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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 178 responses total. |
orinoco
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response 69 of 178:
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May 30 17:51 UTC 2000 |
Returning to Chicago once more
sleep-addled and stunned by catch-that-early-train
5 am waking
and ready to be pulled brightly out into the sunlight of
bright lights, big city,
ready to feel at home under that skyline,
but first...
...the quiet cacaphony of freight line and steelmill set in.
Gary, Indiana, fragrant buttcrack of Lake Michigan,
rattler of chains, spewer of fumes, awaits.
Not an elegant skyline to be seen, but the contour of smokestacks
pulls the eye uupwards to the morning sun.
Not a hint of gloss, but the dull gleam of rust
and the burnished glow of the lake.
Not a human soul at hand, but pigeons feast,
flatbed trucks convene and converse
and the exploding barrels of gas-carrying train cars
wallow like grim rhinoceroses along the shore.
Not even a touch of familiarity or grace,
and never a brick in sight that feels like home --
but I love it. I love
the architectural culture shock,
the pollution which swears casually, coolly, like James Dean
lighting another cigarette. I love the
firey belch of oil-burning smokestacks.
I love the view as we pass by,
and in the haze the entire city seems to be blowing a smoke ring,
exhaling a detatchable pair of lips
which drift skyward with all the cool and class in the world.
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arianna
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response 70 of 178:
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May 30 21:06 UTC 2000 |
VERY cool.
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orinoco
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response 71 of 178:
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May 30 21:19 UTC 2000 |
Woops, forgot my words....
Sky clippings
Missing knot
Velvet sandwich
Singular forceps
One eye
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lumen
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response 72 of 178:
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May 31 01:37 UTC 2000 |
resp:69 Gary, Indiana is the fragrant buttcrack of Lake Michigan?
Okaaay, I wouldn't know. That was the only phrase, I suppose, that was
too crude to be handled more delicately than that.
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orinoco
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response 73 of 178:
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May 31 01:50 UTC 2000 |
it's sort of along the same lines as New Jersey being the armpit of the U.S.
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arianna
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response 74 of 178:
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May 31 19:30 UTC 2000 |
I've been to Gary, Indiana. and it truely is the fragrant buttcrack of the
US.
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remmers
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response 75 of 178:
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Jun 7 16:21 UTC 2000 |
Right. I've been forced to go *through* Gary to get from Ann Arbor
to Chicago, but have always assiduously avoided stopping there,
because of what Gary is.
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arianna
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response 76 of 178:
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Jul 4 16:53 UTC 2000 |
(This poem went beyond what I'd expected it to be when I sat down to write
it -- there's actually a work in progress revolving around this, but I'm
posting a fractured version of it in order to get on with the game.)
Sky clippings spike violently down;
weighted, frustrated, anger within static.
Velvet sandwich of cumulonimbus
pressing down from the firmanent, voluminous.
A missing knot, a heated blade --
the sky is unclasped, gravid and decending.
Ocean scoured shore voltage-heavy --
singular forceps of a bolt hot and quick
cut the air with a shriek, sheer the limb off a tree.
A cyclone reaches out, over the water,
One eye in the midst of a watery face.
A cyclops with invisible hands and wings
Lifts a black-haired woman into the sky.
---
nervous dragon
prowling snows
spectral birds
gutted heavens
smokey aspens
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arianna
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response 77 of 178:
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Jul 12 00:06 UTC 2000 |
(Are you guys tired of the game?)
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orinoco
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response 78 of 178:
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Jul 12 17:44 UTC 2000 |
r
nah, just underinspired :)
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arianna
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response 79 of 178:
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Jul 15 22:07 UTC 2000 |
<sad little girl face> aw.
what, not enough rudabagas in my phrases?
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orinoco
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response 80 of 178:
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Jul 16 06:13 UTC 2000 |
Yeah, that must be it ;)
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lumen
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response 81 of 178:
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Jul 17 05:05 UTC 2000 |
I haven't had the creative juices for poetry lately..
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arianna
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response 82 of 178:
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Jul 17 18:34 UTC 2000 |
oh, that's right, just blame the fw. d=
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lumen
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response 83 of 178:
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Jul 18 02:53 UTC 2000 |
I wasn't blaming you, Erinn dear, I was blaming myself.
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arianna
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response 84 of 178:
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Jul 18 09:07 UTC 2000 |
no need for such self deprication. (;
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lumen
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response 85 of 178:
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Jul 19 04:40 UTC 2000 |
true, but I have felt burnt out in this context for quite a while.
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arianna
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response 86 of 178:
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Feb 4 18:27 UTC 2001 |
ok, you guys, it's february and not a poem in sight.
for the benefit of everyone, I"m going to post THREE lists. pick the one you
like and *write something* for gods sakes.
#1 (the original; which I don't expect anyone to use, honestly.)
nervous dragon
prowling snows
spectral birds
gutted heavens
smokey aspens
#2
gregarious spider
courageous vegitation
tempestuous thread
obvious meridian
melodious oblivion
#3
racked roses
purple Fiji
gum-backed stamps
folded fortune
prodigious apple
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aquarum
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response 87 of 178:
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Feb 4 23:28 UTC 2001 |
The nervous dragon of my mind
slithers through the smokey aspens of schoolwork
trying to avoid the prowling snows
that are the language of memory
She tiptoes on five-fingered-feet
gazing longingly at the gutted heavens
where once she danced for an audience
of spectral birds
new phrases:
singing shoes
galumphing books
unlovely art
purple M&Ms
roaring uvula
mind remover
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orinoco
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response 88 of 178:
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Feb 5 02:23 UTC 2001 |
(ooh...."mind remover" is a good one....)
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aquarum
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response 89 of 178:
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Feb 5 06:08 UTC 2001 |
<curtsey> thank you, kind sir.
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brighn
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response 90 of 178:
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Feb 5 15:14 UTC 2001 |
I once had singing shoes and dancing hands:
My mind, it flew across the shifting sands...
The fantasies were no unlovely art
To drag me down and weigh upon my heart
But the roaring uvula which condescends
Upon the land of make-believe-pretends
Struck out with heady science, tsk-tsk looks,
Disapproving frowns, gallumphing books...
And now I'm not a dreamer, I'm a prover
(I think I shall soon need a mind remover)
[There were six on the list, so I used the five that worked bast.]
Narcotic inconveniences
Genuine misanthropy
Slow chiffon
Eccliastical Jeffersonian
Bad brick
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aquarum
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response 91 of 178:
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Feb 5 22:44 UTC 2001 |
(applause)
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flem
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response 92 of 178:
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Feb 7 20:54 UTC 2001 |
Ecclesiastical (I assume that's what you meant to type) Jeffersonian is
killer. The rest of those are actually kind of evocative.
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brighn
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response 93 of 178:
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Feb 7 21:55 UTC 2001 |
Quite right, I didn't think my spelling looked right.
And oh, come on, I could fold that it and even make it make sense.don't make
me respond to my own phraselist. ;}
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