number 9

the white button


cold rocks are more dense than hot

it's inconvenient when you're not at home

I like you, but you're getting old


has no specific function



end

garden waits

even arsenic
-soaked wood rots fast here
gatepost sags

mind the gaaaaaaaaaap

peel the sticker
win a free trip

that's why I always wear
protective head gear

WIP

A story consisting of a series of flash-size chapters debuts on the Daily Cabal Friday Feb. 5. It's about godhood, childhood, and what happens when power & wisdom are not commensurate.

kablam

All over the front yard

Mama was a firecracker
Dad said
so when she disappeared
I knew what the charred bits
of red paper meant

nausea

Stepping through the portal
during an ion storm
I momentarily perceive everything
everywhere and feel like
a God,
one who is not sure whether he is
coming or going

2010: A space oddity

it looks like our March 6 minicon is shaping up. Lou Anders, Joanne Merriam, Jack McDevitt, and I will be there. I know there will be more and I will update you when I hear anything else definitive. There will be a panel on submitting your work for publication and there will be some readings. I know some science panels are planned, and of course an art show. This event is sponsored by the University of Alabama and there is no charge for attendance. There's also no charge to put your art in the show. the convention will be in Shelby Hall on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa.

silly astronomical verse

I think that I shall never see
a neutron star as small as me
For if I met one I would be
far too short and burnt to see

them were th daiz

I remember
when Earth held 12,000,000,000
just u & me kid

molluscan horror

his pearlescent
radula stropped he set to
prisoner of the cone
she screamed & screamed
his white & russet shell

writing activities

Working on a story that consists of 4 linked flash pieces. Three books in prep: flash collection, poetry collection, book of children's stories about Bad Roberta.

Mars

the rust-limned lock
gapes open on the desert
VOCs disperse

finally made it

we heard the drums first
the lookout called
“Band ho!”

jrrt would have a stroke

grafting an ent twig
onto sequoia rootstock
cloned minds diverge

DN 85 mailing

Most overseas subscriber & contributor copies mailed.

teensy bit off

in haste she spun the dial
hope you like cycads

ouch!

this child so hot
her breath melts neutronium
drinker of suns

it's brillig

The wabe effect

a sundial falls
crushing a dandelion
across the world
gales strip butterflies
from the trees

gotta start somewhere

terraforming
a water world from ground up
don't forget doves

DN 85 mailing Jan. 19

Dreams & Nightmares 85 ready to mail to subscribers Tuesday. Other contributors also, probably.

thanks 4 th wrdz, Muse

Watch out, they spit

The aliens did look a bit
like waterfowl
mauger the tentacles
and of course
good thing they
were pacifists
considering what Leroy
and his partner Billy Bob
did to the Envoy.

Good, though.

golem in winter

ice crystals emerge
pushing frozen mud caps
it doesn't hurt

2-line pome

inside each bottle cap "A" or "T" or
some other piece of the Lost Book

Daily Cabal story--time travel

My story with time-traveling trilobites http://www.dailycabal.com/2010/01/fossil/

horn section

blow each trumpet
on the vine and listen
garden peals

geseundheit!

Embassy from the Antimatter Galaxy

no one shakes on deals
coffee is politely refused
we all cower
when the Attache sneezes

a post-AI world

it's not cruel

they're not alive

sometimes a house runs better

AFTER a lobotomy

they don't agonize so

over paint colors

and the like

my latest poem

http://www.goblinfruit.net/2010/winter/

pdfs of DNs from 2009

I can send pdfs of the three 2009 issues of Dreams & Nightmares (82-84) for Rhysling nomination purposes. Just ask.

DN 85 to be mailed to subscribers this week

Dreams & Nightmares 85

January 2010

Contents

Subscriptions $25/6 issues (2 years)
Single copy $5

Randy Moore, cover
Allen Koszowski, illo
W Gregory Stewart, Practice makes
Robert E. Porter, Grigris
Deborah Walker, The problem with the aliens...
Wade German, Overheard at a wharf-side tavern
Robert Borski, Wormwood
Guy Beining, illo
Bruce Boston, Death of a Changeling
R. H. Fay, illo
Ian Hunter, The golem's touch
Randy Moore, illo
Rich Magahiz, 13 ways of looking at a balrog
Randy Moore, illo
John Johnson, from "The mind is Satan's lawyer"
F J Bergmann, Year of time
Adrienne J. Odasso, The ghosts of Moody St.

Poetry book scarcer than Archaeopteryx teeth

I have 5 copies left. $7 signed postpaid.

the daily argh!

Domestic Astronomy


Kitchen's in opposition
and dinner will be late

Dining room's infested w ghouls anyway
and I'm stuck in the den
in a long-period orbit
no choice but to play Star Commander
and somehow keep the Faith
until the Door opens

I'll make the sacrifice
and clean my room
when the stars are right

holiday's end

gauze-wrapped stars put up
till next year's conflagration
attic black hole

wait 4 it

a tough particle
will the last proton turn out
the light

A prose poem

http://www.dailycabal.com/2010/01/set-a-spell/

after we kill the planet

recovery so
slow the stars come right again
Ïa H sapiens

Interview with me

http://marshallpayne1.livejournal.com/102015.html

shoddy workmanship

the last porch

tearing loose with a popping of nails

spun centrifugally off the last shack

last grandpa clutching

the last rocker

skidding off

into the dead and

absent sun

what is done may never be undone

yesterday I wrote
no poem; today no matter
how many I write
there will never be one
yesterday

DN 85 printed

Just a few days til I can put copies in envelopes

winter

a few flakes
precede colder weather
southern winter

poems eligible for Rhysling nominations

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Selected 2009 poems that are Rhysling eligible

list (*=long poems); complete texts by request from jopnquog@gmail.com

4 Kelvin, Scifaikuest May 2009 print
Andromeda strain, Scifaikuest May 2009 print
company picnic, Scifaikuest May 2009 print
Corn boy, The Shantytown Anomaly 8, Dec. 2009
Corn People, The Shantytown Anomaly 8, Dec. 2009
* CORRECTED MAPS OF YOUR CITY (David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans), Night ship to never (chapbook), Cyberwizard productions, January 2009
Crack one open for the Cause, Star*line Jul-Aug 2009
deep-space derelict, From May 2009 Scifaikuest print
dicing for moons, From May 2009 Scifaikuest print
Dragon's teeth, (Kendall Evans & David C. Kopaska-Merkel), Night ship to never (chapbook), Cyberwizard productions, January 2009
He who didn't look, http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/astropoetrytoiya/astrometeorpoetryshowproject.html
hello/goodbye, 7x20 twitterzine, Jul 10, 2009 (https://twitter.com/7x20)
here we go, From May 2009 Scifaikuest print
hillbilly invasion, Sloth Jocky Jan. 2009 http://www.slothjockey.com/authors/kopaska_david.shtml
Hunting party, Strange Horizons Dec. 21 09 http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20091221/kopaska-merkel-p.shtml
last rock, Scifaikuest Aug 09 print
Looking for a few good brains, Sloth Jocky Jan. 09 http://www.slothjockey.com/authors/kopaska_david.shtml
Maybe the geckos will appreciate it, http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/astropoetrytoiya/astrometeorpoetryshowproject.html
Mollusca über alles, Scifaikuest May 09 online http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/scifaikuest/contents.htm
Raised by wolves, Strange Horizons, Feb. 9 2009 http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090209/raised-p.shtml
*Rattlebox III, Strange Horizons, July 27 2009 http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090727/merkel-p.shtml
She's in the ice, Strange Horizons, May 18, 2009 http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090518/merkel-p.shtml
snowflake gardens, The Shantytown Anomaly 8, Dec. 2009
steering the head, Scifaikuest Nov. 09 online http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/scifaikuest/contents.htm
TEMPORARY, LIKE THE MOONS OF SATURN, (David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Kendall Evans), http://www.silverblade.net/issue5/moons-of-saturn.html
The Ambassador from Deep Space Inspects the Oort's Troops, http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/astropoetrytoiya/astrometeorpoetryshowproject.html
The Dead King of Midnight, Ideomancer Sep. 09 http://www.ideomancer.com/main/ideoMain.htm
The Gastronomicon, Scifaikuest May 09 online http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/scifaikuest/contents.htm
The last time, we trust, Strange Horizons Mar 30 09 http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090330/merkel-p.shtml
The third planet, David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans, Night ship to never (chapbook), Cyberwizard productions, January 2009
Void (a haibun), The Shantytown Anomaly 8, Dec. 09

the nails alone...

Relic lace


God
foot
crater
sacred to
deity we do
not know, but its name is Reebok

geopoetry by Vonda McIntyre

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Vonda-N.-McIntyre/Poetry/Diamond-Craters-by-Vonda-N.-McIntyre

only borrowing

drapes move and cat
pounces on some small critter
tiny bowler hat

cosmology

rappelling down
the leg of the tortoise
next shell peeps thru clouds

didn't post NY Eve-router trouble

Just nip over to the next dimension

& find the smarter version of yourself

to take that chemistry test

Monday