All posts tagged erasure poetry

Ask I: “I Must Have Surgery?”

Q: I socialize with ants and dress sexy. I must have surgery?

A: I can relate to three hours of walking a block to make sense.

Inch sure-footed without looking down.

Adjust your pitch the way the angle will determine where a platform can tip.

With strategic comfort, provide a plain watch for skinny toes.

Don’t forget walking slightly larger in a little room.

Expand a few hours of standing up and down.

While you walk, look for foam balls creating a burning sensation.

Your podiatrist may consider feet fleshy.

Get fit by padding.

Be an experiment.

Wear the house, carpeting for an hour!

blackout composition, source: “Ask Teri”, Teri Agins, The Wall Street Journal, 3/7/13.

in situ, below:

blackout

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by Tom Busillo on March 7, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in absurdist advice columns, erasure poetry, Free verse, Poetry
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on March 7, 2013

http://monsterbegood.com/2013/03/07/ask-ii-must-have-surgery/

What Have Been

I have waited all my life and the decades before I was born. I was born then stolen. I wanted to crumble.

If you can chip out a man, a series of events start to unfold that can only be described as stunning, absolutely stunning. They occur up to Christmas Day itself.

The world looked left. The French Revolution continues on. In this chamber, the imprisoned poet arrested the President. He received a house.

In spite of that – now listen to my next words, because I believe them – I know I am correct. Thank God.

I have a suspicion that some people matter, horrible things have taken place.

Just 72 hours ago they were predicting that would be shortly history. But history remains pluperfect. It did not happen.

So I am going to take this broad out and, in general, repeat what I said for forty years, at least, back to when I was 16 years of age — and I am 56 now.

I have been described as a “big person” whether cast as a Communist or anti-Communist.

Well, let us start off with today. Begin in the morning. The morning after. The morning after hangover – violet, remarkable, far from complete, still entrenched, raw, deeply a mess.

Help from Washington? When? When, God willing, on April 25? Or right now?

How many times did I bank a penny and of course was ignored by many people.

Many people say that good news deserves to be savored while fresh failure is secret.

I guessed wrong about the outcome of a victory. I stole the country that was stolen back.

I hate to read – a line is still a ghost.

At every meeting we should recall the ground into rubble.

Tank treads walked across my younger son. Dreaming that this could happen, I continue in isolation.

I pause for a prayer. Please, God, please give the people of Cuba the exhilarating thrill that people are feeling in Lithuania over the weekend.

And just across that little gulf in time? You bet it does end.

blackout composition, source: remarks by Rep. Robert Dornan, The Congressional Record 101st Congress, February 27, 1990, pp. H200-H202.

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by Tom Busillo on February 24, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Poetry
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on February 24, 2013

http://monsterbegood.com/2013/02/24/what-have-been/

How Can I Manage?

It’s important to learn how to recognize, learn to develop (what is one person may not be another), come from happy events (a new marriage, job promotion, new home) as well as unhappy events (illness, overwork, family problems).

What is your body’s response to releasing adrenaline (a hormone)?

You breathing and heart rate speed up and you deal with the situation. The problems come when you remain off for days or weeks at a time (bad!).

Speaking to a group watching a close football game can be stressful, but fun, too. The key is to manage unhealthy responses in some people.

How do you feel?

Each of us, in different ways, may have physical signs, emotional signs or both.

  • I can make you feel angry, afraid, excited or helpless.
  • I can make it hard to sleep.
  • I can give you aches in your head, neck, jaw and back.
  • I can lead to habits like smoking, drinking, overeating or drug abuse.
  • You may not even feel I at all, even though your body suffers from I.


How can I cope with I?

Taking steps will help you feel more in control of your here.

  • Try “I-talk” – turn negative thoughts into I-ones. For example, “I do this,” “I do the best.”
  • Take a day to sit and think of a peaceful situation.
  • Walk a bike.
  • Let the tension in your body help you feel better.
  • Try to do at least one thing every day, even if you only do it for 15 minutes.

How can I live?

You may want to live a life.

  • Think about some things. For example, people who bother you or driving in traffic.
  • Learn to say, “Promise?”
  • Up the alcohol, cigarettes or caffeine.
  • Try to “race” time to get important things done.
  • Sleep each night.
  • Organize “To Do” lists one at a time.

blackout composition, source: “How Can I Manage Stress?”, a double-sided 1-page handout published by the American Heart Association.

My company had an on-site health screening sponsored by Chester County Hospital and I grabbed a couple of handouts and started blacking this out while waiting to move on to the next station. Starting the blackout actually did reduce my stress-level that day.

And since, in all likelihood, I’ll never mention Chester County Hospital on MBG ever-again…

…I feel the need to thank them and my company for a few years ago bringing two 8-week smoking-cessation programs (a couple years apart) to my office. Although I failed (miserably) to quit during the duration of both of the organized programs, once I finally went all-in on quitting, I HEAVILY relied on the strategies and coping mechanisms I learned in those two courses and wouldn’t have been able to quit without them.

So if you smoke, and you want to quit, and you’re lucky enough to get in an organized program – do it and don’t feel bad if you fail. What you learn there you’ll draw on when you’re ready to succeed – even though at the time it might seem totally impossible.

Now back to the usual shenanigans…

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by Tom Busillo on January 18, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Free verse, Poetry
Tagged , , , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on January 18, 2013

http://monsterbegood.com/2013/01/18/how-can-i-manage/

Port Strategy

Our strategy is to hold momentum. We believe that meaning should appreciate at roughly the same rate.

We think, grow, over time, expand, share or fast. We think that if we can find a fair, we can pound a solid.

We work with special dust. We look for the best we may find while we take note of the road conditions. The composition is primarily determined by individual considerations.

At this time, our decisions are being shaped by following a rope. Our growth was premature, but we will accelerate. We are drawn in staples. When off, we begin to struggle and grow onerous.

It has been a strange ebullience. There’s an air of happiness. In offices, pros slap each other on the back and say, “Wow! That was a hat!” For the past has climbed the proverb: “Worry, but without relinquishing the worry, do well above-average and be in favor as a proxy for a stream warmed to become very steep at this point; shun any degree.”

While form has been reasonable, it has felt like a more difficult port. Many in the well flow over the punished – over the past, up and working, and down and failing. We are fleeting, with short time horizons. We are willing and comfortable with absorbing.

While we are repositioning the port, we are more the margin extending our horizon to a ledge.

blackout composition, source: Portfolio Strategy, T. Rowe Price International Stock Fund Annual Report, October 31, 2012, pp. 2-4.

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by Tom Busillo on January 16, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Financial Statements, Poetry
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on January 16, 2013

http://monsterbegood.com/2013/01/16/port-strategy/

Spectral Theory

erasure poetry: Spectral Theory

visual erasure poem, source: “REMARKS ON LARGE SOLUTIONS”, Jorge Garcia-Melian and Jose Sabina De Lis, Universidad de La Laguna, 2005, p.2.

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by Tom Busillo on October 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Poetry
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on October 29, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/10/29/spectral-theory/

Kiss on the Weekends

The Thing
that opens as love
is haunted,
becomes unhinged
from hundreds of miles away.

Is he really?

And why do the ghosts seem to know the stories?

Dread moments of
tries so hard to capture the feel-
[abrupt starts and stops,
and random footage.]

It’s all film where no one should be expected.

blackout composition, in situ below

blackout poetry: kiss on the weekends

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by Tom Busillo on October 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Free verse, Poetry
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on October 10, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/10/10/kiss-on-the-weekends/

Reflecting Odd (Light To See [One Day] My Very Best Wish)

Question: When I tell people their jaws drop, they can’t believe that is the subject of an opera. Was there a libretto?

Answer: The presence is an aesthetic necessity.

Q: How such a monster?

A: Love.

Q: Lots of narcissistic verbal abuse. Intentional?

A: This is the function of scenes of tragic error.

Q: Many have a circumscribed elegy. You knew?

A: I did not know (yet). I have been trying to.

Q: To what extent have you vampiric qualities?

A: Deeply, in the background, without murders, without war – a general to the major in his course.

Q: Is there any justification?

A: None.

Q: Is art so great?

A: No.

Q: How do you feel in a grand house?

A: Designed to the perfect size.

Q: Why?

A: I’m happy people.

Q: The last one. You see?

A: I am old, yet I would like to see one day my very best wish.

blackout composition, source: “Reflecting on his ‘old, odd’ opera,” by David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/12/12, pp. C1, C4.

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by Tom Busillo on August 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Free verse, Poetry
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on August 13, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/08/13/reflecting-odd-light-to-see-one-day-my-very-best-wish/

less Night

I saw the world last night
maybe
exaggerating
certain steps
the warning
received

the same tomorrow
the day after
a visit back
to the Stone Age
as we know it
dark and very quiet
like night
at that hour
which is nothing
the lights
out
a good view
black
in the night
just dark
except
a chill
brewing
cold sludge
dripped through
dark, dark ice
the freeze
that could last

of course
there was
no calm

it seemed like
most of my life is
the night

what if
it lasted forever
I was
an SOS
was dead
forgotten
and now
it was
too late

we assume living
surrounded by
our cosmos
a good God
the lights on

my blackouts
get worse
escalate

you can whistle
a happy tune about
the darkness
and buy 10,000
reusable batteries

that will last
for a couple of years

and then?

blackout composition, source: “Endless Night,” Stanley Bing, Fortune, July (?) 2012

in situ below…

blackout: "less Night"

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by Tom Busillo on July 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in erasure poetry, Poetry
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on July 18, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/07/18/less-night/

Ask I: “I Am Buenos Aires Starting in a Few Weeks”

Q: I am Buenos Aires starting in a few weeks. What would be considered?

A: Sparkling air. A baroque accordion. Certain Paris natives called women.

Make the neighbor you are likely to hang jewelry.

Patterns before hoes!

Walk a ballet.

Pump a spring.

Clutch a sharp steak and dig for a famous leather jacket.

Be truly special.

To find a road, be your stroll!

blackout composition, source: “Ask Teri”, Teri Agins, The Wall Street Journal, 6/28/12.

In situ, below…

Newspaper Blackout: Ask I: “I Am Buenos Aires Starting in a Few Weeks”

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by Tom Busillo on July 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in absurdist advice columns, Poetry
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on July 8, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/07/08/ask-i-i-am-buenos-aires-starting-in-a-few-weeks/

See the Future

There’s been a lot of talk recently about
the state of discussion, flexibility, and
the closing of the country.

There is no doubt time is 10 to 20 years.

But let me assure you that
the bright face we’ve already begun
executing will create the future.

And there are
more to come.

At the same time,
we’re watching.
We know.
We’re especially mindful.
We are doing all we can.
We seek the future.
This is essential.
Of course, there will be a future.
Understand, that’s not going to change.

Let me be clear:
We are and
will continue to be.
Absolutely.

blackout composition, source: “Seeing the Future”, a column appearing on p. 11 of the October 2011 issue of “Deliverables” authored by Ronald A. Stroman, Deputy Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service.

in situ below…

blackout: see the future

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by Tom Busillo on June 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Free verse, Poetry
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Tom Busillo on June 30, 2012

http://monsterbegood.com/2012/06/30/see-the-future/

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