copies mailed yesterday.

tufted turfmice!

brown squares
who lays turf
in January

pseudo-mythos couplet

That is not smelt which precipitates alone,
in vacuum and on lifeless stone


I have no clue where this came from.

dreams and nightmares update

Last night I caught up to one week ago reading submissions. The next two issues are mostly full, but I am reading for the issue that will come out in about 11 months. I still haven't mailed every copy of issue 88, but unless the sky opens up again I will do that today.

can one ever really make up for a missed day?

you can try but
only today changes
tomorrow too

reap, eat

terrible
twos day
all over again

new SF flash

Robbie the robot http://www.dailycabal.com/2011/01/just-because-youre-paranoid/

Star Child

Outside the Sun

cold
dark
the void
sucking heat
radiation flees
heart stills, light thoughts slow to a crawl

Pringles dragon-flavored chips

I really must apologize


Yesterday's story
opened a Can of Wyrms
I fervently wish the Lid could be replaced
each gently toasted slice
so much like every other
it seems clear they were ground,
reconstituted, and pressed into service
you plant these in your field
soldiers ain't what you will get
software engineers? We should be so lucky!
I think we're gonna need
a case of brains.
better bring two, JIC,
and hope they don't remember
they once knew how to fly.

know, u dint!

sooey side

the
pig jumped
fronta my truck!

a little semi-found poetry

this do
taxes less
only on my mark

wait...what?

calamity
my MD
denies science/logic

DN 88

all domestic subscriber copies are in the mail as of today. Overseas copies and contributor copies are mostly going out tomorrow.

I could use a couple of apocalyptic illustrations for issue 90. Nothing really big, just some interesting and devastated filler.

sf tanka

shrink ray

perfected in the nick

the walls have spies

tiny cell phones still work

boss can't hear high frequencies

hell's just temporary storage

sole source supplier
disembodied workers
in bulk

arf

equate stars and mice
in poetry at peril
the mote speaks

weather update and today's poem

Those lucky folks in North Alabama got up to a foot of snow last night and all I got was this lousy two-inch icicle! [No picture included] the roads iced up overnight, but the icicles on the bushes outside my window are melting, so I imagine driving will be safe within an hour. We are supposed to get more bad weather, possibly including more sleet, today and tonight, but all we will get today is rain. everything is closed, but most likely tomorrow we will be back to normal. I hope so, because we have to drive three hours to Jackson Mississippi for a meeting.

There was a bad storm in the land,
ice covered the roads despite sand,
the office was closed,
twas great I suppose,
but the poet had time on his hands.

Too bad he did not also have inspiration.

the blizzard of 2011

I would be mailing dreams and nightmares 88 tomorrow, but we are even now being pelted with sleet and just about everything is closed tomorrow. Of course the post office will be open, if they still take that pledge, but supposedly the streets are going to be icy. The city is closed, the state is closed, the schools are closed, the University is closed, etc. I guess that means I can do some more writing on the trace fossil book tomorrow.

Zeno's starflight

stars
blue-shifting heaven
still not there

DN 88

More mailed today, & should get all of them ready to mail Monday. Course, we're expecting an Alabama blizzard (possible snow, or rain, or clouds), & that might cause delays.

some like it that way

she forgot the tray
when the recruiters came
brown apple

new horror flash

"I Ate A Zombie" http://flashesinthedark.com/ -- By me. Warning: not humor.

issue time

pallid rectangles
cluster thickly about me
mailing date



DN 88 in the mail (in part) today.

it's the simplest thing

date ripper
I cut you from my life
yesterday's gone

ouch

the crimson beast
erupted from the wall
a stone through paper

a tanka

the green lizard
stuffed its cheeks with yummy seeds
too fat to run
Felix loved a one-dish meal
that prepared itself

not a poem; nanofiction

Bob was condemned to repeat Groundhog Day until he got it right. 30 billion repetitions later the universe shot itself in despair.

spacesuits and everything

Space Opera flash from me. Too busy to post about this yesterday. http://www.dailycabal.com/page/2/

monday, monday

u r sew blew
eye dint sea Euan these Kai
meat eww

just when ya thought it was safe to nod off again

Dreams and Nightmares 88

January 2011

Contents

Teresa Tunaly - cover
From the brain stem - 3
Meg Smith, My Friends, The Locusts - 3
Bruce Boston, I Met a Woman in the Shadow City - 4
Randy Moore, illo - 5
Darrell Schweitzer, Hadrian’s Tomb - 6
Nathan Whiting, A Secret Would Decay If Told - 7
Elizabeth Lee, Yellow Wallpaper - 8
Gary William Crawford, Sign Language - 10
W. Gregory Stewart, See, Here’s the Thing -- - 12
Lorraine Schein, Nimue, Enchanted - 13
Sheila Kopaska-Merkel, illo - 14
Kurt MacPhearson, Io’s Reality Check - 15
Robert Borski, Gavage - 16
Hillary Lyon, The Heaven of Vampires - 18

but I put one copy in good hands

Manila envelopes

zombie lit
turned face down for the party
appetite begone

dreams and nightmares 88

I have almost finished laying out issue 88. It turns out I had more room for poetry in there than I thought. Consequently, poems scheduled for future issues have, in a few cases, moved up. The May issue is full. The September (end of the world) issue could probably hold one or two more poems. January of next year is almost completely available.

Anyway, since I made so much progress on layout yesterday, I feel certain I will send the issue to the printer tomorrow as I had hoped to.

dreams and nightmares 88

I am laying out this issue today. It is possible I can send it to the printer on Monday. If I make that goal I should be able to put it in the mail before the middle of the month.

By the way, has anybody been bothered by the font size in recent issues? Inquiring minds want to know.

expanded list Rhysling-eligible poems

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

jopnquog@Gmail.com

Poems first published in 2010; eligible for the Rhysling award
(not an exhaustive list)

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.


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
Guess who's coming to dinner, The Hungry Dead
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 your 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 Toad God Gift (w Wade German), Beyond Centauri
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
Tweaking the world bundle (with Kendall Evans) , Strange Horizons
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100419/merkel-p.shtml
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

review of Bam!, flash collection by Luc Reid

Reid, Luc, 2010, Bam! 172 hellaciously quick stories. Self-published as an e-book in every format imaginable. $2.99 [See end of review for download URLs].

Bam! is intended to be read during those odd moments when you want to read, but don't have very much time. Personally, I don't often have two minutes for reading. Two minutes is about how long it takes to read the average story in this book. If I have just two minutes, my first thought isn't "Oh! I need to read something." It takes me at least that long to absorb whatever is worth looking at in my surroundings. Fortunately, it's perfectly okay to read more than one story, one right after the other. That, I have time to do. I found myself reading this book over a period of a week, but mostly in a couple of days. These stories are the literary equivalent of potato chips, but without the fat. Actually, that comparison is unfair. I enjoyed every single story. Many made me stop and think for longer than it took to read the actual story. Reid is very good at creating a compelling situation in a few words and bringing it to a satisfying end just as quickly. A few are merely jokes, but they're good jokes. Most are surprisingly nutritious considering how few words it took to make them.

These are what most people call flash stories (fewer than a thousand words per story; in most cases fewer than 400). With this number of words to play with, you can write one scene, maybe two. It's not easy to inject an entire world into one scene, but Reid does that time and time again. The characters, whether they live in one sentence or 20, are real people. Don't take my word for it. Go to www.dailycabal.com and read some of his stories. Some of those stories are in this book, but Bam! contains stories that were published elsewhere, as well as new material.

In case you don't want to take my advice and check out some of Reid's stories online, I will say a few words about them here. Bam! is full of death, transformation, alternate realities, alien worlds, time travel, and dystopias. Not many utopias, because really, what is there to say about perfection? The stories range from upbeat to downbeat; some are simply there. Some connected stories form trilogies, tetralogies, and so on, but most stand alone. Most, but not all, are science fiction. What? You want some examples? Here are just three.

From "The war with the clowns":

"Sometime in the dark hours of the morning on April 1st, Clowndependence Day as they later called it, I woke up choking and blinded, half-suffocating on a face full of coconut cream pie."

Or, "Up late with all the power in the universe":

“Claude, why did you make us alive?” said a monkey with a drum. “Now that we’re alive, we have a lot of feelings, and we don’t know what to do about them.”

Or, "Good news from the European National Lottery Foundation":

"I already knew what the new universe would be like: all the others. Very little changes from one version of reality to the next. That’s why I was working the same scam over and over, in universe after universe. Pretty soon I would have enough to set me up for life."

Get the book. Enjoy. Tell him I sent you. (Just kidding about that last part.)


Find Bam! Here:

on Amazon for Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GUS8Q8?ie=UTF8&tag=thewillengi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004GUS8Q8

(or at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GUS8Q8 if you prefer it without the affiliacy info) and

on Smashwords for all eReaders at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35395 .
 
Soon at http://www.lucreid.com/bam

make it a good one

backward in time
one day per day he moves
the eternal now