Tuesday poem #373 : Matea Kulić : Emailing

Emailing a message, emailing an answer, emailing a reply, emailing a response.

Emailing a thank you for the email! emailing a that’s so great to hear!

Emailing a see you there! Emailing a ok, thanks for letting me know!

Emailing to subscribe, emailing to unsubscribe, emailing the waitlist, receiving an automatically generated email.

Starring an email, looking at one “of many” emails, wondering what ever happened to that email, deleting all drafts lest they become cold.

Emailing a happy face emoji, adding a Carbon Copied recipient, emailing a monkey covering his eyes, adding a Blind Carbon Copied recipient.

Emailing the judge, emailing my friend in Spain, emailing a carpenter, emailing my sister.

Emailing to re-affirm my commitment, emailing to cancel, emailing to support your campaign, using the contact form since an email has not been provided.

Sending an email with “no subject,” scheduling my send so that you can’t tell what time I’m emailing, signing into another email account, a reminder to set-up mail forwarding.

Creating a new label for work emails, finding a forgotten old emails to follow up on label, creating a newer Urgent! label, creating the label: emails for later.

Emailing to say sorry, emailing to say could we talk about this later next week?, emailing to say emailing may not be the best format for this discussion, emailing my phone number.

Not emailing. Pretending not to check emails on my phone, deleting duplicate and unimportant emails, emailing a few pics.

Emailing about what we’ll eat tonight, emailing a recipe, wondering if we should invite some friends over later, emailing a Google Cal invite.

Emailing to say, yes, emailing to say excited, emailing a poem, emailing to say thanks for all the back-and-forth.  

*This poem got its start from the poem “Reading” in Jacqueline Turner’s Flourish. The poem begins “Reading quotes, tweets, snippets.”

**According to a 2017 Survey, Canadians spend 17 hours a week, reading, responding and sending emails.

MATEA KULIĆ is the author of chapbooks PAPERWORK (Anstruther Press, 2019) and FRAU L. (Perro Verlag Books by Artists, 2016).

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #372 : Franklin Bruno : HUGE, IF TRUE

Akin to neither a wen,

to an octopus, to cancer, to Hell,

nor to a crystal, satisfying a pattern

mysteriously preordained, the city

may instead be conceived as a novel

but natural phenomenon arising not

from the clash of tectonic plates

nor the erosion that shapes their forms,

but by economic circumstance:

A mountainous landscape

of skyscrapers, tenements,

department stores and office blocks

heaving majestically out of the earth

in response to irresistible forces

only to be just as inevitably worn

down to rubble by the incessant passage

of the wheels of trucks and taxis,

by the feet of messengers,

policemen, shoppers and commuters.

We cannot vouch for the geologic

accuracy of this comparison,

yet admire its cosmic quality.

Franklin Bruno is a writer and musician, born and raised in Southern California’s Inland Empire, and now based in Jackson Heights, Queens. He is the author of The Accordion Repertoire (poetry, Edge Books) and Armed Forces (music criticism, in Continuum/Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series). His poetry, criticism, and scholarly writing have appeared in Brooklyn Rail, Oxford American, The Village Voice, Popular Music and Society, Paideuma, and Critical Quarterly. Since the 1990s, he has released 20 albums of original music as one-third of Nothing Painted Blue, under his own name, and (currently) as frontman of The Human Hearts. Collaborative projects include writing, recording, or performing with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Jenny Toomey, Laura Cantrell, and the Schramms. He holds a Ph.D in Philosophy from UCLA, and has taught at Northwestern University, Bard College, and SUNY Purchase.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #371 : Amelia Does : Oh

Oh Hampstead

Oh

Oh milk bone

Oh

Oh rain barrel

Oh

Oh centipeded crawls

Oh

Oh Drysdale

Oh

Oh lemon town

Oh

Oh lie detector

Oh

Oh with legs and eyes

Oh

Oh under the carpet

Oh

Oh down the laneway

Oh

Oh without a sound

Oh

Amelia Does is a writer and artist whose work has appeared in Cineforum Italia, Incite Journal of Experimental Media and Synoptique. Her poetry chapbook, Amsterdam, the Abba Version was published by Proper Tales Press. She is also author of a biography, Do Not Look Away: The Life of Arthur Lipsett, an absurd Novella, The Coming of Jarbina, and a children’s book, The Walking Tree and Other Stories. ameliadoes.weebly.com

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #370 : Anne Lesley Selcer : Ludic Loop

Everyone showed up as a representation of themselves,

the hour under lit against a stark white screen.

Inside the photograph, night was falling.

I texted myself, the discursive moment’s eating itself,

got back, “the discursive moment’s eating itself.”

Got a text from an ex, “I love the shadow world more than thee.”

The shantytown up the street roared toward the end of history.

Make your senses not be mimetic,

“Make your senses not be mimetic,” ok!

Heav’nly Venus, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,

sea-born, night-loving, of an awesome mien,
pray prevent confusions,

ridiculously besot with their full meanings,

with cemeteries that exceed themselves.

On a movie screen in Paris,

women filmed one by one

appear dancing together simultaneously.

Got back, “Words are markers

with shifting occupants in their corresponding graves”—

no reference,

lost reference.

"Cemetaries that exceed themselves" was said by Robert Y Sniderman at &Now, 2019

Anne Lesley Selcer [image credit: video still, Katie Ebbitt] is a poet in the expanded field and an art writer. She is the author of Blank Sign Book, a collection of essays, and of Sun Cycle, a poetry book about the image. Her gallery publications and chapbooks include from a Book of Poems on Beauty, Banlieusard, and Untitled (a treatise on form). Writing can be found in Hyperallergic, Jacket2, Fillip, Fence, Action Yes, Art Practical, Open Space, Gauss PDF and The Chicago Review, as well as in gallery and museum exhibition catalogs. Work has been included in several anthologies. Occasionally she creates off the page.

 The Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan