■ Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho has been writing poetry for most of his life, but because he was living on the side of the road in Sao Paulo, Brazil, only a few passersby ever read it. That changed when one of those readers, Shalla Monteiro, created a Facebook page to share Sobrinho’s poems with the world. The page attracted some 40,000 […]
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I Want to Be in a Comic Book From the flashing pages of my youth, I have wanted to be in a comic book. I designed my suit, considered my powers and weapons. I imagined a damsel in distress. Even thought of my perfect lair. On my swing set, I would consider this universe of my making. I set about […]
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“Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
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In the World I’m tired of the high-minded voices I know talking about not being of the world. Like, what does that really mean? I’m the substance of this known universe. I have dirt under my nails. I eat from the ground. Get used to it. It’s not that I disagree with their stance on life, the universe, and a […]
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Take Two And this is why I love film. No one stutters unless they mean to. They represent themselves in the best take of all. I am a silent performer. When I drive down the road, I belt out music like a professional. I wish I hadn’t told you that. In my mind, there’s an auditorium. Figures from my past […]
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Word Bubbles Travel with me a moment into a place where our thoughts become action. Yes, this sounds like the introduction to a 60s science fiction series. Pardon me. There are some ideas I wish to keep secret. They are my tangle of vines, grounding me in reality. Reminding me that I don’t have to throat punch someone. All I […]
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HOW LEAVING HOME WORKS I need highways, infrastructure that can differentiate between the town where I grew up and the place I need to be. And a Ford that’s up to it, getting on but faithful, its leather bucket seats faded from their prime, but radio rock stations all preset and fifty times louder than the engine. Blacktop, […]
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Most Recent I’m making sure all is still alive. Checking the pulse of the homepage. Routinely observing to see if the rise and fall of ideas is still in sway. I make the most of this room, circle the table, tell my little jokes, and hope that what I’m saying reaches out like a tree limb tapping or even […]
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Persona non Grata To the not good enough comments, I say, psshhhhhh. That was last week, a hundred years ago. Easily. I’m flushing, rinsing down the last backwash of badly- formed words. This week is triumph, so don’t mind that shadow you noticed last week. He has bloomed like a perrenial and will be back soon.
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Notes Upon Viewing The still-frame, captured eye, I do not ask permission to see. When I enter the theater, I simply view. The camera takes me where I want to go, high in the air where I have never been. Up and down the side of a skyscraper. Into the mouth of a problem. Image, sound, life, deformed, resembled, […]
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