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January 11, 2023 / barton smock

( privately self published, apartures, Jan 2023

Have privately self published a new collection titled apartures

Pocketbook style, 125 pages, January 2023

collection is pay what you want

can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp: $BartonSmock



August 23, 2021 / barton smock

Poem-A-Day at poets.org

I have all the words that have gone missing to say that I am thankful for being in the August 2021 run of Poem-A-Day at poets.org as guest edited by Kazim Ali

Read my poem here

about the poem:

“I can't speak for all fathers, but my own fathering is littered with necessary and fake finalities. As such, I wrote this poem by hand on a small piece of paper while worrying about the long and short lives of my children. In the spacing of the poem, I tried to honor the little room I'd given myself for its projected concerns.”
—Barton Smock
March 23, 2023 / barton smock

against poems

I am in the way 
of way. Why would doom be fast? 
I sleep or love you
March 23, 2023 / barton smock

small poems against dying

The turn-takers god and sleep. 

Southern attempts 
at non
graphic 

violence. 

A mother’s pet wasp. 
A boy 
not able 

to overhear. 

Spider
spelling
psalm.

An allness.

Apple bones and future
lambs.
March 22, 2023 / barton smock

( documenting for self

(publication list, self and other, place and person, informational & spiritual use only)
			
4/27/11	THE PAPER DOLLS HAVE BEEN CUTTING YOUR HAIR	425	full length
3/8/12	GRIEF OF ARM	82	full length
7/24/12	I THINK I CAN'T SPEAK FOR EVERYONE HERE	34	chapbook
8/24/12	ANGEL SCENE	113	full length
9/6/12	HIATUS NEWSLETTERS	312	collected etc
12/24/12	MATING RITUALS OF THE RESPONSIBLY POOR	68	full length
			
3/5/13	AHISTORIC	59	full length
4/25/13	AGGRESSIVE KIN	59	full length
6/27/13	HALLELUJAH LIP-SYNCH	78	full length
7/10/13	ECHO ACHES AND MIRROR ACHES	49	chapbook
8/16/13	IN THE ASYLUM WE'D SUN OURSELVES WITH ANGELS	108	full length
9/16/13	THE BLOOD YOU DON'T SEE IS FAKE	206	collected etc
10/18/13	THINK HARD ON NOTHING ON A FARM MACHINE	115	full length
12/17/13	ABANDONESQUE	111	full length
			
2/5/14	DETAILS BOTH GENTLE AND SALACIOUS	37	chapbook
2/12/14	STORK BLOOD	97	full length
3/26/14	TOWN CRIER	99	full length
5/14/14	WE STOLE NOT THE SAME BREAD	105	full length
6/13/14	FATHER, FOOTRACE, FISTFIGHT	177	full length
7/2/14	PLEA	103	full length
8/13/14	THE WOMEN YOU TAKE FROM YOUR BROTHER	351	collected etc
10/15/14	CHOICE ECHO	138	full length
12/15/14	MISRECKON	116	full length
			
6/22/15	ALIEN'S HEAVEN	50	chapbook
7/1/15	INFANT CINEMA	59	chapbook, Dink Press, discontinued
7/7/15	EATING THE ANIMAL BACK TO LIFE	316	full length
10/8/15	DRONE AND CHICKENHOUSE	84	full length
12/9/15	DREAMS MY DREAMS WERE HAVING	58	special chap collected
12/28/15	EARTH IS PART EARTH AND THERE'S A HOLE IN THE SOUND I MADE YOU FROM	98	full length
			
3/11/16	(FOR)	78	special collected
3/25/16	MOON TATTOO	114	full length
6/2/16	SHUTEYE IN THE LAND OF THE SACRED COMMONER	110	full length
6/17/16	(FOUR)	340	collected etc
8/2/16	DEPICTIONS OF RE-ENTRY	146	full length
10/25/16	HICK LORE RABBIT HOLE	124	full length
12/6/16	PICTURES OF GOD DON'T SELL	378	collected etc
			
1/19/17	SURPRISE FOR ME A CROW	104	full length
2/7/17	CRY SHAPE	244	special collected
2/14/17	BASILISK	64	chapbook
3/23/17	NAME CALLING	110	full length
5/5/17	THE ACCEPTED FIELD	84	chapbook
5/25/17	PAW FIVE	130	full length
6/15/17	THE BOY WHO TOUCHED ALL THE EGGS	258	collected etc
7/7/17	A CLAW FROM THE LOTTERY OF HANDS	158	special collected
8/10/17	LAITY	116	full length
10/5/17	IN THIS LIFE ANOTHER IS YOU	64	spec chapbook
10/12/17	SO SANG	210	special collected
11/24/17	EVERYTHING I TOUCH REMEMBERS BEING MY HAND	172	full length
			
4/17/18	MOOD PIECE FOR BABY BLUR	128	special collected
11/21/18	GHOST ARSON	78	full length, Kung Fu Treachery Press
			
6/20/19	MOTHERLINGS	52	chapbook
6/20/19	ANIMAL MASKS ON THE FLOOR OF THE OCEAN	124	full length
			
2/7/20	AN OLD IDEA ONE HAD OF STARS	58	chapbook
12/1/20	ROCKS HAVE THE SOFTEST SHADOWS	237	collected etc
			
3/29/21	SKIN TO SKIN IN AN UNMARKED LIFE	28	chapbook, Trainwreck press, discontinued
9/1/21	UNTOUCHED IN THE CAPITAL OF SOON	187	full length
			
5/1/22	BLOOD TO BATHE US IN ITS BLUE PAST	217	full length
			
1/1/23	APARTURES	125	full length
1/10/23	THE TORNADO THAT LOST OUR EMPTINESS	755	collected cumulative 2019 on, revisions (2)
March 22, 2023 / barton smock

small poems against dying

Empty stomach, crow with a crushed heart. Owl, dark ambulance. This is in Ohio where an ear swam into my ear. Where god won’t visit pain and pain will a graveless cemetery in the field of my sex. I’ll love almost anything. Blank moment, distracted by the present. Our first past.
March 20, 2023 / barton smock

against poems

I put my father’s ear to a leaf. Listen for the salt in my mother’s knee. Place a handgun on the pillow that god rolled under. Leave with a dog that can’t hear thunder.
March 17, 2023 / barton smock

small poems against dying

I fear my body.
Shape sends flowers to a ghost.
They arrive, then don’t.
March 15, 2023 / barton smock

small poems against dying

the valley
of insect
the lost
plural
the funeral
we held
for a pill
the low
priest
of wrist pain
his bad
back
snow
snow

March 8, 2023 / barton smock

privately self-published works, from 2019 on

PRIVATELY SELF-PUBLISHED WORKS
(hard copy, pay what you want):

Animal Masks On the Floor of the Ocean, 124 pages
poems, June 2019
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp $BartonSmock

MOTHERLINGS, 52 pages
poems, June 2019
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp $BartonSmock

an old idea one had of stars, 58 pages
poems, February 2020
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp $BartonSmock

rocks have the softest shadows, 237 pages
poems, Dec 2020
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp: $BartonSmock

untouched in the capital of soon, 187 pages
poems, Sept 2021
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp: $BartonSmock

blood to bathe us in its blue past, 217 pages
poems new and selected, May 2022
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp: $BartonSmock

apartures, 125 pages
poems, January 2023
can be purchased via paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
or Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
or CashApp: $BartonSmock


*All collections are pay what you want, BUT be sure to include your mailing address in the comments of the order, and ALSO be kind...for instance, if you are ordering 100+ page book of poems, like, $5.00 is probably not a kindness. Also, all my work is posted online on kingsoftrain.com for free.

Any questions, including inquiring about a free copy for review or free PDF copy, can be directed to bartonsmock@yahoo.com
March 8, 2023 / barton smock

against poems

God forgets things before they happen. In third or fourth grade, I was pulled out of a bathroom stall by a boy who’d been nice to my mother and I was told what should or should not be in my stomach. There was another boy with him. A city named Empty and a city named Goldfish took turns burning. I missed the future. The past, more.
March 6, 2023 / barton smock

against poems

Flashlight tag in a church. I sat in a back pew and kicked touchingly at a form I was sure belonged to my brother. Brother stayed quiet and put. I kicked him twice more, harder, trying to find a rib. Nothing. Came that little moon. Came that egg from paper fog. Time was ending. Our youth counselor limped out of somewhere, rubbing her elbows, testing an eye. Brother said where his body was. I felt left.