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December 8, 2016 / barton smock

{free men find animal}

on recent work, mine:

https://foragepoetry.com/2016/12/02/review-of-infantcinema-by-barton-smock-emma-hall/

~

on recent work, others:

Nothing Good Ever Happens After Midnight, poems, Sarah Marcus, GTK Press
https://kingsoftrain.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/nothing-good-ever-happens-after-midnight-poems-by-sarah-marcus-gtk-press-2016/

marshland moon, poems, Eleanor Gray, Dink Press
https://kingsoftrain.wordpress.com/2016/09/27/reflections-on-marshland-moon-poems-by-eleanor-gray-dink-press-2016/

~

where, recently, mine:

https://foragepoetry.com/2016/07/02/three-poems-by-barton-smock/

http://figrootpress.com/2016/10/14/circa-ii-and-circa-iii-by-barton-smock/

~

self-publications:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/acolyteroad

(note: currently, 15% off all print books on Lulu with coupon code of 5THDAY15)

~

some, here:

[truancies]

pain is under the impression it’s on the move.

the brain
a fire
that cannot
spread.

in a world of non-competitive
seizing
I show my son
how to waste
his hand
on the hand
signal

that called away
vandalism’s

angel.

~

[son]

it was born in a bath of milk when there was milk to burn. it drew with daylight. when asked for details, it pulled a shadow’s tooth. we took it to a movie, a war movie, where it made its first noise. its pain went everywhere. it sold, it sold until it ran out of clothes. its mothers had fight.

~

[immersion]

your attacker has a history of being baptized. identifies as male. was found hallucinating in a movie theater run by his father. we shot him not knowing he’d already been. his mother says his stutter is an act. she is what we call empty inside. you look like your father.

~

[childlike answer]

I am made mostly of trying to find my way back to bread

December 8, 2016 / barton smock

scrap chapel

a black tire, the bed
of the fisherman’s
crow- death and guilt

genetic-

same dream, same bear-

the afterlife of god

– tree of more

December 7, 2016 / barton smock

mystique

/ boredom, falling short
in a mom’s
coldest
child / I understood

your movie / is there a meal

choice

prepares, or a less

direct
psalm / a taller me

where ovens
talk

December 7, 2016 / barton smock

magic pills

a doll taped to a skateboard. you get the idea.  mirror for doghouse, nest for traffic light.

December 7, 2016 / barton smock

{ain’t more}

poems recent and former:

[pink verse (ii)]

there’s a kid on a bike with a machete and she’s run your brother up a tree. your brother is taking off his clothes and the kid has a toe she treats like a loose tooth.

you watch as your mother tattoos the parts of her body she doesn’t like.

the cross on her ankle
an insomniac’s
plus sign.

I say to the bird of the chipped brain
that faith
is fascination’s

bruise…

the food is gone that was seen by prayer

~

[theatrics]

play, image, your joke on heaven.

infancy, you destroyer
of nuance

use
the whole
animal.

~

[landfall]

rag doll
our talisman
of verbal
abuse

and crystal

ball
the whale’s
brain

/ fucker

saw pigs in chewing gum

~

[flocks]

blank yard signs

radios

of the independently
poor

their babies
slow
in getting

up

doll, prayer mat, microwave

/ more time

~~

also:

30% off all print books on Lulu with coupon code of 4THDAY30

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

December 6, 2016 / barton smock

{this thing}

PICTURES OF GOD DON’T SELL

 
poems, Barton Smock
 

includes new poems, selections and edits from previous collection [eating the animal back to life], as well as collections [depictions of reentry] and [hick lore rabbit hole] in full

 

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

December 6, 2016 / barton smock

church notes

yeah madness had a motorcycle
for every
drive-thru

December 6, 2016 / barton smock

{ain’t}

20% off on all print books at Lulu with coupon code of 3RDDAY20

my self-published books, are here:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/acolyteroad

~

some former, some edits:

[alcoholics]

the inventor
of vicarious
living
our impossible
guest

~

[race]

poverty, father, mother:

/ someone
at this table
has nothing
to hide

/ touching
a UFO
can cure
frostbite

/ open the stomach of the winning monster

~

[ones]

the book is a mourning vessel for what its reader stands to lose. I have a father for every type of silence.

~

[concord]

cap gun. swag from an uncle’s suicide.

the daughter
the ghost
cartoonist.

voodoo dolls
in isolation. isolation

in its prime.

~

[themes for star]

in a small attic
a boy
on all fours
being weakened
by a spider’s
dream
is putting
an ear
to the roof
of his sister’s
dollhouse. for making

the wrong
sounds
for animals
poor sister
was lowered
into the baby
you were born
to lift
by two
scarecrows
you’d think
were separated
at death
for the way
they don’t
carry on.

~

in other news, Emma Hall, editor of Forage Poetry, recently reviewed my Dink Press publication, infant*cinema:

https://foragepoetry.com/2016/12/02/review-of-infantcinema-by-barton-smock-emma-hall/

December 3, 2016 / barton smock

salvage notes

boy finds
a plastic
fingernail
and suddenly
he’s a rat
surgeon
washing
hand puppets
for god
in the birthplace
of buzzard
fiction

December 3, 2016 / barton smock

eating notes

invented as a way to impress pain

/ had to pass
through sleep