Category: poetry

bobby loves jodi

Posted on by admin

Bobby loves Jodi
Who loves Jenny
Who loves both of them together
(from time to time)
Plus Peter down the way
and his best mate Damon
(in Lego block formations, interlocking wherever the pieces fit)
Damon fancies a pint of Gina
who loves nothing better than muscles on a man
(or men)
And she loves Adam who loves Joey
who bleeds Joey
and only Joey
in defiance of Gina
And what one drunken night descended to
(and descended a lot)
(like, really way down)
And didn’t involve Jordan
Who fancied Terri, Amanda and Tariq
At the same party where he fancied Lisa, Donna and most of the lower half of Angie
(what a time that was)
And we all laughed because it’s just tits
And ass
And cocks
And cunts
But it’s so goddamned complicated
(and so goddamned simple)
Like the most pungent game of Twister
Where everyone collapses in laughter
Save one or two who lay uncomfortably on the bottom
and draw back
Because Bobby loves Jodi
And sometimes Jenny
Who loves both of them together
and isn’t that nice

Target: 1400 words
Written: 3673 words, short story: The Run

Read: Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
Comics: Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love 3-4, Jack Of Fables 42-43
Music: 1973, AC/DC (with Dave Evans)

constrained

Posted on by admin

Bound, constrained.
Surrounded by rough ropes crafted by these hands
These hands, that tapped keys in wispy prose
Slammed harsh declarations
Strangled like a noose
Hewn strands of wound steel
Wrapped in silk
Intent on withering on the vine
No bloom
Only brown petals|
And cracked dry leaves
Is it soft inside?
Or cast iron hard?
Torn between hardline and open arms
Are they one and the same?
Could they be?
Solid, but moving, like mercury peanut butter
Flexible, but unmoving
Always in motion, but stuck in your throat.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 315 words, poem: Bobby Loves Jodi

Read: Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
Comics: Fables 91-92, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love 2, Jack Of Fables 41
Music: 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 2, The Velvet Underground
There's a lot to be said about knowing what you want to say, but not knowing how to say it, and that's all I can say about that.

kill everything

Posted on by admin

You wanna kill?
You wanna kill.
Slithering, sliming kill.
Tortuous, driving, stabbing, kill.
Kill your darlings?
Kill yourself.
Kill yourself.
Kill your self.
The little clear ball of essence at the centre of your being.
You wanna kill?
Kill the construct.
Tear down the scaffolds of perception.
The told of who you are.
The thought of what you’ll be.
The picture of Dorian Gray,
Superficial.
Paint on a wet window pane.
Slitherslide to the dirt.
Strip it away.
Tear off its clothes.
Stand it naked on a pedestal.
Scrub it raw.
Finger it.
Finger all the dark places.
Strip off the skin.
Pull the nails.
Pluck the hair, face, eyes.
Rip muscle from the bone.
Throw bone into the chipper.
Leave the heart, and its veins spread like lightning in blossomed freeze.
Carry no blood.
Somewhere behind the sinew,
the tough and liquid mass,
That’s where you’ll find you.
In place beyond being,
not-being and the same.
You wanna kill?
Kill everything.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 175 words, poem: Constrained

Read: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
Comics: Jack Of Fables 39-40, Fables 90, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love 1
Music: 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 1, The Velvet Underground

still crashing out

Posted on by admin

I know this is because I’ve got myself under a ton of pressure to finish this book before Christmas.

Literally. I’ve set the date as December 23rd.

Finished by that date, so I can sit back with a cigar and a whiskey and fucking kick some goddamned ass.

Then to lighten things up for a bit with some poetry, more short stories and comics, maybe a hip little ditty or three.

Then, maybe, by the time March rolls around, I’ll be ready for canon project #3.

And maybe I’ll head back to historical.

Paranormal.

Lovecraft country, baby. I am the man of a thousand ideas; and a thousand more I will never have time to complete.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1483 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Prozac Nation, Elizabeth Wurtzel
Comics: Fables 16-19
Music: Working Undercover For The Man, They Might Be Giants

icons i won’t be

Posted on by admin

I used to want to be William Gibson or George Orwell or J.R.R. Tolkien. Even in my modern days, I idolize Doris Lessing, Andrzej Sapkowski and Thomas Wolfe.

I doubt any of them ever had to write a scene where a fat boor took a messy dump on someone’s front stoop.

Perhaps I should set my sights lower.

Like, MAD magazine or National Lampoon lower.

I’d love to be e.e. cummings or Gord Downie. I’d love to write with the sensitivity of Alan Moore or the abstraction of Kelly Sue Deconnick. Kafka, Chekhov, Palahniuk.

And I’m writing about a fat guy’s feces.

Maybe someday, I could reach even Second City.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1488 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Youngblood v7 #1 (oh dear god, another reboot, with a storytelling style that's no better than it was in the first Youngblood miniseries.  Give up, man.  This shit ain't working.)
Music: Woody Guthrie Essentials, Woody Guthrie (how apropos is Lindbergh?)

twenty-twenty-five on speed

Posted on by admin

Is it just me, or is this year moving like a freight train whose throttle is wide open and stuck down?

Barreling toward an inevitable conclusion that can only be catastrophe?

I’ll admit, Bad Neighbours, being largely about conflict and unreality, about dichotomy and the endless fight of us versus them, it’s done a number on me.

I know, as a writer, you have to live in the space about which you’re writing. When I did Romance #1, it was fun and goofy, ironic and sardonic. Western Cradle was about trying to make shit out of suffering. The Mungk was months of exploration into trauma and hopelessness.

The fatalism nearly got me.

But I’m largely conflict-averse in my life, so this obsessing over the fight, being at war, at odds with each other, especially in light of the world’s political situation, it’s anathema. And it’s bleeding into the rest of my life.

I’ll be glad when this is done, for more reasons than just completion and the pride of having finished it.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1794 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: East Wind: West Wind, Pearl Buck
Comics: The Seasons 6-7, Escape 1
Music: We Rebuilt This City, Closet Monster

forty-eight plus one

Posted on by admin

And we’re back in the office.

And the office is making it very difficult to get done all the things I need to get done.

I need to get the Mungk in more hands.

I need artists, letters, colourists, an editor for Romance and Western Cradle.

I’ve more or less resigned myself to including the poetry and short stories in with The Mungk (well, maybe not the poetry – once I have enough of those, I may just do a volume of it).

But The Mungk – it needs to be seen. Romance, it’s just a calling card of a comic to build fans, a free giveaway I can hope someone enjoys, and then recognizes the creators later when we put out other stuff.

Western Cradle though – I think it’s good. It may be kind of rape-heavy, which sucks, but if we do it right, draw it right, it could be very, very strong.

But for now. The Mungk.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1141 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: A Study In Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
Comics: Deadly Class 25-26, Seven To Eternity 4, Black Science 27
Music: Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star, Sonic Youth (palate cleanser after Bette fucking Midler)

it occurred to me

Posted on by admin

That it might be funny to make little haikus out of the post listings on the right.

It currently says

i am also eating shit
we know you’re eating shit
never let it be said

Which isn’t traditional haiku, but it’s followed up by

so i went off the drugs
dogsittin’

Which in itself is kind of fun.

Something to think about.

It would lock me into the site’s look and feel, which is kind of hilarious.

Mornings are fucked when you’re thinking about barking dogs and yoga butt and the lack of porn in a main character’s movie collection.

Writing is weird.

Target: 1100 words
Written: 986 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Comics: Shadowhawk v5 6-9
Music: In The Chamber: The String Quartet Tribute To Linkin Park, String Quartet (this is a real thing, no shit)

feathers falling

Posted on by admin

We are falling
falling down
falling under
rising up
The wind lifts us
a tempest against a fading storm
We spread our feathers
a wild beating of wings
Against the throngs below
they are not us
they are ages old
They wish a return
We wish a future
And time is on our side
If they haven’t used it all up
They cannot last forever
We have flown so far
We have seen the moon and the stars
We have risen
We will not be dragged low
We spread our feathers
a wild beating of wings
They cannot contain us
We will soar

Target: 1000 words
Written: 108 words, poem: Feathers Falling

Read: Permanent Record, Edward Snowden
Comics: Chew 24-26, 27.2
Music: No Substance, Bad Religion

roses and violets

Posted on by admin

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Hearts are black
And lungs bruised
Legs are weary
Head aches
I’ve gone too far
Before I wake
The road behind
Is trampled waste
Lessons learned
And lost in haste
Roses red
And dipped in black
Falling slowly
Down my back
Burning muscles
Acid lungs
I’ve come to know
My race is run
And if I die before I wake
May someone find
What I meant to make

Target: 1000 words
Written: 80 words, poem: Roses And Violets

Read: Constellation Games, Leonard Richardson
Comics: Chew 13-16
Music: No Line On The Horizon, U2