Writing

Stuff that I have written.

The Sunday Poem: If you…

 Posted by (Visited 6720 times)  The Sunday Poem
Jan 272008
 

If you…

…Push through the keys on a piano, what’s on the other side?
Not wires and hammers; not wood, but desires.
An echoing chamber of fires and lovers and lies.

…Bite through the skin of an orange, what’s on the other side?
Not citrus but summer, both light and burnt umber,
A country far distant all tart and remembered and bright.

…Look through the slits of an outlet, what’s on the other side?
Not six thousand currents pulsing reverberant,
But magic brought low, in harness instead of in sky.

…Stretch through the screens all around you, what’s on the other side?
We reach for each other through bytes and through phosphor,
Past Borges’ big library, at play in the forms we provide.

We never think shells are the essence; we crack without asking why.

The Sunday Poem: Sometimes a Duck

 Posted by (Visited 7703 times)  Game talk, The Sunday Poem  Tagged with:
Jan 062008
 

Sometimes A Duck Is Just A Duck
(A Semi-Sonnet On Whether Strategy Guides Are Cheating)

Suppose you had a duck to deconstruct.
It sits atop a log, it quacks at things,
It flaps its wings all frantic, daring, dumb.
What parts of duck are really duck, you think?

Take feet. They’re webbed, for sure, and orange-black.
But geese and other cousins have them too.
That is not duckness, any more than spoon-
Billed beakness is a sign this duck is true.

It might reside in quacking; ducks take pride
In never shutting up. Perhaps parades
Of ducklings crossing streets like in old books?
A duck of culture, a consensus made,

Composites made of pieces sharp and blunt.
I must conclude that ducks are… elephants.

This is, of course, a riff on the poem I posted a while back called “Pondering a Duck.”

$78 for A Theory of Fun

 Posted by (Visited 5102 times)  Writing
Jan 022008
 

I’ve been getting emails about this a lot in the last few days. Yes, A Theory of Fun is currently not available. It apparently did not restock before the holidays, and promptly sold out. Copies are now going for over $75 on Amazon (!) up from $50 just a few days ago (!). Universities are contacting me asking if they should just pirate it for their spring semester classes.

I tried to reach the publisher today. Hopefully, we can get it all sorted out soon. I don’t get any royalties on the $75. 😉

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