Tuesday, April 07, 2026

World Grown Mean

Jason Wright is back with his Jagged Thought poem column. Read his latest now at Oddball Magazine.

This Thursday: John Compton at the Virtual Dire Literary Series

Hosted by Timothy Gager. Click here to join the group and get information on how to join the call.


Wah Wah Wah

Shipshape in a Sh-tstorm, Part Thirteen: No Loss. Read it on my Patreon.


That Simple

Jeff Weddle with more timely poetry with help from protest photographer Jack Marty. Happy(?) Tuesday at Oddball Magazine. 

This Week's Most Distinguished Network Name

It's amazing what people will name their online networks. I'm always trying to hijack Wi-Fi when I'm commuting, so I often come across a number of interesting names. Every Tuesday, I post the most impressive and/or cringe-inducing names.

Network Name: Endless Winter
Sure is feeling like it, my Fimbulwinter jokes aside.

Thoughts While Walking, 4-7-26

Sure, let’s do one of these when I’m tired and coming down from a cold. I’m pissed. 


Happy Birthday, Jackie Chou

 


Happy Birthday, Jason Wright

 


Practice Haiku

Woke up this morning 
with a head full of dogshit.
flu week one achieved!


Monday, April 06, 2026

A Meme for James Woods

Scene from Chris Farley interview: You remember when James Woods played Roy Cohn and at the end of the movie h died of AIDS and he couldn't hurt anybody anymore? - That was awesome!

Use it to reply to any James Woods Twitter post! 

 

Comics Spotlight: Richard Nickel

Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this Monday. 

Almost Anywhere


Tony Brown's "The Last Day" is today's required reading on his Dark Matter blog.

More Things

Edward Michael Supranowicz is next in our writer/artist series for National Poetry Month at Oddball Magaizne. 


A Mystery Solved?

And I say unto thee: Now I'm just confused. A place in Brookline Massachusetts?!?


I Forgot It's Spring!

Anne Skove's comic shares the spring wear of her local stomping grounds. Thanks to Anne Skove and "She Who Laughs Lasts" at Oddball Magazine for reminding me it was spring. 


The Important Topics


It's Later Now, Part Thirty-One: Question. Read it on my Patreon.


Let's Go God!

Glad to have my photography paired up with flash fiction by Steven Schutzman for Monday's opening salvo at Oddball Magazine. Glad you survived the weekend. Let's tackle the new week now.

This is the Week It's Happening

Jason Wright features a Stone Soup Poetry in just a couple of more days.

Flyer: Stone Soup Lets the Oddballs in for April - Jason Wright returns to Stone Soup Poetry for National Poetry Month. - Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7:00-9:00 P.M. ET - Open mic included! Donations appreciated!  - Visit https://stonesouppoetry.blogspot.com/ for the Zoom link

Still Life After Breakfast, Part 168

The coffee cup in the "Free" distribution box always cracks me up.


NaPoWriMo, Day Six, Poem Six

Anti-Social

Fuck you
Pisseyes

I bite 
you dead!

Happy Birthday, Nina LaNegra

 

 


This Week's Friendly Reminder

Continuing to continue a theme. 

Sign in store: Abolish ICE

Perfect for the Season

This Death Rabbit is the only type of bunny I'm celebrating this April. Also, it has the same friendly reminder for this week.

Sticker: Rabbit on postal sticker with visible skull and ribcage with "Fuck ICE" written on the side
 

My Monday Morning Music

Patti Smith is featured this week as part of National Poetry Month. 

 

 


Sunday, April 05, 2026

Trump Loses It

 At least no one’s questioning he wrote it.

P

Trump Truth Social Gone Batshit

Is Trump trying to make my next blackout poem before I can?

Trump Truth Social Post, 4-5-26: Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump 3:16

Happy Easter.


Happy Birthday, Phillip Henry Christopher

 

 


New Meme

Meme: Trump saying "Trump 3:16 says I just shit my pants!"

Enjoy Easter Sunday!


Your Weekly Dose of God

It almost feels like a joke for Easter to already be here. Here's a card I found at the Forest Hills station that serves as an invitation to Easter mass today at the City on a Hill Church's Jamaica Plain location. As the card says, "He Lives."


NaPoWriMo, Day Five, Poem Five

New Easter

Aides move
boulder. 

No One Listened

"Don't Make America Sick Again" is a sign that I spotted not after 2020 but during a healthcare rally in April of 2017. 

Another plea that went ignored. 

Just recently, an article came out saying patients are refusing blood from vaccinated donors. 

Donor vaccination status is not tracked, which means people can die from people waiting to receive their so-called untainted blood. 

Too many Americans trust none of the people who have actively worked for years to serve or heal others. 

Instead, they place their faith in the engines that serve to kill dreaded "others" and allow them to watch from their armchairs.


Friday, April 03, 2026

My Friday Evening Music

The song that keeps on popping up consistently when I search for The Showcase Showdown.

 

 


Happy Birthday, M.D. Leto

 

 


The First Spotlight

Poet and photographer Edward S. Gault is the first of our spotlighted writer/artists for National Poetry Month.

Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this week. We'll see you this Monday.


Coffee With the North Andover Poets This Saturday


From former Poet Laureate Mark Bohrer: 

You are invited to the next monthly "Poetry and Coffee"! This Saturday is the first Saturday of the month, April 4th. We are meeting at 9AM, at Diane's Cafe at the North Andover Historical Society.

Tonight: First Fridays Youth Open Mic with Rijah

Held at the First Baptist Church on 633 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. Doors open at 7:00. Click here for more info. 


Wisdom Gone Nuclear

Bruce Wise keeps Friday going with Wise Words at Oddball Magazine. 

Ron

Ron Goba with Tom Daley after a Salon reading in October 2010.

Below are the words I prepared for my introductory piece to Ron Goba's tribute held this past Wednesday on April first at The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Though I rehearsed reciting the piece to make sure it was under three minutes, I ad-libbed an anecdote I kept forgetting to add during the various draft phases. I don't have a recording of my reading, so the ad-libbed part has been added according to my very faulty memory.

Ron was a giant who had conquered the world.

On the basketball court. In the school where he taught for decades.

Check and Check

Janet Cormier is back with Bamboozled No More! is back at Oddball Magazine. Friday is here! 

NaPoWriMo, Day Three, Poem Three

Scrollers

Don't look
for things
you said
last night.

NaPoWriMo, Day Three, Poem Two

Choose

A snap
to be 
unbent.

Na/GloPoWriMo Update

It's been a rough 24 hours. My running around got the best of me. 

So now I'm a day behind, and it's only Day Three.

I have to get back to work.

 

My Monday Morning Music

More of the recently reunited Showcase Showdown.

 

 


Leopards Eating Faces Update!

 


Thank you, Pam Bondi, for making my work easy this week. Funny. When the news was trending on social media, I thought she had already been fired. Silly me. I was confusing her with other Trump Pickme, Kristi Noem. Another woman sacrificed to save countless yes men, who we're apparently supposed to feel sorry for. No. Just no.


Thursday, April 02, 2026

New Clip Video While I Get My Voice Back

America doesn’t have a king! Why aren’t you working?!? UhweyooweyooweyooWEYoo!!!


Back Up

Appreciate John Patrick Robbins for publishing my poem "Closed" in today's edition of The Crossroads. 


Stop Tending to Strangers

 

Jacqueline Waters is this week's featured poet at The Arts Fuse. 


Let's Go

Jame Van Looy's poem column returns. Read It's All One Thing now at Oddball Magazine. 

 

Nothing to See Here

Just me and my emotional support poets Timothy Gager and Jason Wright. Thanks to them and everyone else for coming to Ron Goba's tribute last night at The Cantab.

 

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Sadly, Republicans Always Get Laid, Even If It's Grindr

The Chad Parenteau's Lost Causes newsletter for April 1 is up now at Substack.


Monkey!

We're going to end on a happier note with poet Emily Farber and artist Eric N. Peterson. Thanks for reading Oddball Magazine this Wednesday. Keep coming back. Especially during National Poetry Month.

So Romantic

Poet Conor Ryan and artist Ken Tomaro kicks off the first Wednesday of April and National Poetry Month. Welcome to a new series of Wednesdays at Oddball Magazine. We'll do our best to intrigue you.


Carry On

 

Arlington poet  Trapper Markelz gives us a touching piece in this week's Lyrical Somerville. You can read it now over at The Somerville Times. 


Tonight!

Help us pay tribute to Ron Goba tribute this evening at The Cantbab Lounge!


I Like This

This one I just saw yesterday. Graffiti written on an old flyer offering to buy diabetic supplies. I don't know if the message written under the flyer's remaining word, "diabetic," means that the message is "Diabetic Politics Kills Children" or if it just meant to mean "Politics Kills Children." As grammatically incorrect as both messages are, I'll go with the former. 


A Moment of Comics

It feels like cheating since I posted The Maxx last week, but for National Poetry Month I wanted to include this page from The Maxx #5 where Maxx is forced into speaking in rhyme as he dreams of meeting the Crappon in a Hat, an in-universe cartoon character. The Crappon dream sequence was drawn by Crappon's creator, Sam Kieth's cousin and infamous "Cow and Chicken" animator David Feiss. Tip of the hat to William Messner-Loebs for the poetry stuff.


American Haiku: Trump's Unedited Address

When I started my Sarcastic Haiku series, I wrote my first American Haiku. An American Haiku doesn't care about tradition, formality or history. it takes as long as it wants to make its point because America. You can read others I've written since by clicking here and scrolling down. 
 

American Haiku: Trump's Unedited Address

America, the 
war could end in two weeks if
all the democrats and grown up kids I touched would just die!


NaPoWriMo, Day One, Poem One

Same Strategy

Contain
multiple 

Your Wednesday Morning Poetry

It keeps me honest to keeping posting this feature during National Poetry Month. In honor of yesterday's Trans Day of Visibility, here is poet torrin a. greathouse's Haunting "On Confinement," published on the Poetry Foundation website. 


NaPoWriMo 2026 Intro

NaPoWriMo graphic by Maureen Thorson.
 

For those of you coming to this blog via the NaPoWriMo website, here's a little about me. 

I've been a poet online for over thirty years years. I've been taking part in the annual poem-a-day event for almost as long. When I primarily call it NaMoWriMo and not GloPoWriMo, it's only because it's what I've known it to be for so long. Well, that and I have over two decades worth of labels on this blog to sort things out. No offense to my fellow poets around the globe. Maybe I'll go back and add the tags. 

For the challenge, my poems are often written in a sparse style similar to the work found in my first book, Patron Emeritus, which I'll plug to give props to my non-Amazon using publisher. If you want to know about my more recent books and publication credits, check out my main website.

For nearly twenty years, I've hosted Stone Soup Poetry, a weekly gathering that now meets online. If you're interested, you should join us (and let you know you heard about us via the NaPoWriMo link). 

I have a Patreon page you can join for cash or for free. I'll be trying to update that. I also have weekly poems like my American Haiku on Wednesdays and my (currently on hiatus) Stone Soup Croutons series on Fridays. I also do the occasional City Haiku and Practice Haiku and other odds and ends. 

None of those will count towards the 30/30. If you don't see a NaPo/GloPo banner, they don't count. 

Not a flex. Just a standard I like to put on myself for April.

This is my annual marathon run, and I intend to get through it despite whatever setbacks I have.

There will also be links to Oddball Magazine, a literary zine I help to edit and publish. I hope you  consider sending your work over. Topical poetry is especially wanted in these times.

I also host a private Stone Soup Poetry group if you're interested in posting there to a small but devoted audience.

I'm always posting here, so I hope you come back here even after the April challenge is completed.

Good luck. Try not to break the Emergency Haiku Glass on the first day. Unless you're contrarian or love haikus. My standards are not yours.