[cataract of self-licking envelopes walks into a bar]Po

this is one of the poems "made" within some procedural experiments I was doing for a seminar paper for a class on Black Mountain Extensions, taught by Hank Lazer at University of Alabama in Spring 2013. the governing principle is the notion of "productive misunderstanding" and the repeated human tendency for mishearing speech, rendered as essentially paronomasic. at the time of writing I was thinking about Susan Howe's notion of “Cries open to the words inside them” along with John Taggart's fascination with Rothko's Old Glass method, "applying thin washes of paint, one over another, and often allowing some of the colors in the bottom layers to appear through the top coat of pigment." precedents include Louis Zukofsky's Catullus homophonic translations (1969), Caroline Bergvall's "A Cat in the Throat" (2009) and Kenneth Goldsmith's "Head Citations" (2002). taking Spicer's Cocteauean radio literally, I manipulated pop radio lyrics using voice-to-text transmission software––a technology so precise that several deliberate muffling effects were necessary to produce any distortion whatever (it seems humans are still better than machines at mishearing speech––good job, humans).

Tag

            for Kelly Clarkson

art on 1 a bereft a Honda

gist unswath offend of mine

texting birth in webcam lives

owls penned more stove my laws

writing was playing a cravat

shadowboxing the author half

running her crew relaxed

honest most are long term

hatchet mall brand lending co.

to not my need for searching slow

know that you know this Marla

how old is told what supposed to be raw eat

cache my beret

no one came holy book

online.com for that

cook's mother left

well-known god Newtown

itch not a cell phone now

good good to the love of found

halving heart now a waitlist cloud

waking consulate one account

ah stand-in restive my tongue

nothing home with the windows down

lethe footprints all overcome

keeping food catacombs around

our will stand auroras of mall life

calling all bros put on your grope

earnings cruising for sex Google Earth show

no other to know thesis malware

I run be cold what's a pose to be run

cash mob arrest

no one canola bath

I am .com for that

cause small pariah

hola I'm gonna come

is not the same phone now

oooooo helped easy

byu.edu inner roomy thing

curtain Marlboro writing your girl

turning on cheek for circle satchel

know it you know this is all fire

I won't be cold for who posted these rights

catch mon perrier

no one could hold new doc

ongoing conqueror

text small breasts

when loading Gitmo Dow

it's not the sun pool noir

cuts madre

no one came home the fuck

ah ingot I'm for that

(catch no catch) catch my breath

won't let 'em get me down

it's all so simple now