For W.M. & Posted Six Days Later On Occasion Of Her Birthday

Once I promote myself to detective on my cop show, I think I'll write you a librarian guest spot: a librarian who's also a secret assassin. You only kill bad guys. Or maybebad writers; maybe you only kill bad writers.

I accept that I want things

I accept that I want things that are bad for me. I hate to accept to even think perhaps I want things bad for others that might be good for me.

A Pause In My Poems for a Bit of Prog Wave

In honor of the 33 1/3 12" LP record, I am going try to decide upon and list my 12 favorite albums by any given band in less than 34 seconds. I am also doing this because there's this "flood [that certain social network] with poetry" trend and I've been doing that with my own poetry thank you very, so here's something that's not a poem. Though you'll see this could be read as one. You see it?

First up, the prog rock powerhouse known as Yes -

Fragile

The Yes Album

Close To The Edge

Drama

Relayer

Yesterdays

Going For The One

Tales From Topogra

- ok, that's as far as I got. Time flees, after all.

I'm going to bed, under the weather. Maybe I've got a poem coming on. I really just wanted to say that I am a camera -

Yes - Into The Lens (Official Music Video)

I'm old enough

I'm old enough
to remember
privacy.

I Used My MAuDlin skiLLz

I used my maudlin skillz with
a Styrofoam cup and some string
from a harp to place a call back in
Time to the set of Alphaville just
to hear Anna
Karina answer in
Space
.

Theater Review: The Golden Dragon (Sideshow Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Theatre)

 Another review for Newcity Stage:

RECOMMENDED

A production that
aims to be gripping
and unsettling from
the start, Sideshow’s
staging of 
“The Golden Dragon”
grows more 
successful…  

( read full review here )

RECOMMENDED
A production that aims to be gripping and unsettling from the start, Sideshow’s staging of “The Golden Dragon” grows more
- See more at: http://newcitystage.com/2014/01/26/review-the-golden-dragonsideshow-theatre-company/#sthash.1oBTXy0k.dpuf

RECOMMENDED
A production that aims to be gripping and unsettling from the start, Sideshow’s staging of “The Golden Dragon” grows more
- See more at: http://newcitystage.com/2014/01/26/review-the-golden-dragonsideshow-theatre-company/#sthash.1oBTXy0k.dpuf

RECOMMENDED
A production that aims to be gripping and unsettling from the start, Sideshow’s staging of “The Golden Dragon” grows more
- See more at: http://newcitystage.com/2014/01/26/review-the-golden-dragonsideshow-theatre-company/#sthash.1oBTXy0k.dpuf

RECOMMENDED
A production that aims to be gripping and unsettling from the start, Sideshow’s staging of “The Golden Dragon” grows more
- See more at: http://newcitystage.com/2014/01/26/review-the-golden-dragonsideshow-theatre-company/#sthash.1oBTXy0k.dpuf

Lucien Stryk

Lucien Stryk
was right
about me.

I sound great singing Wah-Wah

I sound great singing Wah-Wah in the empty concourse between Ogilvie and Two North Riverside Plaza, and even better in the vacant Plaza hall.

Just saw another sign

Just saw another sign-
THERE IS JOY IN FOLLOWING
JESUS EVERYDAY

& I bet back in the day
when He was around
it was a real blast.

Hard-pressed for a reason

Hard-pressed for
a reason to live?
Or did you press
On
for something less
pressing?
A smile
- a pressed smile
or some warmth.
That's hopeless
- the latter.
At best they will
find you still pressing,
dead cold always.
Put you on display,
some frozen example,
a cause for debate and inquiry;
theories formed
jokes delivered
even wagers placed
on just whatever it was
you were
pushing for.

There is zero

There is zero point
And zero treasure
If the
All of
Us is
Never together
.

This useless device

This useless device
• used to bring me messages
from you
• used to send you love
letters at noon
• used to

• used to display
pictures of us too

It's used less this
device;
used to do
infinitely less.
But used brings in
little in
trade-in.
So
it'll be used
as
an alarm clock
in
a minute or few.

I have a new device if
I'd written this there it'd
be a
ruse.

Theater Review: The Mandrake (Commedia Beauregard at The Raven Theatre)

Photo: Brad Cantwell

Last time I wrote reviews for someone was 20+ years ago and it was the Chicago International Film Festival and they printed the catalog with some last name they just made up for me. So, this is a clear improvement. Also, unlike for the film fest, I actually saw the play I write about here

I suspect there's something about Planet Waves

I suspect there's something about Planet Waves
makes it appeal more to
those both more
beautiful & more
conniving than
I'll ever be
.

One day I'm gonna move back to California

One day I'm gonna move back to California. Soon maybe. And if cops murder me I hope I get a jury with some integrity & some courage.

What you might think

What you might think would be
an inspiring moment
has left me seeking the solace of
wordless ignorance, anonymity or
abhorrent retreat.

No words from me
please
& no words from others;
the thought of any words making
me sickly weak.

I'll look up

I'll look up ahead, where there'll be light to see where are near thoroughfares. I'll encounter many foreigners. About the time of the nosebleed I could almost make out the lights. Here is our story:

Opera one night enshrinement, Asian teen pop devastations seated prominently. That's my right. To my left just the hint of more light. I'll take the hint. There it is raining, there are cafes, and a middle aged couple has a display of seahorse holographs and telegrams. (The display is in a domed garden.)
There's a crew starting a new movement fad, they seem to be planted. I call home to say I'm on a case. The office already knows.
There are allergens in the environment I am at odds with, which may betray me as an outsider. I'm medicinally prepared for this, but it impairs my maneuvering. I'm just a little off. The movement crew nab me, tell me to go cool it in one of the cafes. I request a precision nuclear strike at a particular town monument. It soon will be a shrine. My very risky move played out: that's where the crew was hiding the town power source. The local folk took care of the rest.
I stopped with the anti-allergens and the nosebleed resumed. Strange, for they seemed unrelated. And indeed they were. It was the far off opera causing the nosebleed. I was in the cheap seats and didn't even know I was in the theater.

My life is enough

My life
is enough
to cause me
to end it
But then
who knows
tomorrow's
revisions?

There is a foul madness

There is a foul madness
- looking for hearts in a
  landfill

All them discarded some here from
my dumpster perhaps / and look
I see my own

That's just junk no
use in the new yore.

There's a bunch of
Atari
Terrestrial
Pac-Man
carts
and butcher sleeve copies
of "Yesterday" …
and Today.

I have done it!
I have located my own heart
in
History's Dustbin Famous Shithole of Refuse!

I have too!! yes for true, joined the
noted discards post-centennial liberty garden of trash.

"For Freedom?"
No, the oppositional placard.

It reads: For Bondage

and not the dull kind for bootlickers and such.

Rather,
the inescapable sort
marked forever for disposal.

A minute

A minute takes time.

There's a mental health epidemic

There's a mental health epidemic
on this bus.

I hate to be

I hate to be here
  - wherever this is
without you
  - whoever that is

Stepping into someone else's bootprints

Stepping into someone else's bootprints
to avoid going knee deep in the snow
( finding the below freezing
  temperature helpful with this and
   relativity warm as well )
The jingle for a defunct
pottery chain
pops into my head.

I hope this doesn't happen
right before I die.

I have this horrible

God, I've got this horrible twitter on my face!

Barred Poetic Disorder {Rhino Festival Reading} January 26 & 27 2014

Darlin' Reader,
It is with special dedication to your devoted interest in this site that I here announce two upcoming performances of the self (same) poems you have been reading right here since whenever you first visited!

A one-man show, starring a woman.
 A reading onstage; not a staged reading.
   Yes, in honesty: A Poetry Reading.

As part of the esteemed

25th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival

the undeniable Heather Marie Vernon
http://vimeo.com/sexualtheorypractice
http://www.youtube.com/pinkanxiety
will join
the irredeemable Raymond A Rehayem
http://libraryindustries.com/

onstage in Barred Poetic Disorder
 This performance runs for two nights only - Sunday January 26 @ 5PM & Monday January 27 @ 7PM. Tickets are $15 or pay-what-you-can at the door or $12 in advance via Brown Paper Tickets.

{ This show is part of a double bill with "Steinau" }

The Rhino Fest is remarkable, runs January 11 - February 23 and is worth all the time you can muster. Come see as many shows as you should.  And then, if you're feeling spunky, come discuss what you've seen at The Curious Coffee Klatsch.

 If anyone makes it to these performances, I hope it's you. Whoever you are, reading this - and wherever you may be - the performance is yours forever.

 Thanks for reading,
rR

Do Not; Disturb

Do Not; Disturbed

Who will you

Who will you
be next and
Who will be
the new you?

And if you
ever meet
Who'll I be and
Who'll be the new me?

(Let's say let's leave me and you
behind and
run off the
two of us like
We were supposed to
be.)

2014 is going

2014 is going to be a
Very Special Year.
So Very Special it's going to be a
Two-Parter.

Do you hear me,
2015?!?!?!!!
You're just gonna
have to
wait