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December 19, 2016 / barton smock

{ghost light}

25% off all print books on Lulu with coupon code of 12THDAY25

my most recent self-published full length collection is {hick lore rabbit hole}, and is here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/hick-lore-rabbit-hole/paperback/product-22914385.html

I am also hosting a goodreads giveaway for a selected collection {pictures of god don’t sell}:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/215453-pictures-of-god-don-t-sell

some very old poems:

[accident]

because
when mine stopped
your sadness
was still

moving

~

[the fixed]

i.

one crow
watches another.

your father
lifts

the patch on his eye.

as a daughter, you believe your mother
when she says

love only
what lands
what thinks
it can land

on its shadow. love only

the second
crow.

ii.

you are weak
but hold
that man

like a ladder.

~

[seashell]

the blur
of your thigh
in bathwater.

the deckle-edged
howl
of that baby
on the radio.

grandmother’s cough.

the rag
in the mouth
of the woman
washing

your husband.

stockings
you wish
would reach.

the one-handed
memo
of a painter
who slipped.

shirtless paperboys.

December 18, 2016 / barton smock

crib wasp

god to slow spread of reincarnation

this, from death’s
newspaper

found: nose of the crow-eyed infant

December 17, 2016 / barton smock

without scene

this repeatable body, these monologues for echo

suicide’s mother, parole’s father…

snow a cemetery with mascot christ

December 16, 2016 / barton smock

ladders & karaoke machines

lipstick on a juicebox

was hell
so poor

December 15, 2016 / barton smock

{goodreads giveaway for ~pictures of god don’t sell~}

am hosting a goodreads giveaway for my self-published poetry collection {pictures of god don’t sell}, 5 copies available, giveaway ends December 31st.

giveaway is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/215453-pictures-of-god-don-t-sell

book is here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/pictures-of-god-dont-sell/paperback/product-22977531.html

~

some poems from the book, below:

[sense]

I held the puppet down
father
he cut
a deeper
ear, hunger

ours
was going

bald

~

[coil]

the denied
sainthood
of both
imagination
and curiosity

the baby
you can’t explain

and the cuts

~

[to all]

there is a god
but you’ve more
than one
birthplace

~

[rations]

sons
gather facts
for loss
and sons
gather facts
for loss

~

[swimmer of the blue snow]

a bowl of soup bleeds to death
in the eatery
of my praying
hands

December 15, 2016 / barton smock

nil

as touch explores its past

December 15, 2016 / barton smock

fragment

forgiveness
was always
assault

/ visions mutter
in the ghost
of my stomach, film

is low
fruit

December 14, 2016 / barton smock

{notifies}

25% off on all print books at Lulu with coupon code of 8THDAY25

my most recent {pictures of god don’t sell} is here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/pictures-of-god-dont-sell/paperback/product-22977531.html

~

and poems previous:

[malaise]

how far we are
from soup
when mother
burns her tongue
trying
to convince
god
they had

the mime and the mute
the same
childhood.

we love her so much
we use our brains
as often
as baby
spoons.

first base is a landmine.

there’s nothing to say
we weren’t
here.

~

[house]

the bean counter
of cigarette butts
our father
sits on the roof
reading aloud
from silence.

it is mother
has a mind
for arranging
furniture.

it is dog hears digging.

~

[hound]

take
to the sinking
city
of god’s
jack-in-the-box
a stick

from the wand’s
dream

~

[rift]

trained
to be homesick
the animals
disappeared. dad advised

we get out
the way
of frost, let it get

to what it’s got
to chew.

we stayed inside mostly and hollered
loud enough
for mailmen
to hear

nicknames
like little
baby
bathwater
my favorite

from the year
god’s voice
changed.

December 13, 2016 / barton smock

head-kisser

a runway model
in a cornfield

/ the stone a short film on snowfall

December 13, 2016 / barton smock

interstice

this one sleepwalker
hung
our laundry, this other
left mom
a rattlesnake

some man was mowing drunk
mad about church, a recent batch
of runt
lightning, that baby’s
age