Fluid & Crystallized

Fluid & Crystallized
Fowlpox Press. Canada.
June 2012. Upload here.

Our entire lives are strewn with evolutions. We hazard, we get burned, and then we dust ourselves off and try again, on and on. In simple terms, our days and nights are constituted by patterned developments and deaths.

It would be easy, and often is tempting, merely to throw up our hands in concession, to drink copious amounts of cola and to hide in books' worth of soft fiction. We acculturated sops, we senescent beings, we receptacles of irritations and of elations, could make excuses based on gas or on bad hair moments. Fortunately, in general, we continue to act culpable for cleaning up parking lots and for making sure new trees are sprouting. We tend to reserve our escapes for weekends and for vacations.

Beyond acting accordingly, our reports of our experiences, too, must be dappled. They need to give over the sad as well as the gracious, while providing testimony for broken bits as well as for complete snippets. Toward that end, this collection of poetry, Fluid and Crystallized, focuses primarily on challenging and, only secondarily, on pleasing. This chapbook uses words' color and texture to provoke interpersonal mindfulness. "Risk," not "peace," makes these pages heuristically valuable.

What's more, given that the creation of texts is the act of leaving signposts, of making traveling a bit easier for later trekkers, and given that, at best, our encounters are uneven, witnessed life, contemplated life, and personal delvings into the muck of life all deserve rugged representation. Consequently, I try to cheer on, to shepherd, or to whisper softly not only about success, but also about failure. While I can't fully grasp others' destinations, I can share my cautions and my appreciation of the scenery. Enjoy the words.

Preface
1. Developments
1.1 Gooey with Clay, Peanut Butter and Snot
1.2 Midas' Touch
1.3 Picot
1.4 So Aloes Grew in Vietnam
1.5 Morally Tall Friends: Eucalyptus' Lessons

2. Deaths
2.1 Like Moving through Mercury
2.2 Undercurrent: A Parallel Universe for Sylvia Plath
2.3 Had I Wishes
2.4 Swimming in Shemyim: Jacob Nissim Bensussen
2.5 Reduced Acuity

Acknowledgements
Credits
About the Author