Wednesday, November 24, 2010

poem 21: Revisiting the Coyote

Revisiting the Coyote (Three Years Later)

Dear animal,
dear sweet thing,
I loved once. The last nap
I took in the state of Ohio

was an elegy to you.
Remember California?
The morning I found you there
I couldn’t tell to call you:
coyote,
animal, no,
dead and gone.

I’ve spent this life trying to call each thing
by its right name and you’ve been no different.

Coyote, let me tell you our portrait
from the spring of that year:

I walked along the tracks
following a path worn by pilgrims
and stumbled upon your body with a weight
at my heart. Near that grotto you were

wildlifelessness.
I’ve asked you once:
did you go in your sleep?
Were you hunting

for some family? Are you missed?
Those bare teeth were a reference
to a fighting life but I couldn’t help
imagining something more solemn,

just as romantic. You were some hidden
lighthouse on that burnt up mountain
and that spring you consumed
me with your going. Dear animal,

dear decomposition
of us all, I’ve got the bared teeth too.





--mgb 11.2010

*some lines from this are taken from Dr. Zhivago.
This is the third poem I wrote about this coyote. The first was written four years ago and the second was written two years ago.
This will be read at Mark Welborn's junior recital next week along with "On the Last Ferry Home..." and another poem that I haven't written yet.
6:30 on Tuesday, November 30 in Fairchild Chapel in Oberlin, OH.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Keep Marlo at Oberlin Fund

WANT TO HELP ME STAY IN SCHOOL?

I realize I have few to none marketable skills but...

now I am selling poems to you.
There is a sliding scale but $10 bucks a poem starting would be great.
Also, I can write love letters/break up letters etc. etc.

I can make you collage postcards or little poetry books. Everything will be made one of a kind just for you and I can send it through the post to arrive at you as some sweet gift.

(Or if you're not into one of a kind, I can send you any poem you've seen of mine handwritten or something.)


email mgbarrera@gmail.com and tell me what you want!

make this happen!
all goes toward the Keeping Marlo At Oberlin Fund.




Saturday, November 13, 2010

Some Mail Art

In high school sometimes it felt like all I did with my time was make mail art and send it to strangers around the world and I would get things too so now I have a few big boxes of beautiful things sent through the post. I sent things sometimes under my real name, sometimes under this name of Bosco Marx. Coming to Oberlin, I haven't really had the time to do it as much as I had once. Last night was a mail art exhibit here and it got me excited again. The first thing I walked in and saw was the Brain Cell Project which I didn't know much about but in 2006 had gotten a part of the project in the mail. This was exciting. The Recycled Products Coop (I think it was) had a space there with everyone's name and OCMR number on a card so you could anonymously send something to someone. I made three and liked them and decided to put them here before dropping them off. Then I went home and made one for a friend in Chicago that I miss greatly. (I don't think he reads this or knows it exists so I'm not afraid to put it up before I send it). The big one will be folded up and sewn together around the edges. I hope you like them!

(click to enlarge)







Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Some Audubon for You

I have this small book of a few plates of Audubon's birds.
It's very sweet so I scanned some of my favorites for you.
My favorite is the passenger pigeon.
Aren't they beautiful?

(click to enlarge)






Sunday, November 7, 2010

This is garbage.

i decided to try and turn that self portrait from the two posts ago into a book. this is my first try at anything like this and i think it is garbahshe but important to document i suppose. maybe you will like it. i hope you can tell me what i can do better.
(click to enlarge. annoying for this sort of thing but okay.)










Thursday, November 4, 2010

Poem 20: Found Poem and My Own Words

A stray deer, a bulb, a briar,
a blunder, the unemployed
my ancestor occupied;

now we're talking.
When walking home just now
I saw an old woman cutting
carnations, a simple weight
attached at the bonfire
of her irregular rattle,
and thought of you.

I said once, if I love you,
we'll fight
, and I meant it.

This morning began with a flood.
While my body was heavy with the weight
of the unwanted gift, you
were in the garden, said,
a weed is anything
in the wrong place.

I'm worried but I'll wait it out.





mgb 11042010



Here I took 3 sources (not sure what they were) and took some words, some lines and rearranged them to make my own poem. There are a few of my own things here too but it feels like mine anyway.