Meet my aunt's new dog, Gilly.
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Friday, November 26, 2021
My Friday Evening Music
Heard this song while heading home last night. Sums up my post-Thanksgiving perfectly.
Attention!
Pépé's Santa men are all in place (plus one at the bottom carved by someone else, eff that guy).
"Be cool! We'll blend."
Having some fun while finding a place for my grandfather's hand carved Santa men.
Black Friday Pride (I'm making it a thing)
Pride work from poet Beau Palen and artist Bill Wolak closes out our busy holiday week. Thanks again for finding time to read Oddball Magazine during a hectic time.
Tonight: Gregory Wolos at the Virtual Dire Literary Series
Holiday Declaration
John Carpenter's The Thing is a Christmas movie.
It's got snow.
That's all I need.
Like I need you to agree.
I'm watching it anyway.
Best Pre-Thanksgiving Poem for Post-Thansgiving
Janet Cormier's Bamboozled No More! is up now at Oddball Magazine.
Still Life After Breakfast, Part 141
Don't usually do brand names, but I found this outside a recently closed 7/11, and I'm pretty sure this wasn't where the Amazon bag was delivered.
SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 11-23-21: Blackest Thursday
Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked 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 out now collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.
I hosted one more Stone Soup before Thanksgiving. A short but sweet time fraught with technical difficulties for one of of our participants, but we dealt with it.
I tried to write this poem around a real world thing one more time. In this case, a real world holiday. Wonder which one it is?
Writing the poem was therapeutic before anything even happened. I'll give you that much of a hint, just in case the title isn't a dead giveaway.
I have other work to do on my day off, so I'll cut myself off here. Thanks for reading.
Blackest Thursday
over other' plunder.
Need first coffee ever
before counting, sorting roots.
Day Off
To those who have to work Black Friday, good luck to you.
To the rest of us fortunate ones, let's make the best of it.
Thursday, November 25, 2021
A Run Through the Labyrinth Before We Eat?
James Van Looy is back with It's All One Thing at Oddball Magazine.
Also for My Poet Friends
It's the annual posting of my "Hand Turkey Jesus Tanka" poem.
I had a sequel to it in my head, but it's gone. Maybe later today.
Thanksgiving Memories
Here's my old video from nearly a decade ago. So many people in this footage are either no longer alive or won't be at my Mom's house this Thanksgiving. In spite of everything that's happened these past two years, I hope you have the opportunity to experience some kind of joy today.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Ha!
Haven't had to run back to home for Stone Soup in a while.
In fact, I'm not running home any time soon. Too much to do.
I'll be back.
This Friday: Gregory Wolos at the Virtual Dire Literary Series
Nice Wintery Closer (or is it?)
Here's one more timely piece by regular contributor Mike Mesterton-Gibbons with appropriate photography by Karen A. Szklany. Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine while you get closer to your holiday destination.
Trying to Make a New Thng
In October, I created a blackout poem based on a "statement" on Donald Trump's website. I decided to make it a regular thing. Here's my latest attempt based on his most recent statement on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Long intro, short blackout piece. Enjoy it on Medium.
A Moment of Fun (for most of us)
Given that today is going to be filled with stress for most people, I decided to start our Wednesday with something relatively light and pop. Read today's starter poem by Bethany Bruno with art by Edward Michael Supranowicz. I hope Oddball Magazine can lighten the day for you this Thanksgiving Eve.
Great Response from Deta Galloway
When I posted today's American Haiku about Kyle Rittenhouse on social media, I added this line: "Like any hunter, he just doesn't want overpopulation.." This prompted a response via Messenger from Detta Galloway. It should be read, as it holds much more understanding and compassion than I can muster.
No. He is not really a hunter. He is a product of an Adult's dark Teachings. He is at best misguided and sadly starting out His young life as a Ass Killer. Him not going to Jail is definitely not a plus for him. He Must find a way to begin to detoxify. Not sure he will.
American Haiku: Kyle Backs Black and Blue
When I started my Sarcastic Haiku series, I wrote my first American Haiku. An American Haiku doesn't care about tradition, formality or history and takes as long as it wants to complete because America. You can read others I've written since by clicking here and scrolling down.
American Haiku: Kyle Backs Black and Blue
Yes, Mr. Carlson.
Black Lives Matter and me? Tight!
(free at last...free at last...
Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 11-23-21
From the weekly online gathering. Friends old and new tonight. Just earlier and shorter because of the holiday week. Poetry! The continued celebration of Carol Weston's birthday! Ventriloquism? A special appearance by Larry Bird?!? All this and more just might have happened last night.
Only the Brave Are Left to Wave
Thanks to everyone who watched or came to last night's last minute Stone Soup open mic. Enjoy your Thanksgiving time away, and we'll see you next week.
Not a Thanksgiving Flashback
This is just me in a souvenir pilgrim's hat I bought in Plymouth during a reading I performed in 2019. Look, I was trying to enjoy myself, I wanted to make the people I dragged with me laugh, it was over two years ago, we were all feeling subconscious white privilege and I just wanted to do my impression of Kane from Poltergeist II, okay?!?
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
In Less Than Three Hours
Our last minute open mic is tonight! For those of you who said you couldn't make the open mic because it was on a Wednesday, you have less than three hours to make up a new excuse!
Early Week Rage
Just came up with a new idea just as I'm trying (and failing) to get some traction on an idea I've had for the last two weeks.
My mind is wasted on Tuesdays.
Well, THIS Poem Became More Relevant
Submitted months ago, this poem by Neil Elder is very fitting for today. Thanks to Neil and photographer Glenn Bowie for their good work. Tuesday can finally start over 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.
 |
| "Office" fans. They're everywhere. |
I'm Making This a Thing
I don't know why anyone would write "Q Bitch" on a wall in Dorchester, but it reminds me of all the QAnon fanatics and Q casuals I encounter online.
If I could make "Q Bitch" the default term for all of them, I would.
I will try to make this happen.
Monday, November 22, 2021
Jacques Fleury on Lyric Stage’s The Last Five Years
Jacques Fleury is back. Thanks for starting your week with Oddball Magazine.
A True First Responder
Sharon Ferrante sent us what will hopefully be the first of be many poetic replies to the now-finished Kyle Rittenhouse trial. She and artist Eric N. Peterson come back for another timely spot at Oddball Magazine.
In Anticipation of Leftovers
Catch this perfect pre-Thanksgiving comic from Anne Skove. "She Who Laughs Lasts" is up now at Oddball Magazine.
Robert Bly (1926-2021)
News of Robert Bly's death, even as I write this. hasn't reached everyone yet. As far as I can see, no official stories of his passing have yet been published online. Meanwhile, people are lining up behind Kyle Rittenhouse to collect and store his farts, eventually turning them into NFTs. It's pathetically appropriate that the poet who wrote about men left this world after we received a glimpse of the world's future, a place inherited by violent, coddled man babies.
If there's one good thing I can say about Scott Adams and Dilbert is that this strip made me, a fledgling poet, first aware of Robert Bly. I purchased and read his book Iron John before any of his poetry.
Much has been said of Robert Bly and his approach to manhood, but I look at boys walking with guns the way I used to walk around as a child with plastic swords and wonder if his philosophy should be re-examined.
My favorite quote in Iron John had to do with his belief that it would be good if more politicians and poets spent time in jail.
During my short time as a poet, years before I ever hosted an open mic, Robert Bly made me want to be a poet bounty hunter.
His book The Light Around the Body held one of my favorite poems, "Counting Small-boned Bodies," a piece I tried and failed to imitate numerous times.
One of my favorite moments at Framingham State College (now University) was in Alan Feldman's creative writing class when he asked us to bring in a fruit or vegetable for an in-class writing assignment (I brought a golden apple).
With our food-topped desks, Feldman told us the inspiration for this exercise, recounting a time when Bly spoke in his class, which he retells here:
I asked him if we could all write something together, and if he would give us an in-class writing assignment. He got up abruptly, left the room, and came back carrying a bread board he’d taken from the food science lab down the hall. He stood it up on our table like a tombstone. “Here,” he said. “I want you to spend twenty minutes writing about what it looks like. Then I want you to spend twenty minutes writing about how it makes you feel. Then I want you to spend twenty minutes writing about how it’s your mother or your father.
I haven't really written about my father or mother in a long time. I haven't read Bly for almost as long. I think I need to do both again very soon.
Good Times
Geoffrey Fallon's comic is back! Here's s kind of throwback episode of "The Secrets of Skinny People" at Oddball Magazine.
Said It All Before the Acquittal
Posted one day before Kyle Rittenhouse was set free, this is still one of the best pieces I've read so far. Here is "What You Can Get Away With" by Tony Brown.
November 23: A Stone Soup Moment of Pre-Storm Calm
Join us on TUESDAY, November 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.
The meeting ID is 839 7589 9867
Password: stonesoup
Good People Winning
Toni Bee shared this selfie of her at the Morro de Sau Paulo in Brail,
So glad she could make this trip.
New Plan
The one down side is that my True Haiku have a short shelf life.
I need sturdier stickers. And to write more of these.
This Week's Friendly Reminder
Funniest sticker I've seen in a while. I'm just going to promote the face value "Reading is Good" message.
Sunday, November 21, 2021
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