Splash State - Softcover

Colby, Todd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0988464365 ISBN 13: 9780988464360

Verlag: The Song Cave, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

“In this stack of love poems, we see the Romantic has a place again in the everyday ... this book is a spell, a love spell. And if you want a book to carry with you when no one seems to care, when no one seems to be your friend, well then, you’ve found it.” ―Dorothea Lasky

An extended love letter, Todd Colby's sixth poetry collection Splash State is filled with humor and charm. These poems are as concerned with aging, time, being and death as they are with eliminating “the need for anxious circumstances” with facts, instructions and advice. From extolling the uses of “Shark's Paw” and “Fink Leaf” to “how to look like everything is okay in photographs,” Colby's poems opt for the personal and generous, even when his tongue is firmly planted in cheek. If melancholy is just around the corner, these poems will walk with you in the opposite direction.
Todd Colby has previously authored five collections of poetry, including Tremble and Shine and Riot in the Charm Factory. New and Selected Poems was published by Soft Skull Press. His chapbook Flushing Meadows was published by Scary Topiary Press in 2013.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Todd Colby is the author of five collections of poetry, including Tremble and Shine (Soft Skull Press, 2004), Riot in the Charm Factory: New and Selected Poems (Soft Skull Press, 2003), Flushing Meadows (Scary Topiary Press, 2013) and SPLASH STATE (The Song Cave, 2014).

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Splash State

By Todd Colby

The Song Cave

Copyright © 2014 Todd Colby
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9884643-6-0

Contents

I, 
Wing Wing, 3, 
Morning Poem, 4, 
Lift, 5, 
The Library, 6, 
Wednesday, 7, 
The Age of Frost, 8, 
I Feel Like My Head is Expanding, 9, 
Field Guide to Plants of the North, 10, 
Scram, 11, 
Silver Lime, 12, 
The Clothing of My Death, 13, 
Love Poem, 14, 
Poem from Paris, 15, 
Sit Still, 16, 
Simple Times, 17, 
Team Hand, 18, 
Slow Joy, 19, 
Violet Hush, 20, 
The Secret Hours, 21, 
Butter, 22, 
My Plans, 23, 
The Bone Above the Heart, 24, 
You'd Think the Sky Would Run Out of Water, 25, 
Sonic Prince, 26, 
Memory, 27, 
Action Town, 28, 
Fun, 29, 
Splash State, 30, 
Tonight, 31, 
My Modernity, 32, 
Gas Stations & Weirdos, 33, 
Laugh Track, 34, 
The Ship, 35, 
Done, 36, 
Dawn, 37, 
Electric Pony Light, 38, 
Agency of Kisses, 39, 
Hallelujah Anyway, 40, 
Poem for Show, 41, 
Glinty Blue, 42, 
Soothing Poem, 43, 
Who Let You Go?, 44, 
Orchid Enthusiast, 45, 
Let Us Know You're Here, 46, 
II, 
Home, 49, 
Wings, 50, 
My Campaign, 51, 
Salute, 52, 
Poem for Fridays, 53, 
Electric Blanket, 54, 
How to Look Like Everything is Okay in Photographs, 55, 
My Dream of Everything, 56, 
Hazy Evening, 58, 
All Time Favorites, 59, 
Look Out There, 60, 
Someone Would Like to See You, 61, 
September, 62, 
Washing My Face, 63, 
Jigsaw, 64, 
Head, 65, 
Can You Feel It?, 66, 
In a Nutshell, 67, 
Monsoonal Surge, 68, 
Go! Team!, 69, 
Facing the Music, 70, 
Here You Go, 71, 
New Practice, 72, 
III, 
Storm Kings, 75, 
Soothing Poem, 77, 
For Time & Being, 79, 
Liquid Smoke, 80, 
Endings, 81, 
Josephine of Pearline, 82, 
Sleep, 83, 
Numb Gallop, 84, 
In Any Case, 85, 
A Plausible Miracle, 86, 
Slumber Party, 87, 
Who Let You Go?, 88, 
Old Home, 89, 
People Gift, 90, 
A Year, 91, 

CHAPTER 1

    Wing Wing

    It takes all week to live a week.
    There aren't any shortcuts. In today's
    economy of needs, we're all poor and vaguely autistic,
    it makes you feel zonked like grape juice
    poured over a balcony: fucked.
    I'm disguised as you, but that hasn't stopped me
    from loving you. Show me something perfect
    to talk about. I need a hot topic.
    My lips are blue. The wind
    is actually beating the shit
    out of me as I plop on the wonder.
    Each day of the week they
    can take that away from me.


    Morning Poem

    I could have you, need you, break with you.
    I could spend hours with you; eating pieces
    of you and making the world change
    with you, be humble with you,
    and then cradle you whole, eating
    from you as the birds eat crusts of bread
    around you, wanting to eat from you too.
    If ever there was a way to yield to it, I would.
    I would grow mellow and sure with it, I would.
    Solemn as these days breed stillness, I would. I would
    I would. All of it, I would.
    Take me, I will let you. And I would. Lift your arms
    in the air, and wave them above your head. I would.


    Lift

    Out here in the urban wilds
    the wind goes "whoosh" through buildings,
    while the sun shatters over everything
    at severe angles. The vacant lot of brown grass sways
    a syrupy dance, undulating like hips
    during a fuck. Heavy with rust, all the cars
    creak over the dusty highway.
    We drink snow coffee and pace
    around our aluminum shed,
    glancing at our reflections in
    oily puddles to determine the effects
    of the environment on our rush
    through time. Gravity plays no
    small part when we drop things.
    In fact, it is because of gravity
    that a baby can rest on a knee
    without floating away.
    By nightfall, the city is dark,
    people stumble over curbs and cuss,
    brushing themselves off, and breathing
    through rags dipped in vetiver
    to disguise the smell of the dark.
    In the morning, we'll eat the things
    that are least covered with gray dust,
    stopping between bites to blow dead skin
    from the back of our hands.


    The Library

    I have this fear that I might die in a library,
    or get punched in a library, or get
    my ass totally kicked in a library,
    or seduced in a library,
    seduced, and then beaten up
    in a library and then taken out
    of the library on a stretcher;
    or that I'll forget how to spell "library,"
    when I'm sitting in a library, writing
    a note to you that begins,
    "I am writing this to you from ..."


    Wednesday

    Wednesday is such an elegant and refined word,
    with a regal d followed by a soothing n. Wednesday,
    so serious and stout, yet elegant and refined.
    Wednesday is transparent, yet bold and playfully midweek.
    Wednesday, is also known as, "hump day."
    Wednesday is the name of a woman whose
    parents know the playful solidity of the day,
    and how delightful those qualities are in a woman's
    name or character. Wednesday is the link
    between early week and midweek. Wednesday
    is not a holiday, but more of a working
    day. Wednesday is a point in the middle of the week
    when sleeves are rolled up and unfinished work from early
    in the week with days that have dreaded names like,
    "Monday" or "Tuesday" are finished up.
...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The Song Cave
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0988464365
• ISBN 13: 9780988464360
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 94
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar