untitled (flight of birds)

Wikipedia Poem, No. 625

simple-sm

“as if social censure // is all that stops him from rending the sheep a kiss” Patrick Cotter

For Noam

זיכרונה לברכה

between eyes the diamond
it is the role of no one’s character
justice suggests a comic fainting fashion
to were i birdlike or losing your affection
allied to your paintings exegete
developed humane patterns for roman interiors
i could have mastered your movement within a week of kindness
cent femmes fantastiques tête allied to the calendar
of justice which is no time at all taḥrīf
no more and repeats it as if none act a stage
o the roman interiors i could have mastered
breath in translation a series of interlocked sparks

Impossible Tercets as Exaggerated Reality

Wikipedia Poem, No. 624

Processed with VSCO with acg preset

aiming
to avoid those threats dr strauss said
adding

to be livable over the
next two decades
settle increasingly feeling to avoid those threats dr strauss said

adding to avoid those threats
others to escape
that any cities where some within the effects of climate the

effects of the effects
some within the climate
the

brunt of the climate central an independent
nonprofit
research collabor

that any cities mitigate change within the
effects
at climate change

within the
climate impacts of
t

collaboration could
settle in the heat
dr strauss said adding

to
avoid those threats
dr strauss

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Source: Bromwich, Jonah Engel. “Where can you escape the harshest effects of climate change?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2016. 

John of Patmos, Kneeling

Wikipedia Poem, No. 623

wiki623-sm

“for when the Pope saw Raphael’s sketches // (there is never enough wall space / here, at the center of power, — ) // he ordered everything Sadoma had painted destroyed.” Frank Bidart

“One thing there’s no getting by —
I’ve been a wicked girl,” said I;
“But if I can’t be sorry, why,
I might as well be glad!”
— Edna St. Vincent Milay

exiled we by dire storm 
born of a little sin
gilled systems ill of theses
mercy snaps its cloud   like wicked birch
scorched to mere mercy   whose little sorrow
judged in laodicean fire & ninety-five mph winds 
wouldn't weep   nor re-use what will has transpired 
we debris storms   list above and below 

in concomitant spore   penitent
processional committees of pine-lake door   low-hung extremities
destructive nature   sum of hurricane
below barometric pressure   broken
up intense   most powerful spue and spire 
of named tropical storm surge      impure glad   impure

Portrait of Lindy West

Wikipedia Poem, No. 622

wiki622-sm

“I fucking / Love Stevie Wonder. I could fall / In love with him a hundred times. / I know what he means when he says / La La La La La La.” Ariana Reines

now      even left-wing          puff pieces cast party
                                       defer (or perhaps unmask it
all-government hurricane partly agrees about email
become that                                                                    ism
always have nice hidden in her swaddle faced with everythings that chyron 
revealing along disaffected cut-in factions between working remote of center
it’s     a good-faith racism      like        all political far-right ideological guidance 
or economic          color in 2017      the hurricane partly astonishing truly trojan 
trojan how it didn’t sure                         (they’re going to                                   
somehow benefit somehow 
somehow faced with ever quite     you did        such as bizarre personal twist 
womb writers 
of       nuance or economic color in virile siege end
sunder powers are daily on social just white           published a truly among the herd 
that he’s thriving     as much
ism           as propaganda     to any responsibility
and swaddle in           vile simply       passionalism yes
contacts         and herds this protégé     read
conglomerated with a     link to suggest grasp of those           daily red horse
’s drag that he’s cast as racist          hate male of those are daily on social    media’s 
women and include a misogynist
hurricane           powers to powerful wildly   description of the
disaffected protégé     read and swastika-clad     minimalist writer 
charlottesville
night low       not racist lease      even profound      now

‘Poets Reading the News’ publishes Wikipedia Poem, No. 620, ‘Semiogenetics, in Flames’

If you’d like to read the latest Wikipoem, you’re going to have to head over to the wonderful Poets Reading the News website.

California Wildfires

Thank you, Readers, for your support over the years. Even if it is just reading the poetry and peering deeply into the visual art, it affects me profoundly.

Here: Have another free chapbook!

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The Cardinals

Wikipedia Poem, No. 619

w619-sm

      cedar's severe angels   
sing         out           boxy little songs 
sing a jumpsuited repair    man services holy
           angles sing holy logic       proofs with pencils     
rule         a jumpsuited repair man servicing boxy proofs 
with pencils neg       a jumpsuited      repair       man 
services a       jumpsuited repair         man 
servicing holy angles    sing      holy angles    sing 
a jumpsuited        repair          man servicing holy angles 
sing holy angles       sing out boxy little songs 
sing out boxy   little songs sing       a   jumpsuited   repair   man 
services holy angles             sing holy angels sing a       
jumpsuited repair      song servicing holy    angles   sing               
a jumpsuited repair         man servicing holy angles         sing     
holy angles       sing holy angels sing        boxy       little songs           
sing         a jumpsuited repair    man      servicing    
a jumpsuited repair man servicing boxy little songs   sing        logic       
proofs with pencils rule a jumpsuited repair man servicing boxy proofs 
with pencils ruling holy angles     sing straight
           holy angels sing holy           sing               
a jumpsuited      repair         man servicing our    boxy little songs       
sing    holy angles sing logic proofs    
   pencils rulers holy angles      each singing a jumpsuit 
repair man servicing a jumpsuited angle 
sing a jumpsuited little song       sing holy angles       
sing out fanatic proofs     with      pencils ruling holy angles       
a       cardinal   perched high in the        cedar's severe angles     
sing out boxy little    sing songs         a jumpsuited repair         
man services holy       angles sing holy angels           sing      
out boxy proofs      with pencil proof           rule holy angles