Wednesday, May 10, 2006

A good FizzPo example.

Oafish Hands Constructing Brainstorms and
--Alex Burford

the way a star moved across the sky like
your father drank until his body sagged in chair and
most underwater mammals are fat therefore
a singe tree was growing out of a once useful fireplace and
I cried when I didn’t get that power (lightning bolt) ranger and
my mother would cry and beat her fists against flaking paint as if
I drank liquor on a step in front of an apartment that would
silence the thunder that beat on our walls and stop the lightning that lit up our house

***

This is Fizzpo because:

1) It has a funny title
2) Every line feels like the second-to-last line of something great
3) Some heartbreaking thing is restlessly hailed then dismissed, over and over again
4) It lives in the rightnow world
5) "A million slender hallelujahs bouncing between shoulder blades"
6) I just self-quoted
7) Someone should shoot me for that
8) "that power (lightining bolt) ranger" is a mixed up, non-stationary image
9) "singe tree" pops before it aligns in the "right" way (single tree? singed tree?) and ends up more interesting; it's fizzy
10) The repetition of the last line
11) This poem reminds me of "King of Carrot Flowers pt 1" by Neutral Milk Hotel

5 comments:

Bryan Coffelt said...

it is fizzy.

i concede.

i re-read the other one, and i agree that this one is fizzier.

1.) fizzpo does not need funny titles.

2.) fizzpo needs formidable titles, titles who can stand their ground against other titles.

3.) i'll kill you for self-quoting. isn't there someone we don't care for who does the same thing?

4.) i think 'singe tree' needs to go one way or the other. ambiguity is very fizzo, but the ambiguity of a single word is too langpo. and fizzpo is so post-langpo.

Mike Young said...

2) That's what funny means.
3) I did it in jest.
4) I plan to do other things in jest right now.
5) (She didn't appreciate it. She said it hurt. I used pliers.)
6) That wasn't funny.
7) Okay.
8) Maybe a little.
9) You're probably right about 'singe tree.'

Bryan Coffelt said...

don't jest me.

i will tweeze you.

Maurice Burford said...

god-damn i'm cool.

Bryan Coffelt said...

1.) no.
2.) no you're not.