Cruel Garters

An Excerpt From My Grocery List has been published in the 5th issue of Cruel Garters.
Send a message to the editors at cruelgarters@cruelgarters.com for a copy. Only 2 bucks for this impressive little collection!

Stolen Island 2014

I'm very happy to be included in Stolen Island's 2014 edition.
Check them out at stolenisland.wordpress.com
Read the 2013 edition for free here: issuu.com/stolenisland/docs/stolenisland2013online

"Excerpts from my Grocery List" Now Available from Beard of Bees!

Photo attributed to Meagan Donegan

I'm happy to announce that my chapbook Excerpts from my Grocery List is now available for download at Beard of Bees! Beard of Bees is an independent, free press. They have published chapbooks by Rae Armantrout, Paul Hoover, and Keith and Rosemarie Waldrop. I am excited to have my chapbook published alongside them.

You can download my book at http://beardofbees.com/pubs/Excerpts_From_My_Grocery_List.pdf

My Chapbook forthcoming from Beard of Bees Press!

I'm happy to announce that my chapbook "Excerpts From My Grocery List" will be coming out mid-December e-book style from Beard of Bees Press! Below are a few sneak previews in the form of my collage poems. Check back soon for details on when and where the downloads will be available.

Nancy Graves' "Perfect Syntax of Stone and Air" w/Excerpts

 

Joan Mitchell's untitled oil on canvas w/Excerpts

Milton Glaser's "Dylan Poster" w/Excerpts

in its plum age

here's a poem for this warm foggy day:

in its plum age

let the bamboo

adore a door

oh, to live in delay

of decomposition

let it, at most

come to fear

the compress

of brother branches

as other stalks

pass on, eat aerie

also dawdle, lei tepee

as the lizard’s

tail withers

away with the sawdust

*

let the dust delay

a stalk is a door

is the door a liar

let it bamboozle

the atmosphere

the compass saw a way

despite what we are

so, so of blood

come, press plumage

into a composition

a tale retold

branches, lives on

in the withered

the other, its after

New American Writing 31

I am happy to have one of my Dual Duel poems in New American Writing's 31st edition. Thank you so much to Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff for all the support and for giving me the opportunity to be published alongside poets I admire so much.

This edition includes Andrew Joron, Gillian Conoley, Maxine Chernoff, Sylvia Legris, John Olson, Nathaniel Mackey, Hoa Nguyen, Donna de la Perriere, Barbara Tomash, Gretchen Stengel, and many many more!

My poem included is about slaying Gorgons and snacking on Gorgonzola, please check it out and pick up your edition at http://www.newamericanwriting.com/

Gesture #4

Gesture, an online literary journal published by the Gorilla Press, has released its 4th edition. My poem "inside every chicken there is a wishbone" is included. Edited by my good friend and colleague Matt Sherling, this edition includes great writers: Yume Kim, Anvhu Buchanan, Steve Roggenbuck, and more. Check it out at http://thegorillapress.com/sites/default/files/gesture_4_.swf

Cipactli Reading

Cipactli is having their reading and reception!

Where: SFSU's Poetry Center HUM 512
When: May 10 at 4-6pm
Who: Cipactli is a Latina/Latino Studies Journal of Art & Literature

My two poems "Three Instances of Waking" and "Dinner Date" are published in this edition.  Copies of the edition will be available at the reading!

You can expect performances by me, Jose Cadena, and many many more!

Also, I may bake goodies for the event. So if you despise my poetry, at least come for the food!

Velro Reading on 4/25/12

Come to the Velvet Revolution Reading Series April 25, 2012!
I will be reading with Jose Hector Cadena. Here are the details:

Location:
The Art Gallery - Terrace Level
Cesar Chavez Student Center
1650 Holloway Ave

Time: 5-7pm
Cost: FREE! + Free snacks/drinks
*8 Open mic slots


Also if you come, I'm bringing these hand-crafted booklets of my poetry to hand out.

The Davis Poetry Anthology

Davis Poet Laureate, Allegra Silberstein, hosted a wonderful event Saturday for The Davis Poetry Anthology. It is a lovely publication representing Davis poets and the Davis community. I am so pleased to have attended the event. It reminded me of the many sights, sounds, and smells of Davis. Sandra McPherson, Francisco X. Alarcon, Andy Jones, and my dear friend Briony Gylgayton are just few of the poets included in the anthology. For more information on the project please follow this link.

Autolycus: a rogue literary journal

Autolycus is a rogue literary journal edited by my dear friends, including Genie Cartier. This week they have come out with their third issue "Frames." Two poems from my "mini" series (mini because most of these poems could fit in your palm) are included in the issue, alongside the works of Paul Hoover, Jackson Meazle, and several other great poets. Issues are available at City Lights in SF or by mail through the website which is linked here.

Below are two poems from the mini series, to give you a taste of my miniature work:


More Sprinkles

When I say to my mother:
The only reason you wanted children was to get away with eating extra sprinkles on breakfast cake.
She merely shrugs…



Photo courtesy of Ryan Deal


this poem
could not
have been

Bruised Peach Press

I had the good fortune to have my haiku published with Bruised Peach Press. You can check out their newsletters as well as my work here

Ghost Town

I am very grateful to have two of my poems published in Ghost Town, a magazine published by California State University San Bernardino. The edition features Bob Hicok as well as many other great poets and writers. Please check it out, you can order copies here.

My poems included are "Avalanche" and "At the Crosswalk: a Car and a Man" dedicated to my grandfather (Funny Grandpa) who passed a little under a year ago. Here is another poem that I wrote about him at the time:

Birthday Parties

Funny Grandpa is the type of person
Who won’t show up at the park for his own
Birthday party, even though it is his favorite
Place to stroll with a book on Sundays

He does not want you to go out of your way
For his sake, surely you have better things to do
Than swing a bat at a piñata and eat cake
With chili peppers for candles

Instead he sits at home petting his pit bull
Ashing pages of poetry, probably contemplating
How people do not exist when they are out of sight
How parties dissipate when he does not arrive

The first time he forgot to call and cancel, my aunt cried
She is crying now though absence is common on occasions
Still we all sit here in the shady trees eating carnitas tacos
Toasting to that Funny Grandpa with homemade jamaica

His Secret Garden

Please check out Compass Rose's blog. My poem "His Secret Garden" is an editors' choice this week, which you can read here: http://compassroseonline.wordpress.com/

The House Appeared to be Virgin

The house appeared to be virgin,
but we knew otherwise.

When the builders slept
she left herself spread open

When she exposed her framing
we carved our names in her wood

When they gave her tiles
we lay on top of her and counted stars

When the walls became solid
we kissed in her corners and shadows

When the locks were installed
the first couple moved in,
and we walked past with our hands clasped.



(Published by Produce Literary Magazine)

Dumpster Dress

Here's an old poem that was published on Nameless Magazine online, but is no longer available on the site. Nameless updates their online fiction and poetry regularly and have a great assortment of work that I would recommend checking out!

Dumpster Dress

And here, pulling up in the Wal-Mart Shopping cart,
comes the unforgettable Miss Blech.

Last time she stepped up to the red carpet,
she was adorned in a classic potato sack
custom-made and hand-stitched.

Tonight she is garbed in a risqué bubble wrap,
quite possibly shipped as an industrial size roll.

There isn’t a fan out here that can take his eyes off her.

The translucent material is wrapped mail safe
around her chest into a provocative tube top;
the plastic forms a white haze like thin clouds grazing her skin,
so that her nipples are no more than two mysterious red suns.

The skirt is also crafted out of those delightful air pockets,
a blue-hued tissue paper trims the edge,
and just barely spills to her thighs.

This is quite a fashion statement.
One of a kind
A kind of one
A one…kind of
She has received several eye-popping glances now.

But this gown is only as appropriate and revealing as
other award winning celebs’. What more could be done
to push the envelope other than wearing a discarded envelope?

Besides…
Torn tin foil for a bracelet,
Colored funnies from the Sunday news for sleeves,
Packing peanuts instead of precious pearls,
A Pete’s Pizza box in place of a brand name purse,
or straws as a stand-in for sweet cigars?

The little accessories that keep her mediocrity
from hitting the hot or not page.

She is now approaching the spaghetti sauce trail.
Let’s see who the next arrival is.

Compass Rose Volume XI

I've been mentioned as a contributor for Compass Rose's Volume XI!
http://compassroseonline.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/contributors-for-volume-xi/

Please check out my poem "His Secret Garden" when available.

Bike Wars: Part 1

I once hit a girl with a bike

while racing to turn in a report

on seismic wave resistant structures.

Afterthoughts of mass-acceleration

force lingered along

the retrofitting of infill sheer trusses

tuned mass dampers, shock absorbers,

concrete columns all holding my focus.

But the poor dear dragged herself

from side to side swaying through

the bike path like a drunkard.

I had a moment to ponder her particle motion

the complexity of their orbits.

Did she have both flexible and stable features;

would she overcome the state of inertia or just snap?

A blue handlebar flexed in the dip of her back.

The collision set her in a three step stumble.

I observed myself skidding, elbows into the concrete.

My single speed somehow diverged off the path.

She apologized and took full responsibility

too naïve to realize how much I was at fault.

I did not bother to correct her, too distracted

by the numbers behind ungrounded oscillations,

the engineered explanation for a deserved wreck.