Four Poems by Mark Young

The New Dance

 

is a trapezoid, with the corps

split & aligned in parallel while

the principals follow their own

appointed steps at both ends. In

geometry are called the legs; but

that seems inappropriate for this

sort of setup where we focus on

the entire body of the soloists &

their range of movements while

the corps shifts their weight from

one foot to another, a sense of

movement while remaining in

the one spot. This new dance is

called Diamonds in the Sky With

Lucy, a psychedelic pop song ref-

erence. No mention of geometry.

 

 

The bluster of antiquity

 

Depends on the part of the

auditorium you're sitting in,

 

but Xerxes seems to get men-

tioned a lot, even though his

 

only contribution to the on-

going debate is an obscure

 

paper on how any success of

the Crusaders will eventually

 

lead to a Kaiserreich, especially

if they recover the Holy Grail.

 

 

A line from Cyndi Lauper (2)

 

Despite a full itinerary of engaging

workshops, the Rabbitohs, perhaps

the ultimate embodiment of la dolce

vita, have climbed to sixth on the

 

ladder. Designed to deliver a fun-

ctioning copy of the GLA gene, AI

is making them avoid indie pub-

lishing, but they've decided to take

 

a chance this time, since the book

combines an all-encompassing ad-

venture through Peru with the

removal of a patch of grass from

 

the base of the Arc de Triomphe. Re-

fill your cup, there's still time to vote

in the Grammys even though rushed

confrontations can worsen outcomes.

 

 

The birth of Cubism ficcione

 

Pablo Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles

 d'Avignon, long considered as a sem-

inal work in a new painting style, was

originally a realistic rendition of the

eruption of Krakatoa. In the period

between its painting & its first display

protagonists of what would later become

Négritude decided that, with some modi-

fication, it could be reconstructed to be

reconstrued as a counter argument to

the painter's denial of cultural appro-

priation in his interest & use of African

elements in his preliminary sketches. His

Paris studio was burgled one night &

the changes made. In the morning, when

Picasso saw the upgraded painting, he

decided he both liked it, & saw in it

the potential of a new movement which

he could then be at the forefront of.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et sem-

per, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Four Poems by Michael Begnal

Punk and the Autonomous Individual

 

Does punk evolve?

 

Continual reiteration

of an oppositional stance

is facile and nihil,

swinging left and then always

to the right, depending

on our (mostly) white

minds, which we absurdly feel

to be autonomously our own

 

Should punk evolve?

 

Continental reverberations

open positions extant

as fossil, or isle,

sing wings aloft in the alleyway

of the rite descending—

 

dissonant response, like you is

a dead end, and could even

really be individual

     in a sound sense

 

  

Evolution 1

 

This is going to be

how the mirror reflects

the lens refracts

the moon reflects

the sun meet

at the point between the eyebrows

and the light revolves

into the center

of the passage-tomb

of the head

 

descends

through the empty terrain

of the below

to the cauldron

steady simmering

on low heat

 

water under the grate

melts into steam

  rising

    into

a keening

   noise

 

               //

 

the Revolution of the I:

is evolution,

the I transmuted,

refined

in the iron

cauldron

 

 

Evolution (single version)

 

so that it is the self

but also expression

of void-dark pervasion

 

images are real

but also images may be refracted,

and who will speak them

 

Department/

an affiliated amalgamation

of people cohered

around a purpose

possibly in a location

that is not always a building

 

Feral Forest/

both real and not-real

it is the potential

of a forest to (re)grow

when left alone

and the mind

to revert to its tree-nature

when out from under

oppression

 

in the single version

there was an extra verse

that sang the question:

should there be leader/s,

a central figure,

     a Boudica

 

albeit the lens refracts?

 

an echo among the oaks

 

 

Evolution 9

 

is it going to be alright?

 

flesh in waves of magnetic tape

shifting pink flashes out in the wind

animal cells pervaded by the real

strangely shimmering silent

     darkness

at evolved frequencies

 

“mere mysticism”

real working mass

panem et Circen

     embodied

glas-dark experience

 

into version 9

 

an economic boycott

is not a marketing opportunity

 

a city block aloaf

in ancient neon

is a field in the totality

chamber things

not standing still

number nine when

 

newly vatic

I played a CD

in the portal-tomb

the unexpected chord change

recorded on

     [void]

 

a central

movement

melts not

 

          INCIPIT

all those little spaces

    among the oaks

Michael Begnal

One Poem by Allison Whittenberg

and that’s the news

the weather writes 

about the weather 

for being the weather