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Erik Whalen Nov 2018
As usual, the last juice in my phone battery petered out as the bluetooth speaker positioned on the picnic table started beeping and repeating the word "pairing" over and over.

That was the last bit of company that I would be able to fool myself with that night.

The rustle of the mighty firs and the deafening quiescence of the oak trees proved to be a captious audience, with the only essence choking back the seeping darkness a fire pit, searing brilliantly at nightfall.

The flames crackled and burst in the sap-filled wood, giving me an opportunity to drown the eve in the fire's sporadic, propulsive popping.

With no more music to accompany me in the night, I tuned my old guitar, which was resting in the backseat of my car, and I slowly worked out the notes to several melancholy acoustics that I treasured in earnest and frequented as I did eating and breathing.

My world should be quiet, but my brain never sleeps.

As if possessed by a sudden desire to purge old memories, I threw that old album that we so cherished in along with the next few logs.

In a panicked frenzy, I pulled the book as quickly as I set it down, hands searing from the heat, and I stamped out the flames with an old coat I had brought with me.

Throwing another log onto the campfire, I took a dried rag I had soaked in some copper chloride and watched as the flame that came out shined almost a sea-foam green, different from the azure I was expecting.

For once, the aforementioned seeping darkness had crept to the corners of the campsite as the brilliant display lit up the whole area, proving to both be a fantastic show of color as well as the first truly chromatic moment that had happened in ages.

No one had come, of course. It was as expected. It's cold as a glacier and there's hardly any beer, so I wouldn't really blame them.

That's it, maybe we're thinking glass half full.

Slumber met me with its sweet embrace, the only silence I would permit to befall me and the only silence I had been grateful to.

Pale sunshine pierced through a single cloud in the morning late.

A crisp chill and the light drip-pat-pat of the falling rain outlined my mood better than my words were able to.

I'm not sure what I need to feel satisfied, but a glass half empty is not a glass half full.

I checked my phone, which had been on a power bank all night, hoping to have companionship other than a text from my parents or a message from my girlfriend telling me to cheer up again.

Of course, the phone was only at 25%, and I had better get moving if I wanted to be home and enjoy the constant rattling of every day life that drowned these natural sounds out.

If I'm only half-here, then I might as well leave.

I must have been the last one to have been ground to rubble.

I had remained oblivious for many years, before I knew what it was to be without my trademark foolish optimism.

That pale sunshine would have served me a fiery orange, scorching the awoken sky in a torrid, infectious sprightliness.

What was once a glorious, chromatic panorama had become a single, stilted picture frame long discarded, the glass broken from frequented moments of reminiscing.

If I had left months ago, would any of you have remembered me?

As I prepared to leave, I picked up that old photo album, now singed at the edges, and picked up my slippers from the side of the fire pit, which were left to dry and instead showered in the early morning.

I threw the photo album in the trunk and packed the rest of my belongings, heading back home to Camillus where I could pretend that all of this noise was good for me.
Hey guys! Just a little string of free-form lines that I came up with during a choral observation last night, hope you enjoy them!
Someone’s white golf ball
lies, abandoned
between moist grass and
desolate wanderers through
municipal courses
during Evening on
Father’s Day. Holding my pin, my quill
Frantically stitching point de capitons
between myself and the calm, fair way
I walk with conviction
alone, among firing-
flies toward all fathers
tonight, as swathing sprinklers gush, displacing
***** in-utero, past fences protecting
femme fatales whose unknown aspects
hang off tree rows
protruding from shoulders
sand-like limbs, flexed, stringy biceps
connect to its plastic dimples
through sturdy, wooden
fingers burrowed under grass and
swaying, pink clouds within
my eyes. Beyond hole
nines, red markers markers and ladies’
tee boxes
unacknowledged from
the green.

Rippling blades cede to setting-
star’s sacrimony in
vacant son-rooms, the
porches left of center, gurgling
traffically enveloped by laughter,
disinterested.

For this sight I cut my hair
inside my cozy, beige apartment
complex with a blue shower
curtain-wearing green, graphic
tease
printed by gray palm trees
swoops a hunting eagle, into the ebbing
stencil-tide of late day
orchestrated by man, this occurrence is
vagueary and seductive machinery
programmed by man
producing all, we are.

Waving tufts and leaves fall from
oaks wafting time past my nose with
rhythms out ciccadas, harmonies out
couples pulsating the sky,
ease pressure on vestigial nerves under
their atmospheres, droning vibrations, hollowed-
out and upholding
like arms do, Earth’s giant didgeridoo
We hum beside propulsive kangaroo
Tendons—see!
we’re becoming
taut on
empty bones holding-
black
birds with wings thrown desperately
toward others, panic
aloft in velvety
blue oxygen.

Picturing our streets’ concrete
burst asunder by
metesticized pipes watering formulaic
grounds
unearthing rock
and shrub
I passed the mangled corpses of adults
their kind, sighing.

I know it is as lifeless as his faint,
decomposing golf ball my dad
may have allowed me to
see. Our drowning star swoops
into the ocean
as eagles stamped on chests do,
unknown to time,
and loving shadows
untouched by yellow,
translucent lamp-
glare avoids the fallow structures
built with cement
inside the boudoir
of this day.
MMXII
My recitation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1OBjxUlePo&feature;=youtu.be

An explanation of the name:
My father and I have in common, among other things, a middle name.
Sleeves of golf ***** have three and they are numbered 1-2-3.
I don't know where the other two went, but the ball I found on my walk that night
was titled "1," and I am not the first child but rather between two sisters.
Every year, my older sister bought my dad pistachios or something and I would often buy him golf ***** while my younger sister usually bought him candy for this special occasion.
We all love my father deeply and he has been very supportive, but I sometimes ignore
the fact that we did not start from nowhere and there must be some solid foundation into
which fertilizer is diseminated.

There are sacred things and people to be respected. I love my parents and could not be alive
without them. So this is really a tribute to both of them.

Please bear with me as I indulge this incredibly personal sentiment for myself.
Paul d'Aubin Dec 2016
Ce Matin-là !

(Il est encore Minuit dans notre nouveau siècle)

Ce Matin-là, six heures,
Le ciel est couleur plomb fondu
Et **** de nos lits chauds de France,
Là-bas, dans ce croissant qui fut autrefois fertile,
La loi de l'humiliation maximale
Et de l’épuisement de nos réflexes
Vitaux de dignité et d'honneur
Vient encore d'abaisser le niveau d’où l'être devra
encore plus plier l'échine et user de la reptation
pour faire admettre et tolérer
Ses petites et grandes lâchetés.
Et ces nouveaux « grands cimetières sous la lune »
Ou sont enfouis leur monceaux de victimes
données en sacrifice à ce nouveau Dieux Moloch
de l'indifférence et de la mort, des guerres de religion.
des ingérences internationales, des haines et rivalités régionales.
Nous n'avons plus, pour fonder ce grand vide,
Que certains flamboiements du passe,
Qui ont perdu leur valeur d'exemple et leur force propulsive.
Et ce nouveau Tsar, aussi prodige en Oukases et en menaces
qu'il l'est de myriades de « Guernica renouvelés ».
Il est aujourd'hui, de nouveau, « Minuit dans notre nouveau siècle »
Sans que l'on sache discerner quels sont les acteurs réels et les responsables majeurs
De ce désastre humain,
Dans son entre lac de rivalité et de tumultes
Pressant la gorge d'une nation agonisante dépecée aux quatre horizons de ses points cardinaux.
Les simplificateurs de nos raisons de mourir et leurs distributeurs d'indulgences plénières
et de permis de tuer,
Ont du mal à convaincre leurs habituels condottiere de l'idéal.
Et jamais l'odeur de mort ne fut moins masquée que dans ce combat de désespérés et de furieux,
Nos présentes guerres ont bien du mal à se la jouer chevaleresques et « justes causes »
Ce qui n'empêche pas les enfants de souffrir et de mourir,
dans cette « Terre de Cham » de tous les cauchemars et de toutes les souffrances,
pas si **** des hauteurs béantes où la citadelle d'Alamut reste fidèle à son sombre et meurtrier prestige.
Tu n'as vu jusqu'ici naître aucun message de vie, neuf, pour les êtres,
Et ton chaudron de haine et de vengeances engendre sa part nouvelle de serpents et de dragons,
Qui viennent répandre l'épouvante dans les endroits et les lieux de notre douce France
et mêmes dans ce Molenbeeck Belge.
Méfions-nous de la haute nuit ou se déroulent ces sabbat de tueurs.
Car il est de ces nuits noires qui glacent le sang et exportent de sombres guerriers.
Il est aussi de nouveaux « vieux de la Montagne » qui nous envoient leurs nouveaux « haschischins » et leurs messagers porteurs de meurtres cruels.
Là où il faudrait des paroles d'amour et des impositions de mains.
La guerre ne sait nourrir que la guerre !
Et toute diplomatie n' est que trop souvent l'antichambre de l'art de tuer et de terroriser
en brouillant les cartes.
Il est comme aujourd'hui des périodes,
Ou dans le creux des lits et du val de France surgissent des tueurs blêmes,
Et des menaces à prendre au sérieux.
Mais hélas, l'on ne peut impunément demander à vivre en Paix
si près des brasiers rallumés et des guerres de cent années rouvertes.

Paul Arrighi

(Ce texte crépusculaire a été écrit à Toulouse le 22 décembre 2016, date ultime de la « chute » d ' Alep)
(Ce texte crépusculaire a été écrit à Toulouse le 22 décembre 2016, date ultime de la « chute » d ' Alep)
Paul d'Aubin Dec 2016


d' Enrique Díez-Canedo

"El desterrado"

Todo lo llevas contigo,
tú, que nada tienes.
Lo que no te han de quitar
los reveses
porque es tuyo y sólo tuyo,
porque es íntimo y perenne,
y es raíz, es tallo, es hoja,
flor y fruto, aroma y jugo,
todo a la vez, para siempre.
No es recuerdo que subsiste
ni anhelo que permanece;
no es imagen que perdura,
ni ficción, ni sombra. En este
sentir tuyo y sólo tuyo,
nada se pierde:
lo pasado y lo abolido,
se halla, vivo y presente,
se hace materia en tu cuerpo,
carne en tu carne se vuelve,
carne de la carne tuya,
ser del ser que eres,
uno y todos entre tantos
que fueron, y son, y vienen,
hecho de patria y de ausencia,
tiempo eterno y hora breve,
de nativa desnudez
y adquiridos bienes.
De aquellos imperturbables
amaneceres
en que la luz de tu estancia
se adueñaba tenue
pintando vidrios y cuadros,
libros y muebles;
de aquellos días de afanes
o placeres,
de vacilación o estudio,
de tenso querer, de inerte
voluntad; de cuantos hilos
tu vida tejen,
no hay una urdimbre quebrada
ni un matiz más débil. ..
Nadie podrá desterrarte
de estos continentes
que son carne y tierra tuya:
don sin trueque,
conquista sin despojo,
prenda de vida sin muerte.
Nadie podrá desterrarte;
tierra fuiste, tierra fértil,
y serás tierra, y más tierra
cuando te entierren.
No desterrado, enterrado
serás tierra, polvo y germen.

El desterrado. 1940

                                                           ­              *
Traduction de "L'exilé"

Tu portes tout avec toi,
Toi que n’as plus rien.
Qui n'existe que pour ce que tu laisses derrière toi.
Les revers, parce ils sont tiens et seulement tiens,
Parce que cette défaite est intime et définitive,
qu'elle est à la fois ta racine, ta tige, et aussi ta feuille,
mais aussi cette fleur et ce fruit, son parfum et son suc.
Tout à la fois et pour toujours.
Il n'y a pas de souvenir qui subsiste
ni de désir ardent qui reste.
Il n’y a pas d'image qui dure
ni même de fiction, ni d'ombre. Dans cette manière de ressentir,
Il n'y a que toi et seulement toi
rien ne se perds :
le passé est aboli.
Lui et elle se retrouvent vivants et présents,
la matière prend forme dans ton corps
une chair dans ta chair se retrouve
chair de ta propre chair,
être de l'être dont tu es.
Un et multiple entre tant
Qui furent, sont et furent
façonnés par leur patrie et aussi par son absence
de temps éternel et d’heure brève,
de nudité native
et de biens amassés
par ces aubes imperturbables,
dans lesquelles
la lumière de ton séjour
s'emparait de manière ténue
en peignant des verres, des tableaux,
des livres et des meubles ;
Lors de ces jours de labeurs
ou de plaisirs,
de vacillements ou d’études,
De tension propulsive, ou de volonté inerte.
Par combien de fils, de ta vie sont tissés.
Il n'y a pas de chaîne rompue
ni de nuances infimes ...
Personne ne pourra t'exiler de ces continents
Qui sont ta chair et ta Terre :
Toi l'Homme sans compromission
Sans conquête ni dépouille
Part de la vie sans mort.
D’une terre où tu es née, de cette Terre fertile.
Et tu trouveras prive de Terre
Quand ils t'enterreront,
Comme une poussière de grains et en germe.

"L’exilé."
1940
Pardonnez- moi cher(e)s Lectrices et Lecteurs, pour mon audace insensée et ma traduction maladroite et précaire du non Hispanophone que je suis. Mais je n'ai pu résister ayant été très ému presque bouleversé par ce texte écrit en 1940, soit en plein Exil Espagnol et au cœur de l'exil de la raison et de la bonté dans le ** me siècle qui pourrait encore avoir tant à nous signifier sur tant d'actuels exilés dont notre Planète regorge; notre Terre d'avidité et d'égoïsme aux naissances si peu contrôlées et aux ressources si mal réparties d' êtres humains, trop souvent en désespérance, d'une simple libre expression, de conditions de vie décentes et meilleures, trop souvent aussi hélas d'illusions d'un  mieux fallacieux en Europe et toujours d'une main tendue qui leur est trop souvent refusée. )
Rollie Rathburn Jun 2018
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity,
used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind
can be expressed
as a multiple of the unit of measurement.

Length,
for example,
is a physical quantity.

Any value of a physical quantity is expressed
as a comparison to a unit of that quantity.

For example, the value of a physical quantity Z is expressed as the product of a unit [Z] and a numerical factor:

Z = n x [Z] = n[Z] So if we were to let Z be “2 antique sofas” then Z = 2[Z] = 2 antique sofas.

Fifteen hundred miles or so,
converts to roughly 7920000 feet
and 48 hours of land
across approximately 29 counties spread through 5 states

However,
in order to measure more abstract concepts,
different units of measurement are often adapted,
or hybridized, to fulfill ad-hoc need.

Coping,
for example,
is an abstract quantity
represented by

American Spirits:
(farenheit, inches, exhaled smoke as measured in cubic feet.)

Tears cried as designated driver
for termination
of unplanned pregnancy:
(miles, cost of service in U.S. Dollar, speed, tear volume in milliliters)

Furniture thrown:
Forces relevant to stable flight include a balance of
Propulsive ******. Lift,
created by the reaction
to an airflow
Drag, created by
aerodynamic friction
Weight,
created by gravity
Buoyancy, for lighter
than air flight

Holes in drywall:
(Inches in diameter and depth, potential bruises to be explained if the wall is ever further away than the human form in a darkened bedroom)

Unfortunately,
some concepts are still devoid of applicable units of measurement.

Take for example, the concept of Waiting.

As it has no defined beginning,
or end, and is malleable based on
external factors such as perceived value
and level of psychosocial dependency,
there appears to be no observable limit
regarding absolute human capacity capabilities.
Classy J Oct 2015
Enormous envious egotistical evil enemy's,
Peering pretentiously penetrating peaceful potent propulsive plots,
Anxiously annoying anti-climaxing answers
Cautiously coldly contemptuous confusing comments,
Tempering tidus torment thy thoughts,
Super superfluous superficial stagnant stories
Shelley Jul 2014
You make my heart
           feel like a sunfish–
                      hungry, propulsive
        as it chases a worm
             it doesn’t realize
      is already
dead.
ooznozz Aug 2017
I SAW THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERALIZATION
wearing halos of fog,
opening their eyes with a burst of surreal an' shattering
the beacon of light
with a splatter of the gray matter... afterwards it all became
so fug'n trite.

I'm phrasing perfect with a hint of propulsive barb'd barkin'
—Man, I am aching to blather,
**** man, it's more than ****-cheek chatter—
it BBBBBBBBBButt bubbles with a puhcussive tootin';
a howl absurd!

I raise a cup & say cheers t' Allen Ginsberg

"O BLOATED BLUES an' DECIBELS DANCE
t'BALLYHOO'd BE-BOP FLUNG
An' BOMBS BUSTIN OPEN with Gear's CLAWING
t'BE AIRBORNE",
Yes, he SITs IN a SPACE SHARE'd with us;
finger snappin' & poetry clappin' from
a heavenly ladder's rung...

A MAD HATTER's CHINA TEACUP is filled
with continuous soft crackling liveliness of effervescence...
and buoyed by the holy soul jelly roll that moves
through here now.
So let us praise and bestow upon him,
a heartfelt bow before we etch on the walls
of my primitive pome cave
our beatnik chorale reverberation of "AND HOW!"

By "ooznozz"
Murderously Skewered, And Torturously Zapped

Directv linkedin to accentuate
piddly money crisis, tis zen uneasy fate,
I imagine dragons gyrate
ting, and licking chops, faux masticate
ting, no matter I didst pre
     mutt chew lee *******
prickly desperate pleas against inflate
ting trumpeting rogues tummies

     begetting bulging abdominal oblate
spheroids at my mortal expense,
     whereat your truly poor brother
     got swallowed as chunky
     raw bits inside bellies of mountebanks,
     not too long after
     can nub (red) bulls didst terminate
ma vital essence, a veritable goulash

     each and every one,
     a heart less *****
     grinder - dee liver ring,
     a once dashing husband
     digestively enzymatically transformed,
     perhaps crudely became
     ***** material reincarnate,
though I not gratefully dead

     didst mischievously clog their loo,
     I could not a void the pressurized expulsion,
     which (courtesy Uranus) propulsive
     ****** didst force
     gassy guests needed to evacuate,
in water closet, and/or inducing indigestible
     morsels (acid barely scorched)
     body parts, nevertheless distressed

     indiscriminate chow hounds,
     who got no recourse boot to regurgitate
byproducts vaguely resembling mine
involuntarily twitching features
     foo fighting beastie boys,
     who will then hibernate
for a bitterly cold dark winter,

     despite gala feast mass soul palate lee,
     sprung supper eyes reveling
     causing ******* acid reflux,
     and thence relishing if thyself
     for die:re ah postprandial
     (Montezuma payback never to late),
     who did deign to dine on thyself
     as some kind of delicacy

afternoon, and/or evening
     dining tete a tete
with me re: being served as edible fete
on Matthew Scott Harris of late,
who didst mildly agitate
against being cannibalized
     as human bait,
     nonetheless this non bird'n sum

     potential a parrot tiff
     saw siege fingers drubbing on flat surface
     indicative, sans non
     verbal cues create
ting, where halloween
     tricked out wolfish
     bill collectors must wait
for anemic zero

     sum gamely checking
     account tubby bolstered
(neither fat, nor slim chance
     till November social security
     direct deposit twill satiate
     bone dry aforementioned
     Citizens checking account)
     to calm anguished cerebral template

     after experiencing, suffer
ring, and undergoing
     a quickened depletion rate
mainly still reeling from
     five hundred dollar plus
     automobile repair from
     August tooth house sand eight,
teen, whereat a shock absorber

     didst comprise bulk of total,
     and thus that chunk of money,
     doth presently eek quate
reeling from seer sucker
     (Jew dee shuss) punch
     tummy checking account

     hovering vacuuming thoughts
     of cheesy Swiss side
     dell ideation, permeate
     an otherwise mellow numb skull,
     (and crossed bones)
     psychological state,
     and aye kin count to ate.
Gant Haverstick May 2023
can't say it's something i totally admire
but his propulsive desire
i can't really blame
for so many of us are drawn to the flame
Gant Haverstick 2023
buoyed me aloft beyond
outer limits of the twilight zone
where dark shadows
lurked along green acres
creating hee haw sounds.

Aforementioned adventure
occurred countless years ago,
nevertheless psychological
repercussions persist
to this April eighteenth
two thousand and twenty three.

I admit not to be
that personality type,
who takes seat
of the pants dare
devilish death defying acts,
but remains on the straight
and true, yet still quite aware,
a series of unfortunate events
may arise clear
out of the blue, no matter

the weather temperate,
moderate and fair
nonetheless, this rather innocuous
no sweat whim methought
to raise cushioned
"supposedly **** intending
for height adjustable"
comfortable office chair,
thus fingers toyed with
this, that, or another lever

(envision finger pointing
under padding for rear),
thus nonchalantly, I blindly
jiggled one hand size pedal
appurtenance after another,
when lo and behold
whew ohhh....nooo...,
whoo ahh, way up into
the rarefied atmosphere,
yours truly did unexpectedly

vertically set sail
way past the timberline,
then OUCH each ear
snapped, crackled, and
popped, then suddenly
this chap buoyed aloft,
went temporarily deaf, oh no...,
now get this aside being
unable to hear
the sun at high altitude

creating blinding glare,
meanwhile propulsive
****** sent me career
ring at light speed, whereat
at the least one shiver
ran down my spine
raising each small hair,
but the biggest fright
arose upon just missing
(by the skin of my teeth),

hence reason I wear dentures
colliding into a Lear
jet, no doubt the pilot,
(and motley crue) near
lee went berserk (indicated by
the dramatically erratic flight pattern),
which did appear
to shrink in size mere
lee, the rapid transit,
which wind shear

felt like a bajillion
pounds per square
inch of pressure tear
ring, pushing, and pulling
my body in all directions
pirouetting me like
a whirling dervish
spinning ever farther
distant from Earth
by many a light year!

— The End —