Free write, week 9

Put it on ice and have another shrimp on the barbie says the gap-toothed youngster. Always yapping,
saying something that someone else just said.
Speak easy. No. Just speak
Stupid.
I'm tired I'm tried I'm tired I'm-

No we can't do it.
I don't learn that way.
I need my crutch my band-aid my mother.
I'm softer than my dad and he's softer than his.

How did we get to be so dumb?
When did we give up?
Why are we allowed to?

Hold on--we must take the necessary precautions to condition ourselves to be suitably able to address any such situation that may arise as such per district mandatory orders on a strict delivery for immediate action upon command or punitive actions can and will be taken if compliance is not provided with a smile.

It's too hard.
I don't get it.
Get what?
All of it.
What part?
All parts.
Really?
Yes.
How can I help you?
This is stupid.

Pedagogy Forum, week 9

In response to Dr. Davidson's question about what type of poet we are, compact or long-winded, I have analyzed my tendencies. I find that I usually write shorter poems in my initial drafts. However, as I edit my work, I tend to write a bit more. It seems that when I take a second look, there's more that I need to explore. My goal is to try and write a few longer pieces on my first try. I find that I tend to cut myself off if something doesn't sound quite right, and feel that this constriction may be limiting my creative faculties. Therefore, in my free write this week I'm going to let the faucet flow...

Response to C. Yarbrough's Pedagogy forum week 9, week 9

I agree 100% that not all students are college material. We need to adopt a European model for schooling. Or at least a program that takes lessons from the ever-increasing number of countries that are doing a better job than us. Why isn't this happening? Why isn't it obvious? Most of the countries that have higher test scores offer a vocational path for those students who are not "college material." If we instituted a consistent, national vocational program, we would have for more students graduating with an education that really matters to them. We would also increase our skilled labor work force, which is on the decline. Furthermore, many of these students would be making more money than if they went to a four-year college and would boost the economy with the added revenue. I struggle to find a downside here.

Junkyard quote, week 9

"What are panhandlers gonna do when we go to a paperless money system?" -Chris Yarbrough

Junkyard quotes 1-3, week 9

"I had my tooth knocked out by a dildo-bazooka." -Johnny Knoxville on Late Night


"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." -Oscar Wilde

"Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time." -Steven Wright

Free write, week 8

Here is my experimentation with exercise 4: "Lexical accretion (or the piling up of similar words)" in Writing Poetry, p. 208. I borrowed the title of Mike Doughty's song "Busting Up a Starbucks."

Busting up a Starbucks with a white-frothed shovel
I up-end an Espresso-shotted double.
Busting up a Starbucks into a million tiny little
pieces, coffee grinds spilling, spackiling wall like
feces. Busting up a Starbucks, all the Mexican
Java Joe. Entrails of bitter sugar-seeking begonias
as heat-seeking missiles splash out aromas.
Busting up a Starbucks with cash in clip. Tall, grande,
ala mode, searing hard-cracked hands with sweet finger jars of
tips.

Sign Inventory Post, week 8

In reference to Robert Creeley's "I Know a Man," Contemporary American Poetry, p. 218

• The word "said" is abbreviated "sd" once in each stanza, except the third. It is also the only word abbreviated in the work, besides "yr" for "your."
• "I" is repeated three times in stanza 1 and nowhere else in the piece. "I" is also used in reference to the dominance of conversation in stanza 1: "because I am/always talking,"
• "John" is the only name referenced in the poem. "John" is also "not his [John's] name."
• "John" and "I" are the only capitalizations besides the first letter of the first word. The word "christ" is not capitalized.
• The work moves from points of view: from "I' in stanza 1, to "his" in stanza 2, to "we" in stanza 3, to "he" and "yr" in stanza 4. Oddly,the piece ends with the only 2nd-person perspective throughout. It is the only time the other passenger speaks.
• The whole piece is one, run-on sentence.
• The Lord's name is used twice, once in each of the last two stanzas, in reference to a "big car" and his "sake." Both are used in vain, neither is capitalized, and both are in answer to to a question of "darkness" that "surrounds."
• The characters in the work are entirely anonymous aside from Christ, who is only referred to in abstraction.
• The word "surrounds" is enjambed at the syllable break and is the only hyphenated word.
• The solution to the problem of the "darkness" is purchasing a "goddamn big car." Similarly, "drive" is the offered solution to the first speaker's dilemma.