Better Late Than Never

James Van Looy has a short poem for this week's It's All One Thing poem column.

Oddball Magazine thanks you for your patience.

 

Are You Ready

 

Brendan Lorber is this week's featured poet at The Arts Fuse.

Entropy Marches On

For the first time in over a decade, James Van Looy's poem column It's All One Thing will not be published in Oddball Magazine today, maybe not until next week. 

On the surface level, it's a computer issue.

Personally, I blame the ongoing decline of the world. 

Happy Birthday, James Tyler

Keep writing.

Happy Birthday, Nolcha Fox

 

Happy Birthday, Kaleigh O’Keefe

 

Happy Birthday, Rick C. Christiansen

 

Diana Saenz Features at Stone Soup Poetry, 7-29-26

From this week's online gathering. A great time had by all as Diana reminded us why she featured live at Stone Soup so many times. 

 

 

Goodbye, July

Thanks to Diana Saenz for a wonderful feature to close out July. We will be taking the first week of August off but hope to announce the first feature of August soon.

 

Dignity and Grace

Composure!

If I'm Still Conscious, Then This Was a "Good" Day

Alive is my usual low bar setting for a good day.

Stone Soup Poetry is happening in a few hours. 

Diana Saenz is featuring one more time. 

I hope you join us.  

Stop Smelling the Flowers!

The Chad Parenteau's Lost Causes newsletter for July 29 s up now at Substack.

Fill the Blank

We conclude with poet Purbasha Roy and photographer Bonnie Matthews Brock. Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this Wednesday.

Nothing to Show for My Work

Just more nothing.

 

Confession

Poet David Eileen and artist Robert Fleming gives us a colorful start to Wednesday at Oddball Magazine. Happy you're here. 

She Hopes

 

Welcome Rachel Kushner to Doug Holder's Lyrical Somerville column in The Somerville Times.

How to Say Bye to July

Diana Saenz features at Stone Soup tonight to help us close out July.

This Happened a While Back

The Brigham and Women's Hospital nurses strike rattled me as I was scheduled for a procedure that week when it came to a head. Next time a strike happens, I have to try and go out and take photos.Everyone should be making more money.

Happy Belated

After checking past posts, I realized that this "No ICE" graffiti, a few blemishes aside, has been around for over a year. If you've walked around the city and seen all the anti-Trump/anti-ICE/anti-capitalism graffiti grossly painted over, you know how impressive this is.

A Moment of Comics

With such a year of entropy, it's hard looking back and seeing how right the doomsayers were. From Savage Dragon #218 by Erik Larson along with his long standing letterer, Chris Eliopoulos.

American Haiku: Trump Laments Lindsey

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 Laments Lindsey

 

Alas poor Lindsey.

I knew him. But tomorrow

I probably won't. 

Happy Birthday, Linda Spolidoro

A true north shore invader. 

Happy Birthday, Helen R. Broom

Come back to Oddball soon.

Happy Birthday, Carla Schwartz

 

 

Warning You Now

I might be away from the internet the closer we get to the Boston Poetry Marathon.

Your Wednesday Morning Poetry

Thanks to Jamilla VanDyke-Bailey once again, I've discovered poet Tiana Clark. Read her poem "My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work" thanks to the Poetry Foundation.

WAYFS the Series(?)

Such a year of chaos and entropy. 

Been Feeling This for a While

May Contain Traces of Me, Part Six: You Too Can Be a Token. Read it on my Patreon.

A Different View

Focusing on another side of the world today with poetry by the young Momina Ijaz and photography by Tiyas Som. Enjoy your 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.

Everyone says that about their first Boston apartment.

Happy Birthday, Jan Keough

 

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Lund

 

Everyone is Wrong

July is the cruelest month of all.

What did April ever do except give us rain?!?

Happy Birthday, Catfish McDaris

 

 

Poem by Sigrid Bergie Feliciano

Submit more. 

Comics Spotlight: Anthony Afairo Nze

Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this Monday.

 

Tonight: The Contro-Verse Open Mic at Urban Media Arts in Malden with Nancy Casey

From 7:00 to 8:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. At Urban Media Arts on 145 Pleasant Street in Malden, MA. Hosted by Anna Geoffroy and Ethan Mackler. Click here for more information.

Everywhere a Weird Sign

Another Travelogue come from Anne Skove. 

Read "She Who Laughs Lasts," up now at Oddball Magazine. 

Never a Break

 

It's Later Now, Part Forty-Seven: Write Off. Read it on my Patreon.

Wow Now

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons' ode to a unique dog kicks off Oddball Magazine this week. Let's get through it together!

We're Not Done Yet

Diana Saenz features at Stone Soup Poetry this Wednesday.

Ready Yet?

Should I wait until next month to start picking these blueberries?

Portrait of an Exhausted Little Tubesteak

Happy Birthday, Karen Greenbaum-Maya

 

 

Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle! in Forest Hills

Have seen this graffiti down by the hospitals, but I haven't seen much of it on the other end until this weekend. 

This Week's Friendly Reminder

There are other countries who have been around for years.
 

My Monday Morning Music

Let's focus on music that views summer as a positive time of year (PS I hate summer). Bryan Adams is the most logical first choice.

 

 

Found Thesis

One of the items I found in Jack Powers' collection. Here is the slightly worn cover to a 1994 thesis out of Burlington College by P.R. Smith and A. Blackmere entitled "The evolution of a U.S. Government Secret Subculture; Its Use and Abuse of Drugs as a Political Weapon. (Ipso Facto on Assassination and Extremism)." 

 

WCW at WHCD

from his depends
he dons

a red rage-
baiter

crazed to feign
martyr

all while the right
richens

Happy Birthday, Clayton Scott

 

Your Weekly Dose of God

Seeing Mom later today. Right now, she's at Saint Blaise. Here's one more picture I took of the church back in June. 

July 29: Dianne Saenz Returns to Boston

Diana Saenz featured multiple times in the early tens of this century when she was still in Boston. She has since moved back to her home state of California but shows no signs of slowing down. 

As part of my determination to document more poets from Stone Soup's past, it gives me great pleasure to have Diana close out the month of July this coming Wednesday. 

Join us on Wednesday, July 29, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.

The meeting ID is 870 1187 2142

Password: stonesoup

FYI

 

 

I'll be working on this today.  

My Saturday Haiku for Bluesky, 7-25-26

Let's all raise a hand

if you're against fascism!

Now put both hands up.

Happy Birthday, Brad Rose

Check out the website. 

 

Happy Birthday, Rudy Ruhigita

 

 

Happy Birthday, Bryan Franco

 

 

Happy Birthday, Marissa Prada

 

 

Stone Soup Croutons, 7-22-26: Wisdom from a Troll Taking Tolls

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions selected from Stone Soup Poetry's open mic readers and features. I figure out a title (and sometimes the rest of the poem) later. You can read the other ones I've done since 2015 here.

 

I also have a book collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

 

Marc D. Goldfinger gave us an amazing feature. 

 

Features like his are why I continue to host Stone Soup online. 

 

You can watch the video here, and I encourage you to do so. 

 

I had to do a Stone Soup Croutons poem for this night. I hope I can continue the pace.  

 

In the title is a nod ot Marc's longtime email address. 

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

Wisdom from a Troll Taking Tolls

 

Angels smack

our leaders

with guilt. 

 

It's all they
can feel for

the left behind.

My Friday Evening Music

The title track of Sleeps with Angels, dedicated to Kurt Cobain. I'll be listening to this album tonight. You should too.

Crimson Wisdom

Wise Words with Bruce Wise closes out Oddball Magazine.

Thanks for reading us this week. 

Feeling Uncute, May Delete Later

Here's a previously unpublished photo of Twig playing tug of war with me to describe my current mood. Hint: I'm the chew toy.

Reshaping

A very different Bamboozled No More! poem column by Janet Cormier is up now at Oddball Magazine. Happy Friday!

WAYTA, 7-23-26

No end in sight.

 

Susan Buttenwieser, Virtual Thursdays Dire Literary Series Plus Q and A with Timothy Gager, 7/23/26

Yesterday's Dire today. Hosted by Timothy Gager. 

Practice Haiku

If this Friday's good,
I can't tell anyone or
they'll screw me next week.

Little Deaths of Childhood, Part Thirty

Placed so high on a post, no child could find it. 

Happy Birthday, Marc Jampole

 

 

Happy Birthday, Massoud Elmi

 

 

Happy Birthday, Kim Triedman

 

 

Happy Birthday, Katherine Jenkins Djom

Submit to Oddball again.

Surprise!

These flowers aren't far from where I live, and they came out of nowhere! Did some housing authority plant these overnight?

 

My Friday Morning Music

I'm indebted to the Launch Yahoo! app for playing selections like this one from Neil Young's Sleeps With Angles album. 

 

Leopards Eating Faces Update!

 

Andrew and Vivian Tate teach a lesson to the hopelessy dense once again. The lesson is this: If you devote your life to supporting Donald Trump, he and his allies will leave you to rot in whatever prison you have created for yourself. This is actually good because if you've lasted this long a s a Trump disciple, you've likely done some terrible, unspeakable things.