Forgot your Internet
My pardons if I didn’t click
You’re evidently awesome Internets
I’m not trying to be mean
just when I fire up the robot machine
I forget what all of this really means
Suppose it’s easier when you have a working brain
Mine only works four hours a day
And when I start to reply
it just goes
Uhhhhhhh _______
When when the synapses spark
I’m usually in the bathtub
and can’t connect
fingers to the wires
or in the best of times
Manage to be more concise
Then re-writing “when I paint Ulysses war & peace” by Henry Winston Kerouac
Plus you got your twitternets, facespace, instabook, whatsagram, messenger-es (no not twitch, tiktok as I am purely Gen X which means I still have a skype account but no, no more icq and yeah I heard that you were on mastodon, do you need a certificate?
Plus I don’t know about you but at some point I thought having several email addresses was a good idea
I’d keep them all sorted and organized and filtered and brilliant
but then I realize…
I got laundry to fold,
Dishes to wash
And poetry for you to ignore (that’s fine, really no big deal)
Anyhow, I do my best
With postal correspondence
With help from stamps & Providence
(no help from the USPS “How has that guy not been sacked?”)
so as unrequested & unadvised course of action
In lieu of a fax (which would be super cool) or telegram
(the one delivered by a chop and a hat, not the app or a singing vixen) is to postcard me back at the cottage
Tip: just Bing up “Dave Olson postal address”
or heck
Give me a ring
I would call you but it shows as a “restricted number“
So you never seem to pick up
And heaven help me if I’m going to leave a voicemail (except for you Larry)
I can see us now chitchat
like sweethearts in the 1980s
But without those stolen sprint cards
Our parents hollering “I’m expecting a call”
But I like the idea
Of payphone booths on a rainy day
Will come up with codenames
And put in various coins
I’ve requisitioned
Numbers both foreign and domestic
for your convenience
And have been assured
Operators are standing down
OK bye for now
[No *you* hang up first]
Category Archives: Poetry and Prose
expressionist freeverse, punk rock lyrics, occasional ode to love, digression into nonsense, or possibly vaguely lyrical or rhyming, but not likely – maybe in cycles
Finding Home #transcription (repeat)
No longer daunted
By subterfuge
Payola schemes or even
Assassinations by a religious stooge
Still enamored by overbites
Pretty lies, feathered caps
and Japanese super cub motorbikes
Confused by burning coals
to alchemize
and quicksilver mines
in a triangular ruse
I don’t need a course
To tell me to be happy
I already know what wealthy means:
Have you a garden, a pen and Wood stove?
The answer to the biggest question is:
“to love, and to be loved”
The pathway to go there is: kindness, tolerance, empathy, intrepidness, weakness is strength
All this is to say:
Cynicism avoided, reality reinvented, consensus subverted, admiration for the usual
Savor the regular days, notice the magnificence in nonchalance & common place.
Get down on your knees!
To look closely
The tactility of grass
The softness of sand
The circles and cycles
The shards of pottery
The ants smaller than the other ants
The lichen, the moss the dirt
The rivulets
The worm holes to everywhere else
Will lead you back to exactly here.
At the library, observations #poem
A spangled Cub Scout in his short pants and neckerchief
check out a book, holding
little sister’s hand
Elder lady clutching armload of books her shirt says
“please please protect the love“
Posters for the J2 futbol club (with a solid blonde import out in front) sponsor laden jerseys on display
(the sign reminds you not to touch, inexplicably
But instead
write celebratory messages of
support on a preformatted card)
a message for Italian pheasants
oh look! kid with a jumper covered with excavators, mixers and cranes (just like mine wears)
Pamphlets to play baseball, or table tennis or some kind of martial art… I know none of these things
Magnets attaching, all right angles, no overlap, tidy
“Literature Okayama 2023” - some kind of event I missed? (Momotaro and his monkey companion gaze nonchalantly holding a banner I can’t read)
I should pay better attention, on second thought…
Or rather festival at a temple which involves a large bonfire
And now my little guy comes running out with a book to check out
later, outside the boy with spectacles, a bright vest straps on his backpack, does 20 Achilles tendon stretches before unlocking his bicycle
we walk past and purchase three pieces of Chilean salmon from a man in a converted kei-truck
¥800
Where do you disappear? #poem
Where do you go
when
You disappear?
I have a hunch
(and want to ask)
but suspect, maybe
Possibly too intimate to inquire, maybe
And anyhow,
do not know
how to begin
A phone number? (Would you even pick up?) A postcard address?
Oh and – do you even remember me? Anyhow
Poetry transcription: “finding home”
{transcription from an “field notes” notebook while in bed… stashed here so I don’t misplace}
Finding home
No longer daunted
By subterfuge
Payola schemes or even
Assassinations by a religious stooge
Still enamored by overbites
Pretty lies feathered caps
and quicksilver mines
Confused by burning coals
to alchemize
cartoon currencies
in a triangular ruse
I don’t need a course
To tell me to be happy
I already know what wealthy means
Have you a garden, a pen and Wood stove?
The answer to the biggest question is:
“to love, and to be loved”
The pathway to go there is: kindness, tolerance, empathy, intrepidness, weakness is strength
All this is to say:
Cynicism avoided, reality reinvented, consensus subverted, admiration for the usual
Savor the regular days, notice the magnificence in nonchalance & common place.
Get down on your knees!
To look closely
The tactility of grass
The softness of sand
The circles and cycles
The shards of pottery
The ants smaller than the other ants
The lichen, the moss the dirt
The rivulets
The worm holes to everywhere else
Will lead you back to exactly here.
Lit-ish Artifacts: from Writers Read Their early Sht pod w/ J. Emde
In November 2022 I was very pleased to be a very lousy guest on the very gracious Jason Emde’s podcast (broadcast in Gifu rock city) in which writers share their “early, unripe… etc. etc.” work along with Jason’s curious questions, amusing banter and general graciousness.
Note: i riffed about Jason’s most excellent book in a Beat Sushi video dispatch “Curiously Punctuated” and we enjoy a prolific mostly-postcard-but-sometimes-passport correspondence.
We spoke for something like four hours which is a world record for me of late, yes I was a little spun out and it’s not my finest moment *but* gave me an opportunity to dig deep into the archive to find things from my legit early days. Of course about an hour makes it into the finished program but my goodness, is it a lot of action in an hour. Leaping wildly from topic to form, location to era, anecdote to musing. A bit rant-y sure so hold on to yer cap.
In this case I pulled items from: fourth grade King Tut mimeographed hand out from my (award winning :-)) science fair project at Prince Charles Elementary; newspaper editorials and chapbooks at the Orem (UT) high school; early stories at Utah Valley community college; and, the beginning of the *disgruntled with the literary establishment years* at University of Utah years.
Yes there are many digressions, rapid speaking, a few shots fired, salvos really, a bit of sweetness and a bit of tenderness as I figured out who I thought I might be when I was already completely myself.
Find it all at:
Writers Read Their Early Sh*t S2/E5 – Dave Olson (aka Uncle Weed): priorities & bad decisions
Blurb:
Jason welcomes under-qualified window-washer Dave Olson & his fantastic beard & beautiful hands for a natter about punching or hugging Dostoevsky, see-through loincloths, meeting REM, borrowing mustard from Allen Ginsberg, dodgy Greyhound stations, working out the writing life math, and how cheerleaders are people too.
There’s ropey Egyptian history, a savage polemic, the details of hippy teacher Mr Boris’s new motorized home, a few bits & Brother Bobs of Dave’s early poetry & prose, & Jason getting his Tutankhamun timeline wrong by only 3700 years. An unnerving—if not terrifying—time is guaranteed for all.
Check out Dave’s creative life archive at https://daveostory.com—much to enjoy there. Music by the outrageous DJ Max in Tokyo.
Join the early sh*t chat at https://www.facebook.com/WRTESpodcast & on Instagram @writersreadtheirearlyshit. You can also send an email to WritersReadTheirEarlyShit (at sign) gmail.com. Many thanks, wherever & whoever & however you are, for listening.
Preso Pitch to: European Beat Studies Network (re-: Cut-Ups 2023 / Items:Forgotten)
Hello EBSN from Okayama, Japan,
I write today in request to contribute to the Cut-Ups 2023 conference by discussing the process of making a cut-up series as a practical method.
I would present remotely (from a well lit studio) and am comfortable with public speaking and presentation (2 keynotes at SxSW conference, 1 TEDx, 4 Pecha Kucha talks) more details at https://daveostory.com/dave-olson-dossier/speaking-presenting/
Briefly: I propose to explore the full lifecycle of a project from transcribing notebooks while traveling, to using a cut-up process to develop something unique, until the end result which became visual poems (cut-ups glued to mostly hotel letterhead and other ephemera) which were then reproduced in various means and spread all over the world – both analog and digital – as a series called “Items: Forgotten”.
Note: I’m not entirely sure what else I can share about this proposal to make it more clear so please feel free to ask me with any questions and I will reply promptly and/or investigate the resources provided.
Regards,
daveo
Snippets and words, w/o context per se {transcribed from notebooks}
Still enamoured by overbites
On your couch learning French
French as slowly as possible
Prevents encouraging habits
and libations
Depths and perceptions
Pacific driftwood heave
Bog lands
Where the houses
will float away
Though welded to the dock
Can’t hear you over the brightness of the lightsMoved it over a peg to the left
It didn’t seem
So symmetrical
Unnerving
The symmetry, you see
Makes me dizzy
& rather unsure on my feet
Bag of Zippers
Essence of Bergamot
Samovar
Lilywhite leaning
Envision a clear path homeward
Considering
Lubrious
Plaintive
Budding
Eagerly
Wafting sage and lavender
Transcendent to Tibet
High valley with a path
Leading towards mtns unknown
(Just) words, w/o sentences {transcribed from notebooks}
Disserta
Lascivious
Fulcrum
Perspective
Tontine
Codicil
Byzantine
Baron Edselnir (Sykes)
Amatuer - for love of - Non-careerist
Dapple
Sinister channels
Boer war
Attache
Unconventional
Warfare
Arrogance
Special burden
Intellectual
Elements
Enlighten humility
Bold concise
August
Irregulars
Fifth column
Unforgiven enmity
Drivel
Successional leanings
Fecund mind
Latent
Glimmer
Collaborators
Cavalier
Unreliables
Circasian
Armenians in Anatolia
Entente
Cautious restraint
Aptitude for reason
Trenchant for frivolous
Consulate files
Silhouette of freighters
Impetuous
Fieldworks
Agronomist
Locusts
Duplicity
Squalid
breakfast haiku
eating hot oatmeal from Bizen pottery bowl scraping the bottom
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