Some Random Abstract Poetry - 11/06/08

Some Random Abstract Poetry - 10/06/08
Category: Writing and Poetry

I take the Brooklyn Rail newspaper and underline words and phases in the articles that catch my attention. Then circle a word or phrase for the title. It's more of a subtractive process, taking a full page of words and editing down to a poem, rather than the tradition process of adding words to a blank page. The pieces of newspaper with these random abstract poems get used as collage material in my artwork.

Out of Control
You invent systems.
But then your systems, the drawings, get lost.
Drawings, charts, earthquakes and wars.
The absurdity.
A statistician of the absurd.

Literal connection.
Some sort of rhythm.
How much of your plan is predetermined?

I don't really plan.
One element, a shape maybe.
Sometimes I have , but it almost never goes.
I don't know.
The final work is small, recorded over time.


Non-Linguistic
Translate abstract thought and visual form.
The ambiguity to inject imagery.
How do you get such interesting shapes?

Drawing successful.
It has to end.
It has to take.
I feel that there's a lot I cannot understand.
It's confusing.
I have to have control.


Rare to See
A little market.
The inescapably sunny days.
Walk up and down the sidewalks.
Discovering night, as gentle floodlights.

The passes of the valley.
Velvet rope clip joint.
Pretty girls in miniskirts.
A dude in square-toed loafers, barfing chocolate martinis.
Unglamorous.

A menacing dwarf.
An aging pimp.
A middle-aged cowboy.
Those oddly relaxing cheap drinks.


Now?
When you see it, you see when.
The day before the storm.
You going?
You going?
I don't know.
Get some food, it was bad.
The government's never been there.
Why are you going?


Personal Decision
They were talking.
I looked at my wife.
I refused to go.
Thousands and thousands, and they weren't going.
I hear I'm very happy.


This In You
Like a death trap, there was no food.
The bathrooms and stuff.
Those people, I knew.


Here On Our Own
I want to say is.
This is.
Is that?

Been abandoned.
Looking for the people with money.
Class and privilege.
The government was never there.
We're not looking for the government.


Ain't Nothing to Feel
Naked as the truth.
Just naked, just naked.
They all got blood.
Everybody that died.
Four or five.
With all this murder, they are responsible.


Photos in Chinese
In a two-room apartment,
I gathered the looks of people.
I saw a waterbug.
A flashback to the Lower East Side.