SUB LIT & Outtakes

The new issue of SUB-LIT is out. I have three poems in it.

Rauan K also rented a room. He paid with the words "cathedral meat". Awesome.

There are also these poems by Nick Mcrae that I like.

My poems are from the manuscript called THE BLACK EYE. I hope people say it fast and think its called THE BLACK GUY.

Since submitting these poems I have made some changes to them. Sitting with them and then putting them into a body of work has made me re-perceive the way their own individual bodies appear. Keith recently made some thoughts about appearances, how they develop from magazine to book. I have a lot of poems that I send out and then reedit. I have been in a constant state of redevelopment. Like a city. That's two cities metaphors in two blog posts.

Still though, It's interesting to have more than one version of a poem appear in public. I've always been a fan of outtakes.

Here is what one of the poems in SUB-LIT now looks like in THE BLACK EYE. Less formal, better architecture. Either way, I'm grateful to Michael Ogletree for considering me for SL.

In Morning Darkness

Behind a high barred window, the lamp in a cage.
Mistakes made certain in honey darkness.
You don't acknowledge the eagle who has landed on your blind forearm
as you reconcile with safety.
You must trust it like a morning darkness
to be gentle upon you
and not rip the wet eyes from your soft head.

I