Pomes, yes, pomes, not ‘poems,’ is a poetry game club that meets every Saturday night at 11pm to write pomes and to read pomes at midnight under the sculpture that swings and looks like balls.
Pomes, for the month of November, is running “Writing Practice: A Pomes Approach to NaNoWriMo,” typically meeting Saturday nights at 11pm at Quality Bar and some Wednesday evenings in various locations in Downtown Portland.
These interviews were conducted by passing notes:
J____ S______
SCISSORBIRDS DESCEND ON CAT’S CRADLE
INTERVIEWER
How will I die?
J____ S______
Staining the airwaves with one last exhale,
consciousness dissolving into ballrooms.
INTERVIEWER
Blue or Nothing at all?
J____ S______
Absolute Blue as a facet of Absolute White, all forms receding and decomposing into milky soups of pure potential that deconstruct all nothings, the gurgling void that contains every color in which we grow gills or get unmade all at once and forever.
INTERVIEWER
Do you have any persistent fearful image?
J____ S______
Yes. Or perhaps one would call it a persistent fearful type of image.
INTERVIEWER
How does it appear?
J____ S______
When living things betray a trace of glitchy simulation:
The empty cartoon eyes of texture-mapped homunculi
Who seem always to be on the brink of pixellation.
INTERVIEWER
Does this image ever arise when you experience other commonplace moments of dread?
J____ S______
Shadow of gnosis
Knowing it’s a hungry game
So big, so broken.
INTERVIEWER
Have you ever deliberately manifested a monster from dread itself to at least give yourself a “being” to face?
In cul-de-sac seasons when I run out of reason
And my moments flood with blood from outside time,
Chronopathic Carcinoma wants to put me in its coma,
But the fear of wasted minutes falls away when I begin it,
When I sublimate all fear and hate in fever-steam and thoughtcrime.
INTERVIEWER
Did you have a childhood toy? A favorite one? What was it?
M_____ C______
Yes, I had a stuffed Simba plush that I brought everywhere with me until the stuffing fell out.
INTERVIEWER
What color will the sky turn come Armageddon?
M_____ C______
Mauve.
INTERVIEWER
If you could build a city out of any material, what material?
M_____ C______
Legos.
INTERVIEWER
Are dogs little warlords?
M_____ C______
Yes, they destroy and mark and are terrible roommates.
INTERVIEWER
If a dead bird fell from a tree onto your lap, and you wrote it a two line pome, what is the pome?
M_____ C______
Pushed from the nest too early, poor bird. I can wholly relate to your struggle.
INTERVIEWER
If you stepped on a rat and killed it, it’s dying words were… (2 lines rhyming and concerning the future).
M_____ C______
Betrayal! From my whiskers to my tail!
You too shall know my pain and you too shall fail.
INTERVIEWER
Say you’re in a foggy pumpkin patch really, really early in the morning. You find a diamond ring on one of the pumpkins. Don’t try it on. You’re nervous. Maybe you’ll vomit, but don’t try it on. You have to walk up the invisible stairs to return it. She opens the shutters when you knock. What does she say?
M_____ C______
I thought you were Jerome.
What do you say?
M_____ C______
Is this his ring?
INTERVIEWER
What color is the fish at the bottom of the ocean?
M_____ C______
The fish at the very bottom is a most beautiful indescribable color, but no one can tell b/c it’s too dark.
INTERVIEWER
If it crawled out, it would speak words, wouldn’t it? But not in any intelligible order… (10 word sentence)
M_____ C______
Feet are fins, too. Walk the sky we must, because.
INTERVIEWER
CHARMANDER BULBASUAR SQUIRTLE
H_____ B________
CHARMANDER
INTERVIEWER
Some degenerate Cubone spray painted some words on your childhood home. What does it say?
H_____ B________
For a good time call 867-5309
LOL JK
INTERVIEWER
Write two lines about Psyduck lost in a psychiatric hospital.
H_____ B________
With one hand on his pounding head, the other moves the door open.
“Welcome home, Psyduck,” the doctor said.
INTERVIEWER
Write a two line pome about Psyduck lost in the woods.
H_____ B________
A single tear rolls down Psycuck’s face.
“Why did she leave me here?” he thought.
INTERVIEWER
You come home (current home) and there’s some dude stuck in the wall. You can’t see him but you can see his arm waggling from the wall. Describe his childhood with a haiku (5-7-5)
H_____ B________
Oh god, what is that?
I’ve seen enough stranger things.
To know what it is.
INTERVIEWER
Imagine it’s been raining for fifteen minutes. You can’t find anywhere to escape it. There is a group of people around a tree, they’re all pressing their ears against it. You try it too. The tree tells you three rhyming lines. What are they?
H_____ B________
Can you hear me?
I’ve had to pee,
For 5 centuries.
INTERVIEWER
There’s a shivering Pokemon up in the branches of the tree, what Pokemon is it?
H_____ B________
A Pachirsu, duh.
INTERVIEWER
You had planned to meet up with your friends but you can’t seem to find them. Carve 5 words into the tree where your ear had been. What words are they?
H_____ B________
The tree took me.
Sorry!
INTERVIEWER
(before opening, please go to a cafe. buy yourself a little treat you wouldn’t normally allow yourself and put it on a plate)
Sit across from it (the treat), give it eye contact. Squint on it, as if it’s making a point. Lick your finger, touch the treat, lick that finger then wag that finger like you’ve understood. Please write a five line treatise on death:
P____ R_____
Are you going to timidly lick the finger of life? That scone will only get more stale. Squinting, wagging a finger like you’ve grasped some truth. Not so, only boldly chomping will allow you to get at the densely breaded, berry-filled heart of the scone called life. Enjoy, for now.
INTERVIEWER
Don’t eat your treat yet. Don’t even bite it.
When did you eat something like this last?
P____ R_____
I almost never eat a scone.
INTERVIEWER
Blood
Black Bile
Yellow Bile
Phlegm
P____ R_____
Phlegm
INTERVIEWER
If you were a crocodile, would you eat lost children?
P____ R_____
Only when hungry.
INTERVIEWER
Put the treat into your hands (messy or not) and look at the plate. What’s wrong with us? Eat your treat without taking your eyes off the plate.
Write down one word:
P____ R_____
Coprophagia.
INTERVIEWER
Do you want to raise kids?
Y / N
P____ R_____
Y
INTERVIEWER
Do you want to live on a boat?
Y / N
P____ R_____
Y
INTERVIEWER
Say if you dig your hands into a pond for clay, what’s the first thing running through your mind?
P____ R_____
No bugs! No snakes! No slime! No bugs!
INTERVIEWER
Lick your lips. Are you drinking coffee?
Y / N
P____ R_____
Y
INTERVIEWER
What’s the average lifespan of a baker?
P____ R_____
58
INTERVIEWER
Do you do anything regularly only to avoid feeling guilty? (please write three lines that rhyme, in each line you should be lying)
P____ R_____
Give often to charity
Fight income disparity
Promote digestive regularity
INTERVIEWER
Who is your fav Greek god?
L___ B______
Athena.
INTERVIEWER
What is your fav animal?
L___ B______
Blue bird.
INTERVIEWER
SOOT
(choose one)
CAKE
L___ B______
one
INTERVIEWER
OK—Pokemon don’t exist, they never did. But you throw a Pokeball at a rock, it cracks open and black ooze flows out. You caught it! All of it! When will you open it back up? Under what circumstances? (2 lines)
L___ B______
Never.
Forever captured in a spherical hell.
INTERVIEWER
Death by:
FIRE
or
DISAPPEARANCE
L___ B______
DISAPPEARANCE
INTERVIEWER
Death by:
FIRING SQUAD
or
LETHAL INJECTION
L___ B______
LETHAL INJECTION
INTERVIEWER
You hands down won the Yo-Mama Tournament. You blew us away. You’ve since left us in the lurch. What gives? Don’t answer that. But say, if you were so scared you were petrified while your 3rd grade teacher adds the last few bricks to surround you. You’re trapped. It’s dark. You’ve got limited air—how do you feel? Really feel for a second. There’s some lurking feeling there hiding (almost the sneaking suspicion of deja vu). This feeling belongs to some other moment. Can you tell what moment?
L___ B______
birth
INTERVIEWER
Do you have or don’t you have a brother?
If yes, who is he? What does he need to become?
If no, what’s wrong with him? What does he need to cut out of his life?
(please write 5 lines)
L___ B______
In fact, I have two
He was my first fear
He was my first friend
He has become who he is
As we all do.
INTERVIEWER
It is Fall and we need delicious things and wonderful smells. Pumpkin bread, cider, cloves, cinnamon, spice tea. Please write a haiku about a dead body:
L___ B______
filmy eyes dry lips
peeling skin a stench so foul
zombies really suck
INTERVIEWER
You’re in a corn maze, you’ve lost your friends. You call out to them but all you hear are occasional foot steps. You see seven words attached in a line, as if on a string, or the tail of a kite, they are moving through the air into the thick of the corn. You follow them, do you see them? What do they say?
L___ B______
You could save hundreds on car insurance.
INTERVIEWER L___ B______
If you had to chose three nouns to describe memory, what would they be?
B____ E________
nous
rain
neck
INTERVIEWER L___ B______
You are crossing the street. An absurdity and confusion overcomes you in a way you’ve never experienced.
What do you do?
or
Who do you tell?
or
How do you forget?
(five lines, please)
B____ E________
I have to choose someone, anyone, walking up or down the street
And show them I’m scared
I will pull them down with me, holding onto the wrist
If I can get situated onto their back
I can have them walk and live on there, as still as a hump
INTERVIEWER L___ B______
It is Saturday at three PM in the psychic bookstore. It is silent. Books shoot off the shelves into the correct customers’ hands, they never even speak. A customer approaches, startling you. His hands are empty—something’s gone wrong. It’s not working. What title is refusing to cooperate?
B____ E________
INTERVIEWER L___ B______
There is something almost no one knows. You think about it every day, all day.
You cannot stop.
A rift forms.
You become a projection
People reach out, see the light on their fingertips, but find nothing
to grasp on to.
How do you become solid?
(as many lines as necessary)
B____ E________
I tried to be solid. I stared into a black circle in a wall to see if I could see myself from inside the circle. I tried to stand in people or sit in them, to be totally still. They’d move a toe or a finger, I’d move the same, but always late. It was obvious to me, the delay. To them, it made them shiver. I wrapped myself in medical tape like the invisible man. OK, pretty good. I took a bath though, I poked a hole in my side. I fill up with candy. Sometimes I go to parties and ask—“There’s this itch on my back I can’t scratch, maybe you could try it?”
INTERVIEWER
Who is your favorite goddess?
K___ R__ G______
Kuan Yin
INTERVIEWER
Who is your favorite god?
K___ R__ G______
Thoth Dionysus.
INTERVIEWER
Since we just had Mabon, and we’re moving close to Samhain, the veil is thinning, there’s a sort of atmospheric loneliness, it’s cold and our bodies and spirits might feel especially closed off, distant from others. (please describe, in the space below, an important ritual we can do this time of year)
K___ R__ G______
The Ritual of Caring Staring (2 people)
Make eye contact
Hold it.
Give a sincere compliment or truth about how you feel about this person.
INTERVIEWER
Take all of the enclosed words (about 30 scraps of paper, each with a different word, that fell out of the note like confetti) into your hands until one word falls out (if more fall out at the same time, no problem, we will consider them just as significant). Write down your word or words here:
K___ R__ G______
WINE SKIN
INTERVIEWER
What country do you most want to visit?
R___ S_______
Chile.
INTERVIEWER
Write a haiku about it.
R___ S_______
Chile is shaped like
Chili, but does it taste
As good as it sounds?
INTERVIEWER
What one word do you most associate with it?
R___ S_______
Primate.
INTERVIEWER
Your eyes and my eyes tend to do the same thing at work. Have you ever been unsure of whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert? Write a limerick about being stuck at a party fully of ass holes.
R___ S_______
Ryan was stuck at a party
He was low on the social hierarchy
No matter how much he drank
The party still stank
So he played with a dog named Marty
INTERVIEWER
There’s a flash flood at the party, it’s suddenly an aquarium, but everyone’s breathing fine. Write a haiku.
R___ S_______
Fuck these Merpeople
Their party sucks and it’s wet
Hope the dog’s okay
INTERVIEWER
NETWORKING
Y or N
K_______ N_____
I die when Instagram dies.
INTERVIEWER
CATS
or
THE SKY
K_______ N_____
CATS.
DUH.
INTERVIEWER
…but if we didn’t have the sky, would we only look at the ground?
K_______ N_____
People would instead look in each other’s eyes.
INTERVIEWER
Please write a haiku as if you were jinxed JYNX and you found your whole family dead:
K_______ N_____
Jinx the cat or Pokemon?
Where is my mother?
She must be gone. At least she left me this lipstick.
INTERVIEWER
Please write three lines about resisting death:
K_______ N_____
I hide, deep, burrowed
in my blankets
the sharp creature waiting
in the other room.
If I’m very still it
might not find me.
INTERVIEWER
Please write three lines about installing an Internet router and modem:
K_______ N_____
It finally arrived in the Amazon box! Now I can use the Internet to buy more socks! Too bad bobby smashed it w/ a bag of rocks.
INTERVIEWER
Say everyone dies at once but the last person you’ve just seen. What is your advice to them, as they’re about to be the last person on earth?
K_______ N_____
Harvest the flesh off the bodies before they start to rot.
INTERVIEWER
Marv shows up at the cat cafe. He’s there at a desk with a tabby. He recognizes you. But he’s unsure, confused. He thinks you’re saying something and cups his ear in your direction. You should say something. 6 lines:
K_______ N_____
Thank you for all that you’ve done.
INTERVIEWER
He’s still having a hard time hearing, he seems frustrated. You pick up a tabby, it’s identical to his. You hold up yours. He holds up his. 6 words leap from you as if from your chest:
K_______ N_____
You were too hard on yourself.
INTERVIEWER
Pick the fourth—you’re cradling Marv’s head as he’s dying. You explain how you’ve learned to love life in a way he can understand, by using that fourth word and expanding on it:
K_______ N_____
It’s a daily practice to accept
myself for where I’m at
and to not be hard on
myself because of my
failures,
faults,
or inadequacies.
1001 