Tuesday, October 25, 2011

"Howl"-O-Ween Celebration, Monday, October 31 at Duff's


The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Will Kyle at September Open-Mic


Will Kyle stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Christy Callahan at September Open-Mic


Christy Callahan stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Jim Markowski at September Open-Mic


Jim Markowski stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Julia Gordon-Bramer "Anti-Gravity"


Julia Gordon-Bramer stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Julia will be one of three featured readers at the Monday, November 28, reading at Duff's. Also reading will be Chris King and Drucilla Wall.

Anti-Gravity

The stars have learned to trust us
moving warily on their course
counting on the last astral
status quo.
But what if we decide
one day to just let go-- Release!
the beat of twenty-one guns!
What if we revolt and explode; blast
raining into space, flak
speeding from every snowy peak,
every curve of the greened
empty Earth?
A great loosening of shoes, doors,
hard cars, flowerpots, lions and keys.
Everything
that wasn’t attached
banded in the red
tie of gravity?
Pennies rushing like the bullety drop
off of the Empire State
Building. Our bodies becoming
missiles – all failing
to do the job of staying put.
Smiles into shrapnel hurtling
through space to puncture the dead
peace; to litter the cosmic clean
with debris. We’d fire and drill
holes of light in whatever we hit,
shooting into that solid, soft dark.
A pom-pom pummel
proving our existence;
An ack-ack-ack of final flash, leaving
trillions of celestial wounds
against a silk purple sash.
The steady nova tread with dread.
They fear us, you know. These souls.
Those holes. We are
full of them.

-- Julia Gordon-Bramer

Friday, October 7, 2011

Drew Moravec Performing "I Can't Be Satisfied"


Drew Moravec provided the musical entertainment at the September 26 reading at Duff's.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Here's Drew performing Muddy Water's "I Can't Be Satisfied."

Drew Moravec "I Can't Be Satisfied" by Chance Operations

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Ellen Herget Featured Reader at September 26 Reading


Ellen Herget was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

"Feet" by Katerina Canyon


Katerina Canyon was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Feet

I cleaned my daughter’s feet.
I swept the warm cloth along
her soft, Earth toned skin––she grinned
and said, “Mom, that feels Heavenly.”

Yes, I remember.

Lying on the bed like a doll filled with sand
too fatigued to move––I played hard that day.
Slightly waking to feel the warm cloth on my feet.
Mother washing the day’s dirt away.

Yes, that felt Heavenly.

My friends told me their mothers would say
we should always take care
to wear clean underwear
in case we came upon disaster.

“Clean feet are most important”, my mother said.

She explained that a woman’s feet
told the story of her life.
That on her soles you could see
the roads she traveled.

She would say, “You can measure her resilience in a woman’s ankles”

I was told that if I were to get into an accident,
dressed like a bum,
and the doctors saw I had clean feet,
they would take good care of me.

“I know that may sound silly to you”, she’d say

She explained they would know that I tried
my best to take care of myself
and that my dress was more
a matter of circumstance than of desire.

When I was too tired for an evening bath, she washed my feet.
When I was sick in bed, she washed my feet.
When we were homeless, she washed my feet.
When she felt there was nothing else to do, she washed my feet.

Yes, it felt Heavenly.

I tried out for the high school track team.
I went in for a physical.
The doctor examined my feet
and said, “Nice feet.” and approved me as healthy.

He never asked me if I had on clean underwear.

I wondered how many kids
would miss out on running track
because their feet weren’t as clean as mine?
And I thought she was being silly.

She was right.

I finally saw her.
And there she was.
Too tired to move.
Dying.

I filled the bowl with warm water.
I found a soft cloth.
Picked up the soap. Ivory pure.
The only type she would use.

I looked at her feet––so long and thin.
Dark as Louisiana clay.
Her veins stuck up like river lines.
A road map to the Bayou.

I washed her feet.
Her feet carried heavy burdens.
She walked many miles for many years.
She said, “That feels Heavenly.”

I replied, “Yes, I remember.”

-- Katerina Canyon

Monday, October 3, 2011

"When We Blinked Ourselves Into Existence" by Mathieu Paul


Mathieu Paul was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading, Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is FREE.

When We Blinked Ourselves Into Existence

Then it was, and we stopped to stare at our hand. Not a goddamn thing's been working, 'cept I have been, too long hours cutting up my fingers stinging with salt or solvent, all of it covered in spiders and the such, but alls I am thinking about is love and lust and lunch. So I sit to have a smoke and stare at my hands again. Then I am thinking about God. Goddamn. What next? Do I have to hole up in some hostel or heaven forbid a fucking hospital holding nothing but a Bible? I will spread the gospel standing in Times Square, speaking only ever with strangers in the dark of night, seeking to be saved, I swear, I just need to know if that is the direction I should follow….

But then I found God at the bottom of the bottle and I awoke wearing a collar, so now on the darkest of nights down the darkest alleys you can hear me holler:
"Onward with our journey!"

That is the cry of a man devout in his destiny pressing on arrogantly, knowing nothing but love. I would trade it all, 'twas only ever for her anyway, eternally, and the Buddha bit his lip.

-- Mathieu Paul